happy halloween part 2

Inspired by a cat I made recently and a conversation after with a super sweet friend, I decided our costumes for Halloween would follow the Owl and the Pussycat theme......great and grand plans to try and spend a little and create a lot ensued.....

but not before some snacks for the picnic were planned...choc and choc chip mini cupcakes.....

I was to be the pussycat, black clothes and a mask, easy peasy...the elaborate costume was for the moo...the little owl.....so I collected some goodies, paint, coffee drip filters and old scarf made from fleece fabric and some elastic. My plan was to make a kind of cape and have the feathers made from the coffee filter papers and to have a kind of mask that was more of a headband with the face of both owl and pussycat attached...so....

I cut out some basic shapes and painted them with a sponge using brown paint. I then used calligraphy ink to paint quickly the shape on each "feather"....

roughly cutting the fabric and pinning on each feather I attached them by sewing them in rows until...

an owl cape!! I planned to put elastic on each corner to put around his wrists to keep it from slipping off but then thought it should be as simple as possible to get off if needed so I planned to secure it at the front of the neck with a small clip pin BUT....

this was as close as it got to his body.......he hated it and screamed everytime it came near him....

happy halloween part 1

We dont really celebrate Halloween so it was quite fun to go to a party and get dressed up. There were quite a few houses in the area completely decked out with all kinds of stuff. This party was in a local park and there was a schedule of games and activities to join in. It really was lovely and to see the orange/green coloured costumes against the autumn leaves.

There was also a real pumpkin, huge and shiny and perfect for a lot of little people to climb all over...

of course the attention span of a two year old is only so much......

but when the game involves bashing something then moo is right there! I guess being away from home exposes you not only to the culture of the country you live in but also those of others who you mix with. It is an added bonus. We will go to a Thanksgiving party in a couple of weeks, nice :) If you notice moo is not wearing a costume, there is a reason...I will add the details in my next post.....

prickly pear

saga continues...

I guess everyone has had a noisy neighbour in their time, maybe more than once? Well, now its my turn, I cant remember if I had another one so this may be my first. It really does totally suck. In Tokyo, everyone lives on top of each other so you just have to be a bit careful, unless you are my neighbour who doesnt care. Problem is because his windows face ours, we are usually the only ones who are affected by the late night/all night parties, once a week, sometimes more, so its just our word against his....there is no resolution in sight......I feel venom rise in my throat and think of all these witty things to say when I see him in the street. I almost gave him the bird yesterday when I happened to be closing the curtains and we saw each other but I'm trying to keep cool and composed coz in the great big span of the world this little brat and this problem is so small.....this is cold comfort at 2, 3 or 4am when the hysterical laughter, clapping and cheering continues......all I can hope is when he finally grows up and gets old, like me, he can have a brat neighbour who annoys the hell out of him....I can only hope, but its likely he will still living with his parents by then and I'm sure they will stick up for him :P

autumn leaf adventure

We drove into nature on the weekend, about 2 hrs from Tokyo...far, but well worth it. The soon as you get out of the you can smell the sweet smell of things natural, hear the river rushing and the quietness. Few cars and fewer people. Almost immediate relaxtion.......so lovely :)

Look at the place where we ate lunch, nothing else is nearby and there are three things on the menu...

one of them is a bbqed salted type of river salmon....so sweet and tasty, we ate three....

fire red colours of autumn...

boyish things to climb on and poke around in the dirt...

and a super relaxed sleep on the way home, such a sweet and simple thing to do and so good for the soul :)

etsy update

This is another one of my xmas cards for this year, I have some other designs at my etsy shop and will keep adding new things over the next week :)

illustration friday-late

xmas 2008

Xmas 2008 cards are a bit quieter this year. Tomorrow I will add the link to my etsy shop so you can take a look.

...hard life for a dog...

