Month: April 2012

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival; May 5 & 6 2012

Aynaria 3 Comments

It slipped my mind that the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is almost here. I forgot it was the first weekend of May! Whoops…

Many thanks to a fellow food pantry volunteer, Ravelry member, and knitting diva for reminding me. E mentioned it  this past Saturday, while we were volunteering at our local church’s food pantry. She even asked me to tag along, and initially I was planning to do so, until I remembered that this Saturday, I have a servanthood meeting to attend at church, and so my daughter, and I will hopefully meet her there.

I’ve heard rumblings about the event throughout the years; I’m a crafty Marylander, remember? But, honestly,  I didn’t pay too much attention to it, and what the event offered, until I joined Revelry.

From what I’ve been reading on that site, and others,  the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival is a big event.  It will be the 39th annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

Sheep Shearing at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

One event I’m looking forward to is sheep shearing, I was introduced to this craft at an early age. The pastor of the church my family attended had a goat named… Wooly Booger. I vaguely remember him getting sheared at least once per year.

On one of those occasions, I tagged along when the pastor made the trek to a neighbor’s house (I was about six years old) a few miles down the road, to have him sheared. I found it fascinating.

And just as some animals hate to get baths… Wooly wasn’t too fond of this experience! He did look a lot cooler once he emerged without all that hair aka wool, and he bounded off (nick free) to graze on some nearby grass.

Connecting with other crafters

Besides the shearing, it’ll be nice to see a bunch of crafters in one place. Hopefully I’ll see some crafters from the various online places I frequent. Admittedly, I’m not a member of too many crafting communities. I guess I should change that.

Of course, if I attend, I’ll be taking pictures. I’d be a “bad blogger” if I didn’t, right?

 

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival; May 5 & 6 2012

Free Admission

Address

Howard County Fairgrounds

2210 Fairground Road

West Friendship, MD 21794-9604

 

Dates and Time

May 5 & 6, 2012

Saturday 9:00 am – 6:00 pm

Sunday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Crochet amigurumi: Amigurumi balls and amigurumi monsters

Aynaria 7 Comments

Amigurumi Monster 1

Amigurumi monster

Yes, it’s another amigurumi…

I know, I know, lately, I’ve been posting a lot of amigurumi crochet items, but I’m having so much fun!

I’ve finally found my crochet groove, and it’s amigurumi. I’ve mastered the basic stitches, which has helped me tremendously with my amigurumi projects, since (from my research) many amigurumis use basic crochet stitches.

Crocheting Amigurumi, and more…

Although, I’m In love with amigurumi, that hasn’t stopped me from working on other crochet projects…

I’m still working on my Yo-yo afghan, and I’m working on crochet jewelry;  I’ll start posting some of those pieces soon. Admittedly, the bulk of my time has been spent crocheting amigurumi, whether they’re aminekos, or cute little crochet amigurumi balls, I’m having a lot of fun.

Amigurumi balls Monster

Amigurumi balls and monster; work in progress

The above photos shows what I was crocheting; The cranberry ball was actually worked in a spiral. It’s my first time doing spiral crochet, and I must say, I’m pleased with the results. I’m loving the spiral pattern. 

Saturday evening gave me an opportunity to crochet. My daughter and I were watching a Shrek Marathon; four hours, that’s a lot of hours for us, we rarely watch television, but we both like Shrek… and so I got out my yarn and hooks and crocheted amigurumi balls. And my first amigurumi monster!

These are all works in progress, I still have to add faces to the amigurimi balls; most likely they’ll be some type of amigurumi animal.

Originally, I was going to purchase eyes, for my crocheted amigurumi monster, but I’m still on that ‘all crochet kick’ for the amigurumis I’ve been creating. I crocheted the whites of the eye, and embroidered the pupils. French knots were made for the pupils, and I decided the red eye should be looking downwards.

The face was added before it was stuffed with fiberfill. The stitches are more secure since I was able to go into the inside of this amigurumi cavity, with my needle, to strengthen my embellishments.

Currently my amigurumi projects are simple, and I’m fine with that. I want to master crocheting the basic amigurumi shapes, before I tackle challenging projects.

Gaming inspired crochet amigurumi

My long term goal is to turn some of my much loved gaming characters into crochet amigurumi. What you’re seeing now is some of the shapes that I’ll be incorporating into the various characters I create.

