Happy Planner Joy!!

After stalking Happy Planners online for some weeks (months?) I FINALLY bought one.  I used a coupon at Hobby Lobby and managed to snag the ONLY Peony-themed one in the store.  I love it!  I LOVE IT!  I.  LOVE.  IT.

Since I'm more of a bullet journaler, I REALLY appreciate being able to move things around if I later decide I want them in different places.  I'm not a super-great organiser.  Sometimes just knowing that I have to get it all planned out and get it written in the space allowed without forgetting anything is enough to cripple me from the start.  With this planner, I haven't felt any of that.  It's so freeing! :D

I made a fun Alice-in-Wonderland-themed charm for it:

I also created a sticky-note holder that's made from a Little Twin Stars sticker I got when I was about 8 years old.  It's laminated onto cardstock, edged in washi tape, and punched to fit. I laminated and punched some other cute papers for note-making as well.

And finally, I made an adorable Sumikko Gurashi page-marker, also laminated, that's great for making daily notes in wet-erase marker.  I love it so much that I made another one for my Etsy shop:

Ah!  I just adore these little characters! :D

BJD Sewing and Sushi Mania!

I've been doing a lot of sewing lately.  Hand sewing used to drive me batty, but now (especially since mastering the backstitch), I find it really calming.  Kiki got a sweater made from 2 different socks.  Dollar Tree often has great socks to use for sewing. I made the arms nice and long to be super cosy.  LOVE how it came out! :D  I'm also working on a milk carton plushie for her.  It needs stripes and a face still, but I'm really happy with the design.

 

And then I went on a sushi binge.  Cushions for all sizes!  I think I like the orange better than the pink, but I'm really happy with all of them.

 

 And, finally, a fun planner charm or bag charm.  He's a friendly guy. ^_^  I made it with a clip on top for easy attachment.  Super happy with this guy, too. :)

Cushions, Cushions, Cushions!!

I felt the need to make some cushions of various textures.  These work great for MSD, YoSD and Playscale.   Complementary colours tie them all together.  They're SUPER squishy, too! :)

Filofax Fun

I could easily become a planner addict.  I love looking at all the amazing layouts people do, and the fun goodies they use.  And they always look so crisp and organised.  Sadly, I'm not that organised, but I do keep a bullet journal.  And I love to scrapbook, though I seem to craft in phases - sewing phase, knitting phase, scrapping phase, clay phase, etc.  I found some really fun summer papers and made some scalloped summer papers for scrapping or filofax fun.

 

Check them out at SnootyCow, my Etsy shop. :)

Mori Hats, Hair Clips, and Alpaca Bag :)

I've been caught up in my final edit.  Writing my cover letter next, then off to a publisher it goes!

In the meantime, I made some goodies for my store. :)

 

Another view of the Alpaca Bag, complete with dangly bag charm. ^_^

And I made a fun doughnut cushion, too!. ^_^

Sweet Lolita and a Free Pattern

I am a closet admirer of Lolita fashions.  They aren't something I could ever get away with wearing, but I would love a world where you could see fabulous dresses like that as a matter of course.  Fortunately, my BJDs *can* get away with it, and I'm having fun making sweet little things for them.  I just put some new hair clips and a scarf in my shop.  Here's what the clips look like:

There are a few more shown in my shop, but you get the idea.


And here's the scarf: 

 

 I'd never tried the "cross stitch" before, but I adore how it looks, and I'm in love with this yarn, too.  Here's how you can make your own:

Needles: #2 (2.75mm)
Yarn: Bernat Softee Baby Little Bo Peep (or any #3 / DK yarn)

CO 7 stitches
Row 1: Slip the first stitch Kwise, *Knit into the BACK of the 2nd stitch on L needle.  Without dropping the stitch from the needle, Knit into the BACK of the 1st stitch on L needle and let both drop from L needle.*  Repeat steps between *s to end.
Row 2: Slip the 1st stitch Pwise.  *Wyif Purl into the 2nd stitch on L needle on the side NEAREST you.  Without transferring stitch, Purl into the 1st stitch on L needle on side NEAREST you, then let both drop from L needle.* Repeat steps between *s to end.

