Remember the awesome Fry Pan-da that Fred Flare had a year or so ago? (Which, I can testify is actually a pretty awesome pan in daily use.) Well, they've got a Baby Pan-da in stock just in time for the holidays:
Much smaller, just 7" so not as useful. But just as cute! And yes, one is already stashed away in our house for Emily. So, everyone who's been wanting a Pan-da of their very own - now's your chance!
I rarely eat junk food, but maybe once a year there will be a strange flavor of doritos I'll have to try (or, I'll just get the urge to try some anyway) and I'll buy a bag. This time, what called to me were these wasabi-mayonnaisse doritos! I was afraid they would be too wasabi-hot...but actually, they were sickly sweet, I guess for the mayo part of the flavor? Anyway, super-nasty. I barely made a dent in the bag before finally giving up and tossing them. Well, it was fun to try!
With so little time to blog, twitter's become my main brain dump these days -- for anyone's who's not over there, here are some of the tidbits I twittered about this week:
At ikea, a new baking line includes dala horse cake pans! Also, they've got a lamp coming out that looks like a dandelion puff. Emily is obsessed with dandelions...if she spots it we'll be getting one I think!
We got a butterfly kit; the caterpillars arrived within days of ordering and they are growing like crazy! Also, I helped Emily make a pill bug terrarium. As it turns out, there were a few eggs of some sort in there, we've got two inch-long caterpillars in there too!!
Watched Court Jester, which none of us had seen. We all liked it, and it's Emily's 2nd favorite movie night feature, after Singin' in the Rain. Neither Evan nor I are Danny Kaye fans, so we were surprised how much we enjoyed it. (The marvelous Glynis Johns certainly didn't hurt.)
We sorted our huge stash of archived t-shirts and pared it down to just 1 of each (these are our designs on shirts we'd put away when we got them). I did not want to take the giant stack to Mocca to sell, so I got the idea to put them up online. And a few days later they're mostly gone! So that was pretty cool.
I also have been following astronaut Mike Massimo's tweets from SPACE. Really from space. So amazing. They'll be landing tomorrow and I'll miss the reports from orbit!
Finally, after a few weeks of test and dr. visits, the mystery of my shoulder is not solved. It looks like I suffered a serious dislocation at some point, but we don't remember anything happening!! I've got at least one more test and then physical therapy to regain full movement...we'll probably never be sure what really happened there. As long as it works again I won't care though!
so, I've been trying to blog for weeks, but time has been even more limited than usual. twitter is about all I have spare time for! instead of trying to finish any of my pending posts, let me just race through a few quick things:
check out that box of cuteness! I treated myself to a load of stuff from ichiban kan, where you can get all the cute little bento-y things you've seen on ebay for about $1 a piece (instead of $5 or so on ebay!) Favorites so far are the ultraman forks and the silicone pancake rings (they work amazingly!)
Also amazingly cute -- this little pegdoll I won from one of my favorite blogs, creative breathing. She's on my desk right now, and the only thing bad about her? She looks like she needs company!!
Final cuteness? Emily, who is now cooking at the stove. (Don't worry, closely supervised.) She is so proud of herself, it kills me!
Thankful for: great prices on yummy things I want at ikea's food mart! Hello Kristian Regale at 1/3 the price at Scandinavia house! Hello delicious Pepparkakor! And Ballerina cookies! And cloudberry jam!! Yum!
Halloween week has been very busy! (And it's not over yet!) We went to the zoo for their Halloween "Spooktacular" where Emily gave cotton candy another try and decided that she does in fact, love it (she had it at the shore this summer and hated it). And, she won 3rd place in the costume contest, which was an experience*.
I dug out her TUK knockoff kitty shoes that match my Tredairs and discovered that the size marked on them was wrong -- if I'd waited to pull them out she'd have never worn them! So, whew. And she loves them!
I finished up this experimental Insa skirt and learned that black corduroy is really, really hard to photograph:
I made this Insa to see what it would look like without the overskirt, just as a basic skirt, and I was very pleased. I also was experimenting with some bias tape used as trim rather than ribbon. It even has some little bows at the back, which were much harder to make from bias tape than from ribbon!
Here's a closeup of the bows. I don't love them, but like I said, it was largely an experiment so I'm not going to worry about it. Much!
I also realized I have never posted the shirt I made for myself! It's from the Zoela pattern (the women's version of Zoe, which I've made before)
The body is a very soft cotton baby rib, the sleeves a blend of some sort I picked up a while back. Unfortunately, while the stripes are cool, the fabric is already pilling from the synthetic content it must have. Also unfortunately, I kind of hacked out the applique because I just wanted to be done. But, it fits great and is very comfortable. More Zoelas for me are on my sewing list already!! Maybe even one in velour like Emily's Halloween Zoe!
And now, it's time to get some lunch into a hyper Halloween witch so she has the energy to get through several events today!! Happy Halloween, everybody!!
*To make a very long story not-quite-so-long, I misunderstood the contest and thought it was more of the little kid costume parade type thing I am used to -- no, it was actually a 3-winners-only highly competitive display of bad parenting. A small group of mothers climbed onto the stage and blocked several kids from the judge's view, including Emily -- but the MC called the kids up anyway. Then, these same mothers booed when the last winner -- Emily -- was announced, as none of their kids won. Booed!! All these kids were under 5! I was horrified at their behavior, not to mention the lessons they were teaching their kids, but luckily Emily was oblivious to it and was excited to win when she had misunderstood the contest to be just going up to the judges to see what they thought of your costume.
Emily isn't feeling well today, so I turned to the random number generator for help in giving away all three sets of patterns I have this week. (Not as much fun as using Emily, but certainly much faster!!) The results?
Which means:
4: Miz K!
1: Thien-Kim!
3: Astrid!
Come on down!! Send me your addresses and I'll get these out asap! Thanks again to everyone who entered, and keep your eyes on the wiki (and here) -- there will be another giveaway in the not-too-distant future!
