Here comes the bride and groom

My cousin asked me to make some wedding dolls as a gift for a friend who has getting married. Immediately I thought about using lace for the wedding gown. I was pretty excited to get started, and luckily, everything fell into place in this project.

Everytime I attempt something new, I never really know how it's going to come out. Sometimes it surprises me what can happen when you put yarn and embellishments together. This was one of those times and I got to try something new with lace and paper flowers.

And I just had to take this picture of the groom after the wedding... Too much champagne?

If you love your dogs...

My friend wanted a Christmas stocking made for her sister. I suggested we put on them little puppy heads that looked like her 3 dogs, Yuki, Hana and Chibi. They are yorkie, maltese and morkie dogs.

I've never made a Christmas stocking, so now was the time to learn. I used a Lion Brand pattern that I modified to size and improvised the doggy heads. The stocking needed some color so I embellished it with holly leaves and used felt balls for the holly. (Finally, I found a use for the felt balls I purchased).

I'm giving it to her tomorrow, so hope she likes it...

A reason for everything...

A few days ago, I received a request from a customer to make a cat for her daughter. She wanted it to look like their orange cat "Sam". We discussed it a bit and she sent me photos of Sam, who I fell in love with at first sight. She needed a bigger size than I was used to making so I played with my yarn and made a few prototypes until I thought it was just right. I was excited about my "ball of fury Sam" and posted it on Etsy for her to purchase. Unfortunately, my customer decided to give the assignment to someone else who could make a bigger, more life like cat for less money. I was dissappointed to say the least, but I wished her well and took Sam with me to my mom's bowling league where someone purchased her on the spot!

Every time I work on a special request, it's challenging and time consuming but I usually learn something from the process of being pushed beyond my boundaries. I have been thinking about writing up a new pattern, and I think Sam will be perfect for the project. So now I'm off to making more of Sam's litter mates for the pattern photos. Oh, I think I'll make a black cat, and a grey cat and a calico and.... Oh how fun!

Always look for the silver lining in every situation! :D

Keep those hands clean!

These little purses hold travel size bottles of hand sanitizer. They look simple enough, but it took me many prototypes to come up with this idea. First of all, a friend put a bug in my ear that it would be nice to have a holder for her Purell because she keeps losing it in the bottom of her purse. So I decided to take on the challenge. I had a hard time finding little bottles of Purell around here so I had to buy a case of them online. Next, I played around with different shapes for the holder and decided to make it so that the bottle could be used without removing it from it's holder. I liked the look of these "mini purses" and embellished them with sequin and ribbon flowers. What do you think? Are they cute?

Eddie and Gertie

A few months ago, my husband noticed a stray cat drinking water out of the gutter. Well, that was totally unacceptable, so we started to feed her. She was small, so small, we thought she was a kitten. We feared she was being pursued by neighboring tomcats so we trapped her and had her spayed. We found out she was not a kitten, but a full grown cat and we named her "Gertie". We took care of her in our spare bathroom for a few days, and then released her back outside hoping she would stay with us as an outdoor cat. We were so sad when she did not come back the next day, or the next and as the days went by, I walked the neighborhood looking for her. Then almost a month later, she shows up at our front door! How can a stray cat make you so worried and happy?

Now Gertie is staying with us and she is loving her 3 meals a day of Fancy Feast. We have 2 cats indoors and our male, "Eddie" has taken a liking to Gertie from the beginning. He hates the territorial tom cats that come by and will alert us when he sees them. Eddie takes his job seriously, watching over Gertie's safety day and night.

They have recently created a bond together pawing at each other through the glass patio window. Sometimes I see them lying across from each other looking at each other through the window.

Gertie seems too feral to come indoors and we worry that our other cat will not be happy sharing her attention, so we try to make Gertie as comfortable as possible outdoors. We are enjoying her company so much!

Scappy Cats

For some reason, I'm in the mood to make cats. But of course, I just can't make the same cats...I need to do something different. It all started when I looked into my box of yarn scraps, which you can imagine, I have a good collection. I was inspired by a chunky brown yarn speckled with orange and burgandy. From there, I decided to make some cats inspired by a yarn in my scrap box. Here they are: "Spicy", a burgandy and brown cat; "Rikki", a green and magenta cat, and "Punkie" a turquois blue jewel colored cat.