For those of you who’ve met me through various games  (in-game, forums or blogs) like World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Halo, Diablo, and Mass Effect, eventually you’ll see some of my favorite characters here, crocheted; of course. I’ve already sketched out designs for some of them…

Crocheted Amineko with amigurumi ball animals

Aynaria 2 Comments

 

Amigurumi ball bear 1

This crochet amigurumi ball, was made last evening. It didn’t take to long to make.

Once the amigurumi ball was complete, I crocheted the ears, and embroidered the eyes, nose, and mouth.

Looking through my stash; I’ll have to purchase single ply yarn, and perhaps some more embroidery floss, felt, and perhaps some eyes too.

Amigurumi ball bear 2

I think it looks like a cute crocheted amigurumi ball bear,  what do you think?

My daughter is insisting it’s a baby amineko.

Amineko Amigurumi ball 1

And she’s already presented Marigold and Mario, their brand-new baby. Just look at the proud parents.

Although I didn’t get a chance to post anything for finished object Friday, I have plenty of finished objects to share, and so most of them will be featured in next Friday. The past few days, I haven’t had time to  crochet Angry Birds, hopefully I’ll be able to do that this weekend. The lone crocheted Red Angry Bird that I made is rather lonely.

Today my daughter and I will be volunteering at our Lutheran churches food pantry; I’ll be bringing my crochet hooks and yarn. Occasionally we have down time, and I want something to keep my hands busy, while I chat with the other volunteers

 

Raw foods: Mango, strawberry, and banana, fruit pudding; vegan

Aynaria 5 Comments

mangoes_05.26.10.jpg

Raw foods have been the only thing I’ve eaten for a few days, and I must say I’m enjoying the break from cooked foods.

The raw food recipe I’ve listed below, is one of my daughter’s favorite raw fruit puddings. She’s been asking me to share this simple raw food dish on Celebrate Life, enjoy!

Raw foods: Mango, strawberry, and banana pudding

  • 1 medium sized mango – cubed
  • 1/2 cup strawberries
  • 2 overly ripe bananas

Directions

  1. Add all ingredients to a food processor
  2. Blend until smooth
  3. Enjoy

Raw foods: Keeping it simple

I’m a big fan of simplicity; you don’t need a lot of ingredients to make this raw food meal taste great. It’s incredibly simple to make; but it’s delicious and healthy.

The great thing about this, and many dishes I prepare. You can swap the ingredients. Don’t have mango, add an apple, or some other fruit you like. Choose what you like. To add additional nutrients, you could add a one leaf of a dark leafy green (kale or collards). I’ve also added carrots, and other vegetables to my raw fruit puddings.

As an infant, my daughter’s first foods were pureed in my Kitchen Aid food processor. She loved pureed vegetables and fruit. For those who’re not fond of vegetables, adding them to your raw fruit puddings, raw smoothies, or raw juices, is a great way to sneak in the numerous benefits of vegetables, without the taste that some might not like. Because of the sweetness of the fruit, it masks the taste of the vegetables.

The fruit in the raw fruit puddings, masks the taste of vegetables, which is perfect for those who might not like the taste of vegetables.  Vegetables aren’t an issue for my daughter and me since we love numerous varieties; raw and cooked. We also love our raw fruit puddings.

The jokes on me; failed plan

Aynaria 1 Comment

It was a big day for my daughter’s class; they were visiting the Baltimore Zoo.

My daughter has talked about the trip for weeks, and as the day drew closer, so did her anticipation. The night prior to the big day, she informed me she was too excited to sleep. She talked about how she was going to spend the remaining hours before the trip. I nixed those plans, and told her she was going to bed at the regular time. She wasn’t too happy with that.

Daughter friends 1

My daughter (teal jacket) strolling along with her best friend; Best friend’s mom is ahead of them.

While hanging out with the other parents that were attending, I stated that my goal was to wear out my daughter so she’d be knocked out by evening time, a few commented that they were hoping for this too.

Somewhere along the way as we trekked through the Baltimore Zoo, that plan failed, well at least for our little group, and judging by the wiped out expression on many of the adult faces as we boarded the bus that took us back to school; it failed for others too.

A friend, who’s the mom of my daughters best friend, joined my daughter, and me. We power-walked for about three hours around the Baltimore Zoo; flat surface, hills, whatever the obstacle we did them… it was a great workout but we paid for that.

I wore the wrong shoes. They were tennis shoes, but those shoes obviously weren’t made for long treks. My feet would have been happier in the hiking shoes I’d initially planned on wearing, before I opted for my tennis shoes. At least I wasn’t the only one who made that mistake. My friend faced the same aches and pains.

Isaiah 11:6

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.

