shelf curtains

I made some undercounter "shelf curtains" to cover up my little clutters at the caffe. (shhh!) Inspred by the Japanese Noren.


John put up the cables and hooks for me.

I intentionally chose the gray fabric so it "blends in" with the rest of the counter areas. I like it.

cover it up

I put up the little curtain/shelf cover I made for the caffe today.


Now nobody would know what I hide behind the cover.



I love the fabric. I got it at a fabric store in Shinsaibashi, Osaka.

yay!

blue polka dot notebook cover

I was searching for a cute little notebook that I can keep my "Tokyo trip winter '08" plans and notes in, but I didn't see anything I liked, so I decided to make a notebook cover myself.


I found a cheap-o notebook and a blue polka dot dish towel at the dollar store.


Then I cut off the excess fabric and stiched up the edges.


I used two layers of vinyl to create a "flap" to go inside the front cover. I was trying to do this on the sewing machine but with no luck, so I stitched it by hand (whip stiches?).


Now I have a little flap to store my ticket stabs or receipts in during the trip.


Blue polka dots. Yay!

Now I just need to transfer "trip research notes" into the notebook, and see if I'm going to cross stitch some cute little things on the cover.

amigurumi

I finally finished my first amigurumi project! It's a cool little purple bear whose name has yet to come.


Hanging out on a coffee grinder at the caffe.

Oh, and my friend Joyce made an amigurumi pig and gave it to me as a gift. He's so cute and colorful!


Mr. colorful amigurumi pig from Joyce.


Hanging out in a latte cup.

I think I'm going to make "mr. purple little bear" some friends.

mustache... NOT!

I realized late last night that I didn't even turn on the screen on my laptop at all yesterday. Interesting. I guess I was just a bit too busy yesterday. I don't think that had ever happened in the past!

Anyhow, I'm still making the same purple little bear... a few stitches at a time. It actually doesn't take too long to crochet different parts of the bear, but I just take my time...

I've finished crocheting all parts of the bear, and I just need to put them all together. I was having a little trouble with his nose and mouth, and eyes. I don't have any black embroidery thread for his nose and mouth, so I used regular black thread, which apparently didn't work well. I think I'm going to re-do it.

I was also trying to find cute little beady bear eyes for my purple bear, but couldn't find them at the stores, so I decided to use black little buttons instead. They seem to work fine. :)


I haven't sewn but just pinned his ears on, and he reminded me of Lei Fang, one of the characters of Dead or Alive video games!

John looked at the bear's head and asked, "why does he have a mustache?"

It's not his mustache! It's his mouth! I guess I really have to re-do it.

i'm making a bear

My friend Brian sent me a book on amigurumi and I loved it! I bought a couple amigurumi books when I was in Japan, but never really started making anything until now.

The book Brian sent me was "Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts! Amigurumi" by the same Japanese lady that authored the other two books that I got in Japan. The book is so cute, and after flipping through it I decided to start making one of the little bears on the front cover.

I don't know if it's the English translation or printing error, but the pattern that I decided to use (the first pattern on the little bears) was missing information. As I started crocheting the first "row," I realized I had to crochet in rounds in order to make it work... not mentioned in the book... I know the experienced crochet-er all know this by heart, but I really had no clue until I checked the Japanese books.

After figuring out how to properly start the construction, I made the bear's head and body. As I move onto making the arms, I was confused by the pattern because it only lists 3 rows each for the arms and legs. Didn't quite make sense. I checked the other patterns and determined that the pattern is missing some parts. I guess I'll have to figure it out myself. (So far I'm thinking I'll make 9 rows in rounds to make the arms, based on some magical mathematic calculations... I don't know if it'll work quite yet.)

I did a quick search online and found that I was not the only person who ran into the missing-pattern-step dilemma. I guess the book is flawed.



The other patterns all look OK, though, so I'll probably try to follow them in the future (until I run into another problem). As of now I have the head and the body done for my little purple bear. I'll try to finish him up soon. (I still need to buy a pair of eyes for him... ) I think he'll be a handsome little bear when I'm done.