Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! It is time for a bit of break from the Holiday Matsuri coverage and to do the Favorites post for November and December! Damn, time has gone by fast and now it’s time to end the year with what I liked!

Favorite Holiday Matsuri Moment: Meeting Steve Blum FINALLY! Yes, starting it off with my favorite moment from Holiday Matsuri this year! As you know it was our second year doing press and second year attending the convention all three days. Nerdy Shirts told me and Gondras through Messenger about how Steve is coming to Matsuri and I was pretty much like “OMGOMGOMGOMG! I CAN’T WAIT!” I did get to meet him first day and got my copy of Gurren Lagan signed by him. I was prepared to pay for his signature this year since I did save some cash this year despite Pokemon Sun being reserved. Anyways, what else was part of the moment was when Gondras caught up with me as I was meeting Steve and reminded him of Florida Anime Experience 2011 where I couldn’t make it but he and Tobi went to get stuff signed in my place by him. If you haven’t bought and read my book, which you should, there was a story where they had Steve speak as Orochimaru over the phone when I had the ye old Razor phone from Samsung. He did talk to me as Orochimaru at first and I hid behind Gondras and then he talked as Leeron! You must watch my interview with him which was a great part of meeting him too. I can’t wait to see him again if any other con in Orlando or in Tampa would get him.

Fave Find of the Vendor’s Room: Hufflepuff Beer Glasses! If you watched my haul on YouTube which included stuff from Matsuri, I mentioned something that I did find in Artist’s Alley and that is a pair of Harry Potter glasses with the symbol for Hufflepuff. They were made by a person we have seen at the many conventions here that makes stuff out of wood and we have bought from them before. Years back I got Gondras a shirt that is related to Dead Pool and he got a mini Tardus from them a year ago as an early birthday present due to the convention leading up towards his birthday and Christmas. What was cool about these is that this was the first time they made from glass. They did make a pair of Nightmare Before Christmas glasses but they were made out of strong plastic at the time and they shown pics of Jack and Sally from the movie. As you know, I am not a bif fan of that movie even if I sing the song “What’s This?” towards anything technology! Heck, even Epcot used it many years ago for commercials. Anyways, these were the very first glass items they made and they do have glasses for the rest of the houses but you know me, I do support House Hufflepuff due to not enough love for the Badger house. What I realize though with the colors being yellow and purple that my favorite Diddy Kong Racing character was Bumper and he was a badger and his vehicles were the color yellow. Huh! Did this lead me to loving this house? Maybe! But still Hulflepuff all the way! I did ask the stand if they will do coffee mugs in the future since I do love collecting those the most and you know me being the coffee addict that I am, they said that they will in the future after seeing how these go! If they do any coffee mugs, you know I will be asking for Doctor Who, Fairy Tail, Pokemon a maybe, My Little Pony, even a Harley Quin since they made a clock but I can’t see the clock. Unless they do beer glasses for those, you know I will buy those! First, I have to either get a job and save up or be a best seller.

Favorite Convention Experience: Participating in a Live Podcast! During Matsuri, there was a Podcast known as Cappuccino Quinalinis and they are a nerdy Podcast that talks about everything! They did live recording panels during the weekend, well mostly on Friday and Saturday night which was also eighteen and up type event. Nerdy Shirts and I were at the Friday one while Gondras was working a night shift. Nerdy Shirts did it first and it dealt with gaming if I remembered while I went up for the story idea with the new Guardians of the Galaxy sequel which I am looking forward to next year! It does make sense that I did the story bit since I am a writer after all here, on Fan Fiction.Net, and have my own book published, so it was interesting to talk about writing and also happy that Spidey is back in Marvel. I subscribed just now and you guys should too. I did ask if he will be at Omni next year, the guy did say he applied for panels and waiting on that.

Funniest Moment: Stumping the Voice Actors! If you haven’t watched the videos from the Voice Actors Supershow, you should because I stumped the voice actors! Well, it was a question Gondras gave me and it was “What was the funniest Christmas story?” Which I got “Uhhhh!” Then Todd said, “Die Hard 3!” for comedic effect of course. They did come up with their own and you can see them in part two from that! It is a pretty good play off the “What was the funniest prank that was pulled on you or what was the prank you pulled on your castmates?” question.

Fave Performance: Break Dancing Kakashi Doing “Cotton Eye Joe!” I had to mention this as a favorite performance that Ambassadors did during the convention and during the Cosplay Runway, Break Dancing Kakashi was one of the performances and did “Cotton Eye Joe” which also brought up the contestants to do it with him. There is a video on YouTube, I found it right as I wrote Convention Impossible. Warning: The song is an earworm!

