Circus MTD

This weeks theme over at Her Cup Overfloweth is circus. At first I was going to ditch the theme, Ebi-kun has no idea what a circus is and I wasn't inspired but then when I went to buy bento supplies for a customer I spotted these fab picks, those teamed with bright silicon cases make for an exciting looking MTD don't you think?

Actually, the food is the same ole, same ole but who would guess with all that exciting decoration going on?

TOP - mochi cheese bread, okra and tomato, sausages, okra and tomato

MIDDLE - cucumber and tomato, boiled egg, pasta, caramel waffle

Bottom - pasta, little grapes, sausage, boiled egg

Of Knights and Castles - making a shield

Now, every knight needs a shield, so we got out an old cardboard box, I cut out the shield shape and Ebi-kun checked in his book to see which colour paint to use, he picked a nice royal blue. To minimise mess I put the cut out shield in a box then he painted it with a roller.

Whilst the paint was drying we checked out this site and made our own coat of arms. I actually printed out the final one and we stuck it onto a folder to keep all his knightly work in. We then went to this site and printed out the horse and castle that he wanted to put on the shield.

Ebi-kun painted all over the horse and castle and once it was dry I cut it out (his cutting skills are quite good but he would have cut off the legs or something so he asked me to do it). Then he stuck them onto the shield. He then coated the whole shield with a layer of white glue and water to give it a nice shine.

When it was dry we taped a piece of card to the back for a strap, and there we have it...

Of Knights and Castles - Castle cards

So what started this obsession with knights and castles, it was actually these cards that I picked up when we were in the UK, I kept them for his birthday and have been a BIG hit. The set comes with a pile of cards, some of which are perforated so you simply fold and break apart. You end up with a set of over 100 cards including corner pieces and different sizes of wall pieces

To build your castle just slid the slits together, simple. The book comes with some basic building techniques and Ebi-kun sat and built a tower using the book and no help from me (apart from pushing the cards in so they were flush when he had finished). Or you can just go freestyle, like this one....
The downside of all this was that he only had one knight, so we got out the wooden dolls, after using the first lot I bought for the footie teams I ordered some more (from Gemmielou). So we spent a couple of hours carefully painting some knights and squires and a princess of course.
Here is Sir Ebi-kun and his squire, who looks like he has already been through a war or two :o)
of course, you need a princess locked in a tower too....
and then we had to make a siege tower (just noticed the typo on the picture lol) they weren't good at spelling in the olden days!
We can't wait to get some more of these cards so we can build BIGGER and BETTER castles.
PS. for those who are Harry Potter mad, they make a Hogwarts set too!

Back to school bento

One thing I love about Japan is the bento boxes, so much cuter then sandwich lunches I used to take to school. Of course the Japanese have invented every possible cute thing to put in your lunch box too and although some bentos can be classed as works of art other, simple bentos can simply be jazzed up with the simple use of a few picks and cute dividers. How yummy do these look?

1. Fishy Fishy in a Brook...., 2. Rice noodle bento, 3. Sugarbunnies おにぎりパーティ - Onigiri Rice Ball Maker, 4. bento 56

If you are looking for cute bento/lunch box/MTD goodies I do sell packs of them, see this post for all the details. Anyone who orders a pack before September first will get a free nori punch in the pack too.

Of Knights and Castles - books

I was going to do the knights subject all in one post but I have decided it would be too much so instead it will be a series of short posts. I bought these two excellent books from the Book Depository*. The first is How To Be A Knight - a squires companion, it is a manual written by a father to his son teaching him all he needs to know about becoming a knight. There are lots of flaps, pop up and other inter-active bits and bobs. It has be read by Ebi-kun every day since it has arrived. I feel it has just enough information, not too much to bog you down and make it boring but enough to peak your interest.

The second is an Usbourne lift the flap book See Inside Castles we also have the See Inside Your Body Book in this series, also excellent. There is a lot of info scattered through the books and it is written with a sense of humour, it even answers the question about toilets (I got sent out of class for asking what the toilets were like in a castle - do this day I don't understand why, it was a completely valid question)

I have just ordered another book, this time with stories of Knights, I will report back on that one when it arrives.

*Do you know about the Book Depository - it is excellent, I haven't bought anything through Amazon since discovering them. Not only are the books the same price or often cheaper than Amazon, the shipping is FREE yes, that is right FREE WORLDWIDE shipping. Several times I have ordered things from Amazon and it has taken weeks to arrive, a couple of times I have given up and cancelled the order and more than once they sent the wrong thing, well the Book Depository have yet to disappoint me!

Guess what....

...we have been learning about the last week or so?

need a clue?

Outfit from The Charlotte Letters

I have 3 part cards and the such like to go with it, I am just trying to get everything into one file but the computer seems to be on a go slow this morning.

We have done lots of knightly activities, I will be sharing with over the next few posts.

