Say hello to my little bonsai!

As I mentioned in my last post, now that Husband and I have our own house, we have our own garden, too. That means we can ... do gardening! We've both been interested in bonsai since we were kids, but never had the space or funds to keep them. Now all that has changed! On the weekend, we went and did a beginner's course at our 'local' bonsai nursery.

Though short, it was a great introduction, and we both came away with our very own bonsai. I decided to name mine Shinji; the H's is not yet named.

Shinji:

the Nameless one:

We're keeping them in a hutch we found out the back of the shed. We were going to break it up and put it in the hard rubbish, but thank goodness we didn't! It's the perfect shelter for our tender bonsai.
Both are Sargent Juniper, known as Shimpaku in Japan. Apparently they're one of the hardiest trees and are very suitable for a beginner. In the course, we prepared the pots, unpotted the tree, trimmed the roots and tied it into the new pot. Then we chopped the heck out of it! I really wish I'd had my camera with me so I could have taken a before photo. The tree was more than twice the size originally!

The instructor then further trimmed and wired each of our trees in turn. Most of the lower branches disappeared, the top came off and one of the small upper branches was trained upwards to become the new top.

Shinji is only a 5-year-old tree and was only trimmed for the first time. Perhaps it's more correct to say that it's a potensai (potential bonsai) rather than an actual bonsai at the moment. Bonsai take many years to mature and take shape. With more reading, I'm starting to understand that bonsai is a life-time prospect. A bonsai is a living tree, and it will grow and change. A bonsai is a work of art, but it is one that can never be 'finished'. The bonsai grower must always think of the future. How can the tree be improved in the coming years?

I've tried to think of some initial plans for Shinji, though as a beginner it's hard to visualise! Currently the two branches on the left side cross over each other. The lower one could be bent down a little more (green line) and the upper one bent up (orange line). Or alternatively I could cut it off altogether, or rip the end off to create a jin (deadwood branch). Some of the smaller branches at the top (purple lines) could be grown out to create medium-size branches to give it a more triangular shape overall.

So much to think about!
Whenever I get into something, I get into it hard, so I have an urge to go out and buy lots of potential bonsai stock, do more chopping and of course buy accessories and tools. There are also other types of potted plant arts that don't take as long to develop as bonsai, so perhaps I can look into those as well for some semi-instant gratification. I'll talk about those a bit next time.

New Home!

As mentioned in my last post, sooo long ago, I moved house. Over 90 boxes later, we're in our new home! There are a few small things to be done with it, not the least painting, but unpacking will be the most work by far.

We also have a garden! Here are the fruit trees. I have no idea what fruits they are. I guess I'll find out in a few months' time!

Here's the fernery. (Part of it anyway.) Isn't it gorgeous!

Aaaand, the veggie patch!

There were already some veggies growing in there when Husband and I moved in, so it was instant harvest! Perfect if you like silverbeet and spring onions, anyway.....

....which I do, thankfully. All of my craft supplies are still packed, but I may have something to share soon.

I Finished Something!

And on time, too!
I made this monster toy for a birthday gift:

A 30th birthday is a big occasion, and I was feeling inspired, so I thought, why not? My inspiration wavered a lot over the month I had to finish the monsty. It took some hard slog in the end, finishing about 2 hours before I had to leave for the party, but I did it!

Parts of the monster are cobbled together from techniques from some of Stacy Trock's Fresh Stitches designs. (Yes, the designer I mentioned in my last post, too.) I've never been able to make arm/leg pieces that were consistently round and the same size until I started working with one of her patterns. They're awesomely written.
Other parts I made up myself, mainly the gusset design that I came up with a few years ago.

I really enjoyed making this monster, even the parts I normally hate, like sewing things on. The mouth and teeth are made of felt that I sewed on with embroidery thread. The colours aren't what I would have ideally chosen, but I didn't have time to go on a felt-hunting expedition by that stage. I still think he looks pretty cool!
I have to say that I'm now a safety eye convert! I ordered some from ebay when I first got the monster-making bug, not intending to use them on this specific project. I love them! I feel they really make the toy come alive. I bought a set of 20, so expect to see more monsters with matching eyes soon!

