croque-choux

New on my bookshelf

Hoping to learn some new knitting techniques from this book I got on Valentine's day. Instructions are in English and Japanese!

Omiyage flower made with vintage lace.

Here is the last Omiyage flower bag I made. This one was for my son's teacher. I'm a bit late in posting this because I finished it at the beginning of July! I think this is the best one I've made yet.

Little by little...

Amineko almost finished- the only problem is that everyone in the house wants to keep it! It looks like I'll have to make 3 more... Must finish the other leg first, and embroider the face. By the way, I found the original pattern as well as cute amineko computer wallpaper  by clicking around the author's home page (in Japanese).

Gimme gimme

Oh my god... look! A beaded robot?! I gotta have this little book. Too late for my birthday book list; will have to go on the Christmas wishlist, unless maybe... 

B-Day

 
Wednesday, the 20th was my birthday and my husband brought Japanese food home for  the 4 of us and 2 Japanese craft books for little old me! I don't know what impressed me more: the food, the craft books from Junko , or my little boy discovering that he loves California maki :o) Oh yeah, and the pendants I ordered from Chu Ling's Etsy shop   arrived today, and they are even prettier than I expected. This was my first time buying anything from Etsy, but from now on, I think that I will have to hide my credit card every time I "window shop" over there! And last but not least, some very special people (dear friends and dear daughter) called me at work and sung Happy Birthday on the phone. That was so sweet! Totally made my day.

Unfortunately I also got a migraine for my birthday, but I tried not to think about it too much and went to bed early with my new books. Thursday I rolled into work at 12 because I had that "baseball bat upside the head" feeling and actually missed the "Sandra's last day at work" surprise my co-workers had planned. Duh. Oh, how lame I felt. Well, as a consolation prize (hihihi) they asked if I could come in 2 or 3 more days more because they can't be short one oar in the galley just yet. They also gave me a giant bouquet of flowers, so guess who's going back to work on Monday? Okay I'll stop being cynical, because if you forget about the work load, they were all nice people to work with.

Driving myself crazy in 4 easy lessons

There is a Japanese thimble project in the book I got for Christmas, and they were so darn cute an colorful that I just had to make one. But for something this small and quick to whip up, the frustration level was pretty high- but that's not the book's fault. You can tell I was stressed by checking the upper left hand photo, a tell-tale sign of having a death grip on the needle because it is bent. While making this I realized 4 things:

- I should never ever attempt to embroider anything again without my glasses, and I should get new ones.
- When trying out an embroidery stitch I haven't done in ages, please test drive the needle on a fabric scrap first.
- French felt, which is cheap and thinner than cigarette paper, is a pain to sew and does not mix well with chirimen silk.
- This was cute and different to make, but I should stop messing about with small stuff and make something bigger.

Appliqué inspiration

I'm crazy about the appliqué designs on the covers of these 2 Japanese books. I would just love to have a closer look...

How cute is this?

This cute book
on felting really
looks like a
must-have too,
so I'm adding it
to my wishlist of
Japanese books
right now!
Hmmm... I think I'll have a go at making a hedgehog without the book. Looks pretty easy, and I have brown wool!

Emballée (all wrapped up)

The weather is getting cooler and naturally my thoughts turn to... yarn? (but I'm a quilter!) Well, I actually dug out my crochet and knitting needles the minute Fall hit, and I've had warm scarf on the brain ever since (more on that later). If only I could make something like this though! Isn't this little shawl beautiful?!! I'm SO in love with this shoulder accessory thingy. After seeing this, I promised myself that I would improve my rusty knowledge of crochet this Winter in front of the tv, with a warm quilt on my lap of course.

Japanese craft book Wishlist

I have been fiddling around my sidebars, adding some things and taking away others. It's a little busy and still isn't the way I'd like it to be, but I'll fix it later. I have been meaning to add a wishlist of all the Japanese craft and sewing books that I have been fixating on, and I finally did this. I'd really like to have a peek in this book on embroidered bags... I have a feeling the list is going to be pretty long! I'll post the ISBN numbers too, as soon as I can. I've also added 2 or 3 blogs to my list of daily reads, so have a look. And while we're on the subject of Japanese books and blogs, Crafting Japanese is a must-read!