Hamster in a Cup Amigurumi + Our New Kitty Domino!

I loved using this pattern by sweees.

It's not just adorable it's usable. Under the hamster the cup can be used as a trinket box.

A few months ago we got a cat! For years my kids have wanted either a cat or a dog. So when my husband and I drove his brother (and his cat) to the vet and saw an adorable kitten for adoption we had to save him. One of the vet's assistants had found him in her yard following her cat around meowing at her. She lives next to the freeway... I don't even want to think about what could have happened to him. Poor baby! So she rescued him and brought him into the office and nursed him back to health and there he stayed for a few months. As soon as we saw him we knew we had to take him home!
When we brought him back into the office to get more of his shots done the assistant who found him came into see him and was really choked up. She loves him too but already had too many cats at home so she couldn't keep him herself.

We named him domino because he's black and white and has an almost perfect circle dot on his belly. He's a really quirky cat! He loves to stick out his tongue.

Oh! Poop! My poor abandoned blog.

Oh! My poor abandoned blog. It’s been forever since I’ve made a post. I just haven’t been doing as much crafting as I used too. So that being said I’m changing this blog from being mostly about crafting to a general everyday blog. It’s still going to have craft topics but it will also have a whole lot more!
Let’s start this revamped blog off with a topic that no one likes to talk about. That’s right… POOP. I’m talking here about the dog variety. I walk with my youngest son to school every day. It’s a nice short walk (although uphill). The problem we’ve been facing for the last month is DOG POOP. Some incredibly shameless person keeps letting their dog go poop on the sidewalk and then doesn’t have the decency to clean it up. Obviously they should be cleaning up after the dog but if they are not willing to do that at least keep the dog from taking a poop on the sidewalk. Have them do it in a yard!! Their own yard would be the best!! Every day there is a new poop land mine out there just waiting for us. It’s been a real miracle we’ve managed not to step in anything yet so I’m not sure why this bugs me as much as it does.
We live in a nice neighborhood (renting a house cheap from my sister in-law). Everyone takes nice care of their properties. Who could be doing this? My guess is one of the stuck up ladies living around here can’t be burdened with cleaning up after their animal. I’ve seen countless numbers of them walking around. At least half of them don’t bother to put the dog on the leash, yet they carry the lease around with them. I just don’t understand how someone could be so audacious. I mean they walk the same route with their dog every day. I hope they end up stepping in it. I have yet to catch them in the act and I really don’t know what I’d do if I did. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to follow them home with said poop and leave it on their front stoop. I wouldn’t have the nerve. Honestly I’m not sure I would have the nerve to even say anything to them. What would you do? Oh! That’s a great topic for that show on ABC “What Would You DO”! Ha!

The good the bad and the adorable.

This has been such a busy fall! I've been working really hard trying to raise as much money as I can for my son's 8th Spanish class trip to Spain in June. The class is going to spend 2 weeks there with host families and take spanish classes. Plus they get to go on tours of the area and visit some really nice looking beaches. I'm really excited for him! He worked very hard on his application. Only 18 of the students will be picked to go so we are anxiously awaiting the final pick.
In other news.. My husband is out of a job. The crappy economy forced Hollywood video to bankrupt! My husband worked at it's corporate office. So now he's on unemployment and there are just no jobs available in his field (real estate lease administration). I think I'm going to have to go back to work after being a stay at home mom for almost 9 years! It's scary!! I have absolutely no idea what I want to do. The last job I had was working as a R-Zone (electronics/video games) department manager for Toys R Us and before that I worked in a department store for almost 5 years. I'm not sure if I really want to go back into retail.
Anyhow here are a few projects that I've worked on lately.
Sitārā the blue elephant. The pattern was Padma by Dawn Toussaint.

Yet to be named purple monkey. The pattern was Manuel the Monkey by Dawn Toussaint.


Sea buddies. The pattern was 27-3K Whale, Frog & Seagull Amigurumi
by Pierrot. A Japanese pattern.

Totoro Costume, Snow Bunny & I Won A Hoodie

Last month I wanted to make a Totoro costume for my youngest son. He loves Totoro, but the said a costume would be too girly. He ended up being a ninja for Halloween. I still wanted to make that costume so bad. I ended up making a amigurumi using that idea. It was made for a swap over at Ravelry. I'm really happy with the way he turned out. I used the same design for the body as I did with the V Baby from my last post.

