Su-Lin the Precocious Little Panda

Please meet Su-Lin.

She is a precocious little thing.

While the other panda cubs romp and frolic in the dirt, you will find her sitting off to the side in the thickest, cleanest patch of grass. Su-Lin always takes great care not to soil her pretty dress.

Her friends often ask, "Su-Lin, why don't you come and play with us?"

"I will," Su-Lin answers. "When you play something less grubby."





Su-lin is my very first amigurumi panda bear so I'm extra excited to share her with you. I christened her after the very first panda to come to the United States in the 1930's.

As the inaugural panda, I really wanted to dress her up to the nines. Su-Lin is wearing a smock dress cut from a Japanese cherry blossom print cotton dobby. Her dress has many crocheted details such as a puff stitch trim along the dresses edge, and a band collar with a dainty flower at the neck. Su-Lin also has a crocheted drawstring purse with beaded ties. Finally, a crochet puff petal flower with a glass bead center is tucked by her right ear.

If you would like to adopt little Su-Lin she will be listed in my shop shortly.

Thank you again for visiting!

Slowly, but surely . . .

I've been working at a turtle's pace on these amigurumi. I wanted to add a bit of zing to my usual bunnies and bears, and whenever I'm brainstorming new ideas I'm always slow to realize them because there's so much trial and error . . . and more error . . . involved.

As you can see they haven't changed all that much. I didn't want to do an extreme makeover. I needed to keep their charm . . . and then add a dose of oomph! :) I did that by focusing on the little details.



I started out by selecting quality mohair yarns with a wonderful fuzz factor for the little critters. Fuzzier is always better, I think. :) And then for their apron dresses, I chose some lovely fabrics -- a pink embroidered cotton gauze, an imported Liberty of London lawn, and a dainty daisy pique.

With color coordinating cotton thread, I crocheted a picot lace to go around the edge of the dresses and created a Peter Pan collar at the necklines.

To top it all off I changed the routine wool felt flower by their ears. After fiddling with a bunch of flower variations, I came up with these crochet puff petal flowers with glass bead centers. I just love how sweet and plump they look.

These three munchkins will be in my shop soon.

And please stay tuned for my next post. I'm so excited to share my next project with you. It's an amigurumi animal I've never made before. Being that it's another new idea it may take a bit of time, but I promise you it will be worth the wait. :)

Thank you again for visiting!

My First Amigurumi Pattern: A Willy-Nilly Silly Snake

Please meet the Willy-Nilly Silly Snake.

For those of you who are just starting to crochet and are interested in doing amigurumi, I've written this very simple pattern. I've designed this snake to be super easy, super cute, and a great way to use up all those leftover bits of yarn lying about. :)

Before you start here are some helpful hints:
1. Learn the magic adjustable loop to start off your amigurumi. Here is a great tutorial at CrochetMe.com
2. Mark the end of each round with a stitch marker.
3. Stuff as you go. Especially if you are making a super long snake.

Materials:
-- A multitude of colors of worsted weight yarn
-- For eyes 6mm plastic safety eyes, 6mm round black beads, or black yarn can be used
-- 1/4 inch wide grosgrain ribbon
-- Poly-fil stuffing
-- 4.5 mm crochet hook
-- yarn needle

Notes:
-- sc (single crochet)
-- sc2tog (a decrease made my crocheting two stitches together)

SNAKE HEAD
Row 1: Work 6 sc into a magic loop
Row 2: Work 2 sc in each stitch
Row 3: (Work 1 sc in first stitch, 2 sc in next stitch) repeat 6x
Row 4: Sc all the way around
Row 5: (Work 1 sc in each of first two stitches , 2 sc in next stitch) repeat 6x
Row 6-8: Sc all the way around
Row 9: (Work 1 sc in each of first two stitches, sc2tog) repeat 6x
Row 10: (Work 1 sc in first stitch, sc2tog) repeat 6x

You've formed the general shape of the snake head so now you can affix the eyes. Note that the end of your round will mark the underside of your snake so position eyes accordingly. If you don't have safety eyes or beads, you can simply embroider the eyes on with a simple french knot. I especially recommend embroidering the eyes if you're making this for a small child.

Now finish off the head . . .

