"Amigurumi What?" Learn a New Craft & Meet Molly Dolly!!

Here's a fun little lesson on my very favorite hobby....Crochet!

Amigurumi: knitted or crocheted stuffed toys.  This word is made up of a combination of two Japanese words, ami (meaning to knit or crochet) and nuigurumi (meaning stuffed doll).  Honestly I don't know how the word stuck here in America.  I couldn't pronounce it for years and finally just picked a pronunciation that made me stutter the least...(ah-mee-goo-roo-mi).  Go ahead and give it a try...out loud...no one is listening...it's kinda fun to say actually.  Good, now when you talk to someone about amigurumi you will sound like a pro (cause I'm sure crochet comes up in most of your daily conversations, right?).  Well, it is the word most commonly used for these cute cuddly crochet creatures with big heads and wide set eyes.  I first learned to crochet amigurumi by taking Stacey Trock's "Amigurumi: Design Your Own Monster" class on Craftsy.  She teaches you the basics of making amigurumi so you can branch off and create pretty much anything you want with crochet.  It's a great class & I highly recommend it if you are interested in trying out this really fun craft.  Now I'm going to show you my first amigurumi doll (I think you are going to love her!)!!

Meet Molly Dolly, my first amigurumi doll. :)  

I made Molly Dolly for my daughter, Molly (hmmm, go figure) and she Loved her!  My goal for Molly Dolly was to add a bunch of details that will make her look and feel more "real".  She still has the proportions of an amigurumi doll (really just the big head and wide set eyes) but she also has eyelashes, puffy cheeks, a waist, her arms move, she has hands with fingers, and she has little defined knees.  I tried giving her ankles and little feet but as you can see I didn't make her legs long enough so she ended up with cankles (sorry about that Molly Dolly!).

I learned how to attach Molly Dolly's arms and make her hands with fingers from Sharon Ojala on You Tube.  I really like the arms attached this way because they move around a lot and I think the shoulders look so cute.  They definitely need to be tightened and knotted more than you think because they tend to loosen up each time they are played with.  I don't know if I will make hands with fingers again...it was a lot of work and I don't think the payoff was that great.  Don't they look kinda stubby and big to you?

Molly's hair was made by making a wig cap and attaching strands of hair to the cap.  I'm on the lookout for a better method of making amigurumi doll hair.  I really like the the "BB Doll's" hair ideas on "AmigurumiBB's blog".  I might try one of these styles for my next doll.  The cap took so long to make (essentially you are making half the head again) and then the attached hair was too thick.  As I tried to thin the hair out it just looked like she grew bald spots on her head.  Grrrr, frustrating!

Molly Dolly's dress is removable too!  I did this in hopes of creating different outfits that Molly could dress her up in.  I love the way the dress turned out and it was SO easy to make!

I didn't write a pattern for Molly Dolly since she was my first one (I was just trying to muddle through the design process).  But I love how she turned out so I am going to try again and fix the little parts that didn't work out exactly as I planned.  I'll get that pattern down to share with you guys for sure.  If you are interested in the pattern please follow my blog so that you get the update when I do post the pattern. :)

I'd love to hear what you think about her and any ideas on what I can improve on for round 2!

Exploring with Ms. Cortez

The Trip

Last month we were lucky enough to take my in-law's recently fixed up 1974 Cortez motor-home out for her maiden voyage (can you say that for motor-homes or is that only for ships?).  Our destination was Morro Bay where we parked Ms. Cortez at the Morro Strand RV park.  I've never stayed in an RV park (that I can remember anyway) so I'd say this place was pretty nice.  They had good facilities and full hook-ups at a reasonable price. As we are pulling in to Morro Bay and the kids had the windows open in the back.  I heard them breath in deeply and say "Ahhh, smell that ocean air!"  I took their advice, opened my side window, stuck my head out and breathed in deeply...Wow.  The downside of Morro Strand RV park?...downwind from a Waste Water Treatment Plant.  Nooot really ocean air that you're smelling there kiddos.  But I was good and kept my mouth shut (at least in front of them) so they enjoyed the "ocean air" smell the whole trip. Kids, you gotta love 'em.

The Dunes

Almost immediately after we arrived the kids wanted to go to the beach.  Morro Strand advertises that it is within walking distance from the beach so we put on our sweaters and headed west.  Half a mile later we saw sand (phew!).  The beach was actually really cool.  There were dunes everywhere and the wind was so strong that all the sand was brushed smooth making it feel as though were were the first people to discover a lost island.  So we recorded our discovery, searched for shells and treasures washed up to shore, and made our way along the beautiful beach towards town.

