Secret holiday sale!!!

Surprise! I reopened my etsy shop today after a loooong vacation (but who knows how long I'll be able to stay open). To celebrate, I'm having my biggest sale ever... 25% off EVERYTHING from Dec. 26 2011 to Jan. 1 2012! Plus I'm putting tons of items on clearance so you can just imagine the savings (for example, all my cupcakes are $10-$12 (normally starting at $14!). When checking out of my etsy store, just use the coupon code HOLIDAY!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your holidays are filled with good cheer, warmth, and happiness! Sending you all love and warm wishes ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

My small cat!

Some of you may have seen on my Facebook, but for those of you who didn't, I have a new small cat! My dad teaches night classes at a community college here, and he was talking to some office people/ other teachers when a tiny kitten rolled out of the bushes and ran up to him and started meowing. Everybody thought it was his cat, but it was a wild kitten! He looked for the mama cat but he couldn't find her, so he brought the kitten home. There was about a week where we were deciding whether or not we could keep him (he was too small to even go to the Humane Society to be put up for adoption), but in the end we loved him so much we decided to make him our cat... we named him Tiger Puff, but I just call him small cat.

This was when we first got him... his eyes hadn't changed color yet!

Anyway, we've had our cat for about a month and although I've never had a cat before, I know he's an extremely GOOD cat; he trained himself to use the litterbox, he lets everyone pick him up and pet him, he's not picky about food, and he's very polite (like he doesn't beg for food, if you scold him he stops doing whatever he's not supposed to be doing). He has only two bad habits; he drools when he's sleeping and he likes to jump on my bed!

November happenings

I'm so sorry I didn't have time to blog much in November; one day soon the madness that is school will end! Plus, I was actually off island for quite a bit of the month! I went to Keaukaha on the Big Island for 2 days in the beginning of November; although the weather was quite stormy it was so beautiful (and I love that weather anyway). I feel lucky that I got to go, even if it was to get training for my work.


I also spent a day on the North Shore for my friend's wedding; it was so nice!




Finally, a bunch of my month was set aside preparing for the the American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, which was held in Montréal, Canada this year. I was presenting a paper as part of a panel, so I had to write that on top of work (reading reports and writing reports) and regular schooling (writing my thesis)... there was quite a bit of writing in November! Although it was stressful to prepare for the conference, I'm really glad I got to go... it was the perfect opportunity to visit Montréal, which I had never been to before. And yes it was very cold, especially for me (I had to order a warm jacket just for the occasion). Just look at my pictures: all the ones from Hawai`i are from November too... such a temperature difference! Thank goodness it wasn't snowing :) I stayed 2 days past the conference, so I got a chance to sight-see a bit. My favorite things were the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal (Notre Dame Basilica of Montréal... I'm such a history nerd) and the Marché Jean-Talon (Jean-Talon Market), where I bought so much maple syrup (Dark Amber of course... and did you know it also comes in cans? ) that my previously empty suitcase was stuffed full :) Even though I was only there for 3 days, I'd definitely go back to Montréal, it was so much fun! Anyway, I hope you guys had fun Novembers as well!

Palais des congrès de Montréal: Where the conference was

Le centre historique de la ville de Montréal: Old Montreal

Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal: the most beautiful place I visited on my trip

Le quartier chinois de Montréal: Chinatown (actually a mix of Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Japan town), my hotel was quite close to here.

Marché Jean-Talon: I wish I had a kitchen in my hotel room... so many fresh fruits and veggies!

Shop and Blog Vacation!

Hey guys! November is a crazily busy month for me, filled with an off-island trip for my work, and a trip to Montreal for a conference (on top of my school and work!). So I'll be closing my shop for the month of November and will most likely be blogging even more sporadically... sorry for such short notice. I've sent off all my orders, but will most likely be available through email for pressing questions. I'm hoping to reopen my shop in December! See you then :)

earrings

Not up to much crafty wise lately... as always being busy with regular life gets in the way! I'm actually using this blog post to distract me momentarily from working on a chapter of my thesis :P Unfortunately, the most crafting I can muster right now is to look wistfully at my piles of fabric and my drawers of yarn.... le sigh. This whole past week was strange for me too... we're transitioning to Fall here and its been getting a bit cooler, which I love, but I think I might have been sick without really knowing it because I'd get home from work at like 6 pm and literally FALL ASLEEP! The whole week! So I don't know what was up with that but hopefully it was just a dumb phase :D

I also moved to a different division at work: before I was working in an area that covered subjects like chronic disease, substance abuse, suicide prevention, foster care, etc. Now I'm in a division that covers land, culture and history (my specialty areas!). Although I'm sad that I won't be able to work in my former area, I really love where I am now... it's really more congruent with my background and interests (plus I got a $$$ raise!). So I'm still adjusting.

