More, more and more!

I feel like I’ve been writing about this workshop… but, some of the attendees really liked making wrapped bracelets so that they came here again 🙂 I’m super glad to hear that they’ve enjoyed making one!!!

This time, it was their second time to work on the bracelets, so that they worked much faster than the last time… let me show you their beautiful works 😀 ♡

One of them tried to make a longer one! It’ll be wrapped three times around the wrist. The left one is what she’s made in the second workshop.

It goes well with her peacock nails 🙂

One of them worked really hard for her two daughters living in Japan ♡

I think I’ll be happy if I get one from my mom!! I think it’ll be the other way around in my family though… I’ve been giving many things to her!! But still, I’m happy when she likes some of my works 😀
I’m sure her daughters will be really happy with them!!

One of them has made an anklet. I had never thought of making anklets with this!! Yes, it will look absolutely good in summer!!

One of them has made 2 long bracelets for herself and 2 short one for her little daughter and son. She made all of them within 5 hours!! This is her first one for the day. It’s simple but I really like it!

She was super fast!!

This is the all she’s got that day. Maybe she can be a professional bracelet maker?! 😀

Thanks to you, I had another good day! I think I love teaching crafting ♡

Baby shower cake! and a surprise party!

This week, I and my six other friends got together for a potluck lunch party. We secretly planned to hold a “surprise baby shower party” there since one of us was expecting a baby boy within a month!!

I was happy to have a role to prepare a baby shower cake!! It was my first time to bake a cake for that purpose, so I enjoyed thinking about the designs of the cake… This is a rough sketch of what I thought would be cute for a cake. I’m leaving this photo for a next occasion!

I wanted to bake a base cake the day before, but I was super busy and couldn’t do that beforehand. So, I prepared everything in the morning of the party day.

Since I only had less than 3 hours to prepare, I decided to go for something simple but cute. This is the cake I’ve prepared.

One of my mottos for a cake decoration is to use artificial things as less as possible. So, I used blueberries for the eyes and nose, strawberries for the cheeks, whipped creams mixed with chai-tea and chopped chocolates for the hair and melted chocolates for the other part!!

Luckily, I wasn’t late for the potluck lunch party. I arrived in time 🙂

Everyone prepared really good foods!! I enjoyed all of them 😀

This is how I put everything on my plate… 🙂 We all ate a lot and talked a lot!!

After the lunch, of course, we had a dessert time! And TADAAAAAA!!!

I and the other friend secretly prepared the cake and the baby shower balloons in the kitchen, and we said “Please clap your hands now!!! Congratulation xxx for the baby boy!!”

We wanted her to be very happy to receive this surprise party, and she started crying… ♡

It was successful!!

We’ve stuffed with lots of sweet things and sweet feelings! 🙂

It’s always so good to have happy friends around us ♡ I hope our friendship will last forever!!!

Crochet Garland Making Workshop

2 weeks before, I held a crochet workshop for my friends.
They worked really well, but they couldn’t finish making a garland/coaster since for some of them it was the first time to crochet something round. There were so many things to learn including how to make a double magic loop, chain stitch, single crochet, half double crochet and slip stitch.

Then, we got together again in the following week to finish the works.
This time, they were much faster to make knots, so they’d happily finished making their own works!

This is a coaster for my friend and for her son. How sweet! It’ll be a good idea to put them on a bag or things like that 🙂

This will be hanged on a door of my friend’s kids room 🙂 Cute 😀

This one will also be hanged on a door of my another friend’s kids room 🙂
The color usages between her works and the works introduced in the above picture are almost the same, but this one uses colors for the letters. That gives us a quite different impression! I like them 😀

Then, this is a garland made by another friend of mine. This apparently will be hanged on the front door of her bathroom!! I love it 😀

I really like to decorate my house by handmade things.
Seems like all of them had a good time, focusing on crocheting!! We talked a lot while working on crocheting, but sometimes they needed to focus without chatting…

So, we got together on Mother’s Day night for a dinner!! How fun it was!! I hope we will have more chances to get together and enjoy the time together 😀

Birthday presents for my husband

A few weeks ago, it was my husband’s birthday. I wanted to give something that I’ve made only for him, so I’d been working on making gifts for my husband 🙂

As our family rule, there is one night per month when he cooks for us. I have some aprons, but he doesn’t. When I went for shopping, I see lots of cute aprons for women, but not so much for men. So, I thought it would be a good idea to make an apron for him!!

