Saturday, June 28, 2014

26th Handcraft Fair - Art & Heart 2014

This was a fun craft fair. It was also very popular and as a result very crowed. Both days (Friday and Saturday) were super busy. I ventured to the fair on Friday with my three little ones, two walking and one in the stroller. We too the subway to Fukiage station, and stopped to eat lunch at the Fukiage Park which is just next to... you guessed it... Fukiage Hall where the event was held. We sat on a park bench next to a water fountain. Teddy played and looked at the water fountain more then he ate. After finishing we headed next door to look for a restroom.
Teddy, approaching the fascinating water fountain.
There are only 2 available restrooms that I found in the whole exhibit hall.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Nagoya Creators Market

Today we visited the Nagoya Creators Market. It's kind of half-way between a craft fair and an art exhibit. High quality creations of all kinds, from clothes to paintings. Lots of ceramics, wood carving, jewelry, etc. We could have spent days wandering the aisles looking at stuff. We definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in high quality hand-made goods, for inspiration if nothing else.
We didn't get any pictures of the inside, so here's a park nearby.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Feeling Blah

Since our return from Korea, I have been feeling more tired and sore. We are into the last stage of pregnancy. I feel like a ticking bomb just waiting to go off. I feel lucky that I only wake up once or twice to pee in the night. Though I wake feeling sore, because a small person inside of me has been battering on my insides all night.

So I have turned into a hermit of sorts. I have had no desire to go anywhere.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Sewing with a Machine

Now I have been able to make more things quickly. I love Pintrest and if you want to follow me there too, here's my page http://www.pinterest.com/annatspooner/. Here are some of the things I have made with my new sewing machine.

I followed this website tutorial for these dresses that I made. They are fun and easy to make. I didn't put any pockets on mine because I didn't want to have to sew up an extra seam on the skirt of the dress for pockets. I might put pockets onto the outside of the dresses later. I got the buttons off Amazon.co.jp.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Crazy Weekend in Korea: Coda

So, we've finally gotten out of Japan. Now all we need to do is get back.
The view from our hotel room. Seoul is on the horizon.
It's Saturday afternoon. I've just checked my e-mail and found that, although things are as good as could be expected at work, there's trouble with our flights.

Namely, we might not have flights.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Crazy Weekend in Korea: Saturday

So, we get up early Saturday, and set off once more for the train station. Anna has been (with good justification) giving me a hard time about getting on the wrong train yesterday. She has checked and double-checked the station info, and written everything down. We're prepared this time!

We stop by the Starbucks in the station and have some breakfast, feeling like champions for planning ahead with enough time left over to stop and eat. We ended up sitting next to a group of three young women, who were entirely too pleased with our daughters.
The middle one doesn't seem pleased that I'm photographing them.
Sorry Japanese Girls!
We arrive at the platform and are immediately confused again. But this time, instead of jumping on whatever train is closest at the time, we wait for a few minutes. Anna figures out which train to catch, and I ask a platform attendant who gets us in the right place to catch said train. We get on, and everything seems to be going well.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Crazy Weekend in Korea: Friday

It's Friday, the big day! We're going to Korea! Anna has a few things left to do before we leave, but I convince her to come to work with me and spend the morning with the kids at the park near the factory.

This is my first mistake of the day.

My Japanese Sewing Machine

So after getting very sucked into sewing things, I decided that I didn't like that all my projects were taking hours and hours to finish. I went on to Amazon.co.jp and looked at sewing machines. I found one that looked like it was okay, the reviews seemed good, hard to understand, being originally in Japanese and then Google Translated into English. It also happened to have originally cost 56500 yen and was on sale for 9100 on Amazon Prime, free next day shipping. So I got it.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Crazy Weekend in Korea: Backstory

The plan was to leave after work on Friday, spend a couple of nights in Korea doing sight-seeing, and then fly back Sunday afternoon... Things didn't go by the plan.

Here is our story!

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Hand Sewing in Japan

Something that the Japanese do that I find very odd is they throw their old clothes away. And by "old" I mean "practically brand new". There are a few thrift stores, but they are not common and they don't have the big trucks around that pick up old stuff and deliver it to the thrift store. I like to make new things from old things, "up-cycle" as it's called. Making dresses for my girls from old shirts and bags from old jeans.
I have had a fun time raiding the trash pile for bags of "old" clothes.