2011 in review
31 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,400 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
Amigurumi – Graduating Student
19 Dec 2011 6 Comments
in My Masterpieces Tags: amigurumi, crochet, graduate, graduation gifts
I know it has well passed the time of graduation for most students. However, it is never too late to share the gift I made for my brother, Eric, to celebrate his graduating from high school several months ago.
Eric was the Valedictorian of his class. Needless to say, our family was extremely excited about his graduation. Every one of us had spent months to deliberate over the graduation gifts. I wanted to make something special—something that shows my excitement and appreciation for his achievements. I decided to crochet a doll for Eric—a doll that represents him. It was the first time I had ever handmade a gift for him. (It’s also the first time I had ever handmade a gift for a boy. Ha ha!)
In the eye of the beholder (me!), the doll is chubby and cute. To my brother’s eyes, my creation became the following…
His first reaction upon receiving the doll: “My hair looks like this!?”
A moment later, he continued, “Dude, my head is a ball of rice!”
@_@
Well, there is nothing I can do about the “rice ball” head!
Side view
The back
Side view
Today, this prominent “rice-ball head” graduate stood on my brother’s bookshelf. I guess my gift is not that bad after all.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
11 Aug 2011 2 Comments
in Books Tags: Amy Chau, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Chinese parenting, parenting, tiger mother
At the age of 24, unmarried, and without child, it never occurred to me that I would read a parenting book. Yet, when a tremendous amount of media attention was paid to Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a parenting book by Amy Chau, my curiosity started to itch. My mother, who was desperate to show my siblings and me her (what she thought) less-restricted-than-other-Chinese-parents parenting, nagged me to read the book. I picked it up at the local library and spent the following days on and off on the “story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones.”
Frankly, I was totally turned off by the way Chau was raised and how she raised her two daughters. I admitted that Chau and her daughters, who seemed to have achieved success in almost every aspect of life, enjoyed way more applauses and compliments than most of their peers. However, I could not agree with such pressure-cooker parenting and, in many situations, Chau’s humiliating her children in public was not appropriate. She emphasized in her book that her parents were even tougher on kids when she was a child. It struck me that Chau’s parenting method was likely a reflection of her unhappiness in her childhood. She had unconsciously unleashed that go-through-what-I-went-through feeling on her own children.
Inarguably, Chau was successful in making her daughters one of the most competitive students/musicians among their peers. Yet, I was concerned about their emotional health, especially the emotion of her younger daughter, that seemed faltering as Chau described toward the end of her story.
When it comes to parenting, there probably isn’t a right or wrong method. What is most important is that parenting has to be adjusted and adapted for individual—every child is different and thus a cookie-cutter parenting method is unlikely to work for everyone. Chau apparently overlooked this important point in her quest for becoming the “tiger mother.”
I am not in the position to criticize how Chau raised her daughters. I just hope Chau’s daughters will not do the same to their own children.
Sister
06 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Books Tags: Random House, Read It Forward, Rosamund Lupton, Sister
An unexpected death of a 21-year-old art student who had given birth to a stillborn baby not long before her death; a series of open letters from her beloved sister who tried hard to identify the murderer when everyone else believed it was a suicide; and, a melodramatic twist in the end constructed Rosamund Lupton’s debut novel, Sister.
Everything began when Beatrice, the protagonist, received a phone call from her mother telling her that her sister, Tess, had been missing for four days. Beatrice, who had been maintaining a close relationship with Tess despite a five-year age difference, flew from New York to London without hesitation. Tess’ missing was especially worrisome to Beatrice who thought Tess’ pregnancy would be due in three weeks. Clinging to the hope that Tess would be back anytime, Beatrice decided to stay in London in Tess’ apartment. She later learned that Tess had already given birth, unfortunately, to a stillborn. It was yet more shattering when the police found Tess’ body in a deserted lavatory in a park.
Beatrice could not bear a life without Tess. She firmly believed that Tess was murdered although the postmortem report concluded that Tess committed suicide. Determined to identify the murderer, Beatrice refused to return to New York—a decision that eventually cost her a high paying job and her relationship with her fiancé, Todd. Through her reminiscence in her letters to Tess and her imaginary interactions with an invented lawyer, Beatrice connected her past and present and revealed her real self. She realized that it was her insecurity that pushed her away from her family. It was her need for safety that made her choose a job and a relationship that offered stability rather than excitement. Her newfound friendship with Tess’ friend, Kasia, led her to realize that she was actually the one who was being looked after by her younger sister, not the other way around. Living in Tess’ apartment, wearing Tess’ clothes, working Tess’ job, becoming friend with Tess’ friends, and eventually experiencing a death that resembled that of Tess, Beatrice reflected that, after all, her real self was not as different from Tess as she had thought.
As I finished reading the novel, I could not help but envied the close relationship between Beatrice and Tess. I have a sister eight years my junior. Similar to Beatrice and Tess, we share minutiae of our life with each other. Still, I wonder if I know my sister as well as Beatrice did Tess to the point that I can be certain whether she would have taken specific action when all evidences seem to be counting against it. I admire the love between Beatrice and Tess as much as I do Lupton’s ability to convey it through her writing. For a debut novel, I think Lupton did a good job capturing and keeping readers’ attention all along although her work might not suit people who like action-packed stories.
One lesson I learned from the novel is that we should not judge people based on their look. I know it sounds like a cliché but it is very true. Often times, we made mistakes because we misjudged people. In Sister, Beatrice didn’t take Kasia seriously in the beginning because Kasia looked like a prostitute with her cheap clothes and makeup. The police didn’t believe Tess was murdered because they stereotyped a young art student who had an illegitimate child to be a drug taker. Beatrice early on dismissed her suspect of Dr. Saunders, who turned out to be the murderer, because he was too charming and handsome to be a criminal. These misjudgments, along with numerous others in the novel, led Beatrice and even us readers to incorrect assumptions.
