Crochet Presents!

Hello Lovelies!

I've been super busy recently creating some lovely presents for Christmas! I recently taught myself to crochet using a magazine! This is a big thing for me as I've tried soooo many times to crochet and failed miserably (not quite as bad as my attempts at knitting though which always end up triangular!)

The great thing about crochet is once you get the hang of it you can make things pretty quickly - it took me a little while to get used to the double crochet stitch - I still haven't quite got the idea of reading a pattern or other stitches yet but I'm really happy I can do this now!

I started off making a few very boring, single colour scarves to practice the stitch. I then tried making a single colour snood and following the success of that I tried out a purple snood for my beautiful friend in America to go in her present box.

Then I tried making a Sailor Moon inspired snood for myself. My youngest sister like it so much that she asked me to make her a Chibi Moon scarf! By this point I'd more or less got the idea of what I was doing and felt more comfortable winging it!

The last few things I've made as gifts I love so much I'd quite like to keep for me! Especially the turquoise and glittery pink snood! The colours are so bright and cheerful.

Can any of you crochet? How about knitting? Do you like to make presents for your friends too? Let me know on the comments below!

Ta-ta for now,

x

An interview with Chiichanny!

Hello Everyone!

Today I have a very special interview for you! I think by now that you've seen my gorgeous little Becky logo up in the banner - the gorgeous Chiichanny created her for me on commission! Chiichanny has agreed to a fun little interview with myself so you can learn more about her and her beautiful art!

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Q: Your artist name is Chiichanny - who is behind Chiichanny and what made you pick the name, tell us a bit about yourself?

HEYA! yep im known as Chiichanny, but the lady behind the alias is Jade Love ::waves::

My name is a small but I guess kinda funny story, the first anime I ever fully watched from start to end was Chobits and I completely adored it, with Chii being my favourite character, when I finally got to the online world, I tried to join a forum and chii/chii-chan and all the sorts were taken, so I remixed it and decided to go with Chiichanny all as one word and it just kinda stuck from there haha. I think if I could go back in time and pick another name for my artist alias I probably would have, but after having the name for about 10 years, I just felt that it was too late to change my Alias now when many people out there DO know me as chiichanny, so yeah. As for more about me, I'm Female, live in the UK and I'm currently 24, my star sign is a scorpio and zodiac is a Horse... I'M A SCORPION HORSE a Horpio

Q: How long have you been an artist? What made you decide to share your beautiful art with the world?

Since I could hold a pen, scribble on walls, floors, anywhere haha. I didnt start taking it seriously til I was about 13 and I just knew that art was my passion and something I really loved doing, so I tried to keep taking it to the next level, when I was 14 I started going on art forums and such and I just kept going from there! I joined Deviantart about 8/9 years ago to share my work around, at the time I just wanted others to see, what is the point of doing anything if no one will ever know about it? ^^

Q: What inspires you?

Anything and Everything, I get inspired at random, ideas will just appear from the most random things and I'll want to draw it. It can be a puddle, a cloud, some rubbish or I'll just randomly think of something, its hard question to answer for me because its never consistent!

Q: What is your favourite medium to work with?

Although I love digital, I love Paint, pencils and markers for my traditional work.

Q: How do you think your art style has changed over the last few years?

Well when I first started I was drawing realism because at schools and such this is what they taught you, when I discovered video games and anime, my work progressed, I was drawing characters from the shows and when I got older I was confident enough to make my own characters, since then I've been evolving my work to reflect myself, my feelings and who I am inside.

Q: What would you like to achieve in the future?

I'd love to make a living out of my work, sell at conventions, online, and such. I want to make comic books, have a business with lots of hand made dolls to sell and then human clothes, accessories and more!

Q: It takes a lot of work to start a company, with Amare Dolls/Chiichanny what so far as been the most straight forward thing and what has been more complicated?

Gosh it is! for Amare Dolls, the most straight forward thing was designing the doll itself and then next to that is making it, that was the easiest part! The hardest part is the casting process, I had so many problems, like bubbles, leaking moulds, pimples, specs... I almost gave up at one point, but with help I finally got there! For my Art work, the idea is the easiest part, I have so many idea, the problem is making sure they are right and come across correctly once I'm drawing it, thats the hard part ^^

Q: Do you have a favourite piece of artwork by yourself?

I have two actually!

The first is the Huntress and the second is Butterfly Decay, even though I haven't finished Butterfly decay yet, I just like it!

Q: Where would you like to be in a years time?

Hmmmmmm I'd like to have my comic done, and I'd like to be earning at least part time minimum wage from my art and dolls by that point also haha. And have a years supply of Arizona Green Tea with Honey ... I'm addicted to it atm...

Q: If you could have any job in the world what would it be?

If I could have any part time paid job that I could just do whenever, I'd love to be a food and event critique, because I think I'd enjoy that in a wierd way XD

And just for fun!

