WIP Wednesday 4 - Tear Fairy Complete

Voila! Finally finished and ready to share with Tami's Amis for her WIP Wednesdays. I know, took me long enough, right? I've been a busy girl with the start of the school year! The kids officially start next week so I'll still have some details to take care of to get everyone and everything situated and then once we're all in a routine, I'll be able to relax a bit more. Anyway, I crocheted the little Tear Fairy to be sitting since I have no idea how to make this guy stand on his own with such tiny legs. Plus, I figured his legs could be used as support if he falls over since his nose is heavy. He sits very nicely though! Sometimes you have to press on him and flatten out his bum a little but is just wonderful to me!






Now that I have my companion, I just need the game! Gahh!

Edit--I just did a google search and according to dshyper, this guy is named Shizuku (which translates to "droplet" in Japanese). Cool, huh!?

WIP Wednesday 3 - One more step left for the Tear Fairy!

I was hoping to get the Tear Fairy completed for this week's "Work-In Progress-Wednesday" from Tami's Amis. Due the rainy weather I was unable to take my progress photos outside so I kept pushing back my work. Anyways, the next steps were to work on his face:



When I placed the black eyes in the crocheted circle, I did not place it in the center hole, but rather in between stitches in the next row. I used embroidery floss for his smile :)



Stuffed him super tightly and then sewed him together!



All he needs now are his arms and feet! I don't know why I didn't at least crochet those during the rainy weather! Oh well, I guess the finished project will have to wait until next week! I switched gears a bit since I was pushing the Tear Fairy aside and also worked on my Meden Patapon Amigurumi.



I had this project requested a long time ago and I must apologize to my customer for taking so long. Finding the right yarn was rough, finding the time was tough, and attempting to make some of her parts was frustrating! Once the Tear Fairy is finished and I write up a pattern, Meden Patapon will be my main focus. I needed some time away from Patapons. Anyway, I'll discuss her in the future.

On another note, my monsters were featured in the Super Cute Kawaii blog from their Flickr Friday! I didn't know I was cool enough to be noticed on there! Yay! Finally, in other news, school will be starting officially for the teachers and myself next week and then officially for the students the following week! I have a ton of presentations to prepare, my room to organize, technology to update and so much more! I'm getting a little nervous!!! Once school starts and everything settles, I'll have more time on my hands (sounds strange, but I will...hehe). G'night!!!!

World of Warcraft + Lord of the Rings

Ah, memories!!! My boyfriend and I decided to watch all three movies in the series The Lord of the Rings. Again! I love love love these movies. The story is so powerful and the movies were created so well.

After finishing the final movie today, I was reminded of some old World of Warcraft/Lord of the Rings online sillies! I love when my favorite things come together! I remember when I first starting playing World of Warcraft and I heard this joke from male humans. I think they have the best jokes of all the races but this one is their best!!!!!





This is next one is tops on my favorite Lord of the Rings/World of Warcraft jokes. Newer WoW players will understand the humor, but I feel like it will be most funny to the original WoW players who understand what it was like to quest with "noobs" and actually head to an instance (y'know take the flight path and walk, rather than this instant queue business, lol) and having to work hard in the quest chains to earn the key to instances...ah it's too much. I just love it. It describes WoW gameplay so well!

Click here to view WoW - LOTR Style. Enjoy! Hope it makes you lol! *Warning: mature language in the link* I'm sure many WoW / LOTR fans will have seen these, but if not I hope they made you smile!

WIP Wednesday 2 - Lantern Complete!

This lantern is new! Not the same one as last week's photograph.

This lantern was quite troublesome for me! I wasn't sure what the best way was to crochet a cube, rectangular prism, square pyramid...I don't even know what the heck to call it. My first thoughts were to crochet each side as a rectangle,, a square for the base, then the top and sew each together. I probably could have succeeded in this. Oh, then I also would have had to work in the colored edges. It was a lot of little pieces.

I decided that crocheting amigurumi typically means to crochet in rounds. So, I attempted to crochet a a squarish type of figure. I had never done this before and it took quite a few experiments! I think what I ended up with was pretty good. Perhaps the edges could be a little more defined? Not sure. Anyway, I crocheted the golden cube, switched to the reddish/orangey color to chain strands each time I got to a corner. Then I sewed each edge down to the corners. I crocheted the top separate and sewed it on top. I stuffed it a little extra at the top so it would have a pointier top.

It works for me! I don't want to make complicated patterns, but I also don't want them to be too simple, where they don't like what they're supposed to be. I'm keeping it so far, and if I get an epiphany later I'll make another!

Here are some WIP pics I took. I thought it would be easier to create a little movie rather than uploading each photo. Enjoy! (Lol!)

For other totally awesome WIPs, check out Tami's Amis WIP Wednesdays #2!!!

WIP Wednesday 1 - Ninokuni

Tami's Amis and Other Crochet had a great idea to do a "Work-In-Progress Wednesdays" where fellow crafters can link to their WIPs! So here are my details I've been meaning to discuss about my latest WIP.

