Phew!

Well we had a great time over Christmas, it is the first time for many years (we can't actually remember when the last one was!) that me and my two brothers have been together for Christmas. There was a lot of drinking and silly stories, Christmas day wasn't too manic since Ebi-kun was the only child, he was made up with all the knight gear he got. Mom did us proud with the Christmas dinner - she proclaims not to cook these days so putting on a full dinner was quite an achievement. Boxing Day (the 26th) mom dropped one of my brothers off at the airport and went with the other to pick up his kids, so Ebi-kun had his cousins to play with for a couple of days. Boxing day turned into Christmas Day mark II since the kids had another set of presents to open.

Yesterday we took the kids to the Wacky Warehouse - a big ball pit place to get them to burn some energy, the weather hasn't been up to much so no outdoor play, it wasn't too busy and after a couple of mad hours they came home rather subdued. Right now, the house is quiet, mom has taken my brother and his kids back to his place and we are just kicking back and relaxing! I am hoping for a good nights sleep, the first night the cousins were here, M went to bed absolutely shattered about 7pm and Papie (my step dad) got absolutely plastered, my mom talked him into going to bed but he managed to wake up M and she then refused to go back to sleep unless she stayed with daddy. The second night she went down fine but woke up in the middle of the night and screamed blue murder, I think the only person she didn't wake up was her dad - who is one of those who sleeps like a log. Hopefully everyone will get a decent nights kip tonight!

I am still having no luck with the photos, so I will write some posts with pics when I get back to Japan.

Daddy-ebi's baggage turned up today so that is one less thing to worry about, the customer service with SAS though is appalling, we flew with them last time and had no problems, can't say the same about it this time!

Right, I think it is time for a wee sherry!

Hurrah!

Daddy-ebi arrived late but safe which is more than I can say for his luggage which is still MIA - last sighted in Germany (he flew via Copenhagen!) Oh well, a good excuse to go and buy some new clothes ;O)

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and for those who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a lovely weekend too, see you after the turkey and Christmas pud.....

Oh No!

more snow, we were hoping it would hold off until daddy-ebi arrives tomorrow evening. It looks like the airport is still clear and the main roads are clear, fingers crossed it holds off a bit longer.

We had a lovely day yesterday round at my uncle and aunts, my cousin was there too with her two kids, Max is 3 and Cassie 18 months so the two boys had fun playing together, Cassie was under the weather and spent most of the time clinging to mommy or one of her grandparents. My uncle loves to cook so he put on a good meal as usual, I got up this morning still full!

We haven't got much planned for the next couple of days other than picking daddy-ebi up at the airport, I think some sledging and snowman making is in order. Hope the weather isn't too bad where you are!

A lovely few days

Moms computer really doesn't want to play so I can't upload any pictures grrrr.
We spend the last few days down in Nottingham at Di's house, finally got to meet her little boy in real life, he is such a cutie and a really messy eater lol. Friday we went to Warwick Castle which was great, although the drive over wasn't that great due to the snowy weather. There weren't many other visitors so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, the staff were brilliant all dressed in character and so funny. Luckily Di had won the tickets which was just as well because it is really expensive to go in, I think if you go in the summer when they have the jousting and other events on it is probably worth the money, we had a great time anyway and kept popping back to the great hall to have a warm by the fire.
The next day the girls came, sadly Kerry couldn't make it because her little girl was sick but we started off with afternoon tea, mulled wine and pink fizz before heading into town for a mexican meal. The food was lovely but the service was so slow! Gave us plenty of time to catch up although it must be said that the two non-moms in the group were right wusses drinking apple juice and peppermint tea - what has the world come to?
All in all it was a great few days, it was worth battling the weather to catch up with everyone, I didn't think we would manage it this time with it being so close to Christmas, Di is such a superstar for organising everything and spoiling me rotton whilst we were there.
Most of the UK has ground to a standstill because of the weather, it's not too bad where we are, fingers crossed the snow holds off until daddy-ebi gets here.

lmnop

Yes, the Ebi's are popping up in yet another magazine, this time, the super cool and stylish lmnop, the place to go if you want to know the latest in trendy, well designed things for kids. A while ago they asked for entries to have your child drawn by the illustrator Gaia Cornwall along with what your child wants for Christmas, this is her likeness of Ebi-kun...

