amubleu

quick update

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:00:53 GMT

The merry mart is over and I’m a semi-free woman (I still have a ton of holiday knitting to still do on top of jobs that have to be finished). We’re going to dc this saturday for the teaism meet. I’m very excited. Still trying to figure out who to bring. Most likely Hito… not sure of there will be a second one for not.

The week after if the Baltidoll holiday meet at Koba. I have a bit to prepare for. I think this has to be the busiest December ever;_;…

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

merry mart 09

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:45:27 GMT

bits of our set up this year. it may not look like much n the photos but i was super happy with our table. especially after having three hours of sleep the night before. i told myself this year that i wasn’t going to do that but for some reason it just turned out so. i’ll never learn.

this year was fantastic. with as little as i had this year (or what i thought was little) we did wonderfully. we just had a great time in general. everyone who stopped by was great. i got to talk to some wonderful people and met a few doll collectors passing through. the vendors were also amazing this year. i’ll save this for another evening this week since i’m working towards another five hour night tonight and there is so much more to talk about.

but before i go…

i brought Hito along this year. being the perfect little model for my poisonbleu knits. he’s even holding my business cards for me.
i had mixed feelings about bringing him at first. when i bring any of my dolls to non anime/doll events i usually get mix signals from people. most would think their creepy or scary but creative alliance crowd was just great about him. he got a lot of attention and a lot of pleasant comments. though the most common things i heard were “she is so pretty!” and “she looks just like you!”. to be honest bjd collectors and myself hear this a lot. it’s all part of the hobby.
(as for the whole look a like thing, even dizzy accused me of making my dolls look like myself. i don’t get it… and i don’t see it but i would kill to have a set of drayton lips).

nighty night

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

I should be working…

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:08:20 GMT

… but I’m surfing the web instead.

I added a Volk’s msd Schultz to the wish list I keep in my head sometime ago. After getting to see muffin’s Teruhiko in person at nekocon I bummed him to the top of the physical list. Too cute. Good luck to me right? I may start a WTB thread soon and maybe in a years time one will surface. I hope to be going to the New York Dolpa next year. Does anyone know if they hold the workshops at this one?

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

random

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:57:15 GMT

Feeling rather ho hum this week. Hearing about the new katsucon artist alley rules has not helped at all. Just when I was feeling hopeful about that convention again it just turned out to be the same old stuff.

Now buying this sadol jacket would help for a few minutes… maybe a day. I have no idea who would wear it but I would find someone who would. If only they made that in my size…-_-

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

post nekocon sweaters

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:09:38 GMT

I’m so tired this evening. I should start a tag that says “it’s tuesday and i’m tired”. It always happens.

I’m so itching to work on doll knits again. Luckily one of the gifts I’m giving is a sd sized black cardigan. I was told I can use anything so I’m trying to decide on wool or mohair. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a pattern together to maybe add to the commission styles

Anyway, I was going through my stock of sweaters from the convention and I thought I would finally put a sales page up. These will all go up on doa this week and then after the merry mart I’ll slowly add them to the etsy shop. So that I avoid spamming any of my friends list, all of the info is behind the link

from back to front:

cocoa
olive
heavenly blue
cocoa/sea foam
white/key lime (i really need to change these names:P)

*Btw, I have pictures of each sweater if anyone wants to see. I just haven’t had time to edit them yet.

These are all sized for the SD13 boy body. The solids have wide necklines where as the stripes have a new shaped crew neck. They may require head removal (Unless your kiddies have really small heads the stripes will more then likely need head removal)
solids are $40
stripes are $50
I will ship priority only. Domestic $5 and international $14. I’ll include insurance and tracking in this until the end of the year.
Anymore details check out my commission page or my etsy shop

If there is anything I missed just leave a comment or email me to let me know.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

another shot

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:25:15 GMT

just a few more pictures of the brooches that the mr took yesterday. these are nice and clear. i have fun making these and i’m planning a few more. maybe with this small batch i’ll make them pendants instead.

i’m slowly but surely getting ready for this show. this week i have to decide on my displays… instead of waiting until two in the morning that sunday. i would like to go to the show with plenty of sleep under my belt.

i can dream can’t i?

one more shot. this time straight on

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

moss brooches

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:45:31 GMT

moss brooches.
mohair and silk on an acrylic felt base.

