Waiting for Spring to Arrive

I am so tired of winter! Mother nature is playing a trick on us here in Portland this year. It is going to snow here tonight! Snow this late in February is really rare for us.
I've been so ready for spring I couldn't help but make some fresh springy amigurumi. I originally started out making a snail for a swap at Ravelry but I loved it so much that I made another for myself. The white on the snail shell glows in the dark and so does the leaf one of the snails is sitting on. The mushroom didn't turn out as well as I expected but it was fun to make.

I've also made a purple bunny (it's the year of the rabbit now!).

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.

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!