Oh the Cuteness!

Well, I sure had a nice Christmas, as I hope everyone else did. A lot of traveling this year, but that's okay because it made it super special! On Saturday we drove 3 hours south to my parent's house, stayed the night, then drove another 3 hours south to my aunt's house to see my dad's side of the family. My boyfriend and I have been going out for nearly 3 1/2 years and he's met my mom's side but not my dad's, so he came too and everyone absolutely loved him (bien sur!). We had a lovely time doing a gift exchange, opening presents, sitting and catching up with family. (I never get to go down south, so I had a lot of catching up to do!) Not to mention all the wonderful food! We stayed the night there and had breakfast and stockings the next morning (Christmas day), and then we were off again on another 3 hour drive, north this time. We opened more presents at my parent's house and had more yummy food, then went to my bf's parent's house for yet mo...

I make this soup so often that I know the recipe by heart - not that it's terribly hard to remember. I love it because you can add or leave out any ingrediets you like, and it helps use up vegetables that have been sitting around with nothing to do. Also, you can make it vegan, vegetarian, or with meat and it's just as good. And since it makes a huge pot, it freezes very well and keeps for a long time if you don't use meat. Here's the recipe: Special Cold Day Soup 2 tablespoons olive oil 6 potatos, quartered and thinly sliced 1 large onion, chopped 3 stalks celery, sliced 4 carrots, sliced 2 bay leaves 1 teaspoon dried thyme 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning Coarse salt and ground pepper 3 cans (14.5 ounces each) vegetable or chicken broth 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, with juice 8 cups mixed fresh, canned, or frozen vegetables such as corn, green beans, lima beans, peas, cabbage, and zucchini, chopped or sliced (my favorite combination is corn, green beans, mushrooms, ...

I'm sorry for the posting drought, but I have been soooo uber busy trying to stock up the store for the holidays, and it's going fairly well. I've listed 25 odd things since the begining of November and I've sold 9 of them thus far, and I'm super-duper excited! But etsy is tough cause there's sooo much cool stuff to buy, I couldn't resist... Grrr. Oh well, check out this deliciously smunchy handspun yarn I bought from Feral Feminine: It's called "Fire and Ice". Only thing is, there's about 108 yards of it and I have no idea what to make. It's enough for a good beanie, I'm sure, but suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It's about worsted weight, thinner and thicker in some places which totaly makes me looove it. Any ideas?

A few weeks ago I sold my first item on my Etsy shop - a bad-ass owl pincushion named James. Shortly after, I recieved good feedback from the buyer, and then they sent me an e-mail. It makes me so happy to know what people think of my little creations, especially if they really love them. I can tell that James has gone to a good home because contained in this e-mail was a photo and a simple message: I love this place, I am so happy in Ohio. And I just thought that was the most wonderful thing in the world, until they sent me another one: It snowed last night. Isn't it pretty? How awesome is that that they love little James enough to take him out to play in the snow, and thay gave him such a lovely home! It just makes me feel all warm and squishy inside, and I hope this is a sign of good things to come for my crafting career *crosses fingers*!

Ta da! I've finally signed up for my own etsy shop! It's called http://ohthecuteness.etsy.com and I even bought my own website, www.ohthecuteness.com , but don't go there just yet, cause it's brand new and not much is there yet. But please visit my shop, I've only got a couple things on there right now, one of which is this: but I'm working overtime to get some more up. And now if you have questions about custom orders or anything having to do with purchasing one of my creations, you can e-mail me at ohthecuteness@hotmail.com . I'll be posting pics of my Halloween party soon, so keep a look out! (I'm soooo excited!)

