The Yarn Bombers' Gallery - Long Beach, Arts District

Even more yarn bombings, this time in my second favorite city:

Inverted for your viewing pleasure

The Yarn Bombers' Gallery - Downtown Los Angeles

Some local crafters decided to get creative and bomb the area with some crocheted pieces.  View for yourself:

More Finals, More Business, and More Hat Listings

Most people look forward to the end of the semester in school.  I usually do, but I dread it this time.  I just want to knock out these exams and be done...for a few months.

Since I'm going to be listing some more hats, I should just give you this little blurb: I'm on Etsy.  I've only got a couple of styles listed, but I should have some more crowns posted in the future (that is, if Etsy is mobile-friendly).

New in store:

Peruvian Lands Snood

Desert Sunset Tam

Big Bear Blue Snood

I've now put custom hats in the shop, so if you want a particular color or size, you can just simply tell me what you'd like.

Go here for requests on colors and sizes

You can go here too for custom orders

More Tams and More Holiday BS

Ugh...don't get me started on Black Friday.  I try to avoid shopping at big box stores as much as possible every time the day after Thanksgiving comes a-creepin'.  Looks like I'll be hitting up the thrift stores this weekend instead.

Lately, I've been on multiple yarn runs this month.  And my pockets are bruised.  Snatched up some of the most beautiful wool yarns, only for my wallet to lose some drastic weight.  But nevertheless, I've made some funky tams out of said yarn and put 'em in the shop.  Since Winter's lurking in the bushes, you can get a loved one a fashionable, but toasty gift.

A warm, laid back Winter mesh snood

Whimsical Tam

Stained Glass Snood Redux

Cute little bric-a-brac skully

Spring Forest Tam

R.I.P. Sassony Arcade

It was earlier this month that a well-known arcade in Downtown Los Angeles permanently shut its iron curtains for good.  That place is the Sassony Arcade, located on 7th & Broadway.

The Sassony Arcade in Downtown L.A.

Man, I already miss this place.  I had a lot of good memories (and dates) here at this arcade.

August 2nd, 2007 - The day I turned 23 years old.  I met my best friend of seven years here, too.  It was your typical summer day in LA--hot and humid.  I decided to play hooky from French class and jumped on the 68 (before the route was shortened and became the 35) from Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to 7th and Broadway, just so I can play a particular game (see pictures below).

Best damn game to ever come out of Japan

Made in response to bootleg versions of the game

Now I must confess...I already have a copy of Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo (or SNES, for short).  Actually, I have four (two copies of The World Warrior, one of Turbo: Hyper Fighting, and one of Super: The New Challengers).  I was just getting used to playing it on arcade again after a long time.  There's also a backstory behind the actual story.  I had a fear of playing SF2 on the arcade.  It was all because of some crappy bootleg version I played at a laundromat in Inglewood, California (see below).

Rainbow, an infamous bootleg version of Champion Edition

I wouldn't touch another Street Fighter II machine until 2004.  But fast forward to my 23rd birthday--I wanted to get in a game, just for fun.  That was when I saw this tall, handsome young man who (would become my best friend) playing on another SF2 machine (there were six in total back then).  He was playing as ol' bristle-head Guile, breezing through his opponents until he came across a weasel Blanka player who kept rolling all over the place (the machine was another random bootleg version of Champion Edition, by the way).  The young man lost to the ugly green beast, but his skills were unmatched.  Seventy-five cents later (after losing numerous times to M. Bison), I completed my session as Chun-Li.  Some time passed, and I gave this slim, gorgeous stranger the last of my credits after complimenting him on his playing abilities.  I jumped on the 40 and took my butt home, relaying that memory in my mind.  Needless to say, that same young man and I became tight afterward.

Flash forward to the summer of 2014--It was June 9th.  I took a trip to the arcade after completing the last of my final exams for a pick-up game related to Street Fighter (see below).

Crack, in the form of pixels

Playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 damn near drove me into the poor house, because it was so dang blasted addictive!!!  I usually play to see if I could crack two billion points with my team (my squad is Guile, Chun-Li, and Cable).  It was a cute lil' fella watching me play another game (topped two billion plus points the first one).  I cracked two billion again, but my score ranked 2nd.  The same young man who watched me thought I was skilled at this game, so we had an interesting conversation.  Three months later, we became a couple.  So thank you, Sassony Arcade, for letting me meet two special people in my life.  And thank you, Capcom, for such great fighting games.

