A Mom Kind of Morning

Some days I feel more like a Mom than others.

Today was definitely one of them.

It started in the usual way:

Get the kids up, make some breakfast, empty and reload the dishwasher and throw a load of laundry in the washing machine.  I tend to let things go a bit on the weekends so since its Monday it also meant I started picking up the various debris that accumulated in our genkan from the weekend’s activities.

And then it was a little more “Mom-ish” than usual.

Little things, like constantly reminding The Cuties not to look directly into the sun without their special, funky glasses during the annular eclipse that occurred this morning.

And while we may have just finished Girl Scouts for the year, I know myself, and I’m likely to stash the last of the patches away in some super secure storage spot, only to pull the sashes back out next fall and have zero idea where exactly that was!  So the safest bet seemed to be to sit right down and sew those guys on before they disappeared!

And after changing a load of laundry, I got down to some very serious Mom business {no, this did not involve wine ~ it was only 9 am, people!}.  Little Cutie’s lovies, known in the Felt So Cute Household as Night Night Bunnies were in need of major surgery.

Things were getting pretty critical.

 {For those of you wondering why there are three identical bunnies, Little Cutie is my second child.  Having learned a very hard lesson with my first child and her solitary lovey of choice, the nano-second Little Cutie deemed this bunny her favorite, I ran out and bought two back-ups.  For many years, I secretly rotated and washed the bunnies so they would all wear and smell the same, and hid them far away from view.  But Little Cutie is a smart cookie, and by preschool, caught on to me and has forever more insisted on sleeping with all three.  I do, however, draw the line at traveling with quite that large of an entourage, and she somehow keeps track of who is who, and rotates who gets to go with us on our adventures!}

Each bunny got a little new stuffing and a lot of TLC from this Mama, as I stitched up all the holes I could find.  The fabric is so thin and worn in places that the “scars” are no longer neat and tiny and now look pretty Frankenstein-esque, but that’s OK.  I know Little Cutie; each and every time I fix a bunny, she kisses his boo-boos and tells him its OK and she loves him still.

That’s what makes Night Night Bunnies real.

I sure like being a Mom.

Making Washi in Ogawamachi

My obsession with washi paper continues, and so when the opportunity to learn how washi paper is made presented itself, I jumped at the chance.

I took the train to the town of Ogawamachi, which is about an hour outside of Tokyo.  It was interesting how fast the big city quickly turned into beautiful countryside as the train  rolled along.  This town has been a washi center since the Edo Period, which began in the early 1600s!  My guide for the day was the lovely Yuriko-san, who performed the incredible tea ceremony I shared with you here.

To make washi, you start with the bark of a gampi tree and a mitsumata shrub and soak them for some time.  As the plants are soaked, they soften and separate into long fibers.

Next, the fibers are ground to a pulp in this machine.

And then the pulp is soaked again into this contraption, where its strained in trays sized to the paper ordered.

And then the remaining pulp is pressed tightly against bamboo

 and what remains is a sheet of washi paper!

This particular order was for an artist who makes wood block prints so it was a thicker, stronger blend of paper.

After we learned how to make paper, it was time for us to create our own washi designs.  First we took a walk outside to collect the varieties of leaves and flowers the staff recommended to us.

It might look all pretty and sunny in this picture but in reality, it was snapped seconds before the wind started to howl and huge rains came!

We went inside and each chose our paper sizes and molds and then made our own paper.  Don’t I look like I actually know what I’m doing?

And then the washi was flipped out of the molds and I set to work separating each petal and leaf from my basket {the natural objects need to be as thin as possible in order to be pressed into the paper so you can’t use the flowers whole}.

Here’s the design I created.

And here’s what the panels look like several days later after being pressed again and completely dried, and are now hanging in my powder room.  Isn’t it interesting how much the color faded in the drying process?

I’m still very partial to the vivid patterns and intricate designs of modern-day washi paper, but this was a fascinating look into the origins of the process.  And I’m thrilled we didn’t have to experience it in the throes of winter, soaking the fibers in pure, cold river water, as the townspeople did as recently as twenty years ago.

I’m too much of a wimp for that!

A Rather Atypical Mother’s Day

Well this was definitely one for the memory books!

For Mother’s Day today we spent the day at school, where Little Cutie competed in a Sumo Wrestling Tournament!  

She’s been participating in the Sumo Club for a few weeks, and learning all about the sport.  Right now is one of the big sumo tournaments in Tokyo, so it was perfect timing for all the students to compete in their own tournament.

