Calvin and Hobbes comics - Hobbes Amigurumi

Good evening everyone. Today is my sister's birthday, which means that I can finally post about the amigurumi I made for her back in February.

As kids we would always read the Sunday comics in the newspaper. One of my sister's favorite comics was and still is Calvin and Hobbes. While looking online she ran across a free pattern for a Hobbes amigurumi doll and asked if either Amanda or I could make it for her.

I was sneaky and told her that I had other amigurumis I was working on, but secretly I was working on the Hobbes doll at work before clocking in every day.

Pattern: Hobbes freebie pattern by sukigirl and miahandcrafter
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft black, orange, red, and white
Hook: size H 
Notions: black felt 
Start/Finish: February 2015 - total time 23 1/2 hours

For those of you would want to make this Hobbes amigurumi and need to know how much yarn you'll need, I used one skein of each color and had leftover yarn by the time I was done.

So far the Totoro, Sir Octavius the steampunk fox, and Hobbes amigurumis are the largest I've made :)

I really enjoyed making this doll. If a pattern makes you smile while working on it, it's a good one :)

Until next time >___<

Kawaii Easter - Daiso Goodies and Wondercon 2015

  
Amanda sent me an Easter package full of goodies, some of which were from Daiso and Wondercon.

She included an adorable Sherlock Holmes button from Ninjabot, a sweet resin heart pendant decorated with a bunny and sprinkles from Unicorn Crafts, a cute Hello Kitty pez, a pair of wooden diecut bunny earrings by (Un) Possible Cuts, and a book pin.

From Daiso, she got a bunny silicon cake mold, a bunny shaped kitchen timer, and a pack of bunny memo sticky tabs. She also got me a signed promo mini copy of Naomi Novik's Uprooted novel possibly from Wondercon.

Oddly enough, I actually needed a new kitchen timer. We had dropped ours on the floor just this week and it broke so it's great to have a new one, a kawaii one! You can't go wrong with cute kitchen supplies!

I think I will look online for recipes to use in the bunny mold. Hopefully I will be able to bake with it later this month. I'm envious that Amanda lives near a Daiso store. For those of you who don't know, it is a Japanese chain of dollar stores. But I guess I should be lucky to not be near a Daiso store, I would be broke all the time!

In terms of food goodies, she sent me a pack of Easter shaped pasta, I didn't know they even made that for the holidays. She also sent me some Japanese goodies, ramen crackers, peach jellies, and another package of sakura matcha Kit Kats (squeal!). I also got some chocolates and a package of bunny candy rings, which look too cute to eat.

She got some adorable bunny baking cups. I can't wait to use them next spring/Easter :)

Thanks for all the goodies!

Panda Ice Cream Sundae Amigurumi

Good evening everyone! I mailed off a package to Amanda on Saturday and she got it in the mail today. Instead of a usual spring package for Easter with lots of goodies, I decided to make a single amigurumi as her spring gift. 

Tada! A panda sundae amigurumi!

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft chocolate, off white, red, and white
Hook: size H
Notions: 6mm safety eyes, brown felt, fuchsia bugle beads, and plastic sundae cup
Start/Finish: 4/3-4/2015

I saw the sundae cups while shopping back in February and thought to myself that I could make a cute amigurumi with them so I bought a few.

I used the off white color of yarn because I wanted to make french vanilla ice cream scoops (it's one of my favorite flavors).

For the whip cream dollops, I made curly cues from white yarn. I like how they turned out. For the sprinkles, I used beagle beads that I had in my stash. I really need to make a trip to my local Michael's store and see what other colors are available as the local Hobby Lobby only has so many colors and they never seem to get new stock of colors in their inventory.

I've got a few more amigurumi projects to work on this month for upcoming festivities, but once I've finished that I hope to start a new amigurumi sundae. It's a toss up between kitties or bunnies........

Until next time ^____^

Calling All Book Geeks - Harry Potter License Plate

I was out and about this morning and when I pulled into my local library I saw a car with this extremely geeky and fun license plate.

Long live book geeks!!!

Prudence Gail Carriger Package! OMG!

I was suprised when I received a package from Amanda last week. I was expecting some sort of spring package, but it was something even better if that is possible!!

The box was full of book geekiness!!! Gail Carriger's new book, Prudence, came out in March. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package and found a signed copy of the book and cute related goodies. Amanda sent me a Prudence paper fan, a poster, and button.

She also sent some packs of green tea, sweet biscuits, and a box of peach pie flavored tea. I tried the peach tea earlier today and it was good though I was hoping for more of a peach pie flavor. It smelled deliciously like peach pie, but the taste was just a little bit peach pie.

I wish I lived in an area that had more book signings.......at least I have a fabulous friend who can score book goodies at the signings in CA!!

Thank you for the awesome package!!!

Until next time ^___^

Valentine Package from Amanda

Yes, I know this is a late post.......I apologize :*(

In this year's Valentine's Day package, Amanda sent me some cute items like always.

She sent me a rainbow colored crochet pouch by Yummy Pancake (perfect for holding business cards!) which contained two mini buttons, a chubby bunny cell charm, and a bobble head bunny key chain.

