Scratch Art

I used to love doing this as a kid. Take some pieces of card, these are old cereal boxes and the such like, scribble all over them with wax crayon or in this case we used Japanese oil pastels which are so much better. Then paint a layer of black paint over the top, we should have used thicker paint, will make note to self for next time. Then when it is all dry use something sharpish and scratch away your design.

The one above didn't take the paint well but I really like the way it turned out, we did about 10 of these, Ei-kun let me do one, gee thanks! I will have to make my own at night if I want to play next time :o)

Ebi-kun gave it the thumbs up and already asked to do it again, I was surprised that he didn't draw actual pictures bar one they were all abstract.

Thank you for all you message about my accounts problem, don't panic, I haven't actually lost $7000, well at least I hope I haven't, it is just my lack of account skills, once I get to grips with what I should be doing I should be ok..... she says!

help....

I admit defeat!

I need some one to set up my accounts properly for me, I have no idea what I am doing wrong but with one click of the button I manage to put myself $7000 in the red! Not that it should be that much in the black either but something is definitely amiss. So, I really need someone to set it up and walk me through it (virtually is OK), it doesn't help that I am using multiply currencies either, so if you know anyone or you are an accounting whizz and would like to earn some extra pocket money PLEASE drop me a line...

jojoebi.designs@gmail.com

thank you

on turning five...

Of course, the birthday boy was up at the crack of dawn, so we started the day with cake and watermelon, since he had already had a fancy cake I just made some cupcakes with white chocolate robots, nothing like a sugar overload to start the day!

 and here he is in his birthday suit, OK, birthday shorts and 5 t-shirt, I used the freezer paper technique this time and his shorts I whipped up earlier in the week, I love the fabric.

 Then it was off for the big surprise, he had NO idea where we were going, we took him for his first cinema trip - Toy Story 3 in 3D at the IMAX (if you are going to do it, you might as well go right over the top!). I was a tad worried that it might be too much considering we don't watch much TV and our TV is about as big as a computer screen. But, he loved it, he did want to sit on my lap for the scary bit apart from that he was fine and then said that we should go there every day! 

 We had some lunch at the mall then came home to finish opening his presents and then playing with Lego. His main present was the Lego castle and he was also given a couple of the smaller kits to go with it, it took 3 adults to build the castle, I can see many a battle going on today. Lots of new books, PJs, crafty bits and a weeks worth of T-shirts and a real watch. Thank you for all his presents.

He had requested pizza for dinner, homemade of course and I rustled up and exciting drink....

 it is just coloured ice-cubes and lemonade, I saw it somewhere this last week but I think the original was a cocktail, went down well with the '5' pizza, made with his favourite toppings :o)

A busy day, so I am hoping for a more laid back one today....

and then he was....

✪✪✪✪✪ FIVE ✪✪✪✪✪

Looking at him now,  you would never know we had such a scary start, it all seems
like so long ago but it is as clear as if it were yesterday.  

And now he is all grown up, his sense of humour is developing and he is quite the cheeky monkey. This last year has been quite eventful, what with broken bones and the start of yochien, big changes for a little boy but he has taken them all in his stride. So, that little baby boy with the big eyes and skinny legs is now a whopping 17kg bag of mischief, it will be fun to see what the next year brings.
Happy Birthday Little Man xxxx

Do you like music?

and are you a UK resident? 

then pop over to Superlucky and win yourself some itunes cards.

Iro Mizu - a tutorial by Ebi-kun

First, you need a plastic bag and then find a morning glory flower, you are not allowed to pick the open flowers it has to be a sad flower that looks like this (droops head). Put it in the bag now add some water. Ask mommy or sensei to tie a knot in the bag then squash the flower and the water changes colour - magic :o)

Thunderstorms

I'm not sure about the rest of Japan but we have been having some cracking thunderstorms this last week and yesterdays was the biggest by far, it went on for about 3 hours and the thunder was so loud it hurt my ears. We only had a little rain though although some areas were warned about flooding, the power did go out - twice. I think Ebi-kun was quite excited about the prospect of cooking dinner on the camp stove, luckily it came back on in time for dinner. He has also started to take an interest in planets and so he was convinced that it was the planet gods bowling that was making all the noise :o) I love little kid logic!

Ricotta and Tomato Savoury Layer Cake

Ebi-kun and I made this the other day and it is delicious.