..isn't it?! Long Long is just as happy as we are about the drop in temperatures. He is such a good dog :) Days have been passing and soon we will be back in Melbourne. I'm so looking forward to it, family, friends, beach, steak and chips, chicken and chips, smell of sea, coffee and brekky in cafes, walks with no people and noise around, magpie warble, and skyline. Tokyo is such a great city with many, many things Melbourne does not have but in reverse Melbourne is a great city with many, many things that Tokyo doesnt have. I feel so lucky we can share the best of both worlds.

Moo is getting better and better and getting back to his chirpy little self. A sick child is stressful, especially the first time...but I guess there are many firsts to come so I better fasten my seatbelt. We have been doing lots of fun things involving leaves, paints, playdoh and acorns, walking in the fallen leaves and kicking/throwing piles of collected leaves, cooking chocolate cupcakes, homemade chicken nuggets, risotto, bike riding, beanie wearing and dog chasing. For me, I went out two nights in a row, yes two!! The most in 2 years!! Coincidentally the Mums groups I am part of had organised nights out one after the other. It was so nice to get the heels on and the lippy, after 7pm too :) In the next few weeks we have a Halloween costume party, a gymboree party (which is kind of a structured/supervised games type thing), sweet potato digging and of course some trips to the countyside to see the amazing Autumn show of colours. Life is lovely :)

Yokohama

We stopped into Chinatown in Yokohama this weekend. It takes about an hour by car from Tokyo but easily accessible by train too. The streets were really nice and wide and has a different feel to Tokyo, although still busy with people traffic. Its always good to get out of town on the weekends and after a week of visitors, an emergency hospital visit for the mooch and lingering ear infection and fever, it was nice to just cruise in the Autumn sunshine and of course eat yum cha.

Some cute footpath tiles....

Gaudy and loud temple in comparison to the quiet Japanese ones....

and trinkets......such a nice day :)

delightful

This really would have to be one of the nicest spaces in Tokyo, Shinjuku gyoen. If you are ever in town, you should go here. It is the place that has the very beautiful open areas of green grass and speaking of which, mine is coming along nicely but you still cant walk on it yet, maybe another week or so.....soon the leaves on the trees above will turn golden and fall down, some parts of Japan are already bright red, yellow and orange. I really like Autumn here in Japan. Summer in Tokyo is a tough love compared to the breezy Melbourne summer so Autumn here is such a relief and so, so pretty. Fashions follow the seasons and although its still in the mid 20's, on the streets there are a lot of beanies, fur frilled coats, many, many ugg boots and knee high boots often worn with very short shorts. For me, I am in no hurry for winter so I'm keeping my coats on the hangers for the moment.

xmas crowns

I'm making some stuff for xmas day using our family protraits...this is the outlines....this is not including all our animals, they are next, two dogs and three cats....can you guess who is who??.....

cake

Things are pretty nice around here these days. Moo has picked up a nasty cold but its to be expected at this time of year. You can see people starting to wear surgical masks.....I first thought it was so weird and unnecessary but having seen it now for a few years I realise its actually very polite to put one one, instead of coughing your germs all over everyone.....

etsy...

I finally got my etsy shop up and running, although it just has one thing in it for sale, the card above. I have a lot of other things to add as well as my new 2008 xmas cards (which I wasn't going to do this year but had a change of plans...:) so I will keep you posted as there will be more next week!

rain

We are enjoying it while we can :)

crusin' in the hood

These days have been so enjoyable, we have been out a LOT, its so nice not to get fried every time you step out the front door! Some days have been raining, good for my grass, but mostly its good for the mind and body to get out. Tokyo is a great place to poke around and explore because if you want to, you can walk on a different road every day and not walk to same place twice! But it is a noisy place, at least every 5 to 10 mins a siren of some kind, the beep beep of reversing trucks, roar of cars and scooters and the general background hum of traffic. But, there are pockets of quiet, little silences here and there, when the lights turn red for one direction and just before the other set turns green......

There is also humor in unsuspecting places...for those who can read this, you're already smiling for those how cant it translates as "ass support".......but the meaning isnt nearly as funny as the pronunciation.....its actually "earth support" some kind of company (energy-I think).......so if you're ever in Japan and some one says "You need ass support" they are not being rude!!

the grassy garden?

