Winter Stitching - Fortune Cookie Love

Pattern: Fortune Cookie (found on youtube, just search for it)
Yarn: Baby Bee teddy
Hook: Size H
Notions: 6mm safety eyes, DMC 310 thread, and 3/8" heart ribbon
Start/Finish: 1/29/2014

Texting with my friends and coworkers today I've found that everyone is finding something crafty to do since the city of Mobile is basically closed down because the roads are terrible with all the frozen ice. With no salt trucks to the rescue (what city in the South owes one? none apparently) everyone has been told to stay at home, which is completely fine with me.

I found a cute video on youtube for making a fortune cookie. You can find other patterns online, but I really wanted a pattern for a larger cookie. Instead of stitching up a paper message, I used some cute heart ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby. It was the perfect size as a substitute for stitching one.

Happy crafting everyone! Be safe and use common sense with the wintery weather outside!

Until next time ^___^

Southern Winter - Choopta!!!

After watching Eat Your Kimchi and their fun reaction to Korean winters and culture, all I can say after being outside this morning is "choopta" which means "it's cold!"

If we got any snow, it was sometime last night. Unfortunately by this morning, all the snow was frozen which made walking outside a disaster in the making! 

Hopefully all of this clears up by Saturday.......because I'm not driving anywhere until it does!

To all my Southern readers, keep warm and safe!

Until next time ^___^

Anna the Panda Girl

Pattern: Pink Little Lady by Sayjai
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft black, brown, off white, and white
Hook: Size H
Notions: 6mm safety eyes and 3/8' green and white polka dot ribbon
Start/Finish: January 2014

Meet Anna! Little Miss Anna adores pandas! To be frank, she is obsessed with pandas. She collects panda merchandise from cups to tshirts or even giant panda plushies!

She loves to snuggle up in warm blankets on cold days and read the day away with a nice cup of hot chocolate at her side. She also loves meeting new people and making friends. When not reading, she's thinking of what to craft next! She is an amazing crafter and loves to make gifts for her friends and family.

Miss Anna is planning a trip to her local zoo. She is dressed in black shoes and a white dress. She bought a cute green and white polka dot belt because it reminded her pandas and bamboo. She even has an adorable headband with panda ears!

What will she do when she meets the pandas? Make friends with them, of course! She even has a basket full of cherry blossoms so she can make flower wreaths for her new panda friends!

Until next time ^____^

Charming

I was hoping to post this last weekend, but never got around to it. I made a few resin pendants and some clay charms.

 

I think my favorite is the key/wing heart pendant. It was supposed to be something entirely different, but I messed up on the glitter ratio and mixed it up with a toothpick.....and viola! it was perfect for a steampunk pendant! 

(All the pendants are available in our Etsy shop! See the sidebar!)

I hope this weekend to have some more fun with resin. I am going over to Kristina's house to play with molds, glitter, and stickers! She is going to show me how to work with regular resin and I'm going to show her how to work with UV resin! Win/win situation!

Until next time ^___^

Sampler 4 Saisons Progress

My progress on the Anagram Diffusion 'Sampler 4 Saisons' design in December before coming down with the flu.

Not much, but hopefully I can work on it this year along with some other cross stitch designs. I've had my eye on some new patterns by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and JBW Designs ^___^

Literary Crafting

I wanted to work on a Sherlock Holmes resin pendant and finally got to last weekend.

I used red and blue glitter and a white heart for Britain's colors and metal initials for Sherlock Holmes in an oval shaped bezel. Love it!

I was able to work on a custom order for an Etsy customer in polymer clay over the weekend too.

She wanted two charms made in glittery pink and white. One was an open book in a Paris theme and a matching pen. Since I didn't have a glaze that wouldn't make inkjet prints bleed, I used laminating paper on the images for the book and glazed them to the book after baking :)

I'd forgotten how fun it can be to work in clay!

Hopefully I can get make more crafts this month >o<

Until next time ^_____^

S'mores

Pattern: S'mores by Crochet Spot
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft chocolate and white and Baby Bee teddy bear
Hook: Size G
Notions: 6mm safety eyes and pink felt
Start/Finish: 1/15/2014

Another ridiculously kawaii food pattern! Nom nom......

Chocolate Kiss

Pattern: Kisses by Amigurumi Food
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Chocolate (aptly named >O<) and White
Hook: Size H
Notions: 6mm safety eyes, dark pink felt and white yarn
Start/Finish: 1/16/2014

Chocolates, anyone?! You can't go wrong with chocolate......especially when it so kawaii!

Until next time ^____^

MLP Amigurumis - Year of the Horse!

