Discovering Australasia....

Ebi-kun has been asking a lot about Australia recently so yesterday I found out all the things we have collected over the last few years. We have some great items from swaps and my friend Liv has sent us some great books and little animals. Ebi-kun started off by making the map, he traced around all the parts on different coloured card the cut them out and stuck them down and labelled it all. We will add the major cities today.

Then we decided to make ANZAC biscuits, I have a feeling they are not supposed to spread out quite like this, I have a sneaky suspicion that the recipe I used was an Aussie one and the cups are different to US cups, oh well, they taste OK! Those with eagle eyes will notice that the coconut is yellow, it was some left over from another cooking project!

Guess what we saw....

So, yesterday I took Ebi-kun to the hoken centre for his polio vaccination, we took a taxi there because the weather wasn't great although it had stopped raining it was still really windy. The whole vaccine thing was all straight forward and we decided to walk down the train station and catch the train home, on our way we came across this fella....

After some research I think it is a Japanese rat snake, we didn't get too close because I had no idea if it was dangerous or not and coming from a country where we don't really have snakes (well there are 3 species but apart from seeing a dead adder in Scotland when I was a kid, I have never seen one in the wild) seeing one out and about is a bit scary. (I imagine all you Aussies are laughing your socks off at me now!)

When the typhoon passes...

...let's go on a picnic!

I have everything prepared...

treasury

We won't be picnicking today, Ebi-kun has the day off today because I have to take him for his polio vaccination, it's a 20 minute bike ride away, when the weather is good, I have no idea how long it would take in a typhoon or even just heavy rain and wind, and I have no plan to find out today, we will be taking a taxi!

It was a pretty quiet weekend, the weather was miserable and it was the end of the an expensive month so we just stayed home and hosted the Wii Olympics which was a lot of fun, I took the gold and silver medals! I'm not sure how I managed that hahaha.

Muffin Tin Dinner

quite bright and cheery this time.

From the top:
Calzone,
tomato, sugar snap peas,
sweet beans, ham
and orange and carrot jelly.

If you want to see what other muffin tin dinner makers are up to,
pop over to the Muffin Tin Mom.

tinkering....

sorry if you have popped in recently and the buttons were all over the place, I have been tinkering, trying to get the place less cluttered. It should all be looking fine and dandy now, do let me know if something funky is going on!

Slugs and Slime....

Ebi-kun was given a slugs kit for Christmas which we had put away for a rainy day, it was a rainy day so we got it out, I think it was all the slugs that are eating out strawberries that reminded him about the kit. There were two pots of slime, we liked the green more than the yellow, which was runnier, in the pack it gave some ideas on how to use it and the scientific blurb.

After letting it dribble through his fingers then pulling it slowly then quickly to see the difference. We got out straws and tried blowing into the slime, this did look somewhat like bubbles of snot! and DON'T suck, that would be revolting! We also tried rolling it into balls and making in bounce.

The kit also included a slug mould, you pop the googly eyes in then pour in the slime and flip it over...

Pull up the mould and watch the slugs spread out like they are melting. 

It was a pretty horrible activity but Ebi-kun enjoyed it, it did seem to take forever to clean it up! I am sure you can do most of this without a kit, a simple google will turn up several slime recipes and although Ebi-kun didn't really like feeling it, it is a good sensory experience.

2:46

It has been a while since I wrote anything about the earthquake and pretty much it has disappeared from the news but I have had a few people asking for updates since they are hearing nothing in their neck of the woods.

Where we are, life is pretty much back to normal, we still get small tremors, I find it more un-nerving when we haven't had one for a couple of days, how weird is that? The shops are stocked with everything, I think the limited bottle water supplies have been lifted too. Companies are still cutting back on electricity use, when I went into town last week most of the shops had reduced the number of lights they are using. Sogo, the big department store had only one set of escalators working. The banks/post office have reduced the number of working ATM's which, for us is a real pain due to our mortgage having to be paid into a specific bank, we just have to figure out another way to do it. Of course, up north there are still hundreds of people in shelters or tent villages some lucky enough to win a lottery are in free temporary housing but they still have to pay their utility bills!

The rainy season had officially started - 2 weeks earlier than usual, I hope that doesn't mean the summer heat will be early too. Summer I here is awful, hot and humid and I really don't cope with it well at the best of times but then I read this report, it is about the schools in Fukushima near the nuclear plant, what made me feel sick to my stomach was that the children will be stuck inside the school building with sealed windows and no aircon (schools in Japan rarely have aircon). That and the fact that the Japanese government have raised the safety level of radiation for children twenty times higher than before which, to put it into perspective is the same as the international standard for adult nuclear power plant workers! Not good.

