Lootz! :: My Bestie, April!

I may have mentioned before that my bestie from college, one Madam le April (but I just call her April) visited me this summer.

We. Had. A. BLAST!

But then, we always do.

I posted a picture of the GenerikB plushie she requested, but I hadn't taken the opportunity to post pictures of what she gave me!

Since April lives in China, she frequents the American establishments that have gone international.  Starbucks is one of her (and my) favorite places over there (despite the fact that the last time I was there in February 2012 they tried to poison me).

I'm lactose intolerant.  I asked for soy.  Their understanding of English wasn't that great.  I missed a great evening of Indian food and Chinese karaoke due to digestive distress.

But!  That's not the point.  Starbucks in China is fabulous, and part of the reason is that they have special mugs and things based on the Chinese zodiac, yearly festivals, and other holidays.

There's a mid-autumn celebration known as the Moon Festival, and Starbucks released some adorable mugs!

She brought me two mugs and what might be a sugar bowl.

The handles are shaped like bunnies, and the sugar bowl even has a little tail on the rim!

One of the random things I love about China is the abundance of cute stuff that's allowable in everyday life.  Particularly 'kawaii' animals, such as bunnies, cats, pandas, etc.  April helps me feed my addiction a little bit, and I love these mugs!  (Thanks, chica!)

I'm looking forward to presenting another couple of crochet projects before the end of September, but for this weekend I'm off to LARP!

Shadowmoor needs me! (...actually, they'll take anybody with enough lives left...)

^_~

Kickstarter Mission: Accomplished!

As the story goes, my hubbie's best friend from Ohio, Mr. Weston Skaggs, put out his first single, Fire in My Bones. 

You can learn more about Weston and his music on his Facebook page.

Earlier this year, Weston ran a kickstarter campaign through Indie-Go-Go in order to raise funds to go back to a Christian recording studio and make more songs for an album.  He asked me to make several crochet beards and beanies--they were part of the $50 donation prize pack.

So as my gift to Weston and his awesome wife, Amy, I donated my yarn and time to his campaign.  My only regret is that I didn't have time to come through with an entire order of 25 of each; my other commission work as well as recurring health difficulties made it nearly impossible.

But this past week or so, the DH was able to get back in touch with Weston, and we have sorted out his order, which should ship today!

Six hats + six beards = one signature look!

Congratulations to Weston for meeting his fundraising goal, and continuing to utilize the talents the Lord has given him to pursue a dream in songwriting.  

With those items safely boxed up, as well as Etho, the current to-do list looks like:

- Nebris plushie

- Enderman plushie

- Crochet wig

But there's an additional plushie from August:

- VintageBeef plushie (I need to contact the prospective buyer and see if he/she is still interested)

Thankfully, I've scheduled only one September commission, due to start September 15th.  It's an Etho, and I already have parts of the legs finished, thanks to a mix-up with another order and my own sense of timing.  XD

I was able to work on Nebris quite a bit over the weekend--most of his panels are finished.  I have a partial head panel that I need to buy more yarn for, and 5 chest panels left.  I think there's also a few arm panels, too, but his legs are completely done (and I'm so thankful that the colors weren't wrong, as I initially thought!).

I'm sincerely hoping that by sticking to my minimum 2-hours-per-day crochet goal, that he will be finished by this weekend.

Look for a post about him, coming to this blog soon!  Cheers!