Upcoming Advent Calendar!

With December approaching, I was thinking about how to celebrate the time before Christmas here on my blog.
I've always wanted to find a blog that actually had some sort of interactive advent calendar so I thought that I might try this myself. It will be a lot of work, but I think I can make it.

As for the content of the advent calendar, I'd like to post some crafting tutorials and maybe some baking recipes (since who doesn't like baking during the time before Christmas?). I just want it to be 24 different things that don't take too much time but are kind of cool.

Cookikeks's Tips for Animal Crossing Pocket Camp

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a free2play mobile game available for Android and iOS. In the game, the player manages his or her own campsite, catches fish and bugs, collects fruit and shells and gives those to animal campers in exchange for materials and money with which they can craft new furniture for their campsite. 

Right after the worldwide release of the Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp app, I have quite a few tips and tricks for every player new to the game. 

First things first: do not waste your money.

Try to resist the urge to buy Leaf Tickets - you will get a bunch of them for free while playing and you do not want to spend all your pocket money on a game that won't even offer you much more if you pay real money in the game. 40 Leaf Tickets won't buy you much in the game. 100 won't either. 

Use your Leaf Tickets wisely

You don't want to spend all your free Leaf Tickets on speeding up the process of crafting something. Instead, save the tickets for buying all two additional slots to be able to craft three furniture items at once (the amenities have a several slot).

Shake those trees

Shake all the fruit trees as soon as possible, even if you do not need the fruit yet. Don't collect the fruit though (to save precious space). Pick up the fallen down fruit once you need it. This way, you'll almost always have six pieces of every kind of fruit available at the same time since the fruit can grow back after you've shaken the trees. I have a feeling like the campers don't request fruit you don't have in your pocket as often. Once you picked up one piece of the fruit you left on the ground, pick up the rest from that tree too (if the tree has grown fruit back yet, otherwise leave the rest on the ground) and shake the tree again. 

Apart from the fruit trees, you should also shake all the non-fruit trees (including the palm trees) from time to time. Like in previous Animal Crossing games, they'll occasionally drop some bells. 

Send everyone a friend request.

Literally, at first you want to make as many friends as soon as possible because you will need some friends to fulfil tasks and work for the gyroid. Not everyone will accept your request (or they'll simply take a bit longer), so feel free to add every single person you can find to your friend list. There will always be someone in each of the places where the campers are and they'll rotate at the same time, so be sure to check out whether you can find someone new every few hours or even just once a day.

Take your time

There's nothing worse than spending lots of your Leaf Tickets on speeding up the crafting process only to find out that you won't have enough material for the next item or even that you don't have anything else which you want to start crafting right now (since items will soon need several hours to make and you'll have to consider carefully which items are actually useful to get the campers you really like (or to have furniture you really like)). If there's something you want to craft that doesn't take too long, craft it first so that you can make a more time consuming one while you are sleeping. Just don't try to make everything as soon as possible since that will ruin the fun much faster. 

Sell items to other players

You'll soon find out that sometimes it's just impossible to get that one fish, bug, shell or fruit the camper is asking for. Sifting through the boxes of other players is really helpful then since someone usually sells exactly what you need. Don't try to sell rare items though, since everyone apparently tries to do so and no one ever seems to buy them. If you have more than ten pieces of the same item you should probably sell a few. You won't need that butterfly fifteen times in a row. And even if so, you can always buy it from one of your friends or the random players.

Be nice. Give kudos. Lend a hand. 

People will appreciate your help as much as you do theirs. Kudos are rather help for yourself at first since you're usually required by daily tasks to spread a certain amount of "likes" around the world. Lending a hand will help the other person though (and you will get a small reward of usually 100 coins) so be sure to check your friend list for that orange shovel symbol on the right of each person every now and then. 

Don't try to fulfill all the stretch goals in one day

You won't be able to anyway. There's no reason to stay up a lot longer than you usually would just to get all the tasks done. Instead, decide on a project that will take quite a while, start making it and then simply go to bed. You can totally continue crafting the next day anyway and your sleep is so much more important than a mobile game. Most of the stretch goals will be fulfilled without you trying over time. 

Check what you'll need

If you click onto an area on the map, you can see what the camper requests at the moment. If you have everything, there will be a tick right beside the camper's face symbol on the map. You can also check what the campers at your campsite want you to get them. Therefore, click onto the campsite on the map and click on the heads to see if someone requests something from you.

