#although i do mostly amigurumi these days

[d4ydream-girl]

here's a hat pattern I really like: https://sarahmaker.com/easy-crochet-beanie/

it's pretty simple but since it's ribbed it's not as repetitive as a normal hat would be!

Does anyone have any simple beginner crochet patterns?

For example, if I knit, it's mostly to keep my hand busy and I started with scarves, but moved to bookmarks, since they were essentially a smaller version of that same pattern. (I say pattern but it's the same stitch over and over)

Anything helps!

[foxounderscorecube]

Hello! I'm Lowarn, and this is my Tumblr. Some people know me as Cat.

I mostly reblog stuff, but I post my art under the tag #my art (very inventive, I know) and occasionally feel like I need to share my thoughts for whatever reason, too. Maybe one day I will post about my creative writing here, as a treat.

Feel free to send asks/DMs!! :D

Art Fight ~ Ko-Fi ~ Etsy ~ Novelette

My degree was in Costume Design and Making, which I do very little with, but I have a massive love of clothes and sewing! I really love traditional and folk costume in particular. I crochet as well, although I mostly make amigurumi.

I'm non-binary and sort of just generally queer.

I have some degree of brainworms about various media, including

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Homestuck

Pokemon

Warhammer

Dark Souls/Elden Ring

A Court of Thorns and Roses (or, as I affectionately call it, A Court of Shit and Piss)

I also love animals, especially bugs and fish, and I'm interested in stuff to do with queer and disability rights - I'm autistic and chronically ill, so the latter is pretty relevant to me.

I don't tend to tag/tw things unless they're, like, VERY blatant, but please feel free to let me know if you want something tagged! In the same vein, I'm an adult and will reblog/post things that are for adults. Please keep that in mind before you follow - this isn't a blog full of explicit NSFW or anything, but if nudity/suggestive content is a no-go for you, then here's your warning.

Thanks for visiting! I hope we can be beloved mutuals!

[kaycees-creationz]

Welcome, welcome!

Heya people, I wanted to start off this first blog with an introduction of myself and telling you a bit about my reasoning behind this blog. First of all, hi~! You can call me Kaycee. I am a hobby artist and crochet enthusiast who recently got diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses. I have a wonderful little dog, who's name is Kaida! I'm very fond of musicals and music in general and I love to sing along as well. For art I mostly draw digitally and traditionally with colored pencils, but I am also working on learning to work with Gouache. Crocheting wise I am mostly into Amigurumi, although, making a biiig blanket is also something I really want to do someday! Because of my recent diagnosis' my life has been going through a big loopty loop, leaving me searching for ways to cope with all the things that come my way. Constantly searching for the right treatments, what symptoms come from what, what doctor can help with this, etc, it's quite a lot to be honest with you all.

I can't imagine me being the only person having gone through this.

Because of this, I want to share my journey through this all, both the good and the bad, intertwined with updates and blogs about my creative hobbies. Maybe it will help others feel less alone and more understood, and at worst, at least I've found something to try to see if it can help me cope. I can't wait to see where this journey will bring me. No doubt there will be difficult times, but nothing I can't conquer, nor you can't do!

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day/evening and hopefully I'll see you all soon again! Stay safe, stay strong

Signing off, Kaycee

[uncloseted]

What're you doing to stay busy in these times ? I'm trying to do things but I keep getting bored so I want some new ideas hehe (Sorry if someone already asked this)

You’re the first to ask this!  Right now here’s what I’ve been up to:

Playing video games. Mostly Animal Crossing: New Horizons because it makes me feel better about the world, but I’m also planning on starting another Kingdom Hearts playthrough.  If you have a Playstation and ten dollars, I think Playstation Now is also worth it, since there’s a good variety of games that you might not otherwise play.  If you have a PC, some video games are now free to encourage people to stay inside, including The Stanley Parable, Watch Dogs, Drawful 2, and more.  Now is also a great time to play some old browser based games- I think itch.io is the most popular platform for them right now.  I love a good browser game and some of my favorite games of all time are in that format- try The Company of Myself and its prequel, Fixation, Every Day the Same Dream, Don’t Look Back.  For mobile games, I love To the Moon (also on PC, Mac, Switch), Monument Valley 1 and 2, and Plants Vs Zombies (pretty much every platform). I was also lowkey addicted to Cooking Craze for a while. Take that as you will. 