Rows 11-14: Sc around

SNAKE BODY
Now for the fun part! It's time to change colors. The body is done by single crocheting round and round with a variety of yarn. Work a specific stripe pattern or simply work willy-nilly. And feel free to make the snake as long as you like. It's up to you! :) Just be sure to join each new yarn on the underside of the snake so you don't see the pattern break on the top. Also, be sure to stuff as you go along!

SNAKE TAIL
Each following line is one row (not numbered because I do not know how many rows you've worked in the snake's body):

-- (Work 1 sc in first stitch, sc2tog) repeat 4x
-- Sc all the way around
-- Sc all the way around
-- (Work 1 sc in each of first two stitches, sc2tog) repeat 2x
-- Sc all the way around
-- (Work 1 sc in first stitch, sc2tog) repeat 2x
-- Slip stitch in next stitch. To close opening cut yarn leaving a 6 inch tail. With a yarn needle, thread yarn tail in and out of opening's rim and then pull taught to cinch it shut. Knot. Hide yarn tail by poking through snake's body.

TONGUE
Cut a length of grosgrain ribbon 1 3/4 in. long. Cut a "V" out of one end of ribbon to simulate a forked tongue. Stitch other end of ribbon to snake's face.

That's all there is to it! Hopefully, I've made the instructions clear enough to understand, but if anyone still has questions please feel free to ask.

One last thing . . . these softies will be up in the shop soon if anyone is interested.

Thank you for visiting! :)

Life is Sweet

Happy New Year to everyone! :)

Lately, I've been busy whipping up amigurumi that sums up my philosophy on life -- it's all too short, but wonderfully sweet . . . so savor every moment. I'm probably still filled with that fresh and novel feeling you get as you ring in the New Year, but I'm hoping it's something more. I hope this feeling sticks. It's easy to get so bogged down in the minutiae of life that you completely miss it. Not me, though. Not this year (or all the years thereafter hopefully). I resolve that in 2010, I will savor life's sweetness so thoroughly that I'll be choking on it! :)

These Charming Chocolate Dipped Strawberries were inspired by a long ago trip to Godiva's, where they had chocolate covered everything. Their jumbo chocolate dipped strawberries looked so heavenly that the sight was forever etched in my brain. Unfortunately, my amigurumi version doesn't taste as good, but I hope to make up for that in charm and cuteness.

Oh, and they're functional, too! I wanted these strawberries to do more than just sit on your desk and smile at you, so I attached a metal snap clip to the back and now you can dangle your strawberry on your bag or use it as a keychain, and take some cuteness with you wherever you go. :)

Each strawberry comes packaged in these clear plastic bento packages I discovered in my local grocery store. Now they're ready for gift giving!

Other sweet additions include Very Berry-licious Cupcakes and Cheery Cherry Cupcakes. I wanted to make cupcakes with more scrumptious and elaborate tops.

So I randomly decorated them with dallops of vanilla frosting, colorful sprinkles, and big fruit pieces. I love how they look from above . . . it's really like looking into a dessert case at the bakery.

Well, that's all the sweetness I have to share for now. Thank you for stopping by again! Best wishes to all of you in the New Year and all the years to come! :)

Quick Shop Update

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season so far. I've been so busy with custom orders that I haven't been able to stock my shop as much as I would like. However, this weekend I was able to whip up a few amigurumi. Please visit my shop if you are interested. Thank you so much! :)

A Crafting Life In Pictures

A few custom orders:




And some stuff to go in my shop:




I've been so busy with custom orders and other holiday busy-ness that I scarcely have time to write a complete paragraph.

More than anything I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Shop Update and Some Holiday Crafting

Aloha everyone! :)

I've been slow to update my shop lately so I'm thrilled to finally have these new editions soon to be listed:

Some Itty Bitty Ami Bears sitting in their origami gift bags . . .

And a trio of Bashful Blooming Cacti. Each cactus will now come with an instructional "How to Care for . . . " hang tag. It's an idea that I've been mulling over for ages and I've finally gotten around to doing it.

The tags read --

Caring for your Bashful Blooming Cactus:
1. Situate in a calm, peaceful place away from loud noises and crowds.
2. Encourage it to bloom without being too pushy.
3. Never put your cactus on the spot -- i.e., ask it to sing or if it knows any good jokes.
4. Finally, nurture your cactus by complimenting it everyday.

