There is a dream in my head that I am sitting at a convention working at my table for Lil’ Luvvies, and Brent Spiner (the actor who played Lt. Cmmdr Data on Star Trek the Next Generation) walks past, looks at my work, smiles brilliantly, and tells me to keep up the awesome work. That would be awesome…….
And then, I wake up and realize, it isn’t a dream – this actually happened at the December Steel City Con. There is no real context to this except that my husband was helping me man the table, I was working on something (maybe a Deadpool) and I looked up to see Brent Spiner walking down the aisle. I went to subtly nudge my husband so we could geek out together, and next thing I know, Brent is walking past my table, looking at my Luvvies, and telling me I’m doing a great job. It sounds like something I would write for a story.
Needless to say that was the absolute highlight of my time at the December 2018 Steel City Con.
This con was my third of 2018 (and second in as many months) and I was stressed beyond belief.
Age is a funny thing. When we are young, we can’t wait to hit those milestone birthdays – 10, we hit double digits; 13, we are officially teenagers; 16, celebrated in and of itself and for teens getting their driving permits; 18, we are finally adults and can vote and register for military service; 21, legal drinking age.
My daughter just hit one of those milestones this year. She turned 10 right before Christmas. A whole decade. It is difficult for me to believe, because I feel like just yesterday I was pregnant with her. And, I know she’s excited. And, I also see her looking forward to these other “milestone” birthdays. But, I also know the flip side. Having hit a milestone birthday myself in 2017 (I turned 40), I realize I don’t feel as old as my age suggests.
I don’t consider myself to be a super high maintenance girl. Yes, I like my yarn and some other goodies, but for the most part I’m just happy to sit and do my thing. The downside to this is that sometimes I can get upset over something that seems minor to other people, but the upside is that small things can make me really happy.
Case in point….last night I was working on a new project; I am making a unicorn for next week’s Steel City Con. As part of the finishing touches, the pattern calls for pinkening the cheeks. The first time I made this, I ignored that part of the pattern.
First attempt at this cutie unicorn – without rouge
I was also making the first unicorn as a birthday present and didn’t want to take a chance the rouge wouldn’t be added correctly.
I’ve added cheek color before, but I’ve never been happy with it. It always ends up too light or too dark or too smeary.
I haven’t tried actual makeup on the Luvvies yet – I know some people swear by that as an option, but it just seems like that would come off far too easily, in my opinion. Plus, I don’t wear blush myself so I haven’t had any laying around the house to try.
I have tried using some of my daughter’s crayons – but I find the application to be uneven, and more often than not it tugs at the completed fabric of the Luvvie and distorts the finished piece.
More recently, I have tried fabric markers, but whenever I have used them directly on the piece the coloring comes across too harsh, practically screaming “HELLO, MY CHEEKS ARE COLORED IN. CAN YOU SEE ME, NOW?” And I am not happy with it.
Which leads me to my point and why I was so giddy with excitement – or maybe sleep deprivation, I’m not entirely sure at this point.
It was after midnight, I had to be up in 4.5 hours and I wasn’t done with my new unicorn, which I had hoped to finish. As I looked at her I decided I wanted to try to color her cheeks and I pulled out my fabric markers wondering how I could be less heavy handed and it dawned on me….makeup sponges!!!!
I’m not great at wearing or applying makeup, but I love makeup. Because of that, I have a large assortment of makeup accessories – including sponges that are used to blend makeup, or to help apply foundation. I dashed into my bathroom and grabbed a sponge. I took the pink fabric marker and applied several strokes of color directly to the sponge and then tapped the color to my unicorn’s cheek. With the taper side of the sponge – the side without color – I evened out the color a little to make it closer to natural. I still have to work on my technique a little, but this was the happiest I have been with pinked cheeks.
My semi-naked unicorn with her mane and tail curls ready for application and with her newly pink cheeks.
Although I was disappointed I wasn’t able to complete my new cutie last night, I was so happy that she looks as cute as she does. The color on her cheeks definitely made a difference, and I think she will be even more adorable once she is fully complete.
And with my little triumph at adding color to her, I consider that victory enough and promptly closed up and went to bed…after all, 5 am comes around very quickly when you are up past midnight; but, I do think my discovery was worth it…at least to me, it was.
First, no need to panic; I know it is a little scary of a title, but the decisions and changes are not (I don’t feel) negative. They are more to this site than anything.
