How To Make Your Dinner Table Geeky This Christmas

It’s only a couple more days until Christmas now and I still don’t know if I’m even in the Christmas spirit yet… You know? I don’t know what it’s been this year, I think I’ve just been far too busy with work and in general to get festive. That or I’m just getting to be an old Grinch… 😛

I’m trying to get into the Christmas spirit though so today I’m bringing a collab post to you all! Me and Sarah over at Raiin Monkey decided to do another collab post for Christmas again! We did last year and I loved it so much, so much so I knew we had to work together again to bring you our posts today.

Sarah’s going to write about how to make your home geeky this Christmas and I’m going to write how to make your dinner table geeky for Christmas Day!

I’m having Christmas dinner at home for the first time this year, so I’m rather excited to cook for me and Dane! This geeky dinner table guide from myself will be handy if like me this is also your first Christmas at home where you’re having dinner. 🙂

I really hope you enjoy this geek related Christmas post! 😀

• Original Stormtrooper Espresso Mug Set – (link)

Personally I love coffee, but I has espresso. It just isn’t for me. I do understand some people do really like it though and especially love to have it after a meal. I don’t know anyone who has had an espresso after a Christmas meal to be honest with you, but I know there’s someone out there who does it… There has to be! Maybe you’re one of those people? If so these espresso mugs will be right up your street! Hey! If you don’t use them for espresso, they’ll make great glasses for some strong liquor to go into, such as Bailey’s or maybe some Jack Daniels or Disaronno. I’d certainly go for the latter. 😉

• Geeki Tikis Mugs Marvel Deadpool and Star Wars R2-D2 – (link) and (link)

I LOVE these Geeki Tiki mugs so much and they’d make a great addition to your home all year around, as well as Christmas. If you love making cocktails like I do, these will be perfect throughout Christmas Day! When I lived at home I’d always make me and mom a pina colada each to drink throughout the day. These geeky tiki mugs would be perfect for that, as well as other cocktails and beverages! There’s loads of mugs to choose from but the two I love the most are Deadpool and R2-D2.

• Star Wars Shadow Trooper Bluetooth Speaker – (link)

As much as I’ve had enough of Christmas music now (after hearing every single possible Christmas song thanks to Magic FM…) I’m pretty much done for a couple of years now. 😛 However, I know a lot of people like to have Christmas music on throughout Christmas Day. Me and Dane have an Amazon Echo now so if we want some music on throughout the day we can just ask Alexa, however now everyone has that luxury. This Shadow Trooper speaker is pretty damn cool and even if you don’t have this for yourself in the house, it would also make an amazing gift for any music lover! You can have this on near the dinner table and listen to as much cheesy Christmas music as you want. 😛

• Shaun Of The Dead Winchester Tavern Pint Bottle Opener – (link)

I am a MASSIVE fan of Shaun Of The Dead! It reminds me of when I was a teenager and studying my GCSE’s! When I lived at home we were always losing or misplacing our bottle opener and like most people on Christmas, we all drink a LOT of alcohol! This is just a cool and quirky bottle opener, not even so much geeky to be fair but I really like it.

• Star Wars Stormtrooper Cheeseboard and Knife Set – (link)

Who doesn’t love some cheese on Christmas? Or anytime of year in fact! 😛 I remember last Christmas Dane’s family having a bit of a cheese selection after dinner, where I remember me eating all of the Applewood, because Applewood chedder is the God of chedder. 😛 This cheeseboard is pretty amazing as it looks gorgeous and inside it has loads of different edible tools for cheese. It’s just perfect for any geeky Christmas table!

• Marvel Deadpool Salt & Pepper Shakers – (link)

I was so close to buying these a week ago when I popped into Nostalgia Comics in Birmingham town centre! I love Deadpool and having Deadpool themed things in my house is always something good to have. 😛 These aren’t over the top but will stand out on the table for Christmas dinner and the good thing is these can be used all year around too. I know some people who have Christmas themed salt and pepper shakers and it’s just pointless for one day really.