That Little Bit Greener

A couple of weeks ago Emma AKA Bagladee and Rachel from contented started a new blog called That Little Bit Of Greener. They say

We decided to create this blog as a place to share information, stories, links, tips and tutorials that will, hopefully, inspire you to make some of those changes. We know that we don't need to tell you about recycling, shopping locally or changing your lightbulbs! We know that many of you do lots of these things already. And we know that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of "green" websites and blogs already out there. We are not experts and we are far from perfect! But we wanted to add our contribution, to try and be "that little bit greener", and we want you to get involved too.

Every other week they will set a challenge for those joining, this week was to share a tip/link etc that you use to make your life a little bit greener. So here is mine, the best way to clean your windows/mirrors, forget stinky vinegar and newspaper, all you need is soda water, a spray bottle and a clean rag.

Put the soda water in your spray bottle and let it stand for a while, it is better when it is flat(ish). Simple spray and wipe, the first time you use this you will need to do it a couple of times to get the residue left from other cleaners off the surface, once you have managed that the glass will sparkle. The best bit is that is that it is completely non-toxic so let the kids loose with the spray bottle - I am telling you, kids LOVE cleaning windows and mirrors.

***updated*** I should have said before, the soda water lasts for ages, (well it doesn in our house because I am not really into cleaning) it doesn't matter if it goes completely flat, I pay about ¥80 for a 330ml bottle of soda.

I have been featured!

The Speckled Pear has done a lovely purple themed favourite page,

have a look, her blog is cute too!

MTD - faces

I actually remembered to check what the theme was this week BEFORE I made the MTD. So this weeks theme is people/faces, although I did check the theme it was after we went shopping so I didn't get anything special - just adapted what was in the fridge.

On the plate are tortillas, I cut circles from a big one (we didn't have any bread or time to make pizza base) and in the muffin tins are weiners, pepper - purple pepper at that! cucumber, somen noodles, tomato and okra
He had some sauce for his somen but decided to eat the rest as it was - after making faces with it all that is :o)

If you want to join the Muffin Tin Dinner carnival, pop over to Her Cup Overfloweth to see what is happening.

The Local Matsuri

August in Japan means festival time, each city has some kind of festival going on, last year was the first time we had been in the new house in August but it rained the day of the festival so we didn't go. This year daddy-ebi had to work and then had a works leaving party to attend so Ebi-kun and I went alone. We did how ever meet up with Madi and her Photographer husband Hide and their youngest son.

We had a look around the stalls, Ebi-kun wanted to try the 'catching goldfish with a paper spoon' game, he tried, the spoon ripped, he caught nothing but got a present of two fish anyway - he then dropped the bag on the floor, spilling the fish which I scooped up and got back into the bag and the we had to go back and ask for more water. Surprisingly the fish are still alive!

We had, quite possibly the unhealthiest dinner, Ebi-kun has a big sausage (made of fish and meat - blagghhh) on a stick and I had a giant steamed potato with equal amount of butter on it followed by candy floss! It is the festival just once a year so we can live with that :o)

I also got my camera back although it still isn't working properly, I decided to have a play with the various functions on it, I like how these came out, despite not having a tripod and instead a 4 year old full of sugar trying to jump all over me whilst I took them :o)

summer fun

Last autumn I ran a brooch making workshop for Kym which is where I met Yoshiko and Kazuho. They are both crafty ladies, check out their blog/shop, it is all Japanese but you can look at the pictures, if you like the Japanese style you will love their work!

Anyway, I invited them for a playdate at the local park, Yoshiko invited a few friends so it ended up with about 18 kids! Most of the boys were off catching bugs the rest of the kids were paddling. After lunch, the kids were rounded up and a watermelon, blindfold and large stick produced. This is a traditional summer 'game', starting with the youngest, the kids were blindfolded one at a time, spun round then told to hit the watermelon, one strike only. Quite amusing but I was surprised no-one lost an eye considering the amount of kids trying to get in on the action :o) Ebi-kun has never done this before and I don't think he had any idea what was going on, he did really enjoy it. Once the watermelon is smashed into eatable chunks, everyone digs in.

This reminds me, I have a few brooch kits available, each kit contains enough pieces to make two brooches. It also includes fully illustrated instructions and a pattern so that you an make even more to give to friends and family. The kits include 60% wool blend felt, and all the other bits and bobs such as brads, buttons and clasps. You just need scissors, needle and thread and away you go...

If you would like one, they are $11 including shipping. Just send me an email to jojoebi.designs (at) gmail (dot) com telling me which kit you would like and your Paypal email address and mailing address.

1. Pink Snow Child Decoration, 2. Blue Snow Child Decoration, 3. Christmas tree hanging decoration, 4. Etta Brooch, 5. Mary Jane brooch, 6. Space Cadet brooch, 7. Peacock brooch, 8. Example of kit contents

and while I am at it, Serenity The Mermaid PDF patterns are still available, it is $6.

