There’s now less than a month left to enter the Mochimochi Photo Contest. To tempt everyone into entering, here are a few more of the goodies in the first prize box!
iPod-listening Rirakkumas:
Yummy Japanese fabric:
Toy-related craft books:
And a cute little holiday creature!
You know you want all this fun stuff! Check out all the entries so far at the Flickr group, and see full contest details here.
We moved yesterday. It was not the most difficult move ever undertaken—from one floor of our apartment building to another—but it still took a whole day and I still woke up this morning feeling like I had run a marathon. (It’s after noon now and my exhausted spouse isn’t even up yet.)
Moves aren’t pretty.
At least the word “dust bunny” is cute. Without that word, it would just be the disgusting filth that was lurking under our book shelves for two years.
Our new apartment looks almost exactly like our old one, except that it has an extra room. But it otherwise looks so much like it that at the end of the day, we had the eerie feeling of having just worked all day long to end up back in the same place.
In any case, it was worth it. And it would have been worth it just for this:
Or, zoomed in:
The Statue of Liberty, from our living room window, if you look from just the right angle and squint. How cool is that?
Just a tiny sample of the amazing plushes we’ve received for next week’s plush show:
Clockwise, from top left:
1. Sewn by Blythe
2. Lexi Franks
3. Eloole (they’ll be at the opening!)
4. Christina Gordon
5. Katsutoshi Otuska
6. Risa Tanikawa
7. Anna Chambers
8. Lizette Greco
9. Angel Oloshove
10. Hello, Brute
Comedian Rock Albers doesn’t need Halloween as an excuse to wear rabbit ears. This lapine laugh-man proudly sports his furry pink headband year round at all of his unusual musical comedy performances, including his current gig at The Duplex in the West Village.
My husband and I went to the first of Rock’s two scheduled shows earlier this month, having become smitten after seeing him perform a manic five-minute set in the summer. (You can see my first gushy post about Rock here.)
We joined a packed audience (most of whom were at least 20 years our senior, but never mind that) to experience Rock’s new routine, which consists of shouted rants on everything from national animals to Google, interspersed with piano ballads about Viagra and Starbucks. The topics are mainstream to the max, but the extreme absurdity Rock brings to his subject matter is delightful, and at times, simply inspired.
Rock’s second performance of The World According to Rock is this Saturday, Nov. 3rd at 5 pm at The Duplex. Don’t miss it!
These are the first knitted toys that I ever made:
Actually, I just finished making these ones, but I used the very first toy pattern that I designed. That was about a year ago, when we had our first show at gallery hanahou.
See, the toys are in the shape of our gallery logo, so I made these little guys for my coworkers to commemorate our first show. And now I’ve made these new ones for our first-ever plush show!
If they look a little familiar, that’s because they were the inspiration behind the shape of everyone’s favorite Hrumph.
If you’re in NY on Nov. 8th, I hope you’ll come to the opening of our plush show! You can see more details on our gallery website.
Have you entered the Mochimochi Photo Contest yet?
There’s just a little bit more than a month left to enter your photos of toys you’ve made from Mochimochi Land patterns. And I’ve been getting some great entries!
A duo of Sleepy Snakes with their respective Mischievous Mice were just uploaded today by giolou.
The grand prize, as I’ve mentioned before, is a box full of fun and strange Japanese goodies. Here’s a sneak peek at a tiny bit of what’s in the box!
Crafty goodies…
Little collector toys (which are super popular in Japan)…
A bizarre tarako kewpie keychain…
Mystery toy…
… and much more!
The last day for entries is November 30th, and soon afterward, everyone can vote on their favorite pic! See full contest details here.
My sister recently moved into a new house, and I got to see it for the first time a week and a half ago. It’s a lovely house, but I was most pleased by the leaf impressions that I noticed in her freshly poured driveway.
Apparently, it was fall when they did the driveway, and falling leaves from nearby trees got in the way of a smooth concrete slab.
I loved how the grain of the driveway and the tire marks looked against the ghost leaves in the afternoon light.
I imagine that after long use of the driveway, the leaf prints will eventually be worn away.
Finally, something for all you crocheters!
Jennifer at Kounting Sheep has just converted my pattern for Grass into crochet!! Her version is called Winter Grass, and the whole pattern is up on her blog for everyone to try.
As you can see, Jennifer’s Winter Grass closely resembles the original, except in crochet. As a real beginner in crochet, I have yet to try out Jennifer’s pattern myself, but it’s at the top of my list.
As far as I know, this is the first time that a Mochimochi Land pattern has been converted into crochet. How exciting! Seeing that it can be done has me looking forward to future crochet possibilities (that is, once I master the techniques myself…)
Thank you so much, Jennifer, for sharing your talent!