Both skirts are made using the Rømø pattern I've used before. The base fabric is a "Spooky Hollow for Joann's" cotton I bought years ago and stashed when it went on sale - I've waited all this time for a good reason to use it! Finally! The orange dotted fabric was left over from making Emily's Halloween costume dress (in fact, the ruffle on her skirt was actually made for her dress, I had a big length of ruffle left over and she asked me to put it on her skirt). Here's my skirt alone, and Emily's. Honestly, I think this is my favorite skirt pattern, so simple to put together (both versions) and also so easy to dress up. I just did a facing this time on mine (instead of a full lining) since I will probably not wear it as much, which made it come together even quicker. The girl's version is so easy I'd make Emily 10 of them....if I didn't suspect she is planning to boycott skirts now (as well as pants and sleeves).
I also have to show off this adorable cotton fleece (think really nice sweatshirt) I got for my birthday from my brother! (Well, with the gift certificate he got me from Bunte Fabrics.)
It's called Knut, after the famous polar bear, obviously. So cute!! I think it will be used for a copy of a favored dress Emily is on the verge of growing out of. I will almost hate cutting into it!! I also got the corduroy you can see in this photo, Emily picked that one out from the choices I gave her. NO idea what that's going to be. It's so adorable. I should also note that Bunte Fabrics is having a great sale right now on Japanese canvas fabric as well as lots of other stuff -- if I hadn't already known what I wanted it might have taken me forever to decide what to get!
It's time for our last and final giveaway to celebrate the launch of the farbenwiki! Again, I've got a pair of patterns (courtesy of Nancy Langdon of StudioTantrum/Fledge) -- an Anna and a Feliz. (These are 'scratch and dent" patterns that had folding issues; so they come without the usual ribbon tags and have their titles crossed out to prevent their sale, just so you know. But they are perfectly usable and will make fabulous dresses!) All you have to do is comment on this entry or email me (and mention the giveaway!) by Monday morning -- and it looks like i may even an extra set or two to give away, so your chances may be even better than usual! Thanks for coming by!
Please note -- if you enter, plan on coming back here on Monday to see if you've won just in case my email to you gets filtered. If I don't hear back from the winner within 48 hours of emailing I will draw a new name and pass the patterns on. Thanks!
Congrats on winning giveaway #3, Rebecca! And thanks to everyone else who entered -- remember to come back next Friday for the final giveaway, there's one last set of patterns waiting to go to a new home!
It's time for giveaway number THREE to celebrate the launch of the farbenwiki! Once again, I've got a pair of patterns (courtesy of Nancy Langdon of StudioTantrum/Fledge) -- an Anna and a Feliz. These are 'scratch and dent" patterns that had folding issues; so they come without the usual ribbon tags and have their titles crossed out to prevent their sale, just so you know. But they are perfectly usable and will make fabulous dresses! All you have to do is comment on this entry or email me (and mention the giveaway!) by Monday morning -- and if you don't win, there will be one last chance next weekend!! And please spread the word...so we can spread the love!
And Rebecca is this week's winner! Please come back next Friday for the last set of patterns! Thanks!
Send me your address, Nicole! And everyone else, please come back this Friday to enter giveaway #3 -- I have 2 more Feliz/Anna packs to give away! And please...pass the word, and visit the farbenwiki!
It's time for giveaway number TWO to celebrate the launch of the farbenwiki! Once again, I've got a pair of patterns (courtesy of Nancy Langdon of StudioTantrum/Fledge) -- an Anna and a Feliz, which is just about all you need to dress any girl from toddler to, okay, not teen, but big girl, definitely. These are 'scratch and dent" patterns that had folding issues; so they come without the usual ribbon tags and have their titles crossed out to prevent their sale, just so you know. But they are perfectly usable and will make fabulous dresses! All you have to do is comment on this entry or email me (and mention the giveaway!) by Monday morning -- and if you don't win, try again next weekend!! And please spread the word so we can spread the love!
And Nicole is the winner! Please come back Friday Oct 10th and enter giveaway #3 for another chance!!
Send me your address, Leslie! And everyone else, come back Friday for another giveaway -- I have 3 more Feliz/Anna packs to give away! And please...pass it on!
To celebrate the beginning of the farbenwiki and encourage you all to try these patterns, I'm going to have a pattern giveway! For the next four weeks (ooh, four, another "f" I could have worked in there), every weekend I'm going to give away a pair of patterns (courtesy of Nancy Langdon of StudioTantrum/Fledge) -- an Anna and a Feliz, which could pretty much take care of all a girl's dress needs between them. These are 'scratch and dent" patterns that had folding issues; so they come without the usual ribbon tags and have their titles crossed out to prevent their sale, just so you know. But they are perfectly usable and will make fabulous dresses! All you have to do is comment on this entry or email me by Monday morning -- and if you don't win, try again next weekend!! And please spread the word so we can spread the love!
And Leslie is the winner! Come back Friday Oct 3rd for another chance!!
Sadly, I have no local shop to support. Yes, I do live in the Metro NY area and have -- in theory -- access to the amazing fabrics and notions in mid-town. However, the reality is that with the little one to wrangle, going there is impossible. And what I actually have nearby is a dreadful pit of a Joann's. If I need a zipper, I go, but I come out cursing just about every time.
So, I shop online! And my favorite shop is the etsy supplies section -- truthfully, I don't necessarily buy that much, but I browse to see what's coming out and what might be cool. I've also been a long-time customer of equilter for their selection, great website and customer service. (The website is an important factor to me; if a website is hard to use, doesn't work in firefox or just annoys me, say, by blocking right clicking on links when HELLO that's how you open that link in another window, you goofuses. Not to mention, blocking right clicking doesn't do anything to prevent image theft. Oh, and in fact it doesn't do anything because I just block your ability to block me, ha ha. It just annoys actual customers, like me, who don't give you their money. okay, I'm digressing here, where was I? Oh, then I don't come back.) And finally, for basics I like fabric.com and verybaby.com, which is a diaper-making supply shop, but carries loads of high-quality cotton you can use for anything!