Flying Kites

The next day we woke up knowing exactly what we wanted to do...fly some kites!  There is this great little kite shop down town Morro Bay that we visited after breakfast.  Will had already done research on the type of kites that we wanted so we were quickly in and out and headed to the windy beach to set them off.  It's so funny to me that holding a string and staring up into the sky at a little floating piece of material can be so exciting and interesting to a 5 & 6 year old.  I got bored fast (wait, who's the child here?) and frustrated that the sand kept blowing on my camera and towel so we didn't spend too long on the beach before we trotted off on another adventure.

This picture depicts pretty much the entire trip...Molly and Daddy far ahead of Willy and me 'till something interesting happens and Willy sprints off to check it out for himself.

Climbing on Rocks

On our last day we headed out to Morro Rock to do a little rock climbing.  Oh how thrilling it was to climb the rocks to the big red "DANGER" sign...and then keep going!  It's not expressly forbidden to climb out on the rocks so of course we went for it.  Molly and Willy carefully watched me to make sure I didn't slip or fall in any way.  Really though, they are better climbers and more coordinated at that sort of thing than I could ever dream to be.  The tide was down so we saw tons of colorful starfish and barnacles stuck to the rocks.  We saw a few crabs, some weird seaweed and several things we couldn't even identify.

We left Morro Bay with wonderful memories, took Ms. Cortez back to her home and promised that we would take her exploring again soon.

Feeling Like a Homesteader With Hardly Any Effort!

I love the idea of homesteading.  Will and I sit around and dream up new ways that we can be more self-sufficient.  Unfortunately, like most people I know, we don't have the luxury of staying home to churn our own butter.  Not to mention, we love our down time and don't consider sweating all day on the weekend "rest".  So, our homesteading dreams often stay dreams.

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine invited me over to pickle some of her hand grown cucumbers.  She's one of those people who actually does all the cool homesteading stuff I just talk about doing.  She promised me that pickling was super easy...and it WAS!  We mixed the ingredients for the pickling juice (I didn't get her recipe but you can find tons online) and brought it to a boil on the stove.  Meanwhile we chopped the cucumbers (about 1/2" thick so they don't get too floppy after soaking up the pickle juice), stuffed them in the jars, added some garlic and fresh dill and then poured in the boiling hot pickle juice and sealed them up.  The last step is to boil the jar for about 10 minutes to get a good seal and voila!  I was told that they need to sit for about 2 weeks to absorb the flavor of the pickle juice but I couldn't wait and opened a jar after a week.  DELICIOUS!!!  Seriously the best dill pickles I've ever had!

I brought fresh garlic and crushed it with one of those garlic crushers while my friend added minced garlic from a jar.  When we boiled my jars and pulled them out we were horrified to see some nasty looking blue stuff floating around the bottom of my jars.  I was so embarrassed thinking that maybe my jars weren't sterile and mold had grown on the bottom (haha, really?!).  But we did some research and found out that it wasn't mold, it was my garlic.  Apparently this hideousness is actually pretty common.  There is an enzyme in the garlic (usually garlic that has been harvested before it is fully ripe) that had a chemical reaction with the pickling salt that we used.  How cool is that?!  Pickles AND chemistry! 

Anyway, I had so much fun pickling at my friends house that I decided to try some on my own.  Will and I love pickled eggs.  We have always cheated in the past and put our boiled eggs in a jar of pickle juice that we had eaten all of the pickles out of.  Well this time, I actually looked up a few recipes and decided to make my own pickled eggs.  For fun, I added jalapenos to the mix so they will be spicy pickled eggs.  When Will asked me what recipe I used I told him it was more like a formula based on a few recipes that I read through (apparently that is exactly what a recipe is! Is it that obvious that I don't cook?).  So here is my "formula" for jalapeno pickled eggs:

Ingredients:

2 cup water

2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup salt

About 9 garlic cloves, crushed

About 15 jalapenos, sliced

18 boiled eggs, peeled

2 mason jars, 1 quart each

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, and jalapenos into medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  I used a potato masher to squish down the jalapenos a bit to release the spiciness and then took the pot off the heat.  Put 3 eggs in the bottom of both jars.  Layer with jalapenos and garlic from mix. Repeat egg / jalapeno layer twice.  Pour liquid in jars to within 1/4" from the top and put on the lid.

I didn't boil the jars to make sure the lids seal because my eggs were already a little overcooked (on accident).  The lids sealed anyway because the mix I put in was still so hot but I'm not sure how much I would trust letting them sit in my pantry.  Since I only made 2 jars and I plan on eating them right away I went ahead and put them in the fridge.  Let them pickle for a couple of weeks before popping them open and ENJOY!

Oh, if you are wondering what the beautiful red jar is, Will decided to make some pickled beets and eggs. He just opened a can of pickled beets and layered them in a jar with boiled eggs.  He didn't heat them or anything so we'll see what happens after a couple of weeks in the fridge. :)