Squirtle – Amigurumi #8

Here’s my take on Squirtle. I have blue and orange left over, so I guess that means Charmander and Bulbasaur will appear soon.

Squirtle is blue, and I’ve been feeling a little blue lately. Looking at this Squirtle, I remember the first Squirtle I made, back when I was beginning to attempt more complicated amis. It started with a Google search for Super Mario mushroom patterns, and ended with a bookmark on a really awesome blog full of patterns I knew I wanted to try. There will be a link at the end. I highly recommend checking out that blog for more Pokemon patterns!

Beneath the story of Squirtle is the story of someone dear to me. I was going to tell the story of how I lost him in the mountains, but there’s no use dwelling on that; it will only interfere with my mission to make the world plush. Instead, let’s talk about the happier times, the silliness, and just the overall feel-good memories. For extra plush-ness, we’ll reenact the scenes with Squirtle and the ceramic Pikachu he gave me, as thanks . We’ll call the friend Squirt.

 

Squirt and Pika

You know that one friend who you always look forward to seeing? They could be any gender, and even if they are your preferred gender they’re the last person you’d want to date. And yet you feel so excited when you see them, or know that you’re going to see them.

That was how I’d best sum up how I felt about Squirt. We met out of the blue; literally, if you consider the fact that the Facebook logo is blue. And by met on Facebook, I mean he added me, I looked at his pics to see if I did indeed recognize him, and when I did recognize him as some dude in my classes, I accepted. We immediately got along, so much so that I declared him my “hug buddy” the day we first met offline. That was the same day I ran out of my house looking like MagiKARP, so I left the room for a moment to brush my hair. When I came back, Squirt was waving to me, but I didn’t realize he was waving to me. Hurp. We hugged it off. And so began my first huggle buddy.

 

Sensitive Squirt

One late night, some jerkface broke my heart. Squirt was the second person to find out. While I was waiting for the train, Squirt called me just to see if I was okay. He started making Pokemon noises, including “Squirtle! Squirt!” I laughed, and he said, “there, you’re smiling, that’s much better. :D” When I got home, he Skype called just to keep company, and even let me cry a bit more. He sent me the song, Don’t Wake Me by Skillet. (No, not Skrillex!) They’re currently one of my favourite bands, but I don’t like that song because of the negative memories associated with it. As a matter of fact, Squirt saw me through two different breakups. When someone’s still around and supports you, even when you’re at your lowest, you know that they’re worth keeping in your life.

Squirt Advice

What I admired most about Squirt was how he would always make time to listen to your problems, even though he had so many of his own. I was worried when another friend didn’t show up to class. I knew they’d been suffering a lot lately, so I was so upset and worried that the worst had happened. Squirt reassured me that everything was going to be okay; everyone is different, everyone handles sadness in their own way. Just because someone in their family had resorted to the worst, doesn’t mean they would follow suit. I guess Squirt had a better understanding of how these things work…

You could say that he was a rant receiver. Even if he had no idea who they were, he’d always listen when somebody made you upset. When jerkface broke up with yet ANOTHER girl, (who he’d moved on to shortly after breaking my heart) Squirt met that with an eyeroll and “oh yes, because I’m sure his options are sooo overwhelming.” Just goes to show that you don’t always need to have any life-changing advice. Many times, simply supporting your friend’s opinion and letting them vent is enough.

 

Squirt didn’t like poutine

About a year ago, a bunch of us gaim doevs went to Montreal for MIGS, and for dinner Squirt just got plain fries. IN MONTREAL. Who visits Montreal, or anywhere in Quebec for that matter, and DOESN’T EAT POUTINE at least once?! Squirt does, apparently! Of course if you asked him about it, he probably wouldn’t remember because he was drunk AF. Oh yeah, he was often drunk or high AF. The next morning, he left the opening conference ten times just to go throw up. I knew why he did those things, but it didn’t stop me from worrying. Whenever AyAyRon said Squirt wasn’t doing to well, my heart would break a little. I can’t quite describe the feelings for Squirt without giving the wrong idea. It was love, I know that, but not the romantic type. Au contraire, the thought of smexytimes with him felt weird. It was almost as though I were thinking of a brother, or another close family member. That’s the case with many of my doevs, despite what some of them with outrageous egos would have you believe.

……Pika? (……seriously?)

Squirt got Lost in the Mountains

In the winter, Squirt went on a trip into the mountains. Meanwhile, I made a special chocolates for my doevs, including him, and waited for my huggle buddy to come back home, so I could give him a big hug, and the chocolate. Let’s just say… Squirt came back, but my huggle buddy didn’t.