I recommend going and having a mooch over at lmnop , there are some lovely gift ideas there at the moment, for those who haven't got all there presents organised yet!

ps- this was a scheduled post, I am probably still nursing a bad head!

It's my birthday tomorrow.....

and this 40% proof tequila, 1% for every year

I am off out for a Mexican meal with the girls

Mexican + tequila + the girls = very messy and very big hangover

see you when I am old and recovered, it may be a while.....

Roll A Snack

I made this last time we flew to the UK and decided to take it again this time because it was a big hit.

I used one of those weekly pill containers, some stickers and a little cube. Stick a different sticker on each section, the spare section is used for the dice storage. Then stick a matching sticker on each side of the cube to make the dice.

 To play, put one snack item in each section, it would be fun to play this with some of those revolting jelly bean flavours! We used almonds, dried fruit, chocolate covered raisins etc. Roll the dice then eat what is inside the matching section, you can't refill the sections until all the snacks have been eaten (this drags the time out because it can take quite a while to get the last one!)

On the plane this is great because it stretches out the snacks, of course you could change the rules or add forfeits to the mix.

Conwy Castle

We decided to take a drive up to Conwy in North Wales because there is a knight shop there and my mom thought she would get Ebi-kuns Christmas present. It takes about an hour and a half to get there which felt like 17 hours because a certain little person kept asking if we are nearly there yet!

The knight shop was a lot smaller than we expected but I had called ahead to make sure that they had the kids things in stock, Ebi-kun was thrilled to see all the swords and shields and the only thing he asked for was a retractable lance so we bought that for, at three pound you can't complain. Mom managed to get him a shield, sword and helmet and my brother had given her money to get a dress up outfit so we will have a fully fitted out knight come Christmas day.

After the shop we decided to have a look around the castle, my mom and step dad decided spiral staircases were not for them so it was just me and the young knight. Ebi-kun was able to recognise various parts of the castle, he was disappointed that there was no dungeon, the castle was built of rock so they had a prison tower instead - not as impressive to a 5 year old apparently.

Later in the week we are going to Warwick Castle with my best mate, it is one of the best castles in the country, I know someone who is going to be very excited, I hope Di is prepared for all the yomping around we are going to have to do!

Breakfast With Santa

Still battling the jet-lag! and the computer which seems to be on a permanent go-slow, I'm not sure how well the blogging is going to go whilst we are here, I wanted to put up three pictures for today's post but gave up after waiting forever just for the first one :o(

Anyway, we went to Biddulph Grange to have breakfast with Santa, that is how it was advertised but in reality it was breakfast and Santa comes along later, it could have been organised much better but Ebi-kun enjoyed it. He go to have a chat with Santa and Santa did take his time talking to each of the kids and they got a small present too.

Ebi-kun did say that he didn't think Santa's beard was real! Personally, I thought it was the cushion up the front of the suit that gave it away. Really, you would have thought they could have found a fat bloke to do it. lol.

Biddulph Grange is a house and gardens, now run by the National Trust but when I was a kid the house was a hospital and the gardens pretty much over run. James Bateman who originally built the place set out the gardens as a miniature worlds so you can visit Egypt, China etc and he had appropriate plants growing in each section. As a kid we would climb through the fence and play in the woods, swim in the lake and dare each other to go through the tunnels and old buildings, it was a great place to play. Not long ago someone realised how important the gardens were and the National Trust took over and brought the gardens back to it's former glory. It is worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

Easy Wreath

Ebi-kun bought this home from yochien, so I can't take credit for it!

