holidays | Jennifer Awesome v5.0

Tag Archive for holidays

Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist Plush

December 17, 2014 Jen Ný Sewing No comments

Instead of carving a pumpkin this year for Halloween, I made my own Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist plushies. I made these guys back in October, just before Halloween. I just wanted a Pumpkaboo doll, and thought it would be more fun (and cheaper, since I already had all the fabric I needed) to make my own than to buy the pre-made one they sell online.

I made Pumpkaboo, and then decided that he needed a Gourgeist friend, so I made his evolution too. It took one day to make Pumpkaboo, and I think two days for Gourgeist. I started Gourgeist right after I finished Pumpkaboo though.

I made them using fabric I had left over from various cosplay costumes. Their mouths are both hand-embroidered and they have buttons for eyes. Pumpkaboo’s lights are also giant buttons. I was originally going to use yellow fabric, but I thought the big buttons would be cuter.

I made the patterns myself as I went along, which is usually how sewing projects go for me. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a totally complete pattern ready to go before I’ve started to sew. Sometimes I think of a better way to make a later part while working on a different part. That’s probably not how people who actually know what they’re doing go about sewing…

Miiverse Monster Mansion – Pokemon Art Academy Drawing Contest

October 31, 2014 Jen Ný Gaming No comments

My drawing of Sylveon with Pumpkaboo was chosen as one of the winners for the Pokemon Art Academy drawing contest in the Miiverse Monster Mansion community on Miiverse!

I’m really enjoying Pokemon Art Academy. I don’t feel like I’m that great of an artist, but the lessons are helpful, and I think I’m getting better at drawing from it. The Miiverse community is welcoming to artists of all skill-levels and ages.

Draw Santa’s Beard!

December 23, 2013 Jen Ný Games No comments

HoHoHo! Merry Christmas! Have you ever been at the mall and wished you could customize Santa’s beard, and make the jolly old elf look the way YOU wanted him to? No? You haven’t!? The thought never even crossed your mind? Well, you can do it anyway with this little web app thingy I made, just in time for Christmas!

What’s more Christmasy than Pirate Santa?

And don’t think you’re limited to just his beard! You can draw his hat if you want to as well. Make him a pirate! Make him a ninja! Make him into Mrs. Claus! The possibilities are endless!

Select the color and brush size you want and use your mouse to add festive features to the bald Santa Claus head. (Use “Print Screen” on your keyboard to save your Santa if you would like.)

(I used parts of this tutorial to figure out how to make it work).

[topswf swf=’http://jenniferawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/drawsantasbeard.swf’ width=’550′ height=’400′ quality=’best’ wmode=’opaque’ scale=’default’ flashvars=” allowfullscreen=’false’]

Snowman Pong

December 21, 2013 Jen Ný Games No comments

I made my Pong game even better and more Christmasy! Now it has snowmen and Christmas music. Ignore the fact that it’s kind of morbid for people made from snow to be throwing snowballs at each other for fun and enjoy!.

Merry Christmas! (Or “Happy Holidays” if you prefer.)

Use the mouse to control your snowman.

[topswf swf=’http://jenniferawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/snowmanpong.swf’ width=’550′ height=’400′ quality=’best’ wmode=’transparent’ scale=’default’ flashvars=” allowfullscreen=’false’]

Animal Crossing: New Leaf Mrs. Claus Outfit

December 18, 2013 Jen Ný Freebies, Gaming No comments

I made this festive Mrs. Claus costume for Animal Crossing: New Leaf especially for the holidays. This outfit is similar to my Santa Claus outfit, except in dress form. If you’re a guy, you might be more interested in my Santa Claus outfit: Animal Crossing: New Leaf Santa Claus Outfit. (The Santa Claus outfit was made by simply changing my Mrs. Claus pro-design into a shirt design and making a few minor alterations).

Here’s my character dressed as Mrs. Claus.

If you would like to use this design, here are the QR codes:

And here’s the design for the hat. It’s a very simple non-pro design that could be replicated in about half a minute, but here’s the QR code if you would like to use it:

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf Santa Claus Outfit

December 18, 2013 Jen Ný Freebies, Gaming No comments

Santa Claus Costume for Animal Crossing: New Leaf

I haven’t been playing Animal Crossing much lately. Too many other games have been released recently, plus the whole college thing getting in the way. Anyway, I visited my village, Dinotown, long enough to spread holiday cheer and make a couple festive outfits. This post contains the QR codes for a Santa Claus outfit. (Check my next post for Mrs. Claus.)

Here is my character cross dressing as Santa Claus:

And here are the QR codes if you’d like to dress your character as Santa Claus.

I also made a design for a matching hat. It’s a very simple non-pro design that could be replicated in about half a minute, but here’s the QR code if you would like to use it:

Merry Christmas!

I also have a Mrs. Claus QR design! Animal Crossing: New Leaf Mrs. Claus Outfit

Santa’s Arctic Escape!

December 17, 2013 Jen Ný Games No comments

Santa’s sleigh crashed in Antarctica (darn Apple maps!). He must find his sleigh so he can deliver his gifts to all the good girls and boys on Christmas Eve. Help Santa find his sleigh and escape from the frozen tundra!