Talk to your visitors

Every now and then, the campers on your campsite will want to talk to you. There's no symbol for that though so I'd recommend checking the campsite every hour or something like that. If you talk to them, they might decide to give you a bit of money or some crafting material. Or they'll simply appreciate that you talked to them which will increase your friendship level and ultimately gains you more money and material. 

Link your My Nintendo account

If you happen to have a My Nintendo account, link it to the game. There are lots of benefits from it, such as 50 free Leaf Tickets, an own currency for buying a bunch of crafting materials or special clothing and you're files will be saved online so you can continue playing even if you have to reinstall the game or get a new phone. If you do not have a My Nintendo account yet, consider making one. It's free and only takes a few minutes. 

Well, that's it for now. What do you think about the app? Are there any tips you want to share?

Growing up

Every now and then, I find myself thinking about the past. About all the things I miss about being a child, all the things I could have done better and all the things that could have gone worse.

It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone by. It's incredible how I haven't even noticed the immense pace at which I've grown up.
And along with me, the expectations have grown too. I'm supposed to function, not to have an own mind, own ideas and dreams. I don't have much free time left. I'm constantly sitting at my desk, getting homework done, studying. I'm in 13th grade now, almost done with school.

I always thought that 13th graders were adults. I thought they were smart and grown up and had their own life under control. The truth is, 13th grade doesn't feel any different than any of the years before. We're still kids to some extent, and most of us are terrified.
We're afraid of our final exams. We're afraid of failing or not being as good as we could be. We're afraid of spending our last Christmas holidays with books wide open. But what we're most afraid of is the future; once we're done with school, we'll have to face the real, adult world.

Some of us will start an apprenticeship, most will study, a few will do both at the same time. We'll all have a lot less free time than what we already have. No one of us really feels ready to actually go and see the world.
To many, it seems like a miracle that someone has ever gotten through all this. It just seems so unbearable and cruel. But many people have been here before and most of them made it.

Today, I remembered a song from my earlier childhood. I finally understood what it is about. There are so many songs I misinterpreted as a child or didn't bother interpreting at all. The song I remembered is called "Nessaja" by Peter Maffay and it's from Tabaluga. It's about not wanting to grow up -- and then realizing that it's not necessary to lose the inner child in the first place. It's about sticking to one's dreams and being fascinated.
It's now that I realize how many people have dealt with the problem of having to grow up. There are so many songs and tales and movies dealing with exactly that.

The world is a terrifying place, but we're not alone; we're not the first ones to grow up and we won't be the last ones either.
And we're certainly not the only ones who are scared to death.

Handmade Christmas Presents

For all the people out there who like to make handmade Christmas presents for friends and family, it's about time to get started with fresh ideas. Here's a list of possible Christmas presents to make for your loved ones, sorted by category.

~ Practical ~

Everyone loves a nice and practical handmade gift. These can be used for a longer period of time and might make life a little bit easier. So here's what I have.

1. Cable holders

Getting organized is hard. Especially if you have lots of cables that tangle up all the time. No matter how hard you try, they always seem to unravel and it'll end up being a huge mess, right? Stop right there, I got you covered. Here's a short tutorial on how to make a cable holder.

First, cut a rectangle that you can wrap around your cable and overlap the ends. Depending on what fabric you use, cut a second rectangle like this if your fabric frays.
Round off the edges and sew the two pieces together good side to good side. Leave a gap for turning.
Turn it right side out and close the gap.
Make a top stitch along the corner so that it'll lay flat.
Cut a piece of hook and loop band and sew the hook side on one end and the loop side to the other side of the other end. And you're done.

2. Bedside caddies

Speaking of getting organized, a bed side caddy is a gread idea too. You can find tons of different layouts for different purposes on the internet.

The essential steps are simple:
You'll need a big rectangle that is long enough to put it under your matress and stick out on the side of your bed as long and wide as you want your caddy to be. Be sure not to make it too short because depending on the weight of what you put inside, it might slip away from under your matress.
When you're happy with the size, think about a layout. What do you want to put inside? Will you need a place for your laptop, tablet, phone, remote control? A slot for the book you're currently reading? Somewhere to put your medicine? Draft your design onto a piece of paper and add a few more pockets than you think you'll need (I mean, you'll never know whether you forgot about a place for that cable until you're done).
Then, sew on the pockets. You can layer them on top of each other. I like to make a big pocket that is the size of the part that sticks out beside the bed and put smaller pockets on it. You can make as many layers as you want to, just make sure you don't sew any pockets shut. Make the fabric pieces for the pockets wider than you want your pockets to be, sew on the sides first (as wide as you wanted them to be) and then make a fold on each side so that the bottom edge lines up with the width you desired. Then sew the bottom on. That way, you can put more items into your caddy.

