All About Ami
a blog about my love of ami-gurumi & crochet
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I can’t believe it’s the end of August already! I’ve always loved the summer, from all the wonderful festivals and the long hours of daylight to traveling abroad (in our case, to Tokyo at the beginning of June!). It’s been a great summer, and I’m thankful I’ve been able to enjoy the summer months in my pregnancy with enough energy. I thought I’d share some of our adventures with you through these photos!
It’s been a tradition ever since I was young to visit the exhibition whenever it came into town (known as Klondike Days or Capital Ex for us). Indulging in carnie food is a must, so we ended up trying “The Colossal Onion” (a delicious deep fried onion that looks like a blooming flower!), freshly cut and fried chips, cotton candy, a caramel milk chocolate apple (this has always been one of my favourite treats), and a corn dog. Don’t worry…we shared all this food among five people! This would’ve been wayyy too much for just the two of us!
One of the most beloved festivals here is called the ”Heritage Festival” in which 62 pavillions representing over 85 cultures from all over the world are featured to showcase Canada’s multiculturalism. Each pavillion makes their own specialty dishes and crafts and demonstrates different performances. This festival always happens during the first weekend of August, and it is always very hot since it takes places in an open park with little cover and shade! We braved the heat and tried some delicious food items. One of our favourite items was the “Mango’s Loco” from Guatemala, which is a mango on a stick rolled in lime juice and spices. Everyone was carrying these, and they were so juicy and ripe! You can try making your own with this recipe here!
It’s also been fun trying different recipes this summer too! Last month I blogged about our lychee frozen yogurt recipe. I decided to try making a pineapple sorbet as all you need to do is puree pineapple, add sugar, churn it and then freeze it! Sorbets, gelatos, ice creams and frozen yogurts are perfect for summertime :) We’ve also been eating a lot of fresh fruit, and I had to use up some blueberries before they went bad, so I found this absolutely amazing recipe here for blueberry muffins (they are aptly titled “To Die For Blueberry Muffins”!). The streusel topping is so delicious, and the muffin itself is very moist- I highly recommend checking this recipe out!
One summer day I had a baking date with my foodie friend Lillian who blogs over at “Beyond Umami”. We made madeleines, which are small French sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape. It was my first time making them, but Lillian brought all the necessary supplies and gave me baking tips along the way. Check out my piping skills and the beautiful finished products :)
I love love love Chinese desserts, from sweet tapioca soups and tong yuens to lian gao. Whenever we go to Chinese bakeries, I always search for “boot jai goh’s”, which are chewy Chinese pudding cakes with a delicious almond flavour. I’ve been trying to make some of these desserts at home, and I found a recipe for boot jai goh that I really like! You can find it here. I’ve been experimenting with different recipes, but this one is the best so far. Apparently if you’ve followed the recipe correctly, a “belly-button” in the little cake should form…thankfully they appeared in mine! Don’t they look yummy and nicely-shaped? I substituted yellow rock sugar instead of typical white sugar which gave them a more authentic taste!
I’m so glad I got to finally host another give-away this summer too! It’s always fun with the level of participation and hearing from people all over the world. Two of these prizes went to the US and one went to Australia!
Another exciting thing that happened this summer was the purchase of our sewing machine! Home ec was never offered at my school, so learning how to thread the machine and sew was a daunting task for me! I’m so thankful for sewing blogs, tutorials and youtube videos that made everything a whole lot easier. There were mishaps along the way, but it was fun trying out all these different stitches. Our first major project were the curtains for our nursery! I will show you the results once our nursery is finished, but I’m pretty proud of how the curtains turned out! I’m such a newbie at sewing and I can’t wait to try more projects! Do any of you pro sewers have any tips or ideas for good beginner projects?