For the pancakes you need:

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

2tsp of pesto (we used green pesto)

Beat all the ingredients together to make a batter, ladle a spoonful of batter into a hot frying pan/griddle, when the top appears to be dry flip over and cook for a couple minutes more until golden brown, put on one side. Continue until you used up all the batter, should make 6 pancakes.

For the filling

large tub of ricotta cheese (we made our own)

4 medium tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped

handful of chopped chives (out of the garden)

pine nuts 150g

salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a bowl. Then make the sandwich with a pancake followed by a layer of ricotta mix, continue until it is all used up. Pop in the fridge for and hour to set then you should be able to cut it easily like a cake. Serve with salad and a baked potato. It is actually more filling than it looks, the above amount will serve 4-6 adults.

I'm a winner!

Thanks to the posts over at SuperLucky, I entered a comp to win 'Learn To Tell The Time Right Now' and got an email this morning to say I had won, couldn't be better timing since I know a certain little boy is getting a watch from him Nana for his birthday this week :o)

So, thank you Di and thank you Rosie Scribble.

Painting Around Holes

I saw this idea on The Artful Parent, using my shape cutter I cut some random shapes out of various bits of paper and gave them to Ebi-kun

It was interesting to see how he would use the holes, he was careful to paint around them but not to mess up the scrap paper he was using under the pages.

Apparently these two pictures are parks.

re-stocked

super-cute-kawaii bento picks back in the shop

Melon Seed Art...

We have been eating lots of melon here so when I serve it up I scraped out the seeds into a sieve then gave them a good wash and put them on a paper towel to dry out. Ebi-kun then used them with white glue and tweezers to make some designs, kept him quiet for quite a while.

 When he was doing it I remembered when I was a kid my auntie (8 years my senior) made a cool necklace out of melon seeds so of course the next thing to try was threading seeds, I recommend using a really sharp needle for this, the sharper it is, the easier it is to push through.

It is so hot here, playing outside really isn't an option, so expect to see lots of art and craft posts...

HOT ?

need to help keep the kiddies cool....

Try Ice cooking or Digging for Ice Treasure

A custom order for where?

A lovely reader contacted me a couple of weeks ago asking if I could make up some things for her daughters birthday and would it be OK to ship the to French Guiana! How exciting! I knew where French Guiana was thanks for several really long bus journeys in South America and nothing to read but the Lonely Planet but I didn't know anything about the country itself. It was a bit of a rush job since we had no idea how long it would take the parcel to get there since it has to go via France. Vanessa really liked this Japanese doll fabric but I didn't have enough to make the whole bag from it so I teamed it with some quilted linen which gave it some structure too, turned out rather sweet.

 I also made a set of story telling people, I love the little girls crazy curly hair, and there was a pack of felt  food too but I forgot to photograph that. I made all this lot in the middle of making Ebi-kuns cake so the house was chaos with little people drying, half sewn bag, felt food and a castle cake in the works, just a minute, my house is always that sort of chaos.

I was a bit worried about the parcel making it there in time but it got there in 7 days, from Japan to France then France to French Guiana - amazing.

Some French Guiana facts...

• It is an overseas region of France.
• It is split into two regions, the coastal area and the rain forest.
• The main industries are fishing, mining for gold and timber and the Guiana Space Centre. 
• Cayenne pepper is named after the capital of French Guiana
• Arawak Indians and Caribs were early inhabitants of French Guiana.

Do you like comps?

I met my best friend Di at university, she is mad as cheese but that is OK since cheese is my favourite kind of mad. She is also an avid comper (what the 'eck is that?) Someone who enters loads and loads of competitions, now some people say that she is one of those super lucky people but in reality I know she puts in a lot of time and effort into comping and it obviously pays off. Over the years she has won more things than I care to mention but some of the include 2 or was it 3 trips to Japan, a 3 week trip to New Zealand, loads of European mini breaks, trips to NY and Iceland, a VW beetle, shopping sprees, her dads weight in chocolate, beer, Smeg fridge, tickets to all the big festivals and a tea towel.

Now I bet you are wonder why I am am telling you all this, well Di has set up a blog where she is spilling the beans, letting all her comping secrets out of the hat, so if you have ever wondered how you should increase your chances of winning or just want some little tips and tricks of the trade, or are you looking for some good comps to enter then pop over to Super Lucky and say hello.

PS that catsuit was my grans, she wore it at her 50th birthday party!