A few posts ago I asked for feedback about whether to keep a store on this Web page and also maintain my Etsy store. I had some great feedback about the topic, and I took my time to seriously think about what was best for me and for Lil’ Luvvies. In the end, I decided – for now – I am going to direct all traffic for purchases through Etsy. I feel that by having the animals spread between two sites, neither is getting the attention that they should. So, for the time being, everything will be run through the single platform, and the buyer will have the convenience of having the storefront behind them and more flexible means of payment.
With this change, the “Shop” page has been updated to remove all the links to purchase Luvvies directly from lilluvvies.com. There are links both on the Home page and the Shop page to take you directly to my Etsy store.
For added convenience – as I’m sure you’ve picked up on throughout even this small post – every time I use the word Etsy, I am trying to highlight it in a different color to call out that it is a hypertext link that will take you directly to my store for ease. This will be consistent on all the pages to provide quick access to shopping.
So, for me this is a positive. I can focus more of my efforts on one area, which can provide better service to those who need it. Also, while I have left the custom request form on the Shop page, I have reinstated this option on Etsy as well; so, if there is something specifically that you are looking for, please contact me and I can see what I can do. I am not guaranteeing I will be able to fulfill the request (at this time I still use patterns to complete my orders and design my Luvvies), but I will do my best to get you the perfect Luvvie for you.
I thank you all for your continued love and support. I appreciate it more than I can say.
I make every effort to update the blog and to share in my crochet journey with you all, but somehow my best laid plans go astray.
Things have been busy. In September, I took some time off and went to a Supernatural convention with some friends in New Jersey. Also things at home have been crazy busy because my daughter started soccer, so we’ve been running to practices and games. And, to top everything off, my migraines have been acting up – so, I haven’t been as on top of my game as I would like to be.
Despite all the crazy that has been going on, I have been continuing to crochet and get ready for Rhode Island Comic Con (Nov. 2-4). I still don’t feel as prepared as I would like to be, but I still have two weeks to get there.
As I’ve been preparing for con, I’ve discovered that one of the things I absolutely love to make are these adorable little voodoo dolls (Pattern by BlueRabbitToys on Etsy). The funny thing is I think these little ones are so adorable, but my father is legitimately scared of them. Even though I’m soon to be 41, I still share pictures of everything with my father after I’m finished, and for some reason these voodoo dolls just creep him out. It’s a little strange that these would be the thing he has a hard time with, but I also think it’s hilarious.
He also wasn’t a fan of my newest creation, that I’m calling Dee the Nightmare Prevention monster (Pattern by OneandTwoCompany on Etsy). Although he wasn’t as downright creeped out by her as he was by the voodoo dolls, he still wasn’t a fan. Dee was a lot more work than I was expecting, but I am so happy with how she turned out. I love her to bits. Also, OneandTwoCompany is one of my favorite amigurumi designers, I think I have almost every one of her patterns – I haven’t had a chance to make them all, but I have a lot of them. I really do think one of my post-con resolutions is going to be to go through the list and make as many of her items as I can to try everything.
Also in preparation for Rhode Island, knowing that Jenna Coleman from Doctor Who is going to be there, I tried to make some Doctor Who friendly items – like a Weeping Angel and an Adipose. I’m not as happy with how these turned out as I would like to be….they aren’t terrible, but the patterns just were not quite right and led to inconsistent results.
One of my favorite newest creations has been this little chickadee (another awesome pattern by OneandTwoCompany on Etsy). This sweet little girl was so much fun to make. The funny thing is I started her several weeks ago, and then had to put her on hold as I completed orders for my Etsy store. However, once I got back to her, I was so happy I did – she is so sweet. I just want to squeeze her all up.
One other design from my fave at OneandTwoCompany was this adorable Logan the lion backpack. I probably could have made the straps a little longer, but Desi still seemed to like it, and was carrying around some of her reading books for the next couple of days. I still have some problems finishing pieces….like I look at this and I can see that my stitches weren’t quite straight. However, I guess when you look at it in the grand scheme, I’ve only been crocheting for a little over a year, so the fact that i was able to make something like this is pretty awesome – even if the perfectionist in me hates the mistakes.
These have been some of the highlights of recent times…there have been others that I’ve made, too, but are more repetitive. I love trying out new patterns, but I find myself going back to the old standbys more and more.
I’m hoping once I get back from Rhode Island that I’ll have some time to make a variety of different patterns and try to find some new favorites. Thanks for sticking with me!
Lil' Luvvies 