Returning Fave: Wet N Wild Eye Liner Pen! I have to mention a returning makeup favorite and that is the Wet N Wild eyeliner pen which I tend to use for the fine line markings whenever I cosplay as Itachi. I mentioned this product as one of the best items to use for cosplay makeup because not only it is very affordable but it is also very thin for making thin and thick lines. I do still have my Star Lux and Too Faced Sketch Marker, which was included with the Nikki Tutorials pallet, but I tend to use those whenever I feel like wearing felt tip liner and I did hear the Too Faced one smudges on some people a lot more and goes the same way with Star Lux. The Wet N Wild one stays put all day and it is good for convention makeup use, I think Gondras even used it when I had it two years ago for his .hack body and face markings which can be used to help with drawing any body art as well. I missed using this and to me Wet N Wild has shrunk it to a smaller pen when I bought it again at Walgreens.

Favorite Highlighter: MAC Niutcracker Suite Magic Dust in Sweet Vision! Have to mention this since I loved using it and that is the Magic Dust Highlighter from MAC’s Nutcracker Suite collection that is their holiday collection this year and I got it in the color Sweet Vision. It is a pinky peach highlighter and it is so pretty and pigmented! I heard so many good things about Mac’s highlighters and how well they are made and pigmented as well. The one they had last year known as Oh Darling sold out very quickly and it didn’t interest me but when I went to check out their holiday collection for this year this one did really catch my eye. I almost thought about the other one Yum Yum Yum which is a pinky gold one and gold highlighters look better on me but the name kind of pushed me away. I whish they gave it a better name but this one made sense it goes with the idea of a sweet vision of sugarplum fairies! I also have to keep my paws off this item too along with…

Fave Holiday Set: Too Faced New York Café Set! This set has been my all time fave this year from Too Faced! Somehow Too Faced made sets that really turned me into a curious kitty and I had to get them. I did put Merry Macarons on my Christmas list and that was a hard to find item but I did buy the New York Café one since that was also a very pooular set! I got this when I first got my Ulta credit card and picked up some hair ties too since I was running out and I was in Daytona and the nearest Ulta was in Port Orange which is a few minutes away. This set comes with three coffee scented pallets in Mint Mocha, Gingerbread Coffe, and Egg Nog Latte, and a deluxe sample of the Better than Sex mascara. I couldn’t keep my nose out of this set and I wore one of them on White Cane Day and the other I did a look over on Youtube and of course used them again during Christmas! I couldn’t stop smelling and glad they were in a set like this. I think I love the Mint Mocha pallet the most because I love drinking mint mochas during Christmas time and it not only comes with shadows but also a blush in that one. I would say use a brown eyeliner with these since it goes really well with all three of them! Too Faced you really did it this time for your sets and I am hoping they do it again next year. Wait, I did hear the Chocolate Shoppe set that was only available at Sephora was not as great. Oh well, but still hoping next year that the newer sets are as good as the Merry Macarons and New York Café.

Fave Blush: Tarte Cosmetics Chiseled Cheeks Blush Set! I know I mentioned the Too Faced Grand Hotll Café set as my fave set but had to mention this one as my fave blush set and that is by Tarte Cosmetics! I think 2016 has been the year for Tarte and Too Faced since they have been coming out pretty good sets for Christmas. I did hear a few of the eye sets were okay but when Ulta sent me an email about some of the sets being on sale and saw this set of four blushes and a brush by Tarte and had to get it! I like the brush and how soft it is which does help with some of the blending sapects and these blushes are very smooth and they are from the Amazonian Clay blush line. I did enjoy the blush that came in Bunny’s pallet and that really got me to buying this set. The blushes you get in it are Genious, Royal, Pop, and Virrant. I have to look these up if they have actual sizes and sorry but this set did sell out. I am so glad I jumped on the opportunity to get this.

Favorite Gift: Gigi Bank from Kiki’s Delivery Service! The favorite gift this year I ever received is a piggy bank of Gigi from Kiki’s Delivery Service. This was a gift from Gondras this year and he got it at a place called Box Lunch which is a store like Hot Topic but for more retro stuff from the 80’s and 90’s even the early 2000s too and have been in there with the girls and he went in when he got new shirts from Hot Topic and found this bank and he knew I would LOVE IT! He was right! I do still love my throw blanket with his face on it and this is pretty much him as a full on cat. I even have some change in it already. They have to make more Miyazaki/Ghibli film products!

I think that is about it! I need to save some stuff for the Best and Worsts post which will be going up by Saturday! So stay tuned for that the cosplay gallery!