Have you ever looked at something you've created a long time ago and think.. I can make that better?! I did that the other day and preformed a major face lift on my Snow Bunny amigurumi. I cut off the muzzle, redid the mouth, sewed the muzzle back on with a bit of stuffing and fixed the eye patches. She looks like a new woman now (I mean bunny).

Yesterday I received an unexpected package in the mail. It was a hoodie from a Mountain Dew drawing that I had entered! It's really cute! I love the gorilla on it! This picture makes the hoodie look grey, but it is really black.

A Japanese Paradise!

Last weekend we went to the Portland Japanese Garden and to the Portland's Rose Gardens. It was our first trip to the Japanese Garden and I was very impressed. The kids had a fun time exploring. I really could have spent a few hours there looking at EVERYTHING.. but we had a 2pm Beaver's baseball game to get to. The Beaver's lost.. oh well.

I've been so busy during the summer I haven't had much time for my crafting. But I have managed to make a few things.

Mini wooden mushrooms!

Sleeping Lamb made with a pattern by http://harugurumi.blogspot.com

Coming soon: Sea critters, classic button eyed bear & more..

Hot Summer Days! Poor Chibi Totoro!

Portland is having a heat wave! It hasn't been so hot here since 1981... Yesterday the high temp was 106. Yikes! It's not supposed to be so hot here. Plus it's very humid so it feels worse. We don't have AC so as you can imagine it gets pretty hot inside our house. Yesterday it got up to 96!! It's a good thing we have a semi finished basement that we've made into a family room. It stays much cooler down there. So the boys and I have been chilling in the basement watching movies. This has also given me a chance to work on a few craft projects that I have neglected.

Poor Chibi Totoro had been sitting on my desk for six months with only the felt around his eyes needing to be sewn down. I made Chibi for my oldest son and he was so happy for me to finally finish it!

I took Chibi's picture on one of our pumpkin plant's giant leaves... Yay for miracle grow! We don't have any pumpkins growing on the vine yet but without a doubt if they survive this heat we will have giant pumpkins too!

'Twas a Crafty Christmas & A Lucky New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Our family had a lovely white Christmas... thankfully the snow melted by New Years!
My husband bought me a wonderful set of James Bond movies (I LOVE 007, hehe). And I bought him the Complete V collection and a "The Killer's" t-shirt. The kids bought me a book "Amigurumi & Komono"!! I was really lucky this year!
We got the kids the usual video games and toys they asked for.. plus I made them each a crafty gift.

For my youngest son I made Totoro. Following a pattern from http://heavens-hellcat.livejournal.com/420.html. I used felt for the tummy and around the eyes instead of crocheting. I was pretty happy with the way he turned out except.. his arms look a bit to buff! Tayler absolutely loved him and now wants me to make the little white Totoro and a Soot Sprite too.

My older son Skyler has wanted a real sock monkey for a long time and this summer I was lucky enough to find "Create your own sock monkey" project at a yard sale last summer. It even had the real Rockford Red Heel socks. The pattern was pretty simple and the hardest part was just trying to cut the socks up in the proper way.

A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a give away from Berrysprite. It included 2 cutie pencils, 2 bento sauce containers, a zipper pouch (that were the perfect size for my Clover crochet hooks, woot!) and one of her new Bearlets! Wowies is he a cutie! Berryspite is just now putting these Bearlets out in her shop and I highly recommend them. Great quality workmanship and they are soooooooooo freaking adorable!!

Cabin Fever!

Well the big snow storm the weatherman forecasted hit us hard and will not let up! It's been snowing and freezing rain on and off since Sunday. Plus we are supposed to get another 3-4 inches of snow tomorrow. Having a white Christmas sure is going to be nice but... My husband has missed over a week of work.. with no pay. Plus the garbage isn't being collected because the trucks do not have chains. All over the city people are losing power because the ice from the freezing rain is making trees and branches fall. Our neighbor's tree fell and came really close to hitting our other car.
The family is starting to have cabin fever too, lol. We walked over to the Post Office and grocery store yesterday. We saw about 5 cars and a bus stuck in the snow. They all had chains on but the snow is just too deep and there is that pesky layer of ice underneath.
The kids are having a blast with it at least! They went sledding down our hill today!

