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!

Three new cuties!

Surprise.. Surprise! I've been busy crafting... :)
First up is Rawr!
I seriously love this pattern from MrFox.

Second we have Carrot Bunny by Stripeyblue. I altered the pattern on this a lot.

and lastly we have this lovely Octopus from 零起点魔法玩偶 (Beginners Magic Dolls)

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.

So much fun!

I was sick and tired of having messy lopsided balls of left over yarn.. tired of trying to roll them up.. sooooooo I bought myself a yarn winder!
I didn't want to pay Jo-Ann's $33.99 + sh so I went over to trusty eBay and found one for only $10.51. They sold it as "vintage" but it looks like the exact model from Jo-Ann's and it is like new!
I've had so much fun today making neat little skins of left over yarn. Now my stash will be neat and tidy, making yarn so much easier to pick out!

Busy oh so busy!

Wow it's been a long time since i've blogged! I've been just way too busy... I haven't had much time to craft... but here's what I have been able to work on..
My youngest son wanted a brown tiger.. so I had to try out a pattern from Amigurumi Collection Vol.7.

I had some scraps of wool that were just too narrow for cozies so I used them to make a couple cupcake pincushions.

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.

Button Eyes

Have you ever used button eyes for your amigurumi? I've always used safety eyes until I fell in love with a few patterns from Handmade Knit Amigurumi (大好きなあみぐるみ). Dachshund (いたずらっこのダックスフント), Button eyed Rabbit and Bear (ボタン目のうさぎとくま). I've only made the bear so far, but the Dachshund may be coming in the future. It's so darn cute!
I made the bear for a amigurumi swap over at Ravelry. September's theme was fruit so I added some strawberry buttons and crochet a big strawberry for her to hold. The pattern for the strawberry was from Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth Doherty. It was an easy pattern but adding the seed beads was tedious(although well worth it!).
This months swap is Halloween! I already know what I'm going to make but it's a secret.
Yesterday my computer arrived back from the repair shop! It seems to be back to it's old self. I spent most of yesterday updating Windows and putting programs like FFXI back on it. Luckly I had a chance to save all my files and photos, so I had to get those back on there too. Phew what a day! I even had to go flag down the Fedex driver to get the computer! >< They always have a hard time finding our house. He had to back up from halfway down the street.

Crochet-Along Pandas

Last week I finished up my panda for the Craftzine Crochet-Along. The pattern was made by the fantastic Tamie Snow from Roxycraft. She made some wonderful video tutorials that really helped with the crocheting process.
My panda was looking pretty lonely so I reduced the pattern down a bit and made her a lil baby. I also made a bamboo twig (they need to eat right).
Today they announced the giveaway winners and I won a signed copy of Tamie's Tiny Yarn Animals! Yay!!! All the pandas everyone made at the flicker group were so adorable!!
Dead computer update: Last time I blogged I was in the process of shipping my computer to the Gateway Repair Center... What a pain!!! Computer's are so hard to ship. Finding a box it would fit in was terrible. On the bright side it only took 4 days for the package to reach the Repair Center (gotta love FedEx) and the repair center only spent 3 days with it and mailed it back. It should arrive here on the 1st! I cannot wait!

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!

Woot! Summer is here!

Yes! The lazy days of summer are finally here. School is out! The sun is shinning! Now I have time to get some mega crafting done!!

I have 3 different amigurumi projects I'm working on. I'm about to start a hexagon blanket (this one will take months).

Plus I just finished another batch of coffee cozies/wrist warmers.

Little Fawn (Bambi)

While I was up in Seattle in February I picked up a copy of Amigurumi Collection Vol. 7 from the very large Kinokuniya Bookstore located inside Seattle's Uwajimaya. I wasn't as thrilled with this volume as I have been in the past with some of the other collections. However, there are a few really cute patterns!

This is the one that made me buy the book.. Bambi!

If you ever use this pattern I recommend using something to weigh her backside down a bit. Like plastic pellets. This one is top heavy, but she will stand if you place her legs just right.

Spring Sewing

I've been neglecting the blog again.. so much to do so little time. It's spring and with that comes spring cleaning, yard work and a lot of school projects. I however have not been neglecting my crafting.

