Okinawa Thank You

My husband let me and the children tag along on a business trip to Okinawa this spring! Can you say heavenly?! What made it wonderful was not only the gorgeous tropical environment, but the loads of friends we have stationed down there. Which begs the question...how do all of our friends end up in tropical environments and we end up in the frozen tundra?? Hummm...

At any rate...I wanted to send a little thank you to our friends for putting up with us that week. Well, it was really for having to put up with my husband...I am a joy to be around! ;)

Stamps: Kodomo, SU sentiment
Paper: Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Ballet Blue, PTI White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics to color
Accessories: Stickes

I included a sea glass necklace with this card. You might remember my post about looking for sea glass here. My talented friends make jewelry out of the glass they find...mine sits in jars! LOL Guess my meager talent ends with paper!

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

My New Hobby...and a Give-Away!

I know I left you hanging last week and I apologize! Between the kids going back to school, orienting to my new job, and trying to fall into some semblance of a new routine, my craft/computer time has been slim to none!

Of course, it does not help that I been trolling the beaches of Northern Japan either. :) My new hobby is sea glass hunting. You have to be careful...I always go armed with a plastic cup to ward off the seagulls. :)

So, I hate to admit this...but the beach is less than a mile from my house and I had not ever been! In my defense...it is not a swimming beach. The undertoe is so strong it could suck you in and deliver you to San Francisco! At any rate, you can see my hesitation with 3 small children.

My friend, Tiffany, invited me to go and, quite frankly...started the addiction!

Here are some pics of the beach...note we had a tropical storm coming in, so the sun is hidden behind the clouds.

And this is what the glass looks like as it is sitting on the rocks (look at the blue-ish stone in the center of the picture)...

And what it looks like in my glass jar!

See? Isn't that gorgeous?!! I just love how the light reflects off it. It is going to be a wonderful keepsake of our time here!

Now for the good part! If you would like your own small jar of authentic Japanese sea glass hand collected by yours truly, leave me a comment on this post! I will draw for a winner on Sunday night! (I need a reason to go back out this week...tee hee!)

Off the Wagon

Ok, so you caught me, you insightful girls! I was holding out on you. **sigh** I thought I could distract you with the Obama Sushi.

I will admit it; I was naughty. The craft show pulled me in. The paper...it was calling out to me. I could not help myself; I fell off the wagon. What makes it worse is that the paper here is really expensive! Maybe I have been out of the US for too long, but the majority of it was $1.50 a sheet. Of course, being that I have a sixth sense for paper on sale, I found a vendor who had BasicGrey for 50 cents a sheet.

Funny story on the sale paper, it was advertised at 10 sheets for 580 yen. Of course, not being able to read the sign, I did not realize you had to buy in increments of 10 sheets. So, the lady checking me out told me I had to either put 2 pieces away...or get 8 more. Heh. Seriously?! One guess on the option I chose!

Kuretake is just one of the many vendors who had papercraft stuff. The paper went all the way around, as if to torment me.

Besides a stack of paper, this is what I came home with.

Do you like my make and take?! It was so much fun! A friend and I made it in a class of all Japanese ladies. The instructors were so nice! They actually had a lady who could translate, but in reality we all speak the same language when it comes to scrapbooking!

More to come...

Tokyo Craft and Hobby Show

All I have to say is WOW. 3 days and I could have used another!

The show is encompassing of several crafts, from cooking to welding to sewing, it was there...with a make and take! Some of our favorite vendors were represented, as well as some new ones to me!

Here is a peek at the show:

The cooking section had numerous booths, the most represented was sushi making classes. This was my favorite display...Obama Sushi Rolls! Now that is talent!



The Welding booth...can you image welding make and takes?! Seriously, this would not happen in the US without signing your life away in waivers! (They also had band saw make and takes!)

The Japanese love making artificial food art. Here is a sample of artificial food made out of wool! It looks real, but only moths would enjoy it!

These dogs are made completely out of paper!

This is only a fraction of the ribbon that was in one booth alone...isn't it lovely?

And finally, as if the Mother Ship were calling me home...there was an area just for BLING:

I have concluded that I do not have a problem with my bling addiction, as I have yet to sparkle up my children's toys! Seriously, that is a mini-motorcycle for a child. I know...it is fabulous, isn't it?! :)

Vindication

Oh yeah, it feels good.

My DH called the landlord today and said they needed to come back out. We were NOT going to spend one more night here with the elusive mouse.

They did come out, still saying we don't smell anything!

Our landlord, on the verge of tears, said that the workers told her boss that we were just smelling things that were not there.

I can't tell you how good it felt when they cut a huge hole out of my hardwood kitchen floor, peeled back the insulation only to find...a 6 inch mouse. Dead. Smelly.

HA! I have never been happier to see a dead mouse in all of my life!

All I Want for Christmas

About 3 weeks ago my Golden Retriever, Sami, was going crazy over by her food bowls. Now I know what you are thinking...define crazy. Contrary to what you are probably thinking, she did not put on a grass skirt, grab a lei and ukulele and start singing, rather she was obsessed with watching the wall and pawing at it.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing you are...there is a mouse in there!

Thankfully we never once saw little poopies or other evidence that is mouse ever set foot on the interior of my house. When a week went by and my Golden finally stopped her obsession with my wall, I thought perhaps Miss Mouse went to find another warm place to hunker down for the winter.

Last week I noticed a lingering unpleasant odor. Humm...sometimes Japan does kind of smell funny, but nope, this was different. Oh my word...I bet Miss Mouse died in my wall!

