Hey all! Look at my motifs!!!

Hey guys, so it's been a while since I've blogged. I've been around, just haven't had much to talk about. I have been working hard on learning how to crochet and so far so good! I'm so excited that I can actually take some yarn and a hook and making a stitch or a patch of fabric out of it. My favorite stitch so far is the the double crochet. I don't know if its because I've been doing it so much or what, but there is just something about making the stitch that is so relaxing. I've tried others and they are nice too, just the double seems to go faster for me and I can just make them for hours on end...in fact I did! Take a looksie!





So I took a pause to snap a picture of what I was working on. A ton of double crochet stitches on top of one another. Awesome, right? :-D




A girl likes to watch some "bizarre" stuff while she's crocheting.




And the final outcome was a hat! I gave the hat to my sister and begged her to model it for me. She didn't want to be in the pictures but agreed to it after I said I'd take her face out...of the pictures guys not literally! So she agreed and I did as I promised, face gone. But you can still get the idea of the hat.




Close-up of the hat so you can see the yarn and stitches better. Awesome, right? :-D




And one from the side. I am so proud of my work and for it being a first it didn't come out to bad. :-D

But then I wanted to try something else. Something that would make me feel like I was "really" crocheting. So I went looking around the Crochet Spot and found the blog entries on motifs. I had to try them.




These are the three, more like 2 as one is just a repeat, I managed to work out. I'd worked on a fourth one but that one was a bit confusing and decided to call it a day on that one and try it again. Now for close-ups!










I noticed she has a few extra on the site since I worked on the last ones so I am going to attempt those this weekend and report back to you on how it went. If you are looking to start crocheting or looking for some nice patterns you should check out the Crochet Spot. Sign up for the newsletter and get a free robot amigurumi pattern. Must find mine again to attempt trying it. :-)

So yeah, that's what I've been up to. Just really working hard on the crochet thing. I want to open my shop my the first day of spring and time is quickly running out for me to get it all ready to go. So I need to hurry because I have got some plans and ideas people! I'm really excited about this year. I've got some hard things I need to go through this year but once I get through them I will be full steam ahead! So stay tuned and stick around, the best is yet to come. :-D Talk to you all soon. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Oh, one more thing!

Ok, so I was mentioning to my sister today that I wanted to get a domain, and she said “well I’ll get your one for your birthday but just sooner”.  I was like “are you serious?”, and she said “yeah I’ll get you one if you really want one”.  Ack!!!  So I totally want to take her up on her offer, but I haven’t been researching hosts as of late and I don’t even know what I want my domain name to be.  Something mouse related…I guess.  We’ll yeah I want it mouse related, but I do crafts, dolls, and more, so what kind of name would bring that altogether?  I want to keep my blogs, but I guess one I’d want to be incorporated into the website.  I’m not sure.  So much to think about.  I need a domain I could stick with for at least a year, but not sure what yet.  I wonder if I can just link to my blogs and have it all incorporated with the blog?  Ahhhhh!!!  I don’t knowwwww!!!  Ok, I’ve got time to think about it.  It may just not happen until closer around my birthday after all since I need time to think about it and want to go through all my Spring cleaning before I bring it all together.  I have some ideas already swimming around.  Ahhh!!!  A domain!!!  I’m excited!!!  I’ll keep you updated on that. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

What I’ve been up to.

Hey peeps, so I haven’t been doing much craftwise lately, but with the slow change in the season coming upon us, I am feeling more frisky and wanting to do things crafty.  The Earth is a-moving and it’s making me feel like good.  I don’t know why.  I hate the heat of Spring but I love the bright light, and the longer days, and the colors, and the smells, and the sound of kids playing outside again.  But I hate the heat, the bugs with their buzzing, mosquito bites, things overgrowing everywhere, humidity, bad storms, hurricane season later on in the year, 100+ degree heat later on in the year, and just blah.  But I’ll get by and get thru it and before I know it, it will be my beloved Fall again which I WILL celebrate this year some how.  I don’t know how but I WILL celebrate it some how.  But for not, Springtime is looming over us, everyone is getting itchy to get out there and plant, and I am getting itchy to start crafting again.  Yay!  My first plan is Valentine’s items that could easily be Spring items or just cute items in general.  I want to make some cute barrettes that could easily be used for humans or dolls with big heads. I want to more promote them for human use, but far be it from me to keep you from popping them on your bjd,Blythe, or Pullip heads from time to time. 

So yeah, you guys remember these two bits of fabric, wait, I don’t think I blogged about them here.  Yeah I did it on my doll blog.  Well I was going to make doll dresses from them, and I may still do it, but right now I’m seeing cute barrettes from the fabric.  So yeah I will be trying to make some of those.  If they don’t sell my Valentine’s day,it’s generic enough where it will be fine for anything really.  So woo hoo on that!  I’m going to try making a set in both fabrics and seeing how I like it.  Then I may make doll dresses with what’s left.  Just not sure yet on that.

