Berry girl amigurumi

Welcome the newest addition to my amigurumi family. Berry was born just yesterday as a gift for a baby, born in the distant lands of America. She will be traveling there soon to meet her baby friend.

Berry's name comes from Strawberry, which was the original idea. Look at her hat, it looks just like a top of the strawberry! And like a true lady, Berry already likes shopping and high teas.


She is brave too, climbing trees and hanging on branches. She loves nature and flowers, and she insists that all her clothing items have flowers on them. Even the bib.

Special gifts for special people

Phil's sister is having a baby, and he's been looking for that perfect gift for her and the baby. That's when I was giving a presentation about my interests, and I included some photos of the amigurumi dolls that I make. Next you know, Phil asks me for a commission. And I gladly accept.

This particular doll had a lot of special requirements. It's for a baby, so no sharp or chokable parts. Yarn needed to be fluffy, but washable. On top of that, the gender of the baby was not known, so I had to come up with "gender neutral" colors and design.

I called him Huggles (cause he is VERY huggable). For the yarn I picked Lincraft Fairy Floss, which is only available in limited colors now. Sad, cause I love it! And I've altered a Japanese pattern I had to make it bigger and more interesting. The result is this adorable and quirky Huggles. He is pretty big, probably the size of the baby! Phil was very happy :)

You can see, he is as tall as the chair back.


And here Huggles is taking a nap...zzZ


Chilling on the Ikea chair, my favourite reading chair.


Inspired, I also finished another Amigurumi I was making for Anne, I called him "office buddy", but Anne came up with an even better name, "null object." Hahaha!



Look for null object on Facebook!

February: Observations & Inspirations

Let's just get right into it, 5 things that I found inspiring this month, and 5 things that could be improved.

Inspiring Bits

1. Cubeecraft, perfect place to learn hand skills, to play and to create something for your workspace. Here is my Cubeecraft creation, Italian Spiderman.
   
   
   
2. http://www.unarmedjavascript.com/ website that teaches JavaScript. What I love about it is that it starts the lessons from the bottom of the page, and you have to work your way up.
   
   
   
3. http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ tool to organize everything. My use of it ranges from keeping track of a todo list, to managing agile projects for my clients.
   
   
   
4. Helvetica Movie
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Watching sunrises... here is my photo from Lady Elliott Island, at about six in the morning
   
   
   

Annoying Bits

1. Airport security. It exists solely to create a perception of safety (or presence of a threat), and it greatly slows down travelers.
2. Cinebuzz asks you if you want to buy discounted $8 tickets, at the same time giving you the option of full-priced $16 tickets. Clicking the hint link yields a not-so-helpful help box.
   
   
   
3. Websites that don't let me pay on the site, i.e. only have pay-by-phone. Nowadays, existence of Paypal makes this inexcusable.
4. Slow or no e-mail responses to inquiries. Usually, if I don't get a response within 24 hours, I take my money elsewhere.
5. Facebook Visual Shelf app has got the social element right, but not navigation. I always find myself puzzled when looking for a page in the app. In addition, there is an ever-present "books" bubble that hovers over My Collection, regardless of what page you are on.
   
   

Previous months
January: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Amigurumi for the Holidays

Hello. Meet Reks! Mischievous and spunky, he is my niece's new friend. But sshhh.... she doesn't know it yet. Of course she is way too young to read blogs, even too young to tie her own shoes, so I think we are ok :)


Reks is soft and fluffy, and 100% baby-safe since he doesn't have any buttons or chokable eyes (actually, they are made of felt). I made the body from a special yarn called "Fairy Floss" purchased from Lincraft. It was a lot of fun to work with it, since I couldn't really see the stitches, and I had to rely a lot on just feeling the loops. It feels incredibly soft, perfect for baby skin.


He is curious, just like his maker, lol. And he has a friend (below). This little guy is called "waterdrop dude" or "the happy dude", and he likes to hang out on my shelf next to the books and brushes. Happy Dude was the first Amigurumi I ever made, so cute! Now my co-worker wants me to make him one, hehe.


And this is "sleepy Sarah" made from a pattern by Owlishly. She is offering this pattern for FREE. You can get it here!


Oh, I just love making these little toys, and each one develops its own personality through the creation process. I discovered Amigurumi quite accidentally by attending a crochet circle at my local shop Tapestry Craft. The teacher had a bunch of books with patterns, and from then on it just snow-balled. This Holiday season I am making hand-made gifts for everyone!

Love, peace and creative energies to all :)

Now My iPod Has a Home

How My iPod Got a Home

Like many of her brothers and sisters, my silver iPod Nano is enjoying a happy and productive life. The only sad part of her life has been the lack of permanent home in my purse to tuck away all her wonderful cords and strings.


I have finally decided to help my iPod out by building her a soft and cozy home. I am currently inspired by the Japanese Amigurumi toys and Softies, so I decided to try my hand at crochet.

This is my iPod happily napping inside her soft and comfy pouch.


... and the back view


... and the zoom on the buttons. My friend said that it looks like a face.
I agree ~:-)

If you would like to see the pattern for this iPod Nano case, I would be happy to share it. Just leave a comment, and I'll post it right up!

Piperoid - Made in Japan

Ooohh, it's almost end of November, and this is my first post this month! That's because I've been super busy at college. It was end of the semester, and every assignment was due within a 2-week period. But now it's all done done! *:-)

Now that I have more time, there are many posts to come with all the Billy Blue assignments and other things I've made. Here is a cool idea of "toys for adults". A way to nurture and develop that creative energy that lives withing us all. It's called PIPEROID... what will the Japanese come up with next.

From http://piperoid.jp/en/:

Please Remember the Excitement
Do you still remember how excited you were to make handicrafts when you were a child? The process to create things with one’s own hands is always thrilling. Why don’t we, adults, enjoy such a sense of excitement, too? Piperoid has been launched in the hope to stimulate adults’creative minds and open the door to familiarity with handicrafts.

Piperoid is creative handicrafts produced in Japan, which transforms into a robot by assembling paper pipes. It is possible to show a wide range of expressions through little pose adjustments due to its movable joints made of minimal material, paper pipes.

Awesome!