It was interesting to see how Beatrice’s suspicions went from one person or subject to the next and how the ending took her (and many readers) by surprise. The only complaint I have about the novel is that the ending seemed a little too abrupt and it left me a feeling that the author was trying to cramp most of Beatrice’s reflections and/or realizations in the last few pages. Nonetheless, it was a good book and I would like to thank Random House’s Read It Forward program for sending me this nice piece of work.
Amigurumi – Food
27 Jun 2011 18 Comments
in Arts, My Masterpieces Tags: amigurumi, crochet, food
With my newfound addiction to making amigurumi, there was no doubt I didn’t pass the opportunity Father’s Day had to offer. I decided to make a collection of amigurumi with a unifying theme. I had considered a number of themes including farm animals, family, Chinese zodiac, playground, etc. and ended up dropping most of them except food mainly because I couldn’t find enough patterns to make a collection. Besides, I didn’t want to use any animal theme because I had already given an amigurumi elephant and hippo for my father’s birthday. I wanted something new.
Food, mainly desserts and pastries, came through for a couple reasons. First, there were tremendous amount of patterns on different kinds of food online. It not made my job easier but also offered seemingly unlimited options. Second, my father loves food and he always says we live to eat. I don’t make enough to buy him a lot of fine cuisine and a denture for him to eat. Why not make a bunch of nice-looking foods, albeit fake, to make him happy?
Once I had decided on a theme, I started my quest for patterns. With a project this size, I didn’t wait until after Mother’s Day to begin. Indeed, I started the project in February to be sure I would have enough time to finish by early June. In addition, I spent around $30 on yarn to make sure it will be a colorful gift. In the same vein, I purposely include a variety of food, such as sushi, hamburger, pies, desserts, pastries, candies, and fruits.
Pie
Sushi
Fish
As I was busy crocheting, I thought about presentation of my gift. Should I make a huge plate to hold everything? Or create a multi-layer lunch box and organize the foods by category? I consulted my younger sister and she suggested pastry boxes. I immediately liked the idea. Since none of the pastry boxes I found at my local retailers and grocery stores suited my need, I decided to make my own out of paper bags and clear plastic wrapping papers. With Elmer’s glue, a pencil, a ruler, and a pair of scissors, I constructed three pastry boxes. I also made a sushi box out of cardboard and construction papers. Nothing was impossible.
Paper Bags
Pastry Box Almost Completed
Finished
This is by far the largest gift by count I have ever given to my father. I was a little embarrassed when I presented it to my father. All he said was “Woah!” He used two cardboard boxes to store my gift.
Amigurumi – Giraffe
27 Jun 2011 7 Comments
in Arts, My Masterpieces Tags: amigurumi, crochet, doll, giraffe
It has been months since I last blogged. Not that I hadn’t had time to crochet or work on interesting projects; in fact, quite the contrary, I was making a number of amigurumi in the last few months. It was just that I was too occupied (or, frankly, too lazy) to blog about the progress. The couple of months before Mother’s and Father’s Days have always been my busiest time of the year. My siblings and I have been keeping the tradition of hand making gifts for our parents on their important dates. I don’t know exactly when we started it but my guess is that I probably hand made my first Mother’s and Father’s Days’ gifts in kindergarten and carried on the “tradition” with my younger siblings ever since. Now that I am 24, I believe I will keep doing it as long as I have the time and ideas for hand-making gifts.
Back to the topic, I spent a huge chunk of time on crocheting amigurumi during the last few months. This year is busier than usual with my Valedictorian brother graduating from high school and I decided to crochet a little doll for him. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun searching for and creating patterns and making the dolls. I promise I will share what I have done in this and my next couple posts.
Without further adieu, here comes my gift for Mother’s Day—an amigurumi giraffe. Its neck might be too short to look like a giraffe to you. Nonetheless, it is cute and my mother liked it. A friend of mine said it would make a perfect baby gift.
I made this amigurumi giraffe based on an incomplete Japanese pattern. I slightly modified the pattern and translated it to English. I am sharing the pattern here and I hope you like it. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or comment on my blog with any questions and suggestions.
Here is the pattern in PDF: Amigurumi Giraffe Pattern (English)
Amigurumi – Bunny
28 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in My Masterpieces Tags: amigurumi, bunny, crochet, flower
I should have posted some pictures of the very first amigurumi I made a long time ago. For some reason, I talked about the bunny in my last two posts about amigurumi but never shared any image of the product. My BAD! Now I finally remember it and have the time to do it, I would like to share with you my first amigurumi.
I chose to make a bunny for a few reasons. One, there was a tutorial available on YouTube by “cutesycrochet” that was easy to follow for a beginner. The instructor of the tutorial even taught us how to make glue-gun eyes that rival the ones you can buy from a craft store. Two, I intended to make a bunny for my father’s birthday because it is the Year of Rabbit. Three, I was born in the Year of Rabbit. (Oops, I sort of disclosed my age!)
I also made two flowers of different sizes to be stacked under the bunny. Again, I found the tutorials on YouTube.
For those of you who are interested in making your own bunny and flowers, here are the links to the tutorials I used for my own:
Amigurumi Blob Bunny Tutorial [Part 1 of 3]
Amigurumi Blob Bunny Tutorial [Part 2 of 3]
Amigurumi Blob Bunny Tutorial [Part 3 of 3]
How To Crochet Small Flower – Patons Pattern
How To Crochet Large Flower – Patons Pattern
Here are some images and video of my bunny and flowers:
I made a mistake by putting the wrong side out for the body.
With flowers
Flowers
The back of flowers
Stacked together
