JBW French Country Owl Stitching ♡

Pattern: French Country Owl by JBW Designs
Fabric: 32ct cream Belfast linen by Zweigart
Threads: recommended DMC
Start/Finish: 8/27-28/2016

I was in the mood to stitch something fall/autumn themed this weekend. I don't know about you, but I can't wait for the summer to end. It doesn't help that all the craft stores have their fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving selections out! The weather needs to catch up to the stores :)

Picking a pattern from my newly purchased stash, I chose the owl from JBW Designs. A fun and fast pattern to stitch up.

Have you guys seen the newest Just Cross Stitch magazines?! So many cute fall season/holiday designs. It is hard to choose my next project.

I hope you had a fabulous weekend! Have a great week :)

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Star Wars Sugar Cookies

Earlier this month, Think Geek had a great sale, I ended up buying a set of Star Wars cookie cutters to try out. Last Sunday, I used a store bought cookie mix, but despite chilling the dough, I could never get the dough to the right consistency to roll out for the cookie cutters. I ended up making regular sugar cookies from the mix instead.

This weekend I decided to try again with a homemade cookie dough. Last night I made the dough and put it in the refrigerator to chill overnight. This morning I got up and thawed the dough for a bit before rolling out the dough.

I experimented with different baking temperatures in between batches. I have always heard that when living in the South, you have to lower your oven temperature by 25° when baking. While doing some online research last night, I ran across several websites that mentioned that cookbooks are written for normal sea level altitudes and that the only time you should change the recipe is if you live in a high altitude of 3,000 feet and above.

With that in mind, I baked the cookies at 350° for 8 minutes and they came out nice and soft with the edges slightly turning brown. When I baked them for 9 minutes, the cookies came out too brown. Baking at 325° meant that I had to bake them for 13 minutes, which didn't give them brown edges, but yielded a soft cookie.

I'm not sure if I am on the right track with changing the baking temperature. I will have to try other baking recipes to see if 25° lower or the recommended temperature is better.

I will say that I recommend the sugar cookie recipe I tried. I used Stephanie's recipe from the Joy of Baking website.

I think I will make these cookies again later this year when Star Wars Rogue One comes out in theaters. I know my fellow geeky coworkers will love them.

Until next time >___<

P.S. I didn't add the sugar to the tops of the cookies so they aren't too sweet. Perfect as a compliment to a cup of Ceylon tea.

Tall Kitty Amigurumi

Hi, everyone. I found a lovely pattern on Ravelry for this tall kitty. I have had it in my stash of patterns for a while and finally got around to stitching it this month.

I used Caron Simply Soft white and soft pink for the dress and kitty. For the bottom paws and bowtie, I used Bernat Satin sable. I find that Bernat Satin's texture matches well with the Caron Simply Soft yarns.

With this pattern I learned a new crochet stitch for the edging on the dress, the crab stitch or reverse single crochet stitch.....at least that is what I think it might be. The video attached to the pattern was in Russian. When I tried to use an online translator site, it came up with the oddest translation of the title of the video. Looking up the crab stitch/reverse single crochet stitch, the stitch in the video was similar so I think perhaps it is a variation on the stitch.

This beautiful kitty will be leaving soon to a new home in a different country. I hope my friends' baby girl will love this kitty when she gets older.

Until next time >___<

Sampler 4 Saisons Progress!

Hi, again. I spent this morning running errands then coming home to laundry and lunch. I got a little bit of stitching done on my Sampler 4 Saisons design.

My sampler started out like this earlier in the year and I have been stitching on and off, piecemeal, on the tree in the center of the design.

Here is my progress after a few Frolicking Fridays:

I haven't posted about it on the Frolicking Friday blog yet as it doesn't seem like a lot of progress since I've been working on it so haphazardly. But as I remind myself, any progress is good progress!

I hope everyone has a wonderful work week!!

Until next time ^____^

Mechacon 2016

Hi, everyone! My sister and I attended Mechacon in New Orleans over the weekend. We were in the artists' alley. Friday morning started off on the hectic side, my sister accidentally set her alarm clock to PM instead of AM and was rushing around trying to get ready and get out the door. We got to New Orleans shortly after 9am, which gave us about 40 minutes or so to set up our table before the alley opened at 10am.