I’ve decided not to put Squirt’s picture here. I wanted to, because it’s my favourite picture of him; you can’t tell because of the quality, but he has very big, very blue “smiling” eyes. He looked so happy to receive the Squirtle doll. At the time, that was the most I’d everseen him smile. The picture was taken the night we had a final exam, and he brought Squirtle into the room with him. It was so cute. :3 I hope Squirtle will continue to help make his world plush.

 

Squirt, in the odd chance you’re sober enough to be reading this – I miss you, huggle buddy. I’m sorry if I acted weird around your lady, and I hope I’ll see you around campus this coming year. Maybe you won’t have to walk away from me this time. Hug.

 

Well, that was a load off. It feels good to type out how you’re feeling. Even better, I now have a cute Squirtle companion for the ceramic Pikachu that Squirt gave me, as thanks for his Squirtle plushie. I may not have been able to hold on to my Squirt huggle buddy, but at least Pika can hold on to Squirtle.

Baby Squirtle was made by me. Pattern for the other Squirtle in the above pic can be found at Wolfdreamer Off The Hook.

 

Squirtle is now on deviantART, along with other plushie endeavors.

Want a Squirtle of your own? Drop me a line on Etsy!

Do you have a special friend you miss right now? Comment below.

Pika, so happy~

Super Mario Mushroom Earrings – Amigurumi #7

August sure is a dry spell for creativity. All I can think of is going out and having fun, instead of sitting at home and doing crafts. It’s also very surreal to return to school knowing that most of your old classmates won’t be around.

I hope Mr. Drippy is on his way to his new home by now. The post office didn’t include tracking, (though they would have… for +$60) so there’s no way for me or the customer to track his progress. It’s been a week, and the lady at the post office said to give it 3 – 5 weeks to arrive. Man, selling plushies over Etsy is a lot more stressful than I thought.

Maybe thinking of nice things will help. Earrings are nice. This week shall be round 2 of earrings.

These were the first mushroom earrings I made, back in second year. There was a lot of emotional stress going on, and I needed a change of pace in some way. Making things is a great way to blow off steam. If you don’t have a hobby already, I highly recommend a creative outlet like this. Especially hobbies that involve the use of pointed objects.

From classmates to restaurant waiters, I’ve gotten compliments for these earrings left and right! The first few came from classmates, many of whom became some of my favourite boys. And then came times when I was running to catch a bus, only to have a stranger stop and compliment the earrings. I once said to a friend’s father, while visiting said friend’s home for dinner one wintry night, “sir, these are the earrings your son fell in love with!”

As I’ve probably mentioned in my pokéball earring post, the problem with these earrings is that they’re quite bulky and heavy for my poor ears. Sometimes when wearing them, I feel the weight pulling down my poor ears. I’m not too keen on stretching my earlobes, so I had to make a modified version:

Top: First mushroom earrings, size comparison to the new ones.

In case you can’t tell, the new mushrooms were made alongside the Pokéball earrings way back when. I know, it took a couple years. As a matter of fact, these new mushrooms were made with a modified version of the Pokéball earrings; I changed up the bottom so that they would sit flat, rather than mush up like the old ones.

I forgot to write notes for the big mushrooms, so it doesn’t look like we’ll see a recreation of those ever again. *sigh* I plan to have the mini mushrooms in my shop within the coming week.

For the sake of comfort, I prefer the smaller mushrooms because my hair and backpack don’t get tangled in them as much. They aren’t stuffed with fiberfill either, which leaves them light. However, the bigger ones have all the sweet memories. They are my way of showing that even though some bad things happened to me, I won’t let them ruin my future. And they look super adorable on ginger legs.

Iz mashram.

Hm… I think that sort of worked. Though it didn’t help the writer’s block I’ve been experiencing.

Do you prefer big mushroom earrings, or smaller ones? Comment below!

Pika, so happy~

KK Slider – Amigurumi #6

Guess who made their first sale on Etsy?

Me—> 😀 <— This one!

But sheep on the farm, that shipping cost and time it takes… I don’t think I’ll be shipping outside Canada/US again for a while. Sorry world. 😦 On the plus side, at least we can continue to make the world plush here, right? That’s the joy of this blog – it’s FREE! Free to write, free to read, and free to share. Smile – the world can’t become plush with frowns. 😀

I’ve been inspired to finally finish this plushie. Remember East, the Kirby guy? Well, this was requested by his girlfriend, who we’ll call the Lady of the East.

