Lawrence Lessig and Creative Commons License

I've mentioned this before, I highly recommend watching these videos for everyone, most of all, those of us who are creating and sharing through the internet.
Lawrence Lessig presents it in a very interesting manner. He'll make you laugh too! He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.
I don't understand everything yet, and I intend to watch it again several times ;)

2008 and 2009 Crochet Pattern-a-Day Calendars

The 2008 Crochet Pattern-a-Day calendar is finished and I think will already be on its way to contributors. I can't wait to get my copy! Now I was able to find out which of my pattern submissions made it, since they've provided the Table of Contents. It was fun though to be in suspense like last time, when I found out only when the calendar was out and I had to ask those who had gotten their copy first...
Anyways...I have 3 small patterns in the upcoming calendar. Some of you have already seen it: Diagonal-Striped Coin Purse, Spiral Ruffled Scrunchie, and Radiant Coaster/Doily.


The 2008 calendar is not yet released but can now be ordered at Amazon.com.
Check out the TOC for the 2008 CPAD and call for pattern submissions for 2009, many pattern titles sound interesting...I wonder what else I could think up to submit for the next calendar...

Got my swap package from Kimberly, yay!!!

These lovely goodies came from my American friend, Kimberly, in Belgium. She is my swap partner at our Kitchen Swap at the FiberFreaks forum.

Look at the lovely thick dishcloth, with a nice pattern stitch, I love the green and ecru combination! The design looks like people holding hands ;)
The two other ecru dishcloths are lovely too, with the pretty stitches, esp. the broomstick lace stitch :)
The trivet (or potholder) is very interesting, I would love to make one, what a clever idea! I'm really very lucky to have Kimberly as my swap partner, her handmade items are all beautiful!

And the chime, how cute it is!
And the fridge magnet too, with a wonderful Irish saying:
May the roof above us never fall in and may we friends gathered below never fall out.

The necklace kit, I am sure I will make several of those pretty chokers and necklaces!
The beautiful fur yarns (great color!), I will have to look on the internet for more inspirational designs to turn the yarn into lovely accessories.
And last, but not least, the cute stitch markers!...I'll be using it now, since I only used safety pins before ;)

Thank you so much Kimberly for all the time and care (and expense!) you put into this to send me a wonderful swap package

Happy Blogiversary (to me!)

Two years...yay!
I don't have much to say for now except thanks to all of you who became a part of this blog. For all your wonderful and inspiring comments, for the friendship, the virtual hugs, the gifts and warm wishes too.

Now on to my little blogiversary contest -

Two contestants will win a flower choker esp. made by me!
As I'm writing this post, I'm also shuffling up the names...


But first, thanks to all who left comments and participated in my blog contest: Kimberly, Deneen, Sue, Sheila, Lily, Stacie, Tina, Yasmin, Ashley, Kari, Kelly, Lucy and Vik.

Unfortunately, no one got the correct answer to where I got the idea for the choker. But the closest guess is from Lily - because my clue was that it came from a yarn company. The answer is Phildar, its originally from France, and Mani di Fata (Lily's answer) is originally from Italy. So, I hope you will agree that is the closest answer ;)
Here is the cover page of the newsletter where I got the idea for the design.

I already have the instant prize ready and it will soon be mailed. As for the two winners of the choker, I will email you to know what color and length of choker you prefer.
The two winners are... btw, you can thank (or blame) my 17 yr-old son for picking out the winners ;) I could not believe it when I opened the two entries:

Deneen
Tina

Congratulations!!!

Blogiversary giveaway

Hi everyone! I'll be celebrating my 2nd blogiversary on May 17. Yay! I did not want to let it pass without something to remember it by. After all its sort of becoming a tradition among us bloggers ;)
I accidentally came up with an idea for a blogiversary contest...
Well, the idea for this design came from one of the newsletters from a yarn company, which I subscribed to by email. I saw a model with a crocheted flower choker with a few beads in the center. Simple and cute. I made several, using different size of hooks and varying stitch counts. Here are two of my finished necklaces. I modeled the smaller one, its too close to my neck...(I dont have a model's neck, so I blurred the photo ;)

I'll be giving away a flower choker to two lucky visitors of my blog. Just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win :D
One more thing, if you can tell or guess where I got the idea for this design, I'll give a prize too. The first one to give the correct answer will be an instant winner. The contest ends when I draw and announce the winners on May 17.

Paypal extends service to more countries

The new markets that can now use PayPal to send money online include:
...Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique...For more info and to see the complete list of markets supported by PayPal go to https://www.paypal.com/worldwide.