Watching TV and movies.  Right now for TV, I’m switching between Derry Girls, Great British Bake Off, Space Dandy, and Adventure Time, as well as keeping up with The Good Place, Brooklyn 99, Schitt’s Creek, and Westworld.  My boyfriend also recently became obsessed with The Tiger King, so I’ve seen that twice now.  I would also recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender, Queer Eye, and John Mulaney and Bo Burnham’s Netflix specials.  For movies, anything Studio Ghibli has been my thing right now.  Also anything Masaaki Yuasa, but particularly the movie Night is Short, Walk on Girl, and the TV show The Tatami Galaxy.

Reading books. Right now I’m mostly doing read-throughs of my favorite books from when I was a kid, like the Harry Potter series, the Casson family series, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.  I’m also reading Vengeful by VE Schwab, the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and some other more serious books that aren’t as fun.  If you have a library card, see if your local library has a subscription with Overdrive or Libby.  Those services allow you to download e-books directly to your Kindle or phone and are a great way to get new content (including magazines).

Working. I’m still working, which is good, although I’m not getting paid, which is not great.  If you have work to do, whether it’s school related or not, it might help you maintain a feeling of normalcy in this unpredictable time.

Taking online classes. I really love online classes from places like Coursera and Lynda.  Whatever you might be interested in learning, there’s a class for it, and I think having the framework of a class that progresses every day can help to feel like time is moving forward and that you’re making improvements on yourself.  Language learning is also a great thing to do right now. There are lots of different free apps that you can download- I use Duolingo.

Learn something new. This sort of ties into online classes, but I’m (planning on) setting myself the goal of learning one new thing a day from learning the guitar to basic coding.  I like the idea of having tons of new skills once the lockdown is over.

Make stuff. This is another one that I’m planning on doing but haven’t started yet.  I’m trying to give myself a break from the obligation to be productive during this time, but I do want to start turning my attention to making art when I’m ready.  This can mean anything- doodling, sketching, painting, making origami, knitting, crocheting, making amigurumi, doing DIY projects (look for ideas on Instructables), writing stories, writing poetry, making short films, making youtube videos, making animations, making video games, whatever you like.  I think being creative is great in general and many of us don’t have enough time to do that in our day to day lives.

If anyone has other suggestions for stuff to do, please send them in!  I’m sure everyone would love to hear them.

[thesouthkoreayears]

Wednesday, June 17

Woke up at 6am, got everything packed up and left the Pension by 7:28 (goal was 7:30). Went to a place that advertised coffee and donuts (it did NOT have donuts) and got two iced hazelnut americanos. Checked into the terminal at 7:50 for our tickets and we played outside in the shade until 8:30 when there was an announcement to board. 

Went inside, queued up with everyone and got on board in our row of four seats. Everyone one was settled in when we departed at 8:50am. The ferry was enclosed only and it went too fast to go outside on the top deck area. 

I won’t regale you with the tale but suffice it to say, I was very very ill. I knew the ferry would do a number on me (I’ve had bad motion sickness my entire life and it only seems to get worse with age) but holy hell. I was so sick. Writing this at 8pm, I still don’t feel 100% and I’m not looking forward to the ride back tomorrow. The kids did okay on the ride over, Moses slept for most of it and Max watched Kiki’s Delivery Service and snoozed on Julian at the end.

We arrived on Ulleungdo just before noon - what a sight! The sky is so clear and the water is so clean and the fresh air felt amazing, especially after being on the boat for three hours. The island is quite small (less than 11,000 inhabitants) so it felt untouched and very undeveloped. We hopped in a taxi and took an insanely winding and rural road 45 minutes north to Nari Basin (나리분지) for lunch. The ride was incredible - so many huge rocks sticking out of the water, lush greenery everywhere, endless skies. We ate at 산마을 “Mountain Village” bibimbap restaurant. The food blew my mind! Everything is grown there in the basin and they have the freshest side dishes I’ve ever eaten. The spread was incredible and we ate our hearts out. Afterwards we walked around the basin a little bit to see our surroundings. Nari Basin is a caldera, a large volcanic depression, caused by collapse or explosion. It’s the largest flat area on Ulleungdo Island, and it’s not very big! The land here is well drained and composed of fertile volcanic ash soil. Most of the people living in the basin earn a high income by producing medicinal plants. Max was excited and nervous about the fact that we were at the top of the old volcano and he had a lot of questions for me about it. Wildflowers bloomed all over the simple road and it was so quaint and quiet.