TEPCO have been in the news, I haven't been following in detail but the general gist seems to be that they didn't report accurately what was going on and there are several whistle-blowing employees who have handed in reports about TEPCO's handling of the situation from awful and unsafe work conditions to not being provided with the correct safety gear. I suppose the good thing from all this is that it has made the every day folk think about their power resources and it is forcing the government to look seriously at alternative way to produce power.

On a more positive note Socks For Japan have put up a post talking about their relief efforts and why they have wound down their collections. In the post there are links for voluntary organisations that you can get involved with and photos of the living conditions that many people are now using.

Finally, Quakebook will soon be available as a bilingual print book, 

it is available for pre-order at Amazon-jp

If you know of any other quake related articles or stories please share them in the comments section.

ladybird, ladybird...

We went to the park after yochien the other day and whilst we were there we collected some leaves for no particular reason. When we got home Ebi-kun suggest leaf rubbings, the leaves were old and dry so the made great rubbings.

Then I thought it would be fun to paint a ladybird on Ebi-kuns nail, he cut out a leave and cut a hole in it so the ladybird could sit on it! Silly, pointless fun!

Tagine Love...

A while ago I posted about my new kitchen gadget, the Tagine and promised to follow up but then the earthquake happened and it sort of pushed to one side. That said I have been using it, a couple of times a week and I love it!

I bought the book, flavors of Morocco** which is lovely and worth it for the photography alone, it does make you want to jump on a plane and head to North Africa! The problem I have is getting the ingredients, often cooking in Japan requires a bit of imagination or a lot of money so I have yet to make anything from the book that is 100% following the recipe.

flavors of Morocco

Then I picked up this Japanese tagine cookbook and this made a BIG difference. It is a much less traditional book, there is a Moroccan section but they also show you how to make Japanese flavour dishes and how to use it for dishes such as omlette and stuffed peppers. With it being in Japanese the recipes are more accessible for me and I have really enjoyed trying out different styles, meat cooked in the tagine is very tender and many of the dishes use little or no oil, I have over cooked veg in it a couple of times, part of the learning curve!

The other night we had stuffed peppers, an adaption from a recipe from the book above.

Cut the peppers in half and clean out the seeds.

In the bottom of the pepper place some pieces of cheese in the bottom of each pepper.

Mix together a tin of corned beef and a cup of sweet corn.

Stuff each pepper with the sweet corn and corned beef mixture then top with cheese.

Pour 1/3 cup of water into the bottom of the tagine.

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat to low and put the lid on, cook for 10 minutes.

Serve with rosemary potatoes.*

* I had left over potatoes from the night before, the rosemary potatoes were also cooked in the tagine!

**affiliate link, if you use the code MAY11 you get 10% off and FREE shipping until the end of the month.

Ensoku

Twice a year the kids at yochien have ensoku which I suppose translates as a field trip, the one in May is a picnic and games at the park and the one later in the year is a trip to the zoo. They started off with class photos and then they were split into grades and played games with the parents too.

This game was to music, when the music stopped you do 'janken' (rock, paper, scissors) with the person closest to you, the loser goes behind the winner to make a train and the game continues until there is a champion.

 After the games the kids go to the little zoo at the park, it is awful and I hate it, animals in small concrete cages. Urgh. After that was picnic time, the classes all sit together, Ebi-kun wanted to sit with his best friend S-kun. Oh, I should mention that each class has a different coloured cap.

 The kids are given some free playtime whilst the parents have a meeting to decide who will do what for the matsuri. Last year I had to carry the mommy mikoshi (portable shrine), this year daddy-ebi is going to do it. Last year I also got sun stroke and was ill for quite a while so I am quite happy to wriggle out of it! Once all that is done, it is time for folk dancing.

 Then they finished off with a big train going through a tunnel made by the parents.

The weather wasn't so nice this year, last year was quite hot so the kids ended up paddling but this year they just piled down to the playground. There were 2 other yochiens at the park so there were lots of kids with coloured caps running around, quite difficult to keep a track of who is who.

and the winner is....

who was...

CONGRATULATIONS, I will be in touch!

Thank you to everyone who entered and a big hello to all my new followers 

(a friend suggested the work stalker would be better!)

We have the yochien ensoku today, a picnic and fun day at the park, 

the weather doesn't look like it wants to play along though, just hope it doesn't rain...

Like father, Like son....

Sunday the boys were supposed to go to the match and I was supposed to go and have a few hours mooching round the shops by myself, BUT just as we were about to leave, the heavens opened and we had torrential rain, so we all stayed at home instead.

 The boys watching match, looking grumpy partly because they didn't actually go to the game and partly because Omiya were playing badly!

***SMS giveaway post is HERE***

followers...

I really don't like the term, it sounds too religious too me!

Whether I like it or not, that is the term used,

so if you would like to follow me you can find me on the following (click the icon)

     

Blimey, it is surprising that I ever get any work done!

Oh yes, and if you want to follow my blog the widget is just down there on the right or you can subscribe, again just to the right.