As you know, I deliberate on spending too much time/money on this small patch we call a garden...but, recently the compound gardeners came and savaged the entire place and 'cut' the lawn, I mean turned it into a mud pit.....I thought it was inspiration for some new grass.....so, being a bit of an experimenter in the garden, I threw the seeds in, covered them with some turned over soil, which I did by hand with one of the Moos sandpit spades.....one of my less intelligent gardening decisions....and then threw some potting mix on top and mixed it all up. I gave it a good water and put some blue coloured (possibly scary) fertiliser stuff on top. To my pleasure, a typhoon was coming, which is really not so great for those in Taiwan who got the brunt of it, but it meant 3 days and nights of rain...now after just over one week, check out the greeness. Now, anyone who is experienced with growing grass might scoff at this picture (she's going to fail big time), well, for me, its all pretty exciting. My hopes are that in a few weeks (before it gets too cold), Moo and I will be out there playing lawn bowls and having picnics....I will keep you posted.....

daily

coffee cups

I'm making some new cards and trying to loosen up a bit...quite fun....I'm still working on it!! This is just a test....lets see what else happens....

I just bought this super lovely book called 'No Matter What' by Debi Gliori it is so sweet!!

lost in translation reflection

I watched that movie last night...it just happened to be on....I remember watching it the firt time when I had just returned to Oz from 3 years in the west of Japan. I didnt know Tokyo very well at that stage but I loved the movie and it made me feel a little homesick for Japan. Now I live just a few minutes from where most of LIT was shot and I know all those images very well. So to now watch it I feel like it really is a first timers glance into Japan, all the weird and wonderful things that saturate your senses when you first arrive, especially in Tokyo. I am amazed at how quickly I have adapted to the very busy streets the huge volumes of people and noise and it kind of feels normal. I dont long for Oz yet, only because I know this experience will end soon enough. But, if we decided to live in Tokyo indefinantly I think I would be pretty miserable...so, I still really like the movie and watching it I realise it will serve as a great nostalgia for when our Tokyo days are over....

naxi chicken

A few years ago, loved one and I took a fantastic adventure to Western China, right over near Tibet. The we visited provinces has a lot of minority groups, the REAL Shangri La (as in the place not the hotel chain), beautiful nature and some good food! Naxi is an ethnic group in that area and this is a dish they are supposed to be famous for. I have borrowed the basic recipe from Kylie Kwongs's My China cookbook as in that book she also covers many of the places we visited BUT I have made some of my own tweaks. The ingredients above are what is needed. The beans, lotus root and shiitake were the side dish and the chicken thighs were marinating in shao hsing wine and corn flour in the fridge.

Resulting dish is just so, so tasty. If you're a vegetarian you can probably replace the chicken with firm tofu but add it at the end to stop it from breaking up. Basic rules are marinate chicken in a couple of tbs of shao hsing wine and the same amt corn flour for 1 hr in fridge. Once marinated and ready to cook start with the chillis. This is so simple and so effective. Keep the wok cold and put the oil and chillies in. Slowly heat the oil until the chillies turn a dark brown. Remove chillies and save. This is such a clever way to have a very tasty cooking base, hot but not too hot. Add chicken and cook. Add finely sliced ginger and cucumber and stir fry for a couple of minutes, add chillies and cashews and spring onions. The last things are the flavours. Add 2 tbs light soy sauce, 1 tbs brown sugar, 1 tbs brown rice vinegar. The easiest, fastest, tastiest, cheapest gourmet dish you can make.

lions head dinner

I have been wanting to make Lions Head Balls for sometime now. Since we moved to Japan I have started cooking a LOT of Chinese dishes...umm, there is no logic. I think just the moo being older and me being more organised with my shopping means I am cooking better, enjoying it more and really enjoying the eating!! I use Kylie Kwongs cookbook (My China) a lot and have adopted her basic flavours in addition to the ones I use almost exclusively for Chinese food, that being garlic, ginger, soy sauce and shao hsing wine. She uses brown sugar and brown rice vinegar a lot and I have started to add them and gee, what a taste sensation!! Above is the start of lions head balls, so called because the cabbage is supposed to look like a lions mane. This is kind of more Hong Kong style food. It is so easy, it just takes some time to cook. So, the pork mince has some flavours, ginger, garlic, sugar, spring onions, mixed into it and then roll the balls in cornflour and fry for a few minutes.