This pattern for a beautiful mermaid comes with a full set on instructions and an ideas and inspiration page. All the pages can be printed onto A4 paper, no need to be enlarging pieces (unless you choose to make a bigger doll).

The pattern is easy to follow, suitable for an advanced beginner. It would be a great project to do with a young girl, you sew, she designs the accessories! Or make a perfect gifts for all those little girls birthdays and Christmas presents.
The finished doll stands approx. 35cm /14" high.
The pattern also includes a cute little fishy tail tote bag for the mermaid to be carried in when she is not hanging out by the sea.

awards

I would like to thank United Teaching and Leptir for giving me the

and Green V-Neck for the Kreativ Blogger award

Conditions of this award:
- Tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true. Tag ten people with the award, and be sure to let them know they have been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do). Don't forget to link back to the blogger who tagged you.

I am too busy/lazy to do this over three times so here are my 10... (pick which award you would like!)

1. Jacqui at Blooming In Japan
2. Emma at Bagladee
3. Yoshiko at British H
4. Andrea at My Beady Eye
5. Mai at Mairuru
6. Kristel at vlijtig
7. Heather at shinshu life
8. Ezme's mommy at moziesme
9. Sarah at paper-and-string
10. Emma and Rachel at That Little Bit Greener

Go and check them out, they are all great!

and 10 things about me....

1. I am ambidextrous
2. I sleep on my left
3. I really don't like the summer
4. I have a complete inability to follow written instructions!
5. I don't eat fish, except for tinned in water tuna
6. I am allergic to lavender
7. I am usless at languages
8. I know how to weld
9. If I won the lotto I would travel to every country (possible) in the world
10. I really don't like doing these things...

I say this to myself every time but now I am making it official, I am not going to join the award giving anymore. Of course, I love receiving awards but then I get stressed out about the follow up post - hence taking me so long to reply to these then combining them. I have just spend well over an hour doing this post, time I could have used more wisely but then if I didn't do it I would feel guilty - no win situation. So, to save myself time and stress I will bow out gracefully now....

Getting back into maths and free download

I dug out my maths folder yesterday and tried to work out what we should be doing next, when I first did the Montessori course I was really impressed with the maths section, it seemed so logical to me but now several cobwebs have cluttered up my brain and I am having trouble working out what I should be doing. I decided that first we should so some review, the maths equipment has been pretty much ignored over the last few months and much of it is in boxes in the cupboard - hardly surprising it hasn't been used.

We did the coloured bead stair, he has done this before but a review wasn't going to hurt.
Then I made the hundred board, you can print the tiles from here and the board/grid here. Just print onto card. If you print a second grid you can use it for writing the numbers in.

I used an empty egg carton to put the sets of 10's numbers in 1-10, 11-20 etc. and Ebi-kun placed the numbers in the grid, these would be better on wood as they are less likely to get knocked out of place, he got annoyed a couple of times when he accidentally messed it up. Once the board is complete 1 -100 the child can write the numbers in by themselves.

Now I need to figure out what to do with all these beads....

Muffin Tin Dinner

we were out playing with the kids down the road so we were late getting dinner last night, this was very much a thrown together tin.

Top - cucumber, cheese triangle, tomato, grapes

Middle - ham, kabucha, cucumber, ham

bottom - kabucha, preztels, boiled egg, pretzels

Wakayama City Kids Science Museum

The day before we left Wakayama we went to the kids museum, it is a bit tatty round the edges but had plenty of hands on stuff for the kids (and parents) to enjoy. Not only does it have lots of science experiments set up but they have traditional Japanese toys and a planetarium (we we didn't visit). It was a good way to kill a couple of hours and Ebi-kun gave it the thumbs up!

We are back...

We went to Wakayama for Obon to stay with the in-laws, it is such a long trip getting there. We have to take our local train then two shinkansens and a rapid train and then jii-chan picks us up from the station - shattered!
We did however, have a great trip. Hubbys brother and family were over from Shanghai so Ebi-kun got to hang out with his Japanese cousins, the kids had a great time. The 13th was jii-chans birthday, in the morning we popped down to the beach for an hour or so and then came back to go for a birthday lunch. Of course the grandparents enjoyed spoiling the kids and the rest of us kicked back and relaxed a bit (a bit too much in hubby's case, he got so drunk on some lethal Chinese brew that Ichiro bought over that he had to go to bed at 8.30pm!)
I made some Black Apple dolls a while ago so I saved one for Yukika, I think she will be well loved :o)


The cousins left late Thursday night so on Friday we met up with Jacqui from Meeabee. Admittedly it took a while to decide where would be a good place but then Jacqui suggested a beach which was half way between us and turned out to be great. The kids hit it off and spent most of the time in the water with my hubby as life guard (thank you darling) whilst Jacqui and I chatted about all kinds of things including our Etsy shops and life as you try and juggle the shop things with little ones in the house. We even thought about organising a Japanese Etsy conference (or at least a get-together).