Reader Gal from Panada tipped me off to this one -- Sears Canada (not Sears US, apparently) has a Yo Gabba Gabba Ready-Bed, a kid's inflatable sleeping bag/bed thing -- which seems pretty cool, actually, the idea of a little built-in air mattress in your sleeping bag sounds good to me! I wish they'd had these when I was little, man did I hate sleeping bags on the floor.
Some of you may have seen the Yo Gabba Gabba toys popping up at Target and Toys R us (and ebay, if you want to pay 10x the real cost...). There's some pretty cute stuff! We ran across them last week and let Emily pick out two -- she went for the talking Brobee and the musical Muno guitar. (I think the guitar was her number one pick!)
Unfortunately, when we got it home and unpacked it, it turned out to be just too heavy for her to hold it and "play" at the same time. She loved it, but she could only play with it on her lap, which was just not fun enough...especially when Cornelius came on and she wanted to rock out 3-year-old style.
I was afraid I was going to have to take the whole thing apart to add a strap that would stay on! But when I started looking at it, I realized that two of the slots in the back that the horrible packaging twisty wire went through were in the perfect spots to improvise a guitar strap! So, I took two short lengths of 3/8" elastic, one length of 1" wide cheetah print ribbon (picked out of my ribbon box by Emily) and a hot glue gun....and ta-da! Guitar strap!
It works perfectly - she can already sling it on and off by herself. Here's a closeup of where it's attached -- basically, I just ran the 3/8" stuff through the little holes, hot glued the ends to the ribbon, and then used lots of hot glue and rolled the ribbon up.
I could have used a narrow ribbon instead of the elastic, it really has no function -- I just had it handy. You can't take it off, but if it gets too short I'll just cut it off and make a new one. And now she can go crazy during the Super Music Friends Show and play along!
The first Yo Gabba Gabba! dvd, Yo Gabba Gabba: Dance Dance Bunch, is scheduled for an October release and apparently will include two of the Super Martian Robot Girl segments we worked on! The episode "Dance" has the "Dance Party" story, and "Happy" has the "Pink Baby" story (which is one of Emily's favorites -- and adapts the creature from the original live-action pilot). It's exciting to see it getting released! Not as exciting as seeing season two on the air, though...
Yowza, good thing I never announced my intention to write more frequently this summer, because that sure didn't work out. Between the illnesses, the car going into the garage twice (at least the 2nd time was something simple and easy to fix, although it seemed catastrophic), working like crazy, and the general ick-ness of summer...oh well. Anyway. To make up for my slackness, it's my first giveaway!!
I did an interview for the newsletter of Quirk Books, and to thank me they sent along some of their books to check out.* One of the books I was interested in was out of stock, so they sent a few others along and one of them was this:
Unfortunately, I do not knit anymore, and if I ever start again it'll be just for clothes, I think. But, it looks like it could be a lot of fun for someone who does like to do this kind of knitting! So, I'm offering my copy of this book up to one lucky reader! Leave a comment or shoot me an email if you're interested, and I'll pick someone randomly on Sunday night. Good luck!!
*more on the other books later!! and news on the interview when I get it!
Just over a month ago, we went to Mitsuwa and below a walkway out back overlooking the Hudson, we spotted a nesting goose, with papa-to-be standing guard close by.
Emily was very excited by this and couldn't wait to see what happened. A few days ago we went back and went straight to the nest to see what was up -- and what did we find?
Three fluffy little goslings, and two proud parents. I swear, Emily was as proud and as excited as if they were her own little hatchlings. Good job, mama goose!
Remember the life-size re-ment panda frying pan? Well, guess who is in my house, and on my stove this very minute? A surprise package arrived (courtesy of my dad) and were we ever surprised to pull this box out of it:
And then amazed to pull this out of the box.
Seriously, so cute you could pretty much just die. And, we have used it already and the Fry-Panda III is in fact an excellent pan. There is only one thing wrong with this pan, in fact. It's the biggest of a set. Ack!
My shoes arrived! I love them. For those of you who asked - they are Converse Project Red shoes, designed by an artist I was not familiar with at all, Camilla Engman. Her art is great, isn't it? (There is a high top version as well, but the background is white.) I thought they ran about a half-size big, but the ones I have worked out great.
Cherry blossom season is moving across the country right now (it's here right now, although the official festival isn't for a few more weeks) and we've been seeing the evidence. At Mitsuwa we found cherry blossom tea and KitKats (as well as potato chips and several other things I didn't feel like trying!)
And at our local Stop and Shop -- cherry blossom beer? With...Pucca on the label? Definitely not licensed, I'm thinking someone found a Pucca doll and didn't know or care that she is actually Korean and thought "cute asian thingie, put that in the photo!" This probably is foul and I don't actually drink anyway but I was overcome with the urge to buy it. So we did.
Hopefully, we'll get to go to the festival -- if not, we'll at least try and go picnic under the trees before they stop blossoming. I couldn't find any national guides to tracking the cherry blossoms, but check around and see if you've got any cherry blossom viewing spots near you!
So the very day I post about human-size rement I find more! The ladybug measuring cup set above is by Shinzi Katoh, whose "Ringo" line includes a few more things I'm positive I have in my re-ment storage box.
I suppose I should have realized that plenty of re-ment actually existed, after all I knew that the pumpkin casserole was the Le Crueset one. But for some reason I never thought about the more cartoony stuff being real! Wanted! A more cartoony kitchen!
How much do I covet that frying pan? SO MUCH. Part of a Japanese line being sold at Fred Flare, and so totally 100% re-ment in my size! All I can think of is how many other re-ment pieces I'd like in real life. Starting with this one!