It was my second time to make an apron, (first time was for my sister), but it was my first time to make one from scratch. I’ve researched lots of things and I’ve learned a lot about designing something to wear (although it’s a very simple apron)!!

When I went for shopping, looking for a nice fabric for the apron, I fell in love with this dark brown/black linen fabric. So, I bought it. I’ve learned that linen shrinks for 3-5% in average, so I soaked it in a bath tub for half a day to let it shrink on purpose so that we will get a perfect size of apron when I’m done with sewing it.

After that, let it dry for a while but shouldn’t be completely dried.

When it is still wet and not completely dried out, do the ironing and smooth out wrinkles of the fabric.

Then, make a pattern and with a pattern paper, measuring his body, and cut the fabric.

Then, sewing, sewing and sewing… I think the most difficult part was at the top part around the neck and shoulder.

After struggling a lot, I’ve got this finally!!! Very simple but nice! I quite like it myself 😀

One side of the pockets has an embroidery.

As a small gift, I’ve made a linen coffee filter as well 🙂 It requires a little bit of extra care after making a coffee every time, but it for sure is more environmental friendly than using a paper filter every time you want to have a cup of coffee!!

Speaking of a birthday, you can’t forget about a birthday cake!! He’s requested me to make a custard cream tart, so I’ve made him this special tart with a very cute decoration ♡

I think he was really really happy with my birthday gifts ♡
If you are thinking about a gift for your partner, why don’t you try to make something rather than buying one from somewhere? I believe he/she will be happy with the fact that you’ve spent lots of energy for him/her ♡

Happy crafting and happy cooking ♡♡♡

Flowers bring smile :)

A while ago, I joined in volunteering at Random Acts of Flowers, and I made beautiful flower bouquets. Those flowers were donated from Whole foods/Costco/ some others places and we arranged them nicely to be delivered to senior’s care homes or hospitals.

Recycling and repurposing flowers… how good it is!! While I was doing flower arrangement, I was amazed how happy we could be with beautiful flowers.

Then, I made a new crochet pattern with flowers. It’s a head band/ flower wreath.

This is how it looks like on my head. You can easily adjust the size 🙂

If you feel like making one for your cuties or for yourself, please visit my shops below 🙂

I hope these flower wreath will brighten up people’s faces and bring lots of happiness 🙂

Hope I will make more of beautiful flower bouquets as well as flower related patterns!

Happy crocheting ♡

Art in everywhere…!!

The other weekend, I went to Santa Cruz to enjoy a short hike with my friend’s family 🙂

It was a beautiful day. The ocean view was so beautiful that I would like to recommend you to go there and enjoy the beauty of the nature.

To my surprise, we saw several wild dolphins!! I’ve seen them when I went on a whale watching in Monterey Bay, but at that time, I was really feeling bad on the boat and I couldn’t enjoy the view at all. This time, I was feeling super fine and I was really excited to see them when they jumped up from the ocean surface!!

I was trying to take their photos, but it was hard… not really successful. Instead of that, I caught funny seagulls 😀 One seagull is on the other’s back, and they kept like that for a few minutes. It was really cute 😀

For the people who are interested in this coastal trail, I’m leaving notes below.

***
Old Cove Landing Trail – Wilder Ranch State Park
Difficulty : Easy
Length : 2.6miles
Duration : 1-3 hours

Parking lot : $10/car
NOTES : Very family friendly.
***

On that evening, after enjoying the strong sunshine, I was tired and wasn’t really feeling like cooking dinner. Then, suddenly, this came up in my mind!! Curry art!! 😀

How cute!! When I decided to do the “art work” instead of cooking, I was happy and not tired anymore!! I was excited to do that and I couldn’t stop smiling !!!