Lately I've been using my sewing machine a bit more than normal. I found 2 purse patterns that I just had to give a try. The first one I saw on the Martha Stewart show a long time ago and just now finally used it. It's a little reversible bag. Super simple and easy to make. I used coordinating Michael Miller China Doll fabric. The reverse side is black with colorful umbrellas. I was too lazy to take more pictures. http://www.marthastewart.com/article/reversible-purse?autonomy_kw=purse&rsc=header_3

I found the tutorial for this second purse on Craftster. http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=149376.0 It's a pleated tote. I'd been looking online for a pattern like this for awhile. Everything was either too expensive or looked to complicated for a novice like me. This tutorial was very well written and super easy! I used some decorater fabric I found in the remnant bin at the Joann superstore (my favorite place to find fabric).

Lacy Crochet

I've had this book sitting around forever... Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Lacy Crochet. I was afraid to crochet anything from it because I've never really used crochet thread before. It looked so tiny, delicate and difficult! So I gave in and tried it out... and ta da! I love it!!
I made the crochet hook case first. So simple and fast to crochet. The part that killed me was using the sewing machine for the liner. I seriously need to practice my sewing skills!


The scissors case was a bit harder.. and only because I made it harder by wanting to use matching fabric. So I didn’t use felt as the pattern called for. I ironed my fabric onto a heavy duty interfacing. It made it stiff and sturdy so the point of the scissors won’t make a hole in the fabric.

I'll be doing more things from this book! Maybe a case for my mom!

Kitten and Mouse buddies

I've been wanting to make this kitten and mouse from Amigurumi no Nakamatachi for awhile... and I finally got around to it. I crochet the kitten with Bernat Galaxy yarn.. a lumpy loopy furry yarn. It was really hard to work with but I'm happy with the look it gave her. The mouse was crochet with a nice soft wool.. a nice change after the crazy kitten's yarn.
Both patterns we pretty simple. But I did do a change up on the mouse's ears. It called for gluing on felt ears. I didn't like the way that was going to look so I crochet a couple ears instead.

Seattle Vacation!

Over Valentines weekend my family took a train up to Seattle. We had a wonderful time! Taking the train was really relaxing too.
If you love Japanese products and you are ever in downtown Seattle you must stop in at the Daiso in the Westlake Center. It's a Japanese shop and everything is super cheap. Most things are only $1.50! If I had brought an extra suitcase with me I would have bought a ton of things.. but since I had limited space this is all that I got...

We went shopping at Macy's and I finally got the Harajuku Lovers fragrance I've been wanting.. it came with a free tote bag. We also went to Pike's place were I found a Tokidoki Cactus Pup.


Before our trip we bought a Flip camcorder.. so I made a little video montage of our trip. Enjoy!
Our First Trip To Seattle

Mr. Moo

Meet Mr. Moo! Another amigurumi made from a pattern in Amigurumi & Komono. This guy was really fun to make. The pattern was pretty easy. Only the legs were were tough since they are crochet as part of the torso instead of being crochet separately and then sewn on. I gave him a pair of my purple hand painted eyes. I didn't like the bib's flower the pattern called for so I just sewed on a yellow star. Lazy lazy me.

Attack of the Cloned Sheep!

Becky from SMALL TIME SHOPPING contacted me about doing a trade. She had some really adorable handmade accessories. It was hard to choose what to pick from her shop but I ended up picking an adorable bee hairpin & 2 kitty charms. She even included an extra doggie charm and some really cute magnets.
She wanted a black sheep like the one I had previously sold.. only with a pink scarf. So I cloned her a sheep!

Coffee Cozies

I made another batch of coffee cozies. This time with a video game theme. Super Mario.. Donkey Kong.. and Batman.

The perfect amigurmi helper!

Last week I was over at my mom's house and she showed me her new cookbook holder. As soon as I saw it I knew it would be the most perfect book holder for amigurumi books. Whenever I am crocheting from a pattern in a Japanese book I am constantly looking down at the diagram. Sometimes (especially when the book is new) it will end up shutting. What a pain! I mentioned to my mom that I was going to go buy one.. she went out and bought one for me! She is absolutely the greatest mom in the world and I am spoiled rotten (so are my own kids). If you want one of these bad boys they are only $7.95 at your local Barns & Noble or online here.