Saturday, September 29, 2012

Black Cat

Design: Black Cat Alphabet by JBW Designs, JCS Halloween 2012
Fabric: 28ct Cashel Antique White Zweigart
Threads: DMC 310
Start/Finish: 9/29/2012

A cute little kitty finish this evening after eating dinner and while watching football. No, I'm not a football fan, but at least it gives me a chance to spend some time with my family instead of stitching alone.

I'm thinking of finishing this design as a pinkeep.

Until next time ^____^

Moon Festival

Late this week, I was surprised to receive an email from the post office informing me that I was expecting a package in the mail from my friend Amanda. At first, I thought maybe it was an early Halloween package, but it was something even better, a Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival package.

It is traditional to eat mooncakes on this day so Amanda and her mother included one in the package for my family and I to try. Amanda made me a little cute felt pin/brooch of a rabbit on the moon. In Asian cultures, they see a rabbit in the moon unlike other cultures who see a man in the moon.

Isn't it adorable? I love it! Especially its cute little bunny tail!

Here is a closeup of the mooncake! Looks yummy, yes?

I cut the cake into quarters for us to try. Usually mooncakes are made of red bean paste or lotus seed paste, but this version was made with pineapple filling. It does have the traditional salted duck egg inside.

While we all agreed that the pineapple part of the cake was great, the salted duck egg is definitely an acquired taste :)

If you guys ever get a chance to try a mooncake, it is definitely not something to pass by.

Thanks for the Mid-Autumn festival package, darling!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Where My Cross Stitch Lives!

My friend Amanda is having fun reorganizing the bedrooms in her home and she sent me a picture of one of her bookshelves.

Look where one of my cross stitch designs lives!


That was one of my LHN finishes in 2010. LOL I love how it is surrounded by all the birthday amigurumi plushies I sent her this month!

Don't you just love that adorable chubby panda cookie jar on the left?! As you can tell, my friend is a notorious collector of pandas! But I can't say anything, I love bunnies as much as she loves pandas :)

Until next time ^_____^

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Ye Olde Cross Stitchery

My aunt has requested another cross stitch design after seeing the cover of JCS Sept/Oct issue, an autumn cornucopia. So searching throughout the Internet, I finally found a shop that sold the recommended linen (my aunt wouldn't take no for an answer!) at a good price and in the right size.

I've never ordered from Ye Olde Cross Stitchery so I'm anxious to see how they do. I will say that I can't wait to get the linen and get started on this design. Its been a while since I've done any cross stitching......I've neglected it for cute amigurumi and polymer clay charms ;)

Until next time ^____^

Monday, September 17, 2012

Octopi Friends!


Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Party Sparkle Fuschia
Hook: Size H
Notions: 9mm safety eyes
Start/Finish: 9/15-16/2012


Sir Henry has a new friend! I finished this little girly octopus last night while watching a few episodes of Sherlock :)

Until next time ^____^

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Beary Love!




Pattern: head by Ana Rimoli
Yarn: Caron Simply Party Sparkle Teal
Hook: Size F
Notions: 6mm safety eyes, white and teal felt, and DMC 310 and 3846
Start/Finish: 9/13/2012


Good evening! I found a small head pattern in one of the books I got for my birthday. I actually didn't finish the entire pattern because I ran out of yarn! I had to slip stitch at the end of one of the rows and then use a running stitch with the last of my yarn to close the circle. Talk about good timing.

Since I didn't have any thread to make ears (I was hoping to make bunny ears), I decided to use felt and make a tiny bear. I used teal felt for the ears and I decorated the edges of the ears with a blanket stitch. I used white felt for the mouth and black thread for the nose and smile.

I wanted to make this little guy into a keyring charm, but when I was going through my stash, I saw the heart shaped clips so I went with a bag clip finish for my little bear. He's off to join our other kawaii amigurumi plushies in our Etsy shop.

So adorable! I can't believe I'm out of that yarn. I love the sparkly color in Caron's Party brand. I can't find that yarn at HB so I'll have to stop by the dreaded Wal-mart and stock up on different colors!

Until next time ^____^

*squeal* Rose of Versailles!


Right Stuf has officially acquired the license for Riyoko Ikeda's Rose of Versailles series. To shoujo fans, the news that Ikeda's famous series from 1972-73 has been licensed is FANTASTIC!

Hopefully if it is well-received, the companies will pick up Ikeda's manga series, which had only been partially translated into two English volumes in 1983 by Frederik L. Schodt for teaching purposes.

Thank you to Right Stuf and Viki.com for making this possible for North American fans!