3. Oven mittens

Oven mitts are quite a nice gift for everyone who likes baking. One can never have enough of those anyway since they somehow disappear every once in a while, only to reappear as soon as you got new ones.

To make them, you'll need cotton fabric and quite a bit of batting - you don't want your loved ones to burn their fingers, do you?
First, make your pattern. To do that, lay your hand onto a piece of paper and trace around it, leaving quite some space all around.
Cut eight pieces of cotton from your pattern, four left hands and four right hands. Make sure to add a bit of seam allowance.
Lay a left and a right hand good sides together and sew along the edges, leaving the arm hole open. Repeat three more times. And turn them right sides out.
Stuff the hands in a flat way, don't overfill them. Make sure though that you have some batting in the fingertips and the thumb too.
Sew a pattern of top stitches over the stuffed hands to secure the batting in place (the usual pattern is just sewing stripes one way and then orthogonal ones, but you can be more creative here and sew swirls or something like that. Just make sure the ends of your thread don't show).
Decide which sides you want to be visible (they should look quite similar right now) and put two hands on top of each other visible sides facing each other and sew around the corner again, leaving the arm hole open. Repeat.
Turn your mittens right side out and sew a topstitch around the arm hole. Don't sew the hole closed!
Trim the arm edge. Then take a wide ribbon, press it along the middle (so that it is half the width) and lay it around the arm edge. Sew it on using a top stitch. And that's it!

4. Phone sleeves

Nowadays, everyone is constantly carrying around their phones. It's important to store them safely, since no one wants their screens to be scratched by a key in their bag or something like that, right? That's what makes phone sleeves great gifts.

Well, the how to is self explanatory. There are quite a bunch of ideas to consider though. You could use thick socks for example for quite quick phone sleeves. You could use thick felt and make cute animal faces. You could add a pocket for money or headphones. You could even make kind of a wallet with an integrated phone case. The only important thing about this are the measurements. You have to know which phone you're making this for.

~ For the Little Ones ~

If you happen to have any children around, there are tons of great gift ideas that would really make them happy. Oftentimes, it doesn't even have to take too much time to make cute gifts for children. Depending on how old they are, you can make different types of presents for them.

1. Toy band aids

Most kids love playing doctor. Mostly it's either dolls or stuffed animals that are sick or suffer from injuries. For the latter, you can make "self adhesive" toy band aids from scrap fabric!

Visit my DeviantArt post for a detailed description of how to make the band aids and the box here.

2. Stuffed animals

Every child loves stuffed animals to cuddle with. If they're handmade, even better.

There are tons of patterns out there to make stuffed animals, no matter what skill level you're at. You can make sock puppets or fancy teddy bears. If you're looking for inspiration, you can go through my DeviantArt gallery. I usually include where I found the patterns or tutorials.

3. Cute heating pad pals

Not only for children I'd say. Many adults would probably also like a homemade heating pad pal. You can turn many stuffed animal patterns into heating pads actually, but you can also make basic heating pads with faces that might double as decoration.

To make a heating pad pal, all you need to do is sewing a stuffed animal from microwave safe fabric (I recommend putting a piece of the fabric, thread and buttons/safety eyes/... into the microwave for a few minutes together with a glass of water if you're not sure it's microwave safe) and filling it with rice. You can add a bit of lavender for a nice smell, too.

4. A play mat

So I've seen these genius play mats on the internet that double as bags to store toys. The children can play on them and when playtime is over, you close the mat and all the toys are kept inside. Tidying up after playing with LEGOs has never been that easy!

Here are the basic steps for making a play mat:

First of all, you need a big circle of somewhat soft but durable fabric. I'd say fleece should do, but cotton fabrics will probably be fine as well. If you want to, you can use two different fabrics, one for the side to sit on and another to face the floor (might be a good idea if you don't have a carpet anyway, so that the mat won't slip away).

Create a tube around the corner of the circle of fabric (e.g. by sewing the two circles together good side to good side, turning it right side out and top stitching an inch or so away from the edge) and thread a ribbon or twine through it. 

And that's basically it. You just have to make sure that the ends of the ribbon/twine stick out of the tube. You can use two eyelets for the ends to go through (space them about an inch or two apart from each other on the bottom side of the mat) and make knots so that the ribbon or twine won't slip into the tube. 

Of course you can make the mat a lot more detailed and add cute applications. You could also make it from a quilt to add another touch of details. Kids (and most of all parents!) will love this gift.

