Tuesday, December 27, 2005

winter break

Dear all of my friends all over the world,

It was so nice to get to know you all im 2005. Internet is great, eh? The world is getting smaller and smaller!!
Well, I'll take a winter break from Dec. 28 2005 to Jan. 4 2006, and will be back on Jan. 5.

Hope everyone will have a great New Year's Day!
See you very soon in 2006!

KIT :D
with lots of love,

Kumi

the latest item at etsy

This is a combination of 2 kinds of red/white polka dots print. After giving a birth to Jade about 3 yrs ago, I kinda came to like girly things and colors which I used to hate during my teenager time. Strange, eh? Anyway, I LOVE those pinky girly things and I'm proud to say so!!
This bag I use to commute every day at the moment. I throw papers to take home from work and magazines to read during my commuting time on trains. I really like it a lot!

This strawberry pouch is another kawaii and cute one. I got a request from a Japanese customer to make something like this. I knew she loves strawberry, so here it is!! I even used a strawberry button for this pouch.




available at my etsy shop,
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=209

Monday, December 26, 2005

our Christmas








I hope my friends all over the world had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.
We spent our Chrsitmas Eve and Christmas at my mom's house with my husband, my daughter, my sister and myself. Since my dad suddenly passes away in this April, she's alone with her two dogs. It was sooo great for all of us as we all had such a great time together.








Mom made yummy plates just like she did when me and my sis were kids. It was like a time trip and I felt I was once again 12 yrs old!! Very happy time...

Thursday, December 22, 2005

christmas stocking

I forgot mention that I made this simple stocking for Jade. It's really simple. I wanted to make something more fancy, but I was running of the time. Maybe next year I'll make more complicated one like patchworked one!!
Until when did you believe Santa Clause???

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

handmade Xmas stuffs

OMG, Christmas is coming in a few days!! But I'm not quite ready yet!! Why do I have to work at office? Is this because Japan is a Buddhist country?? Anyway, I finished making some gifts and handed over. Phew...
One of them is this one. A Christmas wreath to hang on a door or wall. I know standard one is with Christmas color (red, white, gold and green?), but I want to make something different. Here it is!! I used bright yellow/orange of vitamin color from the Big Island of Hawaii. This one is quite easy to make. What you need is a long piece of fabric, cotton to stuff the wreath, ribbon, thread and needle if you don't own a sewing machine.
One went to my friend, Mie. The other went to Jade's day-care class teachers as they treated the kids with beautiful Origami Christmas trees!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Origami Christmas Tree

In a few days, it'll be Christmas. It's been very cold here in Japan, and some part already has snow on the street. This is unusual weather. I wonder how my friends all over the world are doing these days. I do hope everyone is happy :D

At Jade's day-care (or pre-school), the teacher made this beautiful Xmas tree out of big heavy-duty origami paper and gave it to each kids in the class. This is really well made. What you need is paper and scissor to make!! Wow! I'm gonna ask one of the teacher how to make this one when I have a chance to see her!! I really love to know it!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

at Tokyo Disney Sea


This shot was my favorite one at Tokyo Disney Sea (TDS). It's a ride for smaller children to adults, going up and down with this funny looking jelly-fish. My daughter, who is 3 yrs old, really loved it and tried 3 times!! The outside was pretty cold at the evening, but this area is indoor and kept warm. What an ideal place to stay during winter at TDS!

Another favorite ride of Jade was this one, all-time-favorite-for-kids, carousel. But this one was unique, many characters from the movie, Aladdin were there!! Fun, fun, fun!!

Monday, December 12, 2005

Disney Sea@Tokyo Disney Resort

Last Saturday, my work invited all of the staff and his/her family to spend the day at Disney Sea at Tokyo Disney Resort. We went to Tokyo Disneyland to celebrate our daughter's 2nd birthday last year, but it was our first visit to this Disney Sea. On the way, we were caught by a heavy traffic jam on Shutoko Express Way, but we managed to get there a bit after noon.

Look at this cute train!! From the nearest JR station, you can take this cute Resort Line to get to the Parks. Unfortunately, we didn't need to take this one as we came by our car. We love to take this monorail train the next time we'll be here!!

The park closes at 10 PM, and we were there until that time!! Even our 3-year-old daughter stayed up until we all left the Park!! We had so much fun, needless to say!!

