It’s been a while since an Etsy seller really managed to capture my craft-loving heart. But when Tim sent me a gchat a few days ago, simply with a link to DesignDude’s Etsy shop… well, it was love at first bacon.

DesignDude, who’s real name is a mystery to me (he could be Bacon Jesus), is a 24 year old dude from Minneapolis, but he’d fit right in here in Philadelphia, what with our love of bacon. Us geeks adore it and National Mechanics clearly loves it (bacon infused vodka, anyone?). So I’m hereby issuing you, DesignDude, a formal invite to our city. Come visit and make magnets in the City of Baconly Love. You are welcome here.

His Push Button, Receive Bacon magnet featured above will run your pockets $3. There’s also his simple I Love Bacon magnets. They come in packs of two, and will only cost you $2. And the Pièce de résistance, are his bacon slice magnets, which look startlingly like real bacon slapped against your fridge. DesignDude is one of the few Etsy sellers I’ve come across that charge exactly what shipping costs. His magnet packs range from 50 cents to $1.50 to ship.

Anyhow, full images of his bacon magnets after the jump. Enjoy, and try not to lick your monitor. I just cleaned it.

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It’s not very often I get to use the word eviscerated on Geekadelphia, but when I saw this cake I was reminded of that scene from Dawn of the Dead where the zombies… oh, you get the idea.  But needless to say when I saw this cake popping up on the blogs: while the idea sounded really cool like that sleeping bag, the delivery seemed somewhat horrific just look at that sad little look in the Tauntaun’s eyes.  I can just imagine what the mother-in-law probably thought of this.

Via the Official Star Wars Blog

Oh Zoe Lukas. We heart you.

This time, our favorite local baker whipped up (Get it? Cause she runs Whipped Bake Shop?) this amazingly detailed, hand-painted Yoda cake. You can view several photos of the cake on her Flickr page, as well as another snap after the jump.

It’s also worth mentioning that Zoe’s store will officially open next Wednesday, October 14th, at 636 Belgrade Street, the Fishtown section of Philadelphia. You can buy cupcakes in the store, talk about cakes, etc. You can check out snaps of the store under construction here. We’re super excited and happy for her and her husband, Brennen. Congrats you two. You’ve been hard at work for a while, and deserve all the success in the world.

Whipped Bake Shop
www.whippedbakeshop.com

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You might remember me posting about this back in May, but I thought a timely reminder was due.  This is Domo month over at 7-11 and I thought this deserved a second mention because quite honestly 7-11 is doing something very interesting with this promotion, and I am not simply talking about their Domo inspired Fanta Apple Fuji Frost flavored Slurpee either. Although I do have to say it has to be one of the strangest flavors I have ever tasted – it’s a sweet apple blast with a coconut after taste. If your fans of either I highly suggest it, if that’s not your bag you can always get coke flavor in your limited edition Domo-Cup, well unless the light is blinking.

This month thanks to a Domo dvd and manga release from Tokyopop they are not only giving the usual plastic cup and novelty straw treatment to our favorite NHK mascot, but they are really trying to make 7-11 the “Domo-Destination” in October if you will with Big Bite hot dog containers shaped like Domo’s jaws, a special 99-cent brown Domo coffee cup “to reach younger coffee drinkers,” and an exclusive Domo Attack!  Energy drink. But the big news here is 7-11 is also producing 3 exclusive stop-motion webisodes that tell the story of Domo and his first Slurpee, the creators of the original NHK Domo shorts are producing and animating these as well. Check them out here. I did cringe a bit at the voice acting but that’s just me. Don’t get me wrong I know when I am being direct-martketed to, but it’s Domo after all.

I don’t know about you but I am a big tea drinker and I am also a pretty big geek, that is why this site appealed to me in so many different ways. Adagio tea is a website that allows you create and sell your own blends of tea by first choosing 3 different kinds of tea and their percentage in the blend.  You can then also name your blend, describe it and then design a label. Apparently a lot of sci-fi, horror and fantasy fans seem to enjoy the site because just about every show or property you can image has its own blend of tea from Dexter’s Dark Passenger blend to TruBlood and there is Even a Dollhouse: Echo Blend to tell you the truth I want to try all of them.

The teas have reviews as well so you can have an idea of what you’re getting yourself into before your purchase them. The price is about $10 for a 4oz tin, which seems pretty reasonable. I honestly want to try the Zombie Killer blend, that promises to “wake you up with the smokey taste of gunpowder and the vibrant scent of a mint blend”, I’m sold!

Photo lovingly stolen from Technically Philly

McGillin’s is turning 150 soon, and to celebrate, they’ve invited a number of authors, all of whom have mentioned the famous pub in their works, to come back to Philadelphia for a special reading. One of these authors, has particular interest to us geeks. Duane Swierczynski.

So what’s the big deal about Duane? His latest work with Marvel comic’s The Punisher series brought Frank Castle’s escapades to our fine city. The late, great, Stephen Wells covered Duane’s story back in February. Read about it here on the Philly Weekly’s website.

Next Tuesday, August 25th, Duane visits Philly, and will be signing and reading his recently published paperback with fans. Awesome. In his comics, Duane created a historic tavern called the Interesting Times Pub, modeled after McGillin’s.

There’s no cover at the event, and pints of McGillin’s 1860 IPA are reduced to $2 for the party.

See you there, geeks!

McGillin’s
www.mcgillins.com

This Sunday, the MakePhilly folks are hosting their third annual Water Rocket BBQ. They’re inviting you to come on out, have some BBQ, and pimp out your own custom water rocket in Fairmount Park.