5. A sewing kit

If you're looking for a present for a creative person (doesn't have to be a child actually), why not put together a sewing kit for them to make a plushie or pillow or headband, etc. ? This one would make a good advent calendar as well if you have one not too big step for them to make every day.

All you have to do is gathering the right fabric(s) for the project, add all the needed eyes, noses, joints and stuffing, thread and a needle (if you're making this for a child make sure they know how to use it without hurting themselves) along with a tutorial.
I'd recommend already tracing the pattern pieces and cutting them out with a seam allowance, just to make sure you have enough fabric. Then you can put all the pieces into a nice box or bag and add a pretty tag saying "Sewing Kit" or something like that.

If you're making this as an advent calendar, you can for example put two matching pieces for a foot into one bag, along with the decription how and where to sew it together, then for the next day you can put the stuffing for the foot in, ... Just make sure not to make the steps too uneven. It might be frustrating if they're supposed to sew the whole body together as well as assembling all the parts on one day while they only had to sew one gap closed the other day.

The advent calendar should be matched to whether or not the recipient will use a sewing machine. Larger parts such as the body of a teddy bear will take a few days to complete if sewn by hand while it might be okay to let them make it in one day if they use a sewing machine. That also means that you could let a person with a sewing machine make two different plushies in one calendar.
If you know that the person you're giving the calendar to doesn't have a lot of time, you could put some candy into every other day's bag so that they always have two days to complete each step.

6. Travel Tic Tac Toe

It's genius, trust me.

All you have to do is make a bag, sew a tic tac toe cross on one side and put ten buttons inside the bag, five of one color and five of another. You could make a morris board on the other side of the bag and instead of five buttons per color, you'll put nine buttons for each color into the bag.

7. Toy food

Kids love playing with toy food. You can make lots of different food items from felt. If you put them into empty (and clean) boxes of real food, the kids will love their new toy food even more.

Got an empty package of farfalle? Refill it with felt farfalle. Cut rectangles of yellow (or orange, green, ...) felt, using zig-zag scissors for the left and right edge and normal scissors for the top and bottom edge. Gather the felt in the middle and sew little bows. Repeat a hundred times.
Got an empty sushi container? Clean it out and cut lots of white strips of felt for rice. Cut green and orange and other colors of strips too. All the stripes should be about the same length (about an inch long). Then, cut a long black rectangle that is about as wide as the strips and roll up the strips inside to look like sushi. You can make little onigiri too. Take two rounded triangles of white and a rectangle of black felt for that and sew the whites together, stuff them and sew on the black strip on one side.

~ Clothing ~

1. Baby shoes

Come on, baby shoes are adorable! You could also make cute slippers for older kids. Experimenting with different designs is quite fun. Why not make ducks, bears, foxes or cats? How about robots? Boats? Cars? Unicorns?

The basic form of the shoes can be the same for most of the ideas. You'll basically need a bottom part (I recommend putting on some non-slip dots or paws or anything like that), a toe part and a strip to go around the heels. First you sew the toe part to the bottom. Then you sew on the strip from one side around the heel to the other, joining it with the toe part at the sides.
Then you can start decorating the shoes the way you want. You can add lining as well by making a pair of shoes from the lining fabric (inside out) and sewing it to the inside of the shoes.

2. Hats and scarves

The easiest and fastest handmade gifts ever. At least if you make them from fabric instead of knitting or crocheting them. And everyone likes a nice warm scarf in winter, right?

To make a hat with cat ears, take two about square rectangles of fabric (make sure the bottom edge fits around half the head of the person you're making this for) and sew along three of the edges, leaving the bottom open. Hem the bottom. Turn it right side out, top stitch "off" the triangles that'll be the ears. If you want to, you can add a face or pink insides of the ears. To make it look more professional, you can cut a long rectangle, fold it in half (half width, whole length) and sew it along the bottom edge instead of just hemming it.

For an easy scarf, take a long piece of non-fraying fabric and cut slits to both ends for detail.
You can also sew two pieces of fabric together and turn it right side out.
You could round off the edges too and sew a short rectangle with one rounded off side on top of the scarf ends to put your hands into. If you add a paw print on the bottom of those hand parts, the scarf would go along with the cat hat pretty well.

3. Ponchos

Another quick craft that would probably do as a last minute gift idea. It's one of those presents that can either be really detailed or simple.

To make a basic poncho, take some soft fabric and decide whether you want to make a square or a circular poncho. If you decide for the square version, you again have different options; you can round off the edges or you leave them "sharp". You could decide to round off two opposite corners as well and leave the other two as they are.
Cut a hole in the middle of the circle or square. If you have a non fraying fabric, that's basically it. If not, cut a second circle/square of the same size for the inside of the poncho and sew them together. You could use some furry fabric for the inside for extra cuddly-ness.