Baltimore Zoo Lion

In the zoo, the Baltimore zoo, the lion’s alert today…

A few seconds before I took this picture… The male lion strolled over to the lioness and started grooming her. I thought it was sweet, moments later she walked away, and posed on this rock. I took the picture.

On our way home, my daughter said…

“Mommy, I feel sad for the animals, they should be out in the wild roaming around. They don’t have a lot of space to run around at the zoo, so they can’t do all the things they’ve been designed to do.

For the most part, I agree with her, although I never shared those thoughts with her; sometimes I want her to observe and hear what she has to say, without my input. We talked about this topic for a bit, I told her some of the animals brought here are damaged, and this is a way that some of them are ‘saved’, since they wouldn’t survive in the wild.

While at the zoo, we met a gorgeous American kestrel that fit in this category. It had a damaged wing, and could no longer fly. If it were free, I told her it wouldn’t last long in the wild. But in captivity, it was given a second chance, and the fact that she couldn’t fly, didn’t stop her from trying.

At the zoo, a bird trainer, was given a brief introduction to kestrels, their amazing speed, along with additional traits. She had that bird with her. Kestrels have always fascinated me, and I’ve read a lot about them throughout the years. Tiny compared to some of the larger birds, but swift, and deadly; they eat other birds.

Regardless of the failed attempt to wear out the children, I think it’s safe to say that the adults had as much fun as the children. 

My daughter did have a good laugh when I told her about my failed plan. “I ache so much it hurts to crochet!”, I said, but I still picked up my crochet hook and made a few more crochet bookmarks for my daughter’s third-grade class.

Being neighborly; azalea bush

Aynaria 2 Comments

Azalea Bush 1 04 25 12

 

Psalm 8:3

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

Yesterday, when I getting ready to go to my daughter’s school, my neighbor beckoned me over to where he was standing…

He had his phone in hand, and asked if I could take a picture of his azalea bush.

Neighbor: “I don’t know anything about these technology gadgets, Opal… but I know you do” Can you help me?”

Me: Sure, I said I took his phone…

His cellular phone is an older model; definitely not a smart phone; but it was fairly easy for me to figure out how the camera worked, and so I snapped photos of his lovely azalea bush. He stepped into a few of those pictures. While taking the photo, he told me that this azalea bush is over fifty years old. It was given to him by his father. His father has been dead for at least twenty-five years.

The above photo wasn’t taken with his camera; I used my Nikon D80. While taking the pictures with his phone, I noticed the camera wasn’t taking great pictures, and I told him I’d come back later, if he liked, and take additional pictures with my Nikon D80. He accepted; this is one of the numerous shots I took.

It’s hard not to miss this bush; it’s gorgeous and this azalea bush is something I look forward to seeing every Spring; so it’s nice to have a photo.

Later today, I’ll load them onto a disc and give it to him, that way he can get them developed if he chooses to do so.

Celebrate Life is Paying it Forward; Handmade

Aynaria 7 Comments

Handmade logo

A few weeks ago, I started thinking about rewarding  a few readers here at Celebrate Life with some of the handmade items I create.

In my down time my hands stay busy creating; handmade soaps, jewelry, perfumes, body butters, lotions, and cards. It’s not the complete list of things I hand craft, but you get the idea. I love making things!

Recently, I’ve been keeping my hands occupied. It’s so much fun, and dare I say I enjoy it more than knitting; although I like that too. Admittedly, it could be the newness that’s appealing to me. Even with the flurry of crochet objects, I’m still making other handmade crafts.

Pay it forward Handmade

Many thanks to the talented Kathleen, for moving me into action to Pay it Forward handmade.

I’m really thrilled to be part of this, since I enjoy creating things with my hands, as can be witnessed on my site. Thus far, most of the handmade items I’ve made have been for others, such as the numerous crocheted aminekos I’ve created, or even the machine sewn quilts I’ve helped create; so this is perfect.

Pay it Forward handmade 2012 requirements

  1. I will send a gift to the first three commenters on this post. The gift will be handmade by me.  It will be sent sometime in the next 365 days. It will be a surprise. Live outside the USA, no problem! I’ll send items international too. 
  2. To sign up and receive a gift, you have to play along, too. Pay it Forward on your blog by promising to make a surprise for the first three people who comment on the post.
  3. You must have a personal blog. If you’re new, I’ll be following you so I can get an idea of what you might like, deal?  
  4. After commenting here, please post within 48 hours, on your site that you’re participating on your site, and link back to here.  If not, I’ll choose the next person who comments. 

If you’d like to participate leave a comment, and don’t forget the requirements.