Tough Guy - Sewn Dog Jacket

A friend of mine is living with his sister and her two toy dogs that she loves to dress. The great thing is that the dogs both love to wear clothes and come running happily every time she pulls out an outfit for them. He knew that I was getting into sewing jackets and asked me to make a "tough guy" jacket for the male dog of the pair, since apparently, some of his current outfits are lacking a bit of testosterone. Hopefully, soon, I'll have pictures of this jacket modeled... but for now, here it is. Of course, Lily-Cat loves photo shoots and was desperate to get in every shot. So, the paw here and there is her trying to add value, glitz, and glamour to the frame.

Secret Christmas Projects Revealed: Cinderella Topsy Turvy Doll

The next Secret Christmas Project: Cindrella!

This Cinderella Topsy Turvy Doll is 100% of my own design/improvisation. I gave it to my niece for Christmas :o)

My sisters and I had one that we all played with and that doll which is long gone was the inspiration for this one. I think by the time I was playing with her, she was a bit worn, but I loved her so much. That doll was blonde, kind of 70's, and made of fabric. On one side, Cinderella is in Rags, you flip the doll over and expose the hidden "Glam" cinderella. Two Dolls in One.

This site has interesting information on the history of these dolls... and here is one you can buy through FAO Schwartz.

For my version, I made her with brown hair since my niece has brown hair. I think every little girl likes to have a doll that looks a little bit like them.

I was planning on changing too things to the design - redo the tiara on the glam side (it currently looks like a sweat band a la Olivia Newton John) and I was going to add a broom to the Cinderella in Rags side.

But, I was crunched for time and wanted to give it to her as soon as I could... so without further ado...

Cindy's Daytime Look:

The Very Odd Two-Fer Shot...

Glam Cindy!

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Sneak Peeks

This is a very special sneak peek at some of my Christmas Projects this year. I will post full pictures after the gifts have been given...

Sneak Peek : Skirts

5 wrap skirts one for each sister and one for my sister-in-law. They get to decide who gets what. Full pic of each skirt after they are given - for now a glimpse of each fabric with the trim. Secret Gift #1:

Whatever could it be?

Secret Gift #2:
hmmm...

I hope everyone has a great time celebrating the holidays.

Silent Auction + Benefit Concert for the Mexican Flood Victims

Some of my crocheted items will be auctioned off during this concert to benefit the Mexican Flood Victims...

good music + fun people + great cause = super happy fun time

Mexican Flood Benefit Concert

Threadgills

Sunday - December 2nd

2 p.m. to 7p.m.

301 West Riverside Austin, Texas

2 p.m.: Southpaw Jones

3 p.m.: The Daze

4 p.m.: The Harold Ambler Project

5 p.m.: Sam and Henry

6 p.m.: The Shelley King Band

Hosted by your emcee, Spike Gillespie.

Silent art auction.

Admission $10; $5 for 18-and-under.

about:
On Sunday, December 2, local musicians, artists, and businesses are holding a benefit for the victims of the recent flooding in Tabasco, Mexico. Although no longer in the news, Tropical Storm Noel and its aftermath have left devastation in Mexico that will take months and years from which to rebound. In addition to damaging the homes of almost a million people, or about half of Tabasco's population, the flood also devastated crops of corn, bananas and beans that provide the livelihood for thousands.

For Adoption during the Auction: Miss Bunny

Miss Bunny is a freehanded crochet doll complete with Swarovski Crystal earrings. Fancy!

The varigated yarn is actually Belgian yarn that my Aunt Kathy gave to me. She bought it years and years ago - and like any yarn that's taken care of, it's in excellent condition.

The solid color yarn is in lion brand microspun... and the scarf is in fancy fur novelty yarn.

The majority of Miss Bunny was done in single crochet... with the exception of parts of the heart and part of her ears. She is 100% one of a kind.

Also up for auction...

The cutest lil' boots in Texas!