When you're done with the basic shape, you can decorate the poncho. Add pockets in the front, add a hood to the back, sew pompom ribbon all around the edge(s), add pompoms to the ends of some band that you thread through the edge of the hood, sew a short line on each side to define the arm holes better, ... You can be really creative here.

4. Waistcoats

Waistcoats are awesome. There are so many different ways to make them. You could make them from some fuzzy fabric, faux fur, faux leather, fleece, denim, ... And they'll always have a certain flair.

To make a waistcoat, you'll basically need three rectangles of fabric; a wide one for the back and two slimmer ones for the front. 

Line the rectangles up at the top and cut a v-neck shape. Join the top edge of the front pieces and the back. If your fabric isn't non-fraying, sew each of the three pieces together with a mirror piece first and turn them right side out. 

Next, leave a gap between the top edge and the sides for the arms and sew the sides together. Turn it right side out. 

To close the waistcoat, you can add two pieces of ribbon to make a bow in the front or you could sew a few buttons on and make loops on the other side. Just be creative. 

If you want to, you can add pockets in the front or sew/press on badges.

~ Miscellaneous ~

1. Pillows

Pillows are great gifts for people you don't know that well or who already have everything. They can be used to decorate the sofa or bed to create a cozy atmosphere. Depending on the person's interests, you can make the most amazing pillows they will definitely love.

Start by thinking about that person's interests or hobbies. Do they like playing the guitar? Then you could make a pillow shaped like a guitar. Are they more into horses? Great, how about making a pillow shaped like a horseshoe? Do they love cookies as much as I do? Then a cookie pillow could be just the right present for them.
Once you've decided on a design, cut two pieces of fabric in the right shape and sew them together, leaving one gap open to turn it right side out. Turn it, stuff it and your basic pillow is ready.
Now add fun details. Sew on pieces of fleece or felt for the details of a guitar, holes in the horseshoe or chocolate chips in the cookie. You can sew on yarn as strings for the guitar. As with everything handmade, get creative with decoration.
To make sewing on the details easier, you can sew them on before you sew the front and back of the pillow together. I wouldn't recommend this for people who aren't as experienced in sewing though because (depending on the design) it might be important to line up the pieces very neatly.

2. Wrist rests

Sitting in front of the computer for hours can cause your wrist to hurt, mostly if you've held onto the mouse for too long. If you know somebody who spends hours on their desk, they might thank you for a nice wrist rest.

I decided to make my wrist rest from denim and in the shape of a bone. You just have to sew the two pieces together and stuff it. You could use softer fabric and stuff it with rice or plastic beans, leaving some air so that the rice/beans can shift around for a more ergonomic design.

3. Mouse pads

Did you know you could totally make a mousepad for your laptop? You can store the mouse inside of it.

Cut a circle from fleece or another suitable fabric. Put non-slip dots on one side of the circle. Find a zipper that goes half way around your circle. Open the zipper all the way, pin it to the edge of the right side of the circle (i.e. the side without the dots) facing inward (so the side of the zipper that isn't supposed to be visible is on the edge while the teeth are directed to the centre of the circle). Sew the zipper on.
Now for the tricky part: fold the edge over so that the zipper now is on the bottom of the circle, pin it and top stitch all around the corner. And you're done. You should press the edge carefully before using it so that it'll lay more flat.
To store your mouse, you only have to put it onto the dotted side of the pad and close the zipper around it.

Cardcaptor Sakura Kero Plushie

First things first, everyone who knows me is aware of my passion for plushies. I've been sewing for several years now, continuously making lots of plushies and everything cute in general. 

This little guy was one of my first attempts to make a plush toy pattern all by myself. It's an original so to speak.

And here it is!

Isn't it cute? ^^ 

I love the way his face turned out, but I'm not quite happy with the ears. Maybe I'll replace them with some that are a bit larger. 

I made it from leftover fleece I had lying around and filled it completely with rice so that I can put him into the microwave for a minute or two (yeah, I know this may sound cruel) to warm my hands on him. An additional plus: plushies gain a nice weight and touch if filled with rice ^^

The reason why I made this plush is my severe obsession with the Cardcaptor Sakura series. I've been watching it as a child and lately I found out the name of the series again, so I've basically binge watched it for a few days and rediscovered my wish of having an own Kero. 

For more of my crafts, visit my DeviantArt page at https://cookikeks.deviantart.com/ !