my little mochi

Tiny Bubbles

Part of our boy's day celebration last weekend included a demonstration by my niece of the mentos and diet coke experiment. I'd heard a little bit about it before but never actually watched any of the viral videos going around the net.

My brother bought some sort of device made especially for loading the mentos into the diet coke bottle.

So all you had to do was load the mentos in the canister and then fit it over the top of a bottle of diet coke.  The mentos drop into the coke by pulling on the string attached. After everything was set up we all stepped back and....

Bam! Diet Coke geyser. Pretty darn cool!

girls need not apply

How was your weekend? We had our annual Boy's Day Celebration at my parent's this weekend. This year my aunty dressed Buddy in kimono complete with hakama and haori jacket which apparently is perfect for doing the robot dance in. And our boy's day celebration isn't complete without koi nobori kakimochi and yummy mochi made by my mom for us to eat and share with his class on Monday. 

Buddy also got this very cute kabuto picture from my aunty, made from fabric glued onto cardboard shapes. And as a special boy's day present, Buddy woke me Sunday morning to a brand new hairstyle, which he fashioned all by himself - using Elmer's glue and water. Sigh. Although, I guess I should be grateful he didn't decide to give the cat a makeover too.

Happy Boy's Day everyone!

getting all my ducks in a row

Howzit? Long time no see! I can't believe its been almost a month since my last post. Among other things, I've been working on getting my craft room in order, but it's been so hard. How do you organize your stuff? Some of it is a no-brainer like yarn, crochet thread, fabric. But then when I start getting into the tiny and miscellaneous stuff like floral tape I find myself at a loss for how to store them. I also still haven't figured out what to do with WIPs, especially when you have tons of WIPs. Do you leave them out to motivate you to finish it? Store it away? Store it in it's own space or keep it with similar materials? What about scraps? Since I make so much tiny stuff it's almost impossible to throw even the smallest scraps away because I know I'll be able to find a use for it someday. But what do I do with it in the meantime?

On a totally different note, these are some wee clay toys I've been making to go with my crochet babies that I've been working on for the shop. What do you think babies like best? Rubber duckies? Mochi cats?

o
Takos?

o
Any thoughts little guy?

Little lion, elephant, monkey

So there's possibly nothing more boring on a craft blog than posting about how busy you are and how you have no time to post but um, well I've been really busy and er, you get the picture. Anyway, I don't have anything new to share right now because of the busy-ness but I hate pictureless posts so here's a past project I don't think I posted before.

These little linen pouches were made for the Crafters Companion Book that I was fortunate to be a part of almost two years ago. I only provided a pattern for the elephant for the book but I decided to make the lion and monkey one too and sent them along with the elephant to be photographed for the book.

They all evolved from these pouches, which look a lot different from these. They're all actually the same size but the lion one looks really small here and even in person, I think it's because of the mane.

Gotta go, back soon!

No, I do not like your hat!

Goodbye!

I going make you eat um!

I don't want to eat it. You eat it.

"No way man, I ain't eating it. You eat it."



Okay fine, I'll eat it. But I swear the little bugger is looking at me.
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Just a quick post of some ami-tako's I made for Buddy a couple months back. They were really quick to make just an ami ball with some simple single crochet legs. I actually made a bunch more but these were all I could gather up. Mochi is crazy about them as well so I'm sure there's at least a few under the sofa.

And thank you everyone who sent their well wishes for the shop and a special thanks to those who purchased the tutorial! As usual I've been really busy at my day job and haven't had time for much crafting or blogging but I hope to put some finished crochet babies and maybe some finished baby kokeshi in the shop soon.

Happy Easter to all who celebrated this weekend! Back soon.

Baby Kokeshi Dolls from my little mochi shop

For a while now I've been wanting to start a little shop to sell patterns and other items I've designed, but up until today I haven't been able to find the time. So I'm so excited to post that I've finally set up shop and my first item is a pattern and tutorial for these little baby kokeshi dolls.

I designed these as gifts for Girl's Day this year and they are just under 1 1/2" (38 mm) in height and so much fun to make. The pattern and tutorial is available as a 9 page PDF file that features color photographs with a material list, step by step instructions, and lots of tips.

It was a challenge trying to keep the PDF file size down since I included so many photographs, but I wanted to make sure that there was enough steps that even a beginning crafter would find it a breeze to make. And it really is, I promise!

I'm not good at self promotion but I really hope you'll be as excited about your baby kokeshi as I am. Make some for yourself or as gifts for friends. They're the right scale for decorating your Re-ment or other doll house miniatures and the perfect size kokeshi doll for all you Blythe fans as well. Here's one sitting in Miss Kitty's living room.

I also include some ideas for other uses for your finished kokeshi and an option for turning it into a bead. So if you want to learn how to make a baby kokeshi, go to my shop site. Mahalo nui loa everyone!

Purple is the new black

Tomorrow's Girls Day and I've been working on a little something that I had hoped to post today but it's not quite ready. Yesterday we had our annual Girls Day celebration at my parent's with Japanese dolls, kimono dress up and special girl's day treats. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so instead here's a pic of a chibi kitty I made last week. Not related to hinamatsuri at all, but at least she's a girl cat.

Happy Girls Day everyone! Back soon.

chirpy chirpy cheep cheep!

Wow! Mahalo everyone for all the nice comments on Cece and Lou. I did a quick tally and I think most people decided Cece and Lou become friends, but boy, it was pretty close. And thanks so much to all who suggested doing a children's book. I'm beyond flattered! It's always so much fun getting all the props together and setting up the shots. Sigh. Maybe someday when I can find the time.

I've been crazy busy at my day job again so not much going on to blog about. But in keeping with the bird theme, I offer up this little clay birdie.

He's actually a pencil topper that I made for Buddy, thinking maybe I'd do more for Easter goodie bags for his class. But the idea got nixed after he discovered that with a slight flick of his wrist the little bird could "fly" off the end of his pencil and through the air quite nicely. Have a great rest of the week!

Cece

It was on a Monday morning that Cece woke up in despair,
when she discovered that all of her cupboards were bare.
And though she was dying for even a small snack,
not a morsel was to be found in her little shack. So she donned her kerchief and set off down the road,
Only pausing for a second to bid goodbye to her friend toad, The market was her destination for that day,
but the sky quickly grew dark, and the clouds turned gray. She sought the shelter of a nearby leaf,
and was quite delighted at what she found underneath. It was a caterpillar looking quite yummy,
the perfect thing for her very hungry tummy! "Ahem, how do you do, Miss Chick-a-dee!"
"Oh excuse me, Mr. Caterpillar, were you talking to me?" "Why, yes. I'd love to introduce myself to you.
Salutations and greetings, please call me Lou." "It's nice to meet you Lou, my name is Cece.
but I have to say you're looking rather tasty!" "Oh, Miss Cece, I beg you, please don't eat me.
I just signed a mortgage on a brand new tree."

"Besides, don't you know? Caterpillars taste bad,
I promise that if you ate me, your outlook would be sad."

"And really you look like a compassionate chick,
wouldn't you rather leave me alone on my stick?'

As much as Cece tried to see it from Lou's view,
she couldn't help but think of caterpillar stew.

So dear readers, I ask you, did Lou and Cece become friends?
or did the caterpillar never see the chick grow up to be a hen?