Eyeball Earrings

I crocheted another pair of eyeballs (without the chain) and turned them into perfect Halloween earrings.

Plastic pumpkin makeover!

Dead Bunny Catnip Toy

I always buy or make 2 new cat toys so that my cats don't get jealous.   After completing a lizard toy, I decided to make a bunny toy.

Oh no!  My cactus killed a bunny!

This bunny is filled with organic catnip as well.

Dead Bunny Catnip Toy

Click "Read more" for a pattern.

Lizard Catnip Toy

I finally finished lizard cat toy for my cats!  It is stuffed with organic catnip and I know it is going to make someone very excited.

One of my nip-heads somehow found out that I made a new toy for him.  He dug out a completed toy I was hiding in my craft bag.  It all happened within a couple of minutes. 

By the time I got back and caught him in action, the poor lizard was soaked in his slobber.  I'm grad someone couldn't wait to get a handmade toy!  Unfortunately, I misplaced the pattern I wrote down on a piece of paper.  I'll make another one (an improved one) next time...when this lizard is too dirty for my cats to play with.

Creepy Eyeballs

Bat cat went out for a hunt and brought back eyeballs.  He's so proud just like when my mom's cat brings her a head (yes, just the head) of a mouse. 

Eyeballs

Click "Read more" for the pattern.

Bat Cat

This is our seasonal family member, Bat Cat.  He was supposed to be an ordinary black cat until a spell was cast by an evil witch: me.  I modified Amineko pattern for the Bat Cat to make him smaller and strange looking.

Bat Cat 

Click "Read more" for the pattern, fellow witches!

Savory and Sweet Stuffed Rolls

Whenever my mother had to be at PTA meeting or something, she used to make a big pot of curry for us to heat up for supper later.  In Japan, unless one specifies Indian, Thai, or Vietnamese style curry, people think of 'Japanese style' curry made with curry powder or store bought curry roux.  It is an easy one pot meal and we usually have plenty of leftover.  One way to use the leftover is to make Curry Stuffed Rolls, or Karē-pan.  These rolls are popular at Japanese bakeries and are usually deep-fried.  Well, deep-frying happens to be one cooking method I do not practice at home.  When I crave something deep-fried such as Vietnamese spring rolls, I head to a restaurant.  Although I insisted on sticking to one of my many rules to cut down on fat intake, I wanted to make curry rolls.  The buns used for Chinese BBQ pork buns seemed to be the best bet. 

The recipe for buns was adopted from Baked BBQ Pork Bun recipe I found at cooking.com. I put shredded chicken breast meat and insane amount of vegetables in my curry while most Japanese cooks prefer to brown chicken/pork/beef cubes in a pot and use less vegetables.  This is a pretty good way to hide veggies---make sure to chop veggies into small pieces.  If yous are a veggie lover like me, however, eating big chunks of veggies in curry sauce is the way to go.  Japanese curry roux can be found at most Asian markets.

There was enough curry to make 12 rolls.  I had some blueberries I cooked a few days ago, and blueberry-stuffed rolls sounded great for breakfast.  I divided the remaining dough into 8 small rounds and stuffed with blueberries.

The blueberries were cooked with small amount of sugar and was sweetened further with stevia when the berries were cooled to room temperature.  The only problem with making these small rolls was that some juice leaked out of every single roll.  Silicone baking mat saved my baking sheet from a huge mess!  I enjoyed the rolls with a big cup of coffee next morning.  This bread dough recipe works for both sweet and savory stuffing equally well.

Frog Head Pincushion

Unlike Dead Bear Head, this frog head is not dead.  I know I don't really need another pincushion.  It's just fun to make them in different shapes.

The lizard in this picture is not real.  No animal was harmed during the photo shoot.  Please do not contact PETA!

This is how the trap works.  Wait patiently until lizard crawl into the mouth...now!

Smaller Frog Amigurumi

This is not Lentarow I crocheted last month.   This guy's much smaller---here's a picture of them together.

I wanted to put magnets in his hands but I couldn't find strong enough magnets at a craft supply store.  The snap I found in my craft box worked great.

These pictures are slightly out of focus since I took them while he was having fun hanging from a wind chime and spinning.

                                             Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

I've been calling him Chibi-Len which means 'Little Len' in Japanese.

Dead Bear Head Pincushion

When I was stitching a liner for frog ipod pouch, it was a little annoying to pickup pins from a small organizer drawer.  It gave me an idea to make a pincushion, however, I didn't want my grandmother's old boring pincushion.

Behold, the gray matter! 

This pincushion isn't just for Halloween!  It goes well with a spooky ringtone I use year-round.

Japanese-Style Okra

Okra is definitely one of those veggies people either love or hate.  With an exception of my mother who doesn't like it for its seeds, many people can't tolerate its sliminess.  Growing up in Japan, I ate plenty of slimy food throughout my childhood.  Okra is now grown in Japan as well, however, my first encounter with okra was when I ordered a bowl of gumbo in the US.  I even liked pickled okras which most of my friends disliked.

Fresh okra started to show up at local farmers market in mid August.  I like to pick smaller okra and fill a sandwich bag (that's the perfect amount of okra I can consume by myself in a week).  I cook them in Japanese-style with soy sauce and Nihonshu (you call it 'sake') and eat it with other veggie side dishes using chopsticks.  Larger okra takes longer to cook and they are harder to pick up with chopsticks.  Chopping larger okra into pieces makes the whole dish too slimy even for me.

Japanese-Style Whole Okra (Vegan)

Click "Read more" for the recipe.

Making Jewelry With Lampwork Beads

Unlike many husbands out there, my husband is actually banned from buying me a jewelry.  I started making lampwork beads so that I would always wear something unique.

The center bead was created two days before moving to Arizona (it shares a birthday with bear and frog beads).  Smaller beads were purchased at a bead store in Texas.  This Southwest-inspired choker necklace has been quite useful this summer.

I have no idea when I made these beads.  It had to be 5 years ago or so.  There beads are tied at each end of a long black string.  I use it as a necklace most of the time but it was convenient to tie rolled-up cloth I was using as picnic blanket with this string when I went to a music festival.  I clipped it to my pack with a small carebiner.

Crocheted Frog ipod Case

My constant battle with tangled headphones is over!  While I was crocheting a head of frog amigrumi, the idea of crocheting an ipod case with pockets for each ear piece popped into my head.

He looks kinda goofy with his mouth closed.

The liner came from my old camisole I no longer wear.  I reuse things as much as I can.  Everything was hand stitched.

"Feed me an ipod, please!"