Time flies...

After a long break from blogging, I'm back! I can't believe it's already September and getting chillier every morning!

So what have I been up to since my last post in May? Amigurumi-wise, I've added to my mario collection: Starman, Flower, Bullet Bill, Luma, King Boo...

I also made a Dunny and Deku Link as custom orders plus a pair of boxing gloves for Dave's birthday:

Aside from crocheting, I also managed to squeeze time for another upcoming hobby: making bentos!

This was my first attempt and hopefully there'll be many more to come! Bentos are a joy to make and to eat. I can't wait to go to Japan to buy more cookie cutters and other bento supplies!

Speaking of Japan, I'll be going there next Friday! I absolutely cannot wait! This time around I'll be visiting Tokyo (obviously), Yokohama, Shirakawa-go, Kyoto (because we didn't spend enough time there last year), Okayama, Himeji, Takamatsu, Kobe and Nara. I'll try to blog about the trip while I'm there!

But before next week rolls around, I have to prepare for my first ever craft fair! I'll be selling at the Nibbles & Bites Craft Fair at Thompson Community Center in Richmond, BC on Sat Sep 6, 11am-8pm & Sun Sep 7, 11am-7pm. Drop by to visit if you can! Aside from the craft fair, there will also be restaurants with samples of their featured food items. There's also going to be a volleyball tournament, live band entertainment, a kids' carnival and a car show.

Well that's all for now! I believe that was a long enough post after my long absence from this blog. :)

Table Tennis Paddle

Table Tennis Paddle
Originally uploaded by t0fugurl

My dad is crazy about table tennis so I decided to make him this little paddle that he can hang from his paddle bag. Yes he even has a paddle bag to protect his precious paddle haha. I guess he can strap this onto the zipper. I hope he likes it! :)

I've never really tried making something so 2D before. I tried to give it some plushiness by stuffing the handle and blocking the polyfill from going to the paddle part so the paddle still stays flat. The hardest was making the ball. Since the paddle is small already - 3.5 inches - I had to make the ball super tiny to make things proportional.

All my yarn are the same weight and thickness so it was difficult to deviate from making a "standard" size ball. So I took apart a piece of white yarn and only crocheted using 1 of the 4 strands that made up the yarn. I used a 1.65mm hook and the ball turned out exactly the size I wanted!

This was the first time I crocheted with anything less than a 2.75mm hook, not to mention the thin strand of yarn kept fraying! I didn't want to use string as that would be TOO thin and hard to crochet. Anyways I'm pretty happy with the result!

It's Blooper!

It's Blooper!
Originally uploaded by t0fugurl

After days of playing wii mario kart, I just had to make Blooper. This is the annoying squid who squirts your screen with ink to block your view but I still love him! I loved him most when he was the prophet dude in Mario Party 7 :P

First it was the mushroom, then Bob-Omb, then Boo, now Blooper. It seems that I make a lot of Mario characters haha. Now what should I make next? ;)

Happy MamaDay!!!

Mother's Day Cake + Amigurumis
Originally uploaded by t0fugurl

I'm sorry to write that not all of this is for my mom... only some are. But we wanted colourful things to surround the cake so I brought out my latest amigurumi creations and voila!

Looking at this, I must admit that I spend a little too much time crocheting haha. With all this inventory on hand, I should make more of an effort to get rid of them. My workspace is cluttering up! So here's an advert: VISIT http://t0fugurl.etsy.com/ AND BUY STUFF! Buy more so I can make more! :D

New Feather Headbands!

I was sick all of last week and was in bed the whole time. It didn't feel good at all. I hadn't been that sick for a long time. The doctor said it was bronchitis caused by a bacterial infection. I had a fever for 4 days and lost my voice some time in between too. The good thing was that I recovered just in time to go to Got Craft! This craft fair was smaller than I expected though... but I'm probably unfairly comparing it to Portobello West which is massive!

Check out these beautiful feather headbands I got from the fair:


Patricia makes them and she uses real pheasant feathers that she gets from factories whose by-products are feathers. She makes doubly sure that the birds aren't being killed just for the feathers. You can check out her other headbands at thugfairydesigns.com :)

My first handmade card!

My first handmade card!
Originally uploaded by t0fugurl

This was also for Claire's birthday. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out! There was no theme to it really... I basically tried to use as much of my supplies as possible haha.

The circle cutter didn't work very well on the felt but the black lace ribbon makes everything look nice hehe.

I am very proud of the yellow bow - I tied it myself! I've never been good at tying pretty ribbons but somehow this came out perfectly! :)

Sewing Project #2

Kiwi Roll topped with Strawberry and Blueberries
Originally uploaded by t0fugurl

This was for Claire's birthday. It turned out much better than my first sewing project (http://www.flickr.com/photos/t0fugurl/2203523071/in/set-72157604790573255/). I did hurt myself with the needle several times so the polyfill inside has traces of my blood haha.

