Desk friend: Zeus!

I named my Jolteon Zeus because how could I not? Just look at that face!

Eeveelution Outfits

For those of you familiar with my other accounts (Instagram or Tumblr), you'll know that I also do a lot of fashion and outfit of the day posts. My Tumblr is a full time fashion blog with a wide variety of styles being featured. I do like to craft outfits around themes or certain aesthetics, and when I picked up my eeveelutions it gave me an idea: Eeeveelution outfits! So far I've done a few, with more planned in the future. I want to try and focus on colors as well as the themes of each.

Sylveon for example has pink, white, and blue for its colors, and has a theme of love. So I put together this outfit with some Sailor Moon jewelry and a heart spotted shirt.

Next is Vaporeon who is my favorite (shhh, don't tell the others!). Vaporeon is blues and white, with an obvious water/sea theme. 

I also have some Gengar themed outfits coming as I hinted at in a prior post, so stay tuned for more pokefashion!

The dark rites of Eevee...

I started working on some new shelving for my apartment this weekend, in part because I wanted a place to tuck my plush when they're not being carried off somewhere. The Eeveelutions are one such group that seems like they need to be displayed, so I created them a little cubby on one of the shelves. And added a (fake) candle as I had them on all shelves. Turned off the lights and....oh...that's a little creepy.

Come play with us...

Ooky Spooky

Gengar's Conundrum

Gotta catch em all!

Well may not them all, my apartment isn't that big.

I liked Pokemon a lot as a kid (a lot, a lot), though I mostly collected the cards. I loved the idea of plush, but tended to want plush of characters that weren't being made at the time. I did have a giant Meowth I got from a white elephant sale, and a very tiny Eevee plush. Aside from that I had some homemade plush that unfortunately didn't live to see today. Now though they make plush of everyone, and they're fairly prevalent online and in store. My dream is to go to a Pokemon Center someday and explore the even wider range of cut plush offered there.

This weekend I have added two new friends to my collection, with the potential of a third depending upon if I fall into the trap of Amazon (Prime is wonderful, terrible thing). The first is a small Eevee who could be the younger sister of Howl.

She's so tiny! Her name is Eevette 

She sort of fit into the inner pocket of my coat,

so I carried her around like that for the rest of the night.

Eeevee on the move!

Then while I was out doing some pre-work pre-snow storm shopping, I stumbled upon this fellow. One of the Pokemon plush accounts I follow on Instagram has a very charismatic Gengar for a mascot, so I couldn't help but stop and look at him.

If I was a Pokemon trainer I think I'd probably have some ghost type on my team given that our preferred hang out locations coincide. Gengar also seems like cuddly trouble, at least in this form. I'm still deciding between a few names for him. I'm actually also working on a ghost themed coord for a party next month, and I think he'd be a good companion to take along!

Pika pi!

I went on an adventure today of epic and exhausting proportions. Due to some trip related snafus, I ended up having to stay with my parent's dogs, but I was able to runs few errands. One of which was seeking out a Pikachu plush from Build a Bear.

Initially I called my normal store and they said they had him, but stock was low. I was there within about 45min and they had all sold out. So I called another local store, no luck. Finally, I tried a store that was about 30min away and they said they had some.

Smushed face of victory!

At that store they had three left, and the woman behind me took the other two. So I was very lucky to arrive when I did! The store was absolute bedlam, literally wall to wall people. The staff were great as always, which continues to impress me. I ended up waiting in the stuffing line for about 30 minutes, which wasn't too bad.

Post stuffing pika!

I did open him up again once I got home to fix his nose a bit (he suffers from the same weird nose issue as Eevee), and also to adjust his butt stuffing for lack of a better term. His seam was also pretty messy, so I fixed that as well.

So. Much. Snuggles.

I broke the Howl's Moving Castle traditon with this guy (I almost named him Markl) and went with Hamilton instead as I was listening to the mix tape on the way. 

Overall I'd say he's absolutely worth it if you can adjust his nose a bit before stuffing (or after if you're comfortable). He is big and plush (so soft!), and the perfect shape for cuddles. I'll be bringing him to a New Years Eve party with me this weekend as he's part of my costume. 

Happy holidays!

Bear Surgery and Holiday Howl

Happy pre-holiday craziness! I am working hard trying to get all my loose ends tied up before leaving on my trip on Christmas Eve, which has left me feeling like a very tired elf. Presents and packing and pre-trip nerves oh my!

For personal reasons, this trip is going to be quite stressful. So I'm also trying to plan some good, fun things to help distract me along the way. I decided early on I wanted to take one of my plush with me for holiday shenanigans, and originally it was going to be Spock. However, I think I have decided to take Howl with me as I have the least pictures of him so far, and I did just do the 12 Days of Christmas with Spock. So I've also been getting him into ship-shape for the upcoming trip, and packing all his clothes along with mine. He doesn't have a very extensive wardrobe (yet), but I have some Christmas items that will be fun for photos along the way.

One thing I did to prep him was to open him up and adjust his stuffing. This is the second time I've done this, as the first time I had to remove his scent disk. I think it got overheated or melted during the stuffing process (the stuffing "pump" can get quite warm during the process, and the staff member commented that he was really, really warm). It ended up smelling like melted chemicals and death, so I removed it. This second time I opened him up to re-stuff as his original stuffing was pretty slapdash. I think it was because it was towards the end of the day, but the staff member who stuffed him wasn't particularly helpful. (Not a big deal for me as I can sew, but I did miss doing the heart ceremony.)