While we were setting up our table, we were running purely on adrenaline. I am amazed when I see people set up after 10am. It would make me a nervous wreck. As it is, my sister and I suffer from 'last name syndrome', which means we are usually always early to any event/appointment, etc. so setting up so close to 10am was crazy.

We were staying in the host hotel, the Hilton Riverwalk. Our friends had a lovely view from their room.

My sister and I, on the other hand, were in one of the older sections of the hotel so our room was facing a courtyard......

Friday night, we mall crawled at the Riverwalk Outlet mall. I spent $45 in chocolate at the Lindt store (O_o"). They had a new flavor, pumpkin spice Lindt chocolate balls. They are to die for!! I asked the cashier if they were going to have the flavor in the stores for the fall season. He said he thought perhaps they would since it wasn't an exclusive flavor to their stores. I really, really hope so!

After mall crawling, we went to Mother's for dinner. Their bread pudding is AMAZING! I could have eaten it instead of dinner.

On Saturday night, while my sister and our friends went to Harrah's, I attended a Japanese rock concert by the band, Kazha. They were a great group. The best part was when they did an American cover song, Journey's Don't Stop Believing. Everyone in the crowd was singing along with them. Nothing like a Journey song to get the crowd involved in a concert. LOL

On Sunday, we closed up early and drove over to Magazine Street for lunch at Dat Dog, antique shopping, and dessert at Sucre.

I had the devil's food cake at Sucre. It was good with thin layer of chocolate surrounded the cake. I also bought their iced dark chocolate drink, but it wasn't good, which was sad. I was disappointed in Sucre's assortment of desserts, usually they have an entire case full of desserts, but they only had three desserts and a bunch of cakes for sale.

I'm not sure why their selection was so low, especially since they were open until 10pm. If you are open that late that case should be full all the time!

While going through the antique shop next door to Sucre, I saw some lovely old samplers. A sampler on perforated paper and an embroidered sampler from 1827.

I purchased a New England cookbook from 1936. I can't wait to browse the dessert section!!

We had so many people come by our table and talk about how they knew how to crochet and/or knit. It was great to talk to them. The only people I know in my life that knit or crochet are my aunt and a girl in my office. Otherwise, I never people hear people talk about that type of crafting so it was refreshing to talk to people about crochet.

I want to thank everyone who came by my table and bought something. My favorite customers were a young guy who bought my bunny sundae amigurumi. I was so happy that he bought it because no one looked at it last year and it's been in my Etsy shop forever.

The other customer we loved was a young girl who bought one of my amigurumi bats for her stepmother. She told us that her stepmother works to rehabilitate injured bats and baby bats. She even showed us pictures of the baby bats. They are so tiny!

Special shout out to the guy dressed as Deadpool who bought my Deadpool amigurumi. My sister said he was going around the convention with my amigurumi on his belt and posing for pictures. LOL

Also a shout out to the guy who bought my Clara amigurumi. We chatted for a while about Princess Jellyfish and how we hope they give it a second season, but you never know with slice of life genre series.

Overall, we had a great time in New Orleans. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The temps were amazing for summer in New Orleans, which usually is ungodly. The food was great and the convention was fun. Hopefully we will be able to go again next year in their new venue, Hyatt Recency.

Until next time ^____^

July Recap

Recap:

Read:
1. The Beast by J.R. Ward
2. Bonjour Kale by Kristen Beddard
3. A Nanny for Keeps by Janet Lee Barton
4. Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
5. Pure Blooded by Amanda Carlson

Crafting:
1. Bombomb amigurumi
2. Bullet Bill amigurumi
3. Sushi Roll amigurumi
4. Bulbasaur amigurumi
5. Gudetama amigurumi

Cross Stitch:
1. This Is How I Roll cross stitch finish

A fun month full of amigurumi stitching and a cross stitch finish ^___^

I hope I can focus on Sampler 4 Saisons as my cross stitch project for the month of August, even if it is just for my Frolicking Friday project.

