[Conventions!] (Re)Generation Who 2

(Re)Generation Who 2 was my 6th convention this year. I work for the convention running their press department, and I love every minute that I am there! Along with running press this year, I also did an interview, played Ukulele for the Davors Variety show and had a book release party for my new Unofficial Doctor Who Cookbook, "Shut Up and Eat 2! The Unofficial Doctor Who Series Nine Ready to Dine Cookbook"

(Re)Generation Who has such an amazing atmosphere. The fans are excited to be there, the guests are excited to see the fans and everything is so inviting and fun! Everyone who works for this con wants to see all the attendees happy and smile about their interactions at the con! It's that simple. And from what I saw throughout the entire weekend, that seemed to be happening!

I arrived at the con on Thursday and did a few con related work things, and also got to see a Pug!!! Like I cannot go anywhere without seeing a cute squishy face puggy!!!

My amazing friend Cassandra who worked for press this year! She was wonderful!!!!

My big work started on Friday, getting press running then recording and taking questions in the Frazier Hines and Companions interviews. Both of these panels were amazing, and once I have a chance to edit the videos I'll post them over on my youtube channel! I also got to have a really fun rehearsal with Cat Smith and Terry Molloy, since the three of us were playing in the Davors Variety Show together on Saturday!

Time to play some Uku!

Saturday was the day I was most nervous about, my first book release party for Shut Up and Eat 2! and the Davros Variety show, plus working for press all day and helping out on some interviews by taking questions.

The book release party was first, and it was so well attended, I had no idea there would be so many people in the audience, I was thrilled and it was a bit nerve wracking having a ASL interpreter repeating everything I said! Ginger and Kara were also in attendance and I was so happy both of the fantastic artists who worked on this book and believed in it could be there! 

After the book release party I headed straight to the Peter Davison "5-ish Doctors" panel. Kara was interviewing Peter Davison for it and it was a fantastic panel! The stories he told were amazing and the audience had a lot of great questions for him as well!

Next up was the "Tea With the Doctors" event. This is such a fun concept, and the fans that attend it always seem to have such an amazing time! I have never seen anything like this at another con. I have seen breakfast with the guests or other inclusive type events, but this tea is such a fun concept.

No photo of me as Osgood, so have one of Melissa holding a drawing Kelsey Wailes did!

After the Tea I sat in on an episode of Captain Kyle's Cosplay Spotlight as Osgood. Sadly I did not get a photo during the filming, but once the episode is released I will definitely post a link! (there is a pretty hilarious part where I am doing charades of Doctor Who villains!)

Another event I was really excited for was the "Davros Variety Show" I was asked to play Ukulele with Terry Molloy and Cat Smith, and of course I jumped on the chance, because I love performing and I rarely get to do so! So many other wonderful acts also performed, and the show seemed to really go over well! 

After the Davros Variety Hour it was some work, then the Dominic Glynn concert, I was very excited for this since one, awesome music, and two, I was interviewing him in the morning! The concert was lovely and even had a special appearance by Colin Baker!

Sunday, the last day of the con, but still lots of amazing panels and events going on! Terry Molloy did his fantastic "Acting for Audio" panel, that is always full of information. I have attended this panel/workshop every time I have been able too and I learn so much every time. 

At 1pm on Sunday I had the honor of interviewing Dominic Glynn for the "Music of Doctor Who with Dominic Glynn." This was such an enjoyable time talking about growing up with music and how he became a composer for film and television. I am so happy I was asked to do this interview. It was definitely a high light of my weekend!

Ly from Pixel Who. <3 this lady! 

The rest of Sunday was spent working for the con. But what an amazing weekend this was! I had been looking forward to it for months, and I was definitely not disappointed! So many of the staff I work with are like family to me, and I am always happy to spend a weekend working with them. I cannot wait until Intervention 7 and next years (Re)Generation Who!

[Japanese Snacks] Cafe Cat & Paw Marshmallows

Japan has this amazing knack for making super cute food items! And the Cafe Cat Marshmallows are no different! These super cute marshmallows that have a little kitty or its paws peaking out from your cup of hot cocoa.

Each box comes with cute art on the front and six individually wrapped marshmallows in it! The packaging for these was fantastic, the presentation was just as amazing as the marshmallows taste and overall quality! The ribbons were an added thing they did for the Christmas holiday season!

Look how cute those little kitties are! Just waiting to peak out of your hot drink (or drown, either way you want to think about it ;) )

Each box has six wrapped marshmallows. Two Kitty heads, and four paws (2 vanilla and 2 chocolate.)

Look how cure this guy is!

Vanilla paws you just want to boop!

And the chocolate ones!

They also look super cute in a cup of cocoa! 

But soon the cuteness melts away.....

These boxes can only be bought in Japan through buying services or the official webpage for the Cafe Cat&Paw here. I got lucky and one of my friends did an order for them, The webpage also has other really cute marshmallows and other products too!  They also have a Facebook Page with lots of cute photos! 