Boo!

This original KK doll was made from a pattern courtesy of Vivi at Philae Arts. No, this isn’t a plug, I just really like her work. I improvised the guitar myself, since her pattern didn’t have one. I also made the arms and legs longer so he could hold said guitar. Poor KK suffered “featureless-ness” just like Mr. Drippy, where I didn’t add the details until now.

I’m blind! AAAAAH!

What to say about KK Slider… well, my baby bro and I had a grand time playing City Folk when it came out back in 2008. Which reminds me, that was also the year of … SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL! To think it’s already been 6 years since then, and now the new one’s due this Fall… You know, it kinda bugs me that Zelda and Sheik are separate characters now. I mean, the fun of playing as them was to have two characters in one. And splitting up Samus and Zero Suit Samus? How’s ZS’s final smash going to work now?

Click image for source

… ahem, sorry, went a little off-topic there. Anyway, KK can play in the background of the Animal Crossing stage, which I’m sure we’ll see more of now that the AC Villager’s been added. I hope the Lady of the East will enjoy KK as much as her sweetheart enjoyed Kirby. :3 Hm… Kirby. KK Slider. Two K’s of love~ Or 3, if you count both Ks in KK.

East is a silly guy sometimes. Feels kinda blah that I won’t see him much this semester. He’s a bit of a bully too, reminding me of things I’ve been missing as of late. ;w; What are those things? Sorry internet, I don’t think we know each other well enough to discuss that just yet. I’ll ask East for a pic of Kirby and KK together when this gets out to him.

Short post this week, what with it being the last week of summer school. Now, it’s time to decide what to make next. I know the blog changed specifically to handle other DIYs and crafts besides plushies, but it felt strange doing two DIY posts in a row. Perhaps the next plushies will be Smash Bros. related…

East and Lady, if you’re reading this… Hi. 🙂

 

Questions, Concerns, Requests, Favourite KK Slider song? Comment below!

Wee wah, ohh baa wee~

 

Click here for the original pattern. (KK only)

Oh yeah, this deviantART account is also a thing. Yeah.

Homemade Coffee Jello – Dessert Days #2

Remember when this blog was still called Plushies by Valerie? Of course you do, it was only a month ago. Oh wait, no, you don’t, since no one reads these things. *sigh* Red Fairy, why must you curse me with such foul moods?

I don’t know what it was about K. Even though we didn’t know each other long, or spend much time together, I can’t stop thinking of him. Kitty says that’s because K left a good impression. 🙂 I’ve kept from texting him lately, so he doesn’t think I’m some Overly Attached Potential Ex-Girlfriend or something. I made this for K back in June, and he seemed so happy. I wonder if talking this out here will help…

This idea came from this Cooking with Dog video. Francis the dog is so puffy I’m gonna die. >w<

 

Coffee Jello – Val’s Version

Unlike Chef, I used instant coffee. But not just any coffee; this was coffee that my dad asked my uncle to send from Africa. It’s much finer (it’s literally powder) than the Maxwell House kind we buy, and it also has a stronger taste.

First, I divided the gelatin packet into two, as evenly as possible. I used Knox gelatin, which comes in 15 gram packets. According to the instructions, 1 packet sets 2 cups. Therefore, I used half the powder to set the first cup of coffee, which I made black with 2 sugar. (The way my dad usually makes his coffee)

I poured the coffee into two dessert dishes and let it chill until firm, but not fully set. This took about 20 minutes. *Tip: if your bottom layer of jello is still warm and unsettled, it may melt the top layer and ruin the entire thing. However, you still want the bottom layer to be a little soft, so that the layers fuse together properly. Be patient!

Then, I made a second cup of coffee, but this time I made it my way, by adding creamer:

The cream of the crop of all creamers.

Before you ask, no this creamer does not contain alcohol. 😛

Once the black coffee layer was firm, I poured this new layer on top, and let everything set overnight.

After that, it’s just a matter of making one layer of whipped topping, sprinkling with whatever you like on a latte (I used cocoa) and serving one of the bowls to that special someone.

*Tip: If you’re making the whipped topping from a powder, use a splash of the same creamer for the flavouring.

For best results, enjoy with panda food. 🙂

Before this, I tried making the jelly similar to the original recipe. I used less sugar so the coffee jelly would be stronger, and poured in a mix of milk and creamer:

It’s like soup, dessert, and coffee… all in one course!

