just fooling around...

this is the mooch taking a photo of me taking a picture of him....

this is one of the photos he took!......nice one little kiddo :)

thinking of you peeps..

cold in the least populated hemisphere....

while we enjoy iced coffee and prepare for the heatwave....

new friends

rainy season has officially started here in Tokyo......luckily we have had some lovely sunny days :)...more rains to come......I'm off later this week for a little break, hooray!! (no washing, dishes, vaccumming, cooking, bed changing, ironing etc etc....)....................yay!

all in an hours work.....

...well, I did make the cushion for the mooch's bed in about an hour but I first had to put in this photo from our trip to the zoo.....I figure, since my loved one has a great camera and it spends most of the time in its bag on the floor I should try to use it more. I prefer my point and shoot but the image quality just cannot compare with an slr...its just heavy and I'm paranoid about dropping it/losing it etc.....the zoo was an excursion and it was a sunny day with LOTS of kids from all over the place...it was nice to talk with other adults for a change :)

here is the cushion, long and kind of designed to protect the mooch from bumping his head on the rails...I do have some kind of big bed bumpers in my mind but whether they get made is another thing....I will try because even through the walls I can hear him bump his head in the night......

and this little cheery fellow, that I made just a short time back, has now been well loved and in need of a repair job. I needed a model and said mooch had just bumped his head (maybe pillow needs reworking..) so he wasn't really feeling too cutesy....I think I love this camera......

I heart turquoise

It did occur to me that I have moving in a turquoise direction lately.......maybe the summer vibes in the air....the mooch did choose the colours above for our cardboard box project.......or maybe that soon I will visit my parents in law in a place where the water is very pretty, warm and turquoise in colour :).....

I just changed the calendar from this most lovely turquoise image by illustrator Kiba, but I cannot find a link in English......very simple prints and beautiful colours.......and lovely animals...

and my most recent purchase....a tofu cook book....I didn't just buy it for the cover but it is a delight on its own.....

my language isnt good enough to read a pure recipe but with some help pictures, what I dont undersatnd, I can figure out....while I was very engaged in reading a fish cookbook and trying to decide if I could read enough to justify buying it (not enough so I didn't get it), the mooch had found a very nice sticker book and proceeded to stick the stickers on the other books...oops......

and I did get a small bit of elephants in yellow, to make a cushion cover for the mooch's bed.....coz I love going to the craft shop.....

illustration friday - contagious

mini Michaelangelo's re-made

I have lots of little masterpieces but not sure what to do with all of them.....

so for this little card design I just cut out the shape of the cat from the painting and drew the eyes and nose myself and stuck them on a plain card......if you have other paintings you could cut them up to make contrasting shapes and textures :) you can also make your own cards from a painting or using the card from a cereal box, shoe box or even make a post card from a larger cardboard box and then attach your design :)

plastic bag picnic sheet re-made

Here's an easy thing to do with old shopping bags and a sewing machine! Follow these easy steps to make your own very foldable, designer picnic sheet!! Make your picnic sheet the envy of your buddies!!...yeh!!

I saved the back of the shopping bags to sew pieces together to make a double sided sheet, mostly for durability....but if you have lots of coloured bags you could make it part of the design....(if small rips happen as a result of rough ground you can use clear tape to repair...bonus....)

If you are really keen you can measure each size to be the same and make an exact patchwork, my skills arent that good so an approximate match was all I was aiming for :)

I needed a way to keep the back and front of the sheet together so added a few sticthes here and there. I found it easier to do by hand rather than machine but you could do either. You could also do a great design or add names, I just followed the chefs hat as I liked the design....and the flip side has a nice contrast of stitches and white bags......

I used a little bit of frill from a purple bag. I sewed them on but have found it is also easy to stick them on with clear tape.....frill designs and colours are also unlimited!!

my ever faithful model!!........this little one folds up into a tiny square to fit into your bag or pocket...its a step up from sitting on a simple plastic bag to protect your bottom from wet grass!!
And if you are very organised you could sew up a small pouch to put the picnic sheet into and then throw into your bag or basket!

rainy, rainy, rain

..about 4 days now......thats a lot of rain...it is rainy season but.....geez you need to be good to keep a sane mind during these days :)......................

dogs bed re-made...

