100 Posts! Giveaway!

So I am officially over 100 posts.  I know I mentioned a while back that when I hit 100 posts I would be doing a giveaway so here it is!

Rules- Anyone, anywhere can enter.  If your are under age (younger then 18) please make sure with a parent or guardian before entering as I will need a physical address and name to send the prize to.

To enter all you need to do is to leave a comment on this post.  In the comment mention which item from the list you would like, you can leave it up to random luck and just say any, or say you want specifiably a Unicorn/Bunny/Cthulhu but you don't care which color, or you can even pick the specific one from the pictures. 
If you don't say what you want I will pick for you.
 Any double comments will be ignored as an entry so double commenting is not going to earn extra entry's.  Replies to an other comment will not count as an entry either so make sure you are making a comment on this post and not replying to someone comment.  If you decided you want something different then what you original commented just reply to your comment with any corrections. 
All comments left by Anonymous will be disregarded you need to make sure you leave a name so  when I announce the winner the prize can be claimed by the right person.
Winner will be announced in a new post which will be titled 'Winner' I will leave an email address as well as instructions on what to put in the email so that I can ship them the prize they pick.  So keep your eyes out for it and rember to leave a comment!
 Contest opens the second this post goes live, and ends December 1st 2012 at 12:00am my time (Central Time) so any comments made after that time will not count.

Prizes- One of the fallowing items
Amigurumi Unicorn - Rainbow mane or Silver mane
Amigurumi Bunny- Assorted colors see image
Chibi Cthulhu - Assorted  colors see image

Again anyone can enter, the winner will be chosen by a random number generator, numbers will be assigned to comments in the order they are left.  So friends, family, friends of family, followers, and even strangers you all have a equal chance of winning.  If enough people show interest I might let it choose three winners instead of just one.  So feel free to share this post with friends and get the word out, the more people commenting the bigger the chance for multiple winners.

I will be mailing the prize or prizes out the first week of December, so long as the winners get back to me in time, after Dec 7th if the winner(s) have not responded a new winner(s) will be announced and they will have 7 days to respond.  That way it will hopefully get where ever it is going before the holidays.  If your local (live in Missouri nearish st louis) we can meet up so you can pick up the prize in person.

Good Luck!

(All amigurumi was made in a smoke free, pet friendly environment.)

In the Garden with Totaro and Hello Kitty

Only one day left to go out and enjoy the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

They did a photo shoot out in the Japanese garden with some of the amigurumi I made with other plush items they got in.  I was so excited to see the post go up on there Facebook page, but really devastated when I realized all the comments where pretty much negative and all by the same person and having nothing to do with what the post containing the picture was about.  They where all just realy negtive feed back from someone who didnt seem to like this years Festival, which is sad because I had a great time.

I just find it hard to get and stay excited about having them post my work to their page when it is now connected to all that negativity.  It would be one thing if they didn't like the craftsman ship and where actually commenting on the toys in the image, or about the Gift shop in general which is what the post is about but why post such negativity, and negativity that is not even justified (candle light walks are by defection done in the dark by candle light, and the festival she is comparing it to last year was a special one time event hosted at the garden that was Chines and separate from the Japanese festival they hold every year) in this particular post.

Not to be a stick in the mud but man I was excited when I saw it had alot of comments and now I am just upset.

I blame this rant on all the Nigori Unfiltered Sake we had at dinner. #ThanksChad for the sake

Japanese Festival!

So we got to go out to the festival Saturday walk around and have some fun. I enjoyed the garden and even got a paper parasol painted with a Sakura tree on it to help keep the 102 degree heat off.

I have to say what I enjoyed most (besides getting to be there with my husband) was the Japanese ladies who did 4 different cooking demonstrations with samples of everything they cooked.  They als talked about how making bentos they always make sure to have 4 colors of food to make sure the kids are getting alot of the vitamins and minerals they need.

The top image, is a bento box one of the lady's moms used to pack for her to take for lunch to her kindergarten class when she was growing up in japan. 

The cooked all traditional home style items that would have been something they ate when growing up in japan and items they still cook today for their kids here in the US.

The items they made where--
Stuffed Lotus Root (In the bento box it is the item on the far left) which is two thin slices of lotus root with a ground meat mixture sandwiched between then lightly pan fried with a pan sauce over.  These where crunchy and only slightly sweet.  I plan on trying to make them for dinner one night, or even make a larger batch to take to the group I game with.
Japanese Style sweet Omelet (in the sample bowl image its on the bottom left next to the fake grass) This was a very different dish for me I had never tasted anything like it.  It was not  my favorite part of the sample but it wasn't bad just different... very um not anything like you would expect.
Steamed Veg & Japanese mustard dressing (broccoli and carrots)  They had cute little metel cutters that where about 1/2 in wide they used to cut stars, flowers, and even kitty faces out of carrot slices the sauce was realy good with them I could see it turning a broccoli hater into a lover easy.
Rice Ball with Sesame and salt - Literally just rice seasoned with sesame and salt but still good.
Finally my favirt item of the sample--
Butter Mochi!!  It was a very sweet and dense style Japanese cake which I can not wait to try making!

Here are some photos of the garden grounds, and some of the bonzi that were on display.

And finaly I will end the post with an image of the gift shops display of my amigurumi.