We are currently doing a major sweep of the house, trying to get rid of all the things we've accumulated and just don't need. A lot of it we've been able to find good homes for, but books are a problem. No-one around here takes donations, and we hate the idea of throwing them away! I came across a bookswapping site, Bookins (a silly name, but a fun verb as in "I'm going to bookins those" and "I have bookinsed these") and we've already shipped out a handful of books we couldn't find homes for. No plans on getting books so I don't know how that works, but so far it's a good way to get rid of them. (Our trade list is here if you want to take any of these books off our hands! It's mostly household stuff [sewing, knitting, food, gardening] plus some bios and James Ellroy.)
There is another swap site I haven't tried called bookmooch -- it's certainly cuter, but the main difference for me is that on bookins you pay to get books but shipping them is free; on bookmooch you pay to ship the books and get them for free. Since we're only sending books out bookins works better for us. But if you have tried it and liked it I'd love to hear about it!
As I have mentioned before, Emily loves Animal Crossing. During the winter, animals in the village built igloos every day and she became obsessed with igloos -- having one, going into one, making one...on a trip to ikea we spotted this KOJA igloo tent ($10!) and somehow snuck it right past her. I set it up while Evan distracted her upstairs and it has made the perfect little playspace for her -- she likes to go in there with books, and you can see the current crew who are asleep inside. I wish they'd had this when she was smaller, I'd have let her sleep in there!
Emily, who grows like a pernicious weed, recently grew out of the slippers she got just a little over a month ago. Sadly, I couldn't get them in a bigger size (they were pink, with scottie dogs, and she loooved them) as slippers are pretty much selling out everywhere at this point. So I went slipper hunting on Amazon and turned up these adorable felt slippers!! Here are just two of them:
too rich for my blood ($64 for toddler slippers? Maybe if she didn't grow out of everything every 4 months!) but how incredibly cool! The company's own site is a bit glitchy for me, but it looks like the slippers have different designs on the right and left slippers - too bad amazon doesn't have photos of both.
(And what did I get her? She picked out some fleece slippers with penguins on them. Very cute and a better price for something she'll only wear for 3 or so months!)
Okay, how insanely cool is this eyeball shirt from puchicollective? It's actually an illustration of a Blythe doll's eyechip but all I can say is HOLY GIANT EYEBALL! Available in four colors and in sizes from toddler to adult 5XL. Also available as a fitted women's shirt. I am seriously longing for these for the whole family!
Lost Thomas has been added to our cafepress shop. This is the one that Emily will be getting -- while she has phases where she likes other monsters best, she always comes back to Lost Thomas. Poor Lost Thomas. He's so lost!
So, commenter Jenna K turns out to have the most amazing kid's clothes on her site! Girl's stuff to die for. Some of my all-time favorite fabrics, for one thing (pink tattoo flash like our matching aprons! sugar skulls like on Emily's bib!) Piratedresses, mod dress, and the newest one is killing me -- a pirate-y party dress WITH AN APRON. I am coveting it seriously. However, this is probably the one that Emily would pick, considering her current all-things-cheetah obsession!
This is exactly the kind of webstore I have been wishing I had time to do -- cute dresses and blankets and accessories (sadly, I even bought a domain name and everything, thinking I'd be doing it by now). Maybe someday, but until then...I can just go drool at these instead.
At last! The winners of the Monster Vote of Confidence are now appearing on a wide selection of shirts in our cafepress shop. More stuff and better organization soon, but shirts (and onesies and bibs) are available now!
Okay, I know I'm biased, but seriously, isn't this monster series Evan has been doing so cute? Emily is in love with them and is starting to make special requests. (Last night she was falling asleep and mumbled "lost thomas...so cute....") What we will do with them (if anything) we do not know, but they sure are bringing more fun into the house!
And here's my etsy bib in action at Mitsuwa's food court (Emily's waiting nicely for her miso there) -- like I said, it folds up tiny and can be tucked into a bag and taken anywhere. Yay!
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday (I think partly because October is also my birthday month; and also, where I grew up in Florida it was the month it finally cooled off!) and it seems like more and more people agree these days. So every year we're always excited when the new Halloween decorations and stuff roll out, even though we rarely buy much of anything. (Target is always the big one -- even if the merchandise isn't awesome, the store is decorated fantastically.) This year I actually came across something totally new to me -- a Halloween "countdown" calendar! Basically, it's just like an advent calendar, but counting down to Halloween. I feel sure I saw a different one somewhere too, but I didn't note which catalog it was and it's long gone. And the possibilities for making your own are endless -- I think this is a project in my future!
In other news, the new kitchen faucet landed on our doorstep today (the pull-out spray broke off the old one, plus it was kind of nasty). I am actually going to attempt to replace it myself later this week, although with our goofy sink set-up it may be too much for me. Wish me luck!
And that was the last little vestige of summer around here -- my goldfish wagashi, which I didn't eat until yesterday, by which point summer was gone! Officially maybe it's got a few more weeks but here in the NE it feels long-gone. (And I was totally taken by surprise, we do not have enough warm clothes! oh well, I'll get used to this dressing a growing child thing eventually....) Still, Fall is my favorite season, even when it catches me off guard like this....and at least this means that pumpkin wagashi are not too far off! And Halloween! And Halloween goodies at Target! Goodbye summer, but hello fall!
So today is the big reveal -- the first 5-4-3-2-etsy posting day! And here's my purchase:
This is the Georgia Peach barette and pin set from Shannon's Lucky Wings etsy shop. I was looking through the accessories category (to narrow down my search) and I saw this early on...and I just found myself drawn back to it again and again. I didn't even plan to make my purchase so early in the month! But I decided that Georgia was my August find and that I wasn't going to wait. Here's another pic where you can see the pin better.
Now...what will I get for September?
Go check the blogroll at the 5-4-3-2-etsy! page to see everyone else's August purchases!!
Actually, not ugly but cute -- a line of variant Uglydolls has shown up, all in black with grey accents (mostly). Regular, mini and keychain size. Sooo cute! I can't find anything online about them, but here's a few that Emily knocked on the floor yesterday:
Aha! Turns out they were San Diego exclusives. I guess the leftovers got shipped out randomly. Good thing we grabbed a ninja Wage for Em and ninja OX for us. I want a ninja Icebat though!!