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

crazy for fabrics!!

I'm addicted to collect fabrics. I admit that. In my atelier, I have tons of all kinds of fabrics, some are from Edo Era (several hundreds ago in Japan). I just cannot resit buying them. Over the last weekends, I got 4 big packages from fabric stores. I don't know how much fabrics I buy every single week... Some say this is a kind of disease. I guess so...

Some of the fabrics are sold at my online shop, Atelier JADE. This one is my favorite one, Little Red Riding- Hood. So lovely and cute, isn't it? Oh, I love these adorable sweet ones!

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

out to Ginza, Tokyo

Last Sunday, me and my daughter visited my sister who just bought a condominium very near Ginza/Tsukiji, Tokyo. It's so convenient for shopping and dining out. As you may know, Ginza has the top quality in food, goods and anything in Japan (that's why it's so expensive to shop around there, though).

My daughter loves train and she seldom takes it. So this time we didn't take our car, but took train to get there!! She was so happy to see many kinds of train and Shinkansen (the bullet train). We had a healthy lunch at MUJI. It's our favorite shop and we did lots of shopping!

After shopping, we had a relaxing hours at my sister's place. Anyone who visits her place will be fascinated with the beautiful night view of Tokyo. As you can imagine, Tokyo has so many high-rise buildings. And also Tokyo has many rivers all over. Her condo is situated in a water-front area. So you can see many lighted bridges, too. The view is just so beautiful...

Monday, December 05, 2005

busy days for up-coming Xmas???

Konnichiwa from JAPAN.
How's everyone doing? Things are busy since it's already December!! People are stuck with things to do in many countries all over the world!! We Japanese are not Christian, but we kind of celebrate Christmas on our way. A bit strange, eh?

Anyway, stay warm and don't get too much excitement before the X-day!!

Here's a kiss from a dolphin at Aburatsubo Marine Park here in Kanagawa, JAPAN.
Love and Peace to everyone!!

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Last Sunday, we visited Aburatsubo Marine Park in Miura City, Kanagawa. It's about one hour drive along the Pacific Ocean from our home in Kamakura. We can enjoy the beautiful scenery from the car window. There they have a huge aquarium for all kinds of fishes. Also they have excellent shows of dolphins, seals, fishes and so on. You can enjoy the whole day there.

These penguins are called "Rockhopper penguin".
Look at their hair!! Cool, eh?

Monday, November 28, 2005

Jade's 3rd b-day!

November 26 was Jade's 3rd birthday. Even though it was Saturday, my husband had to work as he had a group of customers from Taiwan. She and I prepared all kinds of things for her birthday party for the evening. Oh, look at this adorable card!! It was from her teachers at her pre-school in the town. It tells her actual weight and height along sweet messages from her two teachers!! So sweet!


Anyway, we two spent a great time preparing cakes, food, beverages and played a bit in the nearest park just three houses away from ours. She was so HAPPY all day long and I was happy for her!! When her dad got home, we started our small birthday party for her! Isn't it so great of her to wait until 19.30??? She even didn't have a bite of the cake!!



Most of her friends at her class are already 3 yrs old, so she waited and waited this day!! She used to say "I'm 3 yrs old... (in a small voice) I mean almost 3...." But from now on, she can say I'm big enough and I'm 3 yrs old!!

Well, a happy birthday to my dearest daughter, JADE!
We love you so much, honey!

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Autumn colours in Kamakura, Shonan

We Japanese enjoy autumn color of leaves around this time every year. The place where I live is again famous for this and we have tons of visitors from Tokyo Metropolitan Area every weekends. So the traffic is really heavy and we're always stuck on the middle of the streets. This is one thing we hate here in Kamakura, but we're so happy to enjoy these beautiful nature all around us!








These two photos are from Zaimokuza, Kamakura.
A beautiful sunset on the Pacific Ocean.
So nice and peaceful...

Monday, November 21, 2005

Baking sweet potato at yard

Last Sunday, my husband made a small fireplace with bricks at our yard to enjoy baking sweet potato (and potato). It was our first time to do so. My daughter and I collected dried fallen leaves from our backyard to burn in the fireplace. She was so excited about it as she once experienced at her pre-school in the town and she loved it!

Anyway, it didn't take much time to build the small fireplace and we were soon ready to set fire. We also made a coffee with a vintage Pyrex coffee pot to keep us warm. It's getting chilly here in Tokyo Metropolitan area, too.