Unipo Series 5

Unipo Series 5
Originally uploaded by t0fugurl

Yay received in the mail today my Series 5 Unipo set! Originally I only bought Rer the cop dude but I just couldn't help it and had to buy the whole set too! I made Claire take my first lone order of Rer so I wouldn't have a dupe. I'll be posing them and taking more pictures later. :P

In other news, I've been making a lot of quick impulse purchases lately. *Tsk tsk* to myself. But now that the damage has already been done, I do look forward to receiving the goodies in the mail. I'll write about them as they arrive. :)

Custom Order Request

Rebecca from the UK asked me to do a custom order for her nephew. It's Makka Pakka from In The Night Garden, a BBC cartoon. I've never heard of it before and I hope I've done a good job! I hope he'll like it! :)

www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/inthenightgarden/

Smile Slime & Pacman

Smile Slime! The eyes can be improved but for now this is the prototype :)



Pacman & Ghosts! I started with the big ones in the back but then realized I had no more of the big plastic eyes. I had small ones left though so I made mini Pacman & Ghosts instead :P I'll shop for more eyes tomorrow and finish the big set. The mini set is for sale at my etsy: http://t0fugurl.etsy.com

Old Amigurumi Pictures

I was sorting through my amigurumi pictures and realized there were a bunch of pictures of my very first amigurumis that I never uploaded to Flickr! I had put them on my xanga site but I thought I'd also have them on my Flickr amigurumi pool just to be consistent. Here are a few:

Global Enterprise

Just received in the mail today: Amigurumi

The editor got in touch with me last fall and asked if they could feature some of my amigurumi in their upcoming book. I was honoured! I got a copy of the book today, which reminded me of the French magazine that also featured my amigurumi back in April 2007.

More pictures at my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/t0fugurl

I still can't believe the power of the internet to connect people from an ocean away. It's amazing! Other than these editors from the UK and France, I have buyers from Malaysia, Spain and the USA, just to name a few. I wonder how people find out about my etsy site to begin with. I barely advertise or promote my store; the most I do is probably by word of mouth. But really, how did this suddenly become a global enterprise, if I could call it such. I'm ecstatic about this whole thing! :-D

Since I have such a vast worldly audience now, I've posted new items in my store. Please take a moment to check it out: http://t0fugurl.etsy.com/. :)

Renewed Inspiration

First post in this blog. What got me started blogging again? Perhaps it was yesterday's geek-filled pub night with the IT dudes I used to work with, some of whom I haven't seen in more than 2 years. They are exactly as I remembered them 2 years ago. Geeky. Smart. Ambitious with crazy ideas. The conversations we had last night were enlightening to me even though at times when the geek lingo breaks out, I only understood less than half of it. These guys use big words. They use a lot of profanity. They tell dirty jokes. Although the topics seemed random and irrelevant, they were interesting and mind-boggling. Inspiring. I woke up this morning with an urge to write. Even though I don't write terribly well. And I absolutely don't write half as well as Andy haha. By the way his Dirty Laundry short story is pretty funny. But I'm sure it's just that much funnier to me and those who know this six and a half feet giant personally. The story can be found at http://www.everydayfiction.com/dirty-laundry-by-andrew-leblanc/

Anyways I was very happy this morning! I still am but just to a lesser degree now as the happy moment has progressively died down since then. There was a Kids Craft Fair at the community center whose gym I go to every Saturday to work out. They called it a Craft Fair but essentially it was a second-hand garage sale of old kids' clothes and toys. After my exercise, I had a quick stroll around just to check things out. I didn't even have my wallet with me as I was not intending to make any purchases. Just a quick look at the things on sale and to gawk at cute kids and babies. First corner, mostly kids clothes. Not interested. Second corner, some old kids toys. Slightly interested so lingered a bit at each of the tables but nothing really caught my attention... until the third corner - a giant MIFFY!

The blue-shirt bunny was sitting in a baby stroller and I just had to ask the lady how much she was selling it for. $1 was the answer. One dollar! I could not believe it! I had expected somewhere between $20-$30! I told the lady I'd be back and she smiled and nodded. Just then Steve called me. He was done with the gym and was wondering where I was. I couldn't hold in my excitement and asked if he had a dollar with him. He didn't. I explained that someone was selling a big Miffy for $1 and I just had to get it! So we walked back to the car for me to get my wallet and we went back to the Craft Fair. As we entered, I saw the lady taking the Miffy to the back behind the table and my heart dropped a little. Had somebody else claimed the giant bunny?! I pointed out to Steve where the bunny was but because there was such a big crowd, he couldn't really see the bunny. I hurried to the table and asked the lady if Miffy was still up for sale and she said yes! She had only put it to the back FOR ME! I was so happy! We exchanged monies and bunny and just then, Steve waded through the crowd to see me holding the giant bunny that was half my size. I knew he had expected something much smaller and I knew that had I described just how big it was, he wouldn't have let me come back for it.

I was beaming like a little kid! $1 for a giant Miffy with a blue outfit and orange scarf. This was the same size as the one I took from my cousin three years ago in London. He had the same Miffy, only in the original yellow sweater, and when I visited London while on exchange in Belgium, he had offered it to me. I was ecstatic and accepted without a second thought! It was a hassle to bring it back to Belgium on the Eurostar but I made it through. But coming back home to Vancouver was the issue. I had to leave it behind in Brussels at a friend's house and I believe he has now taken her to his countryside home where his parents reside. I've been missing that yellow Miffy for three years and what luck, I have a blue & orange Miffy now! I'm not a terribly big fan of stuffed animals but if they're gigantic and/or associated with a famous cartoon, I've just got to have it!

Left: My new Miffy
Right: The Miffy I left behind in Belgium