Speaking of Stacy Trock's designs, yesterday I caved and signed up for the Fresh Stitches Kit Club! Every second month, a kit is issued with a pattern and all the materials needed to make the toy, plus a special gift. The price seemed very reasonable and I feel safe that the pattern will be easy to understand, as all her other ones so far have been. Plus, all her toys are so cute! I can't wait til the first one arrives.

And ... saving the best til last ....

Guess what?

Husbandy One and I bought a house!

No, we didn't buy this house, it's for illustrative purposes only. ツ
We're moving in a couple of weeks, so my life at the moment has been filled with boxes. Many boxes. No time for crafting, sadly. But once that's all done, expect many posts on house decorating. I can't wait!

Toys, Oh My!

Today I want to tell you about my latest obsession: stuffed toy making! Specifically, I'm back on the old monster-making wagon. A few weeks ago, I started making a stuffed toy as a gift, and the old joy of making funny characters came back to me. I've been completely obsessed with them since then! This is the dino that started it all off:

It's a knitted stegosaurus using this pattern from Ravelry. Obviously it's not finished yet! But I've almost finished the main piece: the head / body / tail section. The humped back and head make ingenious use of short rows for their shaping. Can you believe that the whole head is technically just one row?? I used short rows for a small project once before, but never really thought about their potential until now. The pattern links to a very well-explained tutorial of the wrap and turn technique, which makes it easy. Now all I have to do is make 4 legs, 4 tail spikes and 10 back plates, and I'm done. Lucky I still have plenty of time!

This burst of excitement led me on to the more selfish wish to make more toys for my own collection. You know the kind of creative urge where you can't wait til your lunch break so you can rush down to your Local Yarn Store and buy some yarn and a hook and get cracking? (There are 3 wool/craft shops within a 3-block radius of my work; I am truly blessed! Though many would say it's very unfortunate for my bank account...)

I'm eternally grateful for Ravelry as well, for allowing me to choose a pattern and find out what materials I needed all online, without having to go home and check my pattern books. Instant gratification! That's what happened when I decided on the spur of the moment to start this project:

Sorry, this is a photo of a completed one I borrowed from the internet. Mine is going to be orange and pink. The pattern is Mixtro the Monster from Stacey Trock designs. He's going to be so adorable! But yet already I was thinking ahead - to future monsters! I was starting to get interested in designing my own again. When I say "designing", in the past it was more like "making a blobby shape and adding blobby bits wherever I feel like it". The monsters I made in the past had that ... ahem ... special charm that only comes from making it up as you go along. These were some of my first monster-making attempts. I made these in 2007-2008:

the Left-Handed Monster (L); Peanut Monster (C); Monstrous Muriel (R).
Apparently I had a thing for orange at the time! I remember that I planned to make a whole family of monsters, and write zines with their life stories. To wit - I have three unfinished monsters from that time. Still in their project bags (or cocoons??) waiting to be finished (or born??). I can see that I was starting to branch out a little more - experimenting with embellishments and knitting as well as crochet. I have renewed motivation to finish them now, as well.

Scary Selby (L); Rambunctious Roy (C); Frankenstein's Toyster(R)
I remember hating Scary Selby's top-of-head / hair and wanting to rip and re-do it, but now I really like it! I don't even think he needs arms - he's perfect the way he is! So I declare him finished. Rambunctious Roy just needs his second arm knitted. Thank goodness I wrote notes as I went along for the first one, so it shouldn't be too hard to recreate. Even if they're uneven, it doesn't matter. He's a monster! Frankenstein's Toyster just needs a head and some embellishments.

I decided yesterday to find some information or a book on designing your own amigurumi. I have to confess, a part of me wanted to make monsters more like the cute ones on Ravelry and less like the ...ahem... 'special' ones I was making 5 years ago. Maybe I've been unduly influenced by Pinterest, where everything is perfect. Hm, I'll think about that later! I started with looking at the designer of the pattern I'm working at the moment (Mixtro the Monster). I was impressed with how well-written and illustrated the pattern was. It turns out she has a Craftsy class on, not just designing amigurumi in general, but specifically monsters!