What kind of bird do you find in the kitchen?

a tea t-owl!

*** SMS give-away post is HERE ***

Sorry, I blame Di for that rubbish joke! But talking of owls, we watched Legend Of The Guardians: The  Owls Of Ga-Hoole the other day, lovely film and as with every film Ebi-kun watched he wants to act it out afterwards. He tried to make himself some wings out of paper but failed miserably then I remembered that I had seen some wings on Pinterest so I followed the link and ended up here.

I had a pile of brown and green 'old mans fabric' that I was trying to think how to get rid of and decided they would be perfect. The directions on llevoelinvierno are for a smaller child so I will share how I did it, you can make it for any sized child this way.

Measure from the nape of the neck to the child's wrist and then from the nape to the child's bum. Fold a piece of fabric in half then from corner use the arm measurement along the top and the bum measurement down the side, join the two ends with an arc so you end up with a 1/4 circle (figure A). 

click on the diagram then print

Then I made a template of one feather and cut out lots of feathers, I did several layers of fabric at once. Starting at the curved edge place the feathers next to each other I didn't bother pinning, just added the next one as I sewed. Continue until you have finished all the rows. Sew a hoop of elastic to each wrist. Then make a collar with a piece of webbing, it fastens with velcro and attached the inner top corners of the wings to the collar. The whole thing took me about an hour.

Of course he needed a mask too, I used felt as the base, if your child already has a mask use that as a template or just wing it, then cut 3 pairs of circles of different sizes but the centre hole (for the eyes) needs to be the same. Layer the circles on top of each other and sew around the middle with zig-zag stitch. There will be too much fabric where the circles overlap in the middle, just trim it down once you have sewn them. Add a piece of elastic as a headband, you are done!

It turned out to be a fairly quick project, Ebi-kun loves being an owl and I am tempted to make a pretty parrot set with felt feathers! Even if you don't think your sewing skills are up to much you can wing this, sorry, no pun intended! You could even do it with fabric glue instead.

Sunshine and rainy days...

*** SMS Giveaway Day Post is HERE ***

I made a couple of treasuries inspired by the crazy weather we have had recently....

You are my sunshine...

and......

here comes the rainy season!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day CLOSED

SORRY NOW CLOSED

If you have popped over from SMS, welcome!

The prize....

The winner can choose any pattern from my shop (if you are a beginner sewer then there are patterns for you too) plus I will include a surprise handmade gift.

click to go to the shop

The rules...

Leave a comment on this post saying which is your favourite pattern

(you don't have to commit to this, you can change your mind if you win!)

You MUST include a contact email address.

Strictly one comment per person, extra comments will be deleted.

I am happy to ship worldwide.

Winner will be chosen at random using random generator.org

The giveaway will close at 7am JST May 26th

Now pop back to SMS and see what else is up for grabs.

poorly sick

Ebi-kun has been coughing the last couple of nights but seemed OK during the day then yesterday he came home for yochien with a fever, so it was off to the doctors.

 He needs to have food with the medicine so it was the old poorly-sick stand-by of chow-chow and soliders. He asked for posh chow-chow, meaning that the chopped up egg also has tomato in it and he  wanted bread soldiers. He only managed about half but better than nothing.

What do you serve up when someone is poorly sick in your house?

And, why is it when you have a baby you can go for months without a decent nights sleep but once they are older, 3 nights of broken sleep and you feel like one of the living dead?

Ping Pong Ball shooter - Tutorial

We made this the other day using things from around the house.

What you need:

small box or milk carton

toilet roll middle

elastic band

drinking straw

bamboo stick

ping pong ball (or rolled up newspaper will work)

tape and scissors

something to decorate your shooter with, we used foil, stickers and tape.

 Take the toilet roll middle and make two slits about 4cm long and 3cm apart repeat on the opposite side of the toilet roll middle.

 Fold the flap into the middle 

 and add a bit of tape to keep it in place.

Turn the toilet roll middle 90° and cut two slits at the other end of the roll, 3cm long and 2cm apart. Hook the elastic band around the flap, push the flap in and hold it in place with tape. 

Turn the toilet roll 90° again and make a hole 4cm from the end, repeat on the opposite side. Decorate the toilet roll middle.

Take the box and on the side mark 5cm down and make a hole, repeat on the opposite side. 

 Push the bamboo stick through the holes the decorate the box.

Cut a piece of straw about 1.5cm long and slip it over the bamboo stick. 

Turn the box over so you are looking at the back of it. Slide the toilet roll middle onto the bamboo stick, the flap with the elastic band should be at the bottom and facing the front like the image below. Pull the elastic band and tape it to the bottom of the box, as shown. 

Pull the toilet roll back so that the elastic band is tight, pop in the ping pong ball and... 

fire! 

Ebi-kun had fun trying different ammunition and seeing which will fire the furthest.