Q: If you could have any job in the world what would it be?

If I could have any part time paid job that I could just do whenever, I'd love to be a food and event critique, because I think I'd enjoy that in a wierd way XD

(GIMME ALL YER FOOD!)

Q: Do you have a favourite character/TV Show?

I HAVE TOO MANY! Y U do this!Ok, its list time!The Walking Dead - ALL HAIL RICK
Breaking Bad
Steven Universe
Spongebob Squarepants
Digimon
as for characters:
Kasumi from Dead or Alive
Amethyst and Garnet from Steven Universe
Chii from Chobits
Yuna, Fran, Vincent Valentine, Shantoto, Cait Sith, SUMMONS and Tonberries - Final Fantasy X/XI/VII/XII
LORD OF THE RINGS CHARACTERS ARE JUST FFFFFFFFF amazing
Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Commander Data - Star Trek The Next Generation
This list could go on for a while....

So there we go! I personally love, love Chiichanny's art and I want to share it with the world!

To check out more of Chiichanny's art you can check out her Facebook page which contains links to Amare dolls and her webstore!

Chiichanny's Facebook page

Ta-ta for now!
X

Hyper Japan Festival 2015!

Hello Lovelies!

I am so excited! It's finally the week of the Hyper Japan Festival! I will be attending this on the Friday with my youngest sister! Come and say 'Hello!' if you spot me! I had been intending to wear cosplay for this but due to the recent heat wave in England, I think I'll save it for the Christmas event and just wear something kawaii to avoid heatstroke! This event looks like it will be so much bigger than the last one I attended in November - for starters this one is being hosted at the O2 arena! I've never been there before so that's exciting in itself!

There is literally so much to see and do, I cannot wait to see Die Milch perform!

I hope we can see this too! The Hello Kitty bento how-to! I've always loved the idea of bento but I've never been very creative with them. I'd love to see how to make kawaii bento.

Hyper Kawaii looks like it will be fun too! There's always lots of shopping to be done - I'm definitely going to check out Teatime treasures and Love JoJo's stalls first! Not forgetting of course that there is a dedicated gaming zone too! I do believe Nintendo will be attending.

For those who are fans of traditional Japanese culture, there are things to see and do too! I'll definitely be checking out the kimono and picking up some information on travelling to Japan.

Just look how big this! It looks like it's across quite a few floors too! There's even a maid café this time around! I'm not sure if we'll be checking that out as there's so much to see and do, but I'm sure we'll pop up there to see what's going on!

This is so exciting! Only two days to go! Add the fanpage on facebook for live updates through out the day on Friday!

Ta-ta for now!

x

Shopping spree!

Hello Lovelies!

With summer fast approaching, and the United Kingdom having a sunny spell, I decided to take a visit to Reading to treat myself to some new spring/summer clothing. Primark currently has a gorgeous range of clothing in (and the usual questionable items!) So I thought I'd take a few photos of the items I brought to share with you!

Style Icon jumper - How cute is this? It's quite a light sweater so it's perfect for chilly evenings!

Minions T-shirt: I couldn't resist this, I do love the Despicable Me films! The only thing I'd say about this is that it's rather short in the body. I'd probably wear it with high waisted shorts or jeans.

Shorts! These were on offer at £3.90 a piece - they had a wide range of colours and styles available for purchase. I may have to go back to get more as they are pretty comfy and made of a nice denim material!

Lavender socks: Cute and reduced to a £1.00 too!

Pink floral skinny jeans: These are really comfy though a little on the short side for me (I'm 5'8) so I'd probably roll them up a little and wear them as cropped trousers.

Cropped leggings: these have a sweet lace trim, pretty light and comfy for the summer.

So that's it for now! Have you treated yourself to anything new for the summer? Let me know in the comments below!

Ta-ta for now

X

Artemis Bag!

Hello Lovelies!

Did you see my post over the weekend? Did you guess what I was making?

Well here you go! A week or so ago I saw some lovely limited release Sailor Moon bags (I'm pretty sure they are in store only in Japan too). I had some left over white pleather and thought I'd have a go at making my own Artemis version of the Luna bag. (The ears look a bit more wonky in this photo than they actually are!)

This is the first time I've ever tried to make anything quite like this and I'd still like to make a few accessories to go with it. I'm pretty pleased with it though I have learnt a few things for the next time I try, like remembering to put the outside pockets on before assembling the outer fabric, whoops!

Complete with a Sailor Moon Charm mirror from the 20th anniversary set! I've a few more Sailor Moon items on the way and I'm hoping to use these with the bag too. I have to say I really, really enjoyed making this (Not so much when my sewing machine decided to snap the thread repeatedly!!) But it was quite a learning curve with a fair bit of figuring out how to get everything together.

I hope you like it and I've few more projects in the works too!

Ta-ta for now!