In terms of crochet, I really want to learn how to make hair for my amigurumi dolls that isn't latch hooked and learn how to crochet different types of outfits. I have a feeling I'm in for a long scary road.....of frustration. I might throw my hooks out the window by the end :P

Until next time ^____^

Kitty Sushi Cross Stitch Finish ~Happy Dance~♡

Pattern: This is How I Roll by Design Works
Fabric: 32ct cream Belfast linen by Wichelt
Threads: recommended DMC, except for B5200
Start/Finish: half day in June, 7/4, 7/10, and 7/16-17/2016

Hi, everyone! I finished stitching on the sushi kitty on Sunday, but have been too busy until now to post about it.

I finished the majority of the stitching on Saturday and spent Sunday stitching the last of it and completing all of the backstitching, French knots, and beading.

If you are wondering, the detail photos are closer to the fabric's actual color. It's funny what my phone's camera sees under different lighting.

I used all the recommended DMC threads except for one substitution. I switched out the recommended white thread for B5200. I find that white blends in to the background when I use cream linen while B5200 really pops against the cream.

The pattern came with more than enough beads so I will be able to give the kit to my friend Kristina to stitch. I didn't use the Aida or threads included in the kit because I have enough DMC to use already so she's getting a 'freebie' kit :)

I think perhaps my next project will be one of my WIPs. I would love to at least finish stitching the Sampler 4 Saisons pattern sometime this year.

Sounds like I need to make it my Frolicking Fridays project for the rest of the year. I'm definitely in need of Frolicking Friday motivation :)

Until next time >___<

Happy Thursday - Birthday Package!!

Hi, everyone! My normal evening of crafting has been pleasantly interrupted by a birthday package in the mail from my friend Amanda.

A package full of awesome nerdness!!

She packaged a bunch of yummy goodies in a British themed box! I can't wait to eat the red bean pastry.......

An assortment of stationery, bunny stickers, a boba tea magnet, and pins. She got me a lovely little bunny brooch, which I plan on wearing to work on Monday.

A lollipop craft kit and an adorable egg shaper!

A HUGE tote bag from All About Ami's shop which says 'Keep Calm and Carry Yarn' and a smaller vinyl pencil case....which I plan on using to hold crochet supplies or cross stitch threads...depending on my next project :)

A promotional mini copy of Seeker, a coloring book featuring Kokeshi dolls, and a really cool book from Penguin Classics. It is a listing of all their classic titles in their publishing company. Possibly the best freebie gift ever for a bookworm.

She found some more Issac Mizrahi yarn at her local Michael's store. She got me the colors red, brown, and black! Sparkly crafting possibilities!!!

She found a cute British telephone booth birthday card! Lol

I think out of all of my gifts, these cards are my favorite. She made me a set of Asian themed greeting cards.

Ugh.....I keep telling her that she needs to open her own Etsy shop. Her cardmaking is gorgeous!!!!

Even if I wasn't her friend, I'd buy her cards!!!

Thanks Amanda for a wonderful belated birthday package! Unbirthday packages make the day special!!

Until next time >___<

Sunday Stitching - Kitty Sushi

Half day stitching in June

July 4th stitching

And here's today's stitching after baking and laundry. I think perhaps another full day or two should see this pattern finished.

I am not in love with the shading in this pattern. I decided to go with two reds for the kitty's outfit instead of the three suggested and now that I am looking at it, I hate the darker red thread. I should have stitched it completely in one color of red.......but there is nothing to be done without starting the pattern from the beginning, which is not going to happen. I'd like to keep my sanity, thanks.

I hope you guys are having a great weekend and are enjoying some crafting :)

Until next time >___<

Sunday baking with a side of rain

This morning I chose another recipe from The Southern Cookie Book to try out, molasses-spice crinkle cookies. With a lot of trial and error between the batches, I finally found the right temperature and time for these cookies. My mistake was trying to use a cookie scoop instead of using my hands to roll the dough into 1 inch balls. My cookie scoop was giving me slightly larger cookies, which meant a guessing game between the temperature and time.

Note to self, don't use the cookie scoop when it calls for you to roll the dough!

This afternoon I made some Ceylon tea that my friend Amanda had brought back with her from Canada. It was a perfect pairing for the cookies. I sipped my tea while watching a gully washer outside.

Until next time >___<