[Convention] Mysticon 2016

 

 

Mysticon 2016 was the first con of the year where I was a guest, and not staffing the convention, so I actually got to see and do a lot this past weekend in Roanoke, Va. This is my fifth Mysticon and I love it every year!

As always I come in on Friday (a lot of people came in on Thursday this year.) I roomed with two of my favorite people in the world Cami and Matt, who I was super excited to get to see since it had been forever since I had, had a chance to hang out with them!

Parking this year at the hotel was so much easier too! Last year it was a bit crazy since they only allow guests to park at the hotel, so I was relieved when it was not a hassle this time around!

I knew Mysticon this year was going to be crazy since the Guest of Honor was George R.R. Martin. And the con had sold out of tickets back in Sept. So it was going to be a packed weekend!

I had a bunch of panels on Friday evening, along with dressing the con chair for opening ceremonies!

Photo Michael Ventrella

 

Doesn't she look awesome! Carla rocked that dress, sadly this is an action shot from opening ceremonies since I was silly, and didn't take a photo of her after we got her into costume!

 

I got to be moderator on a fun Doctor Who panel titled, "The Doctor Wears his Sonic Sunglasses at Night" which was a lot of fun talking about series 9 of Doctor Who! I then went and was a part of a panel titled "Remakes, Revamps, Revisits, where we talked about films we would like to see remade or ones we do not think should be touched!

 

Photo by Michael Ventrella

This panel was a blast and Bill had contacted us all before hand so there was a really nice slide presentation of what movies we thought should be remade or not touched, the panel went great and we had a pretty full room of people too!

 

 

 

From there I went on to Iron Costumer, which is a panel I was hosting where three groups have an hour in a half to make a costume based on a theme, they have lots of items to use and then one the con supplies. The theme was fantasy and dragons and the item was duct tape, the three teams made some great costumes in the time they had!

 

After that I headed to the panel The Star Wars Expanded Universe, where I got to talk about some of the character I wish would show up in the now Star Wars universe, my favorite books and stories from the old Star Wars Universe and just nerd out on Star Wars! Which I love doing!

 

Once panels were done for the night for me, I checked out the Con Carolinas and Charlotte Geeks room party, which is always fun! Hung out with the Roanoke Valley Whovians for a bit and just took in the con at night! Panels went on until late (Mysticon has no lack of programming, lots of it!) I turned in somewhat early though around 11pm.

 

Saturday!

 

I was up bright and early for a 10 am panel on Functional Cosplay: Making your Costume Fit You! Which was a fun panel on how to make costumes that are comfortable and functional for your needs.

 

I got to check out the dealers room after my panel, which is always nice, Pixel Who and lots of other great dealers where in there! Mysticon always has a nice dealers room with a great variety of books, art, henna/glitter tattoos/ hair tinsel, pottery, gaming stuff, elf ears and so on! Lots and lots to choose from!

 

I then got to go sit at the Guest Signing Table and sell some Cook Books and talk to a lot of wonderful people! Thank you everyone who bought my cookbook and stopped to chat with me! (and thank you John Hartness for loaning me some book easels!)

 

 

 

 

At 1pm I had Zombie Makeup for Kids! I love doing makeup panels about getting kids into makeup and what to let them use to play and experiment. I got to be on this panel with Anita Allen and Bill Mulligan. Bill and I have worked together a bunch on films doing makeup and acting, so it is always fun to get to nerd out about Fx makeup with him!

 

After my makeup panel I was really lucky to be asked to play White Guardian in the Mister Adventure Radio Show Podcast that was broadcast live at Mysticon! I have always loved sitting in on this at other cons, and since there are two characters in the Mister Adventure Universe based on me, I was really excited to get to play the voice for a character (not the one based on me though.) This was so much fun and we all had a blast and a lot of good laughs during this, once it is available to download online I'll post a link here!

 

Once Mister Adventure was all over I finally had a small break! So I went and got into my TARDIS Yukata dress and finally got some great photos in it! I had a lot of wonderfully talented people grab photos (Mikki, Jarod, and Dee) so I am so excited to see them all once they are finished with them!

 

 

 

For the next few hours I took in some of the convention. I sat in on some of the panels the Roanoke Valley Whovians had going on in their programming room, Looked around at all the artist tables and convention hallway tables. Chilled out at the RegenerationWho table and the Charlotte Geeks table.

 

 

 

Then came time for prejudging the costume contest! This is always a really fun event! Anita puts on a great costume contest! It is always organized and there is always a great turnout! So many wonderful costumes! The choices are always so hard to choose who gets what award, since there are so many great costumes!

 

 

Photo of the costume contest judges by Michael Ventrella

 

 

Then (yes it was a REALY full day for me!) I ran to the screening of my new film I co-directed with my best friend Mariah, titled "The Thicket". This was its world premiere and it premiered along with my friend Jaysen Buterin's new film "Don't Let the Light In". I sadly missed Jaysen's film since it played during the costume contest. The room was full, standing room only, which was nerve wracking. I snuck in and stayed at the back while The Thicket showed (I wanted to see the audiences reaction more so than the film, since, ya know, I have already seen it.)

