Mochi Studios » mushroom

Tea Time with Mom

Rita — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:56:18 +0000

My father has been out of town for the last couple weeks to spend time with his parents, my grandparents, in Texas which left lots of girl time for me and my Mother. We recently went to Tyme for Tea in Fremont’s quaint Old Niles district for tea time. It was her first high tea experience and it was a pleasant afternoon without the boys. We delighted in scones and peach tea and dainty sandwiches and sweets and the company of some of my Mushrooms then strolled down the street and checking out cute antique stores. This is what summer is made of ^_^

Here’s my beautiful Mother~

I’m so blessed and grateful to my amazing Mother.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Plushies in the Conservatory of Flowers

Rita — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:07:40 +0000

Last weekend, I finally took a stroll through the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park with my boyfriend! The entire Conservatory astounded me with gorgeous plants and flowers in lovely living arrangements and it was a beautiful quiet time walking under the trees and around the waterlily pond. We went especially for the Chomp Return of the Carnivorous Plants exhibit which not only displayed Venus fly traps and Borneo pitcher plants but also showed and educated us about all kinds of different meat-eating plants from different habitats around the world!

And hey, did you know plushies love carnivorous plants and flowers too?!

Plant bait~

Mushrooms in the Garden~

Other plushies came out to play too~

Oh hey, it’s me!

The colorful flowers and vibrant plants really made the plushies smile ^_^

Before and since the weekend, it’s been dreadfully cold in SF.

I pray for sunnier days for more outings with plushies!

Next up… a Giant Pea Pod Plush with surprise Peas! (hint, one pea is a bunny!)

Bazaar Bizarre Maker Faire Debut

Rita — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:27:53 +0000

Maker Faire this past weekend was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and of course surpassed all my expectations! Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Maker Faire and supported Mochi Studios and Bazaar Bizarre!! And of course a huge thank you to the hardworking Bazaar Bizarre SF team who organized the show and made sure everything went smoothly. Everything was such a fantastic experience! The huge crowds, interesting characters, clever inventions, stunning performances, enthusiastic vendors and customers — I loved it all! My boyfriend Lam was with me the entire time even through all our preparations and my best friend Fan helped out enormously on Sunday!

My most cherished moment of the entire fair started when a darling little girl kept lingering in front of my table that she was barely tall enough to see and petting bunny peas and whales but her mother was unable to buy anything for her. She finally settled on buying herself a turtle charm which I happily placed in an organza gift bag and handed it to her with a business card. Upon turning the business card over and seeing pictures of my plushies, she starts jumping up and down excitedly and smiling widely at me and her mother who goes “Oh, are you Mochi Studios? My daughter has a Ninja Bean of yours that she carries around with her everywhere!” It turns out, she purchased the Ninja Bean for her at Modern Mouse last year, and I was so overjoyed hear that my plush creation is so loved and by such a happy little girl! I’m still beaming with happiness over this experience in particular over all the wonderful events of the weekend. And just yesterday, I dropped of some new inventory at Modern Mouse that hopefully will bring joy to new people *^_^*

Without further ado, here are some pics of Maker Faire weekend and highlights!

Rita and Lam at the Mochi Studios table ~

Fan and Rita ~

Some shots around the plushie filled table ~

Pea Pods, Octopi, Narwhals, Bunny Peas

Wonderland Mushrooms and Mushrooms and table of charms

Entire table from the side

I’m so happy that I brought my floss box (which holds my embroidery and sewing supplies) with me to the fair! I was able to finish some new Baby Pea Pods on Sunday that I rushed to make more of Saturday night since I sold out the first day! And I made the first ever Three Peas in a Pod plush!! It was a special request for a girl who just happened to be throwing a baby shower for her friend expecting triplets the next day!! I made changes to an existing Pea Pod I made and stuck three of the smallest peas into it and tadaa!! It was a proud moment for Mochi Studios!

Sunday afternoon, I custom embroidered these Bride & Groom Pea Pods on the fly especially for a couple who’s getting married this Fourth of July! Peas & Muus! Such cute nicknames!

Awesome vendor neighbor Martin Hsu and his friend Mark ~

More fun neighbors ~ Brad of Tiny Sparks and Shawn of Seattle Show Posters

Plush neighbor across from me ~ Julie of Particle Zoo!

The super hero organizers of Bazaar Bizarre SF and Urban Fauna Studio ~ Jamie and Blas!!

Warning: The following pics were taken with my old camera and aren’t spectacular but my Maker Faire experience would be incomplete without them ^_^

Giant jacuzzi sized pot of paella served to us Makers on Friday Set up day ~

R2-D2 coming by to chill with the vendors while we set up Saturday morning ~

Our first sale was a Narwhal to a cute girl with a totally awesome octopus hat that she design and her friend handmade!

Cool Miss Darlene was the only lucky one to go home with a Giant Octopus!

Absolute pleasure meeting Alice of Futuregirl!
I swear I wouldn’t be so crafty without inspiration from her craft blog!

That’s all for now!

Feel free to send me pictures of your new Mochi Studios plushies from the Faire!

Thank you again, everyone!

Hope to see you again next year or sooner!

Seeking Embroidery Pattern Testers

Rita — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:28:30 +0000

Mochi Studios is coming out with new Embroidery Patterns just in time for the Bazaar Bizarre at Maker Faire! I’ll be selling Embroidery Kits with my new patterns, instructions, linen fabric, embroidery needle, hoop, and floss! But I need some help developing the patterns and instructions and would love some of you to help me test them!

