One too many craft books...

I own several dozen craft books with more on the way.  The sad part is only a small handful of them have I actually used! *face palm* So, I've decided as motivation to get around to producing projects from these books I'll challenge myself by writing a blog review for each one. There's one condition prior to writing the review: I gotta finish a project in the book first!

I have a ton of Japanese craft books and sometimes it's hard to find reviews on some of the titles, so I'll probably start with those books first. I'll start with the small goal of one book review a  month and hopefully bump that up to at least 2 a month.

Anywho, I finished an amigurumi project recently:

She's Angel Salvia from the anime Wedding Peach.  I haven't really watched the anime myself; she was a request from my cousin. 

In addition to that, I finished an amigurumi elephant for a craft swap I'm in: 

His pattern came from Ana Paula's first amigurumi book, Seriously Cute Crochet.  This is a good book to get started with making your own amigurumi animals. *smile*

*sigh* I'm hopelessly addicted to Japanese craft books!

They're much more interesting than most American ones I come across. Unfortunately, just when I think I'm satified with my current collection, I always find more that I fall in love with. :-(

Recently, I've taken a great interest in doll making. What sparked this interest was me stumbling upon Bunka dolls. Extremely cute cloth dolls.

I found a pretty good tutorial on making the dolls. But, that wasn't enough for me. I searched around and found this book:



It's currently in route from Japan to my house, and I eagerly await it's arrival. Anyways, after discovering Bunka dolls, I decided to look more into Japanese handmade dolls and I found all kinds of adorable dolls to make. My searches eventually led me to ball jointed dolls. So while searching for a great book to get started on the topic, I found this guy:



From what I read, it's one of the best on the subject. I purchased a copy on Hobby Link Japan. (This seems to be a good site to purchase reasonably priced doll books.) I also got really lucky and found a translation available for the book. :-D

I'm currently on a quest to get ahold of two Japanese hemp books from the publisher Ondori. The one I REALLY want is Hemp Strings and Stones:



Unfortunately, the one place that had a copy is now sold out! :-( I requested for two people to search to see if they can find it in Japan, so hopefully one will have luck! :-)

I hope once my quest for the two hemp books end, I will then be content with my current collection of craft books. I have dozens and I've no finished projects to show for it. :-(

I blame my poor time management skills for that one, >:-( but I do hope to do better. A finished craft a week would be a nice goal. :-P

I'll be sure to post reviews on the books once they arrive and I've finished one project!