Wordless ermmmm Thursday

Camping in Nasu

We have started a tradition and for the last 2 years we have been camping in the 3 day holiday in July, this year was no exception and this time we headed to Nasu. The campsite was lovely, we did 'free' camp which basically means you can pick your own spot but you can't park the car next to the tent, we found a nice spot under the trees with a lovely view of the pond and we could park the car close by to load and unload so it wasn't too bad.

We were just about to pitch the tent when I spotted something in the grass, it was a tiny tree frog, it turned out that there were loads of them living in the bushes, Ebi-kun had a lot of fun catching them and making friends.

Around the site were some big rocks which were perfect as a study table, so as we sorted out the tent, he caught himself a frog and set to studying it. He let the frogs go straight after, we did find one that had died and was being eaten by ants, he was very sad about it but we talked about the cycle of life and then he was much happier about the situation.

Sunday, we spent the day in and around the camp only leaving to nip to the supermarket for food and beer, essential supplies. We went down to the river and tried our hand at fishing, we caught a few tiddlers.

Then we headed back to the campsite which had two streams running through it, one had a wooden walkway crossing it and we found about 5 of these frogs and 2 big toads, numerous dragonflies and several weird looking beasties.

Of course we had to get a bit of football in to feed their addiction!

Then after lunch we went for a paddle, this part of the stream was perfect for toddlers and little kids since it was only ankle deep, it was icy cold too which was lovely considering it was so hot. I did have to go back to the shade after a while, too hot for me so the boys went to explore the other part of the stream and I did a bit of sewing.

The day ended with display put on by the local fireflies which was very exciting since I have never seen them before. A little story...Once upon a time when I lived in Iwate and had just started dating my husband, he came round to my flat late at night and told me to get dressed and go with him, he took me to a park and we walked to the middle, I was wondering what on earth he was up to, we got there and he declare that they had gone! Apparently there had been loads of fireflies and he thought it would be romantic to go and see them ahhhhh. Well at least I got to see them 10 years later :o)

The only downside to the camp was that we got badly bitten by something, mossie killer obviously didn't help, my bites are not big itch lumps and my husband has these horrible red marks on his legs and one leg is swollen, I think he should get it seen to but  in reality the doc will probably just give him antisceptic cream. I also forgot to put the battery in the camera so I had to rely on my iphone so the pictures are not great, still kicking myself about that.

Yochien cleaning day......

I had to go to the yochien on Friday - oh, I should explain that I scheduled the last couple of posts since we went camping at the weekend, so everything is a bit of of sync, sorry. Back to yochien, so we got there for 9.00am, it was already really hot and I was dripping with sweat, blahhh, I am not a summer babe. We watched the kids do their exercises and then they had to run round the yard to the 'can can' music, the senseis have to do it too so I don't feel too bad for the kids :o). Then the kids went to the class and we went to the gym to listen to the head sensei, I zoned out after a while but it sounded like he was talking about what to do and not to do during the holidays. Then it was time for cleaning, yes, one of the little culture differences that I don't enjoy (anything that involves cleaning I don't enjoy!) We were split into groups and I got to clean the gym with a bunch of others moms who couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. Other groups cleaned classrooms, weeded the grounds, cleaned around the animals encloures etc.

Let's see, why don't we sweep the hall from completely different directions missing several parts and then lets wipe the floor with wet clothes (obviously there is a big market in Japan for mops), now, splash the wax in big puddles all over the place and everyone start from a different point and work to the middle of the hall so that you all have to walk over the wet wax. Right, now lets go upstairs and sweep the balcony so all the dirt can fall onto the still wet waxed floor and yes, clean the windows, standing on the wet floor as you do it! Seriously, I came out in complete shock and disbelief that anyone could do things so backwards. The hall of course was really hot so I was soaked - better add some sweat to the nicely waxed floor. The kids had been playing and had a water fight and they were just finishing up cleaning the class when we got back.

We had a mothers meeting, most of which went over my head and we were given a bag of goodies to bring home, more on that in another post. Then we went to the mothers room and had lunch together, which wasn't too bad, the moms started quizzing me about Christmas and what we usually eat at home, the usual and then we got a life home with one of the moms who lives close by, which was quite handy considering the amount of stuff we bought back, which included a morning glory plant. He was supposed to have yochien Saturday but we skipped it because we were off to camp and today is his last day before summer holiday, my last few hours of me time before I have him full time again, so I had better go and get those emails answered and packages sent off...