The pot is lined with leaves (I think its to prevent sticking). I also steamed the wrapping leaves to make them easier to put around the meatballs.

I made my own chicken stock and added soy and more shao hsing wine and simmered for approx 1.5 hrs.

This is the end result. The verdict is quite tasty but with a huge meatball the minced pork was a bit too meaty/dryish so next time I will hand chop my own mince and add some vege like water chestnut and a few prawns to mix up the texture/taste. It was quite fun meal to make and a pretty cheap, it just needs some time to cook and prepare but even with a 2 year old running between my legs I could do it.

happy

I am happy to have such a wonderful life :)

one day

This is an attempt to document a day in our life so we dont forget our Tokyo experience and to hold onto a moment of the days of being a kid because, they pass so quickly.

6.00am -7.00am - wake up, eat brekky - banana, blueberries, yoghurt, milk

7.00am-8.30am - walk walk with the dog - involves a lot of running and playing in the local parks and usually a visit to the bakery

8.30-11.30am - free playing with various toys. I have a set of drawers with lots of things to do so he can get whatever toy he wants and free plays. During this time I also like to do one or two more structured activities, this day we made shortbread cookies together (then ate them for morning tea) and after washing up did finger and brush painting about rain (because it was raining)

11.30-12.00pm - lunch, spaghetti bol from last night and milk

12.00-2.30pm slept (hooray...some days he sleeps this long, I do admin, drawing, finish jobs, washing, etc..)

2.30-3.00pm free play at home and prepare to go out (its sunny now)

3.00-5.00pm - run in the park with the kids and the dog, play on jungle gym etc...

5.00-6.30pm - eat dinner (patties made from chicken, veges, egg) and avaocado on the side, shower and 3 books before bed. Books on high rotation are Hairy McLary, Hooray for Fish and ABC book.

6.30pm - big kiss and cuddle and the end of another precious and wonderful day. Sometimes the day goes so fast and I cant believe its bed time, other days, the bashing of toys, having of tantrums, yelling, screaming and general toddler-ness days seems longer but still enjoyable none the less.

yellow

Im thoroughly enjoying using paints again. It makes for different and fun discoveries when using a brush and paint for what I would usually use a nice firm felt tip pen. I am also enjoying my new food shopping tactic, that is, to shop with a list. It is amazing how much I save both in money and in wasted food and in my time. This week so far we have had Monday - Korean kimchi chigae, which is just the most tasty and easiest thing ever, the recipe I use is here
Tues - spag bol, my own concoction, and tonight Japanese saba miso (which I have talked about before - the fish broiled in miso and sake and mirin)......and I think the fact I'm not worried at about 4pm each day what I'm making means the cooking of it is also enjoyable....I'm also having a no spend month (except for foods) because the Oz dollar is now doing so badly it is getting expensive for us in Tokyo town......

big hair and backgrounds

I'm playing with some backgrounds and collages....

friends

It is amazing and beautiful to see the complete lack of self conciousness of our toddler. In the park this weekend, moo approached many groups of kids and joined in ball games, balloon throwing and bubble blowing. The freedom of allowing a kid to be a kid is something I think is important and precious. I guess his complete trust that everyone is good and his lack of ability to make a judgement allows kids like him to be taken advantage of by bad people. But, in his lack of judgement, it also means that he cannot see race, religion or disability as something to separate us as humans and how nice for me, just for a moment, to see life through his eyes that simply, every person is good, fun, lovely, friendly, happy.....