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

belated happy thanksgiving and japanese batsu program

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:09:53 GMT

I hope everyone had an wonderful thanksgiving. i had a lovely time. my mom made an amazing meal and i got to spend time with my whole family. unlike a lot of traditional thanksgivings where families sit around the dinning table and eat a huge meal, my family likes to watch movies… but we still get the huge meal (xmas is our eating around the dinning table meal). some of the things watched during the day include, three parts of the ifc monty python documentary (that was everyone’s pick), little miss sunshine (my mom’s pick), the night at the museum (my dad’s pick). all of them were good and the whole day was a lot of fun.

today the mr and i vegged out. sort of…

i was working non-stop on some moss brooches. a little experiment in making fake moss that i absolutely adore (i have the obsession with moss). it’s quite time consuming and i was only able to complete six but the end results are worth it. i want to work this into my sweater display for shows. i’ll show pictures later.

it’s a brainless process so to keep myself occupied i was watching mini marathons of “Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!”. it may have not been a good idea in the end. i was laughing so hard i found it hard to work at times.
anyway, the idea is three or four out of these five comedians are forced into a specific location. in twenty four hours they are told not to laugh. if they do they are punished. the punishment can be pretty harsh and in most cases involve the rear end. in one they got a whip to the butt and in another they got blow darts. and this was every time they laughed O_o. it may not be for everyone. it’s not so much the punishment that has me rolling. in fact i’m not sure how these guys can take it (my butt would have been ground beef if i was in their shoes). it’s the watching them try so hard not to laugh and sabotage each other that gets me.

the clip below was one where i lost it every time. in this episode matsumoto, yamasaki, endo and tanaka are forced to go back to school and in this clip they are in an english class. the part that gets me is the video of comedian jimmy onishi trying his best to read, count and say the days of the week in english. the men try so hard not to laugh. oh, and be warned their punishment is a good whack on the butt with a bamboo sword. there is a lot of laughing and quite a few punishments handed out so if thats not your thing you may not want to watch.

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

whiny

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:03:06 GMT

The mr will find a million things wrong with this photo and my sad attempts of photoshopping.

Hito looks like a know it all with Tak’s glasses (his broken ones). He knows that I want to stop working on human knits and start working on doll knits. Why is it that everytime I have to knit one thing a million ideas for another project some up only to disappear when I finally have the time. I kind of in that place right now. Oh well.

Btw, this sweater on the sd13 body is funny. When Hito was borrowing Emile’s body it fit like a charm… when he wears it on his current body, not so much.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

wrist warmers galore

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:49:22 GMT

i’m not quite sure what number i’m on. i think i’m any half way through to where i want to be with wrist warmers. i forget how nice the ply yarns look when it comes to picking up patterns or even knitting straight stockinette. these are made form striped local wool and 220. i normally just save the 220 for amigurumi but i wanted to see what type of wrist warmers it would make. so far i’m happy.

right after this show i go right into my holiday knitting. the big projects are:

a pair of grey civil war style gloves (regulation)
a sd-13 size black cardigan
mittens
american doll sweaters (my niece currently has two)

the gloves are the big project. i’ve never knitted a pair before but i have made tabi socks so maybe it will be made from similar techniques. it should be interesting.

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

baltidoll 2009 holiday party

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:04:08 GMT

This year holiday party will be at Koba again this year. All are welcome and it should be fun.

Koba Cafe
644 E Fort Ave
Baltimore, MD 21230

1pm-5pm

As plans become final I’ll be sure to post them.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

late night post and random dolly thought

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:56:14 GMT

I’m making a super late night post. Spent most of the early part of the day running around. I later foun d myself sitting under the kotatsu watching my one piece marathon while knitting like a mad woman. I’m now trying to make up for the non post I failed to make last night. I predict that it’s just going to be a load of gibberish so bear with me.

The NY Dolpa was announced and the dates seem to be set. I’m going to try my best to go. I have plenty of time to plan. I figured I’ll go to NY by myself for a few days but hating the fact that I would be traveling alone bothers The Mr for some strange reason. So he said he would go as well. We’ll see. I would hate to drag him to another doll event. Meets are one thing. He enjoys those but to spend a few days surrounded by dolls for an entire weekend is another thing. He could have a weekend of video games, the pug and himself.

Totally unrelated, just as I slowly shrunk down my wish list, new doll heads are finding their way on to it. For the past few months I planned that the Swd School A would be my next head. I was going to mod the eyes open a bit. I still plan on getting him but now I see that dollgru opened up her #9 preorder again but only for a few weeks. He is such an odd sculpt but as strange as it is, his profile is quite lovely. I was hoping to find a gentle enough sculpt to pair up with Hito and this one may be it. We’ll see though. If I get him, I’ll paint him up only for him to tell me that my plans were all wrong. It always happens.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

pictureless post #41

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:55:47 GMT

i’ve been very busy the last few days. it’s been either at work or at home preparing for the merry mart. wrist
warmers are on the top of the list this week. i’ve made several pairs and my hands are so tired. i’ll try to have photos this week to show off what i’ve managed to finish. i still have a lot of work to do.

i also just got my post cards for the show. if anyone would like one just email me your address and i’ll trow one in the mail for you. they are really great this year.

btw, i promise to answer all of my emails. there are a few i got that i’m just realizing i haven’t answered yet. i’m so sorry TAT…

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

new jeans

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:33:37 GMT

A good little model received a few new pairs of jeans in the mail today. Instead of working on merry mart goodies, my time was spent getting his little resin tush into them. They are so tight he can’t sit but he looks so good.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

thrummed alpaca?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:40:08 GMT

not like i don’t have better things to do, i decided to get silly and challenge myself. for anyone who reads the comic, hidalgo is not one of my creations. the mr originally used him for a story and then he became juan’s best friend. He even has his own fighting move. anyway, i bought him for the girls while i was at stitches sometime last year.

for fun i wanted to see if i could create some hidalgo fan art and make an ami version. i really wasn’t sure how to go about his fur since he is so fluffy. today i remembered that last year i made my mom a pair of thumbed mittens for the holiday. i figured i could at least knit and thrum the piece and turn it inside out when he was finished. I later changed my mind, because I’m not too fond of knitted ami unless i have a specific reason to do so. so i wanted to see if i could crochet while thrumming instead. after a few tries surprisingly it worked.
it was a bit tricky to get used to but i really like the results. I took photos of the process so if anyone is interested i can post a quick tutorial this week.

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

ninjas!!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:44:18 GMT

working on ninjas for the merry mart. I have ninja and shiro but a need a few juans. i may have to get into making some of the girls. it seems that kuno is popular. girl ninjas rock but their details are too hard.

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

sleepy at a meet

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:17:40 GMT

I missed a post last night because I was up late watching a hilarious Japanese program. It had me rolling. That on top of being very sleepy to begin with, I didn’t trust myself to make sense of anything other then sleep. So no post.

I’m still exhausted but this afternoon we met up with the Baltidoll ladies for our november meet. The photo above was taken by the mr using my camera. I really hate the thing. it would not focus no matter what. The room we were in was a little dim but nothing considered low light conditions. Anyway I did take quite a few so I’ll try to go through them this week and post them. I still have nekocon photos to go through as well.

Anyway good times were had today. Now I’m going to bed… still much later then I wanted to. Oh well.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

yoshida style

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:17:19 GMT

So cruising through Amazon japan (because, you know, I was in need to spend more money) I discovered that after my four year search, a specific book was back in stock. It was because of this that I decided to throw another book into the cart because 1. it was in stock for once and 2. again I needed to spend money.
I’ve been talking about making my own doll now for a couple of years and even started a few, mainly heads. I’ve been eying up Yoshida Style: Ball Jointed Doll Making Guide for a while. It was never in stock when I was looking for it and when I did find it, it was listed on ebay for an insane price and crazy shipping. I’m so glad I finally decided to buy it. It’s a lot thicker then i had originally thought and it is so full of amazing info. Even though my Japanese stinks I can pretty much understand what is being taught. It has everything from making the doll itself, eyes and even shoes (this was a very pleasant surprise because I want to eventually try making my own). It’s just a fantastic book and very inspiring.

Now on to Hi Iro no Mani-Era

So the reason for me making this order was for the fact that Amazon finally had a copy of Takano Yamamoto’s Hi iro no mani era. I’ve been looking for this book for four years and have been going crazy over this artist since then (LJ folk can see my Yamamoto icons).
I must warn that his art is not for the faint at heart. The photos above are tame compared to the rest of the book. His images and themes tend have some strong morbid overtones. Though his style is so lovely and detailed that you kind of slowly over look the dark themes. <3

Anyway, I’m very happy with my purchases. Sadly I’m falling asleep while typing this so I should head for bed now before my ramblings turn to gibberish.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

good times in the nekocon artist alley and sparkles

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:59:51 GMT

so I walked away with some pretty awesome items from some pretty awesome artist at nekocon. the first photo are of some seriously cute cell phone charms from kelly at Kelly’s Keychains. look at the snow cone and the pretty cool pirate toast. you can’t see him but the one on it’s side is a ghost toast that came with the pirate. i also couldn’t resist the poo.

the second cute set of goodies were some cell phone charms from Studio Kitsu. seriously cute stuff. if you get the chance check out her pokemon hoodies.

and last is a fellow amigurumi creator Moon’s Creations. so cute. I’ve been admiring her little buns on various ami groups for a while now. I got a little heather grey one at the con. the basket was made by one of her friends (which you can also get on her etsy shop).

some quick mentions:

our neighbor acaseofrandom was great. her tribal accessories are absolutely amazing. i was admiring her hair forks (even though i have no hair to speak of) and asked if she ever thought of making a few doll sized (dolls always on the brain). on the spot she got out her wire and rings and made a lovely functional doll sized hair fork. I’m going to post photos of it later in the doll blog. it is really lovely. her music taste were also cool.

another neighbor was Omonomopoeia who was also very cool. i purchased a pair of mario “grow mushroom” earrings for cait and totally forgot to photograph them…. grrrr… they were so cute too. maybe i can snag one while cait is wearing them some time.

lastly laura from pronouncedyou who was just fun all around. when things got slow she and kelly whipped this little number up (lauren i was totally thinking of you when i took this photo):

if you want to see it straight on check out *egyptianruin’s picture.

there were also dolly people in the aa room but i’m saving that for the other blog so i don’t want people to think i’m leaving anyone out.

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

hito’s new kimono

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:08:53 GMT

This is one of the lovely doll items I picked up at Nekocon this past weekend. Tiffany of leveldevil was in the artist alley selling her lovely doll clothing. I had purchased a wig from her this past otakon and was so happy to see her this time around. She had this lovely kimono on display and when I saw the quality and what she was asking for it I had to get it for one of my boys. It’s completely lined and it looks to be hand stitched which is how classic human sized kimono are made (some know how crazy I am about details like that). It fits Hito so nicely. I usually have issues with the length. It’s longer since I think it maybe made more for a long leg volks (I will have to ask. Hito in on a normal leg body, btw) but it’s perfect.

here are a few more pictures of my lazy boy

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

pictureless post #40

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:05:54 GMT

still no con report. today is my first day back at work since last monday. that and the fact that it’s tueday just about kills me this evening. i kind of wish we were still at the con having fun and getting our free breakfast in the morning:p i took photos of all of my goods so i should have them up this week.

the mr is getting tomorrow’s comic ready as i type this out. being the lousy wife that i am i totally forgot to plug his fan art contest. DO IT PEOPLES!!! there are prizes involved>3

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

nekocon table

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:24:28 GMT

This is just a shot of the doll side of the table (looks so messy as always). I wish I had time before the con to work on my displays a bit more. The sweater rack worked out well but it’s still far from finished. I put Hito’s mask up, even though it still needs to be painted. I did get a few inquiries about it. We’ll see how far I go with them. I want to make a few more for my boys.

Today adventure on the train has left me so drained. Even though I managed to play with some of my doll items >.< I sadly didn’t photograph them. Though I will say I got the loveliest yakata ever at the convention. I put it on Hito (of course) and I don’t want to take it off him. I promise to post photos and info on it this week.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

I feel some what human again

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:38:13 GMT

I swear, every time I say “some what human” I always think to myself that that would make a great band name… that is, if it’s not already taken.

Nekocon was this weekend. It wasn’t a huge sell out but I did have a great time and the artist alley experience was awesome. I met some great people and made a few connections so it was well worth it. I bought and traded some lovely items as well as talked to some wonderful collectors. I’ll be sure to post the doll side of things here. As for the non-dolly stuff, that will all go over to the daily.

Btw, I will still be posting daily but as of this con I’ll be posting back and forth. I’ve been neglecting this blog sadly and it’s because I had it in my head that I had to keep the daily going even if it meant posting doll info there instead of here. So now I’ll be posting all my doll info here, in it’s proper place and crafty info and real life stuff on what was the daily. Again I’ll still be posting daily but just on one blog depending on the content… if any of that makes sense at all.
It’s been a long weekend and I’m exhausted. I’ll try to post about the con this week.

Originally published at poisonbleu. You can comment here or there.

the captain say “yo” from nekocon

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:00:17 GMT

i sort of disappeared for a few days there. again, breaking my daily blogging routine for the past two years. it was needed. we’re still in va and the mr and i are finally getting some what of a decent meal and vegging out infront of the laptops. we’re going to be packing soon and waking up at the crack of dawn to catch our train back to baltimore.

i’m going to save my con report when we get settle in from our trip. i will say that we did have a great time. the artist alley was fantastically run (staff members were making food runs and were even handing out water to the artist. they would also walk around and check on everyone every once in a while. that’s a first for us O.o) so no complaints at all. we were also surrounded by some creative artist and i got to go home with some lovely items. it was really hard to resist this year. i’m finding that if i spend money (or trade) at the cons i’m working it’s spent more in the artist alley then the dealer’s room. i also got to speak to and see some awesome doll people and fellow knitters. all in all it was a great con. i look forward to the next, if just to see everyone again.

no break for me just yet. as soon as i get back home i go right into merry mart mode. i’m really cutting it close this year so i can see very little internet use and some very long nights. oh well. that’s what i get for stacking two shows in a row

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.

i should be asleep

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:42:13 GMT

i wish i was this guy right at this moment. … sometimes i wish that often. besides the food part (it’s just horrid) he gets head rubs on demand, gets to lounge around all day and a ton of attention. but this moment he’s a sleep and i’m not. i’m going to bed.

Originally published at amubleu.com. You can comment here or there.