#ThrowbackPatternThursday

Hello everyone! Taking my idea from last month with Donatello, I have decided to revisit another old pattern that I found when I was just learning to crochet.

These are "Pop Tart Cats." I made them for a feline loving friend four years ago for her birthday. Honestly, most of my crochet went to friends as gifts so you will be reading that story through out the #Throwback project.

They're cute and lovely, but their pastry needs some new filling. I decided to do something new this time around and give them more of that classic Pop Tart look. Think Nyan Cat, but no rainbows and song.

The first one I'm working on is "Oreo Cookie." The other one will be strawberry "flavored." I'm excited to see how these will look fresh from the toaster!

Have you gone back to redesign an old pattern, readers?

Happy hookin!
Bertie

#Pattern Revists 1

I've been crocheting since 2009/2010 when I found an extremely helpful book in the high school library. Crochet became my go to for present making. Birthdays, weddings, Christmas, you name it.

Around May 2010, I crocheted my friend Anaiza the four ninja turtles for her birthday. Yeah, we're a little old for dolls, so what? They were ooo'd and awwwww'd over and (in my opinion) won the best gift. I was really proud of those dolls.

Now, looking back at the pictures in my craft album, I wonder how much I've improved. Certainly my shapes have gotten better and I no longer use googly eyes as often.

Yesterday, I decided to return to the pattern that I used to make these dolls. This was originally posted by underthemountain on craftster. Find it here. It really is a wonderful pattern. I noticed right off that I was able to read it better and go a little bit faster.

I only made one doll. It took about 5 or less hours for me to complete it. And it turned out waaaay better than these four.

It's really cool to be able to use the same pattern and have it turn out differently years later. I'm glad to see improvements in my skill.

I will probably be doing more of these as I have a lot of patterns that I would like to retry now that I have more experience.


If you love this doll as much as I do, you can pick him up here for $15.

New life

I'm currently in the process of painting my living room. When I moved in almost two years ago, I was greeted with cracking white paint on the walls and an orange door. I wasn't in the market for glamor. However, I've been given an opportunity to change up my living space. No longer stuck in suffocating white, I'm relaxing in a light, sage green and wanting to be surrounded by life. Still a couple years away from starting a family, though.

Going with the easier route of decorating my living room with nature. It makes me really excited since I have two DIY ideas that I'm currently working on. One is a daisy chain motif that I saw here. I can see it so plainly hanging over my couch.  My second idea is centered around the yarn wrapped wreaths that are all over Pinterest.

When you have a lot of yarn like me, you constantly think of ways to quickly use up the stash. I've been wanting to make a wreath for the longest time, but haven't really had the inspiration. All the wreaths I've seen are pretty, but not for my home. Since I decided to go with the nature theme, it was easy to come up with what I wanted.

I bought a flora craft wreath at Walmart after my shift and started digging through my stash drawer. I chose a dark brown, light blue, and green. It was fairly easy to get started, however it is time consuming. Speaking in Netflix terms, I was able to make it through an episode of Leverage, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and begin Medium.

I really like how it came out and excited to see my vision enter the 3D world. The base is supposed to represent the sky and a tree. I wrapped another strand of green around the brown part and plan to add small crocheted leaves of the same color. Also adding more embellishments like a bird, sun, and some flowers.

Can't wait till I'm sitting in my perfect living room with my honey bunny. <3 I'm not really sure how to voice my excitement over this in a way that is not happy babbling. This fresh coat of paint has really made my mood soar!

How do you use your crafting/DIY spirit to decorate your home and really make it your space?

Onigiri Adventures!

Recently I listed a set of three rice balls. They're fun and perfect for playing restaurant. Posting them inspired me to make my (edible) onigiri!

I live in semi small town, so I was a little worried about finding the basic ingredients. According to a friend who joined me in this adventure, our Walmart only recently starting carrying rice wine. I had a hard time finding some affordable sushi rice because of how the store organizes items.

Thankfully, rice balls don't take that much to make. All the recipe I found here called for was sushi rice, seaweed, and a choice of filling. I chose to use salmon, chicken, and octopus.

On Saturday morning, I got up early to go to the park to exercise with some friends. Afterwards, we all came back to my place to make rice balls and stir fry. It was pretty fun though none of us could really make the ball thing work. The recipe said to make sure to wet our hands.....that was kind of neglected. So most of the rice ended up on our hands. It was also hard to keep a ball formed, even though the rice was pretty sticky.

Rice glove!

Sooooo......we turned it into poor kid's sushi.

They tasted really good and went well with the veggie stir fry! Perhaps next time we'll do it a little more by the book if we want actually rice balls. Till then, I found a nice little way to fix my sushi cravings and add a nice side to the reg stir fry dinner.