There are many arctic creatures who don’t possess the spirit of Christmas and want to harm Santa. Be careful not to be attacked.

Santa’s Arctic Escape was the 9th and final game I made in Intro to Game Design last semester. I thought it was appropriate to make a Christmas-themed game just before the holidays.

You can download it for free here:

Santas Arctic Escape
Added: 17 December 2013
By: Nybiru

This game was based on the Pyramid Panic tutorial in The Game Maker’s Apprentice.

Happy Chinese New Year!

January 23, 2012 Jen Ný Photos 2 comments

On Saturday, Hans and I celebrated Chinese New Year (or as Hans calls it, “New Year”) in Cleveland’s AsiaTown to ring in the Year of the Water Dragon. Being extremely white, this was my first time seeing a lion dance.

After driving around the parking lot a few times until someone left, we first saw the Kwan Family Lion Dance as Asia Plaza. Here are some photos:

The lion kept moving around (imagine that!), so I couldn’t get very many good photos.

I also wanted to see the Hip Hop Lion Dance at Asia Town Center, because who wouldn’t want to see that? Not wanting to lose our parking space, we chose to walk several blocks in the snow to a place that neither of us had ever been to and weren’t sure exactly where it was in the middle of Cleveland. Luckily, since the festivities took place in the middle of the day and it was too cold for normal people to be outside, we didn’t get raped or murdered and managed to find the place in time for the second lion dance of the day. Though still photos don’t do it justice, here are some photos from the Hip Hop Lion Dance:

After using the 10% off coupon for Asia Food Co at Asia Town Center that was included in the Chinese New Year brochure (I like Park to Shop at Asia Plaza better, but I also really like coupons), we went up stairs to see what other awesome Asian cultural experiences awaited us. What we found wasn’t exactly what you would expect to find in AsiaTown.

On the second floor of Asia Town Center, you will find several art galleries containing some very… interesting… pieces of um… art. Like the kind of thing you’d expect to find in Oberlin rather than in AsiaTown. Most of the art that I found interesting enough to photograph is probably too inappropriate to post here (though I guess as long as you claim something is “art,” you can get away with just about anything), but here is a sample of the art we saw:

The above is a wood-burned piece by artist Gadi Zamir, who’s work can be seen in the Negative Space gallery on the second floor of Asia Town Center. The artist was even there to explain to us the complex meanings behind his… unique… artwork. I’m not sure what this one means…

This art is a sculpture of a giraffe that was in the least strange of the art galleries. Who doesn’t like giraffes? It serves as a reminder of the African homeland. Wait…

Here we see a hip hop Buddha from the Ubud East gallery. This piece of art represents the fusion of African American and Asian culture that seems to be so prevalent in our society these days. Or at least in Cleveland. Who knew? (I may have interpreted the meaning of this art incorrectly. Please feel free to correct me in the comments!)

After looking at weird art, we stopped at a Korean restaurant and then headed back to Asia Plaza to see some more demonstrations and to do some shopping. I needed to get some more Koala March cookies at the Asian supermarket, since they don’t sell them at white people stores anymore. I also wanted to get a tai chi sword, and figured I might as well see if I could find one I liked while we were there.

At the first gift shop I checked, they wouldn’t let me try out any of the swords, so I went to the next store. That’s a good way to lose a customer, since the whole point of going to a local shop instead of the interwebs is so I can make an informed purchasing decision know what I’m buying. I ended up buying one from Flower City Gift Shop. The guy working there was really nice and helped me to pick out a sword that suited my needs. He even gave me a 10% discount. Giving me a 10% discount is a sure way to get repeat business.

We missed most of the martial arts demonstrations while I was sword shopping, but we got back to the demonstration/performance area just in time to see some Asian hip hop dancing. There seems to be a trend. As I told Hans once, Asians and white people are basically the same. We both really just want to be black.

Anyway, here’s a link about the Year of the Water Dragon, for those of you who actually believe in astrology. Hey, it’s still probably more credible than western astrology…

Nýr Ár

January 2, 2012 Jen Ný Cool Story Bro No comments

Looking back at 2011, I can’t believe how much I’ve done and how much my life has changed in one short year. In 2011 I finished my Associate Degree, competed in two tai chi tournaments (3rd and 1st!), finally got the courage to end a horrible abusive relationship, and met a man who actually makes me happy. I’d say it has been a good year! Hopefully 2012 will be even better! And now you get to experience my life with me as you follow my brand new blog! (You are going to read it, aren’t you?)

With the new year, I thought that it would be a good time to completely rework JenniferAwesome.com. Rather than wasting my web hosting on a static portfolio site that no one cares about, I’m starting a new blog (that no one cares about – but at least a frequently updated blog will rank higher in Google). Out with the old, in with the new.

I was going to turn this site into a general social media marketing blog, but I decided it would be more fun to write a more personal blog. You know, interesting things that happen to me, weird things I think of, etc. Like everyone else who has ever decided their boring lives were interesting enough to blog about. Don’t worry, I’ll try to only blog things that might actually be interesting to a few people, rather than blogging about what I had for breakfast. Mostly because I usually don’t eat breakfast (cool story, bro).

Anyway, check back later this week for more awesome posts! It’s sure to be full of cool stories for all of you bros!