What you need:

• disposable umbrella sleeve - I am not sure how widely used these are but all Japanese departments stores and many shops have them, you put your wet brolly in it before entering the shop.
• coloured paper
• ribbon
• tape
• things to decorate the wreath with

Rip up the coloured paper and push it into the brolly sleeve, doesn't need to be tightly packed.
Once it is full, make the sleeve into a ring and tape the ends together.
Cover the taped ends with a pretty ribbon, remember to make a loop to hang it with.
Stick on your decorations.

jet-lag....

How I hate you!
It was a loooong flight, both flights were delayed, the first for 2.5 hours, oh joy! Ebi-kun managed to sleep for about an hour on the long flight and then completely zonked on the short flight from Frankfurt to Manchester, I had a really hard time waking him up, poor thing. We did however get to ride on one of those buggy carts things at Frankfurt which was fun and much appreciated when I realised what a yomp it was between section C and B.

Ebi-kun has been awake from 1am again, same as yesterday, I have tried to keep him in bed and we have had some amusing conversations...

Ebi-kun: I'm hungry
Me:well your body is confused because of the different time zones
Ebi-kun: I AM NOT CONFUSED I AM HUNGRY!
......
Ebi-kun:actually, I'm not hungry, I am STARVING

so we were up at 5am eating breakfast.

This morning around 2am...

Ebi-kun: mommy, I think that the nights in England are much longer than in Japan
me: agghhhhh go to sleep

4am - I had finally dozed off then there is a whisper in my ear
Ebi-kun:mommy, I want a glass of water
I tried to ignore him but he ended up whisper shouting in my ear agghhhhh

Now it is 6am, we have been up and hour, had breakfast and now watching some rubbish on TV, we have a date with Santa for Breakfast at 10am, I had better fuel myself with more coffee!

a conversation...

I saw this on dudecraft and is amused me, 

go and have a look :o)

Gift Guide - our top choices

I know all kids are different but I thought I would give you a run down of our most played with toys ...

(in no particular order)

LEGO - He got the castle and some small sets for his birthday, first time round me and daddy built it for him, I think he was overwhelmed with it all. Since then he has build all but the drawbridge by himself. It does tend to stay built and then he plays with it as a castle rather than rebuilding it as something else.

WOODEN BLOCKS - these still get lots of play, from building robots to cities, I have blogged about these before over here.

SCHLEICH - dinosaurs and knights. When I first came across these I admit my first thought was 'how much'? But daddy bought a couple when he was a business trip last year and they have been played and played and played with, the paint hasn't chipped at all, in fact they all look good as new, amazing considering the amount of jousts and battles that go on around these parts. The other thing I love is the attention to detail, we are so impressed with these toys that we have ordered more for his main present this Christmas. I ordered through HappyHappySue, the service was great and the toys a bit cheaper than most places.

*** edit - I am no longer happy with 'Happy Happy Sue' after putting in a second order, they apparently sent it to Japan although I requested it be sent to my moms address but it never turned up and so they eventually refunded the money. I attempted to make the order again since it was supposed to Ebi-kuns main present and then I find out several days later that they can no longer ship to Japan. Shoddy, very shoddy.

TOMIKA - toy cars, Tomika is the main toy car manufacturer here so most of his little cars are Tomikas. We don't have any of the accessories, just a selection of cars. They are the toy of choice to go on train trips and the back of the car.

ART AND CRAFT SUPPLIES - in all shapes and forms. He would rather have blank paper than coulouring books, he does like activity books though, dot-to-dot and mazes. He prefers felt tips pens and coloured pencils to crayons, he does like the Japanese oil pastels.

DRESS UP CLOTHES - like many kids, ebi-kun loves dressing up and make believe. We have a treasure chest from Ikea which is where all his dress up clothes live, I am hoping to pick up a couple more bits and bobs to add to the collection when we get to the UK. last Christmas I made Spotty his faithfully steed using a Melly and Me Pattern, it is really easy to follow and Ebi-kun LOVES Spotty.

and finally....

BOOKS - in every subject! It doesn't matter the language, Ebi-kun devours books, luckily for him, his parents are book lovers too.

