All good things take a leap of faith

2017 has gone by like a flash. It has been a roller coaster year. I lost my job that I had for 9 years. I got a new boyfriend who I love dearly. I also opened an online shop. An online shop has been my dream for many years but I as always too scared to open one as my real job. After loosing my job in October I decided not to look for a new job right away but to start working on my new Rat shop.

I love Rats last year I bought two rats Peaches and Ruby and was in love all over again. I started to sew hammocks for them and decided these were what I was going to make my shop around. I was going to let other rat parents have the cute hammocks that I and my girls love.

Pictures below are my girls.

My baby "Olivia"

My Queen "Peaches"

My chunky Monkey "Ruby"

I know I had an online shop before but this one is totally different. One I am more mature now and more mentally stable. (will talk more on that in another post.) This time I have more knowledge on what I am capable of. I am tempted to open my old shop again but for now I am going to focus on this new I love rats shop. if you want to see it. Go to www.Whiskerwhisper.com

I have much to talk about but for now this will be it. I have tons of ideas I want to blog about and I will finally let myself do them. Until next time Whisker Kisses.

Christmas is here

Well Christmas is here and I have been very busy being sick and making Christmas Presents. Being low on cash but rich in creativity I am making nearly every single gift I am giving this year. I am making everything from treats, toys, hats, and even beauty products. It has been fun. I am thinking I will post all the links of the tutorial, patterns, and recipes I used this Christmas as my present to all of you.

TOYS

Picture property of One Man Crochet

     I will start with the toys, some of the toys I created the patterns from scratch and sadly didn't write them down. I will try and remake them and write them but that sadly will not be until the new year starts. The patterns I didn't create I will now Share. This year for my Nephew I made a little hedgehog toy. This pattern is written is UK terminogy but it isn't hard to translate into American terms. For every DC just is your head make it a SC. That is all Click here for the Hedgehog pattern. Isn't this the cutest little pattern. Only thing I did different it I used a dog slicker brush to make the body of the Hedgehog fuzzy.

Picture property of Robot Trish

     The next one I made for my friends new baby. I love this pattern since it has no hard eyeballs so nothing harmful to the little baby. Click here for the Owl Pattern. The few changes I did was instead of felt I crocheted the brow and the beak so I could sew them very tightly to the owl so it would be more baby safe. This is a real easy pattern to follow and really quick to make.



I also made a mermaid doll and penguins for my nieces. Those are the patterns I created to I do not have a link of pictures to show you at this time sorry.

HATS

I didn't make that many hats this year as I did last year but since the slouchy berets are popular I thought I would make my sister and my friends some of these.

Picture Property of Crochet Spot

     These are really easy to make I threw one together in less them 4 hours which is really nice and it fits my huge head. (got to keep all the knowledge somewhere) but also fit my friends so have more normal size heads as well. Click her for Slouchy Beret Pattern
I didn't do any alternations to this patterns.






Christmas Tree Ornaments

I decided to add to my huge amount I already had on my plate and make all new ornaments for my Christmas tree. I made a whole bunch of goodies for tree all the goodies I sadly was just told by my doctor I had to refrain from eating (silly Triglycerides). I made plum pudding, cupcakes, gingerbread, and gumdrop ornaments.

Picture property of Ana Paula

      These are some of cutest little cupcakes I have made. These are also really easy to make. When I was searching for the patterns I found a few but this one was the easiest. When I was done is was as big as a everyday cupcake. I didn't use beads to decorate the top I just used green and ready yard and stitched long sprinkles on them. Click here for cupcake pattern

Picture property of Planet June

     These had to my favorite of the Ornaments that I had made this year. They turned out so cute I can barely contain  not showing them off. I also want to learn how to makes Plum Puddings to eat. Click here for the Plum Pudding Pattern

Picture Property of Myra Hope

     This are so easy to make and really adorable on my tree. Only thing I didn't different is I went to the Dollar store and picked up some shatter proof ornaments instead of Styrofoam balls. Click here for Gum Drop Tutorial




The Gingerbread men I made I will be making a tutorial for after Christmas so easy and so cute but I need to buy some batteries so I can take pictures of them for all of you to see. :)

That is all I have time for at this moment I will post the treats I made this year as well. Thank you all and Merry Christmas :)

Domestic Otaku

Apple Pie Jam

Well winter is fast approaching  it decided to show itself around a 2 weeks ago with a freak snowstorm that left 6 inches of snow on my car. Thank goodness it melted before Halloween. Those poor trick or treaters would have been frozen stiff. Well this year to prepare for the cold I decided to do some canning. I started to can jams and such last year. This year since I had tons and tons of apples (a gift from my of my favorite co-workers) I was going to make two types of Jam. I made Apple Pie Jam, and Candy Apple Jam. They are both so yummy. Here are the links to the recipes I used. Candy Apple Jam     Apple Pie Jam

Candy Apple Jam

The Apple Pie jam is so good, it really is like spreading on pie on your toast. I did put my apples through the blender though so it didn't have so many chucks, I think it turned out better then having a huge chuck of apple on my toast. I also have come up with a yummy dessert pizza using it. I guess the recipe would also be great for a brunch too. My husband hates pies but loves the Apple pie pizza I made. I will write done how I did it but I am really bad about measuring things so sorry in advanced.