Anyway, here are some earrings I made a while back... I wear them all the time! These are all wire wrapped (no soldering, boo!) using various semi-precious stones/ coral. I'm lucky because my ears aren't sensitive, so I can just stick whatever in them; the wire is gold fill or something cheapy like that.

I forget what kind of stone the faceted dark blue one is, but the yellow one is a nice warm topaz and the milky light blue one is Peruvian Opal.

Kawaii Retail Therapy

Thanks so much for your sweetie comments on the amigurumi kappa keychain, guys! I really appreciate knowing what you think; given that you like him so much, I know I'll be making more in the future :D

Also, reading your comments brightened a kinda tense Friday for me... everything is now resolved but let me just say that when I am finally finished with my thesis I WILL PARTY SO HARD. Anyway, I needed a little retail therapy this weekend and since I'm not able to blog that frequently anymore, I thought I would share my purchases in lieu of a real post. Plus, the things I got are so kawaii!!! I purchased all of these cutie items at Marukai here in Hawai`i (for those of you who don't know, Marukai is a Japanese dollar and grocery store). It was so much fun to find these goodies (and the best thing was that everything was $0.99-$2.50)!

A Matryoshka notepad, a French themed notepad and moshimoshikawaii origami paper


A set of red riding hood themed pencils, a circus themed eraser and foam stamps featuring a cute donkey, apple, house and pine tree!

Cutest pencils ever!

kappa keychain

I hadn't made any amigurumi keychains before, but whenever I see them, I think they're really cute... the best of both worlds really (since you get to carry your amigurumi around with you everywhere AND you also get a really kawaii keychain). So here's my first attempt: an amigurumi baby kappa keychain! He was fun to make, because he's so little compared to my regular amigurumi (but bigger than a regular keychain?); anyway, I really enjoy his duck feet! He's made of Cascade 220 yarns, acrylic felt and a lanyard. I hope you like him, because I think I'll make more amigurumi keychains in the future :)

Yummy Crochet and new Forest Friends Fabric!

Hello friends! I told you about it a little bit back, but I have a cupcake pattern in the Yummy crochet book/kit which has all the material (yarn, hook, instructions, stuffing, thread, needle, plastic eyes) you need to make your very own berrysprite cupcake! The book also features instructions for other yummy amigurumi foods, including a doughnut, corn, sushi, peas and more! I got my copy the other week and everything looks super cute. You can purchase your own copy from Barnes and Noble bookstores in the US, or you can order it from their website here for $14.35+ shipping. Huzzah!


In other news I received my test swatch of the Forest Friends fabric, which was chosen by you guys as the next print you wanted me to make available through my spoonflower. Its one of the few large scale fabrics I've designed and it looks great (don't mind the washed out colors... I took this pic at night after I came home from work). Now you can purchase some of your very own :)

Blog construction

Please pardon my dust!!!! I'm in the process of redesigning my blog... I hope you like it! I had hinted that I was going for a jungle theme (no matter that there are snowy mountains in the background!) but I'm not finished tweaking it yet. I'm particularly in love with my little monkeys! I wanted to go for more streamlined and professional... we'll see how it goes :)

Happy ending to a three day weekend!

Short post today. Is it ironic that a day to celebrate labor/ workers is a holiday? I was lucky enough to have Labor Day off, and it was a gorgeous day in Hawai`i nei! Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend! Now back to work :)

Pins!