As we fly over Russia

we will be dreaming of.....

see you the other side

Pimp my case....

So... Sunday, before we went to the Montessori farm we got the suitcase out of the shed, I knew there was a small crack in it, I wanted to check how bad it was, I figured a bit of tape would fix the problem. What I didn't know was that they was also a bloody big crack in it too! I tested to see how it would hold up with the baggage handlers (very scientific test involving me kicking the case in my fluffy slippers) there was an almighty crack and well, that answered the question. So after the farm we went to buy a new case. We didn't have time to shop around so it was a matter of just picking the best of the bunch, sadly, the best best of the bunch was black :o(

I so wanted another bright case like the broken orange one but it was not to be, here is Mr Dull Case...

My first attempt at pimping the case failed miserably. I picked up some vinyl seals which were really cute, kids dressed in traditional costumes from around the world, perfect for a suitcase. Sadly the seals were too transparent and once they were on you could hardly see them - FAIL.

Plan B - now if I had more time I would have loved to have painted something on it, but I didn't and I didn't have much in the way of suitable supplies. What I did have was a sheet of printable sticker paper and some mod podge. I thought the case looked very Darth Vaderish but he is black so that would have been a tough one so I went the easy route, found a printable mask of a storm trooper, printed it onto the sticker paper. Stuck it onto the case then gave it a couple of coats of mod podge to seal it. I thought it needed something more so I added the white spot stickers and coated them too.

I have a theory that most baggage handlers are male and most men love Star Wars therefore my case will get a bit more respect than your average travelling suitcase - we will test to see if the theory holds true and see what kind of state it comes out in the other side.

Now the outside is done, I had better get the thing packed...

Hmmmm

mince pies

Whoopie 500 sales!

Yes, I made it to the big 500. 

Thank you to all my customers over the last couple of years and for all the support you have given me, it means so much to me to know that I can can make this little business work. One of you will be getting a surprise parcel in the mail :o) I have several new patterns in the works for the new year, hopefully next year will be even better than this one was.

I will be closing the shop on Wednesday 8th and so the last items will be shipped on the 9th, I will re-open in January on the 11th so if there is anything you have your eye one, grab it quick!

Montessori Farm - December 2010

Yesterday was our monthly day at the Montessori farm and it was a beautiful day. We started off with a walk around the farm, the children worked in pairs with a colour box.

my leaf is bigger than your leaf!

 The children harvested peanuts, digging in the ground to find them, it was the first time for me too!

 Last time, I read the book Stone Soup to the children and then asked them all to bring one vegetable to the class this time so we could make our own stone soup. Yasuyo worked with the children in pairs as they prepared their own vegetables to go in the soup and I worked with the other kids. We did a leaf matching game and then made head-dresses which were very popular.

 I gave each child their own Native American name, which they thought was very funny and then we played Chinese Native American whispers.

 Then it was nearly lunch time so we read Stone Soup again, this time we added the vegetables that the kids bought. Yasuyo then showed them how to prepare choco bananas that were then cooked on the fire.

 Lunch went down well, the soup was a big hit

 The parents, they tend to come and go, hang out, drink coffee and relax, I think they enjoy the day as much as the kids!

 The kids couldn't wait to tuck into their choco-bananas, there were a lot of chocolate faces when they had finished.

 Then we moved over to the Montessori house.

doing the red rods maze

 I didn't manage to get many pictures in the house.

T-kun and Ebi-kun doing the 100 board

 L-kun is three and a half but he is really tall, he is taller then Ebi-kun who is about 2 years older than him. It is easy to forget sometimes that he is only three, he really enjoyed this work, the poles are actually bolts and different sizes.

L-kun worked with this for a long time

This must be M1-chan's favourite work, she heads straight to it each time.

We finished up with a couple of Christmas books then headed back to the farm to meet the rest of parents. 

a new bag...