But while I’ve been away I have been practicing crochet.  This is a 3 row round that I crocheted on a recent trip out.  I finally figured out how to do it and I’m so excited.  See I wanted to learn how to do crochet so I could make amigurumi.  Amigurumi is basically a knit or crocheted doll.  The knit ones just don’t look as cute to me, even though I will try making one some day, but the crochet ones always make me smile and go “aww how cute”.  So I wanted to learn crochet so I could design my own and maybe sell them or give them away as gifts.  This right here is the start of it.  I have been practicing the magic ring/circle, and I got it, but it comes a little loose on me so I need to work on that some and then I think I have to basics for making amigurumi.  Yay!  I also want to crochet myself some things eventually, but with me losing weight I will have a small window to make things for myself from the patterns I have and use it before I move out of the size range.  Which is fine.  I can still make these items because there is a lack of full figured clothing on Etsy, so I may still have a market to make these things.  I got the pattern book for myself mostly, but I don’t plan to stay in the size range for long so yeah I will either have to pass the book on or make clothing for others.  I choose to make clothing for others and see how they sell.  If they don’t, then good bye to the book…maybe.  LOL!

Well that’s about it for me.  Just wanted to update and say I’m still here and I’m itching to get crafty again.  I still need to update my blog on with great craft links, but with OWOH starting, tonight at midnight, I want to wait because I know I will come across some awesome blogs that I will be adding to my bookmarks.  So once it’s done, I will be Spring cleaning my bookmarks along with other stuff.  This is the year of downsizing for me.  I will be downsizing a lot of stuff so I will be having a big sale some time this year as well on craft stuff and doll stuff as well as maybe trying to arrange a swap with a few people.  Just some ideas floating around in my head.  I’ll keep you updated.  But yeah that’s it for now.  Talk to you all soon.  Stay crafty!

Loves ya,
Mouse

One World One Heart, final year.

So I found out about One World One Heart about two years ago and found it so fascinating.  The basic idea behind it is that it’s for bloggers, and each blog participating has a giveaway on their blog that you can enter by basically leaving a comment on the giveaway post.  But the gifts are not the only cool thing about One World One Heart, the other cool thing is the blogs you get to find out about that you may have never known was there.  This makes me sad that this is the last year for One World One Heart.  I loved all the blogs I found through it and I know I never would have found them otherwise.  I was thinking how cool it would be to do a similar idea for doll bloggers to do.  It’s just a great way to meet people and build on the community.  So this year’s One World One Heart starts on Jan. 30th and goes through to Feb. 17th.  I’m not sure if it’s to late to participate by doing a giveaway, but I figure you can always ask.  So if you are interested go to this page and read up on the event.  If you just want to visit the blogs, on the day the event begins you simply go to this page and start visiting! I HIGHLY encourage you to look through each blog you visit.  Since there are bound to be over 1000 blogs to visit you should start early so you can give each blog equal attention.  You won’t believe the gems you will find out there.  I’ll update again on the day the event starts.  I’m looking forward to it.  I love reading blogs so I can’t wait for the fun to begin!    Be sure to check it out! 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Crafty time!

So I’ve been spending a sad amount of time in bed due to my stomach.  So while I am wasting away in bed I’ve started doing simple crafting I can manage to do while horizontal.  One of the things I’ve been doing is making Blythe hats to start including in all my outfits.  I recently got lucky from a room cleanout by my sister.

I should have taken a “before” before picture of this straw hat my sister was tossing out.  I am in the middle of unraveling it in this picture.  I am going to be using this straw for some special hats in the near future.  I want to find where I can buy bulk of this straw to make more of these hats.  I made several yarn hats and will take pictures of those soon. I’m thinking of doing a tutorial for these hats I make.  I call them my “Not a Knitter Not a Problem” hats.  I think some people might like it.  I’ll think about it.  Its really simple to do and not hard to figure out so I may go ahead and do it.

Well just wanted to revive this blog again.  I closed it before and then blocked it and now I need to promote it again.  *sigh*  Oh well, that’s the fun of blogging.    Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Update on the upset.

So, I wanted to update on the cut book cover.  Amazon and I believe the dealer both emailed me back about wanting to give a partial refund.  Amazon offered me 2 dollars back which would be 20% off the original price.  I decided to accept that since the seller didn’t really offer a price and they wanted me to contact them about it.  I decided to just go with Amazon since they had offered a price.  The seller may have offered more or less off, but this wasn’t about money or greed, it was always about peace of mind.  I just felt that was being a little to careless and it did seriously disappointment.  I’m looking at the book sitting a bit away from me and haven’t opened it since I saw the cut.  It did just really put a damper on the whole experience.  Let me explain a little more about what I mean.