Some of you may remember my posting about Re-ment miniature food & housewares some time ago, or have seen photos of someofmycollection, or, if you're really old-school, have known for ages about my obsession with miniature (fake) food. Whatever the case may be, it should come as no surprise that I am giddy, I tell you, giddy, over the news that Re-ment is launching here in the US! Offerings appear to be remixes of the original Japanese lines, I'm spotting bits and pieces from all over the series in the sets they're previewing. No news on when and where they will be selling them, but I'm ready to line up right now!
If you remember the kid's show I posted about a while back, Yo Gabba Gabba, well, they have some new stuff to entertain your little Gabba addict (if you have one like we do!). They now have a page of sample clips up along with the trailer! yay! Unfortunately, the songs are gone, but I'm sure they'll have more fun stuff up soon. There was a premiere in LA recently (Emily was invited! But of course we couldn't exactly go...) and hopefully the DVD will be out soon. In the meantime, here's our current favorite clip, "Please Thank You". Go Gabba Gabba!
How cute is that little puppet theater apron? It reminds me of a similar apron I saw a while back in a Japanese craft book -- that one was for the parent, and had a puppet theater up on the chest area, I guess so you could play with the puppets while sitting down. It was so cute I wanted to buy the book! (But I didn't -- can't buy everything...) Also really cute for kids are these aprons from Furnis:
I spotted this in Wired's roundup of weird usb gadgets -- they call this an "eyeball baby" but actually, it's a webcam designed to look like Pops from Gegege No Kitaro, only the best ghost manga ever written!! The great things about Pops, is he lives in the empty eye socket of his dead ghost son. No, really! We've loved Gegege ever since it was shown subtitled in NYC back in the early 90s. I seriously think I need this webcam. Not that I even use a webcam. But...it's Pops! (okay, I don't know that "Pops" is the official translation, in fact I'm pretty sure it's not. But the subtitled version we saw called him that. So, to us, he's always Pops.)
Isn't this illustration adorable? It's the cover of the latest Babybug -- a junior-junior version of Cricket (if you remember that) for 1-3 year olds. We got Emily a subscription right before her 1st birthday when I got a good price on it through the mail, and she loves every little issue. They're like little books, and mostly are really cute and not too painful to read and re-read. (With a few notable exceptions.) This cover is by far my favorite illustration we've seen so far! The artist, Holly Berry (for real!) also does a two-page spread inside that's great, it could totally be from an old Golden Book or something. I found out verylittle about her, but she's illustrated at least a dozen children's books, (check out this page from The Impudent Rooster! So pretty!) some of which will definitely be going on Emily's wishlist!
Reader Sandy T alerted me to Pancake Meow--a collection of handcrafted miniature fake food jewelry!! And as we all know, there's not much I love more than mini fake foods...but what to get? There's an amazing array of confections which you can buy (or use) as necklaces, earrings or charms. As a bonus, you can get them scented (although that's not for me--ugh). A bunch can even be customized! I'm personally leaning towards a pink cupcake with white icing (see the one on the left in the pic)...what would you get? Oh, and if the cuteness that artist Leslie makes herself isn't enough, she's going to start carrying an adorable line of Japanese goods from Decole soon. I am so there.
My galpal Mary discovered this incredibly cool retro-licious Housewives Tarot and it only took me about 2 minutes to add the (real) deck to my Amazon shopping list! You can also do a reading right on the site, which is pretty fun. Here's my reading!
Mm, don't those french fries look good? But wait - that's actually dessert! These are deep fried custard sticks, disguised as fries by the new and trendy Mamido Burger stand in Toyko, which styles all its sweets and cakes as fast food. The signature sweet, the "Mamido Burger" is a sponge cake bun, with a chocolate cream "hamburger" and kiwi slice "pickles". Clever, clever!! And of course I want to eat there right now. [From Trends in Japan as seen on Treehugger.]
Last October I wrote up Target's Ready. Sit. Read! book club promotion, but I never got around to the follow-up, which was the awesome stuff that we got for signing Emily up! I was shocked to get a huge box that contained a whole load of stuff, all illustrated by J. Otto Seibold (of Olive, the Other Reindeer et al). First came out the heavy cardboard backpack, with everything else stuffed inside. Parts to convert the backpack into a jetpack or angel wings (or bird wings? not sure), stickers, a book, an electronic bookmark (very cool), door hanger, and book club flag. I'm not sure if they are still sending it all out (they didn't say when I signed her up that she'd get all this stuff!) but it's worth a try. (I'm tempted to get someone to sign up at their address so we can stash extras for Emily!!) Photos of the swag are up at flickr (although it'll take a wee bit of time for that link to be working, I think - in the meantime, click on the photo above and just go backwards through the photos).
Notice that I did not say "super-cuteness!!" because I just noticed that I've had an exclamation point on every entry for a month. Yeesh! Anyway, this is a wooden puzzle, called "Magic Mushroom" that we got Emily for her birthday (her first wooden puzzle, and she loves it. Well, she loves taking the pieces out, anyway). I spotted it on moolka.com, and fell in love with it and its companion puzzle "Magic Tree" right away. I was happy to see that there was a design credit on the packaging, because I love the art. It's by Nadia Berkane, who I can't find much info on, other than some listings on amazon.fr which appear to be a totally different style (or by a different Nadia Berkane?) and a site with baby items illustrated by this Nadia Berkane which are adorable. I want them all!
Does anyone else know anything about this artist? I love her work and would love to find more stuff by her. That, you know, is actually available for purchase to us Americans, that is...
This is one of my all-time favorite treats, leaf pie. I first had it at the Takashimaya Tea Box many years ago, and since I don't come across it often, it's one of my most longed-for treats. My favorite leaf pie of all time is the one on this page, which is the one I had at Takashimaya. But these were pretty good - "Chef Tool" brand, bought from the big Xmas gift display at Mitsuwa. And, half of them were chocolate! That was a new one on me. I think I'm going to be sticking with the classic version though. More leaf pie photos here.