• Pokemon Pikachu Cake Pan – (link)

Finally we have a Pokemon item on this list! I thought I would have had loads of Pokemon items on here for Christmas but could I find much? Could I bugger! The reason this cake pan is included in here is because I know not everyone likes Christmas pudding, myself included in there. I’m thinking of making some chocolate brownies Christmas Eve ready for Christmas Day. If I had it my way I’d make a chocolate cake using this Pikachu cake pan. 😛 It’s just so adorable and you could do so much with it come Christmas Day.

So there you have it, all my ideas of how you can geek up your table on Christmas Day! I know they’re not the best suggestions in the world, but they’re my suggestions and the best I could find so close to Christmas to be fair. 😛

Do you think you’ll geek up your table for Christmas Day? I don’t know if me and Dane will. We have a funky table cloth and some napkins, but that’s about it so far.

Again I want to say a MASSIVE thank you to Sarah for collaborating with me again! She’s one of my best friends of the blogging world and I do love her so much. 🙂

Are you ready for Christmas? Let me know in the comments what your plans are for Christmas and how you intend to spend the day!

Until next time all, take care and I hope you’re ready for the weekend, I know I am after a long and busy week of work. 😛

Life In Letters TAG

I love a good tag and as I haven’t done one for a while so I thought I’d spend my Sunday afternoon relaxing with my boyfriend for the day and give this tag a go!

No one tagged me to do this but I did come across it on Charlotte’s blog makeupbycandlelight and thought I’d give it a go!

So without further ado I’m going to get on with this tag as I’m somewhat excited to do it.

A – I love anime and have done for a long time! I’ve always loved Disney films since a young age and anything like it so when I discovered anime in my early teens I fell in love with it straight away. The first anime I watched was Elfen Lied, first anime movie was Spirited Away.

B – I’ve been a blogger now since January 2012 and I can safely say that I love it! I may not have been as active with my blogging since March/April but I am still here, writing posts and I really do love doing this.

C – Although I am from Birmingham I do spend half of my time in Coventry too and it’s fast become somewhere I would like to move to in the future. My boyfriend is from and lives in Coventry and some of my favourite and fondest moments this past year have been from there.

D – When I go for a night out, or even if I’m staying in and fancy a drink my alcoholic beverage of choice will be Disaronno and cranberry juice. It’s amazing stuff and I wouldn’t have discovered it if it wasn’t for a lovely lady who worked at a Wetherspoons I visited years ago.

E – One of my first favourite bands were Evanescence, who I first listened to back in 2004 when they brought out Bring Me To Life. I bought their Fallen album not long after that and ever since I’ve loved them. I’ve seen them live twice and for years I had a poster of Amy Lee (the singer) up on my door. Since then that’s been taken down, but it’s kept safe in a special place.

Image taken from weheartit.com

F – I’ve mentioned many MANY times on my blog about how much I love my perfumes and as I already know what I want to talk about for the letter P, fragrance will be my choice of word for my perfumes. I love fragrances and I currently own 14, hopefully near to 20 by the end of the year (if I’m lucky!) I wrote a post about fragrances as a guest post over on my friend Amy’s blog Von Dork. Go and check it out here if you’re interested!

G – Since the age of say six or seven I’ve been into gaming and ever since then I’ve continued on with it. My first consoles was a SNES (Super Nintendo Electronic System) which my brother handed down to me when he bought his Playstation. Ever since I’ve gone on to be given or buy a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Playstation, Game Boy Advance, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, DS Lite, Game Cube, 2DS and more recently an Xbox 360. Not only do I love to play the games on these consoles but I really do enjoy collecting them all too and my next console of choice to buy is a Dreamcast.

H – My oldest friend of 20 years this September as well as my best friend Hannah had to have a mention here. I love her to bits and we have that sort of friendship where we will go weeks without talking much to being able to continue on with  our friendship when we do talk again like we never even had that quiet. I hope we go on to be best friends for our whole lives.

I – Don’t know if I have mentioned it here before but I’m actually part Irish, as well as part French. Both of these colourful backgrounds come from my Dad’s side of the family and although I’m not THAT much Irish and French it’s something cool to mention.