When we decided to head to Gwanuemdo (an adjacent, pedestrian-only island accessed by a small bridge) we were met with a few issues. First, it turned out the island was closed because it was too windy to walk across the bridge. Secondly, our taxi driver had left and there were no other taxis to get down from the basin! A few kind people on a tour bus helped us translate and the owner of the restaurant we ate at called the taxi driver (apparently she knew him personally) and had us come back to pick us up. We rested in the shade while we waited for him to return. Since the pedestrian island was closed, we decided to take Max to a cable car (since he was still saddened by the closure of the one from yesterday) and he was thrilled. Although it was 3pm, the cable car area was mostly empty and we were able to get right on board. It was only 8,000 won for all of us, round trip! From above, we could see the area of Dodong (the biggest “city” on the island) and on a clear day, you can see Dokdo Island too! Sadly, it wasn’t visible today (even though the air seemed clear) but we were more than happy to enjoy a 붕어 (fish shaped ice cream treat) from the top. 

We made it back down and decided to walk through Dodong to find a place to stay. The options online were very limited so I thought it would be in our best interest to wait and see what was available when we arrived. We walked around for a bit and found some cute shops with handmade items from juniper trees, handmade amigurumi (tiny crocheted animals) and flower shops galore. One shop owner welcomed us into her place and the kids loved looking at all the precious things she had for sale. Her husband was outside, carving vases out of the volcanic rock for succulents. It was such a cute place!

In time, we found a little hotel in the main part of town and settled in and dropped our suitcase off. Then we set off in search of dinner! Julian spotted a place with fresh vegetables and seafood and we ate our hearts out. They also had pumpkin makgeolli (a rice wine) which was absolutely delicious. They had little turtles in a big ceramic bowl and the boys loved seeing them swim around and stare at them.

By 7pm, we were stuffed. But not too stuffed to walk back to a pumpkin hotteok (pancake) place we had seen earlier in the evening when we were wandering around. We ordered two cream cheese pumpkin pancakes and one original and they were SO. DAMN. GOOD. Best hotteok I’ve ever had. A man came over from the restaurant next door and paid for our pancakes! He gave us such a warm welcome to the island and took a picture of all of us together. We climbed up on a ledge overlooking the street and watched the cars and buses and people go by while we enjoyed our hotteok. We were so wiped out by the day that we came back to the hotel and everyone was asleep by 8:30. It was quite a day.

[floraone]

Get to know me!

I was tagged by @sailor-moon-turtle , so I’ll better get to work, ;)

 Relationship status: married to the sweetest soul in the known universe!

 Favourite colour: to look at: yellow, to wear: white.

 Pets:     None :( :( I would love to have a cat - I grew up with 4, but my man is too allergic :( :(

 Wake up: sometime before 7…. too early. blame work.

 cats or dogs:      KITTENS

  Coke or Pepsi:      neiter. I’m caffeine intolerant.

 Day or night:     Night. On a rooftop, with blankets and a bottle of wine and my husband and snuggles.

 Text or call:      Text. I hate calling.

 Chapstick or lipstick:  barely use either. Bright red lipstick only ever for going out to cabaret and burlesque shows, with glitter in my hair and cleavage, and the whole shebang. chapstick only in deepest winter. Otherwise: none.

City or country: Citygirl through and through. Always have been, always will. And I’m talking big cities, and smack in the middle. The more crowded and crazy it is, the better. If I can’t see street lamps and hear people howling, I feel lonely and misplaced. Plus, I need the feeling I could get up at three in the morning and immediately get a Döner Kebab from somewhere, NOW - even if that never happens.

