What we've been up to lately

March was supposed to be the time for Doing Lots Of Things but, between bad weather and my bad back/hips, not that much was achieved. We have done a few fun things over the last few weeks though, so here's my report...

attempting to pick up H's parents' cat...

• K and I went to a classical music concert, his first! It was a performance by the Kansai Philharmonic, designed for small children; the poster said 'It's OK if they cry!'. The music was great of course, and they also spent time introducing the different instruments and letting volunteers conduct. A lot of the children did get fidgety, or fall asleep (it was nearly 2 hours long including the intermission), but K was great and seemed interested during the whole thing. The concert ended with a rousing performance of 'Land of Hope and Glory' which was really quite moving, especially when K turned to me part way through and said 'I like this song'.
  
  
• All 3 of us went to the City Art Museum the following day (it was clearly The Monkey Household Week of Culture) to see a display of artwork from the children's books Lisa and Gaspard, and Penelope. K didn't really know the characters very well, but he enjoyed looking at the picture books on display... and then had a total meltdown in the foyer, but the less said about that, the better.

• K has been brushing up in his computer skills. The other day I came into the living room to discover that he'd switched on the laptop, opened Internet Explorer, was playing a CD and browsing photos. I suppose he's preparing to help Grandad when he gets here...
  
  

  
  
  

• We've had several visits to the play centre (usually greeted by some variation of 'Haven't you had that baby yet?), including a special one yesterday where all the mums had a go at some flower arranging. K enjoys jumping on the trampoline and looking at the Thomas the Tank Engine books, and I like chatting with the other mums and the staff.
  
  
  

  K wishes you all a Happy St Patrick's Day!
  
  
  

• Lunch with Chieko last week, while K was at pre-school, and then, very decadently, afternoon tea with Lisa on Sunday! We had crepes at Giardinos and they were Very Nice, although we agreed that we could really have done with 2...
  
  
• The cowboy blanket I won in the MADE giveaway arrived! Yeah!
  
  
  
  
  
• K's pre-school had its graduation and end-of-school-year ceremony. Only one girl was actually 'graduating' and going on to primary school from April, but several other children were leaving to go to 'normal', Japanese kindergartens. The children sang songs and put on a play...

... and then each child was awarded a medal for their particular strong point. In the little ones class, children were praised for being able to say their name and age well in English, for always tidying up well, and so on. And K's award-winning talent? 'He has the loudest voice in the class'. Hmmm...




And of course, there have been various preparations for the baby, and for Mum and Dad coming. I think now, we're pretty much as ready as we ever will be...

Goodies from New Zealand!

The other day the postman brought me this lovely parcel of goodies from Hanna of Craftykin. I had commented on all her wonderful opp-shop/thrift shop/charity shop finds, and she offered to send me some! I offered to send her some Japanese craft books and odds and ends in return and so a swap was born... Here's what I found when I opened the parcel:

I couldn't believe the number of things that she managed to fit in that parcel! Let's have a closer look...

A tea towel destined for my kitchen, and some great vintage linens calling out to be re-purposed into, well, something. The detail in that embroidery is beautiful.

Some child-orientated goodies - K is loving that little sheep finger puppet...

A set of five little cards made with the coolest vintage flower prints. Hand-made by Hanna maybe??

Some lovely ribbon and lacy edging, plus a tiny pair of scissors. So cute.

And look at this! A little booklet of patterns for soft toys, even older than the dinosaur one I have :-) It's got some great ideas in it, although I must admit that the doll on the front scares me a little... Plus a little purse that definitely was made by Hanna (it has her cool Craftykin label inside) and a little tissue case - I didn't even know that they existed outside of Japan!

Thank you Hanna, for suggesting this swap and for your kindness and generosity. When a virtual stranger thousands of miles away offers to send you a present out of the goodness of their heart, it does a lot to help you believe that the world is not such a bad place after all...

Yay for credit card points!

I've been umm-ing and ahh-ing about getting a breadmaker for ages. I fancy the idea of making lovely fresh bread but fear that the novelty may wear off and the machine will end up just sitting around gathering dust. I'm certainly not interested in the top-of-the-line models that make mochi and pasta dough, but even a decent mid-range one would still set me back 20,000 yen or so.

So when I realised my credit card points would expire at the end of this month, I knew just what to swap them for. This breadmaker is very basic; it's one of the cheapest ones around and isn't what I would have chosen if I were paying for it, but it was free! And if it ends up as a dust-magnet I can just give it away and not feel too guilty about it. It arrived on Sunday morning and H straight away announced that he wanted bread for dinner...

One cycle of the machine takes almost 5 hours and, after going out at lunchtime and buying bread flour and yeast on the way home, this loaf was ready just in time for a light dinner of soup and fried chicken. The instruction book for the machine has pages of trouble-shooting advice, but this bread was just about perfect :o)

The leftovers made great toast today too...

So now I'm full of ideas of nutritious winter lunches: soups and stews with fresh bread studded with bacon, cheese and onion, homemade pizza, curry with naan bread cooked in the frying pan, all finished off with cinnamon rolls or walnut bread... Let's see how long it lasts!

And while I was at it, I traded in points from my other, less-used credit card. They didn't have much that I wanted (frying pan lid anyone??) but I did find this nice map-of-Japan game/puzzle. You can't really tell in this picture, but it has 3 layers. The top one is a jigsaw of the prefectures of Japan, underneath that is a second, easier puzzle of regions of Japan and at the very bottom is a board game. Obviously K is not quite ready for this yet but when he is, I will be able to magic it up out of nowhere for him. Assuming I don't forget where I put it in the meantime...

More treasure!

This time for K...

Mum and Dad brought lots of goodies for K, including some very cute T-shirts and some great charity shop finds, especially books. This is the pile after K had already laid claim to several that took his fancy:


Most of them are a bit 'big' for him yet, but I'm looking forward to bringing them out little by little as they become more age-appropriate.

Mum also brought 4 jigsaws for when K is bigger, including two that were hers when she was a little girl. I remember playing with them at my grandmother's house when I was little and I'm thrilled that Gran has passed them on to K.




They both have a really cute vintage feel, don't you think? And it's lovely to have these family things....

As well as all these goodies, Mum and Dad also brought Christmas presents from family in the UK, which we will of course put aside until then. Of course we will.

Treasure haul

When Mum and Dad arrived last week, they did so with a Very Large Suitcase, as well as a normal suitcase and a couple of carry-on bags. Their own personal luggage was minimal; it was mainly presents! Over a period of several days Mum has been bringing out all manner of goodies for us all. For me personally there was a book on sock creatures and some very cute socks to make them with, odds and ends I wanted from the UK (OXO cubes, deodorant, teabags...) and, most excitingly of all, this:

What an amazing charity shop/thrift store find! It's a stationery case and it just about fit into (and completely filled) one carry-on bag. Mum knows that I love all those chests with tiny drawers that you get, apocathary chests and so on, and suspected that I might like this. And she was very right! Here's what you see when you open the doors:

And then the top part hinges up and there's a little drawer at the bottom, plus a secret compartment down the back of the whole case. Except now I've told you all so I suppose it's not really a secret anymore...

Isn't it great? Thank you so much Mum and Dad, and thank you for carrying it half way around the world to me!

Now, you don't think they would forget their one and only grandchild in all this lovely loot-sharing do you? Stay tuned for some more great finds!