I was really proud of myself when I called my husband for dinner and showed these art works!! 😀 (But, I was a little bit sad to eat them up…)

Little tricks can make my life so much happier and easier ♡♡♡

I hope to explore more and more happy tricks and share them with you 😀

Wrap Bracelet Wokshop -vol.3-

Today, I held a wrap bracelet workshop 🙂 I had four ladies today 🙂

I didn’t take much photos but we spent a good time today!! Three of them were first time for me to see, but they were really nice and fun ladies 😀 “Birds of a feather flock together”!!

Unfortunately one lady had to leave earlier before finishing her work, but I hope she’ll finish it sometime soon at home and I will have a chance to see her work when it’s done!!
Now, let me show you beautiful works of the other three women ♡

This is one of the ladies’ work! Black leather with clear black/ silver/ transparent and pearl beads. It already matches with her outfits 😀
I feel like making a black based bracelet for me as well since I don’t have any. It’s cute!!

Two ladies made similar kinds of bracelets. One is beige leather with transparent/silver and turquoise beads. The other is beige leather with transparent/ clear brown and turquoise beads. Just a bit of difference -silver or clear brown- makes a difference in impression! 😀

Backside of them… Did you notice that she put a beautiful nail art on her nails? 😀 They are peacock!!
I like to put nail arts but since I do lots of crafting works, recently I just keep my nails short and plain…

Summer is coming, so I could also put some nail arts on my nails ? 😉
I hope they will have lots of opportunities to wear those beautiful handmade bracelets!!!

Gifts to my friends' babies :)

A lot of my close friends are now getting to be moms. A week ago, three of us decided to meet for lunch and the other two were new moms. Then, I wanted to give them something I made. After considering a while, I looked for a  baby shoes pattern on Etsy and I’ve bought a pattern on TwoGirlsPatterns shop.

I followed the instruction and then, I’ve got two pairs of cute booties!! One is for my friend’s baby girl and the other is for my friend’s baby boy 😀

It was my first experience to make pairs of baby shoes!! I was really happy that the moms liked them when I gave these 🙂

For these two pairs, I followed the instruction for 0-6month’s baby. But 4 month baby’s feet were bigger than I thought and I think I should have tried for 7-12month’s baby pattern for her. Babies grow up really fast!!

This is how it looks on a 2 month baby. Cute! But it’s easily slipped off from the feet, so I think I should probably add straps for him 🙂

Thanks Kris and Lorin for a cute pattern!! They have lots of cute baby shoes’ pattern, so if some of you are interested in those, please check their website and shop 🙂

Happy crocheting ♡

Let me introduce my eco-friendly little people

I haven’t properly introduced my little people!! Please let me introduce them to you 🙂

They always sticks together on my couch. How cute…

Some of you might probably wonder how they were born… Now, I’d like to show the process and you will understand why I call them “eco-friendly”.

These are what I’ve used to make a little bunny. My old camisole and my husband’s well-worn T-shirts.

Here, I’ve already made her face 🙂 For the nose, I used my crochet skills 😀 The eyes were made of felt.
By the way, the wall decorations are done by my little friends, who were only 3 year’s old. I kind of like it as an art!

Here, I’ve got her body. Except for the very top part, I quickly saw with my sewing machine. After I put stuffing, I sewed the top part by hand.

I thought the bunny would be ashamed of not wearing anything, and also she looked too plain without any clothes, so I made something to wear for her. The neck strap of my camisole matches perfectly on her!!

Now, these are what I used to make “Oji-san” (we call a middle-aged man as “oji-san” in Japanese)- my old summer dress and my husband’s old T-shirt.

I’ve started from his face. First put everything on one side of the face-shaped fabric.

After sewing two sheets of face fabric inside-out, turn inside out and put the stuffing. Now the face is done.

He is done. I made him a bow tie with a pink yarn as an accent.