To arrive at school on time for registration and the Opening Ceremonies, we had to leave our apartment by 7:00 am {note to self:  last night was probably not the best choice to have gone out well past midnight, but c’est la vie! }.  We arrived on campus to find quite the spectacle!  Traditional banners, lined the football field, where two rings had been set up.

To review the rules with all the children, there were a few members of the sumo team from Tokyo University on hand to demonstrate.

It was finally time for Little Cutie’s first match.  Because all the other schools were Japanese elementary schools, they adjusted some of the grades in which the American children competed since we function on a different calendar.  This meant Little Cutie had to compete in the 3rd Grade group even though she’s in 2nd Grade.  She looked rather little to her Mama!  However, she stepped up to the ring for her match on the West side, and her opponent stepped up to the East side and promptly burst into tears and eventually forfeited.  Poor thing.  Doesn’t she look intimidating, LOL?

The next round didn’t go quite so easily and she actually had to fight with someone!

This is her very serious game face as she bows to her competitor.

And here they are ready to face off.

Little Cutie may be little, but she was quick out of her squat! {and that tongue is always out when she plays sports of any kind ~ I’m so worried she’s going to bite it off one day!}

She gave a good fight, but got pushed out of the ring and lost the match.

I love this picture where Big Cutie was listening intently as Little Cutie and her coach were going over some last-minute techniques before the final match in the double elimination.  If you look carefully, there’s a little shoulder rub down going on!

It was a very different, but really fun way to spend the day with my girls on Mother’s Day.   I’m really proud of Little Cutie for trying something new and so out of her “comfort zone,” and never getting upset that she didn’t win.

And I’m really, really glad there was no required parent participation!

Sweet!

My friend Laurie and I recently spent the day in a cool part of Tokyo called Omotesando.  Unfortunately, we picked one of the rainiest days of the year for our outing, but we were total troopers {OK, the reality is it’s such a busy time of the year we didn’t want to cancel and be unable to reschedule before we both head back to America for the summer}.

At one point we ducked into a little candy shop called Candy Show Time to get out of the rain for a minute and happened upon the best luck!  The “Candy Artisans” had just begun the process of making their signature treats, so we stopped to watch.  They began with “blobs” of sugar in red, white and blue, that they were constantly kneading, just like dough.

When I describe it as dough-like, I really mean it.  They even were working it on something very much resembling a dough hook so it didn’t harden, and I believe to get the air bubbles out and prevent cracking.

At this point, I think the staff has figured out we weren’t planning on going anywhere and so they began to interact with us since we were the only people in the place!  They showed us which design they were working on ~ the middle one on the right {the word love in a bubble}.

They began working from the middle of the design, outward.  Here is one of the Candy Artisans creating the letters that form L-O-V-E.

The next step was to wrap the letters in the white candy to form the circle.  This was originally several pieces patched together, and then the Artisan repeatedly rocked the roll back and forth to smooth it all out.

Here you can see them putting the blue striped border around the candy, which was the last step of “building” the design.  Again, it was done in pieces and rocked together.

At this point, Laurie and I were really beginning to wonder how exactly they were going to get that HUGE, fat roll of candy into pieces that look like this?

And then she began to stretch and pull….

And more people got in on the action.

Until it was finally thin enough!

And once they’d cut it into long rods, it was time to break it off into the little bite-sized pieces they sell in their mixes.

And here’s the finished product!

They were some sort of raspberry flavor.  We tried to buy a whole jar of just the design we watched being made for over an hour {I imagine they’re still talking about the two crazy American ladies}, but no luck ~ these were created for part of a “love mix” filled with candies that also had hearts, said “kiss,” and “I love you” on them.

They were, however, absolutely yummy!

Travel Picture Frame

I’m beginning to think about things I want to gather together for our summer visit to America.  The Cuties and I will be away from Japan for about two months, and unfortunately my husband will only be able to join us for a couple of weeks.

While I’ll have my laptop and iPad with me, which include hundred of photographs, I’m an old-fashioned girl.  I can’t imagine being somewhere and not having a framed picture of me and my best guy to peek at each day.

I need something that will easily slip into my suitcase without the fear of finding shards of glass upon arrival.  This project is ideal for graduates moving to dorm rooms, and also easy for kids to make for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day with minimal help from an adult.

So I started with this simple wooden craft frame from Michael’s that somehow made its way into our sea shipment {more than half our kitchen items were misdirected to storage, but this kind of stuff seems to keep popping up in ample supply ~ go figure!}.

