kappa baby

I didn't get my sister anything for Christmas; we kinda decided we'd buy each other stuff after Christmas. So for the interim period I gave her this little kappa (so she'd have something on Christmas morning!). Kappas are Japanese water spirits who are a bit naughty and who love cucumbers. He's different than my other kappa- he has pink cheeks, little green legs instead of chicken feet and a yellow (instead of just green) pad on his head. She really likes him!

Christmas Eve Eve

Hiya people; sorry I haven't kept up with the blogging, I have the flu (I'm pretty sure it's not piggy flu). Anyway, I'm feeling much better today so I'd thought I'd blog a bit.


I received these wonderful presents from some very dear friends of mine; Nia sent me this utterly kawaii necklace made from beaded hello kitty animals and bells. Needless to say my bird heard me unwrapping this (hem hem, before Christmas) and came running over to investigate the jingling! And Deuce, Chloe and Donna sent me a yard of this truly fabulous aranzi aronzo fabric and pin... which I absolutely adore! These gifts were so thoughtful and kind, I just wanted to send a big thank you to the gift givers, as well as you all during this holiday season!


I also wanted to share this really sweet true story, which actually happened today. My mom is a skills trainer at an elementary school near our house; for those of you who don't know a skills trainer works one-on-one with special needs children. Currently she is paired with a little boy who has Down Syndrome. Almost every day during recess, she and the boy would go see the construction that was happening next door to the school; the boy loves trains, planes, tractors and trucks. Anyway, this was the boy's absolute favorite thing to do and he would get so excited and smile and wave, and some of the construction workers would smile and wave at the boy, which would make him even more happy. My mom thought this was very nice of the construction workers, so she sent a thank you note to their company, explaining how special it was for the boy.

Very early this morning (I was still sleeping... sick and all) my sister heard knocking on our door. It was a construction worker! He had brought the boy a small jar of cookies and two huge calendars full of trucks and tractors from all of the construction workers!!! Can you imagine? Such thoughtful Christmas presents for an unknown little boy from swaggering manly-men construction workers, not to mention all the trouble they took to get it to us to give to the boy!!! Anyway, it really touched my heartstrings and reminded me what Christmas is all about.

Informal Poll

Can I ask you guys some questions? I'm currently in the process of trying to decide what type of calendar to do for next year, and I'd love to hear your thoughts (since the calendars will be for you all!) I was wondering a couple of things:

1. Do you like photographs or computer illustrated better?
2. Would you prefer a set storyline that develops throughout the year or do you like a different storyline every month?
3. Were the bright/dark colors too distracting on your computer?
4. What kind of theme(s) would you like to see?
   

Er... I guess that's all for now!

Zazzle- taking handmade to a whole new level with stamps!

Thanks for all the good wishes about my thesis guys; having etsy/blog cheerleaders helps me chug along! I'm finishing up my job in the office this week, which is good because it was actually really stressful! Just knowing that this was my last week at work helped me to write really well this weekend, and I'm almost done with my introduction (I'm aiming for at least one chapter over Christmas break). I'm also getting ready for the American Historical Association conference I'll be attending for a few days in San Diego in January, but I'm still hammering out all the details; it's going to be kinda scary, because I'm afraid of talking in front of lots of people and this is like THE conference for people who study History. Oh well, we'll see how it goes!

I've actually written about zazzle on my blog before, (I practiced making shoes with my cute animal design!)though I've only made little mock-ups with their previews... I've never ordered anything. But now these personalized berrysprite stamps on their way to me in the mail at this very moment; I'll let you know how they turn out.

In case you were wondering, zazzle currently has a promotion (though it will probably end by the time you guys read this from Dec. 14 9pm to Dec 15 1am... sorry, I would have let you guys know about it earlier but I just found out about it now!) where you can order these custom stamps for the same price as a regular book of stamps, or $8.80! Even if you miss this deal, signing up with zazzle now and electing to receive their email messages will allow you to partake in 12 days of Christmas deals!

Felt cookie tutorial!

Huzzah! I've finally finished the felt cookie tutorial I promised at the beginning of December. Hopefully, its not too late for these cookies to adorn your Christmas tree! These little cookies can be made in about 1/2 hour and are so much fun to decorate. There are two sheets to this tutorial; one is an instruction sheet and one is a template sheet; right click on each image save to your desktop. Or, you can visit my flickr page and save the pictures from there. I've found that printing them out on a heavier paper (like cardstock) and using higher quality printing will make it a primo pattern/instruction sheet/template that you can use over and over again, so have fun! PS. I'd love to see any of your finished cookies; you can post them to the berrysprite amigurumi page (they're nuigurumi...I think that counts)!

Thesis writing sucks hard.

Thanks so much for all your support and a great great Christmas sale guys... I'm sorry I couldn't do more in the way of making lots more Christmas goodies... keep your fingers crossed for me for a Spring 2010 graduation, eh?

Although, my thesis writing is not going well, as you can see by the lack of the picture in this post and my snarky vacation shop announcement:

Boo! The continuing saga of Thesis writing continues. In the meantime, feel free to convo me while I'm writing, I've allowed myself twenty minutes of etsy time a day, so I'll still be checking my etsy account and mail. Haha, just kidding about the allotment part... seriously, though- your convo will serve as a nice break from banging my head against the wall that they call Thesis. There will also be a free cookie tutorial on my blog, er, sometime. Check it out periodically to drive up my blog views and to see if I've actually posted it!

I usually don't start my papers by writing an introduction, but my advisor "suggested" that I write and introduction to turn in to him. Needless to say, the Dec. 1 deadline I had set for myself came and went 6 days ago! I have also started writing this introduction like 5 different times, and I've been working on this alleged introduction for a couple of weeks now. I have a serious case of writer's block and it's cramping my style. Rant over; hope you guys have a wonderful week!

December's Calendar

Whew! I've managed to make a calendar for every month this year (though sometimes they've been late). Thanks so much for being sooo patient as always everyone; it makes me so happy to know that you enjoy these calendars! December's Calendar is now available for download! Check out my flickr or photobucket :D

This scene was just begging for a story:
"The North Pole is quite cold, so Christmas trees are hard to come by! Luckily, these penguins have a little help decorating their tree from the northern lights and the North Star, and are sure to have a happy holiday!"

Blegh of the week

Been quite busy as usual, which is why I haven't actually had a chance to do everything I set out to do at the beginning of this week (ever notice how holidays tend to make you fall way way behind?) Right before the Thanksgiving holiday there was a crisis at work that I had to try and sort out; I was literally calling 5 billion offices to try and fix serious problems caused the laziness/ forgetfulness of two professors... I can now say that I'll have to think twice when sympathizing with professors who complain about students not paying attention or turning in work late. On top of all that, I actually shifted the times I work this week because we have FINALLY hired someone permanent, yay! This is good news in the long run, I'll have more time for my thesis, which means eventually more time for crafting!

I'm still trying my bestest to get December's calender out, make that long-ago promised cookie tutorial and list the last of the items for the sale.

Just so that I can say I did something, these are the items that are included free with every order during my shop sale (going on until Dec. 6)It includes a pipe cleaner candy cane, two handmade cookies with icing, and a tiny snowflake ornament!