When I posted about Bon Bon Panda last night, I went to check the link at jay is games and discovered another time waster -- SnowDays! Cut your own paper snowflake and see the work of others. Two things I learned so far: look at the little dots in the snowstorm, they're paper flakes you zoom in on too (I suppose it's obvious but it took me a while....); and, I suck at cutting out flakes in flash. In the real world, I'm actually good at it. But I'm terrible at these. Might be because I have a trackball and not a mouse. But anyway. It was still fun! And the most snow I'm seeing this month, most likely...
A while back I came across this Bon Bon Panda flash game, I have no idea how. Anyway, it quickly became a House of Fun addiction! Evan of course got obsessed enough to beat it one night (20 levels in all, "nothing exciting happened" he said, but then again we've been playing the Korean "bootleg" version so the official version might be different), but I haven't gotten near the end. Cute and fun, but easy to walk away from if you have to stop playing. Enjoy!
More on the limited Jones Sodas: you may know this, but the whole concept started in 2003 with a Turkey and Gravy soda. In 2004, they had a whole Holiday Pack which added Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potato & Butter, Fruitcake and Cranberry flavors to their Turkey & Gravy Soda. I heard about it, but it's not like we found it anywhere for sale (not to mention, those are probably not flavors that an often-nauseated pregnant woman should even be thinking about, much less drinking). So, you can see, they've had a history of disgusting flavors that led up to those scary halloween sodas at Target.
And now the Holiday Pack for 2005 is about to hit. They're being coy about it on their own site still, but I find it listed as containing the famous Turkey and Gravy, plus four all-new flavors guaranteed to make you sick: Smoked Salmon Pate, Broccoli Casserole, Corn on the Cob and Pecan Pie. Now, I would definitely give Pecan Pie a shot. But...smoked salmon flavored soda? I swear, they make these sodas as a dare to the general public.
My September tie one on apron was made from a vintage towel with "Swedish Weaving" or huck embroidery on it. As it turned out, another tie one on contributor had a collection of similar towels and almost had made an apron like mine! She ended up doing some research on the technique and has some lovely photos of it here.
Evan's comic shop radar is still in effect; on our way home from Duke last week we pulled off the highway to find a Subway and a few doors down from the sandwich shop? A comic store. It's ridiculous, really it is.
You know those Target Halloween sodas we forgot to buy? Well, a kind fairy left some for us at our hotel!! So now we know what they taste like. And can I just say, "Ewwww!!" "Caramel Apple" ought to be called "Poisoned Apple", and "Candy Corn"...well, it didn't taste like anything but chemicals. At least Caramel Apple tasted of apple in a really nasty way. But thanks, kind soda fairy!! It would have irked me forever to not have known.
As someone who prefers to eat small amounts of several foods at any meal possible, I love bentos -- looking at them, eating them, thinking about them...and I have often thought about how much I would love to make them when Emily goes to school someday. (Of course, I doubt I'll have the time and patience to make fancy anime bentos like these!) But the idea of sending her off every day with a lunch that's attractive, fun and well-balanced really appeals to me.
My only hesitation was that it might be too strange for an American kid to take to school. As I read here, the experiences of kids taking bentos to US schools has been mixed. But then, I discovered the waste-free lunch movement, and the accompanying Laptop Lunch Box, and I started thinking that maybe it wasn't such a weird idea after all. With bento-like lunch containers coming out here, by the time it's an issue I think it just might seem normal!
And then yesterday I came across the Vegan Lunch Box, which documents the (vegan, obviously) lunches packed every day by a mom in WA using the Laptop system. Great ideas, feedback on how the system works (and doesn't -- more lids are needed, I agree), examples of bento-style lunches of (mostly) Western recipes, and some idea of how well it goes over in her son's 1st grade class (very well, apparently). I'll be keeping an eye on this one and taking notes!
So, looks like Emily will get bentos and I get to have fun in, well, another 5 years or so!
I've been watching WildCam Africa on the National Geographic website whenever I get the chance lately. It's a live webcam (with sound!) that's bringing you video from a pond in Botswana 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, since it's live the best viewing hours are not East-Coast-living-with-a-baby hours, but even so we've seen elephants, zebras, steenbocks, hyenas, a jackal, an ostrich, and loads of other birds. It's very science-fiction, the idea that you really DO have a window that can show you sunset in Africa live as it happens, and it's really fun to watch animals in the wild without actually having to go there. It'll only be running until December 8th -- but I hope it's only the first of many such experiments!
So, earlier this week we stop at a Target to check out this year's Halloween stuff (they've had better offerings but there's some cute stuff) and in the candy aisle we notice some soda cans with Halloween graphics on them. "Hey, look!" I say. "Someone made soda you can give to trick-or-treaters!" "Mmm, yeah," says Evan (or something like that, actually I don't remember). Both of us thinking it's going to be some crappy house brand orange and grape sodas, we keep walking. So imagine my dismay when I find out we passed up this year's limited edition Halloween Jones Sodas!! And we won't be near a Target again for months, most likely! And you all know how we like trying out ridiculous sodas....feh.
Who knew? All this time, I had a theme song!! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here.) Of course, I have no idea what they're actually saying but still, it's pretty funny and actually a really good song. I wish I'd found it years ago!
Now that's an apron! From eatliver.com. I only wish they'd say where these pictures came from.
UPDATE: mystery solved!! Thanks to Popgadget, I found out that it is (as we suspected) an artwork, by Japanese artist Aya Tsukioka, and is part of a series.
In honor of the tie one on project, there's a massive set of links to apron images over at red current. Some pretty neat stuff to look at! I have to add two of my all-time favorites though, the catbus and totoro aprons (officially licensed) that you cannot get anymore.Which is sad because I need that totoro apron!! I bet I could make one someday... (there was also an apron of Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service but I guess I didn't save the link)
So, I'm only like, a year behind on links to things here. But let me try and slap a few up so I can clean them out of my "things to link to" bookmarks!