J – Of all the places I really want to travel to right now, as this very moment in time it’s Japan. I love their culture, their food, everything and I can’t wait to travel there in the future. I based a 4 part series on my blog about Japan at the start of the year, you can read those here, here, here and here.

My image of my fragrances.

K – This was probably one of the hardest letters to think of something for but finally I thought of something and that’s Kirby! Recently Nintendo brought out a new game to add to the Kirby series called Kirby Triple Deluxe for the 3DS, which I of course picked up for my 2DS and since then I haven’t been able to stop playing it. Kirby is such a cute character and the game play is amazing. I know all the way to Bristol next weekend I’ll be playing this.

L – Whilst I love my anime and Studio Ghibli films, I also love my Disney movies and my favourite always has been and always will be Lady & The Tramp. I love dogs and the love story between the two dogs is just perfect. Due to my love of this film and the cuteness at the start of it that is Lady as a puppy, whenever the Disney Store have some baby related things for the movie, I get somewhat broody and just want to buy everything for when I have my own babies… But this being said that probably won’t be for another 6 or so years yet so I guess I’ll have to wait… Sigh.

M – There is only one word I can talk about with the letter M and that’s my last dog Magic, who we called Madge for short. She was my second dog and I loved her very much. She was bought for me when I was six years old as company for our first dog Chocky, as well as some more company for myself. She was beautiful and in 2008 she passed away. I was heart broken but she really touched a part of me and that still hasn’t faded nearly six years later. I just know when I get another dog I’ll love it just as much as I loved her, but Madge will never be forgotten.

N – There is only one word to describe me as a whole… A nerd. Yep I am a big fat nerd and I really do like it that way. I love gaming, anime, walking around Forbidden Planet for ages mentally making a list of all the things I want, having movie marathons, etc.

O – Another hard one to try and think of a word for but eventually I came to think of one and that is opinionated. This may make me look like a huge tool but I am VERY opinionated and sometimes it can be a huge bother, especially with my family as we’re all opinionated, sometimes on the same things but sometimes on different matters as well. I’ll only ever discuss things like this with people I know very well and trust, which isn’t a whole lot of people but when I do I am very strong headed about things I feel strongly about.

Image taken from weheartit.com

P – I have mentioned on my blog time and time again about how much I love photography and how I hope to go further with it in the future than it just being a hobby. I haven’t kept up with it much for a couple of months because I’ve been a mixture of busy and not really up for it. I know I’ll get back into the swing of things now I’m not as busy.

Q – Once again I couldn’t think of something for this letter and I actually had to look around a few blogs for some inspiration and I finally found one I could relate to, quotes. I love a quote I can relate to and I have many, one of which features on the side of my blog, “Look like a lady, fight like a man, swear like a sailor!” among many more like, “All I can do is be me, whatever that is.” by Bob Dylan, “It’s not really my problem if they think I’m weird.” by Sid Vicious and finally this one just makes me laugh, “Let me put that on my to do list, ‘Care about your feelings.'” by Brandon Novak.

R – I love reading, whether it be a manga, a chick lit or a biography, I’ll read anything that takes my fancy. For a while I stopped reading because I just didn’t have time or the motivation to pick up a book and read, until more recently when I finished off one of my books and started picking up my books again. I’m currently reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and I LOVE it!

S – A hobby that I’m starting up either the end of June or start of July is snowboarding. Ever since meeting my boyfriend I’ve wanted to give it a go and it’s been on my goals list for nearly a year now so it’s finally time to start it! I really can’t wait as it looks like so much fun and regular and old readers of my blog will know how much I’ve wanted to start this hobby up so I am so excited!

T – This was a pretty simple letter to come up with as I ended up coming up with loads of different words for it, but in the end I settled on Topshop. This has fast become my favourite shop, even though half the time I’m too skint to buy anything from there! I love their skinny fit jeans, t-shirts, coats, shoes, hell even their make up! You can’t go wrong with Topshop.