I'm excited by how the tags turned out! :)


This Christmas I'm attempting to apply the "use what you have" concept to my gift giving. As a platinum card carrying member of the hopelessly craft obsessed, I've amassed a mountain of fabrics, ribbon, yarn, and other supplies over the years. This Christmas is the perfect time for me to use some of my stock and make room for more. I'm being very strict about my "use what you have" philosophy. I won't run out to purchase something else in order to finish a project. Not even small supplies like thread. If I don't have what I need on hand, I'm going to have to improvise. This may not bode well for the friends and family that I will be creating gifts for. However, I am vowing to do my very best not to construct any Franken-presents out of random objects lying about like pipe cleaners, buttons, and toilet paper. I will strive to make things as cute and pretty as possible with what is readily available.

Here is my first "use what you have" Christmas gift project. It's what I came up with after finding way too many balls of red and green yarn in my stash.

I know, I know . . . they're just potholders, but they're cherry potholders so that's sort of cute, right? But then I discovered some cherry print fabric so I plan to make a whole cherry themed kitchen set. This project is still in the beginning stages so I have hopes that it will blossom into something more impressive than it seems. We'll see, I guess. Stay tuned . . .

Finally, the winner of the Kawaii Kitty for last month's Reader Appreciation giveaway is . . . Sew Very Carrie! Thank you for all your support Carrie! I'll contact you soon! :)

Kawaii Kittens!

I've still been in a stitching mood since the Kawaii Koalas so I've been diligently working on some Kawaii Kittens. These kittens were derived from the previous koala pattern. I made a few changes here and there and voilà -- a whole new animal! I've been thinking about adapting the original pattern to make a bunny, a sheep, a monkey . . . the softie possibilities are endless! Sorry, I digress. Back to the Kawaii Kittens . . .

I wanted the kittens to have a sort of country, calico-y feel . . . but still remain stylistically kawaii, if you know what I mean. I thought the best way to achieve this was to use some folksy fabrics for the main part of the fur such as plaid or corduroy, and then use some fun Japanese print linen for the patches. The blanket stitching on the patches definitely adds to their homespun feel, too. I also passed on making them decorative flowers for their ears, which is what I tend to do with most of my softies. Instead, I gave these kittens a simple collar with a golden bell.

Well, here they are:


Here's a how the backside looks like. They have a wavy, little tail:


On a Blythe-ier note, I will be adding these Ice Cream Sundae berets to my shop shortly. I made these awhile back, and they slipped my mind, and I never got around to listing them.

<This "flavor" I call Berry Swirl. I used a pink and white variegated yarn and it makes a nice motley, swirly pattern throughout.

This "flavor" is Blueberry, obviously. :) The yarn is a deep purple-y blue.

For this month's Reader Appreciation Giveaway I wanted to give something really special (to make up for being so willy-nilly about the giveaway the past few months) -- A Kawaii Kitten just for you! This Kawaii Kitty is made from soft blue corduroy and has spots cut from a floral print Japanese dobby. Will someone please give her a good home? Well, you know how this works -- I'll pick a winner at random from this post's comment pool.

Last, but not least . . . the winners of the Hawaiian macadamia nut chocolate boxes from the last giveaway! Thank you for your support Evie and Sandy Michelle! I will contact you both soon!

Thank you for all for dropping by again! Happy crafting! :)

Kawaii Koalas!

Aloha everyone!

I know, I know . . . I've been M.I.A lately, but I have a really good excuse this time! I had an influx of custom orders to do so it was hard to get any fresh crafting done. The custom orders were all amigurumi so by the time I was finished, I felt a need to put my crochet needle down and do something completely different.

I delved into my box of old project ideas and patterns and rediscovered my tried and true koala softie. The koala pattern was the very first softie pattern I ever drafted. I still remember the delight of having an idea in my head slowly come to life in my hands. It felt magical. And it was the spark that ignited my cute and crafty obsession.

I was a wee bit apprehensive when I started the koalas because it has literally been years since I've made one. I was afraid I wouldn't embroider the faces right, that I couldn't re-capture their "spirit". These softies are so different from my amigurumi, whose faces are quiet and humble. With my koalas, the personalities are more lively, their expressions more developed and detailed . . . and I have to render it all with a needle and thread.

