Olive-ia

So this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down...

Or not.

The thing about being a craft sort of person and having the nerve to tell people about it is that they then want you to, you know, CRAFT something for them. Watching me knit the soldier scarf, my best male friend requested a granny square blanket. WTH? What 30 year old man wants a granny square blanket? Anyway- I told him no but secretly started making one anyway. Seeing me start that blanket one of my best girl friends requested one, too. Arg. She has been told she is on a waiting list and can, at best, expect one Christmas 2011.

Then came Olivia. I posted a photo album on Facebook called "Stuff I made out of yarn" and put all my recent creations there. I got lots of positive feedback and a possible crochet date with a friend of a friend... so that was nice. I also got a comment from a high school classmate who not so subtly hinted that her newborn would LOVE something made for her.

I have this thing about babies and handmade things. My maternal grandmother was an avid crocheter. She is, in fact, the one who taught me to hook at the ripe old age of 7. I have multiple blankets in many sizes as well as a few dresses and sweaters made by her hands. Although knitting (and on a smaller scale, crocheting) is making a come-back, I still don't see many handmade things at baby showers and it makes me sad. So I've become the "auntie" who fills this role. I'm still on a quest to find a quick & easy amigurumi pattern I can churn out multiples of for Project Night Night.

So... there's Olivia. Daughter of a 30 year old rocker chick. I'm guessing she probably isn't swimming in hand-knitwear. So how can I, an easily guilt-ridden Catholic, deny her the opportunity to have something handmade for her. But... I'm also a crocheter swimming in works-in-progress. So I took the semi-easy way out.

I took RoxyCraft's Bunny Boo pattern and altered it, making a cute little olive. I flattened the top and then angled it up a bit to mimic the hole in a green olive. Obviously I omitted the ears and tail. Instead, I added a small circle of red for the pimento. I added a face (remembering to keep the eyes set low and wide this time) and, to make her more feminine I stitched a little bow to the side of her head.



Oh amigurumi, how I adore thee.

Olive-ia will me mailed off to Miss Olivia today, and hopefully make it to Vegas in time for Easter. Because nothing says "Jesus is Risen" like an anthropomorphic cocktail garnish.

Chocolate Bunny

I bought this set of patterns on etsy several weeks ago. You've already seen my main reason for the purchase: Miss Kiana's Hello Kitty Easter Bunny.I've been on an amigurumi trip all weekend, so I decided to try out the teddy bear pattern (not pictured).

As I worked along (in Red Heart "Classic" majorly cheap acrylic in Mid Brown) I thought it might make a cute bunny instead. I used the ears from Roxy Craft's Bunny Boo, added a loopy tail at the back and I'm pretty happy about it.




I made the eyes yellow to mimic the classic chocolate chocolate easter bunnies you get from the grocery store.

Ok.. so you may be wondering why the bunny is laying on a pile of granny squares. The photoshoot took place in my Work In Progress / Waiting To Be Gifted basket. My yarn stash is raging out of control, but I keep the yarn for projects separate. This little basket gets cleaned every-other-day or so and helps me stay organized. It currently looks like this:



I love all the little Easter friends hanging out waiting for homes. :) Ooo... and what's that little green thing? She's going to have her own blog post this week!

Easter!

I'm a horrible blogger.

I've been busy... but have few photos to prove it. I do, however, have photos of my Easter creations. There are three little girls (and no little boys) on my mom's side of the family. They are basically related to me the same way: daughters of cousins. Technically they are as such: Soli- second cousin; Kiana- step second cousin once removed; Maya- second cousin once removed.

Yeah.

So, I refer to Soli as my cousin's daughter (or my "little cousin") and Kiana and Maya as my sort-of nieces. Don't question my logic.

All three of these girls are getting Easter gifts made my own soon-to-be-arthritic hands.

Soli:

Easter Bunny Egg
Pattern by RoxyCraft ("Bunny Boo")



RoxyCraft's is so much cuter than mine. It's the eye placement mostly. I need to remember squished-up faces make for cuter little creatures. Oh well. Next time.


Maya:

Purple Bunny
Pattern (also by Roxy!) found on Lion Brand ("Best Bunny")



I'm much happier with this... although I should probably have gone with a more Eastery color.


Kiana:

Hello Kitty dressed as Easter Bunny
Pattern by CrochetPatterns on etsy. ("Hello Kitty")



Again... eye placement issues. Her eyes should have been further apart. I'm also have trouble with connection points. You can see a few of the connecting stitches on the front of the head. Booo. Other than that, I'm pleased. This etsy shop has lots of cute patterns- I bought the entire collection, in fact. However, it'd definitely for an advanced crochter. You're left to figure LOTS of things out yourself. It took a lot of trial and error, but the finished product came out pretty well I think.

So... Happy Easter everyone. I have lots of big projects that are coming along slowly. Promise promise promise I'll get those up soon.

Crochet Cysts!

I recently purchased a camera, and so I will be posting pics of Works In Progress very very soon.

I've been busy keeping up with my 2010 goals. I've been crocheting every single day. A lot of this has been using 100% cotton yarn, which I find takes a bit more effort and strain to work than acrylic or wool. I think this may be the cause of the crazy cysts I've developed in my right hand!

