The first PEEP show contest was quite impressive!  Shirley still ruled with 4 shows, and she took 1st place with the one she almost didn't complete (she arrived to work tired with a plate of decrepid zombie PEEPs, a twinkie truck and an empty shoe box saying "I was too tired to do the zombies" which I replied, "sit down next to me while I finish Spiderman and finish those zombies!").  Shirley was thrilled that the 1st prize was a Michael's gift card and a basket of Snickers so she had her "eye on the prize"!

Second place goes to a new PEEP Show creator, Design Director, Mel.  She is a cat lady so of course cats were included in her subject matter.  "Cleo-Cat-Ra" was an amazing display out of Egypt, with pyramids, cat slaves, crazy Roman chicken army and a light up sign!  Amazing!

Third place is another first time PEEP maker, Molly, a Design contractor.  She went old school with "Casablanca".  Love those outfits made of felt!

If I would have had a prize for 4th place it would have went to Re'Bekah, a Design Contractor.  Her first attempt at a PEEP Show included something near and dear to her heart...  she works with our liscenced greeting cards so she used one in her Motorcycle themed PEEP Show! 
It's displayed as a closed box and when you open "Born to Be Wild" plays!  So creative!

Shirley admires Re'Bekah's use of PEEP ears for legs so the PEEP can reach the clutch and break on the motorcycle!

Another new comer to the PEEP Show genre, is Lauren.  She had help from her son with this.  I just love the subject matter (my husband told me I should do Star Wars but I was too scared to attemp!).  This i love...  and the irony of it!

The rest of the shows are by our expert, Shirley.  She always comes up with the most amusing subjects.  We are lucky to be inspired by her creativity!
In response to last year's strip club PEEP Show she decided to this year do one for the ladies...  PEEPnDALES takes a look inside an all male review and is complete with a PEEP in a tux pandering for votes at the voting box!

Shirley's a fan of The Oscars and I'm a fan of leg bombing so it was natural for her to cover this Oscar moment...  it's Angelina Jolie!

Shirley's final PEEP show covers the Royal Wedding.  She enjoyed making tiny versions of the crazy hat!

This year at work we had our first official Peep Show contest, inspired by Shirley's works of art last year. 
We had 8 people make amazing displays and voted on the winners.
The entries were bigger, funnier, and included sound and light installation!  Looking foward to it all over again next year!

I was inspired by a recent trip to NYC where I saw the musical produced by U2's Bono & The Edge,  "Spiderman Turn off the Dark".  The final scene as the Green Goblin and Spiderman were fighting suspended from the ceiling above me I thought...  that's it!  SpiderPEEPS the Musical is what I'll do for my PEEP Show! 

I found the perfect box from my Guess motorcycle boots.  It closes up and has a handle!  Starting with this I knew I wanted to build the show as that final scene with bulidings to the sides and the Chrysler Building supsended above.  I started with the outside of the box and found images of the Poster for the show and printed that on sticker paper the prefect size to fit on the width of the box.  I covered the entire back and sides of box with this sticker paper.

The buildings I found images online and enlarged.  The side and Chrysler building came from the show's actual images.  The street view I found on Google Maps, somewhere near the Chrysler building, I don't remember exactly where.  Since I can't save the Google image I took a photo w/my cell phone (no flash on my cheap phone!) and imported to Adobe Illustrator and enlarged and printed in black in white.  I couldn't find minature taxis in the week I had to plan this so I colored them in with yellow highlighter.  The buildings I printed 2 copies of each and glued both to cardstock for stability.  The glue in these photos is still wet so it's a little wavy.

I used bunny PEEPS for the stars....  Spidey, Green Lantern, Bono and The Edge.  Lots of paint and glued on pieces.  Green Lanterns pieces came from plastic bugs I found at my nearby Science & Surplus Store.  Bono's glasses and The Edge's caps are paper printouts from online photos.  The audience is full of colorful chicks, each with their own playbill.  The floor is scrapbook paper with a sheet of stryofoam underneath.  Chicks and U2 bunnies are attached w/toothpicks cut in half with the pointed side stuck into the floor.  Wire supports the Chrysler Building and Spiderman & Green Lantern.  People kept asking, "they are really up there during the show".  Yes, they are really up there! 

Overall, it turned out cute but I wish I started early to perfect it.  My first try at a PEEP Show was more fun than I thought.  Someone else at work saw the show last week and had the playbill at his desk so I added that.  My secret bunny in our gift exchange got me Spiderman Post-it notes (which is so funny because I got them before I began my Spiderman obsession!) so I used that to label my show.  I didn't enter it in the contest since I'm the ringleader, thought that would be weird.  I did it more for the fun of it, and goal acheived!  Working with these blobs of sugar and chemicals just cracked me up.  They are so cute!

