Steamed Packages

I had the opportunity to learn how to make won tons from my friend Cindy.  These are so delicious I had to share the recipe.  Well, there are some spices I cannot divulge, but I'm sure with some experimentation you'll be able to make your own version by using this video as a guideline.

I'm Not Sorry

You can apologize for harming, for stealing, for misguidance, but never apologize for your imagination.  Its product might be odd or misunderstood, even flawed according to other people's judgement, but if you made it and put your heart and soul into it, apologies should never be a by-product of what you've created.  I'm not sorry if they don't like it

Once an Imperfect head

Now with a Crystal body

Bestowed with an Aloe Fascinator

Dragon's Blood oozes from her head

Lucky she has good Drainage

From Vice To Nice

Whoa, I've been drinking way too much wine lately.  My habit was amounting to $75 a month down the hatch!  I needed to change this expensive vice into something nice...

I also wanted to mention that I'm the only one in my household who likes cilantro.  Under this glass dome (once a wine glass) are some cilantro seedlings... just for me.

Things displayed behind glass just seem so much more appealing.  Like gummy vitamins:

These are the materials and tools needed for the project:

Tapered saw, a candle, ice, a wooden drawer knob, a pocket knife and a strong clear-drying adhesive, like E6000, paint (not shown).

STEP 1:  Use the tapered saw to score around the stem a quarter of an inch away from the bowl of the goblet.

STEP 2:  Rotate the wineglass just above the flame of the candle to heat the scored area.  Do not place the stem directly on the flame.

STEP 3:  Ice the scored area, and repeat the heating and cooling process until the glass breaks.

STEP 4:  Use the pocket knife to bore a hole just wide enough to fit the stem.

STEP 5:  Paint the knob before gluing it to the dome.
STEP 6:  Place the adhesive in the knob and attach to the dome.  Let this cure for at least 24 hours.

Oddly Natural

On this Earth Day, I hope you take time to enjoy nature and its little oddities, like beakless birds crocheted in cotton or hemp:

or mushrooms in sisal rope:

or pineapples in jute:

Jute is a great fiber to use for creating planters.  Not only is it safe for the plants, it has antibacterial properties.  Here are instructions on how to make these little pineapples:

HOOK: I
FIBER:  Lightweight jute twine (typically found in hardware stores)
Potting Soil, Platt's Black plant (sometimes this is called Brass Buttons)

PATTERN:
Abbreviations:
ST or st = stitch
CH = Chain
SC = Single Crochet
SL ST = Slip Stitch
DC = Double Crochet
DC2tog = 2 DC together
SC2tog = 2 SC together

ROUND1: Magic Circle 8 SC (8)
For each round, join the last and first st with a SL ST and CH1 from this point on
ROUND2: 2DC in each st (16)
ROUND3: (1DC in next 3 st, 2DC in next st) 4 times (20)
ROUND4: (1DC in next 3 st, DC2tog) 4 times (16)
ROUND5: (1SC in next st, SC2tog) 5 times, 1SC in last st (11)
ROUND6: SL ST around (11), fasten off and weave the end in

Pack with enough potting soil to fill one-third of the way, then insert the plant.
 
Use an eye-dropper to water the plant from overhead.  Brass Buttons like to be in moist soil, and they will not be very forgiving if you let the soil dry out.  This is why they can handle the humidity in a closed terrarium.

Maybe this will inspire you to make your own world of oddities:

Unconventional Eggs

I'm going crazy over egg cozies!  Unsatisfied with chickens, I dove into the sea: first a squid and then an angler.  The most difficult part was figuring out how to portray the angler's crazy teeth -- yarn just didn't cut it, so I toyed around with florist wire.  Here are a few snap shots of these characters hanging out on my dining table

Cough, Heave, Moan, Repeat

Did you think I died?  There was a point when I thought I was going to, but I'm being overly dramatic.  Four weeks ago, I sat in a daze on my way to a temp job in The City.  My light-headedness wasn't on account of the stuffy air in the subway.  I knew I was coming down with something when I couldn't even give up my senior/handicapped seat to an elderly woman entering the train.  Seriously, everything hurt, and it amazed me that I got through the day.  Dinner was a cup of Thera-Flu and for the next days and nights all everyone in our home could hear was my constant coughing, heaving and moaning.  I'll never know what caused my month-long nightmare and I don't even think the doctors knew.  First the doctor said it was a bacteria (strep), and after a week of finishing the prescribed antibiotics another doctor said it was a virus (bronchitis).  My faith in doctors weighs less than an amoeba.

Anyway, enough about me.  This is, after all, a toys-and-crafts blog.  Here are some of the latest toys I've coughed up (don't worry, phlegm was not added -- these were created long after the virus ran its course)...

Have you seen the movie yet?

Here's an easy way to decorate an egg with a single color of medium worsted weight yarn.  It's the basic shape for the Lorax, bunny, red bird and pink piggy.  Then you can embellish with felt, beads or buttons.

Use a F-Hook and work in the round....

Round1:  Magic Circle 6SC (6)

Round2:  (1SC, 2SC) 3 times (9)

Round3: (1SC, 1SC, 2SC)3 times (12)

Round4: (1SC, 1SC, 2SC)4 times (16)

Round5: (1SC, 1SC, 1SC, 2SC)4 times (20)

Round6: (1SC, 1SC, 1SC, 2SC)5 times (25)

Rounds7-10:  SC around (25)

Round11: (1SC, 1SC, 1SC, SC2tog)5 times (20)
Rounds12-14: SC around (20)

Round15: sl st around (20)

Fasten off, weave ends in and decorate.

A Bag With Purpose

I found this duck drowning in a pool of its own kind at a wholesaler.  He wasn't displayed, just jumbled in an open box with his flock and foam peanuts.  I had to take him home with me and give him some purpose.  Everyone likes to feel they're meant to do something, right?  I crocheted him a little jute bag and assigned him the task of taking care of a sedum rubrotinctum (sometimes called jelly beans, but they're not edible).  It should be an easy task -- the plant doesn't need water for another month. 

If you'd like to give purpose to something you've recently adopted, here's how to make a Bag With Purpose.

Materials:
An Adopted Figurine
Jute Twine
Florist Wire
F - Hook
Needle-nosed Pliers
Scissors

Crochet Pattern:
CH3
Beginning with first CH, 2SC in each CH (6)
(1SC, 2SC) 3 times (9)
Working only in the back loops from this point on
(1SC, 1SC, 2SC) 3 times (12)
(1SC, 1SC, 1SC, 2SC) 3 times (15)
HDC even (15)
(DC, DC, 2DCtog) 3 times, DC, 2DCtog (11)
CH 15 -17 depending on how low the bag is to hang
Fasten off

The Clasp:
Measure out approximately 5 inches of florist wire, and bend to make a U shape

Weave the ends of the wire through the last CH

Wrap the last CH with one end of the wire twice over, and again with the other end of the wire.

Each end should have just enough slack to tuck under the CH.

Pull the end of the jute twine back, tuck the wires under the CH and over the end of the jute twine so it's kept in place.  Cut off any excess of the jute twine.

This is the completed clasp:

Bend the clasp around one of the DC loops to secure the bag around the figurine.

Add dirt and a plant of your choice.  Of course, I'd recommend a no-hassle succulent plant, like sedum.  I'm still searching for the right plant for Froggy.