The audience seemed to really dig the film, and I must have been grinning from ear to ear, because the audicne was laughing at the right parts and people were jumping at some of the scary parts. So I was THRILLED!

 

Photo by Christopher Moore

 

Oh and the film got Best Horror Short Film in the conventions film fest, so Mariah and I got to celebrate it winning its first award!

 

 

 

I then changed out of my TARDIS dress, had one issue, which was my only huge issue of the con, it was taken care of, and hopefully will not happen to anyone else again. However it ruined me for the night and I spent the rest of my night somewhat  scatter brained so I didn't do anything else for the evening.

 

Sunday

 

Last day of the con! There was a HUGE line for George R.R. Martin autographs in the hallways for his last signing. Luckily I got my book signed at ConCarolinas a few years ago so I wasn't too worried about getting anything signed. I loaded up my car and the day was beautiful! Like super warm!

 

I had no panels on Sunday (which after my marathons on Friday and Saturday, I was very happy to have a break) I hung out with Mariah for most of the day, we checked out the dealers room (I got a cute Pixel Who pin of the 8th Doctor.) Sat in on a few panels, chatted with some of the other filmmakers at the con (who I seriously admire, I love my indie filmmaking family!)

 

Mariah and I ready for closing ceremonies!

 

And then went to closing ceremonies! They handed out awards for the film fest, so Mariah and I got a nice framed certificate with our awards title on it!

 

I then grabbed some dinner with Mariah and we headed back to C-Ville!

 

Overall a fun con, it had its ups and downs. But it had a lot of awesome moments that I am so happy about!

You can find out more about Mysticon online here.

 

 

 

 

 

[Tea Review] Charleston Tea Plantation "Rockville Raspberry Tea"

While visiting the Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC and looking in their gift shop, I came across some teas made locally (or somewhat locally) so I picked up a few to give them a try!

Charleston Tea Gardens is a tea plantation in Wadmalaw Island, SC. They grow and make all their tea and even have it where you can go and visit and take tours (which I hope to do one day because that sounds really cool.)

Rockville Raspberry Tea, seems to be appropriately named since the tea plantation is near Rockville, SC. The package I got was one large tea bag (I bought it individually at the shop) It is in a pretty pink wrapper, and the second you rip it open you get an amazing raspberry smell! Like one the fruitiest most delicious smelling teas I have ever had hit my nose full force.

After steeping it still keeps some of the smell, but not quite as strong. Which is fine since the subtle scent is very pleasing while drinking the tea. The taste of the tea (warm) is very pleasing, a hint of fruit with the tea, it is not overpowering. This tea is also fantastic cold as well (with a dab of sugar or honey to sweeten it a bit.)

 

You can find the webpage for Charleston Tea Plantation online here! They have information about their tours and their tea. 

[Spice Review] Savory Spice Shop "Mulling Spices"

One of my favorite places to get spices and other fun ingredients to cook with is the Savory Spice Shop in Greensboro, NC at The Shops at Friendly Center. They have everything you could possibly want to make your food amazing, from spices and mixtures for meats, dips, flavored extracts, sugars, salts, etc.

They also make  Mulling Spices, that I decided to try out with a wonderful red holiday wine I had from Mount Hope Winery when I went to the Pa. Renaissance Faire a while ago.

Using the Mulling Spices was pretty normal, you simmer them on the stove top for a bit ( about 20 minutes) then discard your water and add the wine. I have used Milling spices before, so this was pretty typical for preparing it. (I used a form of Mulling Spices in my Face Hugger Wassail from my Cookbook Shut Up and Eat!The Unofficial Doctor Who Series Ate Cookbook)

I would highly recommend trying out these spices if you like hot apple ciders, or mulled wines, they work for really anyone who likes hot spiced drinks. Savory Spice even has some recipes on their webpage to help you come up with ideas for using their products.

You can find Savory Spice Shop online at

[Recipe] American Horror Story Freak Show Conjoined Twins Pumpkin Spice Cookies

In honor of American Horror Story being released on DVD today I have a really fun recipe for everyone who loves American Horror Story and Pumpkin spice cookies! So get your oven ready to make these delicious cookies!

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Everything you need (except the egg yolk, remember that too!)

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Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup margarine or butter, softened

3 oz. package of pumpkin spice cream cheese (measure out 3 oz from an 8 oz, since they do not seem to come in smaller packages)

1/4 tsp Salt

1 egg yolk 

2 cups all purpose flour (plus extra for cutting out the cookies)

Directions:

1. Blend together sugar, margarine, cream cheese, salt, and egg yolk with mixer.  Mix in flour until well blended.

2. Roll dough in a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours. 

3. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface. dip your cookie cutter in flour and gently cut out your cookies.

4. Place the cookies one inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 7 to 10 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies are a light golden color. (just slightly golden if you want them soft)

And enjoy your delicious Pumpkin Spice cream cheese sugar cookies!

________________________________________________________________________________                                       Bette and Dot do love their sweets you know!

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*I got my conjoined twin cookie cutter at the Mutter Museum for anyone who was interested.