Winter Fast Approaches

...And now's a good time to warm those heads.  And I've got just the hats to do it.

Grape Fizz Tam

Fuzzy Lavender Snood

Golden Lady Snood - Another hat inspired by Stevie Wonder

Classic mesh tam made with yarns from a local thrift store

A warm, thick snood inspired by the stained glass windows of a church

The 2014 Taste Of Soul

Saturday was a hell of a weekend...this much I can tell you.

October 18 was the day of the annual "Taste of Soul" festival here in Los Angeles.  Pretty much, any type of festival or event that happens on Crenshaw Boulevard (or anywhere in a known black community) is going to draw a big crowd.  Of course, I was leery about going due to the fact that I don't take well to big crowds when I'm by myself.  Luckily, I was with my mother and a couple of my cousins.  At least I managed to snap up a couple of halfway decent photos, though.  The camera on my Android phone is so crappy that I had to resort to using my mom's phone to get some dusk shots.

The first stage on Stocker St. 

The next stage on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The main stage on Rodeo Rd.

By the way, that gorgeous, bald-headed, chocolate-skinned African king you see on the big screen in that last picture is R&B crooner Tyrese, native of Watts, California.  Big shout out to him, if he so happens to come across this blog (I want to have you don one of my crocheted crowns someday, Ty).

The Death of Saturday Mornings

Let us all sit back and mourn the loss of a childhood ritual that occurred every week: Saturday Mornings.  Ah yes, Saturday Mornings, those times when kids jumped out of bed, gathered about in front of the television to watch their favorite cartoons, and their parents put up with the potential sugar rush that would happen as a result of overly sweet cereal being gnashed in between teeth.  Now the last local network, the CW (KTLA Channel 5 if you live in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and the Inland Empire), has taken an age-old custom off life support.  But at least we have YouTube...

Now I can't explain memories of my (and anyone else's) kiddiehood in words, but maybe the following videos will help.




Even we '80s kids got a taste of some old school Hanna-Barbera goodness.


Ah, Thundercats...the epitome of Saturday Mornings.


And let's not forget its sister series, Silverhawks.

There are plenty more shows out there, but that's only the gist of it.

Lastly, you know the cartoons were over when this show came on afterward...



Now, what fun were Saturday morning cartoons without Soul Train???

Everyone, let us bow our heads in silence and pay our respects to the death of Saturday mornings.  You shall be missed.



You got a favorite Saturday morning memory?  Go ahead and drop 'em in the comments box.

New Title, Same Blog

Well guys, I've made that transition.  And no, I'm not dead.  :P

I tweaked the name of my crochet blog so you can easily find it on the search engines.  Which reminds me...I gotta go to my TripleClicks store and do some more tweaking.  ;)

But trust and believe, I ain't going nowhere.

And please be on the lookout for some more crowns in my store.  Just trying to work on my degree and run a shop at the same time, you know...

Heads Up - Slight Name Change

All you readers out there, I just want to let you know that I'll be giving this place just a small name tweak.  That way, it'll be easier for you to Google my blog and my humble crochet business.

Peace & Blessings!!!

Catching Up On Old Times

Well I be darned...can you believe it's been over a year since I even started this blog?  Time flies by, doesn't it?

The only reason I've been AWOL for a couple of months is because I ain't got no damn internet access!  Ol' laptop is sick, and it's an inconvenience blogging from a smartphone.  Plus I've been working that hook, getting my hats to a few different shops in Los Angeles County.

I put up a couple more tams in the shop.  Had some good quality yarn and I didn't know what to do with it.  But without further adieu...

Rainbow Fantasy Snood

Red Oak Tam

Finals, Graduation, and New Tam Listings

Well, hello there!

Yes, I know I've been AWOL for a month, but I can explain.  Your girl's officially a college grad!!!  I had to lay low due to finals just so I can walk the stage, but I'm back!  Plus I got some new tams in the shop.

And let the posting begin!

