Day 17: Blind Bags Anonymous

My sister Hannah has gotten hooked on blind bags, you know, where you get a sealed box or foil bag with a surprise toy inside. Just search "blind bags" on YouTube and you'll know where the obsession came from, and it's easy to see why! The mystery of which toy you're going to get is exciting and fun. Who doesn't like toy surprises? That's pretty much the whole basis for the Happy Meal after all. 

She started stocking up a few weeks ago and amassed a giant collection so Shane and I could come over and we'd have a Blind Bag Palooza. Here is our before pile. The picture does not do the sheer amount of blind bags justice. She got a wide variety of fun things to open. Our contribution can be seen in the brown paper bags with magic marker drawings on them. They're $2 grab bags from Crystal Visions at East Town Knoxville Center Mall, the one that sells pagan/wiccan supplies, those trolls with the glowing red eyes, and an assortment of "tobacco" pipes and samurai swords. We were curious. 

Where to start first? 

Needless to say, it took a while to open all those little packages, and I think even longer for me to set up this picture. Check out what we got! 

See those tumbled stones and glass earrings in bottom right corner? That's what was in our grab bags. I'm sure they have some sort of mystical powers. 

There are a lot of popular blind bags right now, one of the most sought out being Shopkins. As you can see from the picture below, they're adorable anthropomorphized versions of things you would buy at the grocery store, and they come two at a time in a little shopping basket. They also include a little checklist that looks like a grocery store receipt. Hannah has been known to drive all over town to find them. 

There's around 145 different Shopkins in season (series) 2 alone, so that's a lot of little shopping baskets laying around the house if you're a collector. 

Here's a few more of the Shopkins...

Shopkins weren't the only thing we got! As you'll see from the picture below, we've got a few Lego minifigures (two Explorers and a King), a surprise Doctor from Doctor Who (we got the first Doctor), some Hello Kitty figurines, etc. See those things with the giant heads? They're called Fash'ems, and they're a little weird to me. They're squishy and filled with water, and the outsides are almost sticky. Seems like they'd get real dirty and fuzzy real quick.

We also got some Minecraft blind boxes, an assortment of My Little Ponies, more Hello Kitties, and those cute figurines in the back, which are Tokidoki Unicornos. 

If you have never been to a Five Below, you need to check it out. That's where Hannah got these fake Kinder Surprise eggs. The real Kinder eggs, in case you've never heard of them, are chocolate eggs with toys inside, kind of like the Wonderball chocolates we had in the 90s. You can get them in pretty much every country besides the United States (they're banned here because of an FDA regulation, and people get fined at the Canadian border for trying to bring them across). 

These ChocoTreasure eggs are still technically illegal per the FDA regulations, so it's just a matter of time until they're forced to stop production. Sadly, the eggs contained some of the lamest prizes of the bunch. One did have a cute tiny Hello Kitty figurine, and a couple had stickers, but most had little cardboard people like the ones below. I ate several of the chocolate egg shells and quickly regretted that decision. 

We had a lot of fun opening and sorting our prizes. I know what you're thinking, what are we going to do with all of these? Well, Hannah is collecting some, Shane and I are keeping some of the others (our china cabinet, which used to hold liquor, is slowly being converted to a toy showcase), and anything we don't want or have duplicates of will be given to friends' kids.

You never know, maybe this is just practice for when Hannah is a YouTube star and gets paid to do this! 

Because impatience is my middle name

I love Halloween. I mean, who doesn't? Everything about it is so much fun, the costumes, the candy, the parties, and every now and then a haunted house (no we didn't know those people). 

I think my absolute favorite part is carving jack-o-lanterns. I have carved one every year (except last year) for as long as I can remember. Now of course, since I am a perfectionist and not good with advance planning, they never turn out as cute as I want them to. I usually just start sawing away with one of those cheap little pumpkin carving knives until it turns into a smiley face. There are also a lot of pretty awesome jack-o-lanterns out there to compete with, which honestly I don't see how they do it. So this year I decided to get a smidge more complicated, and do a little copyright infringement.

Say hello to Pumpkin Kitty! Okay so her bow is a little lopsided, which probably no one but me would ever notice. Other than that, I think she is pretty cute. And believe me, it wasn't easy getting her to actually look like the real Hello Kitty (for me, anyways). First there was a paper sketch. Next, the dry erase markers came out, which I think was Shane's idea. I usually just use a pencil, which as it turns out doesn't erase well from pumpkins.

