Wax Marsupials et al..............

This is a table mat I made for my parents house last night. Phil and I also bought them this awesome clay owl bell for them to hang on their deck. Next to the owl are the two wax figurines we got at the Los Angeles Zoo today! I was so excited that they still had those machines - I have not been to the zoo in at least 15 years. Anyways, Phil and I bought year passes - that way I can gradually collect all 12 wax animals - and look at the real ones too. In the background are 30 more coasters for EPS waiting to be quilted. I did a bit of reorganizing at my worktable - thank goodness for that Ikea sale!
This is my favorite pic of the day - as people started to gather around, and as I scrambled to get my camera out - the lounging rhino promptly got up and disappeared into the back area. I caught this a split second before he was gone for good.
These are the four guys walking to an exhibit (L-R) Sam, Phil, Eisaku, my Bro Jason. Eisaku was the reason we planned this zoo trip. He is a 10 year old, well-mannered, brilliant artist and he is still on his Winter break. A while back, we told him that we would all take him to the zoo and sketch the animals - but it was a little to crowded to sketch - so we all kinda just had fun goofing off and searching for those wax animal machines! We plan to go back soon since many of the exhibits were under major construction. After the zoo, my bro had to take Eisaku back home and Sam, Phil, and I chilled out at Starbucks near our place for a while.

I got a second wind later that night and wound up sewing away for several hours. Now it's time to work on my list of New Year's resolutions....................

A Day at my Pear-ents

A recent pic of Zero in my parents backyard, she looks so pretty.......................
Harry and David Pears at my parents house - soooo oishii! The enchanted party favor tree that my Mom had ready for all the guests at Christmas dinner - all the little animal head key chains have quarters in them!
A gift that Phil and I made for my parents. It's his Kambei Shimada drawing printed on canvas. I sewed it on to some vintage kimono fabric (the fabric already comes in that width) to turn it into a Japanese style wall hanging.

Short Week and Superheroes

These were some runner mats I had made for EPS a while back - just thought I'd post them now. Or maybe I did post them already and I just don't remember - oh well, I am so glad for this short week! And this is one of our coolest presents ever! Given to us by my bro and sis-in-law. It's a statue of "Invincible" aka Mark Grayson. He's a superhero from a comic book called Invincible and I love it! Phil got me reading it a couple of years ago and it's awesome. Anyways, this statue is not even supposed to be out until March, but my bro always seems to have the hook-ups when it comes to toys!

Christmas in Downtown....

Just a few of my beautiful Christmas gifts from last night, I will post some others soon........... Some of the cutest things I've ever seen on the AranziAronzo site. Some appliquees for the kodomo (children)
.......a tissue box cover
.....and some totes. Alot of their designs feature the kuma (bear) or usagi (rabbit) . Anyways, i have'nt fully browsed through ther entire site yet - it was giving me heart palpitations so I thought I better stop.
Phil and I had a lot of fun last night at both of our families Christmas celebrations. Today we took it easy. Woke up late, cleaned up a bit, and then went for a nice little walk. We spontaneously ended up at the Bonaventure and had an early dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel. We got a 360 degree view of LA 35 stories up. It was a lovely way to spend Christmas Day!

Recycled Gift Tags

As I'm starting to pack away all my Christmas wrapping things, I just thought I'd show some of the tags I made this year. For some reason, I save all the cardbord that the bias tape comes wrappped around and I have a big stack of them. I just put a grommet on the end of it for the tie and some rubber stamps to decorate it.

Merry Cretaceous!

Well, the past couple of days have been hectic with the usual Christmas frenzy - last minute gift wrapping, making, buying, giving and receiving, feeling guilty about receiving gifts without having anything to give in return, debating whether or not to try and scramble up some gifts, ultimately deciding to give a "New Years" gift instead and making up something about it being a Japanese tradition to give them their Christmas present on January 1st. And all the while trying not to lose the actual spirit and meaning of the holiday season. Today Phil and I thought he had a dentist appointment at 3pm and when we showed up, we were told it was that morning at 10am - even though I was and still am certain it was at 3pm - we ended up taking a spontaneous trip to the Museum of Natural History. Above is the beautiful rose garden where I spent a lot of my childhood.
This is one of the giant diorama-like scenes in the Hall of African Animals. Though the scenes are somewhat creepy and sad, it's all so nostalgic for me nonetheless. Phil's parents also took him here a lot when he was little, so we had a fun trip down memory lane.
Here's the tyranosaurus and stegosaurus in the center of the great hall. I just like the snowflake projections on the wall - even the dinos get to have Christmas.