We went to some fabric stories to look for patterns for our nursery, and look at this awesome sale on buttons we found- 2 bags for $1! I picked up these green and fuscia pink buttons to use on baby hats and future projects :)
At a friend’s birthday tea party this summer, everyone made their own fascinators! There were shoulder pads (for the base), flowers, lace, ribbon, tulle and plenty of materials available, and I thought it was such a great idea. Everyone’s fascinators looked so unique and beautiful, and group photos were cute with these lovely pieces adorning everyone’s hair! Here is the one I made! It just so happened this lace matched perfectly with my crocheted top :)
I love Broadway musicals, and I was disappointed when we were unable to get tickets to see Mary Poppins the last time we were in New York. I was very excited when I heard they were touring across Canada and making a stop here! The magical effects and tap dancing were wonderful, and I loved the choreography and performance of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”!
Ryan is a big anime fan, and we’ve been watching plenty of anime shows and movies since getting married. One of the events we were greatly looking forward to attending this summer was the “Animethon”, and we went with my brother (another big anime fan)! I love seeing all the cosplaying and although we didn’t cosplay (I’m sure one day we will!), I wore my Hello Kitty glasses from Tokyo and ”Nerdy but Cute” Hello Kitty shirt! We watched some anime, browsed Artist Alley (so many talented anime artists!), watched the cosplay contest and some of a Smash Bros tournament and shopped around the Vendor Hall. While in the Vendor Hall, I got to try out the “Necomimi”, a set of battery-powered cat ears that supposedly react to brainwaves, making the ears wiggle. It was fun trying them out, but I couldn’t control them very well…plus they were a hefty price!
Trying to get into the spirit of all things cute and kawaii, this is the bag I carried around the Animethon: my popsicle/ice cream/dessert bag adorned with some Totoro keychains I got from the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, buttons courtesy of Oborocharms and my cotton candy amigurumi teddy from last year’s giveaway. I also picked up this absolutely adorable pink dumpling from the Vendor Hall of Animethon- wouldn’t this make a cute amigurumi? I’ll have to keep this in mind for a future project…
The other purchase I made were these kawaii buttons! Food looks so much cuter when they have faces :D I thought these all would make great ideas for future amigurumi too! Animethon was lots of fun, and one day we hope to go to Comic-Con in San Diego….it is definitely on our must-do list!!!
Thanks for joining me as I recounted my highlights of the summer! It’s a great way for me to journal and chronicle what we did over these past few months. I’m currently 33 weeks pregnant now, so our due date is fast approaching! We had our prenatal classes during the last weekend of August, and they were very informative as they taught us everything from breathing and relaxation exercises to swaddling and bathing baby. September is absolutely going to fly by (we will be having a baby shower too- so excited for that!) and then October will be right around the corner. I am very thankful for all of you who have been reading my blog and expressing your support and encouragement throughout the months! I hope you had a great summer too, and let’s look forward to the fall with new adventures ahead!
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Sneak peek of upcoming blog post: my favourite video game character….Link!!! Link original pattern by Becchin, translated by Tanoshimou. Hylian shield, sword and sheath pattern by me :) Full blog post with plenty of pics to come!
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Last week, I blogged about an “Elephant Ballerina” I made for a little girl who was moving overseas with her family. Her older sister’s favourite animal is a hedgehog, and Ana Paula Rimoli’s “Amigurumi World” happened to have a pattern for such a unique animal. In fact, the patterns for the Elephant and the Hedgehog can be found on consecutive pages in the book!
Making the hedgehog was fun because it involved using some new amigurumi techniques. First of all, the body shape of the hedgehog was different than the typical round ball shapes I’ve grown accustomed to making for the teddy bears and bunnies. I also crocheted a round muzzle and sewed it onto the body.
Once I closed up the head, I attached cute mouse-like ears and then arms to the body. At this point, the hedgehog reminded me of the “Naked Mole Rat” from Kim Possible :)
Next came the new part: crocheting on the prickly coat. This was quite the process, but I love how it came out so bumpy and textured.
I find this series of pictures from the front view hilarious! Hedgehog goes from being bald, to having thick sideburns, to having a mullet!