Mei & Satsuki's house. At the World Expo in Aichi, Japan, there is a replica of Mei & Satsuki's house from Totoro. Apparently it's such a popular attraction that going to the Expo does not guarantee that you'll get to see it! They are planning to move it elsewhere at the end of the Expo though, so perhaps it'll find a permanent home somewhere.
amaztype. A super-cool little thing someone dreamed up where you can spell any word out of book covers from an amazon search. If you use an author's name, it'll spell it in their books! Yes, I've done both our names, it's pretty fun!
Uwajimaya. Also amazon-related, asian grocery store Uwajimaya is now online at Amazon. Get your Pocky fix no matter where you live, straight from Amazon!
Retro Arcade. Found this flickr photoset on scrubbles, and man is it a killer. Evan was mesmerized.
The Lewis Carroll scrapbook at the Library of Congress. Not exactly enthralling but a really interesting object. Note his clippings from Punch!
Superdickery. You've seen this, right? Everyone probably has, but just in case...it's a hysterical collection (one of the many) of vintage comic covers. No wonder it's been so hard for the medium to get any respect, right?
The Mod bullet is public domain. (warning: link is to a pdf file) Okay, a little dry and you'll want to skim, but I actually found it fascinating reading. And on that note, have you seen our ska baby clothes? That "Rude Baby" is so cute on Emily it kills me.
We went through our records again recently to sort and purge and I found a record I'd been looking for! It's called "Best Loved Fairy Tales", produced by Disney in the early 60s (and rereleased with a book around 1970) and featured Rica Moore narrating a group of fairy tales over bass and bongos. And pretty weird...I coudn't find much out about Rica other than she was a singer for Ray Coniff and did several Disney recordings. No sign of it ever being released on CD, and my copy was well-thrashed (it's amazing it survived, actually, my brother and I played the hell out of our small record collection!) so I'm happy to report that I scored a clean copy on ebay just days later, and assuming there's either still a turntable in the house or I manage to digitize the tracks, Emily will get to hear my favorite record too!
And some of the moms! Available in Japan only from Combi (their US strollers aren't quite so spiffy) is this:
Can you tell what it is? Yep, it's the "M78 ultra man dream baby buggy". I'm normally not too into character goods on this scale (you may find that hard to believe but it's true). And I love the stroller I got for Emily. But for this, I might have made an exception (and I know Evan would have!). All you need is $350 and a trip to Japan to find one.
And when baby's too big, you can move on up to the "M78 ultra man dream junior seat":
All I can say is wow. Why is it that here baby character goods seem limited to Mickey Mouse and (urgh) Precious Moments? We want cool characters too!
You know, I knew there was some link I wanted to post. Actually, there's quite a few, but this is "time sensitive" as all my junk mail likes to say. Kids or no kids, you must check out the Kiddie Records Project and start downloading all the amazing vintage kid's records they will be putting up (one a week) this year. I'm already amazed by the selection! I'm hoping that they somehow will have a copy of my personal favorite kid's record, which, of course, I can't even remember the name of right now (it's this very odd beatnik/jazz fairytale record, with the stories narrated by this very world-weary Susan Tyrell type -- it was one of my favorite records when I was little and I Wore. It. Out.) Anyway, bop on over and start your collection today!
Long-time readers will know that I've been a big fan of Kiki's Delivery Service for (gulp) over a decade now. For years, every time we were at the NJ Kinokuniya (sadly now closed, and the replacement bookstore isn't half as good) I'd look at the original Kiki novels and wish I could read them. Finally, last year, the first installment was translated and published in North American by Annick Press (where you can read a brief excerpt), and then finally, last month I got off my ass and ordered a copy. I'm giving it two thumbs up -- if you're a fan (not necessarily a Miyazaki fan, but a Kiki fan) you'll definitely want to read the original stories. And the translation is very good, at might not be precise but it reads really well and that counts for a lot as far as I'm concerned. The cover art is off-putting (the original book design was so nice!) but they did at least retain the original illustrations for the interior. Now I just have to hope they decide to translate a few more!
A funny aside -- in 1992 we were in London for UKCAC, and while walking around one day came across the London office of Yamato Transport. We loved the logo and scored some stickers of it from the nice office ladies (for years I kept seeing t-shirts of it in Japanese magazines, but never got hold of one!). It was years and years before we knew that there was a connection between Yamato and Kiki!
Those of you who know me, know I have an obsession with fake food, miniature food, or food that pretends to be something else. Today I have seen the ultimate in food fakery -- Koo-Ki Sushi. Seriously, the stuff is to die for. Every single thing on their site is a thing of beauty. I would love one of the big boxes (although I'm also very into the maneki-nekos!). All I want to know is, why isn't this place in NY? That's just ridiculous. I want my Koo-Ki Sushi! (spotted on not martha)
Okay, as part of my year-end cleanup, I'm trying to get rid of tons of bookmarks I don't need, and a pretty big handful of them are things I wanted to link to or write about here. Oops. Here's the top 5 (not actually in order though). If I uncover any other good ones I'll go ahead and post them later.
1. The iduck. Only 16MB, but pretty cute (if overpriced!) I can only hope more cool USB storage devices come out as the world gets rid of its floppy drives. (Evan's new computer is our first with no floppy drive! Crazy!)
2. The Thunderbirds. Long trailer for the upcoming live-action version of the Thunderbirds. I think we'll be seeing this one, but not because we think it's going to actually be good...
3. Deleter USA. The manga supply company has a US division now, selling pens, paper and tone screen (never thought I'd see that stuff for sale again anywhere!) for making comics (and no, they don't have to be manga style). Of special interest to me are their software packages (one for doing screen tones, one for coloring) as they're the only apps I've ever seen specifically for comic creators. (If the tone screens in ComicWorks can be imported into PhotoShop, it'd be worth the price for that alone!) They also have their own tablet, which I'm interested in finding out more about. Hopefully I'll have time to look into their stuff more next year.