It was a fab day out, luckily we set out early, by lunch time it was a scorcher and we all went home with some burnt bits, despite several applications of suncream.

It was great to finally meet Jacqui in the flesh, although it nearly didn't happen because we both had a 'blond moment' where we both gave each other the wrong phone numbers, hahaha at least this proves we are as ditzy as each other :O), hopefully we we be able to meet again next time we make it down that way.

Hanabi and beautiful photos

A couple of weekends ago we went over to Tammy's farm to watch the Ageo fireworks and we met up with Madi, her husband and youngest son. I didn't take any photo's - broken camera remember, but Madi's hubby, Hide did and they are amazing. Here are a sample...

Hide is a 'weekend photographer' but seriously, he could be selling some of these. I tried to pick out my favourite shot but it is impossible, I love all these ones for completely different reasons

But this is possibly my number one fav.

Go over to Hide's Flickr page and check out the rest of his work, these ones above look much better on black, you will be blown away!

Just checking in

We are in Wakayama visiting the inlaws for a few days so there won't be much going on
here for a few days. Not to worry, pop over to the shop and get your 10% off anthing you fancy...
See you in a few days time xxx

Obon Sale!

It is coming up to Obon in Japan, the time when everyone travels back to their hometown to clean the family gravestone and reunite with family members. Our family is no different and so we will be travelling with the hordes to my husbands hometown, his brother family are coming back from China for a few days and it is also FIL's 70th birthday so we will have a bit of celebrating to do!

I am leaving the shop open but orders will not be sent out until the 17th. For the inconvenience I am offering a 10% discount on everything.

I will have internet access whilst I am away but please note that all the stock I have is now listed in the shop.

SALE

13TH - 16TH AUGUST

10% OFF

If your Paypal sale receipt is dated during this time period I will calculate the 10% of the goods and refund you through Paypal.

Little Japanese Owl Brooch

Owls in Japan have a symbolic meaning all to do with bring you and easier life, they are very popular with Japanese ladies. These little brooches are very Japanese and very easy to make, perfect for using up those left over scraps of favourite fabrics.

The little owl brooch has been updated and is now available in the shop.

Summer Sonic

Friday was the first day of Summer Sonic, a 3 day music festival held in two locations, Chiba and Osaka. The bands play one day at each location. Due to my mate Ziggy being the band manager for The Enemy we managed to blag guest passes - hurray!

Daddy-ebi had to go into work in the morning so we travelled there without him and met up mid afternoon. When we first got there and I was trying to get my bearings I took Ebi-kun into the dance stage - he was NOT impressed, screamed he wanted out of there, later he said it was a bit of a shock because it was so loud, I think it was quite possibly the awful dance music, enough to give anyone a shock LOL.

Later we hung out in hospitality for a while and got to see all the goings on, interviews and press related stuff. There were loads of famous people milling about and I recognised about 3 of them! I was stood next to Trent Reznor for ages but didn't realise until I saw him on stage later *duh* Of course we went to watch The Enemy play, they only just made it on stage after one of them had had his passport stolen in Ibiza the day before, he had to rush back to the UK to get a new one issued and a lot of strings were pulled to get his work visa sorted in time, he made it to the venue with about an hour to spare.

The set was great, Ebi-kun sang his heart out, he was a tad disappointed because he didn't see Ziggy on stage, I don't think he quite 'gets' what Ziggy's role is.
After they had played we went back down to hospitality, I had a bit of a catch-up with Zig whilst the band had their interviews then they were all whisked away to their hotel. We went back and watched some of Kasabian, who were great but used too much strobe lighting so we left, caught the 10pm train and got home just before midnight. A Looooong day, Ebi-kun zonked on the train so I had to carry him most of the way, daddy took over for the home run. (Daddy-ebi is too polite sometimes, when I was carry him and we got on a new train, I have no qualms about asking someone in the priority seat to move - obviously not someone else in need of a seat, young lads are my favourite to oust out of their seats! but daddy will just try and carry him).

Needless to say Saturday was a very quiet day which involved a nice long nap for all of us in the afternoon :o)

and the winner is......

Well, first things first. These are the three fabrics I have kept for myself, well, to be more accurate Ebi-kun decided HE was going to have some of each of the Kokka prints and, well, how could I say no? They are really cute. And the little girl gardening is just so sweet, you are lucky that any made it into the shop. I only buy fabric that I love so it is hard not to squirrel it all away in my stash!

So who won?

Lil' Bit Sassy

Congratulations, please drop me a line with your mailing address to

jojoebi.designs *at* gmail *dot* com