new collection of bags

HELLO, my dear friends. I've been busy with new bag collection for up-coming season at my shops. Here're some photos. Every day, I spent hours in front of my sewing machine for two weeks.
I'm so excited as I met so many great fabrics at the local shops. In many cases, an idea what to make occur to me right after I see the fabric for the first time.
The area I live is called "Shonan" and people say it's "Japanese Hawaii". We're facing to the Pacific and surrounded by some mountains, people enjoy surfing and other marine activities and so on.
At my Japanese bag shop, I make lots of bags with fabrics from Big island of Hawaii and they sell so well. I have many local customers who love Hawaiian kinda feeling. It's so much fun to choose the fabric, too. I myself love these kinds of fabric, vivid colors and lovely flower print. It gives me so much power! Those fabrics you see are brand new. I just got from Hawaii a couple weeks ago.


I just signed a paper that I leave the company I've been working for the past 8 yrs at the end of July. I'm now working on a project with big money, and I feel bad to leave in the middle of it. So I'll stay here until this project is completed.
What will happen to me, then? Who knows!! Let's just hope things won't be that bad. I'll be free, anyway! Right?

Sorry for my silence...

I know I've beeb very bad updating my journals these days. Sorry about it. I'm so busy with my online shops and other things. It should settle down by the next month or in June, I hope.
I just made a big decision in my life. I'm quitting my work as soon as I finish my project at work. I'll say goodbye to all stupid work,boss and commuting time!! Gee, I feel so happy and free now.
I've been unhappy with my new boss and new assigment for the past year, and now I decided to go on my way!!

Last weekends

Last weekends, we visited the Forest Park in Fujisawa, our neighbor city for the first time. Look at this shot. So beautiful with gradation of colors with Sakura flowers. As I keep telling you, now is the best season to enjoy the scenery all over the Japan. Since we're surrounded by lots of mountains/hills, it's so beautiful to see pink/white here and there.
We found a very old Japanese farm house in the Park. This house was built in Edo Era (18th Century)!! So old!! And it's so huge!!
You see how huge the house is!! It's still in beautiful condition. How nice!





Inside of the house is so sophiscated even though it was built more than 300 yrs ago. This is "zen", eh?

Ohanami picnic

Last Saturday, we had a "Ohana-mi" picnic at the park next to our house here in Kamakura.
"Ohana-mi" means "cherry blossom viewing". It's a special event during the season and I believe all Japanese do this at least once!!
Japanese have been enjoying this activity for hundreds years now. We have a park next to our house and there're lots of big cherry blossom trees.

My husband prepared our lunch boxes right away. Since we both works, he takes the turn to cook on weekends. Fair enough, eh?
This drink is called "Ama-sake", sweetened sake. Very typical drink for Girls Festival on March 3 and Ohana-mi. He also prepared this for us! Can you see the Sakura flowers on it?
Here's a happy girl with daddy's yummy food!
Umm, oishii!!

amazing desserts with Sakura flower!

Look what I found just now!! A sweets with Sakura flowers in it! Looks so adorable! Isn't this so beautiful?


Here's Sakura tea to go along! This is a special kind of tea for ceremony such as wedding or Yuinou (formal engagement reception) in Japan!

sewing time

Hi girls. I haven't uploaded any handmade work photos these days, but here they are!
I've been quite busy with my online shops as I get orders every single day, but trying to find a time to sew as I really like this activity. When I'm creating something out of fabrics, I can devote myself. You know what I mean...
The latest bag is using really "chic" fabric from Hawaii. I love the combination of black and pink. This fabric was one of my favorites, but I finally used it for the special order I got from my Japanese customer.
The second photo shows totes with another fabric from Hawaii. These bags were sold out right away last year. But I managed to find the same fabric once again about a week ago. So they're back again!!
The third one is "strawberry pouches" and they all will travel to the US very soon. I'm now working on a different color with similar fabric for the same shop. Yum yum! :D

Sakura everywhere!

Yes, Sakura is seen every-where in Japan at the moment. It's the most beautiful time in the year.

Sakura has a beautiful smell, too. It's so hard to describe with words but it has special kind of it. All Japanese can tell it's from sakura without seeing the flowers!
Enjoy the beauty of Japanese spring with my photos!

Sakura Saku

This photo was taken on March 18, 2006 at the park next to our house here in Kamakura. Saskura flower was ready to bloom. You can see the flowers are kinda popped out.
And this shot was taken on March 21, 2006, just 4 days later. Look some of Sakura flower is blooming!! The news says it's a bit earlier this year. Sakura is a national flower of Japan, and we all LOVE sakura so much. People are waiting and waiting to see when it'll start blooming. When it's at its the best time, we always have "Hanami Party" under sakura trees. Very nice!

Spring flowers

I know lots of people LOVE spring. So do I!! So many lovely flowers to cherish. On Sunday, I and Jade took a long walk through our neighborhood as my hubby was out of house on business with Chinese guys.
I took about 100 photos!! So much to love out here!!
What's your favorite color in flower? My daughter loves pink and purple. I love pink and white.
Oh, there're so many photos I'd love to share with my friends. Umm, I'll upload some every day, then.
Tomorrow is our national holiday and I'm off from work! Yes, this is a treat, right! Another walking to the beach-side, I guess!