A few of my MLP amigurumis that I made last month....

I found a Japanese pattern that I altered to make chibi MLP amigurumis! I love making these ponies, it is definitely one of those patterns that just makes me smile when crocheting!

As it is the Year of the Horse, it should be fun to make alot of MLPs!

I hope to make a few more and put them in my Etsy shop eventually.

Until next time ^____^

Pretty Christmas Gift!

My coworker Pat knows that I love collecting brooches and wearing them to work. She bought me a beautiful bar pin with a filigree pattern and three pearls for Christmas. I have very few bar pins in my collection so I'm glad to add this one to my jewelry stash!

Thanks for the lovely gift!!!

Until next time ^___^

Canadian Christmas

Gifts for my friend Constance in Canada!!

I made her a scissors fob using the same initial pattern as Amanda's with the same DMC colors in 498 and B5200.

I sent her some yummy chocolate goodies to share with her family. I picked the Lay's chocolate covered chips on a whim. Americans seem to love seeing what they can cover in chocolate and devour so I thought it would be perfect for my friendly Canadians as a joke!

For her and Jim, I bought these Starbucks mug sets with hot chocolate and hot chocolate with marshmallows mixes.

I didn't take a picture of this kit so I had to look for it online. I sent her a DMC armchair organizer kit. Hopefully she has some down time soon from her PhD thesis to start cross stitching again when she isn't busy with her wedding plans later this year!

Hope you enjoyed all the goodies!!

Until next time ^___^

A California Christmas

For my friend Amanda's Christmas I sent a small package this year.

I had finished the 'A' initial cross stitch into a scissors fob. I used DMC 498 in the design and on the borders and cording.

Kristina got Amanda an adorable panda brooch! I love the details in the brooch. Amanda is luckily I didn't 'steal' this away from her package for my collection!

Panda lotion, panda stickers, and a chocolate favored lip gloss.

I made this cutie red panda amigurumi in November, but I had to keep him away from my blog until I could gift it to Amanda. The pattern is a freebie from Origami and Panda. I thought it was perfect for her collection of pandas!

I found these at Target in their dollar section and thought they would be great to display cards next Christmas and any other type of fun thing that Amanda can think of ;)

This tote bag is from Books-A-Million and is fabulous for hauling library books or crafting supplies. I have one with an octopus on it and love it for it's size and durability!

I hope you enjoyed your gifts!

Until next time ^_____^

Mobile's A&M Peanut Shop

While I was on jury duty earlier in December, I was tempted by the A&M Peanut Shop on Dauphin Street which is a few blocks away from the Govt Plaza. Everyday I would walk past the shop to go for lunch and was assaulted by a delicious aroma of nuts and sugar! Finally I stopped in the shop and bought a small bag of chocolate covered mixed nuts. It was so delicious that I decided to stop again on my last day of jury duty and buy two tins full for my coworkers as Christmas presents!

The shop is housed in one of the older narrow buildings downtown. Despite the lack of room, the shop is full of bins of delicious nuts and candies.

The highlight of the shop is a beautiful 100 year old Planters peanut roaster! The smell of nuts in this contraption is heavenly!

If you are ever in downtown Mobile you should stop by the A&M Peanut Shop for homemade treats!

Reading Rainbow

I took these pictures while waiting for my sister at her dentist appointment earlier in December. The front doors of the office had stained glass and from where I was seated in the waiting room, it would make the most distracting and beautiful prism rainbows on my book pages!

December Recap

Recap:

Read:
1. Frontier Father by Dorothy Clark
2. Family of the Heart by Dorothy Clark
3. 47 Ronin by John Allyn
4. Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus
5. Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl by David Barnett
6. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
7. A Study in Silks by Emma Holloway

Crafts:
1. Applejack MLP amigurumi
2. Rainbow Dash MLP amigurumi
3. Twilight Sparkle MLP amigurumi
4. Rarity MLP amigurumi

Finishes:
1. A & C French alphabet - scissor fobs

End of Year Numbers:
56 books read
5 cross stitch designs
1 cross stitch finish
Numerous felt, polymer clay, resin, and crochet projects

Definitely not as many books read as usual perhaps this year I'll read some more....if I've not tempted away from it with lovely amigurumi patterns and other crafts!

Goals for the year............none! I made a goal of stitching on my WIPs and that hardly happened last year so I'm not going to promise anything this year just in case!

I worked  on the Anagram Diffusion design in December and was hoping to finish a block of it, but during my two weeks of vacation I came down with the flu so that ruined any plans I might have had to cross stitch!

I hope you guys had an awesome last year crafting/stitching/reading!

Until next time ^____^