Figuring it was meant to be, and that the cost was probably no more than I was planning to spend on book/s anyway, I signed up post-haste. I have to admit, I'd already heard of Craftsy when it first started, and at the time I was a bit dismissive of it. I thought, why pay for tutorial videos when I can get them for free on YouTube? But I was impressed by their setup. The videos are high-quality and very comprehensive, and there are supporting PDFs that you can download and print out. There's a chat room where students can get help from the teacher and from each other, and a section to show off your finished projects. Best of all the class never expires, so you have access to it all permanently. I watched the intro video last night, and I'm really excited to get to the rest!

There's another reason why I'm so interested in toy-making at the moment. For now it's a secret, but it's a project that I'll hopefully be able to start in a few weeks. Stay tuned for updates!

JetPens Haul, Oh My!

After what seemed like months of breathless anticipation, my JetPens order finally arrived today. (It was really only about 3 weeks, but that's a long time to hold your breath!) This order was all about fun! I was looking for some new writing pens in interesting colours, so I ordered a few different brands to try out. Namely, the Zebra Sarasa 0.7mm Gel Pen, the Pilot Juice 0.5mm Gel Pen, and the Marvy LePen Fine Point Marker Pen.

They all come in such a wonderful range of colours, it was hard to choose just one or two of each. I'm especially in love with the Marvy LePen: it has the best name! And it's embossed on the barrel in a spiffy silver font. Love! It reminds me of the Needlepoint pens from Typo, but with a finer point and more interesting colours. The barrel is a little narrower than I'm used to, but it writes smoothly.

The Zebra Sarasa Port Wine colour is a beautiful deep plum/brown colour. It writes very smoothly, and so far seems to be long-lasting. (I wrote my Pages with it yesterday and it barely made any impression.) I'm not quite as happy with the Pilot Juice pens, unfortunately. They didn't write all that smoothly: the pen seemed to drag on the paper and it was more of an effort to write. I haven't tried writing any longer passages with them yet though, so I'll reseve my final judgement.

I also got a Pentel Pulaman Disposable Fountain Pen, after reading about it on Simplicity Embellished Blog. Cole is right in pointing out that this isn't actually a fountain pen. It's a fine point felt-tip marker with a slightly flexible plastic nib. But it just looked so beautiful, I wanted it anyway. The first thing I thought when I saw it was, "it's too nice to throw away!" The dark brown body is sleek and sophisticated. While the line doesn't have the beautiful shading I love from fountain pens, it's still a strong, satisfying black. The tip writes soooo smoothly and the pen is comfortable to hold. If only it were re-fillable!

I also bought refills for some of my other pens, but the fun part was these novelty erasers! They were so incredibly detailed, I couldn't resist.

I feel like I'm reverting back to childhood, collecting erasers, stickers and stationery. It's a bit mad! I have to admit, I'm already plumping up my JetPens wishlist again.

Quick Project

Last weekend I suddenly got fed up with working on long-term projects. Heck, even a scarf is a long-term project for me! I wanted instant gratification. So I grabbed some spare wool and a crochet hook, and I made this mini mat:

I even embroidered a border. I made most of it in the car, on the way to various places over the weekend. I just had to wait until I got home to snip the trailing ends off. It was so very satisfying to start and finish something in one weekend - way out of proportion to the time and effort actually spent on the project! I could become a quickie project convert very easily.

My Story in June Warrior Call

I mentioned a few posts ago that I wrote a piece for the June edition of Warrior Call, the collaborative e-zine produced by the Creative Warriors Circle. The zine has now come out!

This month's themes are awareness, possibility and transformation. My story is about a discouraging experience I had when I was younger, and how I (eventually!) overcame it to start my journey of exploring creativity. There are also a piece by another guest writer, a vision board project, inspiring journal prompts, and more.

It was daunting for me to put myself out there by writing a personal story and submitting a drawing for all the world to see. I'm proud of myself! A huge thank you has to go out to Samie Harding for making it possible!
I hope you'll consider getting a copy!

❖ Purchase Here ❖