This is what Hedgehog ended up looking like with the completed prickly coat extending further down the face. Deciding where to begin and end each row of the prickly coat required some discernment (e.g. curving upwards around the arm and around each ear along the sides). At first, I crocheted the prickly coat straight across the forehead, but the hedgehog appeared angry and too manly (after all, I was trying to make this hedgehog a girl!). And so, I undid my work and this time crocheted curving upwards in the middle, giving her a softer look. Much cuter now!
Since her younger sister’s Elephant Ballerina had a flower in her hair, I made sure to give this hedgehog a flower as well! The older sister’s favourite colour is actually chartreuse (once again, their vocabulary is extensive!), but I had no chartreuse yarn. Her second favourite colour is magenta, so I used the same colour as the Elephant’s tutu for the flower.
Here she is all ready to give you a hug!
She looks pretty cute with her arms tucked in too.
And one more picture with some pops of colour :)
This is how we packaged the Elephant Ballerina and the Hedgehog for the two sisters:
And here is what the two look like together:
The older sister immediately named the Hedgehog “Chuckla” (such a unique name!) when we presented it to her. Over the weekend, the older sister came up to me and told me that she uses hair scrunchies to give her hedgehog a tutu (in order to match Elephant Ballerina’s tutu). I thought this was such a clever idea since it would be removable (I didn’t want to crochet a permanent tutu around Hedgehog given her prickly coat). Thus, I crocheted around an elastic band (first two rows of single crochets, then {Ch 3, Sc} in each Sc around for third row) using the same fuscia colour. Now, she can wear this in her own hair or use it as Hedgehog’s tutu. Needless to say, she was delighted when I gave this to her!
I don’t have any pictures of Hedgehog wearing the tutu, but hopefully it looks alright! Their parents told us that the girls sleep with their amigurumi stuffies every night. It warms my heart to know that something I made with so much love is being dearly loved in return :)
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Some dear family friends of ours are moving overseas, so I wanted to make some special gifts for their two young daughters. I have watched these girls grow up over the years, and they often remind me of my own sister and I with their playful interactions and collaborative stories they come up with. These sisters are also very crafty, and they absolutely fell in love with my amigurumi and amigurumi books when they paid us a visit. As they flipped through “Amigurumi World” by Ana Paula Rimoli, the younger one squealed with delight as she saw the elephant, stating it was her favourite animal! I knew immediately that I would try and make one for her.
These sisters are very bright with an extensive vocabulary. The younger one told me that her favourite colour is “periwinkle” (so specific compared to the typical responses of “blue” or “red”!), so when I saw a yarn named “periwinkle” at my local crafts store, I quickly picked it up and started crocheting away!
I first started with the trunk. To give the trunk a slightly bent look, we sewed some stitches in the middle together so it would stay bent.
Next I worked on the head, added eyes, and then sewed the trunk to the head.
I then crocheted the rest of her body parts. Notice the line of stitches along her body? This was created by doing single crochets in the back stitches only (leaving the front stitches showing). This is where I attached the tutu as you’ll see later on.
Then I attached the body, the ears, the arms, and a pretty flower! This flower was actually one of the test flowers I made for the girl Spring Bunny (I ended up making the bunny a bigger one).
Next was my favourite part- adding the fuscia tutu! I absolutely adore this colour. My wedding flowers and shoes were also this colour :)
In order to make her tutu wavy, I simply used my fingers to curl certain parts of the tutu up and down.
This is what it looks like after the waving- much more dynamic and fun now!
We cut out these toe shapes from felt and added them to each foot.
Then we attached her legs to her body with one sticking straight down and one going straight back. Here she is doing her arabesque:
And from a few different angles as well:
She is so sweet and cute! When I finished making her, I was reminded of the “heffalumps and woozles” song from Winnie the Pooh where the elephants dance around in tutus!
I had to do one more shot of her in front of my pillow that has the same beautiful fuscia colour!
These sisters take ballet as well, so I knew they’d appreciate the elephant’s tutu. Within minutes of my giving the younger sister this gift, she came up with a name for her: Lucy the Ballerina Elephant. They could not stop smiling :) Stay tuned to see what I made for her older sister!
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