I took a painting class at the CSU last year, and I have been painting for a while but it's just so messy I hardly ever do it because I end up ruining my favorite jeans. Just felt like showing off my favorites, and I may add another on here later. The one of the house is on a huge canvas, one of those four foot tall ones I think. I didn't use any tape to do the strait lines, I had the darn thing on my lap with my face a few inches away. LOL. And the flash makes it look funny in the middle, but it's got almost no texture and just flat, bold colors. I like it because on the wall it looks almost like a window. The other one is an older painting I did in my first year of college, and it's a self-portrait on a 24x36 canvas, I think. I have a tryptic I have yet to take pictures of, but I'll post it later. Oh, and in my sculpture class I welded/cut out this. It's rather large, at least 3 or 3 1/2 feet across, cut from sheet metal. It's hanging on my firepl...

Out of boredom and a strong will to procrastinate, I found myself wanting to make something random to fill up a couple hours of my time that I should have been using to do something constructive. So I decided to try to figure out how to make one of the cute little milk stuffies from My Paper Crane , because I'm short on cash but I crave the cuteness. I just made a small one, no where near as cute or well-made as hers, but he's fun to throw at my boyfriend. Hehehe. I hope she's not offended, but as they say, immitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And I really want to immitate her tampon dolls next. Anywho, here's hers: And here's mine: Not too shabby, but I'm definately saving up to get one of hers (Probably the strawberry milk!). And on another note, our entrepreneurship class challenge is over and we made about $150 net from selling our doggy bandanas and carob covered dog bones. We did better than a lot of the groups in class, but one group beat us by...

I just realized that I totally forgot to post pics of the two cute cupcakes I made that are for sale now on ebay here at Holiday Habit . They're made out of worsted weight acrylic yarn with vintage beads for the face, and are about 3x3 inches. Later on keep an eye out for Christmas colored ones! I love making these little guys, and I'll never ever sell my first one, he's my favorite! On another note, I've been so busy lately doing all kinds of stuff and I can't believe I'm getting it all done. For my entrepreneurship (man that's a long word) class our first assignment is to get in a group of 4-5 people and create our own small business using $5 of start-up capitol annd any supplies we have on hand, and then make as much money as we can in the next two weeks. So cool. We get to keep all the money we make, and the group that makes the most gets extra credit and their name on this huge trophy in the business department. So our group decided to sell doggy bandan...

Meet Domo, the amigurumi robot! He's all hand crocheted in single crochet out of acrylic worsted weight yarn. He's the biggest stuffie I've ever made, he came out bigger than I thought cause I used a big hook to get him done faster, and I freehanded the entire pattern. My first pattern was my amigurumi acorn, and man what a jump to a giant and fairly complicated robot. Here's a pic of him with a big soda bottle for size reference. Over a foot tall easy. I named him Domo because it means something along the lines of "very much" in Japanese, a reference to how big he is and how long it took me to make him. I'm so in love with him! His feet and legs are weighted so he stands on his own, and his arms are jointed with a button for mobility. I wanted to make him some stuffed buildings to play with but I didn't have the time tonight, so I'll post them later on. He's my first robot, and I'm quite proud of him. He's so cuddly! The embelishments ...

Well, like I said, mom's going to start selling my little handmade goodies on her ebay store, Holiday Habit , and I figured I'd give my readers a sneak peak at what we're selling, so here you go (this is only part one): The owls are made from Halloween and fall fabrics, felt, and vintage glass beads. They look so cute all together like that! I'll be making more later on for Christmas and also some made out of just plain, pretty, non-themed fabric for any time of year. The cats are double layered potholders, with vintage buttons, all hand embroidederd, etc., and they're made from my own pattern! I'm really proud of them. Also, the red Amineko I posted a while back will be going up for sale to a good home. I'm also making two more cupcakes - chocolate ones with orange papers, and sprinkles and faces from vintage beads for the season, possibly a dozen or so acorns, and two sets of hand-stitched country style stuffed fabric ornaments. Whew. I'm not sure how...

I made these little guys for my new buddy Anke for a PIF on nervousness.org. They're not terribly big, but, as you can see, they make good pincushons. The little white one was the first one I made, so I decided to keep him. My mom fell in love with them too, so I'm making her one to keep and a dozen more to sell on her e-bay shop, Holiday Habit . So if anyone wants one, keep a look out on her site!