Well, here they are:


Here's a close up look of one of their faces along with the crochet twin cherries by her ear:

It wasn't the easiest thing, but I managed alright, I think. :)

Since we spoke last I also managed to whip up some new cards for my blog/ shop. I was getting low on MOO cards, and I was going to order more, but then I thought, "I have this nifty, new laser printer . . . " So I gave it a go with some basic printable blank business cards.

Well, they're nowhere as nice as my former MOO cards, but I think they came out alright just the same, and they were fun to design and a lot less pricey. Here's a tip if you are going to try these at home: The cards I purchased came in perforated sheets. I recommend not tearing them apart. Instead, hold a ruler along the perforated edge and use an exacto knife to cut them apart. The edges just look neater and sharper that way.

Lastly, I've been woefully horrid at keeping up with my monthly giveaway, haven't I? I really am trying. It's just been so difficult to keep up with my blogging lately. I'll definitely try to pick up the pace from now on. Anyway, I have two Reader Appreciation Giveaways this month (an extra to make up for missing last month). My pal P pointed out these super kawaii Hello Kitty mini candy boxes at a local store. Hawaiian Host chocolate covered macadamia nuts are a yummy-licious staple here in the islands and I was surprised to see the character endorsements they have now -- Hello Kitty and Lilo & Stitch just to name a few. P said they'd make the perfect giveaway for my blog and I think he's absolutely right! So you know how it goes -- I will pick two people at random from the comment pool at this post.

Thanks again for dropping by! :)

Cupcake Invasion!

Hello everyone!

It's been awhile since my last post as I have been meandering aimlessly through these past few weeks, which were filled with lovely distractions like fishing, family time, and zombie movies via Netflix.

It's only lately that my mind has ceased contemplating the pros and cons of fast moving zombies vs. slow moving zombies, and re-focused with some nifty, new project ideas. Here's what I've been working on . . .

First off, remember these guys?

Yep, it's my trusty ol' Happy Swirly Cupcakes. If you've been keeping abreast of my blog posts you'll notice that I've been making mini versions of my usual amigurumi. I just love jamming a whole lotta cute into a small package. It's like concentrated cuteness! :) I suppose it was only a matter of time until my big cupcakes got the shrinking treatment, too.

Please meet the Mini Cupcake Cuties! Each mini cupcake stands 3 inches tall from base to frosted tip. I really love the concept of cute meets function in my Happy Swirly Cupcakes and I wanted to keep true to that with these little fellows. Therefore, I made little blank sign boards on which short messages can be written. I think these mini cupcakes make the perfect surprise "for-no-reason-at-all-I-just-wanted-to-tell-you-I'm-thinking-about-you" present. :)

I must say thank you to 6060 Etsy shop, where I got the little bead eyes for my mini cupcakes! They're the perfect fit! :)

Here's a shot of one of my big cupcakes next to it's baby sibling.

And another comparison shot of the cupcake tops. Although I love the look of the swirly frosted, berry tops on the bigger cupcakes, I've been dying to make some frosted sprinkle cupcakes for the longest time, and so I've done on the smaller counterparts.

All of the above will be in my shop shortly, if anyone is interested.

Last, but certainly not least, I must announce the winner of last month's Reader Appreciation Giveaway:

Wasted Wishes -- Thank you for all your support here at my blog! I will contact you soon!

Happy crafting everyone! :)

March of the Amigurumi . . . and July's Reader Appreciation Giveaway!

I've been in a major amigurumi zone lately. For whatever reason I have it in my mind to make them in pairs . . . like some sort of amigurumi version of Noah's Ark.

Here are a pair of Bashful Blooming Cacti.

And a plush Apple Cheek Ami Bear and Bunny duo.

Finally, I made this sweet Itty Bitty Ami Bear twosome.

I thought I'd throw in a random shot of the big ami bear next to the mini one. I just wanted to take a photo for comparison, but it gave me the idea of doing a set -- like a little bear holding her little toy bear. Maybe that will be my next project! :)

Now before I leave . . . this month's Reader Appreciation Giveway are these two adorable Japanese fabric iron-ons. Isn't that blue elephant sweet? Apply them to your tote bag or backpack for instant cuteness! As always I will pick someone at random from the comment pool of this post.

Thank you for coming by!