Sunday, August 24, 2014

Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha Amigurumi


Yarn: Caron Simply Soft kelly green and white
Hook: Size H
Notions: black and pink felt
Start/Finish: 8/13-16/2014

One of my favorite animes this year is Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha. I decided to make Inari's little companion fox, Kon Kon. Isn't he adorable? I love him! I modified a tail pattern to get the shape I needed and stitched up a little leaf for the top of his tail.

If you haven't watched Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha you should especially if you love the Japanese shrine culture. It start's with a young girl named Inari who makes a wish of the fox goddess Uka and all the craziness that ensues from that wish.

Until next time ^____^

August Skoshbox!



I received August's Skoshbox at the end of July, but waited to blog about it until August. I can't wait until the weather cools down so I don't have to resort to putting my Skoshbox in the refrigerator for fear of melted goodies.

Favorites (in order):
1. Sakura mochi chocolate (cherry blossom and azuki bean choco with mochi filling): this chocolate was yummy not to mention delicious smelling. It is from the same company that made the matcha mochi chocolates that my coworkers and I loved from a previous Skoshbox package.
2. Pocky Classic: chocolate Pocky, melted together, but still great!
3. Kasugai Apple Gummy: these gummy candies are always in stock at our local Asian markets. They are quite yummy and come in different flavors.
4. Sanko Zara Jiman Senbei: a rice cracker with sugar topping. I love the fact that the cracker isn't overly sweet. I wish our local Asian markets had a better selection of senbei.
5. Caplico Cones: we had a chocolate flavored cone. Quite yummy, but messy to break up to share between coworkers.
6. Pokemon Ramune (soda flavored candies): I'm on the fence about these. They aren't bad, but they don't remind me of ramune soda at all.
7. Teriyaki Burger Umaibo (puffed corn stick): I wonder if I'll be able to try every flavor of umaibo through Skoshbox. This one was quite good, though I think my fave might be the cream corn.

Questionable:
1. Green Tea Oreo: yet another casualty in this category because it was melted. I really hope I get try these one day in its non-melted state.
2. Maison de Kukkia: I liked the light flavoring of green tea in this cookie, but I think I've tried better so far.
3. French Papiro (creamy green tea filling in a cookie shell): Not my fave because of the green tea granules.

Until next time ^___^

Love Story - cross stitch wedding gift

Design: Historie d'amour (Love Story) by Marie Suarez
Fabric: 32ct cream Belfast Wichelt linen
Threads: DMC 640, 818, 962, 3716, and 3803
Start/Finish: 4/20-5/30/2014

This was my gift to Constance and Jim for their wedding. I wish I had better pictures of it, but taking photos of something behind glass is always a bit of a trial.

I had a lot of fun stitching this design for the both of them.

Until next time ^_____^

Canadian Adventures

Good afternoon everyone! I hope you are having a lovely weekend. We are in the midst of a nasty heatwave this weekend. We are hoping that some rain tomorrow will cool things down a bit.

Kristina and I had visited Peterborough Ontario earlier this month to attend my friends wedding. Despite our short time and crazy airlines delays, we had a lot of fun on our trip.

Our plane was an hour late getting into Peterborough. We would have been on time, but the airline staff hadn't shut one of the cargo doors correctly and the plane didn't register the problem until we were on the runway to start off. Then we had to wait in line until we could turn around back to the terminal, shut the door and refuel. From sitting on the runway for twenty minutes, we had wasted 600 gals of fuel. It's amazing what it takes to fuel a plane!

We arrived in Canada to the most wonderful customs personnel that I have encountered next to my experience with customs in England. Friendly and helpful. Definitely what we needed after a delayed flight.

Constance and Jim met us at the airport and took us to eat in a restaurant in the airport that was quite good. It was so nice to talk to Constance and Jim after so many years. Kristina and I peppered them with crazy questions about Canada. Afterwards we drove to Peterborough which is an hour and half away. Luckily it gave us a chance to see the cityscape of Toronto and the countryside of Canada.

Since we knew Constance and Jim would be busy for the rest of week with the wedding, Kristina and I took the time to enjoy the city. Our first morning in town, we found a cafe close to our hotel and had breakfast there.