 Last book I read: Currently reading “Untenrum Frei” - a brilliant collection of essays by a feminist journalist whose newspaper columns I like to read.

 Last song I listened to: Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, by The Pussycat Dolls, while editing chapter 6 of Yugen before I posted it, where it’s mentioned.

Five (very random) facts about me:

1. Although one definitely couldn’t say I’ve ever been gifted with a lot of wealth, l’ve seen quite a lot of the world already. While university is completely free in Germany, it can sometimes take a while to get a placement in one. So I’ve spent four years right after graduating from High School traveling all over the place - mostly doing volunteer work projects, or just regular jobs, or couch-surfing … or …stuff, lol. I’ve lived in Ireland for 20 months where I worked in a women’s shelter, I hitchhiked across the coast of Spain for a month, with a friend and a sleeping bag, wild-camping at the ocean most of the time. I’ve stayed in a monastary in southern France for a little while and I travelled across China for several months, from Beijing down to Hong Kong, complete with more wild camping on the chinese wall, then spent a month staying with a friend at NYU in Greenwich Village. One of those New Year’s I jumped buck naked into the ice cold North Sea in the Netherlands with hundreds of crazy dutch people and a few of my friends (very weird, very entertaining tradition). And even outside of those travelling years: I’ve been to Dublin over 20 times in my life, to Amsterdam 12 times, London about the same amount. I’ve been to Paris, to skiing trips all across the alps from northern Italy to Austria, I’ve hiked down all across the german wine-hills, been to Toyko a few times now, and to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and to small villages near Fuji-san. I’ve travelled across Great Britain several times, from Scotland down to Wales. I’ve been to Budapest and Venice, to Prague and Vienna, travelled across Pennsylvania and Scandinavia, been to Zürich and Qatar, to Barcelona and Luxemborg, all through Belgium and the Netherlands, and that’s not even all of them. I’ve booked the “surprise me” options on flights several times, and I’ve made friends all over the world that I get to visit all the time now. When one is ok with AirBnBs and someone’s couch, with travelling by train and coach and letting the journey truly be the destination, and/or working while travelling, then all of that doesn’t need to be expensive either. (Also, living smack in the middle of Europe, where different countries and cultures are pretty damn close, helps with that, too, of course.)

2. I’m the black sheep of a family of musicians. My sisters are singers, guitarists and harpists, my mother used to be a concert pianist when she was younger. While I did learn to play two instruments: piano and violin, I’m sadly rather rubbish at them.

3. I have collections of strange things that I like to take photos of:

Of letters in the wild, of stone bums, of plastic food. Here, have some examples:

4. While I am extremely dexterous when it comes to fine motor skills (I croquet tiny amigurumi monsters - from Cthulu to Nosferatu - I sew and draw and DIY and build furniture, from tiny delicate things to giant bookshelfs, with precision and skill.) I SUCK ONCE IT GETS TO GROSS MOTOR SKILLS. I have absolutely no sense of balance, I hurt myself on ANYTHING - I literally have two giant burn marks on my bum from when I bloody sat on the hot flat iron, an involutary tattoo on my cheek from when a pencil stuck in it, I am covered in mysterious bruises constantly from when I run into things, and I just can’t walk across loose cables without landing on my head (also, I seem to be missing that very handy reflex where people usually stick out their hands to brace their falls? Doesn’t work on me. I seem to be too terrified to injure my hands, so they immediately go behind my back when I fall, and so I tend to land on my face - sigh.) So yeah, I’m a running paradox. The dexterous klutz. I’d give Usagi a run for her money.

5. I get SO ANGRY when technology doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. I’m a really chill and laid-back person, and nothing USUALLY ever gets my blood boiling, EXCEPT WHEN MY BLOODY COMPUTER ISN’T DOING WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO DO. So, have it do that ping noise that it does when it’s overwhelmed and you have me read-faced, banging my fists and cursing crude and vulgar things at it, while eyeing the next window I could throw it out of. It’s usally very amusing to my husband, as long as he’s a save distance away.

I tag: whoever wants to do it.

And, @uglygreenjacket, & @irritablevowel - Only if you want to, of course.