My weekend

Thanks Giving 2010

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.



We celebrated Thanksgiving lunch with my husband's best friend's family.
My son, 3 years old, My son had nice manners. (he didn't scream, didn't touch everything etc..)
I am very proud of him!

I ate turkey, hum, stuffing, cream broccoli, asparagus with mushroom, mush potato, cranberry salad, garlicbread, pumpkin pie, small cupcake, other cake and the tiny cake which I brought.

Everything is delicious, so I ate a lot. Phew... now I need an exercise. :P

He ate a lot, too.

But he played soccer with his friend soon. He run and run. Good exercise.
Next day of Thanks Giving is called Black Friday in US.
This is really crazy day. The store open in midnight and people go shopping!!
I am not that crazy to wake up for shopping in midnight. Instead of shopping, I want to stay in my cozy bed to sleep.


However, I can get a good deal if I go shopping. Therefore, I went to a few stores near my house with my son after 10 o'clock.
I bought some craft supplies at Joann and some home fragrances and body cream at Bath and Body works.
I love the home fragrances whichI bought. ( I use this one now. :) )


Well..... Next is Christmas!!


I decorated my Christmas tree with my son this weekend.
I will show you next time!






HAPPY10

Happy Thanks Giving to all !!


Now I can creat the coupon code to help promote my shop and reward customers!!
I think after thanksgiving sale would be a great time to try this coupon code.


This is my coupon code " HAPPY10 "  (It means 10% off any order)
It will be affective Nov. 26th  8am to Nov. 29th 8pm (in California time) :)


If you are interested in some of my items, use this coupon code when you purchase.
A coupon code applies to all items listed in my shop and is not applicable to shipping.


If you have any questions, please contact me through the conversation on Etsy!!


Thank you so much!

for tomorrow

Tomorrow is Thanks Giving Holiday in US.

However, This holiday is not familiar with my culture, we are invited from my husband's best friend family every year to celebrate together.

They always prepare a lot of food, such as big turkey, side dishes and many dessert!

So I always bring something simple.

This year, I decided to make one bite size madeleine.

Isn't it cute?  This is really tiny size.  Probably just one inch diameter. :)

I can bake 12 madeleines in one mold. I have three molds. So I can bake 36 madeleines at the same time.

I made a lot of butter to make. So even if I have 3 molds, I had to 4 times!! to bake.

Of course I had to wash the molds each time....

That took me a lot of time.

I am glad that I finished to bake everything finally.

I hope everyone will enjoy this tiny sweets!

Happy Thanks Giving to Everyone!!

pillow talk

echino fabric

Last year I bought these beautiful echino fabric to make my pillow cases.
I made a purple one soon after I received the fabric.
But second one.....  I am so lazy. :P

Finally I finished a white( actual color is close to grey) pillow case.
However, It just took a few hours to start to finish to make a pillow case, It took almost one year to start to sew!

Anyways I love both of them so much!
Echino's fabric is medium weight, I think it is perfect to make something  for the home decoration and bags.

Not only these bird fabric, I also have some fabrics of her design. ( helicopter, bus and bicycle..)
These are for my son's pillow cover someday.
I hope "someday" will come soon. :)

Now I am very interested in  this design! 
I think I would be perfect to match with my two pillows. :)

Treasury

Some of my items are feautred in Treasury!!

Warm and fuzzy with a touch of holiday
The Strawberry: Vintage Kitsch
Stocking Stuffers
Blue Christmas
Home Alone Part II
Love Letter


Thank you so much for including me!
Enjoy!!

small cosmetic pouch

I have just added new cosmetic pouches on my etsy shop.
I love this green stripe with rose fabric.
The fabric is from Kokka Japan. I purchased it in LA last month.

I choose the red zipper for the pouch. I thought it would be wonderful Christmas gift.

A plus is that this design works for all season.



The inside liner has red polka dots in a white back ground. Very cute!


I went to LA with my husband and son last month to celebrate my son's Birthday in Disney land.
While visiting LA my blog friend "Amy" from chick chick sewing lives there.
So we planed to meet for the first time!
She is very nice and funny person. :D She took me to the fabric store in LA.


Wow!  The store has soooooo many fabrics. It is absolutely hard to choose from.
I wish if I could spend all day in the store for looking the fabrics.


We did not have enough time to chat about craft, handmade or fabrics at this time.
I hope I can visit her again soon and of course the fabric store!


Here is the another one.

The fabric from cosmo cricket earl bird collection.


I like the flower fabric a lot.  This is cute!

Liner fabric is the red one from same collection.

I hope everyone have a great weekend.