We both opted for the French toast with maple syrup. We both fell in love with the dollar chips, which were lightly battered potatoes. When we asked our waitress what they were when we were ordering, she knew we were Americans. I wish we had dollar chips in America! Maybe the northern states have them since they are close to the Canadian border.

After breakfast we walked to a local house museum called the Hutchison House.


At the time we got there, we realized it wouldn't open until later in the afternoon because they were on 'summer hours' so we took the chance to walk back in the downtown area and wander around to see beautiful churches, various shops, bookstores, and even a grocery store (they had Kinder eggs! Wish they weren't illegal in the US).


The Hutchison House was quite beautiful. It was interesting to hear the early history of the town. We were quite amused that some of the sayings that Kristina and I have heard in our own local house museums, were common to the time period and in use in other countries in addition to America.

After visiting the museum, we walked back towards our hotel and I fell in love with a beautiful neglected building on the corner of George and Brock.


At the moment the building is housing a few businesses........but oh, what it could be! I was telling Kristina that I wish I had the money to buy the building, I can see it as a Victorian hotel. Who knows, perhaps it was a hotel at one time in its history?! Can't you just imagine it? I know I can!


On Saturday morning, we were hoping to go to a few more museums before Constance and Jim's wedding later in the afternoon, but unfortunately they had later hours on Saturdays compared to the rest of the week. Quite amusing compared to American hours with Saturday having regular hours and Sunday being the late hour day.

During our wanderings on Friday, we ran across a park so we decided to walk around it on Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous park with walking trails, quiet ponds, and lovely foliage next to a marina with touring boat rides and bike rentals. Unfortunately Kristina had hurt her foot prior to our trip otherwise I think I would have persuaded her to rent a bike with me so we could go riding along the trails.

After spending time in the park, we stopped and had ice cream at a small shop at the front of the park. I chose the mango ice cream, which was light and creamy. Perfect for a cool morning.


We went back to the hotel to rest a bit and have lunch before getting ready to go to the wedding. Since Kristina wasn't too hungry for lunch, I decided to go out and try McDonald's in Canada. I know it's ironic, but I wanted to see if it was any different.

I came back to the hotel with some food along with a Canadian specialty, poutine.


No great difference between McDonald's in either country, except the price is more in Canada than in America. The poutine was good, but a 'side' of poutine could a meal in itself so we only ate a little bit of it. All I can say is that it is potatoes, cheese, and gravy.

After eating, we got ready for the wedding. I wrapped Constance and Jim's gift and signed our card. Since their wedding theme was peacocks, I was on the hunt for the perfect card before leaving for Canada. I found a beautiful one by Papyrus. I wish I could have found a peacock themed gift bag, but had to settle for a pastel striped one.


One of the main reasons for choosing the hotel we stayed at in Peterborough was because it was so close to the wedding venue, literally on the street's corner! Since Constance and Jim share a love of theatre, they chose the Market Hall as their venue.


The wedding was absolutely beautiful. Constance was afraid that we wouldn't be impressed after attending our friend Nicole's wedding earlier this year. Both she and Constance had peacock themes. No need to fear, we loved Constance's interpretation of the theme. We especially loved the wedding cake!

The ceremony was gorgeous. The vows that Constance and Jim made to one another were beautiful. I had to keep myself from crying, I doubt I was only person with teary eyes......where's a tissue when you need it! They are such a lovely couple. I knew them only for a year in England while we were in grad school together, but in that time, I found them to be great friends. Jim's quirky humor and charm and Constance's kindness and patience......they definitely compliment each other's personality and anyone who has known them has benefited from their company.

As party favors, Constance and Jim supplied everyone with small jars of honey from their families' beehives. Sadly, we couldn't take it with us since we weren't sure if we could go through customs with something that wasn't factory manufactured.

I really wish we could have stayed for the dinner reception and the dancing afterwards, but by the time dinner was about to be served, we only had about 4-5 hours to sleep before getting up for an airport shuttle ride at 2am.

Our flight back to Atlanta was fine. We thought surely we would be leaving for Mobile on time, but instead of leaving Atlanta at noon, we ended up leaving at 4pm because of earlier flights that were delayed in Mobile.