 Is that ear bigger than this one? Wait, I think her whiskers should be lower...

Even with that, she didn't turn out 100% as planned (stupid tiny pumpkin knives), but that's okay.

Shane was going to go for one of the paper designs they include with the pumpkin carving tools, but couldn't choose one he liked. I think he was having more fun taking pictures of his rock crawler anyways...

...so he ended up with a cute jack-o-lantern face instead. He probably could've carved six of these, and roasted all the seeds, by the time I got done with mine. 

So here is where the impatient part comes in. That was all two weekends ago. I got so excited about Halloween that we carved those stupid things on October 1st.

This is what they look like today, October 21, with 10 days to go til Halloween: 

Okay a little gross and rotten, but she's holding in there. 

Shane's isn't holding up so well, but I think it gives him some character. 

But wait, this is the best part! 

Since we've had so much rain here lately, this is what they look like on the inside now: 

The little $3 strobe light has now turned into pond decor. Lovely. 

Maybe I'll learn a lesson and wait a bit before we carve them next year. But knowing me, probably not. 

Hello Kitty madness

I have always had a slight obsession with Hello Kitty. When I was younger, my mom worked at the Sanrio store at East Town Mall and I think between me and my sister, we owned every piece of HK merchandise they sold. My mom always joked that she owed them money at the end of the month instead of getting a paycheck (which was probably actually true).

*This is where I planned to insert a picture of me with Hello Kitty at my birthday party, which I think was actually my dad or something in the store's HK costume. But since all those pictures are at my parents' house, all I can offer you is this picture of me standing by a bird bath. Sincerest apologies.*

So for the past 20 or so years, the obsession has grown and grown. I've been trying to keep it in check, but that only works for so long. I feel like pretty soon I am going to drown in Hello Kitty. Or look like I just escaped a mental institution. I mean, you know it's bad when you can look at websites like Hello Kitty Hell and want one of everything featured on there (well most everything. I think I could do without the gas mask or the pussy wind deodorant). So here are a few of the items from my current collection, as in, things that I could reach out in a three-foot radius and touch at this very moment. I think that you'll see that I have something for everyone.

 Lunch boxes. A must-have item.

 Self-made Stormtrooper Kitty Nalgene bottle using reject sticker from car. See below.

 The whole (well almost) HelloWars gang on my car. I originally wanted just the R2K2 sticker but then figured I might as well go for it. 

Fun fact: these are arranged from most favorite to least favorite.

 25th anniversary (of Hello Kitty) watch, which was a Christmas present from Shane.

 Not one but two pairs of Hello Kitty Vans, which I magically purchased for only $19.99 each from the Hot Topic website. That was some sort of luck, considering they went up to $40 each two days later.

 These earrings were actually purchased in the little kid section of Claire's.

 Hello Kitty tongue ring, which I had in hand before I even got my tongue pierced. Also some Hello Kitty plugs, which I can't wear anymore since they are a 4g and my ears are currently at a 0g.

Surprisingly, I don't have a Hello Kitty tattoo yet. Probably will once I figure out what I want and where to put it.

 Hat. Also a present from Shane. Starting to think he's my enabler. 

 Hello Kitty trading cards. Yes they make these, and for some reason I buy them. I know it probably doesn't look like a lot, but this is what they stack up to:

To put this in perspective for you, four cards come in every pack. 

 Figurines, which occasionally come in a pack of cards.

Of course, clothing. Can't find another one of my HK shirts, suspecting it's in the dirty laundry. 

Not pictured: underwear. No I'm not going to post those online for the world to see, but trust me, I do own multiple pairs of HK themed undergarments.

Even my phone has fallen victim to this illness. I actually have an app just for Hello Kitty wallpapers.

Items that I own, but are out of commission: 

When you live with two guys, it is kinda difficult to put this in the kitchen. Also, it leaves the middles of your toaster strudels frozen. The price you pay for Hello Kitty faces on your toast...

Phone, which isn't being used because I don't even have a home phone line anymore. 

So I know this probably doesn't look like a lot to you, or maybe it does, but trust me, when you can wake up in the morning and dress pretty much head to toe like a four year old who has just been allowed to choose their own clothes, you start to question your own sanity. And it's only that much harder when your workplace has just expanded the amount of Hello Kitty merchandise they carry:

Those first two booths are all HK merchandise! Everything from nail art stickers to iPad cases. And I am the kind of person who would buy an iPad just for the case. Okay so I really want one for other reasons, but the case just makes it that much better :)