If you’d like to help me test my patterns, please leave a comment with your name, embroidery skill level (beginner, intermediate, advanced), and a link to some of your embroidery work and I’ll select about 3-5 people to help me test the patterns! If chosen, I’ll send you a digital copy of my work-in-progress patterns and instructions within a week and you can let me know what you think of them. Thanks so much in advance! I greatly appreciate it!

Here’s a sample of one of the patterns~
Bunny & mushroom theme~

Thanks, everyone!

Happy stitchin’!

Wonderland Mushrooms and Mad Tea Party!

Rita — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:00:09 +0000

In celebration of my best friend’s birthday, we hosted a Mad Tea Party last Saturday then followed the madness with watching the new Alice in Wonderland movie at the El Capitan Theater! She has the most fabulous collection of cute tea pots and tea cups that we paired with different mismatched saucers! We decorated the table with antique clocks, skeleton keys, potted flowers, playing cards, and “Drink Me” bottles and lovely, scrumptious delights!!

Mochi Studios’ newest Wonderland Mushrooms made a special appearance at the tea party too!!

Mad Hatter Shroom enticing Alice to drink the mysterious bottle~

Queen of Hearts Shroom looking disdainfully at the tipsy White Rabbit~

Alice Shroom stuck in a teap cup, no thanks to the nutty Cheshire Cat~

White Rabbit Shroom found a good place to hide from the Queen of Hearts~

You dare stare at me?! Off with your head!

White Rabbit~ I’m late for a very important date!

This spinning Mad Tea Party Tea Cup ride is making me dizzy!

I want my tea now! Hmmph!

We’re all totally bonkers!
You must stay for more tea!!

The Mad Tea Party itself was absolutely splendid too!

Some Wonderland Mushrooms keeping watch over the red velvet cupcakes~

And here’s yours truly~ The Queen of Hearts!

E-A-T M-E Red Velvet and Choco Smores Cupcakes~!

New cup! Move down! Move doooown!

And I found the Mad Hatter himself with his Alice at the Theatre!

We all need a little more madness in our lives every day!

Can’t wait for more madness!

More Wonderland Mushrooms will become available soon at my next craft fairs!

Jenny Hart and her Gnome and Mushroom

Rita — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:48:25 +0000

I met the sweet and delightful Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching at Bazaar Bizarre craft fair a few weeks ago. It was such a memorable and exciting experience to meet her in person since she first taught me how to embroider through her books and Stitch-it Kit! I was so thrilled to meet and chat with her and I gave her a special Summer Gnome and a Mushroom that she chose herself and said it would be a perfect pincushion!

Jenny blogged about her gifts on Sublime Stitching today! So cute!

Jenny Hart's Christmas gifts from Mochi Studios

Shrooms are always available for adoption and I can make you a Gnome by special request only – just email me at rita [at] mochistudios [dot] com!

Hope everyone had a very Happy Holidays!

Can’t wait for New Years!!

Newest Shrooms

Rita — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:37:54 +0000

I added my new circular labels to some new Shrooms! I’ve made 20 so far – just 10 short of my goal for my Bazaar Bizarre inventory (although I may up my goal to 50 shrooms if I think I have the time to make more!)

Thanks to Geri for the idea of making circular labels so that they can disguise as a shroom spot!

For the first time ever, I ran out of crochet thread for the undersides of the shrooms! I splurged on some eco-friendly bamboo crochet thread and I can’t wait to use it for my next shrooms!

New Tiny Clover Hook

Rita — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:44:14 +0000

Why has no one ever told me how glorious Clover’s Soft Touch Steel Crochet Hooks are?!? I just bought a new No.8 0.90mm crochet hook to replace my broken one and it is so heavenly to crochet with! The hook is strong… the tip isn’t too sharp… the comfort grip really is comfy and easy to hold on to without slipping… and it makes crocheting really effortless! I’ve never bought myself one because Clover products are more expensive ($6 vs. $2!) but my cheapo tiny hooks have failed me 3 times too many! It was definitely worth the splurge! I finished several mushrooms last night and one mustachio shroom and one sour shroom!!

Happy Hooking~! <3

Mushroom Making Week

Rita — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:22:53 +0000

Last week, was Ninja Beans making week. This week is Mushroom making week! I’ve cut enough felt several weeks ago for a good three dozen new Mushrooms and I’ve made only about a quarter of them so I hope to finish the rest this week!

I was stalled recently because I bent my tiny crochet hook in Texas while making a present for my Grandmother (which sadly remains unfinished >_<). This has happened to be twice before so I think I need to switch to a better crochet hook product that won’t bend on me.

(Hard to take iPhone pictures in distress!)

So I’ve been sewing the mushroom caps and saving the crochet undersides for later this week when I can go buy a new ~~2.0 mm~~ 1.0 mm crochet hook (yes, it must be that small!) RIP tiny crochet hook. I miss you every every day~~

My new woven labels are too big for my mushrooms so I’ll also have to figure out how to add “mochistudios.com” to these mushrooms. I’m going to try printing my own smaller labels on fabric using my ink jet printer tonight!

Secret Crush: WooWork

Rita — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:13:19 +0000

I confess I have a secret crush… on a guy who crochets really cute amigurumi and has a really playful sense of humor! All of WooWork‘s creations are innovative and just plainly really cool, and, like TADA’s Revolution, he always tells a story with his creations.

And he’s hit my love of mushrooms right on the nose too! Here’s “How the Mushroom Barn Fire Started”:

"How the Mushroom Barn Fire Started" by WooWork

But they’re soooo cute and joyful! I hope the mushrooms survived the fire!