... its been a long time coming.....poor Long Long, his bed has been so manky for so long.....not dirty but just old and frayed and broken zipped......I made a deal with myself that I could not buy any more fabric from any craft shop until I actually made something...this fabric was bought for another failed project but has been revived now!! :)
I used the former manky bed cushion cover and cut off the old, broken zip and excess, frayed fabric. Inside, I use two folded woollen blankets instead of said manky cushion, so I needed to make a kind of envelope arrangement as I didn't want to use another zip. I am yet to secure the opening as I will trial over a few days different options. I have nightmares about cute buttons being chewed and injested....my bank account cannot afford another expensive vet visit...so will find the best solution as the days go by...

...and I added an edge to the blanket, because a whippet cannot sleep without a cover...what a prince :) much loved, mind you! The fabric is by Utako Yamada and has buzzy bees with tea pots in their hands and biscuits and spoons.....beautiful!

I hope to get some carrots this year! Easy to grow....I did try last year but got a bit carried away with the seeds........and then the hot arrived. I'm better organised this year :)

lucky day

I turned 36 last week! Feels like it's old but I dont feel too old. I had such a nice day! There have been several things I have wanted to try but never had a reason to go out and buy them so this was my chance :) The first is the famous pastry chef Sadaharu Aoki who's geen tea eclairs (like the one above) are famous worldwide!.....and goodness, so nice. Filled with a kind of custard with green tea or matcha flavour, goooooodness. Of course the buying experience was all part of it. Shopping at the lovely Isetan which is an upmarket department store, is a place to see and breathe in. The service, store environment and quaility of goods is like nothing I have seen. The cost of most of the things is also high but worth it for a few small goodies :)

..the next thing on the list was the macron...I have been wanting to try them for ages.....and well,....I thought they were good....but might go for the Aoki san eclair next time:) I also got a small birthday cake to sing along and have the candles....it was so nice..I received some really lovely pressies (thanks lovely ones) which I will show a couple later...coffee goods, jewellery, books and a new laptop!! Hopefully my computer woes will now be over?!

And, this crafty project arrived on my doorstep :) the magazine Cotton Friend which is mostly a sewing/craft magazine, did a little project with me and the mooch! My photos are a little dark but you get the idea. It was a lot of fun.

thats us....

I was set a little project about making something out of plastic shopping bags, a hard task, unless you want to weave or melt them, so I sewed them together to make a small, waterproof picnic sheet....I will put a bigger photo next time....mooey is sitting on it in the photo above.....we had planned to do the shoot in the grassy garden but it happened to be pouring rain that day so we had a little picnic inside :)

...and because he was so so co-operative, he was borrowed for a couple of other things...

...... our first foray into these kind of printed things and it was a great experience!! Watch this space :)

hello hand puppets

...with all that open ended art, I just had to make something from all those lovely painted newspaper pages!! Although I havent documented each step, this is so easy to follow and fun and takes about 15 mins depending on how co-operative your mooch is :).....

...from newspaper to hand puppet. You can use any kinds of papers, newspapers (which we painted and drew on the day before), old paintings, shopping bags, wrapping papers etc......we drew faces on another piece of paper (a dog and a man) and roughly cut out the faces and the shape of the puppet.

...I then used the zigzag stich to first sew on the faces and then sew both sides of the puppet. It was actually much easier than sewing fabric.....maybe my little 'D'lite' is meant for paper?! I added some old paper bag detail to the bottom of the 'dog' and some black 'hair' to the man, using an old jumper. I didnt spend a lot of time planning this project but as you can see with a little bit of time and thought beyond this, the results could be fantastic!!

..a bit of playtime in the grassy garden....puppets are pretty durable considering they are made out of newspaper.....

..and then come cuddles for Long Long....its definantly whippet weather :)