buzzville

Poppy is Here!

Poppy arrived yesterday, dreaming of California sunshine. Unfortunately, we have been getting hit with rain as hard as some of you have been getting hit with snow (this also explains the terrible photos!). Poppy seemed a bit down at first,

but when I told her that Brynne couldn't wait to see her, and that we usually have warm, sunny days, she seemed to perk up a bit.

Other fabulous goodies joined Poppy for the long journey:

awesome bunny sidewalk chalk, an Aranzi Aronzo postcard, a cute little drawstring bag, adorable kawaii stationary and pencil, awesome San-x food stickers, two pieces of wonderful vintage fabric, some vintage heart buttons and a kitty button, and one of the famous pincushions with custom pins! Whew! What a surprise of Wee Wonderfuls goodness! Thanks Hillary! Hopefully this is the first of many goodie swaps!

Erin go Braugh!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day from this very Irish girl! Here's a little four leaf clover soft toy I made for Brynne (and a couple of friends) as her St. Patrick's Day gift:

The fabric is Aunt Grace reproduction vintage fabric, with yellow piping and a vintage button I found at the thrift store. It was the first time I attempted piping, which, not surprisingly, was more difficult than I expected. But, I think it came out pretty well nonetheless.

Beary Loveable

Ok, really bad pun, but I didn't get much sleep last night (Brynne was up from 2am to 4am), so I'm not completely awake. The topic is a little late, but I thought I'd share what I made Brynne for Valentine's Day. I made a little felt bear with a dress and a matching dress for her:

I found the fabric at JoAnn's and fell in love with the print. Unfortunately, the quality was what I probably should have expected - not very good. Here's a close-up of the bear:

and her backside, complete with appliqued felt heart:

I adapted the bear pattern from this Japanese Aranzi Aronzo book:

Brynne seems to like the bear, as it is now a bit more disheveled than when first completed!

Phenomenon: Kawaii

I don't think that many would argue that the Japanese have cornered the market on "cute". In fact, "kawaii" (Japanese for cute) is thought by some to be the most widely used word in the Japanese language. (See this interesting Wired Magazine article for more.) The kawaii invasion is not new to the United States - Sanrio, San-X, Pokemon and many other characters have been very popular for some time. But, the kawaii trend is now firmly taking hold within the American crafting community. What I find particularly interesting is the uniquely American spin applied to the imported aesthetic. It seems that traditional folk art and craft traditions are being integrated with the kawaii look for an end product that is less polished and commercial and shows more of the hand that made it.

Now, I didn't intend for this to be a social anthropology dissertation, so I'll just get to the point of my post - links! Here are some links to American and Japanese sites that I think are particularly fun. I aspire to one day have half the creative genius shown by these folks...

American

• beautiful paper goods from Iomoi
• organic screenprinted goods from Lotta Jansdotter
• too cute stuffed toys, artwork, magnets, etc. from Sewing Stars
• adorable stuffed toys and paintings from My Paper Crane
• who could forget Shawnimals?!?
• vinyl goodness from Queen Bee Creations
• bags and softies from Maria Samuelson
• incredible bears from Jennifer Murphy
• beautifully crafted Peng-Peng Bears
• the amazing Jill Bliss

Japanese

• gorgeous, tiny Anano bears
• incredibly creative amigurumi from Usakichi no Chiisanaomise
• the prolific Aranzi Aronzo
• adorable Decole (where can I get this stuff in the USA???)
• yet more Decole (anyone in Japan want to do a trade???)
• cute amigurumi and zakka at Cupboard (can anyone explain what zakka means?)
• great accessories from Nordic Section
• illustrations by Toshiyuki Fukuda

I know that this list is just a tiny piece of sand at the tip of the iceberg. Please share your favorite kawaii links!

Convergence

Some sort of global karma must be in the air, because in the past month, the new DVD for Alice, Through the Looking Glass was released, the theme for Loobylu's February Month of Softies was to be Alice's Wonderland Revisited, and I signed up for a Craftster Alice in Wonderland swap! Needless to say, Lewis Carroll's classic has been on my mind. So, my plan was to submit a contribution for the Month of Softies that would then go to my Craftster swap partner. After many different subjects were considered, I decided on the White Rabbit because he was one of my swap partners favorite characters.

I am pretty new at making soft toys, and I know how complicated they can be to sew, especially when clothing is also made. So, rather than making the white rabbit in all his finery, as we are first introduced to the character:

I decided instead to make a white rabbit as he is dressed for court:

 

Given this introduction, I would now like to present the White Rabbit:

He is made of white cotton fabric that has a slubbed texture, with pink patterned insets for ears. His ears also have wire inside so as to allow some "poseability". His eyes are vintage pink buttons, with pale pink embroidery for his nose and mouth. His courtroom outfit has appliqued hearts of dotted red and white fabric on a tan background fabric with a dot pattern. He is quite serious because of the courtroom setting, but is very much looking forward to getting to his next scheduled appointment. I hope you enjoy him!