Original stuffing on the left, new stuffing on the right.

His body was mostly stuffed, but I realized that his face was very deflated. In parts it was almost empty, which didn't do him any favors poor fellow. So I re-stuffed his head and his body to give it more shape, and the results are much, much better. You can really see it in the curve of his face, and his nose area. I think maybe that's why I haven't loved some of the Eevees I've seen in the past, because they were under stuffed.

I also picked him up one small item while I was doing the end of my holiday shopping, which is this red shirt. I couldn't find something specifically Santa-themed which was my goal, but I already have this sparkly hat.

I thought this was particularly fitting for Howl. 

Alas they didn't have one for "heart eater."

Meet Howl!

Build a Bear Workshop was sneaky and decided to release more Eevees this week. I only knew about it because I had my sister snag an item of clothing for me (she is considerably closer than I am), and they let her know. She was kind enough to go back on release day and grab me one which I stuffed this weekend. 

Target acquired. 

I has initially been on the fence about Eevee as I wasn't in love with the design. Mostly the nose/mouth if I'm being honest. It looks odd in profile, and there were very few photos I liked it in. Someone suggested it was better in person, which I do think is the case. Still weird, but not quite as bad. Plus, once you have an Eevee in your hands, the soft and cute overwhelm you.

I will say that this Eevee version is *not* the same as the original one released, for those who have been wondering. The main difference I see is the eyes, as the new ones are completely black rather than black and "purple" (it always looked brown to me). This doesn't bother me, but it is good to know. 

I named my Eevee Howl as I called my Charmander Calcifer. (Used to be Duke, but I never actually called him that, so it seemed silly to keep it.) I have always pictured Eevees as very pretty and proud of their appearance. Kind of like the nice supermodels of the Pokémon world. And what fits that better than "I see no point in living if I cant be beautiful" Howl?

Calcifer is no longer doing the no-pants dance!

As I mentioned before, Charmander is kind of a larger "bear," and his shape isn't superbly conducive to a lot of things. Pants in particular are a challenge because of his short legs and rather large tail base. Myself, I don't mind him without pants as I don't think they're entirely necessary for him. However, I came across a pair of overalls that I thought I could re-purpose for him. 

I ended up cutting the top off the front and back, and shortening it significantly before reattaching it. I was able to avoid shortening the straps by trimming it off the bottom instead, which worked well. The straps have two different sets of snaps so that you can make them longer/shorter. For this outfit I used them on the longer side just to show a bit more of the stripes beneath since the shirt's collar is already a similar color blue. I think that with any of the other shirts of different colors, I would use the shorter length instead. I made a large tail-hole  that suits him pretty well, and re-hemmed everything aside from the legs.

Overall (pun possibly intended?) I like how they turned out, and I may investigate some additional overall options in the future. I still think pants would be a weird fit on him, but this style works nicely.

It's the holiday season...

More Pokemon Spam!

My apologies for all the Charmander spam, he's just so cute and photogenic! I also spent the weekend working on some clothes for him, which was surprisingly easy and fun. Since he's a larger "bear," he actually more-or-less fits into some infant clothes. I've used some thrifted baby clothes before for bjd clothes, so I thought I'd try it for him as well. Mostly I had to take the hem up quite a bit, but otherwise they work pretty well.

I try to choose items that don't look completely like baby clothes, as I prefer them to more like miniature adult clothes. This shirt does have little side snaps on the neck, but it's not overly noticeable or identifiable as being specifically for a baby. It also helped with getting the shirt over his head, so it's not a bad addition.

This item was actually a jean shirt that I cut the sleeves off of and re-hemmed. I have additional plans for decorating this, but I thought it was cute even in it's base form.

Hipster Charmander liked Pokemon before it was cool... I couldn't resist a little plaid shirt, especially paired with the jean vest. This one was also taken in at the bottom, and might eventually need some trimming for the sleeves. 

The last shirt, which is much more orange in reality than it looks here. I also hemmed this one quite a bit, but otherwise it fits nicely.

Fashion show time!

Charmander is bigger in both head and body than most Build a Bears, so the regular clothes fit a bit snug. I pulled out some of my growing collection of bear clothes and tried them on him.

Dino hoodie! How could I not?

This is a Halloween bat hoodie that's technically meant for the "pet" animals, but it works okay for him.

Suit and tie! This was probably the tightest fit of all, especially given that it has a velcro closure in the back. It's closed pretty well, but could use a bit of extra space.

Matchy-matchy?

Calcifer and I have a little bit of matching going on. I decided to dress up fancy and fun, and his little hat matched my pink.

Calcifer on his own, with his hands in the little mitten pockets!

Be prepared for some Pokemon spam!

I went out this week and was able to get one of Build a Bear's new Charmander bears (dragons?). I had to wait in line for a little while, but it was completely worth it. Charmander was always my starter, and I was excited to see their interpretation of him. I wasn't overly fond of Pikachu or Eevee (plus the latter is impossible to find!), but this little guy is perfect. Say hello to Calcifer!

I went for the regular pokeball hoodie rather than the great ball one as I like the classic color of this.

Charmander (like Pikachu and Eevee) comes with his own special card as well, which is cute.