I noticed a tiny little round thing rolling around under my skin and within a few days it had grown from being the size of a large grain of sand to a small pea. It's now hiding, nestled between some bones in my wrist but I can still move it around. There's another tiny one growing in the middle of my hand. You can't see them and there's no pain but I can't stop playing with them. My doctor tells me they are Ganglion cysts. The cause is unclear but could possibly be from overuse of your hand and joints.

My doctor (who is a good friend) tells me these are commonly referred to as "PDR cysts". Why? Because a doctor can take the Physicians Desk Reference and drop it on your hand to pop the cysts! ACK! He's kidding, of course, but assures me he can pop them if I want. I've decided to wait it out for now. I've had small cysts before in other places before and they simply went away. In the meantime, I'm trying to hold my hooks a little looser in hopes that this will stop the growth of new ones.

#TeamAndrewGarcia Hollywood Week!

Although it was taped a couple weeks ago, American Idol Hollywood week is on tv this week. I've never actually watched this portion of the show, but I found it really interesting that many people who gave really promising auditions in their hometowns totally bomb in Hollywood. I guess it's nerves, but it seems like it would be less stressful to be in front of the judges for the second time.

Anyway, our boy Andrew Garcia is still a front runner! When we heard the hopefuls could choose to accompany themselves on an instrument, my sister and I both really hoped Andrew would play guitar because he's really good. Sure enough, he played and sang a killer acoustic version of Paula Abdul's Straight Up:



Gutsy move! I wonder if he'd been planning to sing that for a long time (back when Paula was still on the show) or if he decided to pay tribute to the former judge after she left the show. Either way, it was an amazing performance! Andrew totally flipped the song on its head and made it far more beautiful than the original. Much like Marie Digby's version of Rihanna's Umbrella, I think Andrew's interpretation highlighted the lyrics and moved the pop song closer to being a really pretty love song.

Andrew once again got rave reviews from the judges, with both Randy & Kara showing excitement during the performance. Andrew's fellow contestants were totally into it, too, which I thought was pretty cool. My sister and I started shrieking when Ryan Seacrest's voice-over indicated that once Andrew was called out to the front row, they all knew that was the group that was going forward. :)

Twitter, blogs and new agencies are all onboard the Team Andrew Garcia train. I have yet to see a single negative word about him. While that could mean people won't bother to vote for him.. it still means he's getting the attention and accolades he deserves. Win or lose, Andrew is on his way up!

Hello Kitty Purse

My family structure is complicated. Take divorces & remarriages and couple them with the Mexican extended family where EVERYONE is an aunt, uncle or cousin and it's just hard to know what to call people. What, for example, should I call my second cousin's stepdaughter? OK, yes, I could call her "my second cousin's stepdaughter" but somehow that sounds like I don't like her. I really really do. She's an awesome little lady! So, for lack of a better term, I'm going to refer to her as my niece. Deal with it.

So my niece turned 10. I knew her birthday was coming up but didn't really know if there would be a party / if I would see her until 2 days beforehand. I find those "tween years" so difficult to shop for. 10-14 year olds are still kind of little kids... but you can't really assume they want a toy. Luckily, I knew she is really into Hello Kitty. I was just going to swing by the Sanrio store and pick some stuff up, but then I realized the one in our mall closed! Boo!

I had seen a Hello Kitty granny square around on a couple craft blogs and really wanted to try it. The problem is the pattern is from an out-of-print Japanese book! I finally found this tutorial, but honestly, I just couldn't quite get the pattern to work out right. Finally, I just stared at the picture and kind of worked something out myself. Since I was free-handing it and had no clue if I'd be able to replicate the square, I decided to just make one and turn it into a little purse.



I used old reliable: Lily's Sugar 'n Cream 100% cotton yarn. I love it because it's heavy & sort of stiff without being bulky. It's great for crafts and is my go-to yarn for washcloths.



I made a panic-run to Joann's for some embroidery floss for the face. In retrospect, I think I should have gone with more yarn in black. The features are just a little small and don't have as much of a cartoony quality. Still, I think she turned out ok. I added a small flower (made of Caron's Spa yarn) and a fun little heart button for the closure. I briefly considered closing it up with a zipper, but I was worried that the repeated pulling would eventually rip the purse apart.

I finished the face while sitting in my car in front of the store. I realized the purse just looked better if there was something in it, so I ran into CostPlus World Market to grab some Hello Kitty candy to put inside.

The purse was a hit. My niece seemed to really appreciate it and so did her mom. Although, she did sort of stress me out by saying "Oh, I knew Lia's present would be something cute and handmade!" Ok... that's sweet except that my people-pleasing self now feels all this pressure to make all their family's presents now! Sheesh. I need to get over it.

Have a happy day!

#TeamAndrewGarcia

This is a totally off-topic entry but I'm so excited! Andrew Garcia- an incredible local musician- is on American Idol tonight! A brief clip of his audition was on the preview last week and this week we'll see him hear the 4 magic words: "You're Going To Hollywood!"


It seems he's had to take down all his videos from his youtube account, but you can still find Andrew on a few other youtube videos. One of my favorites is this collaboration with Cathy Nguyen. He's also seen here with JR Aquino and my favorite singer/songwriter AJ Rafael:



Spread the word by tweeting #TeamAndrewGarcia and don't forget to watch Idol tonight! I know he just made it worth it for me again!

***UPDATE***

Andrew KILLED IT! Amazing audition! Check it out: