Oh the Cuteness!

We're fully funded and the shop is open! Visit us at www.blacksquirrelberkeley.com! This is the concept drawing I created for The Black Squirrel. The shop is going to be amazing! Hello friends! What a crazy year this has been! But finally, as of yesterday, my big dream has a chance of becoming a reality! We launched our Indiegogo campaign to fund the creation of a brick and mortar and online fabric, yarn, and craft supply boutique in Oakland, CA! We're off to a great start but we need lots of help getting the word out about it. This is the concept drawing of my ideal storefront. I built this campaign over the past year with practically no resources, except all my lovely crafty friends. Likewise, I have no money to put into advertising, but I'm not worried about that because the crafting community has always been such a tight knit and loving one! If you've been a follower of Oh the Cuteness and enjoyed our free patterns and DIYs then you'll be happy to ...

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted here, but I have a very good excuse this time that I think you will all be very excited about. Big changes are happening and big plans are being made! First of all, I'm no longer living in Campbell (And yes, this means I had to disassemble and box up  the amazing craft room ... Le sigh.). At the moment I've got everything I own except for the essentials put in a storage pod, and I've spent the holidays with my mom and dad, and the new year with my sister, and now I'm planning on returning to my beautiful city of Oakland to finally start working on my big dream... I'm very proud to introduce to you The Black Squirrel , a brick-and-mortar and online fabric, yarn, and craft supply boutique! It's been my lifelong dream to own a little craft shop and I've decided it's time to go for it! The shop will stock a variety of beautiful trendy yarns and fabrics, with a focus on s...

There's some seriously cute crocheted goodness up on my Etsy shop right now! Look at how adorable this little lady is, and she's modeling one of my Victorian-inspired baby bonnets that I just listed. Thank you so much to Nadine form Birdy Boutique Photography for taking this shot! I originally made a bunch of these bonnets for a craft fair, but the sprinklers came on and I had to pack it in! If you're not following me on Instagram yet then you're missing out, as I did a presale of these with free shipping before I listed them on Etsy! Come find me @ohthecuteness if you want in on future sales! Also up in the shop are my crocheted bike beanies: I wrote this pattern myself specifically for people who ride bikes. They fit really nicely under a bike helmet and they're very squishy and stretchy. The yarns have little gold filaments in them too for some extra sparkle! There's only one Autumn colored one left so don't miss out!

It's GIVEAWAY time! It's an Instagram-only giveaway however, so you need to head over there on your mobile device to be able to enter! You can find my account @ohthecuteness! (http://www.instagram.com/ohthecuteness) I've teamed up with Nadine from @birdyboutiquephotography and Leslie from @bigcraftyblog to give away this beautiful collection of items to one lucky winner! To enter you must FOLLOW all three shops on instagram, REPOST the photo with the tag #cutecraftybirdygiveaway, and TAG all three shops in your repost. One lucky follower will receive: * A baby shabby chic flapper headband and crocheted bonnet from Birdy Boutique Photography * A set of rainbow house blocks and a Waldorf style cardinal and felted nest from Mama G's Big Crafty Blog * A set of eco-friendly moustache straws, stitch markers, a crocheted cupcake pincushion, an herb and spice filled trivet, and an organic cotton tote bag from me! The giveaway will run for one week, with a...

Many thanks to my friend Nadine over at Birdy Boutique Photography for this little snapshot, what a cutie! First, a little back story about this pattern: I was able to take some time to go visit my family recently and had such a wonderful time. My mother always inspires me to be creative because she is so full of great ideas! Her craft cabinet is in the guest room and when I woke up the first morning I saw this, and  had to stumble around like a zombie to get my camera and snap a picture: What amazing colors,  was the first thing I thought when I opened my eyes. When I was more awake I pulled the yarn out of the cabinet and took a picture so I could remember the scheme and go buy some when I got home. I just loved those colors and had to make something with them! Long story short mom ended up giving the yarn to me right then and there, and I had my hooks with me (Never leave home without them!), so I just started in on a baby blanket while we were hanging ou...

My friend and knitting guru Suzanne had a birthday party recently that carried the theme of "Share Your Craft", and she teamed up with another Stitch 'n Bitch member to also make it a de-stash party. I brought a bag of fabric and miscellaneous crafting goodies to give, but I had no idea how much other people were bringing! Needless to say, I came home with a LOT of yarn, fabric, and knitting needles! I don't have any plans for the ones above, but I'd love some one-skein project ideas from you guys! The big pile of Fjord is going to become a lap blanket for Johnny, and I'm not sure what I'll do with the white and cream yarns yet. I also came home with these cute fabrics and colorful needles! But, I cleaned out my own needles and realized I have an extra pair of 11's and 3's, and I was wondering if anyone out in internet-land would fancy a trade? I really need a needle gauge, any kind will do! Since I have all these vintage plastic ...

When I started to crochet as an adult (I learned when I was 10 and quickly forgot until college), I learned how to make amigurumi first. The little cupcake on the bottom left was the 2nd creation I ever crocheted, and I still have him and love him to this day. The pattern was one of the first posts I ever made on this blog , nearly a decade ago, but it has since disappeared from the net.  Looking back, I realize now that I didn't do some of the techniques right, but it still came out so nice that I made more and sold them on my etsy shop in the early years, and even figured out how to make a giant one for fun. I hope some of you will try this pattern if you've never tried amigurumi before, because it got me hooked (Ba-dum-bum-tsch!), and I hope it will work the same for you!  You can leave it plain in earth tones for a muffin, or a red bottom looks like red velvet cake. My favorite thing to do was add seed beads for sprinkle "freckles" and little expressive ey...

Meet Emo the sad sheep. No one really knows why he's sad. He has plenty of friends and a bitchin' sweater, plus all the tissues he could ever need. And yet there he is, always in a bad mood. Maybe he just needs a hug? I love this little guy! I actually finished him quite a while ago but dragged my feet on his little tissue box, which is actually a box from a Japanese tissue-themed eraser (they make toilet paper ones too lol), that I filled with a folded up tissue instead. He didn't take a super long time to crochet, but seaming him together was a nightmare! He only sits about 5 inches tall, and I love the way his face is sculpted. He's made from acrylic yarns, mostly good old Red Heart, plus some button eyes and a single glass teardrop. He's pretty true to the original from this Japanese craft book, ISBN4-309-26572-3: See him hiding in the background on the upper right corner of the table? Poor Emo. Maybe he's sad because I want to sell him, ...

Happy How-Tuesday! This week I found a great vertical layer cake tutorial, a whole site filled with budget-friendly goodies, and a sweet way to make a crochet scarf. I'd love it if you readers out there would send me some tutorials you're in love with, either via the comments here or e-mail them to me at ohthecuteness@hotmail.com. The more people participating, the more fun it will be, and feel free to post links to your own projects as well! Firstly, I found this fantastic tutorial from the I Am Baker blog for creating vertical layers inside a cake in lieu of the traditional horizontal ones. How much fun would this be as a surprise?! I stumbled upon a site called Budget 101 and kind of got lost in it for a long while. They have all kinds of DIY ideas, but the one I liked most was this huge page of mixes for all sorts of goodies that you can make in mason jar s and give as gifts. Go check them out! Lastly, I found this cute tiny squares scarf tutorial from Do ...

It's done yay! Johnny bought me this gorgeous Debbie bliss yarn from a local shop late last year and since it's a silk-alpaca blend and so incredibly soft I thought it would be fun to make something for the hypothetical future baby to stash in the hope chest. Johnny helped me choose the pattern, which we found on Ravelry for free! It has 2 size choices, 3 months and 6 months, but mine came out a little bigger because the yarn I used was larger than the one called for in the pattern.  I used a vintage white shell button for the neckband closure and embroidered the little stars on afterward. We were inspired by  this little beauty we saw on Pinterest , so I made the crocheted moon topper from  this free pattern, also from Ravelry . I think I might make a smaller version of this in dark blue some time in the future as well, so once the someday baby grows out of it we'll have this one ^_~. Oh by the way there's a cute pic of one of my owl plushie...

I have to say I am in hog heaven with this  new craft room  of mine! There's been a big pile up of personal and business-related ufo's for some time now, so I've been going down the list finishing one business and one personal at a time. Today I finished a special secret project for my etsy shop that's been in my head forever, and to celebrate I took a little me-time and made a gigantic owl! I call him Gordie since he's so pudgy! He's made from some leftover felt and hand-me-down canvas material. Probably he will end up being a mascot at my craft booth. But! I made him for a very specific reason, namely this: I know I've mentioned before that I try to run a no-waste sewing studio. This means that every scrap of fabric, felt, and thread ends up in this bin and will eventually end up as stuffing for plushies. Right around when I moved house I noticed that I was not keeping up with using my scraps and the bin was completely full. So I decided wh...

Hello friends! I can't believe how long it's been since I've made a post, but you will definitely understand why, just check this out: 210 squares, 6 helpers, a little under 2 months, and about 300 hours of crochet went into this 52 square foot behemoth. So obviously it's been occupying every spare moment of my free time for the past month. The photos above are pre-blocking. My bosses at Woodcut Maps, Gabe and Cat, have been engaged for quite some time and are tying the knot as I type in New York. Gabe is Jewish and as is tradition they wanted to have a Chuppah (a kind of canopy) covering them during the ceremony. I was so honored when they asked if I could make it for them! The idea behind the design was so sweet and simple: there's one square for each person at their wedding, and all the squares are different so people can look at it and know which square is theirs. The blockiness of the color layout was intentional as they wanted all the squares fro...