Readers, do you have any experience with making your own rice balls? What fillings are your favorite?

Bertie

6/6/2014

Happy Etsy Craft Day, everyone!

If you follow my Facebook fan page you might have heard that I had been planning a party for today. Unfortunately scheduling with my work did not work out and I was derailed in some of the planning process due to my depression. Hopefully, everyone has a great day full of crafting anyway!

I'm currently working on recreating the dress I had made for my Maria doll. A friend, who has ordered from me twice before, fell in love with the ruffley dress and wanted it for her latest doll. It's definitely going to be a learning experience since the original outfit is a physical part of the doll and must now be made removable. I can make a simple dress, so the skirt and torso part will be a breeze. However, the off the shoulder ruffle and sleeves will need some thinking.

I'm excited to see the finished dress though since I'm using a lovely dark green and the doll will have a mass of curly red hair to really set it off!

Original Dress

Yesterday, I made a trip to my favorite store, Micheals. My bank account isn't completely empty, but I'm really excited to get into my purchases! Since my interest in embroidery is expanding, I picked up some transfer paper because my drawing skills have really declined. I also picked up an iron transfer pen to make my own transfers from illustrations I have around the house.

For my first transfer project, I am going to use a white string knapsack that I also bought at Mike's to make something for myself. Which is completely unheard of. I can't decide if I want to make it something to advertise my Etsy with or to just have it be all queer and angry.

I also bought a cross stitch apron pattern to make for my sweet Alice. It has three cupcakes and says the "Sweet Life." She seems excited by it, so I'm eager to start it so she'll have a cute apron to wear. She currently has a mustard yellow apron that I've been saying I'll embellish, but haven't been inspired.

So, with all these things to do, I've decided to add more to my weekend projects. Today, I listed a set of three crocheted rice balls for play food. This has inspired me to make actually onigiri! The recipes have assured me that it isn't too hard, but I'm still very excited!

Like a lot of modern American teenagers, a lot of my exposure to Japan came through anime and manga. Rice balls stuck out to me because of how common they were in any book I picked up- but they were legit customizable! I plan to make them for the first time ever on Saturday, so look out for a blog post covering them in the next few days!

This is going to be an interesting/busy week. And Orange is the New Black is back today!!!!!! This is a great Friday!

Happy crafting (and Netflix bingeing!)

Bertie

Burgers are good, burgers are great

It's summer time, folks! Time to wheel out the grill and show your buddies who makes the best burgers in your area. Kids can have the pool and the sunshine, you have what's most important- burgers.

Burgers come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. You can have a quarter pounder with cheese, a beltbuster with guac, or a turkey burger with chipotle mayo.

I love burgers. I love turkey burgers. Bean burgers. Veggie burgers. Chicken burgers. Nothing beats a solid patty loaded up with lettuce, bacon, tomato, and sandwhiched between Brioche buns. (They recently started serving one of my favorite chicken sandwiches on those at Jack in the Box. Soooo much goodness.)

 I recently made a burger similar to this one. Just gonna make a few changes to the ingredients list.

Fiesta Turkey Burger

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 small white onion (though I would have liked to use 1/2 of a red onion)
• 2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced green onion
• 1/4 of a cup minced fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano 
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 slices pepperjack cheese, cut into quarters 

Literally the best burger ever. I had brought it for lunch at work and I could not wait to eat it!

Speaking of burgers, I just put up a crochet version of yummyness in the shop. Feel free to show off your love for burgers in a healthy way or use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about what makes a good burger so tasty.

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/xBlueUnicornCrafts/stats/listing/191489049#

Happy grilling!

Bertie

Update!

I'm finally done with all things school related for the semester. Got out pretty good- one B amongst a sea of A's! :D Even managed to dig myself out of my project hole.

Got my Mother's Day stuff done:

This is for my Mother in Law.

This is for my Nana. Used her favorite bible verse

My mother is pretty hard to craft for so I took the easy way out with flowers and lunch with my sister in tow.

I did a patch for a friend to get some practice out of the way. I found a 10 pack of rectangular patches for a $1 at Wal Mart. Didn't know what to put on them until her!

"Octocutie" patch!

Still got a few projects I'm working on. One is Gunter from Adventure Time! Hopefully he'll be done by the weekend. Here's what I got on him so far.

13" on SC in black -.-

There's some more needlework in my hoop. This is meant for a friend's house warming- so hopefully I'll get it done by tomorrow. I need to add a frame of flowers and birds.....need to get an actual frame too.....

We're humorous. ^^

So even without school, I'm a busy little bee. Thankfully, I actually enjoy this. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more cross stitch this summer!