I've been wanting to post pics of my collages for a while, and I just couldn't wait till I got a good digital camera (which will probably be for my b-day on monday) to post this one. Made it in my painting class. It's about 10 sumi-ink drawings of mine cut up and reassembled on a 30x36 inch flat canvas. It has a lot of 3D elem ents that I tried to show in the pictures. Hope you like it. (And I promise I'll redo all my pics as soon as I get a better camera.)

Man, I've been working on this amineko for an eternity. He's been sitting on the coffee table with no legs or tail for god knows how long. but I saw that there was an amineko-along on craftster , so I thought I'd finish him up and put him on here so I could link it. He's sooo cute! And he's easily poseable for cute pictures. As soon as I get a better digital camera I'm going to redo my pictures on here and then take him outside and do some cute stuff. The pattern posted here is the one off of the craftster forum that was translated from the origional japanese one. I didn't change a single thing and I think it turned out really well: US Hook size G, one skein of worsted weight yarn and small amount of contrasting yarn, cotton batting, weights (pebbles, marbles, polly pellets, etc.), embroidery thread. Rnd (Rnds) = Round, SC = single crochet, SLST = slip stitch, INC = increase (+1 sc), DEC = decrease(-1 sc). Head (make 1): Rnd 1 : make 6 sc into a rin...

I've bee toying around with Asian cuisine lately and I thought I'd post my recipe for Teriyaki Chicken Donburi. Donburi is a Japanese dish that's basically some kind of protein (fish, eggs, poultry, meat) over a big bowl of sushi rice. And while I'd love to have a bowl of Tekkadon (raw tuna sashimi over rice) I can't afford to go out and buy expensive fresh fish all the time. But this recipe turned out so yummy and it's so simple. Makes enough to serve 4. Teriyaki Chicken Donburi For Rice: 2 cups short grain rice (I use calrose) 3 cups water 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/4 tsp sugar 2 1/2 tsp rice vinegar For Teriyaki Marinade: 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 1 tbsp rice vinegar 1 tsp onion powder 1/4 tsp granulated garlic Other Ingredients: 1 package thin sliced chicken breasts 2 scallions (green onions), sliced thin 2 carrot, sliced thin on the diagonal 1 cup bean sprouts 12 dried shitake mushrooms (reconstituted and drained) Vegetable oil (can also use ...

Warning: Sissy, don't read this unless you want to ruin your birthday suprise! So I know people usually do a scarf for their first crochet project, but it seems I worked backwards and decided to start out making complicated stuffed animals for my first projects, and they turned out fine. I've started scarves before but always ended up unraveling them and turning the yarn into something else before they were done. I guess the monotiny of making row after row of identical stitches got the best of me and I got bored. But I recently picked up the Stitch n' Bitch crochet book, The Happy Hooker. And lo and behold, there was contained in that book a pattern for a scarf in there that went so quickly and easily and had so much flair to it that I actually finished it! It's just a chain of 203 and then 4 rows of double crochet with shells around the edges. I worked it in a nice fluffy, almost chunky, yarn that feels just like suede so it's super soft. Think stuffed animal in ...

Okay, I've finally started to crochet again and I hope never to stop again. The reason being, I finally found a pattern for aminekos that isn't in Japanese. For everyone who's going "What the heck are aminekos?", they're these: The absolute cutest amigurumi cats I've ever seen. I was so enamored with them, and yet so bummed that there was no English pattern, and Babblefish doesn't help me. So I gave up looking for one months ago, and appearantly after that everyone else on the planet discovered them too. Now there's someone selling a knock-off verion of the pattern for 4$ online, but I don't like the way her cats came out. So I spent forever searching and finally found someone who had translated the origional pattern and posted it on their blog. Thank God! To her, if she ever reads this, I have to say "Thank you sooooooooooooo much!". These little cats are just too cool. I'm working on a red one as we speak, and should be done in...