In terms of yumminess, she sent some heart shaped Peep marshmallows, a package full of Dove chocolates and macadamia Hershey kisses, and a box of matcha sakura Kit Kats.

For my craft stash, I got a heart mold which I can use for resin work. For my bathroom, she found an adorable bunny soap dish and included a bar of soap from Lush. It's smell great!

She sent me a cute notepad with a I Love Ramen illustration on it. I really do love ramen. It's delicious if not nutritious.

I thought the Kit Kats were a surprise, but then I opened an envelope of these cute thank you bunny cards that Amanda had made me for our etsy shop customers! I love them and can't wait to use them. She's so talented with her card making!

She sent me two handmade cards......aren't they cute?!?!? I love her use of the washi tap on the panda thank you card!

Thank you for my awesome package!!!

Until next time ^___^

Japanese Kit Kats - Matcha Sakura Flavored

In my Valentine's Day package from Amanda was a box of these delicious Kit Kats from Japan. Her cousin was able to pick up some boxes of this seasonal flavor of Kit Kats on her trip to Japan.

I had been looking at these on ebay and other websites, but didn't buy them as no one seemed to be selling them under $6 a package. I was so happy to see these in my package!

The flavor is just lovely. A sweet green tea cream with hints of sakura flavoring......ah, so yummy!

I want MORE!! Hopefully I can find these or other flavors in CA at the Daiso stores when I go to see Amanda in August.

Until next time ^___^

February and March Skoshboxes

Hi, everyone! I haven't been keeping up with my blogging lately.....I blame watching Korean dramas and reading books! Needless to say, I'm trying to catch up with my blogging.

For some reason, I didn't photograph the contents of my February skoshbox. I have a feeling I probably thought I had already done so :(

Favorites (in order):
1. Shimi Corn Chocolate - star shaped chocolate puffs. These remind me of chocolate cereal. Makes me wonder if you could add milk to them?!
2. Jagabee Potato Fries - French fry tasting chips. These were quite good in terms of taste. They remind me of potato sticks in a can. My coworkers and I got a laugh out of the packaging. It says that the chips were made in Japan, but exported by a company in California. So did they go from Japan to CA and then back to Japan and then to the US?!?!?
3. Charlotte Matcha Choco - chocolate with a green tea filling. The filling on this chocolate is not a sweet cream matcha, but the regular matcha flavor. It's good, but I would rather have the matcha mochi choco squares from last June's package.

Dislikes:
1. Kasugai Fruit Gummies: It must be my luck to get the grape flavor every time there is chance of different fruit flavors.
2. Nakayoshi Soft Cookie Ball: we've encountered these before under a different name (tamago boro cookies) in a skoshbox from May last year.

Questionable:
1. Rilakkuma Gum and Seal Set - gum.......nothing extraordinary about the flavor, but on the plus side it came with an adorable Rilakkuma bookmark and sticker sheet!
2. Mini Box Chewing Gum - gum......again.....

Now onto March's skoshbox, which came in a new box design! Blue with a paper crane illustration along with Japanese text and more cute illustrations.

Favorites:
1. Toppo Biscuit Sticks: Pocky in reverse. A biscuit stick filled with chocolate except the biscuit is a pretzel. Very yummy!!
2. Morinaga Twig Choco: these came in two flavors, regular chocolate and almond. The almond flavor is delicious while the chocolate flavor is just your normal chocolate.
3. Corn Potage Umaibo: another snack from a previous box. I really don't mind have a repeat of this umaibo. It's amazing!
4. S'corn BBQ Puffs: Japanese BBQ flavors puff chips. None of us were sure how this was supposed to be purely Japanese BBQ flavor as it reminded us of your average BBQ chips at the supermarket.
5. Hokkaido Milk Chews: this was like the white rabbit chews you get at your Asian market, but they were a lot softer and the flavor was fantastic.

Dislikes:
1. Kishiri Crystal Grape Candy: I didn't try this as it's grape flavored......yuck.....but I had my coworker try it and he liked it. It is a two flavored hard candy with grape and mint. An odd combination, but obviously it went well as my coworker had no complaints.

Questionable:
1. Fujiya Home Pie Premium: another repeat from an earlier skoshbox. It said it was supposed to be a buttery-flaky pie cookie, but it tasted like coconut like the previous snack.

I received April's skoshbox in the mail yesterday so I will have it with my coworkers later this month.

Until next time ^___^

February and March Recap

Read:

February -
1. Talking to the Dead by Barbara Weisburg
2. A Daughter's Return by Janet Lee Barton
3. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
4. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
5. Folklore of Japan edited by Keigo Seki

March -
1. Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn
2. Kokoro by Lafcadio Hearn
3. Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Volume 1 by Lafcadio Hearn
4. A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin
5. This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki
6. Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
7. Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
8. Millennium Snow volume 1 and 2 by Bisco Hatori
9. Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier
10. Three Kingdoms Volume 1 translated by Moss Roberts

Stitched:
February -
1. Strawberry Cottage Cake by Country Cottage Needleworks

March -
2. Blueberry Cottage Cake by Country Cottage Needleworks

Until next time ^____^