There’s a great tutorial up on Instructables on how to make a soda bottle rocket. It also happens to have an excellent paint job. This water rocket is also a solid pick.

The Geekadelphia crew will be on the scene with some awesome, custom painted rockets. Friendly competition with the regulars? Possibly. Loud swearing and punches dealt between myself and Hive 76? Definitely.

Head over to the MakePhilly website to RSVP for the event. It’ll be fun, promise.

MakePhilly Water Bottle BBQ
Sunday, August 9th @ Noon
www.makephilly.com

Fairmount Park (Lemon Hill Picnic Area)
Here’s the Location on Google Maps

Image via So Good Blog

We’re fortunate here in Philadelphia to have a ton of great pizza places. Dock St in West Philly, Couch Tomato in Manayunk, Little Italy Pizza down in Washington Square, Tacconellis in Kensington… hm? What? Don’t look so surprised. Of course I know where the best pizza spots are. I’m a geek, and pizza is my fuel while getting my game on.

And of course, there are the chains floating around, one of whom, Domino’s, has a pretty neat marketing campaign going down in our fine city. I don’t know about the rest of you Philly folks, but I just found out about this, and haven’t seen it on any other Philly blogs.

Domino’s Pizza launched an environmentally-friendly marketing campaign around three major cities. Los Angeles, New York, and… yeah, you guessed it. Philadelphia. What are they doing? They’re using Green Graffiti, a program that cleans part of a sidewalk and leaves ads behind using a high-pressure water sprayer. It’s a really interesting green-esque initiative, that teams up with advertising companies to find green methods of promoting their wares, all while cleaning sidewalks and recycling water. You can learn about them here.

Starting last week, folks could take a photo of themselves with a Green Graffiti sidewalk that sports the Domino’s logo in order to win a $15 gift card to the pizza joint. Personally, I haven’t seen any of the Domino’s logos around the city, but I know a handful of people who have. Now we know these ads are for, and I gotta say, this is a little better than getting my mailbox crammed full of coupons and ads from the Domino’s on South Street.

So if you see one of those ads, take a picture with it, and email pr@dominos.com. You’ll score a $15 gift card. Hey, free food is free food. But hurry up, the contest ends this Friday at midnight… or when 250 people send in pictures. I have a feeling once people know what the ads are for, the cards are going to get scooped up fast.

Oh, and follow us on Twitter. We’ll be giving away two $15 gift cards on there today.

Domino’s Pizza Contest
www.dominosbiz.com/Biz-Public-EN/Extras/

That’s right. Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you, and Geekadelphia isn’t trying to pull a fast one… though we often do. That is a cake. A CAKE. And it isn’t a lie. This is truth, my friends. Truth and whiskey. Specifically, chocolate whiskey.

This cake, by the ever talented Zoe Lukas of Whipped Bakeshop, is a “chocolate-whiskey cake filled with caramel-whiskey buttercream and covered with hand-painted fondant, sitting on a painted “wooden” base made of sugar.”

I’ve posted a gallery of the cake below, but you should definitely head over to Whipped Bakeshop’s Flickr page to see the high resolution photos of this delectable treat. The comments are also fantastic. And please, give her a Digg. She deserves a ton of exposure.

Nice job Zoe. You’ve made a cake that even the Technically Philly dudes can appreciate. Cause they’re real journalists, and oh man, do they love the sauce.

Jack Daniel’s Whiskey Cake @ Whipped Bakeshop
www.flickr.com/photos/sweetsbyzoe/3698266091

This picnic sucks. The one at the Mann, does not.

I’m not going to lie, The Mann Center has never been on my list of places to go. Orchestras? Romantic dining? The outdoors? Get out of here.

However, kicking off June 30th, the Mann Center launches their summer picnic competitions, one of which, on July 21st, features the Philadelphia Orchestra performing music from Star Wars. Now that is a romantic evening I can appreciate. Perhaps with Tim.

There are prizes galore, such as free tickets to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Please Touch Museum and The Franklin Institute, as well as picnic dishes thanks to a china company called Mottahedeh… which happens to be a bad ass name for a heavy metal band.

You can score some more information on the picnics over on the Mann Center’s official website. Star Wars picnic for $10? Count us in. Especially is Mottahedeh is the opening band. Oh wait… they make dishes. Bah!

Star Wars Picnic @ The Mann Center
July 21st, 2009 | $10 Lawn Seats, $50 for Rich Peoples in the Pavilion
www.manncenter.org

In one of those rare moments of a promotion that actually makes sense. 7-11 America my favorite supplier of all things sugary and sweet, has teamed with Dark Horse Comics and Tokyopop to launch a Domo-branded Slurpee drink during a six-week promotional campaign starting October 1st.  The promotion is aimed to generate awareness for America’s first Domo DVD, which will contain the online shorts, the Japanese commercials, and other extras.

If you have been anywhere near the anime section in Suncoast Pictures, FYE or any retailer that sells anime or manga, you have no doubt gazed upon the glorious visage that is Domo-Kun. Domo-Kun started life as the mascot of Japan’s NHK television station, and due to some promo shorts made for the station that warmed the hearts of Otaku everywhere he became an internet phenomenon. You might have also seen him in commercials and shorts for Target and Nickelodeon.

More and some Domo Shorts after the Jump

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Oh, the life of a geek girl. Sure, I have a Google Alert set for Battlestar Galactica and tons of action figures..

but I do have other interests… like running, sweet tunes, more sweet tunes, design …AND HAMBURGERS.

It’s BBQ season.. and I came across some sweet geek-approved aprons for the grill. These ones are all Star Wars but there are many more where that came from. I kind of really want one. With that said, I’m single and will take any of these as courting gifts.

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