*Tip: don’t watch cooking videos when you’re hungry. x_x

 

*sigh* I really should prepare blogs in advance, for when I’m not in such a happy state. Bad moods entail remembering sad memories and “what if” scenarios. I was hoping this week’s post would be about the awesome headband I’d been longing to make, but duplicate stitching on garter stitch is harder than it looks. *sigh* May have to do it the old fashioned way. Meh, not like I go out much in the summer; where else do you think I get all these DIY motivations? 😛

Anyway, this dessert is great after a good meal. Maybe as a date idea, you can have dinner, and then come home to enjoy this dessert/coffee in comfort.

Here is the inspirational video again. I recommend checking out the entire channel; everything looks sooooo yummy!

Does this dessert sound tasty? Have you tried this, or similar recipes? Do you want a doggy like Francis?Comment below!

Pika, so happy~

Two T-Shirts into Dress – DIY #3

As a stereotypical female, I know the feel of opening an overflowing closet and deciding, “there’s nothing to wear…” And when it comes to choosing things to donate or throw away, this video is the story of my life. So when digging through the closet once again, I decide that this time I would actually use some of my old clothes for a DIY project. Summer’s on, but I don’t have many “casual” dresses for school or every day wear. And so, this happened. I might cut out the neck though, the closed neck looks a bit stuffy. This will be the first sewing blog here on Val Crafts.

Now let’s proceed to turn two dumpy looking T-shirts, into a cute dress/shrug combo!

Materials

2 T-Shirts

Scissors (I recommend fabric scissors)

Sewing pins

Matching thread

Sewing machine

Fray preventing sealant (optional, if you don’t feel like hemming)

Directions

Bodice of the dress

Choose which t-shirt you want for the top of your dress. Flip it inside out, and put it on. (I chose the V-neck shirt)

Making the shirt more fitted:

I wanted the shirt to be more fitted, so I took in the sides just a little bit. Try not to take in too much, otherwise it will be too tight to put on. Your best bet would be to pinch at the side seams. Press the joint of your thumb at the seam, and make a mark at the tip. Draw a line from here to about where your bust begins.

Flip the shirt in half and copy the markings on the other side.

Sew along the lines you’ve created. Sew loosely so that you can rip out the seams if you make a mistake.

Put on the shirt again. If you’re happy with the fit, trim off the excess. Yes, it will be bulky on top! We’re going to take care of that next.

Fitting the sleeves.

Let’s make this a sleeveless dress. While still wearing the shirt inside out, mark on your shoulders where you want the armhole to be. Cut off the sleeves in a curve toward the “underarm” seam. (Where the sleeve and side of the shirt connect.) Try to follow the existent sleeve seam, and snip exactly under the underarm seam. Hem the sleeves.

My bodice is ready!

Make adjustments to the sides as necessary. I pinched the corners closed to create a new armpit seam, and sewed it down.

I left my bodice with the neck intact. If you want a more summery look, cut out the neck . Hem or use anti-fray gel to keep it looking neat.

Attaching the skirt

This will be much easier. While wearing your new bodice, place the second T-shirt against the bottom of the bodice, as though creating a skirt. Adjust it until the skirt is as long as you’d like it to be. I made mine a bit longer so I could wear it with or without leggings.

First, cut the shirt horizontally, leaving about an inch (2.5 cm) below the sleeves:

Attach the skirt as follows:

1. Make sure the bodice is inside out, and the skirt is right side out.

2. Turn the skirt upside down and put the bodice into it.

3. Find the side seams of the shirts. Align and pin them together. Do the same for the other seams

4. Hold the pinned seams together and fold the shirts in half again. Pin these new edges together to attach the skirt.

5. Repeat the process around. You should have a total of 8 pins.

6. Sew along the natural seam at the bottom of the shirts. If you get to a loose, unpinned portion, pinch and flatten them as you sew.

*If you’re having trouble attaching the skirt, refer to this pleated skirt tutorial.

Now, flip everything right side out, and something resembling a dress of sorts should magically appear.

Now you’re probably wondering, “but what will I do with the leftover shirt?” Easy – make a shrug to match! Cut down the middle of the remaining shirt, and voila~

Here is the finished project:

From left to right: without shrug, with shrug, full outfit

And there you have it, I’ve given you a new outfit idea and saved you a hanger. And now, you have an outfit for just hanging out and playing video games (or “vidya gaims” as we call it) with your friends. I now have an idea for Oreo Day! 🙂 What’s Oreo Day? Well, you’ll have to wait and find out. 🙂

Questions? Concerns? Suggestions for improvement? Comment below!

Pika, so happy~