I came up with the idea of making them because I had lots of old clothes which I could use for a crafting. I’ve made good friends to hung around in my living room with me instead of my husband, who always stays in front of his PC… Now they are not only good friends of mine but also good friends for my little visitors!!

They do baby-sit for my little friends 😀 Cute ♡♡♡
Awww… ouch.!! Oh well, baby-sitting is not an easy job!!

I think they do well with baby-sitting overall… ♡

I hope you two will be loved by lots and lots of people ♡

The third animal on my backpack series…

April has come today!! April usually is the start of a new year for schools and companies in Japan. With the cherry blossoms blooming everywhere, I’ve always felt fresh and really special on this day. But now being in California, the cherry blossoms bloomed a month ago and nothing has a fresh start today… so I thought of making a new pattern on my web shop 🙂

Here, I’ve added my third animal on my crochet backpack pattern series!!

Yes, it’s a lion!! I love the bright orange color on it 🙂

The backpack on a newborn baby… how small the baby is!!! Oops… he hasn’t really carried the backpack… :p

Diapers and the baby wipes, or snacks can be carried in the backpack 🙂

I hope this backpack will be like a Hermes’s or Louis Vuitton’s bag for someone small!!

If you feel like making one for your cuties, please visit my shops below 🙂

I hope the new year ahead will be a productive one for me and for all of you who visited here to read my posts 🙂

Happy crocheting ♡

Bear Backpack for your little one

Today, I’ve added my second backpack pattern on my crochet pattern shop 🙂 After a bunny, there comes a bear 😀

There are two types of faces you can make, following my instructions. I personally prefer the bear with darker color and with mouth part on it.

Here is how it looks like on a small gentleman’s back.

I love it…

Really really adorable!! Oh, I wish I had a baby for myself already!! 🙂

You can put baby’s/toddler’s diapers and wipes, or snacks 🙂 They can carry it by themselves, so I believe you will have less things to carry!!

If you feel like making one for your cuties, please visit my shops below 🙂

Happy crocheting ♡

Workshop – flower shaped something

I’ve held a workshop again on the same topic with the last time – a wall hanging garland. But this time, nobody made a garland… One of them made a flower coaster and the others made an appliqué. They came out really cute 🙂

What a peaceful time we had!! 🙂 (I always think that mom is a really tough job…!! But this photo makes me really happy ♡)

Everybody worked so hard and they made more than 5 peaces per each 🙂 GOOD JOB!!

This little one had been a very good boy!! Seems like my little people liked him a lot 😀 ♡

Thanks for coming, ladies!! Practice makes perfect!! I hope you will enjoy crocheting more and more 🙂 Happy crocheting♡

Workshop – wall decor :)

I hosted a workshop today and its theme was to make their own wall decor. I’m actually really really happy with what other attendees have made today!! I think I would prefer their works to my original ones. You will see what I mean… lol

Here, these are my original work of wall hanging letters.

Then after my brief explanation, they picked up their favorite colors of yarns and started making lots and lots of knots with the yarn. There were just three of us (plus a little gentleman) today, so I could help them a little more than usual.

Well, we worked quite a lot of hours, but this little man had really been a good boy for the whole time. He even tried to help her mom with crocheting 😀 GREAT JOB!!!

TADAAAAA!! One of my friends has made it today with her little angel’s name on it. It’s really cute!! I thought it would be nice to sew them on a bag or put them on the door.

She told me that her son just got a tent recently, and she could put them on his tent!! Well. sounds nice!

Then after she went back home, she sent me this picture. How adorable!!!!! The color combination is super ♡

Here, this is an impressive work done by the other friend. She really put a lot of effort in it and I think it worth it!! I would like to hung this on my bathroom door instead of my “bath” signs… :p It’s really cute and those colorful colors brightens up the room!!

Over all, it was really a good day with a lot of happy talking, good lunch, good works done with happy people!! Thank you for coming today ♡

Bunny Backpack for the little ones!!