So, on Wed I phoned our landlord who honestly thought I was off my rocker. The conversation kind of went like this...
Hi! I am pretty sure there is a dead mouse in my wall. No, no...never saw the mouse alive, but I am pretty sure I had one because of my dog. Well, I know this is strange, but you need to come out here to look.

She shows up and claims to not smell it. By Thursday I was about to die. DH says I have a "dog nose"...I can smell things a mile away. At first I thought it was just his excuse to claim he did not know a kid had a poopy diaper, but now I do think I just might have super-human sniffing ability. Honestly though, I think this thing could wake the dead.

At any rate, after many calls and threats to move out of the house, they came out and literally tore out 2 sections of my wall. Thankfully they did find a nest and poopy...but no mouse. Where is that dang thing???

They removed the insulation and were going to see if that helped. Maybe it buried itself in the layers. Ummm...NOPE! I am sure it is still there.

It is Sunday here and I have to wait until tomorrow to call them again. We have company coming out for Christmas. Our tree is near the stench.

All I want for Christmas is an exterminator!

Happy Wife, Happy Life

This past weekend was my organization's Far East Bazaar. To my husband, this equates to a bad period in our bank account! To me, it is a shopping mega-high that lasts for 3 days! What is the old saying..."Happy Wife, Happy Life"? All of the proceeds to go charity as well, so HOW can you go WRONG?

This bazaar is a labor of love. Our organization operates as a non-profit. We are comprised of approximately 110 members, have a board of 25 and a Bazaar committee of 33. We work insanely hard for months to put this together, and then work even harder the weekend of the event. Vendors come in from all over Asia: Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, etc. It is truly a unique experience. We do this twice a year: once in the Fall and again in the Spring. Our proceeds help to fund Welfare Requests locally, as well as our scholarship program. I am delighted to be part of it!

At any rate, I had to share a few of my weekend "finds"! I find it a testament to my multi-tasking ability how I can "manage" work and shop at the same time. It is a gift, really!

This is going to be an entry table one day. I envision a pretty mirror above it. Right now it has to live as a telephone table because I am out of room in my house!! The drawers have a cool way of opening. If you press the middle one in, the side drawers open!

This chest fits nicely under the above table. One day, I want it to live next to the table as an accent piece on the floor.

This vase has a younger sister that came home with me as well! I think they will look good on top of the entry/pseudo-telephone table one day. For now, they are on our floor, hopefully not to turn into a dog chew toy.

This is a picture of the corner of a large mirror: 32" x 32" square. I just could not figure out how to get a good picture without taking one of me in it, so you get to see only the corner! I liked this for an entryway as well, but think it will end up in my daughter's room when we move. I just love the distressed yellow and the painted flowers!

This final piece my husband wanted. It stores DVDs in the drawers. We currently have our bedroom TV sitting on top of it. This actually replaced a nightstand DH's Mom bought for him in 1992! She found it at a garage sale! It survived 6 moves, 2 of which were international!! I would say that was a great find!

Hope you enjoyed seeing the newest additions to my family! :)

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Part 2

I know, you were just waiting with bated breath for the next pictorial tour, weren't you? :) Well here it is!

This is probably 2 minutes walking distance from my house. As you can see, it is a field surrounded by homes. I am fairly certain there are no zoning laws here. You see fields everywhere...next to a casino, drug store, where ever. I have no idea what they are growing, but I will say this..."mary jane" grows wild here. No kidding. In addition, they burn it into their fields. That, my friends, is why I think everyone is so happy and nice here!

I ran across this "Little Witch Country Store" on a walk one day. Isn't it cute? (And Jill, I am posting this for you because I thought you would really appreciate it!) I honestly don't know if this is a real store, or just a decorated little shack. It did appear to have things up in the windows, so it might be a honest to goodness storefront! I might have to check back one day!

Here is a picture of a nicer Japanese home. As you can see, no one has a garage. If they have anything, it is a covered parking area. The mud rooms are really cool. In fact, it is impolite to enter someones home and step out of the entryway wearing your shoes. You are to take them off and leave them at the door. We have always done this at my house anyway...only because I was sure my kids would end up with black eyes or killing one another if they had shoes on and a full up brawl started!

Hope you are enjoying your week so far!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Part 1

So many people ask me about living in Japan, so I decided to do a little pictorial series about my neighborhood. I hope you enjoy the tour!

A question for my female readership (which is probably 100%!), how do you give directions? Are you a North/South/East/West person with street names, or do you like to give landmarks? My DH is annoyed by the fact that I am a landmark person...you know, right after the Target, etc. Well, there are NO street signs in our town! So, directions are all by landmark! HA!

This picture is of the house on the corner of our street. It is Forest Green and has this cute RCA dog on it's porch! Kinda struck me as funny...and does every other American as well because if I just explain where I live via the RCA dog, everyone knows where it is!

This picture is of the houses across the street from us. I love the yards...so nicely taken care of. Rumor has it that people who prune trees here make a lot of money. It is a real art.

This picture is of the back road we take into the city center. Yes, it is 2 lanes! Yes, it is SCARY! Especially since it is an everyday occurrence to have people riding their bikes and walking their dogs along the side of the road. As you can see, not a sidewalk in sight! Did I mention that after the bend down a ways are concrete ditches on both sides? They are conveniently a little wider than your tires, so about once a week you see some poor soul whose car is tilted and stuck in one. (Knock on wood, that has never been me!!) This road is extra special when it snows...

The last picture for today is a close up of the sign. I don't read Kanji, but I am sure it says something like "Slow Down you idiot!"