All in all, we both had a lovely time in Canada. I just wish we had more time and not a few days. I know I would love to go back one day, especially to visit Prince Edward Island!

Thanks for inviting us to Canada!

Until next time ^____^

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Wandering off to Canada


Kristina and I are heading to Peterborough,  Ontario,  Canada this Thursday. We are going to my friends, Constance and Jim's wedding.  We will only be there from Thursday to Sunday, but I think we will have lots of fun.

See you guys next week!

August OUAT Block

Start/Finish: 8/3-4/2014

I love this month's block! When I showed my friend Kristina,  she didn't know the fairy tale. I was quite surprised,  I thought for sure that everyone knew of the musicians of Bremen....obviously not :*(

I wonder what next month's sampler will be!

Until next time >____<

Asian Food Adventure: Berry Carnival Pocky

Another purchase from Mechacon, berry carnival Pocky. I'm convinced that I will never be able to find different kinds of Pocky unless I get them at conventions or from my friend Amanda since my local Asian markets always sell the standard flavors: chocolate, strawberry or almond crunch.

I took these to work with me for my coworkers and I to try. The taste is nice and sweet, but not overly sweet. It is a mixture of strawberry, blueberry, and acai berry. I would definitely buy these again if I found them.

If you see them somewhere near you, pick them up! You won't regret it!

Until next time ^___^

Asian Food Adventure: Kimichi Ramune

This was one of the different flavors of Ramune that my sister and I found at the convention. One of the vendors sold a plethora of Japanese drinks, snacks, and sweets, which is great for those of us who have limited selections at our local Asian markets.

I brought the kimichi drink to work with me today so my coworkers and I could try it. I will admit that I've never had kimichi so I don't have anything to compare this drink to.

So my initial reaction, the smell was horrible and it might just smell like kimichi, but I'm not sure. The taste wasn't something I could describe....perhaps like vegetables i.e. cabbage. While it wasn't disgusting, it is definitely something I would never try again.

Maybe if you like kimichi, you'll love this drink, but on the other hand, it might wig you out despite your love of kimichi!

Until next time ^___^

Mechacon 2014

My sister and I went to New Orleans on Saturday for Mechacon (her first convention). We had a lot of fun though my sister was overwhelmed by all the people in attendance.

I had only purchased a few things: some different flavors of Ramune soda, Japanese snacks, a new cell phone charm, three issues of Gearhearts Steampunk Revue comic, and the first volume of Hetalia. I was surprised to find the Hetalia manga as it has been out of print for a while since Tokyopop went out of business.

There was some amazing cosplayers at the convention. I only got a few pictures as my sister and I were too busy trying not to be run over by everyone!

We had spent an hour in the Hetalia panel hosted by fans of the manga/anime. The costumes were great. I think my faves were Canada, Germany, and Russia. Afterwards while walking around, we found a beautiful girl cosplaying from the Sailor Moon anime.




Since we didn't stay late at the convention, we decided to drive over to Magazine Street to our favorite confectionery shop, Sucre. I had their summer berry verrine. It is an orange blossom pound cake with strawberries/blueberries and vanilla and Chantilly cream. It was a very light dessert..quite perfect for summer!



I can't wait to come back next year to Mechacon!

Until next time ^____^

July Recap

Recap:

Read:
1. The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
2. Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines

Stitching:
1. OUAT July block by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery
2. Plant Your Seeds by Little House Needleworks
3. Started Marquise by Jardin Prive

Crafting:
1. Onigiri needle felt
2. Tofu needle felt
3. Slytherin resin pendant
4. Ravenclaw resin pendant
5. Bubble tea amigurumi
6. Mini totoro amigurumi
7. Tofu amigurumi
8. Panda amigurumi
9. Mochi feltie plush

Not much reading last month, mostly because I was only reading during my lunch break and after work I had been stitching on the Marquise design. It's a beautiful pattern. Since I've been stitching so much, I've decided to devote Saturdays to other crafts as evident by all the amigurumis!

Hopefully this month, I can get more books read :)

Until next time ^___^