an amigurumi christmas

This year, I decided to crochet some amigurumi for my co-workers.  Want to take a peek?

A narwhal for my good friend - she already named him Nathaniel! :)

A sweet cupcake for my sweet-loving friend.

A Christmas pickle for someone silly... If you don't know the story of good luck associated with Christmas pickle ornaments, you should read about it!  I love this one's little face and think that's what make him so him haha.

A coffee cup for my boss... I heard blue was her favorite color.

A sweet penguin for the mommy-to-be... I was also inspired to make her a little something for Baby S. (That we just found out will be a girl!  And she's due just a few days past my own b-day... Here's hoping we might share a b-day heehee.)....

A sweet little baby bear hat for Baby S.!  I could not get over how cute and small this turned out.  I thought about adding a pink bow but Matt and I agreed it looked too cluttered/heavy so I left it off.  I heard the mommy-to-be loved this hat so much that it almost made her cry - oops!

I'm glad everyone loved their gifts and it made me especially happy because I love making people smile.  There's nothing like making and giving a special handmade item! 

Patterns from Ana Paula Rimoli's amigurumi books, Pickle ornament by Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches, and the newborn teddy hat pattern courtesy of All About Ami's tumblr.

2011 photo yearbook project day #50

Yet another unexciting day!  Sorry things have been pretty lame since I haven't been doing anything but dealing with this Bar stuff.  Once all this is behind me and I can get back on track with life (and crafting!), I promise things will be much more exciting.  Now that I have a new camera, too, I can't wait to fix up my poor Etsy shop with better photos and new items!  Good goals to have for March.

 

Have I ever shown you my Hamtaro backpack?  How cute is he, right?  Matt's a big baseball card autographing person (for fun, not profit - not that you could make much off it anyway with the usually minor league players he gets).  He heard about this card show that happens in City of Industry so we went one Saturday a few months ago.  I thought it would be lame (I mean really, card shows full of weird collectible people?), but it turned out to be an interesting mish-mosh of people and collectibles.  It was a lot of different vendors at tables and stalls selling anything 'collectible' in nature.  And anything cute and kawaii always catches my attention, of course!

I'm not sure how I forgot about Hamtaro when my sister and I used to watch the cartoon all the time many years ago (or so it feels like).  And when I saw this plush backpack, I knew I had to have him!  We actually thought he was a plush at first but then we realized he was a plush backpack so it was both cute and functional, go figure.  The backpack zipper is a bit smaller than I expected but that's ok, I still think he's adorable.  There were some other neat sellers, and we even got a solar-powered monkey head bobbing figurine...but the monkey is sitting on a toilet reading a newspaper/magazine, HA.  The little Asian lady running that booth was so cute, she tried to sell us stuff for super cheap and even let me pick out a Hello Kitty cell phone charm for free (we chose a Hello Kitty head dressed as a monkey, you know, to stick with the theme). 

Baseball season's just around the corner and I'm sure we'll be back soon.  Since I know what to expect this time around, I think I'll have a sharper eye to look for cute and unique things.  Hopefully my sister and her bf can come with, too, I think they'd find it fun!

Oh, btw, I'll be gone for the next few days taking the (stupid) Bar and I have full faith that the Internet connection at the hotel will be TOO SLOW so it'll be nearly impossible to upload these pics while I'm there.  I'll be back on Thursday so I'll backtrack and update everything then.  See you on the other side! 

lightning!

This is Lightning, isn't she so sweet?  She's a little kitty that started showing up at my bf's parents' house a few weeks ago.  His dad swore that the 2 cats they already have would be their last pets, but then this angelic face showed up and he was smitten.  Can you blame him? 

My bf and I tried to figure it out but we're pretty sure she's a girl.  She's super shy so no one has been able to get too close to her without her hiding around a corner or ducking out of the way, but she's really inquisitive and loves to eat - a girl after my own heart!  So we've been feeding her all sorts of goodies and she's getting bigger and bigger.  We aren't really sure where she goes sometimes but I think she's starting to feel more at home as she's chosen 'her spot' under a tree in front of the house to lie in and stay cool.  I still remember when she was so little and scared.  She's a lot friendlier now, and is willing to come closer to you, especially when it's feeding time!  Hee hee.  I often find her at night just waiting on the doorstep, staring at me with her big green eyes.  She's still a bit too shy to come into the house, but I got her to at least sit in the doorway.  I snuck in a little petting when I fed her last weekend when we were there, but she wasn't too pleased, oops.  Maybe one day!

I loved Lightning so much that I just had to re-create her into plushie form, complete with her big green eyes and the little patch of white fur on her chest.

I thought she came out great!  After I made her, it happened to be close to my bf's dad's birthday so I made another one to gift to him since he loves this little kitten so much.  It was great to give a handmade gift that went over so well! :)

And yes, I'm planning to offer Lightning in my shop so you can have your own Lightning plushie, too!  I have a LOT of plushies to work on - my goal is still to try to open by mid-month.  Lots of work to do but I appreciate everyone's patience and I know I'm excited.  I hope you are, too :D

a whale of a tale

Isn't he just adorable?  I'll be creating another one to sell in the shop, so look out for him if you want to get your hands on one, too!  He's super soft and cuddly and looks adorable as a pillow/cushion on my bed.  Have I mentioned lately that I love my sewing machine??  But my poor jewelry has been neglected so I need to get back to that, too.  I haven't forgotten about my lovely sparklies!

I also worked on a monkey plush yesterday but I went a bit too fast and messed up a part of him.  We'll be headed to the craft store tonight so I can get some much-needed sewing supplies.  Hope to be able to fix him by tomorrow, then a new picture will come!  I'm loving having this week to experiment with plushies and my sewing machine.  But next week it's down to business.  Going to be working on the inventory now that I have some confidence and created some working patterns.  I really think I might be able to reach my goal of opening shop by the end of this month.  Yay!

a hammie plushie is born

After working on my pattern yesterday and carefully hand stitching all of the facial details and working on the little hands, feet, and ears, today I sewed up the body of my hammie plush by hand and with a little help from my sewing machine.  She was stuffed with polyfil and lots of love and then she was born!  What do you think?

Look, and she even has a little tail nub, hehe :)

She needs a little work but I still love her anyway.  I'll need to work on one for the shop! :)  For now, she looks super cute as my new Etsy avatar and she's soft to cuddle, hehe.  I'm excited I actually made something and that I've figured out how to use my sewing machine.  Yay!

my first amigurumi

My one non-school related goal for spring break was to learn how to crochet and specifically, to make amigurumi. I own so many books and have so many cute patterns...I wanted to learn how to create these crazy cute creatures. But something about crochet and all those weird instructions really scared me off.

But not anymore!! I spent Sunday afternoon practicing and trying and thanks to a little help from the Internet, I made my first ami! I haven't been so excited about something so simple in so long. My lil turtle is a lil bit crooked and not perfect, but he's perfect to me. He just needs a name...any ideas?

Now I've decided that I'm OBSESSED with ami. I really wish I had more time for ami, jewelry making (to utilize my bead obsession), and drawing. I'm really going to try to set aside some time each week to do some crafty things, just to give my mind a rest from plain vanilla studying and find a way to channel my creativity. My trainer says it's good to work out and tone all the different parts of your body so you're well-rounded, and I think that holds true for your mind, too. It'll be important going into finals and also when studying for the Bar to stay fresh mentally and physically.

Hopefully I can create enough items to get an Etsy shop going, too. I want to share my work with the world, but I'm happy that I finally started a photo album in Facebook to share what I have made already. I love each and every one of my creations, and I hope others will, too :)