The Candy Apple Jam is delightfully, is taste like Cinnamon Bears but not as spicy.  I am going to have to make another batch of this jam since it so pretty and yummy. I think this one is going to make great Christmas presents this year.


Apple Pie Pizza

Ingredients:

One Prepared Pizza crust (7 inch size) if you want to make it large pizza just use more of everything

2 Small Apples cored and sliced thin

Apple Pie Jam

1/8 cup Oatmeal

1 tsp Brown sugar

1 tsp Sugar

Cream cheese Frosting

Preheat your oven to temp on the Pizza Crust container(425). 

Put thick later of Apple Pie Jam on crust. Layer the thinny sliced apples on the crust. Sprinkle oatmeal, sugar, and brown sugar on the tops of the apples. Place in Oven for 9-12 minutes, or until crust is brown. if the brown sugar isn't melted at this point you can place it in the broiler for a minute. Take out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Pipe frosting on to pizza cut and enjoy.

LInk Cosplay

I finished all my cosplay a week before Anime Banzai. Can i say I am shocked. I even finished my beloved husbands Link cosplay. When you looks at Link you think 'wow he looks easy that won't be hard.'  Okay it wasn't a hard costume but it was time consuming. I had to make so many little things. I made his shield  tunic, shirt, pants, bracers, boot covers, pouch, hat, belt. Okay I realize that list doesn't looks that complicated but I put lots of detail into each piece.  I even crocheted chain mail for the tunic which took me a while to figure out how to do it. Thank goodness I found some easy tutorials. (I think I already posted them in the cosplay tutorial page.) I am very happy with the result and I have to say my husband looks very handsome in his Link Cosplay.

Hey Listen!!!

These two are the only pictures that will download properly, I had fun with these photos in Photoshop. Yeah the picture with Navi I originally really disliked the photo quite a bit. I looks at it and was thinking what in the sam hills is he looking at. Then I put something in for him to look at then I really enjoyed the picture. :) 

I wish I had gotten a good picture of his Bracers I put so much work into etching in details into those things and no one can see it. (sigh) They were still worth it though. I think they look amazing. Yeah I am pleased with the Cosplay and he will probably wear it next year too. He did say he might want to do a Green Army Man but we will see. :)

Costume Season Has Begun

It am excited for this years costume season. I love Cosplay, and this year my husband and I will be doing Link and Fi from Zelda Skyward Sword. I am kind of freaking out a little about Fi's costume but I can do it right, I sure hope I can. If I succeded it making it as cool as I want it to be I will be putting it in the Craftsmanship contest at Anime Banzai. My husband's costume shouldn't be so bad, just have to make so many darn accessories for his. His sword I bought him as an anniversary present, so at least I don't have to worry about that. Still trying to figure out Fi's hair and face.

Well since I have been finding some fun tutorials I thought I would add those to my blog as well since Cosplay brings so much joy into my life. :) Not many understand my insanity but to the few who do, it is a passion and a art form and is hard to not get involved in. I will post progress pictures of my costumes and the super uber cool plushies I am making for the Art Show at Anime Banzai. Yeah for being a geek. :)

Happy Jelly Fish

Watermelon Jelly Fish

I have been obsessed with Jelly Fish for the past little while. I think they are cool and fascinating.  I started Crocheting them for my niece who loves Jelly Fish. She loves to go the aquarium and just stare at them. They have a light that makes them change colors and she loves that. I made her a Jellyfish plushie and she absolutely loved it. She loves when I make her stuff.

My love for Jelly Fish started with an email I got at work. It was called Jelly Fish Bad Day. It was talking about a deep sea welder who got a Jelly Fish down his suit one day at work. The moral of the story is that your day at work can't be as bad as having you butt swell shut because of a Jelly Fish sting, so just tell yourself "I love my job" when things get rough.  I don't know how a story of a jellyfish sting made me like them but they did. My sister-in-law even bought me a Happy Jelly fish  Neacklace that I wear when I need a pick me up. I even watched an Anime called Princess Jellyfish. The anime is what gave me the idea for crocheting them for my niece. Then I went to the Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas on my husband and I's anniversary trip, and saw some stuffed jellyfish there, which helped my modify the pattern I used for the first jelly i made to the pattern I used now. (no I didn't buy one of their plushie I did but a cool Jelly Fish Keychain though)

I started off with some fun variegated yarn, and the plushies started to grow little personalities. Watermelon Jelly loves everything about summer, and so on and so on. yeah I probably should name them more properly but oh well. I love Jellys I hope you do to :)

Pretty Purple Jelly Fish

Purple Majesty Jelly Fish

Rainbow Jelly Fish

Great Idea for Flip Flops

I have a great idea I am want to crochet myself some flip flops. Okay that might sound funny but I think it will be really cute. My mom found a cute tutorial for ruffle flip flops and I thought I would be cool to modify the pattern and make them crocheted. In my opinion it might even be easier to make, but I love crocheting.
Click here for Tutorial that i got the idea from. I will post pictures when i have figured out how they will look.