Shoulder flap purse -free crochet pattern-

In the end, your bag will look somewhat like this one. This close example (which is knitted, not crocheted)  was found on Craftjuice.com

To start out with, know that my hook is a Boye I/9 5.5 mm and that when I make double crochet stitches, they turn out to be 1/2" in height.

Supplies:

5.5 mm crochet hook

1 skein red heart super saver yarn or other bulky yarn

scissors

button(s)

embroidery needle

embellishments (optional)

Instructions:

Ch 25. Turn and in second ch from the hook, start your first dc and dc in each stitch from there on.

Turn and ch 2 and dc in all 25 dc. Keep repeating until you have roughly 40 rows of double crochet. This piece should measure 20 inches. Fold the piece in half with the top 3 inches apart from the bottom. Sew together the bottom half and leave the three inch piece alone. The bottom half, once sewn together, should be about 8 1/2" long.

For the handles, make 3 separate pieces that are chained to desired length. I would say that 3 feet of chain stitches for the three separate pieces would be long enough for most. Take those three pieces and braid them together. Tie on both ends of the strap and tie to the top of the side seam. Sew on the button.

Enjoy your brand new shoulder bag. Any questions, just comment on the post.

De Colores all.

~Kay~

Korean drama review! Numero 3, I believe...Pasta

Pasta is about a woman who dreams of becoming a chef, specifically, the chef of the restaurant that she is working for, La Sfera. La Sfera is an Italian restaurant that only makes the finest Italian cuisine in Korea. It is a very popular and well known store. Our main character is only a kitchen aid. She only gets plates, restocks food and wine for the cooks and do menial tasks such as making pickles and such for the waiting staff to put on the tables. Not very impressive stuff seeing as how all she has wanted to do for the past 3 years is hold a frying pan.

Now, as a new employee comes in and takes her place as kitchen aid, she finally has her chance to show her worth as a pasta cook. The only problem is that as soon as she gets her chance, a new chef takes place of the one she worked under before and because of that, she is given many problems. This new chef doesn't let women work in his kitchen and says that love between anyone in his kitchen is unacceptable. 

Now that all of the women have been thrown out of the kitchen because of their romantic involvement with the male cooks, she has to figure out what to do to pay her rent! Should she go work for her father in his restaurant or should she try once again at La Sfera even though the chef is obviously against females cooking with him?

I am a few episodes away from finishing this series. So far, I like it. It is a very traditional Korean cooking drama. There’s the love interest who has no real interest in the main character, the unexpected helper to the main character, and some supposedly major reason that blocks those two from finding love or showing it between them.

Bottom Line:

I give this a 3/5. It isn’t too surprising in any way but it has a good enough plot and moves along well enough that you will be willing to watch and possibly a good one to re-watch.

Korean drama review 2! Boys over flowers

Boys before Flowers is a Cinderella story of sorts. It tells of a poor girl, Geum Jan Di, who ends up going to a rich man's high society school. It is a school that is meant to educate the most elite of the elite Koreans. This school was set up by Goo Jun Pyo's parents who made an agreement within the Blue House that this school would be an elite private school to educate the future leaders of Korea. Geum Jan Di only gets to enter this school because of her fame of saving a student of the school from committing suicide and the people of Korea proclaiming that the school was a bad thing that needed to be abolished immediately.

So under the disguise of being a swimming scholarship holder at the school, and being the only scholarship student at that, Jan Di has to just make it though school without being noticed by others who might try to make her life difficult. Because Jan Di has a great sense of justice about her, she has to butt in when one of her friends gets in trouble with the F4, the 4 top elites of the school, and she ends up getting a red card due to this action. Her friend leaves school in a fright because she fears for her life while Jan Di goes through the pain of this punishment alone.

As the whole school revolts against her, she finds solace in the most unlikely places...Will Jan Di be able to graduate? Will her friend ever come back to school?

Bottom Line:
This is amazing! I loved this one the best out of all the drama interpretations. Japan and, I believe, Taiwan did versions of this anime/manga too. This version, though, seemed the most realistic to me and the way that Jan Di never backs down makes her a great influence to others who've ever been in her kind of situation at school. Add in the F4, and this is a stellar comedic romance to watch.

This drama gets a 5 out of 5. Awesome playback value and leaves you wishing there was more.

Korean Drama Review- Mischievous Kiss

Mischievous Kiss is about the lowest ranking girl in high school, Oh Ha Ni, who has fallen in love with the highest ranking boy, Baek Seung Jo. Ha Ni gives Seung Jo a letter professing her love for him, only to be rejected. After being rejected, she ends up moving into her newly built home with her father and while they are celebrating this with Ha Ni's friends, an earthquake brings her home crashing down.