Image taken from weheartit.com

U – To think that three years ago I finished university and it’s been pretty weird that it’s flashed by me as quickly as it has. I really wish I could go back to my 17 year old self to tell her to take something else, possibly at a different university. I don’t exactly regret what I took at university, or which university I decided to go to but I do wonder if I had of taken something else at the time I might be in the job that I want my career to be in, but who knows.

V – As I had already chosen a word for the letter P, I decided that this letter could be violet, which is close enough to purple as I’ll get. I love the colour purple ever since I was a little girl and I’m rather surprised that even though it’s my favourite colour I’ve never had it on my blog, which will probably change in the future.

W – Although I don’t do it as much as I used to and I miss it, I really do like walking. It helps me to clear my head when I need to think and when the weather is gorgeous it’s good to get outside, plus it’s a good form of exercise. I really do need to walk more often though. Speaking of walking a few weekends ago I went walking in the Lake District and managed to walk up Helvellyn which is nearly 4,000 ft but I only managed 3,000 ft of it but for my first mountain climb I’m really quite proud of myself for getting so high and all my friends praised me on how well I did too.

X – I’m mentioning gaming related stuff here again with the Xbox 360. As a Playstation lover I ALWAYS said that I would never EVER buy a 360 due to the rivalry between that and the PS3 but I didn’t buy my 360, I was actually given one by my boyfriend after he bought a newer version off of a friend. I’ll only be using it to play Minecraft with friends online, as well as 360 exclusive games, my heart is still with my PS3.

Y – Another word that was inspired by a blogger who had also taken part  in this tag, the word yuck! I’m a very fussy eater and a majority of food I won’t eat because I just don’t like it! My boyfriend is trying to get me to eat more things but due to the fact I’m so fussy half the time he tries and sadly fails, poor guy!

Z – The last letter of this tag (thank God!) was a pretty easy one to think of a word for, zombies. I’m not a zombie nerd but there is one zombie film I love and one (well technically two) zombie game I love to play and those are Shaun of The Dead, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. Me and my best friend grew up loving Shaun of The Dead and since meeting my boyfriend I’ve grown to enjoy playing the Left 4 Dead games as they’re just so much fun to play with others.

Image taken from weheartit.com

So that was my version of the Life In Letters Tag!

I nominate everyone who reads this tag to take part as whilst it was fun to do, it was also really challenging and rather random.

It’s currently 2.30am and I’m really tired, I usually go to be before 12am so it’s WAY past my bed time!

Until next time, take care all and I hope your week going well so far.

The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy

On Thursday 18th July my best friend and I went to watch The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. If you don’t know what that is, it’s pretty much all three films by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, which are Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End.

The World’s End came out in cinemas on Friday 19th July and my best friend and I were there at 12am to watch one of the many first screenings of it in the UK.

It’s been 10 years since the guys first started filming Shaun of The Dead so it’s been a long wait for fans of the Cornetto Trilogy, my best friend and I included.

The trilogy started at 7.30pm and didn’t finish until nearly 2am, but it was worth being tired and losing the feeling of your legs for!

Some might be wondering where the guys came up with The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, well each film features a Cornetto (YES even The World’s End!) and depending on which film you watch, depends on which flavour you see.

Shaun of The Dead has the red strawberry Cornetto to symbolise blood, Hot Fuzz has the blue original Cornetto  to symbolise the colour the Police use in the UK and finally The World’s End has the green mint Cornetto to symbolise it’s sci-fi plot.

Since being to the showing of all three films, I keep craving a mint Cornetto!

Now it’s fun fact* time! I can’t really give you any facts about The World’s End yet as whilst I don’t know that many right now, it may also spoil the film for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet. So for now just enjoy some about the first two films!

*Facts taken from IMDB.com.

