Crochet dreams

Help! I need a translator for an urgent matter!

Well, ok, it's not urgent, but right about now I'm seriously wishing I had continued studying Japanese.

My husband went to Osaka and just got back this past weekend. And he came bringing oodles of goodies for both N. and myself (poor little bun in the oven got left out though). It was like Christmas in May... and have you ever noticed how the Japanese seem to have perfected the art of cute? Their fashion is pretty awesome too.

In any case, one of the goodies I got was this crochet magazine.

I love the outfits they have in there, and the accessories... *drool*

Problem is... all the patterns are in Japanese! And although I can read hiragana and katakana, my knowledge of kanji is just not enough to follow the patterns (fyi: these three systems mentioned make up the Japanese writing system, along with some use of the Latin alphabet we use). Japanese patterns usually include lots of pictures and illustrations to help you follow along, and I have used some in the past to sew for N. But I can't read these crochet ones and it's killing me.

I'm wondering if it's possible to read them if I get someone with more experience in crochet... Any takers?

Sweet things

Life's sweetest treasures need to be enjoyed whenever you can...

I don't often talk about my other life (i.e. my academic career), but... I've been recently told about an upcoming conference that I might be able to present in if I can finish an article I'm working on and get it approved in time. 

Combine that with the pregnancy's final trimester, my husband working out of state, and taking time to enjoy these sweet last months with my oldest girl as an only, there has been little time for crafting. 

I promise I'll share any crafting we end up doing. (^_^)

Model Magic and plastic lid "cakes"

Before talking about our latest crafting adventures, I wanted to announce a little change in my blogging: Mrs Ricefield is now Mrs Ricefield Crafts and Mrs Ricefield Illustration. 


This blog was getting cluttered with too many topics, no focus, and just too much variety. I decided to separate my illustration and photography side from the sewing, crafting, etc. So, from now on, this blog will feature the latter, while Mrs Ricefield Illustration will focus on the former. 

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It's no secret that I have a girly-girly-girl with a very unique sense of fashion. This child sometimes makes Pinkalicious seem colorless.

And yes, she's obsessed with pink.

I've also mentioned before that I like to recycle household items. Put those things together and you've got this project: little doll cakes made of modeling clay and plastic lids + beads.

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, linking to a post on Love and Lollipops. We did make our own homemade clay using a recipe I had, but it dried quickly and it was breaking so easily that we remade everything using a small bag of Model Magic.

the original homemade clay

tea time with our friends

cakes made with Model Magic

It was a hit. She still loves playing with her little cakes, although all the beads have been taken out by now. I tried gluing them back on, but nothing seemed to stick well enough to prevent her from taking them off. So I just let it go and the cakes are still popular during our "tea" time.

How I feel about homemade gifts

Happy belated Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms!

I hope you spent a fun, relaxing, and fulfilling day with your family.

Warning: very subjective opinions coming up...

There are tons of holidays where we feel obliged to give gifts or otherwise spend some kind of money to show our love for someone. That second part isn't bad - we all need to show our appreciation for those around us, especially those who love us, and taking a specific day to remind us of doing that (let's face it, we don't always think about it) can be a good thing. But I do take issue with something: The push for buying gifts can sometimes take away from the meaningful appreciation of those we're supposed to be honoring.

What I mean is that in our crazy busy lives it's so easy to give gifts without thinking about them. But what if we could spend less and give something more meaningful sometimes? That's where I think homemade gifts come in.

Getting a sweet and customized gift will never get old, no matter how big my kids are. I will always love anything my little girls put time and effort in to give me, whether they cook it, draw it, write it, sew it, sing it, whatever. It's their love put in to what they do for me that will make it so special.

Now, I don't expect everyone to agree with me. I know not everyone is a fan of homemade gifts in any case. I just hope my mom is. ;)

What's your gift giving preference/tradition for holidays?

Pink }{ The March Equinox Project

Finally I get to pink... Honestly, we have so much pink around this house due to a certain little miss that I was in no hurry to go off and find pink out in nature right now. 

Do you have girls in your house? Are your kids so very much into a favorite color? How do you deal with it?

But I'm running out of colors!

I started this project with the intent of taking/posting pictures for one color each week from March 20 to June 20. Now I'm realizing that it's actually not the best way to approach this. Instead of posting a collage every week, it might be best to take the pictures, but wait until the end to have a post with a compilation collage of all the colors. I might start posting the weekly collages in my flickr pool instead.

Have you ever done a series like this? How did you approach it?

Upcycled Lamp ~ girly style }{ Tutorial

Don't you love a good thrifty find?

N.'s room had a tall lamp that didn't really match her girly taste and didn't seem to fit the rest of the room. But I wasn't really looking to buy something new. It needed to be customized.

Then, just the other day I was looking through a garage sale and found a lamp with a nice long, white base with a broken shade. I got it for less than $3... Then I headed to the thrift store and found a  nice shade that fit it. The color didn't matter at all, since I planned on covering it up.

At home, I got a scrap of fabric that was long enough to cover the shade and went to work.

Materials:

lamp shade and base
enough fabric to cover the shade
ruffles (or ribbon)
spray adhesive
fabric glue
craft paint (optional)

Steps:

1. First you need to make a template for the shade to cut use for cutting the fabric. I used directions from this video on how to make the template from the shade itself, and marked it right on the fabric.

2. Then you can cut the fabric a little above the lines from the template (I like to give myself a bit of wiggle room).




























3. Next, use spray adhesive to cover both the lamp shade and the wrong side of the fabric. Make sure you cover the surface you're working on... It gets sticky all over with the spray!

4. Then it's time to place the fabric over the shade. This is a bit trickier than you'd think, and don't get frustrated if you have to peel it off and start over. The good thing about spray adhesive is that you can easily that. I started by matching the seam on the original shade with the edge of the fabric, then slowly stretching it around the shade. I started the whole thing 3 times before I got it right.

5. Measure and cut something for the bottom edge of the shade- I used ruffles, but ribbon would have been cute too.

6. Then, using fabric glue, slowly adhere the ruffles to the bottom edge of the shade. Let it sit for a while to dry.

7. Paint small designs on the base using craft paint. (optional)

8. Place the finished shade on the lamp, place it in the room of your choice, and plug it in. You're done!

What's your latest favorite project?

This tutorial has been linked to Skip to my Lou's Made by You Mondays and Sew Can Do's Craftastic Monday

Purple }{ The March Equinox Project

Purple is the color of royalty. It's a word with no match (can you think of a word that rhymes perfectly with purple?).

Before this year, I didn't think of purple as a spring color. But I'm finding it everywhere.

What do you think about when you think of purple?