EH-EE!

Devil Rays versus the Red Sox. Game seven of the ALCS. Tonight's victor faces the Phillies for the World Series title.

...and I would care, if only it were the Cubs. ;_;

Ku's Chi-town loyalties aside, rays are cute. Cute things get turned into softies.

A new softie pattern, イエイ〜 Quite easy, just two pieces back-to-back. Make a big one to serve as a pillow for your favorite Rays fan. Or for your least-favorite Steve Irwin fan.

Stingray in Japanese is えい、which comes out ei in romaji, which should sound something like "eh-EE" if you're pronouncing it from English, which, incidentally, is identical to a common cry of celebration that appears in the Cajun dialect.

I envision one Japanese tourist who, upon visiting New Orleans, finds himself pondering why the colorful zydeco bands on the street corners keep yelling "STINGRAY!" between long passages of gnarled French.

And then I don't feel so bad about the Cubs. -_-

100 years and counting, buu.

ワンワンなど (short post)

犬、inu
(hiragana: いぬ)
dog, canine

ワンワン、 wan-wan
(hiragana: わんわん)
Japanese onomatopoeia for a dog's bark

わんちゃん、wan-chan
an endearing term for a little dog, similar to "doggie" in English

A little softie dog, based on a pattern by the clever Runo, Japanese dollmaker. You can find the pattern on her blog, right here.

Back soon~

Birds and Beads

やっと秋らしくなりましてよかった。^w^

One last image from the Japanese Festival:

This little bird, likely a female Anna's hummingbird, appeared in the welcome center and promptly started snacking on a flower arrangement. The staff set up a little feeder (should the flowers run dry of nectar), and the bird happily hovered over the crowd all afternoon.

蜂鳥: hachidori (hah-chee-doh-ree)
Hummingbird; literal translation is "bee bird."

And now, back to the show.

I have some beads here, and some thread. Beadweaving ensues. :D

Some really, really old CDS rings that Ku made in, I dunno, maybe middle school. -_-;

While you can find all manner of beadwork tutorials on the internet, I haven't yet come across one for conjoined daisy stitch. Ergo, I'mma make one meself.

The two are only slightly different:

CDS is stronger and more compact than regular daisy stitch because each flower shares its east and west petals with the one next to it.

This allows flowers to overlap:

...or, you can divide individual flowers with pillars of a counter color, たとえば:

In any case, here's how to do it:

All you need are some beads, some string of a gauge small enough to go through those beads, and a thin needle to help you get said string through aforementioned beads. ビーズ、糸、と針しかいらない。簡単でしょう？ ^-^