I've made some pins! Three of them are felt and designs I've made before (acorn, tooth and raindrop) and one of them is crocheted (the flower!) which I've never done before... I'll probably make more in the future because it came out really cute. It was really fun working on them, I do love felt so. Felt pins are really easy to make, you basically just cut out 2x the shape you want, stuff it with a little polyfil, use embroidery to make it cute, and sew on a pin back! I highly recommend making felt pins as a group/ party craft;they are inexpensive, easy, and make a great personal souvenir or goody to take home. Hope everyone had a good weekend (and I hope everyone affected by Irene is safe!).

blogging on weekends only now...

I've been taking it kind of slowly on my berrysprite stuff while I try to get my *ish together (not sure how long more it will take... I'll be honest with you, it's already been a long coupla years); you might have noticed that I have tended to be very quiet on the blog/ facebook/ shop update stuff lately? I'm sorry! I've got a lot of stuff going on right now. So I just thought I'd let everyone who still reads my blog, I'll only be updating my blog posts on the weekend (that way you don't have to keep checking if you're not up on the RSS stuff... I certainly am not!) Not a vacation per se, more like a cooling of my jets. Thanks so much for your continued patience and hearts, I really appreciate it!

Kabocha...mmmmm!

Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) is the perfect food for summer-turning to autumn food! I made some roasted kabocha (with a little brown sugar and maple syrup) the other day... this is the "before" picture because we ate the "after" before I remembered to take a picture of it!

Hope you all are having a nice back to school season; although I don't technically go to school anymore I still remember the feeling of summer (*read=free time) ending!

Forest friends it is!

Huzzah, thanks so much for voting everyone! Be on the lookout for forest friends fabric, which will be available in my spoonflower in the coming weeks :) Don't forget to get your free swatch from spoonflower on the 18th!

spoonflower free swatch day

August 18th is Free Swatch Day at Spoonflower!
You'll have 24 hours from 12:00 pm (Eastern Time, US) on August 18 to get a free swatch of fabric; you don't even have to pay for shipping! Best of all, you can get your fat quarter in the design of your choice, meaning you can design your own or choose from the thousands of designs made by other artists (may I suggest one of berrysprite's spoonflower fabrics?) You can also choose from a variety of fabrics (including a new option, cotton-silk blend)! How super sweet is that?

The Free swatch day gives me the perfect opportunity to make one of my previously "not for sale" fabrics a "for sale fabric," which is awesome because I've gotten lots of requests to offer my newest designs for sale.

So I'm taking a Poll! Let me know which of these fabrics you like best and I'll make the most popular fabric available for sale; the winning design will be announced on August 16th! (Caveat Emptor: I won't be able to make the fabric available in time for free swatch day, so sorry!)

#1: Nautical Merpeople
#2: Forest Friends


#3: Happy Ocean


Thanks so much for voting!

Yummy Crochet! Take 1

I'm finally ready to share my good news! Drumroll please.............

My amigurumi cupcake pattern will be published in the forthcoming book/ kit Yummy Crochet! Gasp!

A few months ago I was contacted by the very sweet Kristen Rask (of Plush You and Schmancy Toys fame) about my cupcakes... she wanted to include them in her book, Yummy Crochet, which will include patterns for cutie food like a hamburger, fruit, sushi, cookies and more! I came up with a new cupcake pattern just for the project (complete with whipped cream and swirl variations). Actually, you guys might remember when I went on a cupcake making binge and I had billions of cupcakes everywhere... this book is the reason why (I kept making samples and testing and tweaking it!) Anyway, my cupcake was chosen as one of the featured projects for the book, which means not only will you get the instructions to make it, but you will also get all the materials you need to make it, including yarn, eyes, and a crochet needle.


The book/kit will be available from Barnes & Noble around September, so keep an eye out! It also features lots of ami artists (like Love This Stuff artist Elisha Copeland!), so I'm very excited to have been a part of it :) I'm supposed to receive an advanced copy sometime soon, and when I do I'll share a bit more with you.

In the meantime, head on over to Kristen's website Schmancy Toys and enter her giveaway before August 12 for a chance to win a copy of Yummy Crochet!

chicken puff with clover

I made this chicken puff using the light blue jiffy yarn and clover felt trim I got in San Francisco! I think he's a good prototype for something that would be ideal for me to sell at a craft fair... I can make lots of chicken puffs in a short amount of time (well comparatively speaking), they are easily transportable, and they are super cute (so I think they'd sell well!). Anyway (kind of unrelated) I'm going to have some exciting news soon, so stay tuned!

