Polymer Clay Beads and Hemp Necklaces

When I was making a necklace for my niece for Christmas, I found three necklaces I thought I gave away years ago.  While I was in school, I used to make these simple square-knot necklaces when I wanted to take a break.  Doing something mindless is my favorite way to clear my mind.  That must be why now I love hand spinning.

I can't believe I found things I made 10 years ago!  I could cut the beads out and use for something else or ask my little nieces if they want them.  Do kids nowadays still like hemp accessories?

Christmas Decorations

I'm not Christian but a friend of mine thought that I should have a Christmas tree.  This is the 'tree' she gave me several years ago:

 I love this 'tree' and I display it every year.  The 'tree' is a huge pine cone---the biggest pine cone I've seen.

I added Christmas tree ornaments to the 'tree'. 

Although it is not my holiday, I enjoy spending time with family and friends around Christmas.

Handspun Yarns

Spinning might be the most time consuming thing in craft category I've ever done!  It is not for people who need yarn right away.  After spinning a 2-ply, a single ply and a short single ply, I had to soak yarns and then dry them overnight.  I added a small amount of gentle dish soap with cedarwood-mint scent.  The yarns still smell nice even after rinsing and drying.

This 2-ply yarn is mainly brown-peach with some random yellow, orange and light blue fiber mixed in.  Brown mixed with lots of warm colors gave nice warm feel to this yarn.

This single-ply is mostly brown-dark green with nice splash of warm colors.  I can't wait to knit with this yarn.

The last one is the brightest one and I'll probably end up using this one as an accent.

All the roving or batts I used for these yarns came from Unique Design by Kathy.  Last Saturday, I joined Kathy and other spinners to spin together and chat.  Everyone brought in own spinning wheel so I was the only one with a hand spindle.  Big thanks to those ladies who answered my never-ending questions!  I've been spinning for 2weeks now and I have lots of questions.  There are some good tutorial videos on YouTube that I found very useful.  I'll be spinning more after Christmas.

Alien Encounter

Whenever we're on the road for more than one hour in daylight and my husband's driving, I crochet in passenger seat.  It usually is a great time to experiment since I don't want to spread any space-taking pattern or book.  One day, I took a purple yarn I got on sale and started crocheting another alien to give Octy a pal.

Octy, this is Nudi.  Nudi, this is Octy.

 

"..."

 "Nudi, your lips are beautiful like mine!"

 

Sora and Gen-nai enjoyed a relaxing massage by Nudi.

Until all the body parts were assembled together, Nudi's body looked like a little granny hat.  I love taking all the parts out and putting them on the table.  It kinda look like a crime scene.  I've been watching awaaay too many crime investigating TV shows!

Gen-nai

Sometimes I just can't get in a mood to put amigurumi parts together for a long time.  I crocheted all the parts to make another amineko about 6 month ago and almost forgot about it.  This is Gen-nai ('Ge' is pronounced as in 'get', and 'na' is as in NASA) with Sora-A-mon (friendliest blue amineko in the house!).

Aaahhhhhh! A foot massage!

Handmade Gifts With Lampwork Beads

It was time to make the first batch of glass beads after moving to Arizona since my preteen niece asked for a necklace with lampwork beads for Christmas.  I knew she would ask for something pink so I told her I can make it with OTHER colors she likes.  What can I say, I hate pink.  I don't like working with anything pink---especially soft-toned pastel pink.  There are only a handful of things in this world I don't mind looking at: my cat's pink nose, his pink pads, and Pink Panther cartoons.  At the end, my niece suggested green and blue, the colors I actually adore.  I know I'm such a difficult aunt, but, hey, how many aunts give handmade lampwork jewelry to their nieces?

I'm planning to turn this gift into a game.  I made 4 necklaces which I will place in 4 separate gift bags.  My niece would have to pick a bag without looking at them first.

I'm not sure if I would do that to her.  I could simply let her pick the one she likes.

This bead is made with a bead I made 5,6 years ago but it split in half probably due to rapid or uneven cooling.  I joined halves together with baby blue glass.  It didn't crack this time!
 

The last set of beads were inspired by Mexican glassware.

I'm not perfect, so my beads are not perfect.   My beads are not recommended to those who have to have perfectly shaped beads.  I might get better at forming more uniform beads if I made them more frequently, however, I'd rather spend my time spinning right now.  These beads are for my personal use and I'm actually happy with their rustic looks.

Hand Spinning

When I went to the Holiday Craft Fair at Tucson Museum of Art, I met a lady demonstrating spinning with her beautifully crafted spinning wheel.  She pulled out a hand spindle from her purse and showed me how easy it is to spin fiber without an expensive spinning wheel.  The best thing about hand spindle is that I can take it anywhere! 

There was an article about Kathy in a local periodical we get in mail and I was immediately interested in how she uses fiber from animals at her ranch.  Although her ranch is not far from where I live, I met her at Tempe Festival of the Arts for the first time.  Kathy kindly showed me how to start spinning and shared a few do's and don'ts pointers.  I purchased this handcrafted spindle and about 2oz of roving to start spinning.

It didn't take me long to understand the 'meditating effect' of spinning the lady at the craft fair told me about.   It might be the best thing to do to clear my mind!  This is my cure for common holiday stress.

Holiday Decorations

Generally, I'm not into decorating for the holidays.  When I was organizing garage and found several bags of pine cones, I knew I had to make something out of them.  Making a wreath first popped in my head but I didn't have all the materials I needed.  Then, planters and dishes caught my eyes.  I grabbed my cheapo glue gun and all the glue sticks I got and start assembling the pine cones.

