The Autumn Fair and Art Show...

At the weekend it was Ebi-kuns yochien autumn festival and art show, he had the Thursday and Friday off and the following Monday and Tuesday all for a 2 day festival. I was supposed to go and help set up on one day but with three deadlines to finish it wasn't going to happen plus I would have just got really annoyed at the ridiculous amount of faffing around and time wasting. I don't mind going and helping out I do mind wasting all day on something that could be done in an hour, anyway, let's get on with the art show before this turns into a rant against faffers!

Ebi-kuns yochien is big on the art side of things, they have a proper clay room and wood work room, Ebi-kun has used the both but it will be next year when he gets to do sculptures in there for the art show, this one is done by the little girl who lives down the road, it is her mom, dad and baby sister. There is nothing to show the scale but these are big, the dad was about 12" tall.

 All the rooms are used to display the art and each class has their sculptures on display too. This is a vegetable print picture.

 This is my favourite, it is a saichania  they drew onto Styrofoam then printed the image.

 and yes, more dinosaurs, this is his sculpture made with bottles and bits from the recycling box and about 7 rolls of sellotape by the looks of it! It is a Stegosaurus.

 Daddy-ebi studying the art work, this is ripped paper art. They also do a lot of painting on really big pieces of paper, from what I can gather some days they will do some kind of activity, such as a forest walk and then they have to go back and paint it. It appears to be themed but not not cookie cutter art which I know a lot of kindys tend to stick to.

 The artwork was up for 2 days, the Sunday was the autumn fair too - I was on yaki-soba selling duty, there were lots of activities and little stalls set up - I didn't take any pictures but Ebi-kun kun wasn't interested in any of it, he spent the whole time racing round with his bestist mate, it took us about an hour to leave because the monkeys kept running off!

The Travelling Advent Calendar....

I think I may have mentioned that we are going to the UK for Christmas, well I was wondering what to do about an advent calendar, the last couple of years we have used the mini stockings up the stairs, the first year we filled them with the Muji wooden city pieces and last year Muji came to the rescue again and we used a bumper pack of pens and I added an activity to do too. The problem this year is not only are we travelling half was round the world, we will also be travelling around once we get there. We do have a wall hanging advent with little pockets but of course it is packed away with all the Christmas gifts and I am too lazy to dig the box out of the back of the pantry, so I put on my red bobble thinking hat and came up with this... the travelling advent calendar.

I picked up a couple of packs of polka dot envelopes from the ¥100 shop and a pack of dinosaur karuta cards, this set are quite good because they have the picture on one side and on the back info about the dinosaur and then the other pack is the poem so you can play a game with them too.

I punched a hole in the corner of each card so that they can be put onto a ring, in the first envelope there are a couple of cards and the ring so each day he gets a couple more dinosaurs to add to his collection. Once I had sealed all the envelopes I punched a hole in them too so I could string them onto a ring too. It will be easy to pop the whole lot in my bag and just take it along wherever we go and as we travelling around he will have some new cards to 'study' - I have just realised that I am going to be bored to death with dino facts! 

I know looking at the pack it looks like there are no numbers but you are mistaken, you have to look really hard because I wrote the number for each day in one of the polka dots, hee hee evil mama! That should keep him quiet for a while.

First Football Match...

Ebi-kun goes to football practice on a Saturday and this last Saturday his coach arranged to play a match against the their local elementary school. They split the group into little kids and big kids and Ebi-kun was the youngest of the lot, most of the kids our team played against we 1st or 2nd grade. Our team is the lot in a multicoloured shirts (they don't have a team strip yet!) Considering it was their first proper game they did well and well, the score doesn't matter does it :o)

 After they had all played a couple of games - some of our boys were shattered because they ended up playing for the little kids and the big kids! They joined the elementary kids for practice, it all finished around 3pm then we went back to coaches house for a party, it was a great day, sadly daddy-ebi was working and missed all the fun!

Have you heard....

about Pinterest? it is a great new site where you can pin all your visual internet finds on to a pin board. You can have several boards so you can keep all your inspiration organised. I am a very visual person so this software is a godsend, you should see my bookmarks bar - it is scary, very scary! Hopefully Pinterest will help get that under control.

a few of my boards

I am so hip....

or more like Sew Hip! as in the UK's number one sewing magazine.

Yep, that is my little doggy up there on the 'things we love' page.

and I am in good company sharing the page with my favourite chicken maker Lynsey at Swirlyarts!

SALE....

The shop doors are open and the fabric section has the prices reduced

Go grab yourself some for all the gifts you want to make!