Now that she has no home to go back to, she and her father are living in a hotel. Due to the news coverage on the destruction of their home, Ha Ni's father is contacted by a long lost friend of his who wants the both of them to live with his family! This sounds amazing and Ha Ni is so excited until she realizes that she is moving into the same home as Beak Seung Jo.

Now that Ha Ni is living with Seung Jo, she has to keep their living situation a secret and act like nothing has changed. The truth about this living situation will turn disastrous, though, once Bong Joon Gu, who loves Ha Ni, finds out that his lovely maiden is living with the guy who has already publicly humiliated her.

Bottom Line:

I really liked this drama. It has a really great playback value for me. I watch it whenever I have free time and no internet. I have one thing to note though. The manga was never finished because as Kaoru Tada was moving into a new home, she had an unfortunate accident which led to her having a cerebral hemorrhage and after falling into a coma, she died a short while after.

I give this show 4 out of 5 stars. It didn't quite earn five because it felt like it took forever for Seung Jo to warm up to Ha Ni.

Anime review! Numéro deux!

Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power

I personally loved this anime. It was very interesting watching it in the English Dub and the English Sub versions. I preferred the voices of the English cast, but at the same time, I really liked the sub version because it finished out both seasons while the first only finish up to about the 26th episode in the first season.

According to the info from the English Dub, this series is about a girl named Zoey Hanson who is in love with the most popular boy in school. He is part of the kendo club and his name is Mark. Mark is supremely concerned about the environment and wants to help conserve it in any way possible. Zoey and Mark end up going out on a date to the local exhibition about all of the "Red Data" animal species. Red Data animals are animals that are nearing extinction. Through a series of events, Zoey is chosen as a candidate, without her knowing, and gets her DNA infused with that of a Iriomote cat. After she realizes this, she is met by an alien named Dren who is trying to overtake the world for his own race because their planet's resources ran out.

Now Zoey has to fight to protect the world from the invading aliens and chimera animas (the jellyfish like aliens that possess living creatures) and at the same time work as a waitress at the Mew Mew Cafe, maintain her school work and relationship with Mark. She is eventually joined by her friends Corina (blue lorikeet), Bridget (finless porpoise), Kikki (golden lion tamarin), and Renee (gray wolf).

Bottom Line:

I give this anime a 4 out of 5 stars. It is cute and quite interesting at times. It definately has some replay value if you watch the rest of the series (the sub versions) because it makes it a lot easier to understand the story. By the time it gets to Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode, it gets an interesting twist. So I suggest you watch it if you are into magical girl anime.

De Colores!

Anime review! First Installment

First off, I want to say that I didn't finish all of them. It would take forever (forever..forever..*keeps echoing*) so to not waste my life away watching magical girl and cutesy anime, here are the somewhat long awaited reviews I promised. I'll rate on a 5 star scale.

Wedding Peach

     First off I want to say that this was a decent series for as far as I decided to watch it. It was way too much like Sailor Moon though in many aspects. Momoko, the leader of the love angels, ends up being a very ditzy girl who dreams of getting married someday. She has a crush on the "perfect guy" who in this anime happens to be the head of the soccer team, Captain Yanagiba, but she ends up falling for Yosuke Fuuma who is the team's goalie. He always picks on her and calls her a puffer fish. (Seeing a resemblance here?) 

     The personalities of the girls follow those almost of the Powerpuff girls, except for positions as love angels. Yuri is Blossom, Momoko is Bubbles, and  Hinagaku is Buttercup. Yuri has it altogether and is the prim and proper one of the group. Momoko is the happy go lucky and clueless one. Hinagaku is the tom-boy and does karate. 

     Basically their jobs as love angels are for them to save the love waves in the world and to purify the devils that come to destroy that love which they are protecting. The weapons appear about the same as that of Tokyo Mew Mew, they just poof into existence. Also like Tokyo Mew Mew, the team has a sidekick. This sidekick though comes from the devils and as soon as he is purified, he decides he wants to help the girls and eventually joins them, living with Momoko. His name is Jamapi and he is a yellow round thing that can fly and has blue hair and a tail with a heart on the end once he has been purified and has become one of the good guys.

Bottom Line:

     All in all, I would give this show 3 stars. It was cute and reminded me a lot of my favorite shows wrapped up into one and is fun to watch every once in a while, rather than doing a series marathon. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a frilly and easily plotted story.

A couple of reviews are coming soon!

I'm finishing up a couple of animes and then I will post a review. They are all from pretty much the same genre though, so it might be a little bit more girly and cutesy than some can really care to stand to watch. Still, I hope you all enjoy them when I post next!

De Colores!
Kay