Crochet projects update

...still working on the diagrams for my latest design for Coats Manila Bay. Wish it didnt take me too long, but it did. I enjoy crocheting but, (sometimes) I hate writing the patterns and drawing the diagrams. Anyways, I'm eager to start on a new design after I finish everything for the skirt and top that I submitted.
They gave me a lacy stitch pattern, and I hope I'll be able to come up with a tunic top using that. A bikini set is also on the to-do list :p I was given these colorful threads to work with for the next projects ;)

And here so far, are my designs for Project Brave Kids (which I first mentioned in this post)
We are still teaching some of them the basics, but some are already producing finished goods.
I have been inspired to create these designs for the project.

Just want to show you samples of the coasters I made, 6 pcs. per set. Its fun making these small items ;)



Btw, my sister sent me a copy of the creative commons DVD. She said she got it from Lawrence Lessig himself, at a conference in Malta. The topic should very much concern us as artists, creators, and bloggers. Will have to watch the clips first and then I'll post my comments. But if you have time I recommend you see these video clips on Lessig's lectures.
Thanks sis for the goodies ;)

Got my Crochet Pattern-a-day Calendar!

Finally, I received my copy from Accord Publishing! Thanks to the publisher and to whoever mailed it from Lenexa, Kansas ;)
Also, thanks again to Annie Modesitt.

I loved looking at all the projects in there, couldnt put it down until I've seen them all ;) I felt good seeing some of my online friends' patterns in there too, and then showing off my own patterns to my family :)
I think it is worth buying for all the cute patterns in there.

Here are my patterns if anyone is interested to look ;)

Matrix Bag - September 10
Twisted Wrap - September 12
Pumpkin Container with Lid - October 24
Baby Cotton Hat - November 5
Baby Cotton Mittens - November 6

For more info on the calendar, go to crochet pattern-a-day site.

A big thanks goes to Tina for sending me the crochet calendar which she ordered for me. I did buy a copy so I could lend it out here ;)

Mother's Day

ETA: Oops, I just realized it isnt the 2nd Sunday of May yet and mother's day is on next Sunday. No wonder I wasnt thinking about it, until my son greeted me and presented me a gift. Oh well, I already wrote this post, so its nice anyway I'm the first to greet everyone :p

I forgot its Mother's Day today (so my son made me think), and I really dont have any plans for this day. I did greet my Mom and wish I had made something for her...but she already has a cell phone tote and several scrunchies I made. Anyway, Mom knows I'm just here when she needs me and if she likes any of the stuff I make, she can easily request it ;)
To all the mothers out there, especially the crocheting moms I know: Happy Mother's Day!

Now I really wasnt going to post about mother's day, but my dear son together with his g.f. picked a special gift for me: (I realized later that it was an advance gift coz dear g.f. will be going abroad on vacation)



It's awesome! I told my son, it is a great inspiration and a lovely addition to my collection...But I pointed out, I've had some of those same ideas used in my creations before. And our crochet here has always been lacy, since thread is mostly used. My son agrees and said we should look at the possibility of publishing my own book of designs...hehe...who knows?
First, I must learn more about Doris Chan and try to emulate her :)

The Tragedy of Backovers

I just read Stacey's post and wanted to pass it on. I couldnt imagine this really happening and its frightening that in the U.S. 2 children would die every week because of being accidentally backed over by most probably their own parent. Stacey survived a similar accident, but many children and family arent so lucky. News such as this is hard to believe.

And here's an excerpt from the Today Show article:
It’s the larger vehicles, the SUV’s, minivans and the pickups that have the biggest blind zones. The type of vehicles so many families now use. Here’s the typical scenario: a parent says goodbye to their child, gets in the car, checks the mirrors and takes off. The child wanting to say good bye one last time runs after the car and the parent can’t see the child. They have actually named this as “the bye, bye syndrome.” Kids and Cars, a non –profit organization, has been tracking deaths and injuries related to backovers. They say every week 2 children die from backovers.

Crocheted Dishcloths and other stuff

I mentioned a few weeks ago in this post that I joined a Kitchen Swap at FiberFreaks. I'm so glad that Kimberly is my swap partner there, since I've known her (virtually) for almost two years now. She was one of my first friends over at crochetville and my very first online customer!
Anyways, here now is the other dishcloth I sent her. This is also my first tunisian crochet project done:

Photo Credit: Kimberly, The City of Crochet

For the other stuff I sent her, check out her blog entry ;)

If you want some of those cute little gift box, I got the pattern here. Just print on cardstock, cut, fold and glue at the ends. Really cute, and here is another one. Actually, I tried to locate the homepage, but cant find it for now...

The gift card can be found here (the site has pop-up ads, though). The card I printed is here.

Also, I would like to share the coaster I made from worsted weight cotton yarn. (I got some skeins of the Bernat Handicrafter from Barb in Canada, a year ago...) I love working with the cotton yarn, it works up so fast and its soft ;) The pattern is simple: Rnd 1: 12 dc, Rnd 2: 24 dc, Rnd 3: 48 dc, Rnd 4: 48 sc. Edging: blanket stitch over each sc.