A Little Green and other news


Pattern: none, combo of head/ears
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Limelight
Hook: Size F
Notions: 9mm safety eyes, 15mm safety nose, black thread, and purple jump/keyrings
Start/Finish: 9/11-12/2012


So cute! A lime green kitty rolls off to my Etsy shop. I decided to make him into a keychain charm ;)

I think these are the easiest amigurumi plushies to make because you can take any ball template and just add ears and other embellishments to make it your design ;)

In other news, my friend Kristina and I might try to get a booth at Mobi-Con next summer, but in the artists' alley with all our handmade items for sale. This year we had a hodge-podge of items for sale, which can be distracting for customers. I'll keep you updated!

Until next time ^___^

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

A Geeky Kindle

So I bought some Sherlock Holmes buttons. What was I going to use them for, you ask? To geek out my Kindle cover, of course ;)

Earlier in the year, I had purchased a Kindle cover on Etsy that was made using London-themed black and white fabric. I had geeked it out with a British flag button. Now I've added three more buttons!



New buttons added: I Am Sherlocked, Sherlock Holmes silhouette, and Keep Calm and Believe in Sherlock Holmes.


Front of cover with buttons


Back of cover

I think in the future I will purchase a Kindle cover made with linen because I love the look of crisp clean linen. I had purchased two such covers from Etsy for my mother and aunt for Christmas featuring patterns of cats and dogs ;)

Until next time ^____^

Mechacon 2012

Good morning! On Saturday my friends and I took a trip to New Orleans to spend the day at Mechacon, an anime convention.

It wasn't much of an adventure with the driving over there. Kristina wanted me to stitch trimming around her Halloween ornament. Luckily I didn't get a headache (I usually do if I try to read, etc. in a car!)



Isn't it cute? Kristina's mother decided that she wanted a Halloween-themed ornament tree this year so Kristina has been stitching away at several patterns lately ;)

So the picture is my attempt at adding trimming to her ornament. It isn't the best. It was hard to stitch in a moving car with bumps, etc.

We got to the Riverside Hilton around 10ish and it was PACKED full of people. I wish our local Mobi-Con had that kind of traffic and reception by the community.



Do you remember Amanda's post on her trip to New Orleans where she had found several artsy dogs around the city? Well, the Riverside Hilton has a cute Mardi Gras themed dog. I had to take a picture of it.

Registration didn't take as long as we feared. Maybe 20 minutes or so despite the long line. This year they had everyone in a line and they would let so many people at the same time go up to the checkout lines depending on if you were paying with cash or credit card.

After that, one of our friends decided to wander the convention while the others found their way to the gaming room and the sign-up sheet for a Halo contest.

While everyone wandered, we went back out to the car to get my friends' costumes. I was their 'dresser' assistant for the afternoon.


Amulet Clover and Sapphire from Vocaloid

My friend Bonnie made both costumes! She is an amazing seamtress. Her mother has been teaching her how to sew so she has been making all her cosplay costumes this year.

After taking photos, we wandered over to the dealers' room and had fun going through there. Kristina was determined to find a K-pop table and I told her that there was no way that they would have one........................They had one!!! Kristina was 'ah and oh'-ing over everything, but she couldn't buy anything because it was so expensive. And of course she had to stop and talk to some of the other fangirls at the table ;)

While Bonnie wanted to get signatures from some voice actors, the rest of us decided to go have lunch and bring her back something to eat since she didn't want to lose her place in a very, very long of fans waiting for signatures.

We walked over to the Riverwalk area and decided on Poppy's Sports Grill and Bar for lunch. I had their catfish poboy.





Absolutely delicious! It was so big that I ate it with a fork!

After that we headed back over to the hotel and gave Bonnie her lunch. She wanted to try the shrimp poboy. Kristina and I decided to wander the artists' alley, which was really not an alley at all, but a very large conference room packed with artists' booth.

You know I can't resist an artists' alley, right?

My purchases from the convention:


Purchases, convention program, and lots of artist's business cards!

Not from artists' alley: three Sherlock Holmes buttons, a Japanese rabbit coin purse, and rabbit cell charm.
From artists' alley: a large pink happy onigiri plush (*squeal*), a girl squid with bow cell charm, a volume of original manga, and some panda earrings for my friend Amanda ;)

Sorry for the *squeal*! I shelled over the money for that plushie when I saw it in the artists' alley and was carrying it around like I was a little kid or something. I just love it........it is so soft and adorable ;)


Closeup of the charms and earrings! I love the panda with the glasses; it's so cute!

So a good majority of my purchases were in the artists' alley, which is usually true for all the conventions I go to because I love to see what people are crafting/drawing.