What we are reading....

Thought it was about time for a book round up, since I got hooked on making cheese I have been drooling over anything cheesey and stumbled across The Cheese Room by Patricia Michelson and I think both Ebi-kun and I have dribbled over it, he cracks me up, he sits and reads random pages out of it (and probably does a better job of pronouncing the Continental cheeses than I do!) Although I haven't sat and read it through it all yet, I have been dipping in and out and I am enjoying it immensely.

Ebi-kun is reading Afternoon on the Amazon, number 6 of The Magic Tree house series and before bed I am reading The BFG to him, it is a looooong time since I have read this and don't remember the story at all, fun for both of us. He also listens to the stories from The Barefoot Book of Knights and The Barefoot Book of Pirates, it kind of goes without saying that the illustrations in these books are fantastic and the stories are fun to listen to and read.

I have just finished reading High Tea In Mosul which is about two British women who are living in war torn Iraq, they both got married and moved out there 30 odd years ago, they have families and were both welcomed into their Iraqi families. Part of the book I could really relate to being an ex-pat wife, the lunch get togethers with other wives to moan, bitch and laugh about our current situations, how the mother-in-law drives you nuts and how certain traditions are enough to push you over the edge. Yet other parts of the book I can't relate to at all, it made me question myself about what I would do in the same situation, would I pack up and head home or would I do like they did, keep my head low, hide myself away and hope it will all be over soon? The book also reveals sides of the war that we rarely get to hear about and the true feelings of some of the Iraqi people. This is one of those books that is very real, it makes you smile a little and cry a little and make you think about your own life quite a lot.

I finished High tea last week but haven't yet picked another book to start on, I think something a little lighter is needed next, what are you reading?

*just a quick note to say that the links take you to The Book Depository who ship FREE worldwide, for those of us who don't live near an English book store, it is a life saver :o)

Montessori Globe - for free

but only if you win and only if you are in the US....if you fit the requirements, pop over and leave a comment :o)

Zucchini moons...

Ebi-kun decided that he wanted to cook daddy's dinner, so he got out his cook book and we looked through to see what we could make, zucchini is very much in season at the moment and cheap as chips. Pretend soup is a great book for kids, easy to follow and the recipes are in picture form and written form. So he chopped up the zucchini, it was a big yellow one and we used about half of it.

And then he added the rest of the ingredients and cooked it all on the table top stove, if you have one of these it is a great way for the kids to cook, I don't like the idea of kids standing over a hot stove. I did have to constantly remind him to watch his arm on the top of the stove but apart from that he did fine.

Once the zucchini was done we cooked the pork in the same pot, he helped me and asked lots of questions about the whole process. As we were running short of time I quickly chopped up some salad to go with it and had some rice on in the rice cooker. The finished dinner, before I had put the rice out, the zucchini was delicious, we will definitely be doing that recipe again.

Daddy usually gets back late and this morning had to get up early to go to a meeting so he left Ebi-kun a little thank you letter saying the dinner was delicious - Ebi-kun was so chuffed that daddy liked his dinner, maybe he will be doing the cooking again tonight....

Sometimes......

....a quiet afternoon reading is what is needed.

I made this picnic blanket a couple of months ago but then kept forgetting to take a photo. The bottom is a blanket which had some delightful blood stains all over it (Ebi-kuns nose bleeds) and the top is fabric out of my stash, the border is fabric I love but have been hiding then I decided that it is no good in the back of the cupboard so I got it out, now we can enjoy it when we go to the park. I love the big flower on it and you can't really tell from the picture but I quilted the layers together with big flowers.

Castle Cake...part II

Onto putting it all together, set aside about 3 hours and kick everyone out of the house.

For the fondant I used marshmallow fondant which was a doddle to make. Basically it is 1 part marshmallows to 2 parts icing sugar and for every 100g of marshmallows use 1 tbsp of water. For this cake I used 4 bags of marshmallows and nearly 1kg of icing sugar (sounds awful when you see it written down, but a birthday is just once a year!) I had to melt the marshmallows in batches and poured it all into a really big bowl. I read that you *have* to use a certain brand of marshmallows but I just used what was in the supermarket and they worked out fine.

• In a big bowl melt 100g of marshmallows in the microwave, I put it on high for about 30 seconds.
• When it is melted add the water and stir the add the icing sugar little by little until it it forms a dough. I read about adding the colour once it is a dough but I added mine in with the water.
• Knead it until it becomes smooth, this took me quite a while because it was such a big lump.
• Wrap in airtight bag until you are ready to use it.