My trip to San Francisco

As I said before, my trip to SF was fab... I literally did not have enough time to do everything I wanted! I went with my two little sisters (when I say little I mean 25 and 21) and we had a blast.

Don't read if you don't want the blow by blow ;p Also, if by chance you felt like this post was not long enough and did not have enough pictures then go to my flickr... you'll at least get more pictures!

We ended up leaving on a Friday (after I had put in a full day at work) and catching a red-eye flight. The only bad thing about this is that I can NEVER sleep on planes, and we were go go go from the moment we landed at 6 am to 9 pm that night; I was reaaaally tired the first day/night! We ended up buying the San Francisco City Pass for $70, which provides you with free transportation on the Muni buses and cable cars and also allows you to go to a bunch of attractions for free. I'd definitely recommend getting this pass!


The first day we went to Golden Gate Park to look at the Bison (so cool!) and walked through the park to visit the Japanese Tea Garden and the California Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, you had to pay for the Garden and since we have them in Hawai`i for free, we skipped it. However, the Academy of Sciences was soooo cool; They had indoor lagoons and tidepools and rainforests that were super awesome (You walk on a pathway and the sharks and rays and stuff swim between the pools under the path!) . They also had penguins, rays and jellyfish, and an albino alligator! The Academy was by far my favorite attraction that came free with the City Pass, and if you're ever in SF, you should check it out :)

California Academy of Science mangrove lagoons

California Academy of Science Phillipines Reef

From there we ate a Russian Bakery (the Cinderella Bakery... their mascot was a kawaii matryoksha!) and tried to visit Kawaii Corner. Although Kawaii Corner was okay, they were quite small and I think we have similar things here in Hawai`i (so that was a bust; I didn't buy anything). Then we caught the bus back to Haight and Ashbury (amazingly crowded... not like I remember it at all) where I visited Mendel's, scores of vintage shops and Amoeba Music! Is it just me or is it a bit more commercial than it used to be? We ate gigantic delicious burritos for dinner here and were unfortunately too full to eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream.


We finally made it to our hotel in Japantown in the late evening: Let me just say that Hotel Kabuki is awesome! They have Japanese style baths and the staff/ decor/ rooms are really nice. Plus, you can't beat being sandwiched between two of the main Japanese malls!


The next day we caught the bus to the Exploratorium (very cool) and then walked to Renegade Craft Fair... it was my first Renegade, and it was entirely coincidental that we were in SF at the same time as the fair! It was very crowded even though it was the last day, but also very fun and a good learning experience. I didn't end up buying anything but it was still totally worth going to.


From there we went to the wharf (also extremely crowded) where we were supposed to catch a free cruise to the Golden Gate Bridge (see those passes are awesome!) but we took one look at the line and decided not to. Instead we ate the prerequisite bread bowl and clam chowder for an extremely late lunch, which we then topped off with a Ghiradhelli brownie sundae! Then we caught the bus to Union Square where we were able to squeeze in a really quick look around (basically we popped into Urban Outfitters and H&M) before things started closing.... it was already 9:00!


The next day was our last day and we stayed in Japantown because our flight was leaving at 3. I loved Japantown so much; I honestly could have spent my whole trip just shopping around there! The food was delicious too... every morning we ate at Anderson's Bakery and on our last day we had shabushabu... yummm!! I did 90% of my shopping on this day... Japantown rocked my socks off! Sooooo many cute stores... although my favorites were Daiso and Ichibankan; I wish we had stores like this in Hawai`i!!! The bento/ crafty sections were to die for! I literally spent $60 in Daiso, which is amazing because it's pretty much a dollar store! But I got sooo much good stuff. I loved Japantown :)

From my $20 "surprise" bag from MaiDo... totally worth it!

Stuff from miscellaneous stores: Kinokukiya, Mendell's in Haight and Ashbury, Urban Outfitters and H&M (don't laugh... we don't have them in HI!)

My stuff from Ichiban Kan! I especially love the panda seasoning dispenser, stickers and nail polish!

My loot from Daiso! Good finds: rolls of felt clovers, pretty felt (better quality than the ones in craft stores here) metal purse frames and chirimen cloth!

I wanna go back to SF right now :)