The Donut Kokeshi Club

Well you see, there's this girl named Mie, and one day while shopping in Shibuya, she found this cool donut thing and thought she'd wear it in her hair. The next day at school, her friends saw it and thought it was "kakoii" (cool) and so they all started to wear them. This was the start of the "Donut Kokeshi Club". And then, there is this girl named Nami who decided to wear a cupcake dress. These crazy girls!

"Ni Hao!" Kai Lan...With Headphones?

This was another special request from one of my best customers. She asked me to make a Ni Hao Kai Lan doll with some removeable headphones. I thought she was a bit nuts (in a cute way), but this is the result. I'm quite proud because she is completely improvised. HOWEVER, I should have written down how I made her because after some people saw her, I ended up with orders for 3 more! Sheesh. She is about 8 inches tall and wide.

Later, I was making more kokeshi dolls and decided to give them the Kai Lan hair style:

My First Craft Show!

Finally, I got my act together and prepared for my first craft show at the Torrance Craftsmen's Guild Spring Faire. What a lot of preparation for a one day show. It took a lot of thought to come up with a display for my "shop". I realize it is a work in progress and it will take some time before I'm happy with it. The theme is a flower garden and the centerpiece is a flower garden cart I've had in storage for a few years. It happened to be the perfect size for my little shop front. I added a garden flag sign and made a shop sign. It was a great starting point. Then I decided on the color scheme...garden green, pink and yellow.



I needed something to display my items, and instead of a shelf, I found a garden fence and used it to hang things on. It worked great and was inexpensive and easy to store.




When I make amigurumi, I want to make something to make people smile, and I'd have to say I saw a lot of smiles today and received a lot of positive feedback! This makes me very happy and suddenly, all that preparation and work paid off big time!

Juggling Cats

I call these “Juggling Cats” because they are just the right size to do that. However, if you are not into juggling, add catnip to the stuffing and give it to your cat to juggle. Or, add a cord and hang them to make people smile. Make them into ornaments, a keychain, a zipper pull...

You need:
Lily Sugar and Cream in colors of your choice.
“G” crochet hook
Polyfiber stuffing
Optional craft eyes (6 mm)
Yarn needle

Body:
Using white yarn color for face:
Make magic ring*, ch 1
Round 1: sc 6 into a magic ring, pull tight.
Round 2: sc 2 into each sc around (12 sc)

Change to yarn color for body:
Round 3: (sc 1 into next sc, then sc 2 into next), around (18 sc)
Round 4: (sc 1 into next 2 sc, then sc 2 into next) around (24 sc)
Rounds 5 to 9: sc around (24 sc)

If you are using plastic safety eyes, place them now.
Round 10: (sc 1 into next 2 sc, sc2tog) around (18)
Round 11 (sc 1 into next sc, sc2tog) around (12 sc)
Stuff with polyfiber.

Round 12: (sc2tog) around (6 sc)
Join with sl st to next st. Fasten off, pull tight to close and hide yarn end.


Ear - (make 2):
Make magic ring, ch 1
Round 1: 4 sc in magic ring (4 st)
Round 2: (sc 1 into next sc, sc 2 into next sc) twice (6 st)
Round 3: (sc 1 into next sc, sc 2 into next sc) three times (9 st)
Join with sl st to next st. Fasten off, leaving long end of yarn.

Tail
Ch 12
2 Sc into 2nd ch from hook, 2 sc into each ch until end
Fasten off, leaving long end of yarn.

Assembly:

Sew ears on top of face. Sew tail on back of body. Embroider some whiskers…and play!

* Don't know how to make a magic ring? Do a search on YouTube to see a demo...

Bunny Pencil Toppers

Okay, so everyone needs one of these, right? Probably not, but they can brighten your day with their cute little faces.

I was inspired by some plastic bunny cabochons that I have. I decided to try to crochet some bunnies in a similar shape and ended up making these pencil toppers. They turned out better than expected...

Meanwhile, in the real world, we are getting a lot of rain this week. It's been awhile since I remember having a good rain. Usually this means my garden turns into a pond, but the rainwater really makes the plants perk up. I guess the city water has too much clorine or something in it. We are in a drought too, so the rain is much appreciated. I'm one of those people who'd rather walk in the rain without an umbrella. So I say, bring it on. I just hope it doesn't hurt the folks threatened by mudslides.