Denim Scrap Tam

Earth Rastafarian Snood

One Of My Favorite Locales

I like to travel around Los Angeles County whenever I'm on a bus or a train because I get to see things that some people overlook when they're driving down the freeway.  From that, I've come across what are now some of my favorite hangout spots.  One of them being...Little Tokyo.

Here it is, Little Tokyo in all but a piece of its glory

The Yagura Fire Tower at the entrance to the
Japanese Village Plaza

Some Rubik's cube-looking thing in front of the
Japanese American National Museum

 Much as I would love to go to Japan, my bank account is malnourished.  So for the time being, the only way I can get close to Japanese culture and language is by taking the 40 from my place.  Until I actually get to fly to the land of the Rising Sun, this will suffice.  But still, I've no complaints.

Take this bus (Line 40) to LT, but go the opposite way, unless you want
to go to the South Bay Galleria.

Hooray for Sakura trees!

Edited for you to enjoy.  ^_^

Pioneer Chicken, An Old-School Eatery

I recall back when I was a wee lil' toddler back in 1980s' South Central Los Angeles, walking with my mother from 74th Street to Vermont & Florence to eat at a place called Pioneer Chicken.  She had gotten us some food to scarf down while we were inside.  I'll never forget biting into the chicken (I think it was a drumstick, but I don't remember as I prefer breasts and wings now) and chewing in delight, but what really had me sold was their spicy rice.  It was that damn good.  That is, until...

Sadly, that location was demolished over the years and the space was converted to a parking lot, mostly used by Super Buy customers (whoever remembers this grocery store wins some interwebs).  But alas, 'twas just a page from my book of childhood memories.  I had thought to believe that Pioneer Chicken had gone extinct.

Let's just say it's good to be wrong sometimes.

There were three locations left, to my knowledge.  I had visited one in Hollywood before it was converted to a Del Taco (*cries and blows nose*).  All was lost...not.

Much as I travel by bus and train (though I have a love/hate relationship with Metro), I was surprised, albeit elated to find a Pioneer Chicken joint on Olympic & Fairfax.  For proof...

See?  Pioneer Chicken is not extinct!

A little expensive, but worth the anorexic wallet.

Maybe as soon as I finish with this post, I think I'll jump on the Expo Line and catch the 217 down there so I can shove some chicken and fries down my throat.

Oh, and comments!  Please leave 'em!

Hot Off The Hook

Finally, I got some more funky tams in my shop (WOOT!)

And...let the posting begin!

Sparkling Gem Snood

Classic Rasta Tam (in clusters)

Really funky snood in carnival colors

Oak Moss Tam

Rasta Mesh Snood

Well there they are, all ready for shipping.  (beat-up wig not included ^_^)

Today in Sports

Hook and yarn aside, there's a big firestorm in Los Angeles.  A big, racial firestorm.

A male (men have souls, mind you) named Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers (at one time was the "kid brother" basketball team of the Los Angeles Lakers) popped off a few too many racist comments at the mouth. And, to put it as many old-school parents have quoted, he wrote a check his behind couldn't cash.  Now he's officially banned from the NBA.

Banned For Life.

Everyone you can think of has weighed in on the subject, from former Laker Magic Johnson to our own POTUS, Barack Obama.

Even Clipper head coach Doc Rivers threw his two pennies in the "sound off" bank, saying he won't return to the team for as long as Sterling runs the show.  I don't blame the man, either.

Aside from being permanently barred from the National Basketball Association, he was also hit with a $2.5 million fine.  Well, the dude is wealthy.  A $2.5 million penalty is like chump change to this guy.

To conclude this blog post, on behalf of the citizens of Los Angeles County...no, every ethnicity in the United States, I would like to say...

F**k off.

And now I'd like to throw in my two cents...

Donald Sterling, take a good look at this picture below:

You know what this means, right?

In case you don't know, this picture does not mean that it's a salted square biscuit that you dip in some soup and nibble.  It means "good ol' boys" like yourself who spout off unnecessary racial epithets.

You get it now?

Now I may be a Lakers fan, but please go to the Staples Center not only for the Clippers, but to piss off Sterling.

As for myself, I'll be at home stitching up some things because I'm too broke to buy tickets.  (smile)