Challenge the Triple

My apologies, I’ve been extremely busy these last few days and haven’t been able to put up any pictures. How busy? To the point of only coming home to sleep busy – whew!

Finally got to finish my basket with Jaime, Ed and Mrs. K. They came out pretty good with me not knowing what to do – the circular one is mine (with the colorful clips), the very rectangular one belongs to Ed, and that leaves Jaime with the nicely crossed half rectangular / half circular one (yes, I know, it’s called an oval).

Anna was kind enough to model for me, I was really taking a picture of her Herb and Lemon Tea. The days here have been hot, so while I was getting some plain old water, Anna saw this tea that included passion flower leaf, blueberry leaf, lemongrass and also…catnip. Yes, that’s true, you can read it on the container. Anna drank some catnip. Is it normally a drink ingredient and this is the first time that I’m seeing it, or am I right to have a little giggle?

And one day, my friends and I were at the local mall, where two people were (fake) beating each other up. As a kids show. 🙂 It was really cute, because the villain (left) had the deepest voice (I would even say deeper than Darth Vader). And the hero on the right…well…he was kicking and hitting…air. Dude, you need to get a little closer than five feet away. I know, I know, the kids don’t care, but he was so obviously NOT near the villain that I’m surprised the kids didn’t say so.

Our local mall is pretty cool, they’ll have clowns (oh wait, that’s a creepy thing 😦 ), crafts and even power rangers.

 

Above Water Basket Weaving

 

And here is Ed, looking lovely with three half-woven baskets near her face. The left one is hers, the middle one (looking like the mouth of some animal) is mine, and the one on the right is Jaime’s.

K-san, the wonderful Japanese woman who is doing (and thinking of) all these crafts with us was content this time to watch, even though normally she makes one with us.

Funny thing about those baskets…we all used the same design, same weaving and same materials, but I never thought about how the baskets can be different at the same time. Mine is the roundest (specifically so), Ed’s is the most rectangular (again, specifically made so) and Jaime’s is a cross between the too.

Does that say anything about us? Or is it just happenstance?

 

Japanese Crafts (and Food)

So, to start off with, I had a wonderful time making crafts with K-san. She’s a great woman, and is very nice to me when I tangle my thread like a kitten. Anyhow, this Saturday, we made little bags….well, she made the bags first on a machine, and then our little group stitched on buttons, fabrics and green thread (my bag is the one second from the left, with two crossed flowers).

At the same time, there was a tofu truck that came by, so we ended up getting two chocolate soy puddings and two cheesecake puddings (those are the four cups in the corners). AND we also had mochi (sticky rice cake) with anko (sweet red bean paste) inside.

Deeeeliiiicous!

 

Gunma no Mori Craft Fair

So, before I saw the Harem Master card game, my husband and I were at this. This is the annual Gunma Forest (Gunma no Mori) Craft Fair and it was great! Crafts included wood working, leather working, ceramics and other handicrafts. We saw wonderfully made tables for both children and adults; my favorites were the chairs where the back was some type of animal (pigs, boars, cows and hippos abounded).

There was a older man who made children’s spin tops at his tent, and he had a top that was the size of cantaloupe. Watching him as he poured the paint on the spinning top was cool!

And my absolute favorite was the woman selling her hand carvings. She had loads of animals frolicking on her tabletop; many different birds, whales, frogs and even a manatee! And a slug! Check her out at http://www.woodcraft-nishioka.com

Can’t wait for next year, so we can go again! (Maybe I’ll remember my sunscreen next time…and some small food items. Thanks to Liz for sharing her Cadbury eggs!)

 

Arts an’ Crafts Japanese Style

Meet Mrs. K-san. That’s what she tells us to call her. She’s a wonderful lady, has her own craft store and though it’s not the least she can do, her patchwork is awesome. She wants to practice her English, and decided on a pretty cool idea. Craft lessons in English (the first one was sewing mini Christmas trees).

And here are some lucky people making origami (o o – ri Reeses – ga GaGa – mi me). Ori means folding and kami (switched to a ‘G’ sound in this case) means paper. In the picture there are rabbits, nesting boxes (which did involve cutting), open boxes, a t-shirt, a Halloween pumpkin and a box with, well, flap-like wingy ear things. I thought it looked weird. It was a lot of fun…maybe I’ll get some books on origami. 🙂  Jaime did some cool nesting boxes, six in all. You can see them on the right, the colors are green, blue, red orange, yellow and purple. She’s also the one who found the pumpkin pattern, while Robin taught us the rabbit.

From left to right are; Robin, Mrs. K, Angela and Jaime.