In 2009 I moved from Cupertino, California to Orland (a small town in northern Cali) with my boyfriend, now fiance, and became, as I like to call it, a stay-at-home-girlfriend while he worked as a car salesman. I was not used to living in such a rural area, not to mention without my friends and family, and fell into a sort of funk.

Sitting at home alone one day, I realized I needed a hobby if I wanted to keep my sanity. I thought for a few minutes and randomly decided to teach myself to knit. Even now I could not explain to you why I landed on knitting - literally no one in my family does it - but whatever the reason, I hopped in my car and drove the 30+ minutes to buy my first set of knitting needles.

I immediately loved it! I don't know if I have ever been so committed to learning/doing something and when I got stuck and felt like giving up, I took a breath and tried to troubleshoot. This even meant posting on a knitting forum a few times. I don't think there is anything more satisfying that finishing a project and looking at it, realizing you just made that with your own two hands.

After a bunch of normal knitting projects (hats, baby sweater, a few potholders, etc), I made a stuffed knit rabbit which I really liked but, when I compared it to pictures of crocheted stuffed creatures, it didn't even come close. Thus, I decided to learn to crochet too. It was much harder for me to teach myself to crochet than to knit, possibly because there wasn't as good a crochet resource website as there had been for knitting, but I finally got the hang of it. In no time I was popping out amigurumi (crocheted or knit stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures) and discovered my real passion.

My family and friends were so supportive and enthusiastic about my crocheted goodies that they successfully convinced me to open up an Etsy shop and share them with the world. The rest is history!

When designing for my shop, I am inspired by all things cute. I love to take normal things, a teacup for example, and give them a little face and personality. Also, I am kind of a gamer geek and I think it's so fun to create items/characters from games and make something people can relate to.

My creative process is as follows:

1 - I begin with an idea of what I want to do. Sometimes it hits me like a bolt of lightning, other times I am designing something that has been requested by a customer.
2- I usually browse the web for images of this particular idea to brainstorm what kind of components and details I want my version to have. I'm pretty bad at drawing so I generally don't sketch out my idea once I know what I want to do... it is just an idea in my head.
3 - I grab a notebook, pen, yarn, crochet hook and begin creating. I start working my design and, as I work each row, I write down what I just did to make it. This process can sometimes be a little tedious and I usually end up with a page of scribbles and crossed out portions as I have ripped out rows and rethought them but the end result is a little creature or other item I can proudly call my own!

My hope is that my items make your heart beat a little faster as you internally squeal in delight.

Remember, I would be nothing without YOU, the loyal buyers on Etsy. Every time I get an order, my heart swells and I have an excuse to make something all over again. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart ♥