This is where I live - Kamakura beach side

As many of you know, I live in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. We moved in here about 4 yrs ago from Central Tokyo after getting sick to be surrounded by high-rise. My husband chose this area, and he was right about it!

Kamakura used to be a capital of Japan in 12th Cen. Many famous writers, politicians and other celebrities love to live here as it's surrounded by beautiful beaches and mountains.
Also you can cherish Mt. Fuji from our area. Over the weekends, many people visit here from Tokyo Metropolitan area and other places. It's a kind of sightseeing spot, too.
Today, I only post the beack-side of Kamakura area. I'll post about the mountain-side of Kamakura when I take some shots!!

spring flowers from my garden

Here are some shots from our garden. Japan is now enjoying gentle and warm spring. The season is a blooming season of flowers. You can enjoy sweet smell when you walk on the street.

UME flowers in our garden is now having its best time with so many pretty flowers.
In June, we'll make UME liqueur to enjoy the UME fruits. Oh, and UMEBOSHI, sour ume pickles!! You need this to make a good Onigiri (triangled shape rice ball)!! I love spring. I feel so freshed and new!

Jade's new bag

Sorry for my long silence! I've been very busy with my online shops, taking/placing orders, shipping and so on. But I'm trying to find just a bit of free time to enjoy my handmade work each day, too!

In Japan, new class starts from April at every school. So March is the time to say goodbye to some friends and teachers. From April, my daughter, Jade will be in a new class called "Lion Class" at her nursery school. For the class, all kids will need their own bag to put their stuffs like clothes, communication notebook, toothbrush, cups and so on from home to school and vice versa. Yap, they'll do almost everything by themselves from this "Lion Class".
So I made a cute backpack for her. She chose the fabrics and I did the sewing! What a great combination!! She chose pink Hawaiian fabric, and I added this cute Hawaiian tape. She really loves the bag and now she's so proud that she puts everything she needs at school by herself, carry them to her class and put them into her basket in her locker in order just by herself!! Kids are growing up to be smart!!

DECOLE goodies!

Hi! Hope you had a great weekends. We went to see a play at Kamakura Kids Center on Saturday, and it was such a great fun even for adults. The temperature is pretty nice here now even though we had so much rain last week.
Anyway, I'm introducing some goodies from DECOLE at my shop, Atelier JADE.
I know lots of people have waited and waited for a long time after e-mailing me. But finally I got some items from Decole. Thanks a lot for your patience, and I hope you'll love those cuties!
http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~atelierj/

Chirimen Crepe Fabric

I'm now introducing several kinds of Yuzen Chirimen Crepe fabrics after so many requests from my customers for Atelier JADE http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~atelierj/
Yuzen Chirimen uses a traditional stencil dyeing technique ever since 8th century in Kyoto area. It is traditionally made of silk, but these days it's made of rayon or polyester.
The texture is so delicate and gentle. And the traditional patterns are so gorgeous. But please take good care of it as it will shrink if you soak in water (hot or cold).
You'll experience totaly new fabric with beautiful colors and gorgeous texture. Traditional "kanzashi", bag and other small zakka things have been made of Chirimen for hundreds years in Japan. Enjoy the Japanese tradition in modern way!

from my mom's garden

Last weekends, we visited my mom's house. She has a great collection of all kinds of seasonal flowers/trees in her garden and sun room. This one is called "Tsubaki" in Japanese, and one of her favorite tree.
The avator I used for this blog and my shop is called "Otome Tsubake" and again I took the photo from my mom's garden. This one is my favorite one of all! It'll bloom in a month from now on. Cannot wait!
I guess many of you already noticed that I LOVE pink flowers.
So I'm taking lots of flowers in pink.

Okay, girls.
Have a great weekends!!

Spring is almost here!

Yes, spring is around the corner in Japan. It's not that warm yet, but I feel it!! Cannot wait the beautiful blooming season of spring. The photos are both UME (Japanese plum). One is white/pink and the other is thick pink.
Since I was born in this month, my birthday tree is this UME. There's a Ume tree in the garden of my mom's house and the tree is almost as old as I am!! Dad and mom bought a nursery plant to celebrate my 1st birthday so many years ago. Now dad is gone to the heaven, and it's my first b-day without him around us. I miss him so much.

birthday treat

I had my 32nd birthday on Feb. 20. I couldn't take a day off as I had some meeting to discuss with my stupid boss. I'm so furious after this meeting. I'll talk about it later on. Anyway, I got treats from my gourmand sister.
The first one was a French champagne from Taillevent. As some of you may know, it's a 3-star restaurant in France and known as one of the great place to eat!! This champagne was so tastey. Oh, so good.

And she also gave me this chocolate cake from an exclusive confectionery in Kobe City. The taste was so rich, not too sweet but sophisticated.
Those yummy goodies made me so happy!!