Long Beach Comic Con - Oct 29, 2011

This was my first experience at a comic con. I wanted to see what the hype was about. No doubt, there were tons of people dressed up in character. I've compiled my own trading cards (above) with some of the characters I got a chance to snap. If you're wondering what who the girl in the middle is supposed to be Amy Winehouse, zombie version. I know she's not part of the comic series, but I needed one more space filled. Next years cards will be much better for sure!

I took a bunch of photos I decided to start with the artists! Can you believe it, I found 3 Filipino and 1 Chamorro artist! Whoot Whoot!

The cute filipina girl, Kamilla Portacio, is the daughter of Whilce Portacio,
a famous artist that draws for DC and Marvel. So amazing how young
she is and already a good artist!

Tone Rodriguez, artist who has drawn for the
Simpson, Zorro, and Ecape from LA just to name a few.

Tone Rodriguez' artwork.

More of Tone Rodriguez' artwork.

Stan Sakai, author and artist of Usagi Yojimo.

Jesse Mesa Toves. I was surprised to find an
islander on the other end of the table. Good Job!!

Jesse Mesa Toves artwork.

It was great to see some female artists in this male dominant field.

Tiffany Ho, artist.

Some of Tiffany Ho Artwork.

Now for the vendors! I found some great handmade items. Something I didn't expect at Comic Con. The first store I found was Apple 8 Store. I couldn't believe what I found. It was a diamond in the rough. Amazing artwork!!

Handmade crochet animal beanies.

More beanies. The one on the right has it's brains coming out! So creative!

The owners of Apple 8 Store!

Wire wrapped handmade jewelry. Love, love, love these!

Amigurumi. Looks like little candy.

Not your average shirt. Most if not all were designed by the owners.

2 headed Curious George, from Carlyfornia.

Owner of Carlyfornia.

Handmade corsets from Miss Carlyfornia.

An assortment of rings from Miss Carlyfornia.

Retro Outlaw Studios, LA California.

Retro Outlaw Studios. Punks not Dead shirt.

Retro Outlaw Studios. More shirts.

 Zombie Walk!

Just a portion of the zombies getting ready to do their walk.

At the end of the Zombie walk was a fair and an attempt to have the Guiness record for the most zombies for a walk.

Mens Crocheted Spiral Beanie

 

This textured beanie was a request from the other half. Ramon wanted something to keep his head warm when he went fishing on those cold mornings at the lake. I was looking for something a little more masculine than a traditional beanie, and the spirals on the pattern turned out great! He seems to be enjoying his new head gear. You can get the free pattern here from Nancy Smith from www.nlsstitches.com.

Breakfast Quiche

I love me some eggs! They're packed with protein to help you feel fuller longer, choline which contributes to fetal brain development and aids in brain function in adults. They also contain a small amount of  lutein and zeaxanthin that can help prevent macular degeneration, a leading cause of age-related blindness. More info on eggs here.

Serves: 12
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp Coconut Oil

1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
handful of button mushrooms, diced

1/4 cup bacon, cooked and diced
1 handful of spinach
9 eggs, scrambled




WHAT TO DO
1 Heat the oven to 350º F and prepare a muffin pan with a little dab of coconut oil. If you have a nonstick pan, you can skip this step. 

2 Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute the onions for about 2-3 minutes.

3 Add the garlic and and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms reduce down a bit.


4 Add the bacon and spinach and cook for another minute.

5 Divide the mixture into the 12 cup muffin pan.

6 Divide the scramble eggs into the cups as well and bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes.

TIP
I cook this up at the beginning of the week and every morning get one out of the fridge! A quick breakfast out the door.


Do you have any quick tips for breakfast?

Pruning Happy

I recently borrowed a couple of pruning books from the library to give me more of an idea on how to prune my plants, especially the bay laurel tree I've had for a couple years now. So I read up on it the night before and the first I did when I got up was head to my back patio with my pruning shears in hand and started cutting. I think I might have gone pruning happy! Before I knew it, the tree looked like a storm passed and all left were a few twigs and some leaves. Ooops! I'm sure it'll be fine. The book mentions that the only way to learn is to just do it and cut! I can't wait until more leaves start developing. Well, at least I have tons of dried bay leaves for cooking. Happy Pruning!

Any pruning advice or anecdotes you can give on pruning for the faint at heart?

Air Plant

Air Plant hanging off the side of a pot.

My auntie Vicky gave me some of her Air Plants. Actually, I asked if I could have some. She told me to get as much as I wanted because they grow so fast. She had a whole gazebo covered in it before she threw most of it out. 

This plant is so interesting! I originally wanted it to just have to soften up some of my pots and to just have to add to flower arrangements in the future. Now I'm thinking I can use it to line my wire basket instead of moss and fill it in with compost. That will be shown in another post just as soon as I get more air plants. They seem to be growing pretty good....and fast, so it shouldn't be too long. I put mine out in the sun and it pretty much burnt. So, all it needs is water and a shady place.

What kind of interesting or unusual plants do you have?

More Green Onions

Instead of using the whole green onion that you bought from the store, cut about an inch or so above the roots and just stick them in water. Soon, you will notice more roots forming after a few days. You can transplant this to your garden and voila, you will have more green onions that will grow that are 'cut and come again'. I can usually get about 2-3 time more green onions this way. It's such a fun and easy way to get more out of what you paid for.

What other plants do you think you can do like this?

Somethings going on with my herbs....and it's not good

My herb pot that has thyme, oregano, parsley and garlic chives were doing really well until I noticed that the leaves were getting spots on them. So, the first think I did was chop off all the discolored leave knowing that the herbs will easily grow back. It seemed to work for a bit, but now that the herbs are getting fuller, the spots came back. I'm suspecting it's a type of plant disease. yuck! I'm going to try again and hack the herbs down, fertilize with more of worm compost and cross my fingers.

Any suggestions on how to alleviate this problem?