This is my pine cone 'tree' with gold ribbon.  I had enough pine cones to make another one for the patio table as well.  I only used the materials I had at home: lots of pine cones, pot & dish, glue gun and about 10 glue sticks, and gold ribbons.  First, I wanted to use wire to tie pine cones together, but the old pine cones were too fragile to wrap wire around.  I'm hoping glue is strong enough to last through the holidays.

Crocheted Necklace and Earrings

When it's cold, I don't even want to wear accessories with lots of metal parts.  I crocheted a necklace with super-soft Lion Brand Microspun yarn in black and handmade polymer clay beads.  Although I hardly ever wear earrings, I made matching earrings only because there were 4 beads leftover. 

The advantages of polymer clay beads are that they never gets cold like glass or metal beads and are lightweight.    The surface of the beads are finished very smooth so they don't irritate my skin.  I think I'll be wearing this necklace quite often this winter.

Packaging for King Trumpet Mushrooms

I guess cartoon-like pictures on product packages isn't just in Japan anymore.  On my recent trip to Asian market in the neighborhood, I found a bag of king trumpet mushrooms with drawings that reminds me of my home country.

I used to see this kind of drawings on bags and boxes in Japan all the time since Japanese people apparently can't live without cartoon-like drawings on everything.  I'll be looking for the rest of the mushroom varieties on this package.  I wonder whoever designed it knows this famous shiitake from Japanese comic books.

These mushrooms are very meaty so I decided to grill two of them for dinner.  A simple glaze made of soy sauce and sesame oil was put on mushroom halves right before grilling on Cuisinart Griddler along with some Indian mackerel.  Whenever my husband is on his business trip, I eat something he doesn't like such as certain type of fish and lots of vegetables.

A couple of Japanese-inspired veggie dishes, miso soup with fried tofu and lots of vegetables, brown rice with three kinds of quinoa and amaranth grains completed my meal.  The rest of the mushrooms were used in Italian style pasta dish and spicy miso soup and it worked well in both.  I would buy them again to experiment in other types of cuisines. 

Tempe Festival of the Arts and Oro Valley Art Fair

Because of calm, moderate winter weather, November and December are the best time to enjoy art and craft fairs in central and southern Arizona.  This weekend, biannual Tempe Festival of the Arts is held on and around Mill Avenue.  Being one of the largest art festivals in the area, finding a parking spot was not easy.  When I came to the spring festival, my husband who is not into art fair dropped me off near Mill Avenue so I didn't have to experience parking nightmares.  Since it was school day and workday for many people and businesses near ASU, going to the festival on Friday probably made it even more difficult.

After spending over 20minutes to find a parking spot, I was ready to get out of my car and start admiring art work.  I recognized many artists from this past spring returning for the winter fair.  There are certain types of arts and crafts I stop and look at: pottery, nature and world travel photography, lampwork bead jewelry, soaps, home deco, and something practical such as cooking tools and clothing.  Of course, I check out anything that looks interesting.  I go to art and craft fair to learn about good ideas artists and crafters have.

Ever since I met Jimmy Ellis from Dallas at Old Pecan Street Fair in ATX and bought prints of a black pug and beer and Boston terrier with martini, I can't resist art work of goofy animals.  This illness of mine dragged me into Bungalow Art Studio's tent where paintings, printed tiles and other goodies were displayed.  And there was this French bulldog in the corner who grabbed my eyes!  He has a kind of face not everyone can call 'cute' but irresistible to some of us.  

This Frenchie didn't seem to mind me taking his pictures.  His attention was on one thing: his yummy bone, until someone walked by with two wiener dogs.  He was ready to chase those dogs down and his owner had to grab his back legs!

Eventually he calmed down and went back to attack his bone.  Besides these wonderful pictures, I also brought home a tile with digitally printed drawing of a Boston terrier which I couldn't leave without purchasing.  It matches with Jimmy Ellis' Boston terrier print really well .  These dogs in art are the only dogs I'll ever have.  What can I say, I'm a cat person.  As soon as I arrived my in-law's house spend a night after the festival, their young Shih-Poo gave me a welcoming licks allover my arms.  Some reason, dogs love to lick lotion off my arm.  I get enough doggie love everywhere I go,  then I go home to get some kitty love.  Before getting my daily dose of kitty love, I had to stop at another art fair in Oro Valley by beautiful Catalina mountains.  There's nothing like enjoying winter art fairs with temperatures in mid 70's.  This is why people have hard time leaving Arizona.

My First Blanket

At last I finished the blanket I had been knitting on and off since last March.  I'm so grad that I finished it---it's getting pretty cold and I can definitely use another blanket.  With the morning temperature of 26F, I can only imagine where 'snow birds' in this town come from to avoid extreme winter. 

The blanket is only about 42"x42" but it is stretchy and is big enough to cover my lap on the couch.  It's very warm and comfy!  The yarns I used for this blanket were pretty bulky so I knitted with 10mm needles.  I made 3 strips and stitched them together.  Three layers of single crochet trimming with a 5mm hook and bulky army green yarns completed the blanket.  I'm going to try knitting my next blanket with a circular needle which I have never used before.  Well, there's a first time for everything!

Yucca Hiking Pole

When I was on the Courthouse Butte Loop last Saturday, I met a couple with matching rustic walking poles in their hands.  I had to talk to them to complement their poles.  The husband kindly explained that he make them from yucca plants by sanding down the stem and applying lacquer.  He even gave me his walking pole to take home with me!

It is amazingly light and strong.  I remember how tough the yucca stems were after drying out in my yard in Texas.  What a great idea to make a hiking pole out of them!  I love the look and how it feels in may hand.  It will be used until it falls apart.