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until your scarf reaches the desired length.  Add fringe to both ends! :)

In case my description is tricky to understand, here's a good video.

It's in the Bag!

Now that it's back to school time, I thought some kawaii bags were in order, so I made a bunch of cute star bags for 1/4 and 1/6 size BJDs.  I got some adorable plastic chain to use for the straps, though some of them will also have really cool anodized aluminum chain.  I used sterling silver jump rings to attach the straps to the bags.  These were super fun to make! 

Wow, I really need to decide on a name for my sweet girl.  

I spent most of yesterday tearing apart the BILLY bookcases in the living room and rearranging everything.  Dags helped me disassemble and reassemble one that MuNKi and I had put together partly upside-down years ago. :-/  Although you could only tell by looking at it from the stairs or loft, it's good to finally have it fixed, LOL!

And now that it's Fall-ish, I've restarted the Harry Potter series AGAIN.  Love, love, LOVE that world!  

I'm still fixing up a shelf for the doll's home.  It's really coming along nicely!  And my use of The Secret for bringing in cash has bagged me another birthday party gig at the dojang.  Huzzah!  Now to sell some star bags! ^_^

Pin-Up Girls

I was tired of only finding oversized (for my taste) hair clips for BJDs, so I made some adorable little hairclips with sweets on them.  So far, I've only listed the biscuits, but I really love how they turned out.  The clips are only 2 cm long, and with the added embellishments, they still come in under 2.5 cm!  They're lightweight, too, so they don't weigh down the dolls' hair.  I'm really tickled with them!  The others have little cakes, doughnuts, popsicles and waffles.  I'm hoping to get some pics and get them listed tomorrow.  The biscuit clips (pictured) come in Candyfloss, Chocolate, Lemon, Grape, and Mint.  Pippa and her friend really like them. :)  Yeah, the little one badly needs a name.  I just love her to bits.  I haven't settled on her eye colour though.  She came with violet, but I may switch them out.  In fact, she may get Pippa's, and Pippa might get green. Or brown.  Or. . . ^_^

In other news, it's time for finalizing loans for Mollusc for the remainder of her tuition.  Gulp!  And we need to get a wee laptop for Gordo to use for note-taking, and make sure that he and Kacey have everything they need for school.  Orientation is THIS FRIDAY! O_O

I recently listened to the Ruby Red trilogy (by Kerstin Geir) and now I'm listening to Book 2 of the Dust Lands Trilogy.

We're also watching Fullmetal Alchemist.  I've read up through book 22, but I'd better finish before we catch up on the vids!

Have Your Cake and Wear it, Too

I just partnered with Pixie Faire™ so that I can make things from their patterns to sell in my Etsy shop!  They have some really adorable patterns, and I've already listed this Chocolate Cupcake Beret that I modified from one of the patts on their site.

I love how the white yarn has confetti sprinkles already worked into it. :)  I had a hard time getting the doll to pose for me, but she finally cooperated when I offered her a cookie. ^_^

In other news, I came up with this IKEA SCRAPBOOKING HACK:

 

These are all things from IKEA's kitchen section!  They are: A packet of grid-lined paper lunch bags, a roll of date stickers (fill in the last 2 of the year, circle the month and day), and a set of tags.  I'm using them to make some paper bag albums for the grandmas. :) #Winning!

And HEY!  It's Fishy's 16th birthday today!  Can you believe it?  Here's a pic of him and Mollusc from our WI trip:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GOGO!!!!

Roar, Roar, Gryffindor!!

I'm about to start re-reading the Harry Potter books for the umpteenth time.  There's something about this time of year that make me just love living in that world.  OK, OK, I always love living there. Add to that that GuTTer MuNKi's mom gave us an American Girl doll when we visited last week (she used to work there before Mattel bought it), and THEN I found this adorable pattern on NyanPon.com, and I just HAD to make this:

 

Fun!  It's a great way to show Gryffindor pride at a Quidditch match, don'tcha think?  It's for sale now in my Etsy shop - just in time for Back-to-school!  Huzzah!  And I decided to offer a surprise dolly freebie if someone orders it before the end of August.  Does that seem like a decent idea?  We'll see.