Wednesday

Today I worked on taking some pictures of my son for this years Christmas Card.

Strangely it was a warm day in California, one can not feel the Autumn cold nor the begining of the Christmas season.
Well I tried hard to take his picture, non stop moving, jumping and screaming..... just like a 3 years old.
How can I get a good photo!
Even with a nice camera, it is still difficult to take a perfect photo.

After taking some pictures, we decided to take a walk as usually we do.

Fall color?  Hmm....  it the weather was colder the leaves would have been more beautifully yellow and red.
Sometimes I miss the fall season in Japan. It is really beautiful.

Here in CA, the grass keeps green all through the season.

And of course, palm tree with blue sky is everywhere.

I don't complain about living in CA. I love CA. But sometimes I miss the seasonal change of nature.

My boy found a nice Christmas tree in our neiborhood. :)
Sorry Buddy, we can not cut it down.

Beside finding  the Autumn,  we found....

Spring!!



Then we found purple and red berries (non edible) 

ichi, ni, san, shi ....( one , two , three , four.....)
He is learning to count ten.

After we returned home, he took a nap for more than two hours.

Yes!!

Not bad day at all. :)

simple "azuma bukuro bag" tutorial

A whole days ago, I received a email from one of my customer if I could sell this pattern or not.

I have been thinking to make the pattern and tutorial for some time.
To make the bag is not difficult, if you have sewing experience.
So here is the result tutorial!! (This is the tutorial in English! This is not easy for me. It makes me crazy!!)
First I though about selling the pattern and tutorial on my Etsy store. However, I changed my mind.
Instead of selling it, I decided to share the tutorial HERE on my blog!!

I would like to ask please respect the following rules :
- for personal use only.
- this is not intended for commercial use.
- do not sell the copy of tutorial.

All right! Now we are ready to go!

*******************************************
First of all, the figure which shown the below is a basic rule to make azuma bukuro bag.




Basic Rule

 Azuma bukuro is made from one rectangular fabric.

 - The total width length is always 3 times more than the one of the height. Then please add your seam allowance around the rectangular. ( my seam allowance is 1/2")

- sew 1 and 2 , 5 and 6 right side together. ( This process make the shape of the bag).

Ok, I will show you the process step by step. :)

1. prepare your fabric by follow the basic rule.

size small: 12" x 36" plus seam allowance
size medium: 14" x 42" plus seam allowance
size large: 17" x 51" plus seam allowance


2. sew all 4 edges around the fabric (4 edges), just like that.



sew all the edges around of the fabric.

3. Fold one side.

4. and fold another side to make sure you have an even square.



just like that!

 5. Open one side up which you fold, and sew this line, right side together.




This means sew 1 and 2 together



stitch here just right next to the seam

 Repeat same process, sew 5 and 6 right side together. But be careful not to sew No.4 line together at this time!

6. Pick up your bag, you are going to be surprised! WOW! It is the "azuma bukuro bag" !!

Basically, this is how to make the azuma bukuro bag. That is it!  Super very easy. :)

From here, I am going to show you the optional process to make the bag strong.

7. press the seam to the one side.

This is the view from right side

8. machine stitch on the right side

Probably you can not sew by the end of the corner. But it is fine.

Sew as much as you can!

9. sew the corner. I sew 3"- 4" for the size small and medium.

10. Turn to the right side!

Yeah!! You made it!!


If you wish to make your bag two pattern. Prepare your fabric just like the figure below.




always follow the basic rule: width = A x 3

Put your holiday cookies inside and carry!!

Note:
-The bag made from this tutorial is slightly different from the one I made for my shop.
 But I think this is more easy to show the people how to make the bag.
-However, you can make the bag reversible, I recommend to choose a fabric that is not too thick.
 Because if the fabric is thick, it will be difficult to tie the knot.

If you make the bag, let me know!  I'd like to hear what you think.
If you leave the comment, I really appreciate it.
Also if you leave your link, I am happy to visit your blog!

Thank you everyone!

Have a happy sewing.

Fairy Tale paper goods

Book mark- Little Red Riding-Hood

I have just added these pretty bookmarks on my Etsy shop!
This is the Bookmark(big clip).  Button size: 1 1/8" (28mm) Clip size: 3 3/4" (9cm).


I think it is the perfect to give as a gift to your friends or co-workers!

I love her expression!

I thought Little red riding hood and the wolf  have to be together!  They are so cute with pair.


If you are a matryoshka fan, how about this adorable one?

They make your smile. :D

thumb tuck - wizard of OZ

Except the book marks, pretty set of 6 tumb tucks are avairable, too!


Happy Monday, Everyone!