The next step was to make butter cream, I just beat butter and icing sugar together, I didn't weigh it, sorry, there are a lot recipes out there.  So, then I took out the sponges from the freezer and cut the top of the sponges so they were flat and would stack together well. Then I put a thin layer of butter cream over the sponges and left it to dry a little. Then I started on the towers, I used two swiss roll cakes that I bought and cut them in half. Dust the work surface with icing sugar, roll out the fondant, put some buttercream on one end of the roll cake then place it on the fondant and cut around it, this is the top of the tower. I wish I had taken pictures now! Then I cut a strip a bit wider than the height of the roll cake and cut out sections to make the battlements. Cover the roll with buttercream and wrap the fondant around it, stick the little over lap down with a little water, repeat with the rest of the towers.
Are you still with me? Roll out the rest of the fondant then lay it over the main part of the cake, smooth it out and trim off the access along the bottom. Use bamboo skewers and push three into each corner of the main cake and then push the towers on to the skewers, this will hold them steady. I then cut a long strip to place around the top of the cake and to hide the join where the towers meet the main cake, use a bit of water to stick it into place. It is a bit wonky but it is an old castle, lol.

To make the drawbridge I added a bit more food colour to make it brown, how come when kids mix colours they always make brown but when I tried it took forever? I rolled it out and cut out a square and drew some wood grain in with a knife, added a couple of cross pieces, glued together with water and pushed some yellow 'hundreds and thousands' to make the bolts, then used water to glue the drawbridge to the wall.
The moat was the left over rolled out fondant and I painted it with blue food colour and the boulders are just rolled lumps of fondant stuck on with water and very popular with little people.
I finished it off by painting on the bricks and arrow slits. Phew.
Questions?

I want one!

You know I sell fabric over in the shop don't you? Well, normally I never get to see what happens to it, I pack it up and send it to the four corners of the earth and that it the last I see of it so I was surprised to see see this in my reader this morning...

image by C-Joy

What is it? Pop over to her blog and see what she made with it, it's great and I want one!

So, have you bought fabric from my store and made something with it then blogged about it or put it up on Flickr, if so, let me know, I would love to show your projects off! (plus I am a nosey parker and just want to see what you have been doing) :o)

The Castle Cake...part I

Ebi-kun decided he wanted a knight theme party and at first I thought I would make a cake the same as the football cake but put his jousting set on the top but where is the challenge in that? Then I started dreaming of a castle cake but couldn't decide how to ice it. Fondant icing is NOT popular here, I have seen it for sale in one place and it was sooooo expensive, so buying that was not an option but I didn't fancy the idea of butter icing. Then I stumbled on a recipe for marshmallow fondant but the recipe called for vegetable shortening and I can't get that in the local supermarket and to be honest it didn't sound too tasty. After googling I found another recipe which didn't need shortening so I went with that. Luckily over at Make it and Love it they have been doing a cake decorating series and I picked up some great tips from there.

So, I started with 3 square sponge cakes and because I knew the outside would be grey I asked Ebi-kun what colour sponge he would like (he had no idea what I was making) so he picked the delightful colour combo's....

The sponge cake recipe... this is my fall back recipe, it is one of the first I learnt to make and I have never had a disaster with it....

150g softened unsalted butter

150g caster sugar (in Japan I just use table sugar)

150g flour (SR if you can get it)

3 eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp salt

1 heaped tsp baking powder (not needed if you use SR flour)

food colour

flavourings if you want to add them too, I did it plain.

• Oil and flour your cake tin, mine is 20cm x 20cm
• With a fork, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• With a wooden spoon, add the eggs, flour, salt and baking powder bit by bit.
• Once it is all mixed in, try not to over beat it put half the mix into another bowl.
• Add the food colour/flavour to each bowl. For the marble cake chocolate and orange is really good. We did yellow + green, red + yellow and blue + red.
• Dollop the two colours into the pan then swirl the colours together so it looks like marble.
• Pop it in the oven at 180∘for about 35 - 40 minutes, when you press it in the middle it should spring back into shape.
• Leave for 10 minutes then turn out, let it cool and then wrap tightly in cling film and stick it in the freezer.

Hmm looks so tasty, lol. It was funny when I cut into it because no one expected all the bright colours.
Tomorrow I will do a post on how I put it all together....