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 :)