I'm very lucky to be surrounded by some very creative people.  My fellow Tech Design friend, Shirley is at the top of that list.  She reads and watches many YouTube videos on the latest trends and reproduces things with her own twist.  Last year around this time, it was PEEP SHOWS!  We had them on display at work during our Easter party and it was so successful this year for Easter she's inspired us all to make PEEP SHOWS of our own.  We're having a DIY PEEP SHOW station along with voting for the top 3 shows. 

Here's some of the things she came up with last year...
 The Hangover, Lady Gaga arriving at The Grammys, Sumo Peeps, Ninja Peeps, Stripper Peep, Shower Peep, The Black Swan.

Shower Peeps were inspired by a popular internet Peep Show.  A true classic!

Stripper Peeps is another classic Shirley found online.  This is a favorite.  Notice the dollar bills.  Shirley went to the copier and made tiny little copies the correct size for the little PEEP panties!

Ninja Peeps shows an aerial fight scene.  Shirley loves to crochet ninjas; love that she took her ninja skills to the Peeps!

Sumo Peeps is an out of the box (literally, no shoe box used here!) Peep diarama.

Lady Gaga arriving at The Grammys is the first in her series of Pop Culture events of 2011. 

The Black Swan Peep Show is Shirley's intrepretation of the 2011 Oscar award winning movie. 

The Hangover was a crowd favorite.  Some close up photos of her amazing details are included.  She molded a baby Peep out of clay and even got the rag with the tooth!

For more Peep Show inspiration check out the amazing Washington Post contest:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/peeps
Stay tuned for more photos from our 2012 Peep Show contest.  Looking forward to seeing what Shirley comes up with.  And I'm making an attempt at it.  I've got some of Shirley's secrets (let the PEEPS dry out for at least a day, use toothpics and foam core board to stick PEEPS into, use fabric glue, clay when needed and acrylic paint not markers!).  Happy PEEPing!

Last year I heard that body scanners would be coming to malls in order to help you find your correct size.  I've had my body scanned for the purpose of making shopping easier about 15 years ago for a catalog company I worked at.  They made me put on strange bike shorts and a sports bra and scanned me in the back of a semi truck.  I was given a card that in the future I'd take to stores and they would scan and tell me what I should wear.  Yeah, that never really happened... they had an online avitar that kind of resembled my body shape if my body was squished in bike shorts and a sports bra that is.  I could go online and try on wedding dresses on my fake me, and a few outfits from some companies I never shop at. 
Well, I guess the future has arrived!  A company called Me-ality is bringing scanners into shopping malls across the country.  The first in the Midwest is at Water Tower Place in Chicago.  Soon it will come to Mayfair in the Milwaukee area.  We have been following this story at work and decided to take a trip along with our fit models to see how it works.

Above is the scanner kiosk.  The kind woman asks you to fill out some basic information (age, email, etc) then take off any leather and step inside.  The scanner goes around your body capturing measurements.  Photo to the left shows our fit model in position.  All goes pretty fast, just a few minutes.

A receipt like printout with barcode is generated.  You take this to the computer stations and scan and see your suggestions.  Right now it's only pants and jeans but they will be expanding with tops.  You can print the list or send to your phone.  The list is for stores in the mall.  You can go online to create a profile and get more suggestions for online shopping.

We had 9 women in our group trying this, all a range of sizes/shapes.  Overall,
it was a good guideline for what size to try but there were issues.  Sales
people complained it was giving us styles they had marked down and limited selection of.  It also didn't take into effect their knowledge of if the fabric is really stretchy and you should size down or if it's a real tight fit and most people prefer to  size up.  Most of the sales people we talked to said they wished the company would have asked them what they think because based on body types they would not have suggested some of the styles that they were listing.  I spoke to some men that tried this and they said it worked great for them.  These men were young and fit and probally do not have many fit issues anyway.  Us women were much more trouble with our different body shapes!

The stores in this particular mall skewed more to the junior size, which no one in our group would typically buy.  I was suprised it didn't give me any department store recommendations (like Macy's which was in this mall) since this is where I would typically shop.  When I went online it did list department store options though.

Women's plus information was very limited.  One plus shopper in our group received no recommendations and the other in our group that did get recommendations found that none of the stores on the list carried the plus sizes they were suggesting.

For me, it was a great guidline.  Everything I tried on was something I probally would not have chosen myself and the fit was pretty good.  The biggest issue with this type of technology is it doesn't take into account personal preference, which is probally the biggest concern with fit.  Our missy fit model was given sizes that were a size smaller than she typically wears because she doesn't like to wear things so fitted or tight.  Others in our group had the opposite problem.  They were given a size bigger but they prefer to wear their jeans more fitted.  Scanning may not solve all our fit problems, but it's a fun new way to shop.  I'm sure they will make improvements in the future and will make our shopping lives much easier!

For more information visit http://www.me-ality.com/