Hiro, Crafty Wonderland & the Crazy Snow Week.

A couple months ago I bought a really cute Amigurumi book.. 大好きなあみぐるみ (Handmade Knit Amigurumi ISBN:9784277172240) from the Portland Kinokuniya book store. It's out in Beaverton on Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy inside the Uwajimaya grocery store. I absolutely love this store and could spend hours browsing through it. Anyway.. I finally finished making the first amigurumi from that book. I named him Hiro (yes as in Hiro from Hero's, lol).

Last Sunday was Crafty Wonderland's Super Colossal Holiday Sale at the convention center. 125 tables of crafty goodness. I'd been planning to go to this for months and when the day finally came so did the snow!! It rarely snows here in Portland. The mountains around us usually get all the snow.. but here on the valley snow it only happens a few times a year and then it's normally just a trace. But Sunday it snowed a lot! We had to take the train to avoid driving in it. The line to get in was still pretty short by the time we got there and we even ended up getting goody bags. I was really surprised how much really cool things were in them.. books.. hair goodies.. a sake cup.. yeah it was the bomb. Totally worth the snowy trip to get there and it wasn't as busy as I was expecting. The booths were all really cool and I bought a really cute ceramic coaster with a bunny and squirrel for my computer table.

It kept snowing and melting then freezing all week on and off! The kids didn't have school on Monday, Wednesday or Friday because of the snow and ice. And now the weatherman is forecasting more snow for tomorrow and calling it the biggest storm of the year! The nice thing about it is that tomorrow is my youngest son's 7th birthday and he is really exciting to go sledding!

Happy Birthday to me!

Sunday was my 31st birthday! Another year older and another year I can say.. I don't feel older than I did the year before. It might be because strangers tend to think I'm younger than I am. Last week I went shopping with my mom and the gal that rang up my purchase started to ask if I wanted to sign up for the store credit card and then she stopped in the middle of her spiel and asked how old I was.. like I wasn't 18 yet. Stuff like that has always happened to me. Like the time I was out with my kids and my parents and someone thought my children were my little brothers. It used to bother me.. but now it's really nice! :D
So to celebrate this year's birthday my husband took me out for a child free evening of fun. We went to see the new James Bond movie. Quantum of Solace. I'm a huge OO7 fan. Is it any wonder I married a guy who's nickname is 7 (because of his birthday o7/07/77). Then we did a little shopping at the mall and went out to a yummy dinner at Red Robin. On the way home we went and picked up doughnuts at Krispy Kreme.. because I'm not a big cake fan.
To top everything off I got a couple of really wonderful birthday gifts this year. My husband and kids got me a set of Sookie Stackhouse novels, you may know it better as TrueBlood on HBO. The books are way better than the show, but I still love the show too!

My mom bought me the cutest TokiDoki bag. Graziosa in the Carnival print. I've been wanting this messenger bag forever! Thanks mom!

Happy Halloween! My first "Blogger" post.

Welcome to my new blog on Blogger. I was using the blog on my MySpace account but it was a real pain to work with and I've heard really nice things about Blogger... So I made the switch and here I am!

Yesterday was Halloween! One of my family's favorite holidays.

My youngest son who is 6 years old was a fighter pilot. I found him a vintage child's jacket that had a ton of old war patches at a local thrift shop. Then on eBay I finally found a vintage military hat that matched the coat perfectly. He just lost his bottom 2 front teeth last week! His first tooth fairy visit too. Kids grow up so fast!

My older son who is 11 was Sasori a member of Akatsuki from the Naruto anime series. I made his costume from scratch without a pattern and boy was it tough! I'm not that great with sewing but I'm getting better and I was really surprised how nice it turned out!

My husband wasn't going to dress up at all.. but the day before Halloween his work decided his department had to participate in the annual costume contest. The people in his department ended up choosing Music Stars of the Past for their theme and tried to talk him into being Billy Idol.. I didn't want him to shave off his beard though so I talked him into being George Michael.. Poor guy! He looked really cute.. hehe.
I didn't have time to put a real costume together for myself this year. I spent way too much time on the Sasori costume. So didn't dress up this year.. well I did wear cat ears, lol.