Fridge Cake....

.....so rich it will add inches to your waist and make your teeth fall out!

This is a really easy recipe and perfect for when you haven't got time to make something fancy but you want to impress, plus it  is easy enough for the kids to make.

Ingredients:
225g dark chocolate

225g unsalted butter

85g icing sugar

2 eggs beaten

340g 'nice' biscuits (I used coconut sable biscuits, 2 packs)

225g mixed dried fruit (soak in brandy if you have time)

2lb loaf tin greased and lined (I used a silicon tin so didn't grease/line it)

little extra icing sugar

Put 1 pack of biscuits in a ziplock bag, give to a small child with a rolling pin or similar and let them bash the hell out of it, until it is like crumbs.

Melt butter and chocolate together.

Beat in the icing sugar.

Beat in the eggs.

Stir in crushed biscuits and dried fruit.

make a layer of biscuits in the tin then add a layer of mix, continue like making lasagna

When your mother turns her back to put the fridge cake in the fridge stick the spoon in your mouth, leave the cake in the fridge for a few hours to set.

Remove from the tin, mix up the extra icing sugar with a little water then drizzle over the top. I would love to show you a photo of the finished cake but I completely forgot to take one! I do recommend that when you serve it, cut into slices then cut the slices in half, it is really rich.

yum.

Thanksgiving...

Well we went to our first thanksgiving meal this year. Tuesday was a national holiday so we went round to a friends house for a gathering of friends. Much drinking, eating and laughing went on, the kids are all a bit older now and so us parents can kick back and relax a bit and they just got on and played. I have been so busy recently it was great to take the day off and just relax, it was a great day, thanks guys!

after several drinks we realised the table needed to go upstairs.....
they ended up taking the legs off but we got many a giggle out of it

all but the smallest kid sat together on the round table

it was a great spread and some really delicious dishes

I took some herbed chicken and a fridge cake - I will share the recipe on another post.

Black Friday ~ Cyber Monday SALE

I had no idea what Black Friday* was until I opened an Etsy shop and the first year it totally passed me by, but this year I am a bit more organised, thanks to some new apps that you can use with Etsy. Before now, to have a sale generally meant manually changing every listing in your store - and if you have over 100 listings then that is quite a lot of work! So, this year I am trying out the new sale app, there will be a 10% discount on all fabric from Friday through to Monday. I need 5 more sales to hit the big 500 so the first 5 customers will also get a free gift and their name in the hat for the 500 giveaway prize.

*for those who are as clueless as me, Black Friday is a big sale day for bricks and mortar stores, the day after thanksgiving. Cyber Monday is a newer sale day for internet based shops.

Today's inspiration....

Now, how about a gift for someone who suffers from cold feet or chronic pain, 

these little magic bags are a great idea.

magic bag on sewing tutorials

and my fabric choice would be....

China blue flowers

Gifts from Cuba

Yasuyo recently returned from a trip Cuba and she bought us some goodies to 

go in our culture box, 

these little people are so cute!

 A selection of postcards and some other bits and bobs,

 the wooden cigar is so funny! Cuba is on my

list of places that I would like to visit....one day, when I am rich, sigh!

Today's Inspiration

For the geek in your family or the mommy blogger maybe?

This laptop case looks easy to make.

laptop sleeve tutorial

from The Cottage Home

For the mommy blogger I would pick this pretty pink and silver fabric

stylish and elegant

and for the boy geeks, this funky robot print which is actually double sided,

two prints for the price of one!

red, white and a hint of aqua

I put this treasury together to get myself in the Christmas sprit....

A bit of fabric...

So I went to Nippori on a mission with a big list, not with the intention of buying fabric for the shop but.... I couldn't resist. 

I am not going to list these in the shop until I come back from the UK, seems rather pointless because I will have to close the shop for the time I am away. The patterns section will stay open for an extra week because I can organise that so Mr Ebi only has to write the name and address on the envelope and pop it in the post box, I can't really expect him to start cutting up fabric!

If you are interested in any of the following prints let me know and I will make up a listing for you.

I have noticed that alpaca's are popping up everywhere, I think they might be the next big thing and why not - they are adorable, just like this print which also has a glimmer of glitter to it, very much the in thing on girls prints at the moment.

 This print has quite a retro feel to it, I think it is the colours that gives  it the 70's vibe.

I squealed, yes, actually squealed when I saw this one! So so cute, I can no longer get my favourite hedgehog print but this is a close second. The hedgehogs are tiny, see the next picture for the scale.

