How I design - under pressure

well, this post is not really a part of the series that I plan, but it sort of belongs. To me a very important part of designing is inspiration and enough time. I can't work under time pressure. After school I wanted to become an artist, but I quickly realized it would mean to live from inspiration and the tricky part about inspiration .. it comes and goes. Only time will tell, so I studied biology.

Anyways sometimes you promise to create something and even though you had enough time in the very beginning, inspiration didn't sneak in. So it happened to Nemo. Now I am under time pressure to create something, but not only something, but a Nemo I can feel happy about too (being a little perfectionist sometimes is nerve wrecking)

So what do I do in such cases?

I try to find easy solutions.. like recreating something from a pattern I already made. With a fish like Nemo another fish pattern seems the next best thing. So I grabbed Chubby and started it in a Nemo-orange-yarn:

BUT it's snout was way too pointy. Meanwhile I did feel a bite by inspiration bug and started a completely new version:

But again I wasn't completely satisfied, I like the overall shape so far, actually quite a bit, but I don't like the texture: I added a few more stitches than just the classic single crochet and even though I think they might add a nice twist to the touch I fear they might allow stuffing to show through. And since Nemo will be given to a baby I don't want any risk.

While designing, I write down EVERY SINGLE STITCH I make:

What do I do now?, I try to combine both patterns..

the winter blues ..

it got a little silent here lately, the reason for this is .. well I got a little lazy craft-wise and the little amount of sunlight does affect this quite a bit. I sooo long for spingtime like I cannot remember I ever did. The weatherman said we're having the darkest winter in 42 years, fourty-two !! years. I always liked winter a lot, but this year it really kills me, I never thought I would ever wait for sunlight to touch my face and warm my skin. it's awful.
Last week we finally had two days of sun and warm temperatures and this kicked me, I felt power and the need to buy new summer shoes, but winter is back, I cannot stand it. tomorrow my new summer shoes will arrive and maybe they will help to forgive winter since it MUST become warmer (sooner or later).
but what perked me was cooking lately, I love risotto and have made a few different variations lately. I even toy with the idea to buy a "sauteuse" just for this purpose ...

I hope you're doing well and the weather is able to cheer you up, wherever you are ^__^

risotto with black salsify