After that we headed over to a panel on Dancing K-pop, which was okay. I think I would have done it differently by having no chairs in the room and everyone trying to learn the dances. The guy was instructing volunteers in how to dance like the girls in one of Girls' Generation's videos. LOL

By that time, it was getting to be around 3 o'clock so we decided to hunt out the Cafe du Monde that I found on Google nearby. We asked for directions and found out that the cafe was actually in the Riverwalk mall. Who knew..........the map didn't saw a word about it being in the mall......just near it.......LOL


Yummy!

I will say it is hard to eat beignets without getting sugar everywhere and accidentally inhaling it while trying to take bites of the beignets! LOL

Here are some of the pictures I took of costumes:



Two girls dressed in Japanese yukata which is a summer kimono made from lighter materials compared to the traditional kimonos worn in the colder months.



A girl in a traditional Korean dress, a hanbok. She was really nice. She was telling us that she bought the dress from Korea for $120, but the shipping was $40! She said she was going as all three cultures for those three days of the convention. One day in traditional Chinese, another in Japanese, and then Korean. How fun! I love the variegating colors in this dress. So beautiful ;)



A Rilakkuma bear and macaroon-themed lolita! So cute.



Sailor Venus and Sailor Mars.



Finally two ladies dressed steampunk.

Overall, a wonderful day with friends enjoying being geeks! I will definitely try to go next year. I would love to have an artists' alley booth, which aren't badly priced, but hotels are so expensive in NO! Maybe in the future, eh?

Until next time ^_____^

Thursday, September 6, 2012

A panda birthday package!

Hi, everyone! This Monday was my friend Amanda's 30th birthday! Since I was busy with house repairs and yard work over the weekend, I didn't have time to drop off her birthday package until Tuesday.

Since this was a special birthday, I included a lot of handmade presents amongst all the fun things I bought for my crafting best friend ;)

And you thought I was being lazy last month! LOL No, I was crafting away, but I couldn't post about any of it!!!


Pattern: Panda Amigurumi by Tamie Snow
Hook: Size G
Yarn: Red Heart Worsted white and black
Notions: Safety eyes/nose and felt, ribbon, and coin bead
Start/Finish: July


First off, I made this super cute panda. The pattern actually called for crocheted eyes and nose, but I opted for safety eyes/nose and felt. The only drawback to amigurumi is my stuffy. I didn't stuff it enough and didn't realize until I had the head and body attached. (sigh) It's still cute though ;)


Pattern: Two-Tiered Cake by Yummi 'Gurumi with strawberry by Ana Rimoli
Hook: Size E and F
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft white, red, and limelight
Start/Finish: July for cake and August for strawberry


Secondly, I wanted to make her a birthday cake. I found a pattern for a wedding cake in one of the amigurumi books I got for my birthday and thought I'd use that, but I'd change it a bit. Instead of crocheted flowers and icing, I made a strawberry to top the cake and added red ribbon and heart buttons.

Isn't it cute!? Love it ;) The only thing I wish I had done when making it was inserting a lid or something to stabilize the plushie.


Pattern: Snail by Knotty Designs and Mushrooms from Ana Rimoli
Hook: Size F and G
Yarn: Red Heart Worsted white, cherry red, turqua, and buff
Notions: Felt, embroidery thread, and heart button
Start/Finish: August




This might be my favorite! I had the idea of doing a 'snail mail' amigurumi to celebrate our friendship over the years using the post office.

I found a cute pattern online for the snail and used one of Ana Rimoli's books for the mushroom pattern to make a postman/snail and two mushroom houses. I used felt and thread to make windows and doors on the mushrooms. I even made a cute little mail bag for my snail and embellished it with a red heart button ;)




Pattern: Cupcake bear by All About Ami
Hook: Size F
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Party Teal Sparkle
Notions: Safety eyes and nose
Start/Finish: August 30, 2012


This was a last minute gift that I made to add to her package. Using the pattern that Amanda used for a cupcake bear, I thought it would be cute as a large charm for a keyring.



More panda goodies! I made her a panda felt pincushion and beaded scissors fob.





My friend Kristina made something too, a sweet cross-stitched panda.



She wanted me to make her design into something for Amanda. As all of us are big readers, I thought a bookmark finish would be perfect. I used lace in my stash of notions and backstitched it to the edges of the design.

Other things included in her package:


A box of 1980s candy!


An alphabet mug!


Notepads and sushi magnets!


Two jewelry kits ;)


Crafting books on amigurumi and felties


Chocolate-themed puzzle

Darling, I hope you liked all your craft goodies and gifts. I had fun making things for you!

Until next time ^____^

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Sir Sassafras

Hi, everyone! The super cute gentle-octopus amigurumi, Sir Sassafras, sold over the weekend in my Etsy shop ;)





He has gone to live in Washington state! I hope he likes his new digs!

Until next time ^____^