See what I mean, I can't imagine this will last long in the shop, not all of it will make it to the shop shelves as it (squirrelled in my stash more like!)

and finally, an oldie but a goodie. This will be the last time I will be stocking this, I could only find it in one store, she only had this colourway left and there was very little left on the bolt so when this is gone, it is gone for good. So, if there is anything you fancy, let me know.

That was it, not too bad, I managed to get all but one thing on my list so it was quite a successful day. I had a little old lady ask me whether the train we were on stopped at Nippori (it didn't) but it seemed quite odd since we were surrounded by Japanese and then later in the supermarket I was asked by a little old man which stew rue I recommended, maybe I look more Japanese than I thought. ha!

The Dot Game

I introduced Ebi-kun to the dot game at the weekend, he picked it quickly, we did of them together and then I left him to it. He showed daddy how to do it the next day although he had forgotten what to next, once I gave him a hint he was fine.

I think he has got the whole addition thing down, if he can add up several big numbers he is pretty much sorted. We have done some subtraction work but I think we will work on that a bit more next time.

Saturday I went to Nippori (I will say more about that on the next post), Ebi-kun had yochien in the morning but came home feeling tired and a bit under the weather so he didn't go to football, didn't eat much for dinner and went to bed. Around midnight the fun began - vomit, lots of it, luckily it all went in the plastic bin and not over everything, we did have 3 'sessions' urgh. We all got up the next day a bit worse for wear, we bobbed out to run the errands we needed to do and then came back for a nap! Apparently one of the girls in his class had thrown up on the bus that morning so it must be something going around. Looks like one of those 24 hour bugs because he was right and rain this morning - phew!

I have SO much sewing to do and it is only 18 days until we fly!

A sick child, I do not need.

Today's inspiration.....

Zipped pouches - need I say more? 

Handy for anyone and everyone, just change the fabric to suit the person

flat bottom pouches
by Pin and Paper


It would be sweet in this key fabric.

Today's Inspiration...

Now, how about a chef's hat for the little kitchen helper in your life

chefs hat
by Curly Pops

It would look super cute in this 

strawberries and cream fabric don't you think?

Update on Posting to the US

I have been following the Etsy forums on this, it looks like the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania and Portugal are doing the same, no parcels accepted over 1lb to be mailed to the US. it also looks like the countries that use cargo planes for their mail are not affected only those who ship using passenger planes.

I have had my first order from the States since this ridiculous rule came into play and normally I would buy stamps from the 7/11 and pop it in the post box but it looks like I have to cart all the way over to the post office for any mail to the US.

☆☆☆This bit is just for US customers, everyone else, business is as usual.☆☆☆

Obviously I don't want to put customers off but I do want to keep you informed, most of the items in my shop are light weight it is only if you order multiple items it would be a problem as a basic guide 2 yards of light weight cotton or 1.5 yards of medium weight cotton is the limit for one parcel - this does depend of the fabric though since they all weigh a different amount. If you want more pop convo me so we can work out the details.

On another note, I will be going fabric shopping tomorrow, if you have any requests please drop me a line.

Muffin Tin Dinner

Ebi-kun was really tired when he got home from yochien so he had and early dinner which I hadn't planned for so it was a 'what is in the fridge?' meal, which is one of the great things about MTD's!

Clockwise Satsuma, cheese and tomato wrap. yellow pepper and tomato, cheese and tomato wrap, parma ham, mixed dried fruit and seeds and a carrot in the middle.

He demolished it all and wen to bed early!

If you want more muffin tin goodness pop over to The Muffin Tin Mom

Today's Inspiration

This is such a cute idea and could be used inside or out

and for girls or boys

Picnic Blanket Tote
from Zakka Life

and my fabric pick? For girls I would go for this delicious print

and for the boys it has to be this hilarious dino print!

Painting with water colours...

I think, like most kids, Ebi-kun usually goes about his paintings by painting the subject first and filling in the background afterwards so I thought I would show him a different way to approach it. I picked up some water colour paper from the ¥100 shop, I do have some decent paper but I thought he should practice the technique a bit before I let him loose on the good stuff. As much as I would love to have him use top notch materials all the time, I just can't afford to do that!

I showed him how to apply the paint and water on my own page and then he had a go, he kept wanting to make the colours bright and vibrant, like you get with tempura or acrylic paints so I had to keep explaining that we were going for a different effect.

Once the paper had dried I drew a scene on my paper but only used black and then he had a go, it is a bear running near a tree, I love how it turned out. Once he had the finished picture he decided he liked the pastel background and asked to do it again.