Chocolate NES Controllers

My awesome mother-in-law sent us a care package a while back, and today I pulled out all the pieces it contained and made some sweet treats for our bead party this week. What did this alleged package contain? Well... just three things, actually: 5 lbs of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips, 3 tubes of colored chocolate  for detail work, and 2 chocolate mold trays of NES controllers!

Step 1: fill in the details. After filling in as much detail as desired, freeze until chocolate is hardened.

Step 2: fill in remainder with melted chocolate. To melt chocolate, microwave on medium power, stirring every 30 sec until fully melted.

Step 3: Freeze until hardened, then pop them out of the mold.

I experimented a little with more detail once I did the first batch.

I really like how they turned out! I did half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate.

These were very easy to make and turned out really well. I think I might experiment with add-ins to the chocolate next time... maybe a little caramel or pretzel bits to jazz them up even more!

Perler Beads: Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger: undoubtedly one of the best SNES games released. Nathan gets all the credit for today's showcase... he made every single one of them in two days without any help from me (except the ironing. I always get to iron them. I'm just that lucky). What's more, seeing them got one of our writing friends intrigued in the game, so we made him watch a little of it and now he wants to play it. (Or so he claims.) Since Chrono Trigger rivals Final Fantasy VI for most awesome RPG on the SNES, this is a good thing.

Anyway, on to the picture. This set resides on the same wall as Megaman but higher up. (It was that, or fill the space with Megaman bosses from all the other games. I wasn't particularly keen on the idea of having Sheep Man on our wall though.)

Starting at the bottom and going clockwise: Frog, Marle, Ayla, Lucca, Chrono, Magus, Robo; center is Ozzie, and of course the cat is off to the right. If you've played the game, you know why the cat is there...

This set turned out particularly good; most of the colors used in the original sprites had close counterparts to the bead color options, which always makes for easier and better shading.

I'm hoping to make an online photo album that shows a close up of each sprite individually that we've made so far and list which colors we used to make it; that way it's easier to replicate them. But that's going to be a massive project in its own right, so it might not be done for a while...

Perler Beads: Mario

I know you've been waiting a long time for this... I hoped to get it up Monday (but not everything was done yet), intended to post it last night (but we didn't finish putting it all up until 11pm), and am finally doing it now (hooray for holidays and no work!). :) I guess that's what happens when you keep thinking of more cool stuff to add to a themed wall. And there are a lot of cool things I didn't even get to with the Mario wall.

So without further ado:

Super Mario 1: cheep cheep, little Mario, goomba, question block w/regular blocks, koopa paratroopa, Lakitu, spiny

Super Mario 2: shy guy, Princess holding a turnip, tweeter, phanto, key, Birdo (this collection turned out really eclectic for some reason...)

Super Mario 3: angry sun, piranha plant shooting fireball (aka Venus fire trap), Mario in a boot (aka Kuribo's shoe), question block, paragoomba (and yes, I know it's not technically possible to have the boot on the same level as the angry sun)

Super Mario World: P block, boo, caped Mario, fire flower, question block, coin, wiggler

Super Mario World: Yoshi montage: egg, baby Yoshi, grown up Yoshi, and a bonus red shell

To give some perspective: Yoshi montage resides next to Dr. Mario and viruses

zoomed out shot of the Mario wall

A view of the entire Mario wall

The silk painting hangs on the other side of this lip, for those of you trying to visualize our apartment decorations as a whole.

Also, we're thinking of adding some Yoshi's Island sprites to the end since there's still a little room, so there may be an update in the future with that.

What are some of your favorites that we left out? I'm kind of mourning the lack of a bob-omb myself...

Perler Beads: Final Fantasy VI

Nathan's been hard at work with his pet project, making all the party members from Final Fantasy VI. And then he decided to make a few extra NPCs and bosses to go along with the party. If you've played the game, you can imagine this resulted in a lot of new wall decorations... and we're quite pleased with how it all turned out.

Final Fantasy VI party, in one possible order you can acquire them. From top left: Row 1: Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Row 2: Interceptor, Shadow, Cyan, Gau, Setzer, Row 3: Strago, Relm, Mog, Umaro, Gogo

The emperor, Kefka, and an Imperial soldier in Magitek armor

Esper Terra, Cid, General Leo, and Bannon

Ultros and Maria (from the opera)

Above the mirror: Esper Terra, Cid, General Leo, Bannon. Above the door: Ultros and Maria.  On the wall to the right: the party. To the left (not shown): Emperor, Kefka, Imperial soldier.

Ten Things to Smile About

June has flown by... and guess what time it is again!





1. Having a piano. We don't play it every day, but it's so nice to have it there when I need to de-stress or when Nathan gets the urge to play.

2. Going to my family reunion! It was so awesome to see so much of my family and reconnect with them.

3. Learning how to do silk painting and creating an awesome wall hanging with Nathan.

4. Doing a little better at making dinner more often. And not always chicken, either! I made tacos, hamburgers, pizza, pork roast with twice baked potatoes, white chili, and hawaiian haystacks, which all together fed us for nearly half the month (maybe more!), and we were out of town for a week. Not bad at all (for me).

5. Discovering perler beads and the endless possibilities for crafts! And consequently, lots of quality time with my husband. :)

6. Spending time with friends and staying up far too late playing (and sorting beads... lots and lots of beads).

7. Finding a new sound system for a really killer deal - $60 when it was originally over $200

8. Cutting my hair super short

9. It finally being warm enough in our basement apartment to sleep with only one blanket on the bed instead of 2 or 3

10. Having the highest average score on my team at work for the surveys we get back from customers rating our service (even though it doesn't really do anything except make me feel accomplished...)

Perler Beads: Castlevania

The next showcase resides on the wall over our laundry closet. Because really, who doesn't think of skeletons, vampire bats, and Dracula when it's time to do the laundry (again)?

From Castlevania 1: Stone snake head and Simon throwing an axe at a bat

From Castlevania 2: Skeleton, Simon, and a mummy

From Castlevania 3: Trevor vs. Death

Close-up of Death because man, he turned out really well.

And finally, the whole thing to give a sense of scale.

Perler Beads: Megaman 2

One of the first things we made with perler beads (once we had all the right colors) was Megaman. After all, we had a light switch that was just perfect for him to stand on, just like in the opening of Megaman 2. And then we had to make some other guys to go along with him...

From left to right, marching across the living room wall. Quick Man, Wood Man, Metal Man, and Air Man.

See? Perfect light switch to serve as a building for him to stand on. Heat Man, Flash Man, Bubble Man, Megaman, and Crash Man.

And the final touch... down below, an extra life over the internet jack and an energy tank over the power outlet. Strangely fitting...