My Papercrafting Adventures Have Begun

I've been toying with the idea of getting into papercraft for a while. After all, I love seeing all those cute papers, embellishments and stamps. The paper department was one of my favorites to work when I had a part-time job at a craft store a while ago. I felt excited (and a bit overwhelmed) by looking at different patterns, colors, textures... oh my. I haven't actually got into this craft, however, because I didn't want to add even more tools and materials to my current craft tools and materials that have already been flooding our house. So I was just grazing the paper goodies at stores hoping one day I'd start working on them.

And that one day has come.

Lately, it's become difficult to find the time to work on my crochet or knitting projects. Of course, I can find a time here and there while my baby naps. But I don't see an obvious progress if I crochet or knit this way. I don't feel like I'm creating anything. Lack of an evident progress makes me a bit frustrated. Then, here comes the card making. I could actually complete (or almost complete) a card project while the little one is sleeping. My creative side is satisfied :)

Now I'm finally at a point where I can show the cards I created. The above photo is the father's day cards we've sent to my father and my husband's. I wanted to make them cheerful and a bit classy. I think I was able to achieve that.

This one is for my hubby for his first ever father's day. I wanted to make it like his son made it. My husband loves maps. And maps show that he's guiding his son's life journey, so I thought it was appropriate. What do you think? :)

If you've checked out my etsy shop lately, you'd notice that I've been working on my new product line. And here it is - paper goodies! I'm still working on new skills to have fully decorated cards in my shop but expect some paper goodies like gift tags to show up in my etsy shop pretty soon! I'm so excited, and I hope you are too :)

Related to that, I'm clearing out my current inventories of crochet and knitting items. You can get great used craft books and my original cat blankets at a great discounted price, so hop over to my etsy shop to have a look. thanks!

Finally, this doesn't mean I'll stop crochet or knit. I still have so many things I'd like to make. It's just that it'll take a little longer to complete one project. Please come back here again to check out what I've created if you read my blog because you're interested in crochet or knitting!

What I made for LO so far

Here are some of the things I made for my LO while pregnant (which I finally get around to post). In no particular order...

Playful Baby Loop Rattle

 Cowboy Boot-ies

I added this star mark for fun (per hubby's suggestion)

Isn't this cute on him? Unfortunately, though, they were difficult to put on because the ankle sections were a bit small. Oh well, they're really cute just to look at. Totally worth making them. I'd like to make a size that fits him now and a matching cowboy hat.

b19-31 Jacket with raglan sleeves, hat, and booties with cables

sleeves in making. Look how small they are!

These are in 3 month old size. However, since LO was advised not to go outside for the first two months (it was a flu season), there weren't many chances he needed a sweater like this. I should've made them in 6 month old size. I still love them though :)

Berry Baby Hat

I wanted to make this hat even before I was pregnant! So it was definitely on my to-make list. I chose purplish blue to make it like a blueberry but everyone says it's an eggplant hat LOL

oh well....

Stripes and Dots Blanket

There aren't many projects that I chose the exact (or almost exact) colors that the pattern calls for, but these colors are just so perfect I just used the colors in the pattern. And I love it!

I actually had a lot more projects in my queue. But because 1) I had no idea what the baby would use and 2) I was sick for the first couple of months and then was really tired for the last few weeks, I couldn't make as much as I wanted. Babies grow so fast. A few projects I wanted to make wouldn't fit in terms of size and needs anymore, which is too bad. Especially my LO is a tall baby - he's already as tall as an average 9 month old baby at the age of 6 months! But there are a lot of cute patterns for a year old and up. I look forward to make those in the near future :)

Why does only the baby get all the fun?

Caught Mochi secretly playing with little J's toy lol

Happy Half Birthday!

A few days ago my LO turned 6 months old!

Past 6 months, or actually add 9 months prior to that, has been an incredible journey and I am extremely happy that we celebrated his half birthday happily and in a good health. Every day we discover something new, be it achieving a new milestone like smiling, rolling over, standing with support, or simply finding out a different aspect of his personality. Every day is so precious I don't want to miss anything.

I made this cake using a simple vanilla cake recipe and a vegan custard cream recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking (my bible!). I made a whole cake, trimmed the top to make it flat, cut it in half then layered them to make a half cake.
The custard cream was made with corn starch, flour, coconut milk and vanilla extract but incredibly creamy and delicious.

The birthday decoration was from a free printable, retro happy birthday set. I glued two toothpicks between the labels to stick it on the cake. It's really cute. Thank you for sharing :)

sorry baby, you gotta wait for a few more months to be able to eat a cake!

Speaking of food, we started on eating vegetables and fruits last month. Luckily I received baby bullet and its steamer as a gift and have been having fun making all the baby food so far. I'm trying to use organic veggies and fruits if I can but our local groceries don't have organic vegetables of all kinds, so sometimes I have to give in. Too bad :(

What he tried last month: yellow squash, sweet potatoes, avocados, peas, pears and apples - all steamed and pureed in my baby bullet.

To my surprise, he enjoyed all but the apple! He made this sour face as if he had eaten lemon or something (the apple was sweet to my taste, though). I'm pleased to see he devoured peas and avocados - perhaps he remembered the taste cause I ate those a lot during my pregnancy lol

Giveaway: Inspired Crochet Magazine [Closed]

Congratulations to the winner, who entered via Twitter! And thank you for playing :)

Today, I'd like to share some exciting news with you :) My swirling cat blanket pattern is featured in Inspired Crochet magazine! yay!!

do you spot mine among these wonderful projects?