4. Time magazine covers. Time has made every single cover of their magazine available online (and you can buy prints if there's one you love). A little hard to search if you aren't sure what you're looking for (have there really only been 5 Christmas covers in 80 years?) but it's all there for the browsing. (Oh, and the cover I found? Mystery writer Craig Rice, whose collaborations with Stuart Palmer we just finished reading.)
5. Elsa Schiaperelli. Celebrated in an exhibit that's unfortunately about to close at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and if it's travelling anywhere else, I can't find anything out about it). The website is really informative and well-done, though. I'm seeing the exhibition next week (yes, cutting it close, I know!) and am really looking forward to it.
In house news, this really should be part of the unfinished "my favorite tools" bit for the cooking class, but since I've had no time I just want to push on you my latest favorite thing, the in-drawer knife block that was delivered today. I've been wanting one of these for ages, but they all seemed too expensive or too junky. This one is great—it holds 6 knives, 6 steak knives (or small knives) plus your steel. And it only cost $17! (Most I've seen didn't hold that much and ran about $40.) The regular knife block on the counter was just bulky and annoying, and got so dirty. So, a bunch of stuff came out of the drawer and went into my new cool Fiestaware tool crock (mine is turquoise) and then the knife block went into the drawer. It's all so much neater and easier to get to now.
Finally, Evan's been having all the fun talking about movies lately, so I'm chiming in first with a report on The House Where Evil Dwells, a horror movie we thought might be quick and goofy and which turned out to be one of the most ludicrous things calling itself a film I've ever seen in my life. One IMDb user calls it "high camp", except it's not supposed to be…the best user comment is "Be Drunk. Very Drunk." It was hysterically funny, I have to admit. Giant talking cursing crabs going up trees? Talking heads in soup? Evil ghosts who act like naughty children? Awkward out-of-shape white man martial arts? Worth catching for a laugh, if you've got some downtime to spare.
I loved Betsy McCall paper dolls when I was little; my mom had lots of old magazines (and I mean old, going back to when she must have been pretty young) and the Betsy dolls were a big favorite of mine. She even let me have the ones out of her new issues to cut out. Years later, I found the older Betsy pages in vintage magazines at sales and so forth, and really fell for the late 50s ones—I even own a handful now. These pages were, in fact, the original inspiration for the Action Girl Activity Page series of paper dolls. All the Betsy outfits would have little stories and details for every outfit, and to me they seemed just like comics. Anyway, I've been slowly trying to clean up my bookmarks (it's way out of hand) and I found this link I'd forgotten about, to a huge collection of Betsy strips pages (see, there I go again, I keep typing "strips"!) My favorites are right around 1959, although all the 50s ones are great. Someday I'd like to get mine in order and maybe track down some more!
We haven't had a full-size tree since we moved two years ago. For about 6-7 years we had a nice big, artificial white tree which I loved. But after we moved we had a little cat destruction and…no more tree. Right now I've got two tabletop trees (one pink, one silver) but I was hoping to get a full-size again this year, so I've been looking around. Because our house is decorated in a sort of—cartoony interpretation of mid-century modern is probably the best way to describe it—a couple of people have suggested the classic aluminum tree to go with the 50s-ish look. Now, while I think they're pretty, I'm not a big fan of any tree without lights. But I thought I'd look at a few. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, contrary to popular opinion (and most eBay sellers), the aluminum tree is a 1960s icon, and didn't even exist in the 1950s! There's a great history of the tree at Bill's Antique Christmas Light Site, which even includes a copy of the patent, and as it turns out, the very first Evergleam aluminum tree went on sale in December of 1959. So, you learn something new every day. A little research through my own 50s magazine collection shows that for the 50s look, artificial trees came in white and green…but both live and artificial trees were often heavily flocked in any and every color you can imagine. For me personally, finding out that even the modern aluminum trees still can't have lights on them makes me think that white is once again the way to go. Oh, but one last silver tree link: the Aluminum Tree and Ornament Museum is actually only one of many museums I came across devoted to the silver tree, but this is the only one with pictures online. Check out the "growing process"!
In comic book news, I found this really interesting interview with Toshio Maeda, most famous (or infamous) here for creating the Urotsuki Doji (Legend of the Overfiend) stuff. It's part one of a series, which I will be checking back for. This one was particularly interesting because he makes several comments about the American comic industry, some perceptive and some showing that it's not just the American public that thinks adults don't read comic books.
As someone who prefers to eat small amounts of several foods at any meal possible, I love bentos -- looking at them, eating them, thinking about them...and I have often thought about how much I would love to make them when Emily goes to school someday. (Of course, I doubt I'll have the time and patience to make fancy anime bentos 
, which I have; 
and 
We went through our records again recently to sort and purge and I found a record I'd been looking for! It's called "Best Loved Fairy Tales", produced by Disney in the early 60s (and rereleased with a book around 1970) and featured Rica Moore narrating a group of fairy tales over bass and bongos. And pretty weird...I coudn't find much out about Rica other than she was a singer for Ray Coniff and did several Disney recordings. No sign of it ever being released on CD, and my copy was well-thrashed (it's amazing it survived, actually, my brother and I played the hell out of our small record collection!) so I'm happy to report that I scored a clean copy on ebay just days later, and assuming there's either still a turntable in the house or I manage to digitize the tracks, Emily will get to hear my favorite record too!
We haven't had a full-size tree since we moved two years ago. For about 6-7 years we had a nice big, artificial white tree which I loved. But after we moved we had a little cat destruction and…no more tree. Right now I've got two tabletop trees (one pink, one silver) but I was hoping to get a full-size again this year, so I've been looking around. Because our house is decorated in a sort of—cartoony interpretation of mid-century modern is probably the best way to describe it—a couple of people have suggested the classic aluminum tree to go with the 50s-ish look. Now, while I think they're pretty, I'm not a big fan of any tree without lights. But I thought I'd look at 
