Blog redesign!

I've redesigned my blog... I hope you like it! It took me around 5 hours from start to finish (including drawing and designing), so even though I'm getting faster, it's a good thing it was a holiday weekend :D The hardest part of this design was figuring out how to do the gradient background, but I really like the way it turned out!

Happy New Year and resolutions

Hauoli Makahiki Hou/ Happy New Year everyone! Some years can be bad, and some years are good, but 2010 was a really great year for me... everything worked out. I've been truly blessed this year, and I'm so thankful! I hope everyone had a similarly good year :D



My number one resolution is to make berrysprite a real business! I wanna build a website off of etsy, do a craft fair (or two!) and expand my product line! Plus, I want to be able to actually have things in my shop on time (like for the holidays)... it's always such a rush for me; in 2011 I'd like to be able to have timing down pat!

Great Christmas Haul!

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Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone! I made these little gingerbread men as gift tags to put on the bags of brownies I'm gave to my coworkers. They're so tiny (1.5") but cute! Next year I'd like to be able to make some for my shop. Anyway, I hope everyone has a merry and bright holiday filled with food, family, friends, and warmth. Sending you all love and warm wishes!

Clothes alterations

Because I'm kinda tall (5'10"), it's sometimes hard to find dresses that are long enough for me (especially in Hawai`i, where most girls are around 5'4"... lots of Asian/ Southeast Asians in our population!) One of my solutions is to buy long dresses and hem/ alter them! I especially love Ross, heh heh; although you have to be really patient and paw through the heaps of clothes, you can often find some really cute pieces for a really affordable price (uh, hello under $20)! Besides, why would you alter something that was really expensive?


I'm currently making my way through a small stack of really cute long dresses (can you tell I love the pattern in the picture? It's so retro!); because I want to use them for work, I'm cutting them around knee length and using a rolled hem (but I don't have the right foot attachment for my sewing machine, so I do it all by myself). If you're going to alter your own dresses, I would suggest you stay away from jersey or stretchy material, and you use an iron!!! Cut the dress at the right length (use a measuring tape; make sure you leave some allowance for rolling the hem). Fold over the raw edge twice (so that there is no raw edge visible). Pin and iron. Use a straight stitch to sew the hem down (close to the loose edge of the fold) When you're finished, check for any hanging threads! Add a cardigan, belt, and nice shoes, and you have a nice new dress!

shop closed for the holidays

Sorry for such short notice...berrysprite will be closed Dec 20- Jan 17, during which time I shall work like a fiend on all the loose-ends kinds of stuff that I have to do! Don't worry though, I'll probably be more settled into my job, even more finished with my thesis, and nicely rested from the craziness of the holidays. Stay tuned to my blog and facebook during the downtime... I'm sure I'll be doing lots of fun stuff!

New Spoonflower fabric!

Two newish fabric designs are available on my spoonflower; well actually I made them a while ago but now the are available for purchase! Both of these designs have an ocean/ sea life theme: one is my takochu/sea urchin design (which you may have seen before) and a dolphin design. They are also have a larger scale; the takochu are around 1.5" or 3.5 cm and the dolphins are around 1" or ~2.5. I really like the takochu, but let me just say that I LOOOVE the dolphin one! I've always been partial to dolphins actually :) I especially love the fact that you think the design is so cute, but upon closer inspection you can see that some of the dolphins are using sonar pulses to stun little fishes! Hey, dolphins gotta eat too! The only thing is, one of the dolphins was a slightly different color in my design, and it came out waaay different when it was printed; it's still really cute but still! I've fixed it now (all the dolphins are now the same color as the lighter one... that's the color I originally wanted)

Walnut christmas ornaments

We decorated our tree, and it made me think....It's no wonder I'm so crafty! My mom used to make Christmas ornaments with us when we were little; in part because it was a fun activity and also because we couldn't afford fancy decorations.

Most of these were made by my mom, though I made the one with the little clowns and red jester a little under 20 years ago!

Our favorites to make were these ornaments made of walnut shells. All you have to do is clean the walnut shells out using a little knife (get rid of all the brown papery stuff) and use a little awl , reamer or hand drill to carefully pierce a hole in the top of the walnut (sometimes they will break, so make sure you have extra shells). String a loop through the shell for hanging, and add little toys or decorations like mini deer, wreaths or even tiny wooden Christmas ornaments using hot glue. We loved using glitter and metallic pipe cleaners! Many of the ornaments on our tree are mismatched and handmade; no uniform department store tree/decorations for us! In fact, even though we have a cramped/ tiny apartment, we always get a tree that is at least 6 feet tall so we can fit all our ornaments on it! Today, the handmade ornaments are some of the ones my mom and dad cherish the most :)

My mom made the blown egg ornament 30 years ago with tissue paper and glitter; she and my dad love/ have three of these little pinecone girls (one for me and each of my sisters). This mushroom ornament is my favorite ever!

Minimalist blog posting...

For those of you who still read this blog, I'm sorry it's been nearly a week since I've posted. And I'm also sorry this post is so hasty :D I'm settling into my new job, and it's really nice but also hectic. Let's just say I have two preliminary analysis reports due (yes, it is just my first week of work!) and I spent all day transcribing 4 hours of an interview. But it is fun :D However, because it's dark when I leave home and dark when I get back, I haven't had the opportunity to take a lot of pictures/ craft/ do berrysprite things... I'm hoping it will all iron out as I get more used to a full time job. Don't worry though, I will LEARN how to schedule posts this weekend, so that I can end up posting for more than once a week. And also, (because I couldn't take any pictures) I drew this picture of me... I'm doing discoing to Stayin' Alive just like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (don't ask me how I came up with this... I don't know how to disco, and I've never seen Saturday Night Fever!) I'm wearing disco glasses because when you disco you need to rub the funk on. And now I have to go to bed, and it's only 12:00 pm. Aye, that's what I don't like about this job :D I hope you guys are having a good end of the week... I'll see you after I submit those reports!

Winner of the Christmas Cookie Ornament Giveaway!

And the winner is: Savannah!!!! Savannah wrote that her favorite thing about the holidays was: "all of the people I see and how happy everyone looks :D" Savannah love, please email me your address ASAP or by Friday (Dec. 10) so I can send your cookies out! Big hugs to everyone who entered... it was fun!

December calendar!

Yay, December calender is here! I'm so sorry it is late; for those of you who don't know I started my first day of work at my first real (full time, permanent non-student-y job). The first couple of days have been really nice, though I have learned that I will need more non-heel business shoes (I wore low wedges on the first day and my feet were still killing me! It's gonna be ballet flats 24/7!) and business clothes (usually I live in skirts and jersey dresses... now I need trousers because the office is soooo cold!). So work is the reason the calendar this time around is late, and a lot simpler. Hopefully it's still cute though! To download the December calendar, visit my flickr or my photobucket. Here's the story:

Scout and Oscar decided to decorate wild trees this year, and on the way home they found some lost cookies!

This calendar concludes all the calendars I've made throughout the year, and I hope you've enjoyed them :D I really loved making these this year, and we'll see what next year brings! My favorites were: the ones with the hot air balloon (June) the ghost (October) and the fireplace (November)! Which ones did you like?