After a while, we could eat yummy baked sweet potato and potato with hot coffee. It was so delicious!! We've never had thought about doing this kinda thing at our own place, but it's really great to enjoy "outdoor activity" at home!

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Busy weeks

First of all, sorry for my long absence!
I've been too busy to update my blog these past weeks. My full-time work at a German company in Tokyo keeps me busy as well as my online shops. I'm now managing a big project at office and it just started. Lots of meetings keep me really busy these days. And I'm receiving more orders for my online shops I manage. But I'm doing just all right!!

Every day, I get orders for bags, fabrics and zakka. These days, I'm especially busy as people are now shopping for Xmas. Yesterday, I shipped 5 Hawaiian bags and 1 Pure linen tote from the local post office to Europe. Those small bags are the most popular at the moment. Probably to give away as a Xmas gift as the price is reasonable?

http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~atelierj/
"Chibi Hawaiian Bag"
USD 12.00

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Yesterday, I posted our sweet potato digging.
Right after that, we were invited to
eggplant picking for free of charge!!!
Wow!

Have you ever seen a flower of eggplant?
It's a small purle color and so adorable.
Looks so beautiful.
Who can imagine an eggplant will bear
after this pretty flower?

My daughter didn't help us with sweet potato digging,
but she had a so much passion for picking up eggplants!!

If you know any good receipe for sweet potato and eggplant from your own country, I'd love to know!!

Monday, November 07, 2005

Sweetpotato digging in Kamakura!

Last Sunday, we joined "Japanese red (sweet potato) digging" organized by my daughter's pre school here in Kamakura. It was our first time to experience this for me, my mom and my daughter. We were quite excited. Since we were grown up in Tokyo Metropolitan Area, we seldom have chance to visit rural land.

We were so lucky. The weather forecast said it would rain over the weekends, but the rain delayed to Sunday afternoon. So we could finish the digging before it started to rain!!


The red potato wasn't hard to dig out. What you have to do is just dig the soil a bit with your gloved hands, no tools needed. Voila, some sweet potato are here for you!


We harvested about 4.5 Kg! That's quite a lot, isn't it?

It was so strange that my daughter didn't enjoy digging. Usually she loves playing with sand/mud at her pre-school. But not this time. She says she doesn't want to, and just kept standing there with empty plastic bag... On the other hands, me and my mom did enjoy the harvest time a lot!!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

what I've found in Osaka

Look this building I'd found in Central Osaka.
Very interesting, eh?
This is called "Organic Building" in Minami-Semba, Osaka.
I was so suprised when I happened to find this one standing besides the street!!



The next one is another interesting one, you see.
This is a man-shaped street light.
I found not just one but several lights like this on other street in the area called, American Village very near Shinsaibashi, Osaka.
So funky!!

Osaka is fun to visit, for sure!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Business trip to Osaka

I had to fly Osaka from Tokyo to do some business last week (it's faster than Shinkansen, just one-hour flight), and I spent one night there. Look at the plane I flew!! I wonder if you recognize this anime character, but it's called "Poke-Mon", a very popular anime among little children all over Japan for the past few years. The flight was at 10:00 AM on a weekday, and there were no kids around. Only adults wearing business suits (including myself!!). It was a bit strange experience. If my daughter were with me, she should have been so excited to see "Poke-Mon" all around her. Even the seat cover was "Poke-Mon" printed.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Mail Day!!

Over the last weekends, we were at my mom's place away from the Metropolitan area. We all had a very relaxing time. :D

Since last Friday, I'm receiving packages every day! So great to find something in our mail box.
Here's the package from Joyce, USA. A beautiful stitching kit from Chronicle Books. All you need to start stitching is included inside the box, I mean a needle, floss, hoop, book to follow, and tea towels to actually stitch!! This is a great "Wow!!", isn't it?
And another package from Meihui, Singapore had arrived yesterday. Some cute fabric, handmade crochet hair accessory, a book called Girl Force (from Down Under) and another handmade tissue paper holder! Great works, Meihui!!

Also I got a big box of fabrics that I ordered from the wholesaler in Osaka for my online shops. So heavy to carry up to my atelier, so it still stands on the hallway of our house...

I love mails with goodies. It's so much fun!