We have a busy Christmas Eve tomorrow or today I should say. Phil's family dinner first and then off to mine! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Watashi no Wagashi

Another wacky J-Town find - a set of ceramic woodgrain tea cups with matching saucers - sitting on wagashi (Japanese sweets) printed fabric A smattering of gingko leaves from a tree that towers above our favorite store in Little Tokyo- Jungle Anime!
I have not been posting any pics of projects lately, mainly because they are Christmas gifts for my family and friends who read this blog. More soon............

Get Your Fresh Matcha Cakes!

So I made some matcha cakes last night and they came out pretty good. I had gotten some of these cute bakery style baking cups from the Marukai 99 cent store yesterday, they come about 5 or 6 in a pack. I don't think I'll ever use regular cupcake liners again! This is a cherry blossom stencil I was playing with last night, trying to figure out what to use it on.
And these are the fabrics my mom gave me - does she know how to pick em or what!
Some Japanese stationary and a business card holder from Kinokuniya..............
a little lined notebook from Kinokuniya also - I love the brown craftpaper look of it, I can never resist a new notebook

I Need a Reinkoto (raincoat)

Today we had a very lovely, gloomy, rainy Saturday! Phil and I got a lot of Christmas shopping done in J-Town. My mom also brought me some awesome fabric - which is good because I am gonna have to be in a bowl making frenzy tomorrow. EPS wants more for her shop! We got home when it was dark so I will photograph our finds in the morning with the better light. This is our reflection in the window outside Kinokuniya.
We had a great time last night at Phil's company Christmas party. I managed to finish my dress in time and Phil looked quite dashing on his outfit. Notice the Venti Chai Latte in Phil's hand, we did'nt get to sleep til about 4am.

Well, off to work on some more Christmas presents and baking that Matcha Cake (Trader Joes' Box Mix)!

Some Random Things

While shopping for some Christmas presents at Sanrio yesterday, I just could'nt resist getting this wooden Hello Kitty memo holder And this Tenorikuma bento box for my lunch.
This is my to do list - some are long term projects, others need to be done sooner than later - but it mostly only makes sense to me.....

Mat-tacular!!

I've been working on another big order for E.P.S. Several table mats - not really placemats - just mats for your desk or an entryway table to put a grouping of ceramics on, you know, that sort of thing. Anyways, these here are about 15"x15" square and now I just have to make a few of the smaller 10"x10" ones.
This is what I have been occupied with for the past couple of days. It just seems like there is never enough time after one gets home from work.Anyhoo, I time to get to work. I'm going to try to wrap some presents, work on my dress, paint my nails, and get at least 5 hours of sleep tonight.

Mele Kalikimaka

Yet another busy week is behind me - and a full one ahead of me. But I dare not complain when my family and friends are all safe and healthy. I was so sad about James Kim this week - I cannot even imagine what his family is going through. It's so great what Lisa and her family are doing. I totally missed the boat on participating in the auction, but there are still other ways to help out. These are just a few of my favorite Christmas cards from my vintage (60's-70's) collection. They were all my Mom's actually - one's that she has given and received. I love these Hawaiian ones. They were sent to her by her relatives after she moved here from Hawaii.

Today, I'm actually going to start working on some Christmas gifts that I've been meaning to make. I already dropped off all my goods to The Kids Are Alright and Elizabeth Paige Smith last week, so now I feel really freed up to just jam away on presents!!

We went to a Christmas party last night in the pouring rain - but we had fun. We have another one coming up this Friday which I am hoping to make a dress for - but we'll see how that goes. Well, off to sewing and watching the new Pirate's of the Caribbean!

More Updates

This was my original idea for the ornament swap - it's filled with lavender also - but I just wasn't happy with it. So for now, it remains the only house on the block..... A stocking for my beagle Zero.............
A tree-o of soft trees for my mom..............I need to work on my circular sewing!
Another Tie-the-Knot purse
Let's see, there's been a lot that's happened the past couple of weeks that I have'nt really posted about. The most exciting thing is that I'm going to be an Aunty! My bro and his wife just found out it's going to be a girl!

What else..... I finally splurged and got myself a nice, heavy-duty, but very quiet Husqvarna. Phil and I have decided to learn Japanese - my Rosetta Stone kit just arrived today actually. The weather has finally cooled down a bit and it even rained one day!! I quietly turned a year older and have been addicted to one of my gifts - a Nintendo DS - it came in very handy at the dentist office this past weekend!

Happy Monday!