In other news, we had a GREAT time visiting our families in Wisconsin, and miss them all like crazy.  Also, we went to Yue Wah (my fave Asian market in Madison) on our way out of town, and I tried Ramune for the first time (melon flavour.)  I am FASCINATED by it.  It's so tasty, and I love popping the glass ball down for that sparkling FIZZZZZZzzzzzzz!

Sooooo gooooood!  Can't wait to get another one. :)  I'm going to have to go to One World, soon!

To Cap it All Off

The morning after my birthday, I woke up to find that I'd made my first Etsy Sale!!!  The order was for a pair of over-the-knee fairy key socks for 1/4 scale BJDs.  I popped a couple of freebies in the envelope and mailed that sucker off!  Postage has gone up since I last checked, and it cost more than I'd anticipated to mail my wee package, but I still made a small profit.  As soon as I got home, I bumped up the shipping on everything to meet the new rates.  I'm not a huge fan of the new rates, but I do appreciate the free tracking.

I've been having some creative fun in the last couple of days.  First off, I made myself a summery bag from some Flower Fairies fabric I'd been saving:

 This is the Elva Bag pattern from Bags, The Modern Classics.  I ended up tweaking the flap because it was too short -- maybe my 1/2" seam allowance was too large; I'll confess to not actually bothering to read that part.  Or maybe the flap is just too short for my taste.  Anyway, I love how it turned out in spite of the fact that I didn't have enough of any 1 (or even 2) kinds of interfacing, and then completely forgot to use the interfacing I'd cut for the side/bottom piece.  I ended up making a bottom stabilizer and LOVE how that works, because the bag is more collapsible than if I'd remembered the stabilizer, LOL!

I simply cut a piece of cardboard to fit, and covered it with the green fabric.  Win!


 Next, I crocheted a couple of summery BJD beanies for my shop.  Of course, now Pippa is asking for one of her own.

Now I really need to come up with a name for Pippa's little sister, who is on her way from China even as we speak.  Oh, and I should probably make her some clothes.  I don't know much about her yet, having not met her, but I'm pretty sure she's not a nudist.

Sweets for the Sweet

 

More decoden goodies are in my shop! :)

Random thoughts of the day:

~*~ Did I mention that I'm teaching Martial Arts again?  I missed teaching. :)  I've been doing it for about 2.5 years at the new place.  The 4 of us who do this style tested for blackbelt back in Feb, so now I have 2 different 1st degrees, LOL!  I'm loving this new style, as it's way better for the joints, but still has tons of power (actually, more!)  And I'm still playing soccer.  Hooray for exercise that's so fun it feels like play, not work!

~*~ I adore the Flavia DeLuce series by Alan Bradley.  Excellent stuff! 

A Dalliance with Dolls

There is this REALLY slippery slope you may have heard of.  It's called hoarding collecting.  I have 3 Sasha dolls from my youth, and they are still alive and well.  Two were bought with hard-earned baby-sitting money when I was about 15 (and feeling REALLY self-conscious about buying dolls!)  The third was one my mom bought, and later gave to me when she was paring down to move into a smaller place.  Here's one of them sporting a dress I knitted from this Ravelry Pattern:

After buying them, I left the precarious slopes of doll-collecting (but not doll-enjoying, LOL) and managed to stay away for a few decades until last month when I bought Päivi to be a model for some of my Etsy creations.

She does a fabulous job of showing off my wares, and I just love her! (She's actually a J-Doll, called Esplanadi Katu , and I bought here there at Pullip Style, which is an awesome site!)  I then discovered that there's this whole WORLD of collectors out there, and that many of the really serious ones are into ball-jointed dolls, or BJDs.  BJDS are VERY well-articulated, well-crafted dolls, usually made from resin and internally strung.  Most have hair and eyes that can be easily changed.  I find it astounding how many different looks people can get out of the same sculpt.  And these dolls are MEANT to be used - dressed, re-wigged, re-painted, you name it.  Unlike most collector dolls, they are NOT meant to stay in a box. They are more about art and expression, which I think is fabulous.

