more roses for you

These two roses are specially developed by a company in Fujisawa, a neighbor city of Kamakura. Aren't they so special? I guess they're not sold yet, but love to buy them both. So delicate and gorgeous! I love the gradation of the colors on petals.

Photos were taken by Kumi at Ohfuna Flower Center, Kamakura, Japan

Roses

What I like very much at the moment is ROSES. I cannot stop thinking about it. I've read lots of magazines and books how to choose and grow roses. But I still cannot decided which one to buy. There're too many great roses with beautiful colors. So hard to choose one or two to start with.
So I visited the local botanical garden called, Ohfuna Flower Center here in Kamakura with my daughter. This is a Kanagawa Prefectural Institute and famous for its collection of roses. And It's in our neighborhood!! There're more than 360 kinds and 1200 trees of roses. The rose garden is full of beautiful colors of roses. And of course lots of people were there!! I've never seen anything like that before. Simply gorgeous...
It's so amazing that those professional people can bloom roses so beautifully and so richly. It's an art of work!!

love for cute fabrics!!

As you may know, I collect tons of fabrics at my atelier. I don't know how many pieces I own, let's say countless. And I'm still collecting them! Nobody or nothing can stop me, he he he!!

I adore cute fabrics and here are some photos you can check at my online store.
And if you like to see them in bigger size, feel free to visit my flickr!







http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~atelierj/
http://flickr.com/photos/atelier_jade/

new goodies at Atelier JADE

Hi everyone. Today I updated some goodies for my shop! Some new items from DECOLE! The brand new series called, French Egg is really CUTE! The bigger ones are tape dispensers/cutters and the smaller ones are staples.
I got so many e-mails where to buy for those cute stamp sets as soon as I uploaded the photos on flickr. So here they are!! 5 kinds of stamp sets with a cute wooden box. They're selling very well at local shops here in Japan. They're so CUTE and I couldn't stop myself from buying them!!
Enjoy stamping with cuties!

















Atelier JADE
http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~atelierj/

Da Vinci Code

Have anyone already seen the movie?
Tell me how it was!!

the Steam Locomotive in Shizuoka

Have you ever ride on a steam locomotive? My dauther loves "Thomas the Locomotive" and she has so many toys. So my husband took us to a ride one Sunday. For all of us, it was the first experience and we were so excited about it!! In Japan there're some places where you can ride on the "real" steam locomotive trains. We went to Oigawa in Shizuoka. It's so popular to get the seat, so my hubby made a
reservation for us a week before that. We left our car in the parking lot, and got on the train!! Yeah, the real steam locomotive!!
Look at the lunch box we bought at the station!! No plastic
at all. Everything is made from the nature. We really enjoyed the ride. One way took about 2 hours. But we were so busy looking out from the windows to enjoy the beautiful view.
The car train was so aswesome. These were actually used in 1940 - 1950s in Tokyo. We loved the retro ride!!
But my hubby later told us the ticket was really expensive!

new goodies at Atelier JADE

I've been getting e-mails from my customers asking for Cram Cream goodies for the past months, and now they're here finally!!
Here're 4 kinds of flip flops with cute print!! It was so hard for me too pick up 4 kinds out of so many cute collection from Cram Cream.
And here's some adhesive tapes with cute print. The shop I bought these had more than a dozen kinds of it. Oh, they're so cute!!



If you like to know more about Cram Cream items, come and visit Atelier JADE!
http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~atelierj/

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. How was yours? Mine was great. First of all, I got a nice picture from my little one. Jade spent hours drawing it at her nursery. I was so happy to see her picture.
It used be just lines and dots just a couple months ago, but now she can draw a circle and other shapes! But, wait a minute! Why are there two faces???? Jade says "It's mommy and me!!" Wow.
I got this hair-care set from my hubby, too. Recently I got a hair cut and my hair is the shortest I ever had in my whole life (but longer than my shoulder level, though)! And he cares about my hair now? How sweet!
He took us to a drive on Sunday to have nice afternoon tea at the sea side Denny's. They got one of the best view to see the Pacific in the area.
We're having wet days for the past week, but it got a bit sunny in the afternoon. So we had a nice time on the beach afterwards. The weather forecast says we'll have the reainy season very soon here in Tokyo Metropolitan Area, too.
Sigh...
When we got home, we had a florist delivery. Look at the pretty colors of these carnation flowers! They look like cotton candies, don't they? So lovely!!

fun time

We did so much things during the Golden Week holidays. First of all, I was invited to visit the park where Flower Expo was taken in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka in 2004 by a friend who lives around there. Hamamatsu is where my mom lives alone and it's on the Pacific Coast. Shizuoka Prefecture has the famous Mt. Fuji and it's knows as its warm climate. So lots of people in Tokyo Metropolitan area move to here after their retimrent.
In 2004 we visited the Expo together with my dad who passed away last spring. I have good memories visiting here. The park was still full of beautiful flowers! We spent hours walking down the huge park.
And my husband joined us after he finished working at office in Tokyo on May 3, and we visited Hamamatsu City Zoo for the first time. The zoo is old, built 56 years ago!! We were so lucky to arrive on time for giraffe's lunch time. It was my first time to see a giraffe so close! I could almost touch her (his?) face. Jade got scared to give the leaves, so I got the honor to feed the giraffe. Oh, I felt so happy!! You know, not only kids
but adults can enjoy zoo just like a small kid!! That gives you so much happiness.
And look at the cutie we had met!! So cute like a stuffed animal. There're a couple at Hamamatsu
Zoo and I learnt that this zoo is well-known as a successful breeder of cat-bear here in Japan.
More fun stuffs are coming up later on. I have taken so many photos!

May 5 - Children's Day in Japan

Hi ladies!
I'm back from "Golden Week" holidays. I has such a great time with my family for a whole week. I'll post some photos today and again later this week!
May 5 was a national holiday here in Japan, called "Children's Day". Doesn't it sound so nice? I used to love this day when I was a child myself. Many facilities are opened free to children, like zoos, museums, theaters and so on.
If you have a grandson or son at home, many families celebrate this day with "koinobori" as the photo shows. It's a family of carp streamers.
For hundreds years, we're putting a high pole in the garden to have those carp streamers swim. This has a special meaning, of course. Wishing a steady growth and lots of happiness for their small sons in the
future, parents and grandparents buy those special ones.

Also, we Japanese eat this sweets, "Kashiwa-Mochi" on the day. The leaf you see is called "Kashiwa".
You cannot eat the leaf, but enjoy the beautiful smell of it. Inside of the mochi (stickey cake), there's sweetened black beans.
Yum yum!!