X

Plus Cutie are having a give away!

Hello Lovelies,

Spree Picky's new plus size store, Plus Cutie is holding a give away! You should check it out here:

Plus Cutie

Ta-ta for now
X

TaoBaoSpree Review ~*~Postitive ~*~

Hello my lovlies,

Today's post is a review of TaoBaoSpree (from here on TBS). I usually use the same service, but unsurprisingly after my last Taobao order, I wanted to try a new shopping service. I did a lot of research and uming and ahing about which of the many, many services to use. I'd heard of TBS  here and their site was friendly and easy to use - I'd added them a few days before I placed an order and was pleased to see they are very active and they even host a give away very frequently! I also googled several reviews and took a look at their feedback page on their website, which is also made be feel more comfortable with ordering from them as they had so many good reviews.

~*~ Craft Tutorial ~*~ Wrist Cuffs

Hello my lovelies!

Today I will show you how to make your very own cute wrist cuffs! They are really quite simple to do and don't require a sewing machine - you can sew these by hand!

A new leaf

Hello my lovelies!

Today's post is a bit different from the usual but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway!

It's entitled a new leaf (not to be confused with animal crossing, but you can expect a post on this soon too!) Because that's exactly what it's about, turning over a new leaf.

~*~ Craft tutorial ~*~ Shoes to sandals

Hello my lovelies!

Today's tutorial is how to turn a pair of shoes into sandals!

These are a pair of An*Tai*Na shoes that I've had for awhile. They are pretty trashed on the toes from an over abrasive cleaner so in their current state they weren't fit for much else other than the bin. I decided to try and save them by turning them into sandals as the soles still have plenty of wear left in them.

~*~ Craft Post ~*~ Altering a pair of boots

Hello my lovelies!

Today I'm going to show you how to alter a pair of boots. This is one of two footwear alteration tutorials I'm planning on.

~*~ Shopping Review ~*~ Clobba Online & Taobao: Part 2

Hello my lovelies!

So here as promised is part 2 of my review.

This is what I ordered:

• High Waisted skirt
• JSK Shop (The actual JSK is no longer available)
• Rilakkuma lunch boxes
• Rilakkuma flask

(I did also order a mug but it wasn't in stock, Martin refunded me the money for it!) The boxes are obviously for my lunch to take to work and the flask is for hot and cold drinks, (I'm planning on using it when I travel to Frock On!)

My package arrived on Friday, roughly 10 days after posting by registered airmail. I'd say that's pretty quick time to make it through two sets of customs and half way round the world!

The box itself was wrapped with bubble wrap, polka-dot plastic and a layer of parcel tape, there was no way anything was going to damage this! (I do really love that polka-dot wrapper!) Inside everything was packed neatly in individual bags, I may have forgotten to take pictures of this as I was too excited! (Frankly it's lucky I remembered to take one before ripping it open!)

So the first of my items is the skirt from strawberry witch, I cannot express how much I adore this skirt, it absolutely fits perfectly. The fabric is soft yet thick and silky to the touch on the outside. The print is very vibrant and the mint colour is exactly what I was expecting - it also has a very cute leaf pattern running though the weave of the fabric. The stitching and hemming is neat and very tidy. There are no loose threads. The only thing I would say is I needed to change the ribbon running through the corseting at the back as it wasn't quite long enough - not a problem though as I can use that for something else, but I thought worth mentioning in case anyone else orders one.

The second item is the JSK from +Secret Doll+. I like this JSK, perhaps not as much as the skirt, it's well made and the lace overlay is very soft, but it's unfinished at the edges. The print is very clear and the material is very light. The waist bow isn't detachable so I may look at making it so myself at some point. The rest of the JSK is very well made, the stitching neat and tidy with a beautiful lace trim. Again this item was custom made in my size and it fits perfectly! My only niggle is that it's a little long with out a petti but with it should be fine! It's very cute and I do see myself getting a lot of wear out of it. Bonus: It's hand washable!

Lace detail

Rilakkuma lunch boxes are the third items, and oh my gosh are they adorable!! I honestly can't wait to use these! There're exactly what I was expecting and will hold my watermelon fine! They seem to have very tight fitting seal lids.

The last item is a Rilakkuma flask. The packaging for the box is so cute! I am trying to think of a way to reuse it instead of throwing it out. The actual flask is a lot smaller than I was expecting, but in retrospect it's actually perfect as it'll hold a cup of coffee and fit in my handbag! I have a feeling I'll be making a lot of use of this over the winter months, but I have a feeling it's first trip out may be to Frock On!

So I'm totally ecstatic with my purchases. Clobba Online have been wonderful as usual. I'm actually so happy with my skirt, I will be contacting Clobba again very shortly to see if I can order some of the stores other items in a custom size! I think that really speaks for itself having only had the skirt for 24 hours and already wanting more for the store.

Ta-ta for now!

x