Adorable Cowboy Baby Booties for a brand new Native Texan ;)

They are soo tiny and cute. I want to make a ton of pairs in every color. These were done in Caron Simply Soft Chocolate and Red Heart Buff yarn. I actually followed a pattern for once... and was impressed with myself for not changing it up too much ;)

If you are in Austin - please try to come on Sunday!

ok - so get this -

The hot pink ami monkey I made for Miriam and posted yesterday was stolen off her desk!

can you believe it?!?!?

She didn't even have it for a day.

*sending out evil vibes to someone who would actually steal the ami monkey*

Hot Pink Monkey for Miriam

Miriam's birthday was awhile back... so of course, I just recently sent her a birthday present. The pics of the scarf are soon to come... for now, here are some pics of the Hot Pink Monkey I made her.

As usual, no pattern... the eyes are doll eyes and the flower is a Swarovski crystal bead, both from Hobby Lobby.

Enjoy!

More Angles on Q's Dragon

I received some more pictures from Sue of the Dragon Handpuppet that I made for Q. I thought these were cute and gave you a better look at this guy...
Enjoy!

Thank you, Sue :o)

Kitty Ami for Kate

I wanted to send something to Kate as a thinking of you gift... I know she loves tea and I scoured the internets looking for THE teapot that would be perfect for Kate. I found hundreds of cute ones... big ones, lil ones, bright ones, geometric ones, girly ones... and finally settled on this adorable sheep one. Not wanting to ship it all the way from the UK, I soured the internets once more, trying to find another store that carried this uber-cute pot.

But nada.

So... I ordered it.

About 3-4 days later, I see this post by Kate on her blog...

She had found exactly the same teapot and ordered it from the UK for herself.

What are the odds?

Anyway...

I made her a lil ami kitty because I figured there was no way that she already had one that looked exactly like this one...

so here's hoping :o)

Hand Puppets for Nephews - Dragon and Sheep

The pictures from the June vacation are trickling in... and now I have some more pictures to share of things crocheted for the lil' guys.

First up: A Dragon for Quinlan.

I was originally going to make finger puppets for Quinlan, but then thought that a larger one might be more fun. I was going to suprise him, but the conversation went like this:

Q: a suprise?

M: Yup!

Q: What is it?

M: Well... I can't tell you... but you can guess! ...It's something that you wear on your hand...

Q: Mitten!

M: No... not a mitten, but...

Q: A PUPPET!

wow. that game didn't last long.

So yeah...

Here is his dragon puppet held by Uncle Andy. I'm hoping for some more angles. I gave him fangs, scales along his spine, and, of course, a forked tonge.

Next up: A Sheep For Atticus

So, I had made Atticus the elephant which he liked. But, he LOVED the dragon hand puppet. love Love LOVED it.

Of course, I had to make him a puppet. I had some fuzzy white yarn that I had packed on accident and it looked like a sheep's wool. Sheep it was!

I thought about Shaun the Sheep in Wallace and Gromit and tried to make him look like my mental image of him.

He turned out kind of poodle like... but here he is anyway giving Mr. Atticus a kiss.

and from the side... you can see hints of his big, long pink tongue:

Enjoy!

Baby Elephant for Atticus

Sitting on top the blanket for Megan is the Elephant I made for Atticus. I started by following a pattern from a magazine (I'll have to look it up and let you know where it's from later). But, I forgot the pattern at home and winged everything but the torso of this guy.

I used worsted weight yarn and he's a very "tough" lil Elephant. I'm hoping to get a pic at some point of Atticus with the Elephant. Still to come are pics of the Sheep and Dragon hand puppets. As well as a Cowboy hat I made for Q. All were my own design.

