Saturday, February 23, 2008

Spring has come



Spring has come in recent few days-




I love walking, today I walked almost 20 blocks(around 50minutes) from my apartment.
Then I started to walk, I was thinking to go to get inspiration from somewhere in downtown or some hip streets, but I changed my mind.I just walked in suburbs.

Of course I didn't forget to say hi to neighbor cats.

I thought trying to walk to get back home but I couldn't make it.. my feet are too tired!


This hat is inspired by scenes I always look at - somebody's back yards or gardens.
There's many of spring plants and flowers, looks like they enjoy sunshine with getting out from cold, rainy winter days.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Eclipse

Today I saw an eclipse.
I heard solar eclipse and eclipse happens as a set.
According to a horoscope Jonathan Cainer,
http://www.cainer.com/
It happened a solar eclipse two weeks ago.
The fast eclipse open a gate for a chance to access new experience, second one close the gate.
Did you find something during in these two weeks?

Sunday, February 17, 2008

I love cats


I love cats.
I often draw strange cats on the corner of memo pads or behind of receipts.
Me and my boyfriend's hobby is making nick name for neighbor cats even they are belonging with other people.
We often go to night walking and finding cats we named.

These are the names

Dora - alley cat
Greco - gray cat
Shishi chan - hairy cat
Mimi - cat with big ears
...and more.

I made a cap with cat motif.
The cat is having a great flight.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Easy Peasie Muffin




This is a recipe for quick muffins.


I made this recipe in this morning.I love quick cooking with simple ingredients.


I don't have muffin tins so I baked it with a casserole dish.




Dry ingredients


2cups flour


1teaspoon baking powder


1teaspoon baking soda




(Sift dry ingredients together fast)




Other ingredients


3/4 cup brown sugar


1 egg


1/4cup oil


3-4 drops vanilla extract


3/4cup yogurt




(additional 1/4 cup raisin or nuts )




perheat oven 180 degrees


Mix "other ingredients" in a bowl


put dry ingredients into the egg mixture in twice or third time, mix quickly.


put the mixture into the muffin tins or some baking molds.


bake until great golden brown.






Thursday, February 14, 2008

"Poison d' Avril"



I read an old Japanese book my mother has it, written by Yoshiko Ishii.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiko_Ishii
The author is a chanson singer, she 'd debut in Paris in 50s and was living in there while.
The book is about foods related with her lifestyle, mainly 50-60s in Paris.
It is very interesting essay because you can know Japanese eyes of views of Paris in 50-60s, also
might feel like time trip and traveling both at once with this book.
Anyways I knew a tradition in France called "Poison d' Avril" from the book, and was curious about it.
I researched and I got some inspiration by this article;


Poison d’Avril takes place on April 1st. Children make fish of paper and pin as many as possible to the backs of adults, then run away and saying "Poison d’Avril!!", which is a little like saying "April Fools"


Monday, February 11, 2008

Currently project


My current project is making a pair of baby shoes and a blanket.
Usually I am making hats but these are my friend asked me to make his brother's baby's gift.
The photo is the blanket under construction.
It is fun to make the color mixture and balance with connecting motifs.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

My boots


I got a pair of boots from Mid west vintage.
http://stephaniebracciano.etsy.com
The other day I saw the boots in some article on esty and checked the store.
The boots was perfect size and beautiful condition, really good price too.
I've been checking vintage shoes on line but almost always the sizes are too big for me.
These are a pair of precious boots.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

I love sour dough bread


I love eating and making breads.
Sour dough breads are my favorite, they are very tasty and flavourfull .
I used to often make the sour dough breads with my original yeast, they were really great smell when I put them into the oven.
The yeast was made with just raisins and water, but need very carefully to make pasteurization.
Put raisins and water in the pasteurized bottle with good rid and leave it on warm place around two weeks, open the rid once every day.
The process of making breads is similar to make crafts.

Now I don't have much time to make them, I just buy and eat them from bakery.
My friend brought me a good bakery yesterday.
They have great breads and good sandwiches.The store called MIX bakery http://www.mixthebakery.com/

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

sifting to sell personal


Before my work was mainly making and designing products for stores and hat companies.
I 've been changing directions for my vision of working sometimes- they always arrow to fit for where I was/am living at and dependent on previous/current my life style.

Now I'm slightly sifting to provide my items to people by myself(making and selling my items by myself).
It make me satisfy my artistic side, because I can show some parts of my little world to the people through making products.
I read some issues on etsy and they called "crafting business" for these business with crafting . It is perfect words I think.That sound making business with staying personal through the crafts.

I couldn't find what should I call for my work - I am a designer and one of an artisan, maker and probably more words can fit..
So the "crafting business" make sense to me.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Russia





There is a Russian bakery close by my place, it is small, very simple bakery cafe.
Their breads and pastries are so good, they also have some interesting Russian style sweets and seasoning, snacks.
I am interested in Russian goods, I love looking at designs for those packages too.I often found simple and cute designs.
(I named the babushka "russia")

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Treat myself



This weekend is "a treatment weekend" for me.I couldn't have a chance to treat myself since new year.


I went to spa, which was a Christmas gift from my boyfriend. This is a first time to go to spa in Canada.It was so nice, luxury moment...http://www.eccotique.com/


Also I went to drink with my boyfriend.
We went to our favorite bar, six acres.There is cozy and nice atmosphere.
http://www.sixacres.c

Friday, February 1, 2008

Chance to study..


Recently I am studying English harder than before.
Because even I 've been living here for a few years, still my English is like a "broken"English.
I've never had ESL classes, I learned all of my words by talking and magazines, web sites, books.
Since I came to Canada, I just thought "I have to study English", I didn't think this is a chance to learn English through living in this place.My boyfriend is Canadian but he can speak Japanese well so I often lean on his Japanese.

After I realized that and I am making effort to study words and pronunciation and more things about English.
I started writing blogs often, trying to post some forum threads, reading magazines, talk to people with English as well as I can.
Specially I am bad at posting forums.
I always upset after posting on those forum threads.There were wrong words, spelling misses..etc.
Seems still I can't controlling words quickly.
I need more training..