I grabbed some more of the ever-growing supply of washi tape and set to work creating patchwork stripes.  When I had covered the front, I traced the frame onto a scrap piece of card stock and cut it out.  I then traced that onto a scrap piece of coordinating felt and cut it out and hot glued it to the back of the wooden frame {I tell you to do this step a lot in my directions, but I really think finishing off the backs of your projects takes it up a notch in the quality of your work}.

After the felt was glued on, I took very sharp scissors and carefully snipped the tiny hole where the peg fit in to create the stand for the frame.  You don’t want to do this before you glue the felt to the back as felt stretches a bit and it will be a nightmare to perfectly match up that minuscule hole.

I popped my photograph in and I’m all set!  To pack it up, I just took the peg out and attached it to the back of the frame with a little piece of painter’s tape so it doesn’t get lost in the abyss of a big suitcase.

Now, I just have about 2,486 other things on my list to get ready to pack.

I’ll keep you posted.

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The Washi Ball Bowl Project

Shopping craft stores in Japan has enabled me to combine my lifelong love of beautiful papers and newfound love of Japanese designs.  I find myself standing in washi paper stores for hours at a time, staring at beautiful papers, dreaming up projects I could someday do. It’s actually been a good thing that my favorite color green, is one of the harder colors to find, as this has curbed my purchasing abilities!

But slowly, over the last few months, I’ve been collecting sheets of washi paper until I reached a critical mass to begin the project I had in mind.

I first cut 1/2″ – 3/4″ strips of the washi papers and got out the rest of my materials.  I used Mod Podge, a foam rubber brush, a finger painting tray and polystyrene balls.  {You don’t want to use Styrofoam balls for this project as they will crumble as you attempt to Mod Podge the papers}.

You should decide what style you want to use for putting your papers on – a haphazard technique or something more uniform.  I put my paper on any old way as it was simply easier, but I think putting the papers on lined up side by side would look quite lovely – almost like temari balls.

{Do you spy the very last of my coveted Diet Cokes that were shipped over in a package we ordered along with some others treats from America?;-)}

Once you finish a ball, I recommend barely sticking two tall thumb tacks into it so that it won’t stick to whatever surface you are drying it on.  Also, while wet, it will look very cloudy and filmy, but I promise the Mod Podge will dry clear.

Here are some of my favorite papers and how they turned out:

This one looks a bit like American tie-dye, but is a Japanese shibori design.

This reminds me of an Ikat print, and has tiny little gold dots all over.

Having just been through our first Sakura {Cherry Blossom} season, I particularly like all the pretty Sakura on this paper.

This is The Cuties’ favorite paper with purple pavilions all over it, reminding them of our trip to Kyoto to Kinkaku-ji!

And here’s what I did with all the balls~

Now who in my family do you think will be the one to drive me crazy rearranging the balls the most?

Wanna place your bets now?

Covered Coasters

We laid pretty low this past weekend since the weather wasn’t very nice and Cute Husband and I were both recovering from colds.  By Sunday afternoon The Cuties were clearly over our mantra of rest and relaxation and needed something a little more concrete to occupy them.  While searching for something else, I came across these heavy paper coasters I found at Tokyu Hands.

I pulled out our ever-growing washi tape stash and The Cuties and I set to work covering the tops of all the coasters with strips of pretty tape.  The beauty of this project was that it was meant to be haphazard and asymmetrical, and thus perfect for children and multiple hands to work on at once.

After a little trial and error we figured that choosing our washi tape combinations in threes seemed to work the best.  When doing this project there’s no need to completely cover the back of the coaster, so just rip your tape long enough to overlap the sides a bit.

For The Cuties, they found it helpful to have some direction so I instructed them to alternate which direction they placed each piece of tape, and to rotate through each of their three varieties of washi before repeating.  This helped them achieve a nice blend of “randomness.”

Once we covered the fronts of all the coasters {we made two packages of eight}, I traced one of the coasters onto a scrap piece of card stock to make a template and cut it out.

I then cut coordinating colors of felt scraps for the backs.  This serves two purposes: one, to cover the mess on the backs; and two, to protect your table surface.  I hot glued the felt onto the backs and the project was almost complete….

Because really, no coaster project is complete without a cocktail!

And here are all of our combinations ~

And the backs ~

Which color combo do you like best?

Note: I have no idea why all my photos for this project look like they were taken with my cell phone.  I used my little point and shoot since I needed to use my hands for many of the shots and apparently experienced technical difficulties.  My apologies!

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