I’m so happy to finally share this lovely bunny backpack crochet pattern with you!! I’ve originally made this backpack for one of my friends’ kids. The little backpack looked really cute on their back, and a lot of others admired the work. So, I’d been thinking it would be nice to make a pattern so that more people can make one for their loving little one!!

I know babies and toddlers are very cute, and they look really cute even from the back with a puffy butt, which I think makes babies look like babies. Now with this backpack on their back, don’t you think they look super cute?

So, this is the bunny backpack. You can put your babies’ diapers or snacks and they can carry them by themselves, which gives you less things to carry when you go out!! 🙂 It’s not just cute but also really useful!!

It took me quite a lot of time and effort to make the pattern, but the easy-to-follow crochet pattern for the bunny backpack is now available on Craftsy and Etsy!! If you are interested in, please come visit my shop below 🙂

The Easter is just around the corner, so maybe it’s a good time to crochet bunny at this time of the year! Happy crocheting ♡

Lovely flower cushion

I have something that I’ve wanted to upload here, but it took me time to do that since my parents were visiting me here in California from Japan. We went to lots of places together!! I just quickly want to share the most beautiful scenery we’ve seen together at Big Sur. I’d never seen a waterfall falling into the ocean anywhere before!! If you are planning a trip in the west coast, I think this is a kind of place you’d better visit!!

Now, finally, please let me introduce my new works here. TA-DA—-!!! They are beautiful cushions made with lots of flowers!! I’ve asked my little people to help me to introduce the works. I haven’t even introduced my little people, have I? Let me introduce them properly to you some other time!!

I’ve combined some colors of yarns which I had at home. One is with light-green, purple, navy and gray.

The other is with orange, pink, white and light-pink. These are more like my kind of colors, but I also liked the other one 🙂

I normally place them on the stools.

… but, I think my little people like to lay down on the cushion 😀 They look as if they are laying down in the field of flowers!!

I think it will be cute to make a cushion cover with those flowers although I don’t know if I’ll do that since it takes me quite lots of time to make lots of flowers …

Thanks to the pattern on a Japanese creator, ayuca-san, I’ve enjoyed making them 😀

Happy crocheting ♡

My FAVORITE Feminine Pearl Earrings

Today, I’ve added a new pattern on my pattern shop. This is how they look like 🙂 I think with those pearls and those elegant colors of tiny threads, they add an elegant atmosphere on you.

This is how it looks like on me. I love the beige color, so I pick up that color for myself.

I’ve made some other colors of earrings to one of my best friend and her mom ♡

I’ve poured a lot of efforts and love in making the 9 pages of PDF pattern files, so I’ll be happy if they will brings lots of smily faces on beautiful ladies all over the world!! I’ve explained every details of the crocheting part as well as the beading part with many photos, so I think this project is suitable for everybody 🙂 ♡

With just a little portion of threads and pearls and within a few hours of creative work, you will get a gorgeous earrings 😀

The easy-to-follow crochet pattern for the feminine pearl earrings is now available on Craftsy and Etsy!! If you are interested in, please come visit my shop below 🙂

Happy crocheting ♡

Decorating Louis Vuitton Bag

One of my friends asked me if I can make her a set of handle covers for her Louis Vuitton bag. She told me that  the leather absorbed the sweat/oil and other things and the handle parts got darker as she always used that. So, she was looking for handle covers which were removable and washable.

According to her request, I’ve started making a handle cover for her gorgeous bag. We went to a yarn shop together to get ideal colors of yarns.

Now I’d like to share with you how I’ve decorated those handles. This is the original bag.

I’ve made those handle covers as how my friend has ordered to me. After I’ve crocheted the covers and sewed the pink pearls, I and my friend sewed the zippers together, one for each.

She wanted to put flowers to decorate one side of the handle, so I’ve made them 🙂

Finally, we’ve got those covers.

She decided to make the flowers removable as well. This is how the bag looks like without the flowers.

Then, this is how it looks like with the flowers!!

I’m happy since my client is very happy with them 😀
The best thing about handmade is you can get what you want!!