When I shop for things I always have to go by what kind of money of I have, as most of us do.  Well when my dad offered me a mini shopping spree one day it literally took me hours to come up with the items I wanted.  But of course there were others I wanted but needed to wait on until I got more money.  Well I saved those links until I had the money and was so happy I could buy these items.  The book that was cut was one of them.  This book I wasn’t sure about in the first place.  But I researched it, which is why the shopping took hours, I researched all the books to make sure it was what I wanted.  This book in question got a lot of negative reviews but when I want on Ravelry, I saw a lot of projects made from the book and decided that I wanted to give it a chance.  Sometimes the “underdogs” are the best.  So this book was one of the ones I really looked forward to getting.  So when I saw the cut it just really put me off it.  I kind of felt my experienced had be dampened or spit on.  Does that make sense to anyone?  I sure hope it does and not that I’m sounding like a nutcase.  I guess I was just expecting a close to perfect experience.  Yeah I was expecting bent corners or maybe even some dirt on pages from shelf wear, but not the cut.  But the offer of a partial refund makes it a little better to have been heard and to be apologized to for having the “perfect” moment ruined.  Gosh I hope this is making sense.

Well the refund should be given by the end of next week.  I’ll update you on how that goes.  If all goes well I will be a happy camper.  I’ve also decided to give a neutral or a 4 rating to the seller instead of a negative one.  I’m glad I waited on giving feedback so I could cool down some.  Accidents happen.  I don’t know if I would deal with them again still, but I won’t ruin their ratings over an accident and they did offer to try to fix things so that helps some too.  I’ll hold off until I get the refund though before giving the feedback.  Just so I can feel that I got full closure on the deal first.

Well that’s about it for today.  I had a rather bad start to my day and I want to just relax and finish a knitting project I am working on.  I’m also in the process of rearranging some stuff so I can get my craft corner back.  I thought I liked how things were but I hated it.  Now I am working on returning things back to the way they were and I am liking it but it’s taking some time.  I had hoped to have it done by today, but things didn’t work out that way.  So hopefully by next Saturday I will.  Ok, I’m off now.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.  Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Happy times with a little sad sigh.

Ok, so I haven’t been feeling that good this week and was looking forward to a package coming to me as a belated birthday gift from my sister.  I have recently decided to really try knitting for real.  Like knitting stuff for humans instead of dolls…well not instead of more like including dolls.  The doll knitting has been going ok.  I’ve learned some new techniques through it but I want to start focusing on things for me.  So I have ordered several books, my sister ordered me some, and my dad got me some in the past three weeks.  One of the books I wasn’t sure about, but finally decided on, showed up today with a few other books.  All the books were in great condition except for one of them.  I have to admit I got a little sad when I saw the book.  The cover is cut from one side of the cover to midway through it and it went all the way through the paper.  If I something wrong I will ultimately rip the book. So my mom gave me the idea of taping the back of the cover with some cute tape.  Which really isn’t a problem. Once I popped the cover out some it looked ok up front but it’s still fragile without the tape.  I was thinking of doing this when all of it sudden I just got taken over with a bit of…not really anger or rage just a feeling of they shouldn’t be able to get away with this.

I understand accidents happen, but this was fully visible.  They saw this.  The order was fulfilled through Amazon but it was from a dealer.  I’m sorry, but I feel if you are going to deal with books, especially paperback books, you need to take extra care when you open the boxes.  I worked at Kmart back in the day and I had to put up books sometimes because it was wrapped in with the garden shop, where I worked, and I used a box cutter all the time to open stuff for the books and garden shop.  Some stuff in the garden shop you didn’t want the package ripping or you’d be covered in dirt or fertilizer.  So I made sure that when I cut open the box on the sides I would lift it up in the center and then slice it so I wouldn’t touch the merchandise underneath.  It’s just common sense.  And if they had seen that book was cut like that they should have given me another one and sent the cut one back to it’s publisher or discounted it more.  Now I got the book at a nice price, but no where did it say the book was cut.  If it had I am sure I would have still purchased it at that price thinking I’d just tape it or be careful with it.  But at least I’d be expecting it.  But I wasn’t and this irritated me.  Usually I would just accept things as is, but seeing it that this was a gift and seeing it that this was stated in new condition I feel I am owed a partial refund.  I read one other guy had a problem with the dealer that his book looked used and beat up and Amazon offered him 15% back on the book if he kept it because it would cost them more in shipping to exchange the book.  So he took it but won’t deal with the dealer again.  I feel that getting a percentage back would be fair.  I would keep the book and tape the back of it, and leave my feedback for the seller.  I haven’t left any yet so I can give a fair feedback if the seller helps me in this situation.  If not, then I will be leaving negative feedback and will be posting here about them so buyer may beware if you end up dealing with them in the future.

Ok, so that’s my mini rant and vent.  Just needed to get it off my chest since it did bother me so much.  Usually I don’t like to complain because I feel it makes me look childish, but I know I’m not alone out there.  If you are expecting something in new condition then damnit all it should be in new condition.  I could have handled a scratch where the box cutter went across the book.  A scratch is doable.  But this is a cut that when straight through the cover and through half of it.  So yeah, I’m a bit pissy.  Ok, I’m gonna go crawl back into bed and watch some more of this Korean drama I started watching.  It’s pretty cute.  If it stays cute I’ll post about it on my main blog.  Until then, bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse