6060eyes.com

What have we been doing lately? We have been busy designing our hand paint eyes. You can check it out here or our website 6060eyes.com. 

I love cats, since day one I have a kitten in my hands, I surrender! =P Now I am selling eyes, naturally I am very connected to cat eyes, will think more about cats than any other animals, so finally I put together a set of cat eyes just in case someone like me, a cat craze! If you like to make amigurumi cats, you may want to consider these eyes! I am selling this in etsy! I also have other cat eyes selling in my own site. Please visit 6060eyes.com for more selections.

6060eyes.com
www.6060eyes.com

I am happy to announce www.6060eyes.com are up and running. Yes, it's here!! Yay!!


In here, I have to thank my husband to be able to help me with this, he has spent hours to help me to list the products, and load the pictures, set up the details, which I haven't been able to accomplish! Thanks hon!

6060eyes.com now have more choices of eyes and accessories to choose from, and later on I am hoping I will have more video to help out the eye installations, ideas and more. Stay tune for more details. If you need safety eyes, plastic eyes, doll eyes, please visit 6060eyes.com. Thank you!

6060eyes.com

Writing thank you note on my business cards has been my tradition of doing business. Just a sudden thought that all these years I have written over 15000 "Thank you" notes on my business cards. I am like "WoW" for a few mins here for that reality to sink in.

Because of that, I have to say it here out loud. Thank you for all of your support. Thank you for loving to make stuffed toys for your friends and families. Thank you for loving to do it for charity, the children in the hospital, the foster kids, the kids in need of some love. Thank you for making lovely toys for the public. Thank you for all the love you put into each stuffed animal. Thank you for the love of handmade toys.

So all of you, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! 

I am happy to tell you that my Etsy store is accepting credit cards now.


I know that many of my customers are forced to use Paypal in the past to get pass the credit card issue. Now you can purchase from my store and check out directly by using credit cards. I hope this will ease the checkout process! 


Happy Shopping! :) 


Clara

A lot of customers asked how to make a payment if they didn't have a Paypal account.  Here I have the picture regarding the 1st step how to use credit card as a payment without a Paypal account.

The other day it was extremely cold, and there were only a few snowflakes. My kids were so happy to go out and played those big snowflakes, although there weren't much. My hubby came home from work, happily to go out with them, pulled out a hat that only cover 2/3 of this head, and went out with them.

20 mins later, they all came back, the kids were fine, they dressed well and the water only got them on the jacket. However, my hubby's hair and beard all filled with tiny snowflakes, all wet. I could tell he needed a big hat to cover his ears, beard, at least most of it anyway.

I searched many patterns, I couldn't find one that is big enough. They all catered to head size 20".  It's not my hubby is fat and big, it's because he has a big head, especially long forehead. My friend Gail surprised me with some patterns, but they were not deep enough.  With the limited yarn choice I have in stash, finally I found this pattern from Suzie. I used a size hook "J", pulled out the dark gray yarn I have, and crochet his big hat.



Suzie's pattern is designed as beanie hat, but my hubby insisted he needed the edge long enough to fold, so here it is, I finished the whole ball of yarn, 30 rows. WOW!! I never crochet a hat that big!
So now he is happy and I am happy! xoxo

Clara
1/14/12

A month before Halloween I joined a monster swap in "Danger Monster Group". However, my swap partner just didn't send out a package for me, so the mod in that group arranged an angel to send me a package. I got the package on last Monday. Everything is so nice, especially the Green Monster. We totally love it. We, yes, we, my whole family just adored him. We display him in the middle of our Christmas tree and he fits right in. :)

I have joined a swap recently. I thought with a month and a half of time I could finish everything by no time. Oh boy am I wrong! Luckily finally I finished something I am happy with. =) It's Halloween time, so I decided to crochet some zombie dolls.
These dolls base patterns:

The zombie with a hat: "Loveable Libby Fairy", I followed the head and body.
The little guy I follow the pattern "Nosferatu" in the book "Creepy cute crochet"

Eyes: a pair of 7.5mm clear eyes, one 10.5mm zombie eyes and one 7.5mm albino eyes
Yarns: Caron Simply Soft





The guts I crochet 10-15 single chain and then sew them in the scar area. My hubby said it's gross, but it's a ZOMBIE, it supposed to be gross, right? Those yarns are the left over or swap from the other lovely ladies. I love how they turned out. It's scary but cute at the same time. Now if you have purchase one of those sample pack from me and scare of that pair of abino eye, don't know what to do with it, you have no excuse anymore!! Crochet or knit something for fun. =P You won't be disappointed with zombie or albino eyes!!!

Announcement: My shop name in Artfire.com is changed from 6060 to 6060eyes. So the full link is: 6060eyes.Artfire.com

The reason for that is Artfire.com has upgraded its system couple weeks ago, however, the new system is not compatible with only numeric name, it has to be with letters or all letters. I am frustrated I wasn't informed earlier but happy that now it's over, and the changed is over.

So my selling venues are here:

6060eyes.com (wip)


6060.etsy.com


6060eyes.artfire.com

I hope it's not too confusing.
Thanks!
Clara

I know it's still a bit early to talk about Halloween, Fall and Thanksgiving, but it never too early to talk about sugar corn candy. My hubby, he is a loyal fan of sugar corn candy, he can eat a whole bag of those without blinking his eyes. In the past I never really like corn candy because it's too sweet for my tooth, but after I met him and saw that he could put this thing in his mouth non-stop while working, watching tv, and even doing yard work, I started to look at this candy a different way. This candy is a symbol of the sweetness you can get from Fall, Thanksgiving and Halloween. The color is cheerful and it's always bring you back the memories of the happiness to have a big feast, party and having the lovely people around you in that season. Now while I am typing this, just thinking about it makes me want to have one. Since they are not in the supermarket yet, meanwhile I think I can just look at this amigurumi sugar corn and wait patiently until the fall arrives. =)

Did you have a great 4th of July? I knew I did. :)  We went to see fireworks in a rainy and lightning night. It was pretty to see both fireworks and lightning at the same time. How about you?

In the past weekend I spent most of the time doing cleaning, cooking, and cleaning! LOL well.. not quite that bad, I spent some time to design and paint plastic eyes too.  Here are what I have painted. What do you think?

Usually the eyes I carry in my store you can install it to your critter/stuffed toys with your bare hands, however, I understand not everyone has the same strenght to push the washers when the eyes are small to handle. So here are couple suggestions that hopefully make your life easier. :)

1. If you have this interchangeable screw driver set in your house, there is always a handle with a hole, use that to help pushing the washer towards the eye. It's easier on your hand and you can grab the handle and use a little force and the washer should be right in.

2. If the washers are too hard, you don't have the right tool with you, you can soak the plastic washers into a bowl of really hot water for a few minutes. The hard plastic will turn softer and you can dry it and at once push it towards the eyes.

If you have more suggestions, you are always welcome to comment. :)

In Feb 2011, my friend Agnes went down here from NJ to visit her friend in VA. We were both interested in crochet and related items. I live in MD, from here to DC is like an hour. We have been chatting on the phone for a long time, like a pen pal but instead we chat by phone. We both too lazy to write I guess! :) One day I told her about the crochet exhibit in DC and we decided to visit the crochet coral reef exhibit in Natural Museum together.  That day it's very crowd although the weather was very cold. It's hard to find a parking space. My hubby convinced me to take a train instead of driving. I was hesitated but was glad to listen to him, there was no way we could find a parking without fighting with the rest of the people!! :P  Finally Agnes and I got to see each other, including our kids and families. It's an adventure in both "crochet" and "personal relationship" kind of way. We stayed in the museum for a few hours, the kids were tired, but luckily both of our hubbies kept the kids occupied while Agnes and I were able to look at the crochet project quietly!

The moment I saw the crochet I was speechless except many sounds of "wow". It was like stitches everywhere, the stitches were just single crochet, double crochet stitches, nothing complicated. However, all these different shapes, colors, designs, and materials together sure were very complicated. There was a lady at the side explaining the materials they were using, including wool, cotton, plastic bag, and even VCR tapes. I was amazed by all these hard works, talents, and hooks behind of the whole project.  If you are a crochet lover, don't miss the next exhibit in CA from June 6. . Information is here.

I crocheted these chains of hearts a while back. The pattern is from Pepika.com. She provided a bunch of cute free patterns. This pattern is called " Crochet 3D Heart ". The yarn I used is called " Caron Simply Soft Brites Yarn ". This particular yarn is very soft, so when I put the stuffing into the hearts, I have to put a lot in order to keep the heart shape. Other than that, the yarn is pretty good for crocheting, it doesn't split much, and the colors are just as beautiful as it can be. If you are a crochet beginner, this is definitely a very nice and easy project for you, try it, you won't regret! :)

A few weeks ago, Diane sent me 2 books for my girls. She was really nice to do it. She even signed the books for me. This book was about all the animals in the carousel and how the kids discovered all these animals from their research. From the book, the kids knew about the fact and nature of the animals like gorillas, zebras, panda etc. This book was published by Houston Zoo and it's full of colorful pictures. I just read it to my kids, they love it ,especially my 5 year old, she's a fan of zebra since 1 year old.



Nowadays, so many animals are in danger and it's really nice that we, human, still cares about them and make sure that they will be here with us for a long long time.



*Peace*

Yesterday I spent the whole evening to update this blog look. Since I am not a tech person, doing this is a brand new adventure to me. Luckily I have this program to help me. I learnt this program from Linda, an etsian. I was skeptical at first, didn't know where to start. However, this program gave it all. It's easy to use, and I didn't even read the instructions before I started. To me, mother of two little kids, reading instructions quietly is impossible. I was glad I kinda finished everything by midnight. Yes, in between of course I got to cook and took care of the kids, but afterall, I was happy to learn a new program that would enhance the professional looking of my blog. This satisfied customer gave this program a thumbs up.

Yesterday I got a very lovely present from my girl friend, Agnes. She sent me this Starbucks thermos travel cup which I really like. I have been trying to lose weight for the last few weeks and this time is for real.

Today morning I stepped on the scale and I lost 10 lbs, my heart and mouth said "yoohoo" at the same time. I haven't been able to lose weight since I gave birth to my second child. I tried to lose weight, but with the stress and busy life, I gave up totally. 3 weeks ago I went to my personal doctor because of the headache I have been having for last 2 years, and my blood pressure was all time high, she ordered me to on diet and lose weight and took the high blood pressure medicine all at once. I was like "uh ho".

In the last 2 weeks, I was trying to take it easy in everything, especially eating, stop myself eating junk food whenever I feel very stressful. It helped a lot. I was hungry at first, then I just trying to drink more tea, or at lunch and dinner I would try to eat more rice and less meat. Finally it did work, and I was so glad.

Now talking about the thermos, in the past I drank 3 cups of coffee each day to keep me running, now I only have a cup, so that cup has to be lasting for a while. By putting my cup of coffee in a thermos cup, I was able to drink it in 2 hours, instead of finishing 1 cup in 15 mins and then went ahead and get a 2nd cup, I have this 1 cup of coffee for 2 hours. It totally helped me to lose weigh, cut down the sugar and milk.

Agnes, a true sweet heart, she heard me that I needed a thermo cup, she bought me another one for my birthday present, and now I can do the exact same thing when I am driving. Indeed, she has been a very lovely friend to have. Thank you Agnes!! (biggggggg huggggggssssssss for my girlfriend).

When I crochet amigurumi, I love different colors, the bolder the better.

This time I used a bright blue color as the body and the other parts I used orange, hot pink and white.

The safety eyes I used 18mm translucent blue. The blackground stitches are white in color, so it didn't affect the translucent blue eyes one bit.

Sometimes when we chose safety eyes for a critter, you don't really need to think what size of eye fits what size of a critter. I suggest to get different sizes of eyes. A new amigurumi crocheter I suggested to use from 9mm to 18mm, black eyes first, then once you get a hold of it, then you can focus with trying different colors.

I know sometimes you will afraid like "Geez.. What am I going to do with neon yellow, neon green? " . Tell you the truth, there is no boundaries with the choices. I always use colors that always clash to each other. For example, orange with green yarns, yellow with bright blue, or even pink with black or brown. Since critters are naturally cute, there is no wrong by using different colors together.

So I say " Build up your confidence and try the bright color yarns, eyes and noses "

*Pattern from the Itsy Bitsy Spider by Karla*

This pattern is from Lion Brand website. A year ago when I first purchased this brown sofa, I thought I got to have something with lighter color. So I thought having a throw was just right. I was very happy it turned out ok, it's very comfy and warm. In winter time it's a must have! I crocheted it more than 5 1/2 hours of course, but it's worth it! :)