Because I'm proud of the snuggly blanket (my biggest project in a long time)... here are some more angles on it:

Cthulu 2.0

After sending pics of the mighty lil' cthulu around, I was informed that although my homage to the slimy, tentacled, elder god was impressive... it still wasn't "right". Apparently, without wings, my chtulu was just an odd looking crochet dude.
So, I went home and crocheted up some rudimentary wings (as described in wikipedia). It was all very last minute and done when I should have been packing for my trip to Seattle and NC... but, it was my last day at work and I figured that if I didn't attach them myself, Cthulu would never have wings.
I spent my lunch on my last day up at Greg's desk performing minor surgery on The Tentacled One. To help make the wings stand up, I straightened out two jumbo paper clips and inserted them in the wings. I had brought a blue pipecleaner for the job, but it showed a little too much. I was checking him out and realized how cool it would be if he had bendable arms. So, I cut the pipecleaner in half and inserted one half into each tubey arm. Voila! The Elder God, complete.
I must admit, my friends were right. With wings, Cthulu is much more impressive, creepy, and wonderful.
And, admittedly less cuddly.
Check him out. muwahahah. Oh, and there he is posing with Greg's vicodin for his yechy back pain.

Cthulu!

Hello! As pretty much everyone knows, I am not a sci-fi reader... but, everyone I know and adore totally is. I am pretty sure that everyone in my family and most of my friends have read and loved at least some sci-fi stuff. Anyway... a co-worker friend of mine is obsessed with the sci-fi classics - especially HP Lovecraft and this character/god named Cthulu. He's been working like crazy on a project for me and helping me immensely. In the meantime, he hurt his back and has a pinched nerve- and is attempting to work even though he's in a lot of pain Anyway, I wanted to make him smile, so I looked up cthulu on wikipedia and decided to crochet a version for his desk... I guess if you know what the bad guy in Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest looks like, you'll know the jist. Basically, he is supposed to be like a combination of a squid, octopus, bird, and reptile. Of course, he is tormenting the Lily-cat for added drama.
Enjoy!

'Nother Monkey!

This one was for a co-worker/friend named Katherine who loved the Monkey that I made for my friend Josh.
The monkey is sitting next to her phone in the first pic and next to a ruler (to show you his height) in the other. He's a very lil' guy.
I made him with wool-ease in the "woods color". I sewed on a red heart button and embroidered his face on tan felt (although, it looks white in the pic).
Enjoy the pics :)

Bunny for Mits

I crocheted this bunny for my friend Mitzie from one of Roxy Crafts' awesome Amigurumi patterns. Like everything I do, this one doesn't look identical to the original. I kinda switched things up here and there. This one doesn't measure up to Mitzie's two real bunnies - Bonnie and Clyde. The embroidery is kind of messy, but c'mon - it adds character!

Mitzie, in case you haven't met her, is the friend of mine that grew up in Japan and moved out to UCSB for college. She studied accounting and then briefly moved to Arkansas where she picked up a love for country music. I worked with Mitzie at MetWest (a Fixed Income place) where she was pushed around by an awful boss with terrible breath. I used to go and hang out with Mitzie at this great dive bar that had karaoke called Roger's Tattle Tale. Mitzie's comes off as this quiet girl, but man can she belt out a country ballad. :) I loved seeing the permanent residents of the bar stools at that bar look up in shock when she sang.

Mitzie works for Ernst & Young now and just moved to Houston. She seems to be adjusting just fine and I'll be seeing her in a month when I go down there to check out Austin. I can't wait to see her!

In other updates, the skirt for my sister is nearly complete! I have about 2 more rows to add to the bottom and then I just need to add elastic to the top. There were a few problems that I had with the lace where it joined. At some point, I realized that it would work better if I stopped joining and just worked in the rounds. Of course, I didn't realize this until I was a skein into it... so I did not go back and re-do it. I know this is a total sin... but honestly, I don't think you can tell. The way the skirt hangs in layers, it is really not noticeable at all. I think it's going to look really stunning on her. It might be too warm of a skirt for the summer up in Seattle, but I think it'll be perfect for this fall.

Well... that's the update. Hopefully, I'll be able to post pics of the finished skirt soon.