I've been really good at starting an amigurumi and not finishing it lately... I already posted about my "Tear Fairy" (I'm not really sure what his actual name is) from a new Studio Ghibli/Level 5 video game called Ninokuni. Isn't he cute? Check out the trailer if you have not seen it yet!





If you're a fan of Studio Ghibli movies, then I'm sure you'll be interested in this game! I was so excited when my boyfriend told me about this and showed me the video on IGN announcing that it will be on the PS3!!!!! Yay! From what I know it's only out in Japan on Nintendo DS. I either need to get my hands on the game and not understand what anyone is saying in the game, or wait for the PS3 version. I'm most likely going to wait for the latter, hehe.

So anyways, as usual, my boyfriend suggested I crochet him while I wait for the game :)
This is what I have so far and it's tough to tell! Crocheting his nose separate was the easiest thing I thought. I am also not really familiar with crocheting a curved shape--kind of like a cornucopia shape.

I was working on creating the lantern that he has, but I was unsatisfied with my yarn choices so I stopped and have not gotten back to it yet! I did buy some new yarn, but have been so busy with an online class I'm taking. This is the last week and I have a lot of work to submit still but starting next week, I'll be refreshed and ready to continue working on him! Once I figure out how to crochet the lantern appropriately I'll be able to attach the lantern, nose and body together then work on the limbs.




On another note, if you're reading this and have not entered my contest to win Gorge the Monster, please enter! It's on my Facebook page!

Sprite Stitch

Yay! My Patapons were featured on Sprite Stitch, a blog dedicated to video game crafts! I'm glad they were cool enough to be noticed :)


Thanks, Sprite Stitch! Check out their blog for more awesome crafts made by gamers, about games! Woot!

Pan Pakapon and Angry Patapon

Here is my completed Pan Pakapon! I couldn't figure out how to crochet a trumpet...the horn part baffled me. Nothing I tried worked so he'll do without :)



I also modified my regular patapon by giving him an angry look. I just crocheted a half circle and sewed it on.




I think they're pretty darn cute!

Building a Patapon Army!

Here are some snapshots of my patapons! I've got a regular patapon, Pan Pakapon (the trumpet-playing patapon from the first mini-game) and an angry patapon. They look so cute together!

Lumines drives me crazy!

I really enjoy the game Lumines. I started playing it on the PSP and we now have it on our PS3. It is so addicting. It's kind of like Tetris meets Bejeweled and while you're clearing out blocks you make music with every rotation, slide, and deletion of blocks. Good, clean fun. Stare-at-the-screen-for-too-long fun. You just can't stop! OMG!

Ok, so the other day, my boyfriend told me how his friend from work said he decided he's going to go for all the trophies you can acheive for Lumines on the PS3. He came home and suggested I get all the trophies first and beat him to the punch! Of course, I was totally up to the challenge! I LOVE that game, right?

Well, let me just say those trophies are seriously tough to get. Seriously. I just don't see how some of them are possible! Particularly clearing 210 blocks (2X2 small blocks = 1 block) in 180 seconds. My record is just over 150 or 160 ( I can't remember exactly). I've tried multiple strategies but I'm feeling rather defeated.

I wonder how many people out there have all the trophies for Lumines SUPERNOVA? I'd like to meet them and applaud them! This player right here is amazing...

I have finished making Pan Pakapon from the PSP game Patapon! It was a request from a gamer girl like myself :) The hat was a challenge and I never wrote down notes because I kept changing my work. I think he turned out pretty nice!

I'm working on an another Patapon only with an angry face. Next, I'd like to go from basic black and white Patapons to the colored Rarepons. Some will be difficult to do, in fact some will be downright impossible since many of the Rarepons have tiny spikes and I just don't think crocheting tiny narrow spikes is possible!

Pics to come of Pan Pakapon...I need good lighting and going outside in the cold and the snow just doesn't sound too appealing right now.

OK, let's try this again!

Alright, I've pretty much forgotten about blogging and keeping track of things altogether. I shifted from a focus on my crochet to things like my job. I have to feel motivated and inspired to craft, whether it's crochet, card-making, painting, whatever.

A friend of mine I met while playing World of Warcraft asked me if I was interested in crocheting a set of the Chinese Zodiac animals for members of his family. I was totally excited for his request and said yes! I began right away and decided I'd write down the patterns to eventually share on a blog and sell online to make a few extra bucks. My notes didn't even make sense to me and I forgot to take pictures along the way to make a really good pattern so that didn't work out so well. I got better as time went on and was able to make 3 patterns in pdf form! They include a patapon from the psp game Patapon! LOVE that game. Anyways, then since I took a break from crocheting I had to scramble quick to finish the rest of the amigurumis for my friend so I could mail them to him before Christmas! It felt good to finish them all and he shared with me later that his family absolutely loved them! That was the best part of all :^)

Here are the pictures of Chinese Zodiac Amigurumis.

Ram

Ox

Snake


Pig


Dragon


Tiger



Ok, we'll see how long it takes me to post again!