As soon as I saw the great Aunty Cookie fabric that Jodie sent me, I knew it was destined to become a new bag for me. I really liked the pattern from Meg's Sew Liberated book but... I was getting annoyed with loosing things in the bottom of the bag and I also wanted a flap to make it a bit more secure when we go travelling, the other thing was that I wanted the strap to be padded. So I used Meg's pattern as a base and went from there.

 I added pockets on both sides and added a hoop to attach my keys to.

The spotty outer fabric is lovely and very soft and velvety, make you want to stroke it!

I also put a piece of batting between the layers for the strap and after walking around all day Saturday I can say that it is a big improvement.

Has Harajuku lost it's edge? and do you need a haircut?

I went into Harajuku on Saturday to get my hair cut, I haven't been into that part of Tokyo for a while and I was quite surprised at how much it has changed. There are a lot of new stores, places like Top Shop and H&M and a lot of the cool little stores (the ones I like) had disappeared. Harajuku was always one of my favourite places to mooch but after wandering around for an hour or so I got bored and decided to head out, I will stick to Shimokitazawa in the future. That said, I did discover that there is a MoMA shop there and spent a good amount of time playing in there and found a lovely present for a cute little boy, I will show you that later.
Back to the hair, I know many foreigners don't like to get their hair cut by a Japanese hairdresser and I have plenty of friends who have disaster stories to tell but I can totally recommend Kaz from Dude. He speaks English fluently, he spent 4 years in London and has lots of experience with foreign hair. Kaz will discuss what you want, talk about the best way to get the result you are after and advise you from his experience, although there was some chit chat when he cut off the dead ends but when he got down to the proper styling he excused himself and told me he was getting into his 'creative zone' which was fine by me. I had a good read through some trashy English magazines and tried to memorise all these 'celebraties' names so I don't feel totally out of it when I go home! I left feeling great and that I had made a new friend, I will definitely be going back to Dude next time.

Samurai Boy

I asked Ebi-kun to get dressed but he said he couldn't he was busy!

I went to see what he was up to, he was making himself samurai armour using newspaper and bits from the recycling bin :o)

Who needs Christmas presents eh?

He had tied card to his forearms and foam to his shins, took him quite a while to find paper big enough to make a hat to fit, several small toys now have samurai helmets too.

This weeks MTD

Starting with the green rabbit, top left we have...

sun dried tomato pasta, broccoli and cheese soup, more pasta, parma ham and cheese, steamed broccoli, more parma ham and cheese, yellow pepper and a homemade chocolate cookie in the middle.

1st advent activity

I am not sure we will manage an activity every day but I have a few ideas up my sleeve. Last week I spotted some mini wreaths and glittery pom-poms so out first activity was to make a wreath. This is the first time that Ebi-kun has used the glue gun, he is usually very careful and will listen when I tell him something is hot/sharp/dangerous. But accidents do happen and he did stick his finger in the hot glue. Luckily is isn't hot enough to burn but shocked him into paying attention.

 We also found a few red and green pom-poms and a handful of little bells.

 There isn't much of a size comparison but this is a 

tiny wreath so we covered it in white buttons, cute!

globegenie

Have you seen globegenie, it is great fun, just click on the teleport button and 

get transported to another part of the globe.

Sorry - another great way to waste your time! but fun for the kids too!

Rhythm Of The Home

Do you know about the online magazine Rhythm Of The Home? It is a beautiful publication published quarterly and is split into four sections, warmth, play, celebration and connection. There is a strong emphasis on the natural connection between you and your child, making it very popular with Montessori and Waldorf lovers. I was honoured when I was invited to submit a project, pop over to see what it is! I am also in good company with projects from lots of other great bloggers.

When you have finished reading the main site, pop over to the blog to enter the big giveaway, lots of fab prizes including something of mine but be quick, they will be picking winners on Monday.

BOGOF

Buy any sewing pattern and choose another for free!

Just let me know when you pay which pattern you would like for free!

Offer ends Friday 3rd December 

9.00am JST

Leaves....

and that is all I have to say about the matter.