May is my birthday month, so this is a wonderful early present for me :)

To celebrate, I'm hosting a giveaway for a chance to win one copy of this awesome Inspired Crochet magazine, courtesy of Inspired Crochet magazine. If you win, you can choose any issue you like. You could win the May issue to create your own cat blanket, or pick one of their back issues. I've bought a few back issues myself, and I can say that I indeed felt "inspired" to crochet more!

There are a couple of ways to enter:
1) Leave your answer to the question "what are you crocheting now?" in the comment section in this post with some sort of contact information (email preferred*) that I can use to get in touch with you if you win. Please only one comment per person.

2) Go to Smooch Panda's facebook page, and click the tab "giveaway: inspired crochet magazine", just below the name on top. This will prompt you to "like" us if you haven't done so yet, and then fill out the form to enter.

3) Spread the word about this giveaway on Twitter with @smoochpanda at the end of your tweet (so I can keep track). One tweet per account only, please.

You can just do one (= 1 entry) or do all to earn 3 entries. I'll assign the number with the order I receive notifications for each entry, then pick a random number to see who's the winner. Sounds fun?

Now I'm still building my fan base, so if you enter, there are a higher chance of winning than popular giveaways. So please don't hesitate and join in this fun :)

Thank you. The giveaway ends on May 22nd 2013 11.59pm US CST, so hope to see you soon!

*the email information will be used solely to contact the winner. The winner's email address will be shared with Inspired Crochet magazine so they can send you your copy of the magazine.

Adventures in Tunisian Crochet

There seem to have been a lot of talk about Tunisian Crochet lately. I've been wanting to try this "knit-like stitches but actually crochet" technique quite some time, but finally had a chance to try it out the other day.

And it was quite fun! It's refreshing and interesting to just pick up stitches across without taking them off the hook. Then, instead of turning, the stitches were taken off the hook to go back to the first stitch. Intriguing isn't it?

This process makes these stitches

My first attempt at Tunisian crochet. How did I do?

I found Tunisian purl stitches were a bit hard to keep even tension, but other stitches were rather easy to learn.

I used Tunisian Crochet: The Look of Knitting with the Ease of Crochetingas reference. I was lucky to find the kindle version of this book for free (yay!), but I think it's worth buying as well. The instructions for the Tunisian crochet were easy to follow if you already do regular crochet. There are a few patterns that I'd like to make like Honeycomb skirt and Ivory shell sweater. The vest can be re-sized to fit my little one. And there's also a simple sweater for children so I might make this for my little one, too.

I had some difficulties, though, in finding afghan hooks. I went all three major craft stores but only Hobby Lobby carried them. Even there, I could only find 3-4 sizes. Some patterns I'd like to use require the sizes I can't find! Where did you buy your afghan hooks?

I also bought the latest Tunisian crochet book, The New Tunisian Crochet: Contemporary Designs from Time-Honored Traditions. The book has so many beautiful patterns. I can't wait to read through and actually make something from it!

One day, I'm hoping that I can design something using these amazing stitches....

Mochi's Doll's Day

The 3rd of March was Doll's day (or Girl's day, "Hinamatsuri") in Japan where we display beautiful traditional dolls in kimonos to celebrate and pray for the girls' prosperity in one's family.

How did Mochi celebrate this Doll's day?

Watch.

Swirly coasters

If you liked the swirling pattern for this cat blanket that I wrote about in my previous post, but don't have a cat to make for, this pattern may be for you!

I used the same swirling technique to make these coasters. It's rather a quick project but it is so fun to come up with all kinds of color combinations. I bet you'll be making multiple of these because it's addictive (well, at least to me). Good thing is you can use up your leftover yarns to make this fun coaster.

The pattern is priced at $3.5 on my etsy shop or on Ravelry.

Start anew and crochet cat blanket

Hi everybody!

I'm back to blogging after a a little bit more than a year of taking a break. I used to blog elsewhere and I missed blogging a lot. Now I'm back and my etsy shop is also re-opened and revamped (I was on a maternity leave), I thought I'd start a new blog as well. I'll bring back some old contents like free crochet patterns and tutorials here but this blog mainly focuses on my craft life and motherhood with a vegetarian (vegan) flair. I hope you'll enjoy this journey with me.

For today's post, I'd like to introduce my crochet cat blanket pattern.

This is a special blanket I designed for our cat Mochi (who has, by the way, her own blog the adventures of Mochi). She is such a sweet kitty and loves watching outside and lounging around with us. I wanted to give her comfortable spaces for her to enjoy the views from the window and to be near us (and to protect our furniture) so made these. As it turns out, she loves her blankies!

Excitingly, this blanket was featured in Catster last June and one lucky winner has won one of these blankets. Since then I have some inquiries for the pattern for this blanket. I have been debating (since patterns are sadly more easily to be "stolen"), but why not. I'd be honored if many more kitties can get their comfortable treats than one person can make and sell them for.

Take a look at these kitties on my blankets.

Aren't they precious.

If you crochet and are interested in purchasing this pattern, please go to my etsy shop. It is $5.5. 15% of the sales from this pattern will be donated to Santa Paws Drive (or a similar charity to help unfortunate kitties) this year's holiday season.

And now the pattern is also available on Ravelry!

And when you've made a blanket from this pattern, we'd be happy if you could share a photo of your kitty with the blanket on FB (or send via etsy convo so we can share it on FB)!

Of course I'm accepting custom orders for the final products also. Please let me know if interested.

another customer photo

I Love Fall ♥