Hyper Japan 2014

Oh my, we haven't had a new post for a long time!

Had to post about Christmas coming early for us this year, Mr. Pea and I went to Hyper Japan on

Sunday at Earls Court Exhibition Center in London and it was amazing!

Hyper Japan is a exhibition of Japanese culture, food and kawaii awesomeness all in one

massive location, Earls Court One.

The place is massive so there was loads to look at, the most prominent place was the Nintendo zone right in the middle so we made a beeline for the Ninty banners hanging from the ceiling, we watched a bit of the new Super Smash Bros game due out this winter, had a photo with Mario and Luigi and we did some shopping in the Nintendo store!

Super Smash Bros at Hyper Japan

Pea with his heroes! Luigi kept stroking his hair.

On our search for food we came across the Hyper Fringe stage where Yanakiku were performing,

they are so cute, their outfits were amazing, especially when they dressed up as Mt. Fuji! We saw a bit of karaoke on the fringe stage too but we were too hungry to stay.

The food stalls were just across from the stage and it smelt so good! We had a look about what was on offer, there was so many delicious options, sushi, takoyaki, fried chicken, fish and chips and yakisoba, we went for plain yakisoba which is fried noodles in sauce, there was some grated pickled ginger on the side with those which I wasn't very fond of! Mr. Pea however mixed his in with the noodles and said it was tasty, maybe I was eating it wrong. Pea decided tried out some frozen beer, the froth was a bit like a Slush Puppy made of beer, it was actually quite nice, I don't drink beer but I found it quite refreshing.

Tasty Yakisoba

After we filled up on noodles and cleared our street passes on our 3DS's we headed for the shopping stalls and boy did we shop! Tofu cute had 2 mini shops, one just for food and the other was for all the accessories they stock, I got 2 bottles of Ramune, Hello Kitty strawberry pretzel sticks, some pudding chocolates in the cutest packaging and a tote bag with alpacas on, Pea got some Sakura Matcha flavour KitKats, which are cherry blossom and green tea flavour! 

Tofu Cute food shop

Tofu Cute with frozen beer!

At the other Tofu Cute shop they had large alpaca plushes that I really wanted but they only had pink and white ones, I really wanted a light brown one, I ended up getting a lemon coloured one from another stall,

I can't remember the stall holders shop name but they had lots of cool stuff! Pea bought 3 lucky cats from different stalls, we got a few other bits too including a Japanese felt craft book!

There was so much to see and so much we wanted to buy but we had to be good and not bankrupt ourselves for lots of cute things! 

Artbox display

Alpaca army

Alpacas were pretty much everywhere in all colours, sizes and in forms of purses and bags, I got a purse and a mini one for my mum, they're just too cute to resist! I got a few odd looks on the tube back with a massive yellow Alpaca under my arm! 

My haul

We spent the afternoon checking out the traditional Japanese fringe market section, watched some martial arts display and then headed over to SIRO-A on the main stage, they were amazing, we especially loved the video game aspect of one of their routines. 

We had such a great time, we will definitely be going back again next year, there is another one in November which would be awesome before Christmas but work gets in the way, gah!

Gift making is keeping me busy

Gift making and Animal Crossing have consumed my entire life the last couple of months, animal crossing more possibly...Mr.Pea is still waiting for his anniversary pressie I started making in September, eeek.
We've been hanging out a lot on Tumblr recently as well, sharing a few pictures of past crafts but mostly Lee's Animal Crossing outfit creations!
I haven't actually made anything recently that I've finished and been able to photograph, I did make myself an anime canvas a few weeks ago.

I picked up a wallpaper sample in B&Q and stuck it to a canvas, super cheap wall art! I was going to colour bits in with my ever growing sharpie collection, I was worried I would ruin it though so I left it as it is!

Come see us on Tumblr for more updates and super cool pictures of Soap!

Darth Soap

Marvel Decoupaged Acoustic Guitar

We went to a boot sale last week on the hunt for something to decoupage, I had a stool in mind, Mr. Pea suggested mini nest tables, which would also be fun to do, sadly we found nothing suitable.
We decided that a decoupaged guitar would be pretty cool so we went on a hunt for one, suddenly everyone had guitars, so it wasn't so hard, they were pretty pricey though £40-£45 for something I could possibly ruin was a bit steep. We hit the jackpot at one of the last rows of stalls, a man selling a guitar with no strings and a little bit of cosmetic damage for £5! winner! I snapped up that bad boy and covered it with Wolverine pages from Avengers Assemble!

I just need to buy some strings for it now...and learn to play guitar.

Wolverine Guitar

Crafty Presents And Photo Prop Fun For Jen's Birthday

Last week was the birthday of my awesome friend Jen from p.s...it's vegan, I always make her a little something to go with her pressie, this time I made her some coasters in the shape of apples and pears.

I saw the pattern for the apple coaster in Simply Crochet magazine and thought straight away it was very Jen. I got creative for the pear and made up a version myself, I'm not very good at making flat items so it was quite a challenge for something that looks so simple.

The pears are a little wonky but I think that gives them character.

We went out into town on Saturday evening to celebrate her birthday, Jen had mentioned she wanted to have a themed night where we all bring props but I think somewhere down the line we forgot and nothing happened.
Crafty me kicked in on Saturday at 4pm and I decided to make everybody some photo booth props. Amusing shenanigans ensued.

I had some A4 sheets of foam left over from mustache photo props Mr. Pea and I made for my birthday last year and a pack of 75 bamboo skewers Jen picked me up from Sainsburys for 10p (10p!!)

Me and Jen having fun with the photo props

I made 4 pairs of lips, 3 mustaches and 2 bow ties. Foam is really good for making up photo props, it's easy to cut up and doesn't flop around like felt or bend and tear like paper/card.

Sand Kirby On The Beach

Mr. Pea and I popped to the beach last week, as it was such a hot day we figured we should make the most of the nice weather while it's here, luckily we live near a few seaside towns.
We opted for Walton, it's slightly further away but quieter during term time.

The part of beach we went on was pretty good for sand castle building, still being damp from the tide coming in earlier. We took advantage of the awesome sand and made a sand Kirby, I made the body and stuck his little arms on, Mr. Pea sorted out the feet and his face.

Sand Kirby Chilling On The Beach

I popped a Crafty Geeks business card in his hand and we left him there, went we went past back to the car a couple of hours later the tide had come in and washed him away but we have our photos to remember him by.

Max Amigurumi At Last

I can't believe I haven't posted about Mr. Pea's other amigurumi I made him for his birthday (which was in the middle of June, oops!)
I made him an amigurumi of Max the rabbity thing originally from the comic Sam and Max: Freelance Police. We played the new episodes on PS3 together last summer and went retro Hit the Road on the PC recently, his favorite character being Max I figured he would be pleased, he was!

I made up my own pattern for him, I couldn't find any on teh interwebs, it took me a while but I managed to get him done in time.

His hands were the hardest part (Max has such big hands!). They were difficult to capture in crochet, a lot of fingers were made before I had 8 which were pretty much perfect.

Roman Solider Amigurumi For Oxjam

We were asked to make the mascot for the Colchester Oxjam music festival, obviously I was more than happy to donate a custom amigurumi to them.
They wanted the mascot to be something that was connected with Colchester and decided on a Roman solider.
Colchester was the first capital of Roman Britain for our readers who don't know.

I used my basic human pattern, the helmet was the hardest part, I was worried I wouldn't be able to make the fluffy piece on top stick up but it all turned out fine; trial and error being my best friend here.

  

We're looking forward to the main Oxjam event in October, Mr. Pea and I love live music and it's all for a very good cause too!