I’m super satisfied with the outcome!! Happy crocheting ♡

Decorate your workspace!!

It’s been a while since I last posted a blog here. I had been working on some new works, but I just couldn’t find time to update all of them here…!! Now I have so much to write, I will try to keep updating a lot here 🙂

Recently, I’m in love with my can cover which I’ve created the design itself. I’ve made them because I wanted to keep my beads nicely so that when my friends came to my place for the workshop, everybody will know where to put those beads and it will be easy to share those beads. So, first, I just tried to put them in an empty can…The idea was good. They did the job but it didn’t look good. So, I started making covers for the cans.

Here is the before and after photo. I think those cans in cover look much better and I really like the designs.

I originally wanted to make them very colorful, but my husband liked to keep them simple, so I’ve decided to go with beige&black, beige&white and beige&brown. They look cute together!!

I am not usually good at organize things but I think those cans will help me to make my rooms less messy and more beautiful!!

 

I’ve made the pattern for this can cover. It will fit any size of square-bottomed cans. I hope you will recycle your empty cans to something cute with your favorite colors of yarns!! 🙂

The easy-to-follow crochet pattern for this stylish can cover is now available on Craftsy and Etsy!! If you are interested in, please come visit my shop below 🙂

It might will be a good idea for the upcoming valentine’s gift or somebody’s birthday gifts? In Japan, Valentine’s days are for the girls to give chocolates and gifts to their loving one (boys). Maybe he/she will be happy to put those simple but cute cans on their workspaces!!  🙂

Happy crocheting ♡

Ladies' party! Bracelet making

Today, I held a bracelet making workshop 😀 There were 7 ladies and 3 babies, so I had to arrange the dining/living room a little bit but it was really nice 🙂 Actually, I like how we set the table, so I’m keeping it for now 😀

All of them are wives of their husband and mothers of their children (except for me), and they are good at cooking! So, during the workshop at lunch time, we had delicious lunch which everybody brought one dish. It was so good.

Now, let me introduce my friends’ works 😀
Black thin leather x blue & yellow beads. She was also making one with black leather and pink beads for her daughter. It seems to be so nice to have a daughter since you can make the same accessories for your little ones ♡

Brown leather x wood & turquoise blue & brown beads. This is really warm 🙂 I like it especially with her red cardigan ♡

Beige thin cord x pearl & turquoise blue & wood beads. This is elegant especially because she chose the thinner cord 🙂 I like those colors she chose ♡

Brown leather x black & blue beads. She actually put some orange gold and other colors as well. Her style was very original and unique!! I like her color orders 😀

Brown leather x brown & turquoise blue beads. (The upper one in the picture below.) It was her second time to make this bracelet, and she did better than the last time!! I like her new works as well 😀 Actually, those two go really well together ♡

Brown leather x pearl & wood & orange gold beads. I’m super surprised that this goes really well with her own bracelet which she had bought in Hawaii. She really knows her tastes, which is nice 🙂 ♡

Beige leather x turquoise blue & orange gold & pearl beads. This is feminine ♡ She told me that her two-year-old boy told her that “it’s cute”… so adorable 😀 ♡
I forgot to take hers on my camera, so I asked her to send a picture to me 🙂

After everybody made their own bracelets, we had tea break with tasty sweets.

Everybody together! 🙂 …although we missed 2 of us…

My friend successfully made a ring as well! How nice 🙂

It’s always fun to create things with people you love ♡ I hope everybody had a nice time today. Well, I had a very good time ♡♡♡

Strawberry Tart for Celebration :D

A few days ago, we were invited to my friends’ house for their housewarming party.

So, I baked a cake, a strawberry tart!! I prepared a night before so that the cake became tastier.

I also made message cookies out of the same dough with the tart. I melted chocolates so as to write messages with it and to make some pretty flower figures. This was how it looked in the end 🙂

This is the recipe I’ve used to bake it although it’s written in Japanese. →☆

I’m super happy when I see others smiling with what I’ve made for them 🙂
I hope to do more of adventures in cooking/baking as well 😀