Phone case

Yippeee!!! Our wedding date is set! I reserved the church for Friday evening, March 11th. I can't believe it's so soon! =) Nothing can stop me from smiling today!

Last night while watching a movie, I crocheted my new phone (that was a late Christmas present from the old papadukes) a case. It's a ZTE touch screen phone and probably the nicest phone I'll ever own, since I'm not really interested in all the bells and whistles phones come with these days. Although, I'll admit, having the internet with you everywhere is pretty cool... 

I just chained the width of the phone twice, joined with a slip stitch and then crochet sc all around. I'm just so used to amigurumi making, I'm surprised I didn't start the project with a magic circle, haha. Anyway, it's a bit too long (was paying more attention to the movie?) and I started making what was supposed to be the closing flap for a button too late (did I mention I wasn't paying attention?). To top it all off, I even made the button close hole on the wrong side. Therefore, this is now just an envelope type case. Lol... It's cute and it'll do until I make something better...with a bit more concentration? I think I'll make my dad one before he leaves since we have the same phone now. I can't believe that starting next Monday, we'll be staying at their house for 6 weeks...and hopefully doing a spot of redecorating!! Yay! or Yay?

The phone's inside all safe and warm!

The envelope flap, double chains

The actual phone if you were wondering

I've also half way completed the acorn I wrote about last time, just need to do the top and add the closures. I'll post pictures when it's complete! =)

Happy Tuesday!

Birthday Tortoise

Well, I've finally managed to finish the tortoise for the sis-in-law! Her birthday is in 4 days though, so I don't see it making it there on time, especially since the post office is closed tomorrow... But I'm HAPPY he's finished, and I must say, it was tough to find the time or motivation to work on him. Here he is!

 

Once again, the pattern is from Roman sock, linked here. She has some really great ideas and patterns and sells some patterns as well. 

Making this buddy was challenging because I originally made him with lighter contrasting yarn, which I then ran out of... So I attempted using a darker contrasting yarn... Until I ran out of that... So I ended up with a slightly monochrome tortoise and a whole bunch of multi-colored shell pieces (maybe the starts of some granny hexagons/squares?) and a bit of frustration. (I really liked making a frame out of pipe cleaners though, the fact that the little buddy is pose-able is super cool!)

Another challenge was finding the time! Between researching and being excited about Kyoto and getting married, I started school again and even had a test in the first week. Talk about being tired! I ended up sleeping over 12 hours last night -- straight! Love love love that Mr. Man understands that sometimes, a girl just has to sleep, and took the dogs out and took care of them during the evening. 

Speaking of the dogs, Koda is getting BIGGER and BIGGER. He's picked up some manners for sure, but is the most stubborn dog I've ever met. He's really smart too, which makes for some really tricky training... I can't wait for him to get his last round of vaccines so we can take him to puppy obedience classes and make a real dog out of him, lol! 

 

Another happy thing, we are investing in a super-camera for our Kyoto trip...!! which means, we'll have a super-camera after the Kyoto trip as well!!! I'm super excited, it's going to be so nice to have some really good quality pictures for once! The camera I have now is a discount Kodak 7 megapixel point and shoot, so needless to say, we are going to be light years ahead with the new Canon! Yaaay!

As for the weather here, it's been warmer in the past few days, but it's back to -20C again. BLAH! At least it makes the trees white with frost and with the high pressure, the sun was out today as well. How I have missed it!

 The last time the weather was like this was a couple of weeks ago, the 4th actually. We took a long walk to my parent's house, forgetting how cold -20C feels when you are in it for more than 10 minutes... We were in PAIN and completely frost covered by the time we made it to their house! We got some good snapshots though from the trip. If you were wondering, no we didn't take the dogs out for such a long walk in that kind of weather, their poor little paws would have frozen, and no, they aren't the types who would agree to wearing booties, hahah =)

Downtown-ish Tampere

The view from on top of the foggy waterfall Tammerkoski smack dab in downtown Tampere

There were ducks swimming in this! I guess out in the middle, where the current is still so rough from the waterfall, it's still warm enough? Or maybe they're just crazy Finnish ducks! =D

Love the texture that millions of snowflakes upon each other creates =)

Well, I think my next project is another one from Roman sock, the sock knitter's acorn pattern. When I read it, I knew this was for my aunt, who as I've mentioned previously is a master at sock knitting. I just have to make it for her! 

I'm going to use one of my Christmas yarns, this one actually: 

Quite acorn-y.

Well, that's it for this time, 

thanks for reading!

So, it's 2011

Well, all I can say about the new year is, thank goodness me it's here! 2010 was a very up and down sort of year and while a lot of good things happened (getting engaged, getting a puppy, finding peace of mind through yarn and a crochet hook); a lot of laziness, lack of motivation and bad feelings occurred as well. So while I thank you 2010, I'm still happy to see you go! Lol!

The first sunny day of 2011, today! =)

2011 is the year I am getting married. So unbelievable in a way, but I am so happy about it. We've been really letting the wedding get in the way of getting MARRIED since the engagement and now that we have separated the two, we've come to the conclusion that the wedding is not getting married and that getting married should be stress-free, romantic and a celebration of our love for each other by US. Therefore, we let go of having a wedding with all of the hoopla... we're eloping!!! =) Destination: Kyoto, Japan. Not only that, but instead of having a wedding in the states at the end of December, we're going during the cherry blossom time...the end of MARCH! Excitement has taken hold of me! If you don't understand the fuss about Japan, google Maruyama park, the philosopher's path and temples of Kyoto. If you still don't get it, google those terms with cherry blossoms. Oh me oh my. Gorgeous! I can't stop thinking about it, I really feel good about our decision although it isn't the traditional thing to do. We have a lot to do before we go!

As for crocheting... I have started my crocheting year with tortoises. I made this fellow for my sister in law, until I realized this was for one of my friends. Once it was done, it just shouted her name.

Quite an ugly fellow, but cute in its own way... No? The pattern is from "Super super cute crochet" by Brigitte Read, one of the books I got for Christmas. Well, since this little one was born and can't be given to the sister in law (birthday approaching...), a fellow like this is on the way:

Okay, that's just the pieces I've made so far to make this: Roman Sock's Greek Tortoise (linked). I'm really excited to see it done, but man, it's pretty complicated and something tells me it won't make to the post office in time to make it to the states for her birthday. And now that I've been so excited about JAPAN, researching has put this baby on the back burner. Sorry!

Before I go, let me share a bit of the weather... snow snow snow. After Christmas it snowed. A lot. And it's not like we didn't have enough snow BEFORE Christmas. So here is a view of our patio (after hubbyman-to-be shoveled it and after that it sprinkled a new layer of snow, go figure eh).

Up to my knees almost! 

Well, hope your new year started well. Thanks for reading! =)