• The “pyjama zombie” had his voiced dubbed over by Simon Pegg.
• On the DVD (at least the region-two and region-one versions), there is a feature that plays an edited version of the scene where Pete yells at Shaun and Ed for playing the music too loud (“I’ve got to go to fucking work in four fucking hours!”) that has been dubbed over for television airings, thus replacing all obscenities. “Fuck” is replaced with “funk,” “prick” becomes “prink.” The feature has the fitting title “Funky Pete” and is found in the alternate bits section.
• Nick Frost (Ed) allegedly kept his genitals shaved throughout the production to create a genuine need to scratch that the character demanded.
• The word “fuck” is used 77 times in this movie.
• Shaun tells Liz that he’s going to take her to “the place that does all the fish”. When he opens the phone book you can see that the restaurant is literally called ‘The Place That Does All the Fish’.
• Shaun and Ed’s friendship is based on Simon Pegg’s and Nick Frost’s when they shared a flat together.
•  Quentin Tarantino dubbed Shaun of the Dead one of the top 20 films made since 1992.
• Edgar Wright:  during the Remembering Z-Day montage, there is a long shot of the zombies walking through a park; Edgar is the one in black who falls over himself. He also makes a voice cameo as the host of Fulci’s Italian restaurant.
• When Shaun and Ed are listening to Electro, Pete tells Ed if he “wants to live like an animal, he can live in a shed”. Later, Shaun keeps Ed in the shed at the end of the film after he becomes a zombie.

• Throughout the film, Sergeant Angel uses a Vauxhall Astra Diesel and a Subaru Impreza WRX. The Subaru’s markings are “HF” obviously referring to the film title.
• During the early scene of Nicholas Angel jogging in his first morning in Sanford, all of the NWA members can be seen standing in the same positions they later stand in for the ‘final showdown’.
• Nicholas Angel’s service number is 777, this is often seen as the mark of God just as 666 is seen as the mark of the devil. The only character to call him by that number is Timothy Dalton, who played Agent 007 in The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill.
• When in costume Nick Frost and Simon Pegg often were assumed to be police officers. Many strangers asked them for directions and instead of telling the truth they went along with it. They claimed it made them feel powerful.
• At a Q&A session following a screening of the film in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Edgar Wright revealed that the film featured disguised cameos by two Oscar winners: Cate Blanchett and Peter Jackson. Jackson appears as the Santa Claus who stabs Nick Angel through the hand during the opening montage, and Blanchett appears masked as Angel’s ex-girlfriend who is a Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO), which is the Metropolitan Police’s term for an officer who collects and processes forensic evidence at the scene of a crime (roughly analogous to a CSI).
• While Nicholas is chasing a shoplifter through the supermarket, Danny is reading the tag-lines of the cheap action films in the half-price bin. “Supercop. Meet the cop that can’t be stopped”. When he realizes the chase is on, he throws the DVD back into the bargain bin where we see it land beside a DVD copy of Shaun of The Dead but called “Zombies Party”, the release title of “Shaun of the Dead” in certain countries.
• The picture of a young Danny is a real picture of Nick Frost as a child.
• Before filming the lay-by scene, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reportedly had an argument. Pegg claimed Frost was getting cocky and making the ADs get him coffee, whereas Pegg wanted him to get his own. As a result they took four hours to do that scene and they didn’t talk to each other at all except when acting.
• The Latin phrase “Bonum comunitae comunitatis” chanted by the NWA at the castle means ‘for the good of the community’ or ‘the greater good’, which is a recurring tag line.
• It’s said that a swan can break a person’s arm with its wing. At the end of the movie, having been made to crash by the swan in the car, you can see Jim Broadbent’s arm in a sling as he’s loaded onto the ambulance.

Another awesome fact to do with the trilogy is that back in 2007 I got the chance to meet Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at a signing in Birmingham. It was snowing heavily that day and there was no way I would miss it so I got changed, wrapped up warm and got the bus into town. I waited in the snow for a couple of hours near the front of the queue to meet them and it was worth every minute. They were all so lovely and I took some pictures of the guys posing. I remember Simon Pegg saying to me, “Are you not cold? It’s snowing out there!” and Nick asking me if I was alright and that I was a good sport for going in the snow. They signed my copy of Shaun of The Dead too, which I keep safe in my DVD collection. I would love to meet them all again someday!

Well that’s it for this post, make sure to go and see The World’s End if you like the look of it, as it is amazing! If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, I’ll leave a video of it down below for you.

Take care all and hope your week has started off well!