 If you want 1/6 scale (roughly 20-30 cm range), there are plenty of child-like sculpts, but for a teen or adult in that scale, you'll most likely have to build your own from an Obitsu body or the like.  For those more mature sculpts, the more readily available dolls are in 1/4 and 1/3 scale.  They are A.  Maze.  Ing.  At about 40-45cm for the 1/4 scale, they would be a lot easier to sew for, too.  I really mulled this over, because I didn't want to take the plunge precipitously, you know?  Even though I did a driving gig at MuNKi's company which paid rather nicely (here's where I casually drop in how much fun it was to drive military convoy simulators through mountain desert settings while under fire) I just didn't know if I could truly justify such an expenditure.  Except at least half of my kids want to work in video-game design - possibly 3/4 of them.  And they could really benefit from access to a FABULOUS model, who is MUCH better articulated than Mr. Twisty. Right?

So I'm starting with a more modestly priced doll, but when I've made enough on Etsy and craft show sales, I plan to buy my "grail" doll from Dreaming Doll in Korea.  They very graciously gave me permission to use her photo here.  Isn't she gorgeous?  The Prawn is in love with her, too.  More lovely pictures if you click the pic, so feast your eyes, and dream with me. :)
 

Decoden Madness!

OK, so there's this Japanese craft/art called Decoden that I've totally fallen in love with.  Basically, you have all the fun of super-fancy cake decoration, but it LASTS FOREVER!!!! O_O

I've decorated my share of fancy cakes over the years, let me tell you, and it's always a bit disheartening that the things take way less time to eat than they do to create.  With Decoden, you get to do fancy piping (many creatrixes, including myself, use silicone caulk - yep you heard me right!) and then stud it with sweet little cabochons and fancy jewels, sprinkle on some glitter or glass microbeads, and voilà!  To make it even more fun, you can create your own cabochons out of polymer or air-dry clays.  (OMG, Delight paper clay is so aptly named!)  I make it sound easy, and once you get the hang of it, it's not hard, but it can be time-consuming.  Fortunately, it's also really fun!  Oh, and don't even get me started on the joys of "baking" the cookie pieces with chalk pastels.  It's really exciting to see them come to life! :)

Decoden is often used to decorate storage boxes or jars, pencil cases, and cell phone covers.  I've also used the techniques I've learned to make tiny cupcake and pie pendants and magnets.  Fun!

And maybe the best part of all is that Decoden treats are sugar- and calorie-free. ^_^

So here's a tiny sampling of some of the things I've made.  They're already in my shop, and I'll be adding more as soon as I can take pics! :)

Facio Ergo Sum

As the world keeps moving faster, it seems we've progressed from books to newspapers and magazines, then to blogs, to Facebook, to Twitter and Vines.  Next we'll probably be at 2-second vids.  Short and sweet is the theme of the year month day hour minute.  Even the planet itself is becoming impatient, with earthquakes in Chile and Japan (among others) shortening the length of Earth's days.

More quickly than I can believe, my kids are growing up.  Mollusc is off to one of the nation's top design schools next year. (Nationally in the top 3, #1 in the Midwest.)  Her first 2 years of college have yielded straight 4.0s (Yay homeschooling!  And OK, it doesn't hurt that she's brilliant and a hard worker.)  and she'll transfer to this much more expensive school with the bulk of her liberal arts courses already completed and a nice scholarship to boot.  Sluggie is at this moment in San Antonio at Nerd Nation as an officer with the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, (of which Mollusc is also a member.)  Fishy is off to Middle College next year, too, which will leave only the Prawn at home with me.  And so, with fewer kids to teach, I've been creating more and getting back to writing as well. My age-old fear of failure has me still re-writing the book I've been writing for years, but I'm going to pull the trigger, finally, as I have other books cooking that want to come out. My self-imposed deadline for submission is June.  In the meantime, I procrastinate whenever possible by doing this: