Snip, Snip…

I went into Tokyo at the weekend to get my hair cut, my arm wasn't long enough to show you how long it was, but it was down to my waist at the back. It has been driving me nuts, getting tangled and knotted so much recently, so I thought it was about time for a change…

I lost count of the times the hairdresser asked me whether it was OK and that I REALLY wanted to chop it all off, just do it already! I actually wanted it red again but when he showed me the colour palette he didn't have a nice kick ass red, more of a dark auburn, I opted to go blond instead - since I have 4 tubs of dye sat in my drawer in the bathroom !

In other news, after the hairdressers I met up with Paige, one of my mastermind buddies, it took us forever to find somewhere to eat - one of the things I don't like about Tokyo, it is so hard to find somewhere without having to wait forever for a seat. 3 hours wait one place told us! Anyway, we found a spot and ended up sharing a table with a lovely lad who was on his holidays. His mom is a diplomat and he has lived all over the world, was very worldly wise, well educated and a genuinely nice chap, I hope Ebi-kun grows up to like that.

Then Paige and I headed off to get a drink, she helped me nut out what it is I need to work on for the My Organized Chaos make-over, looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into that soon. It is so great to have a mastermind buddy that knows you so well!

That was about that, my head feels a lot lighter and it is sooo much easier to brush it in the morning now :)

Did you get up to anything exciting at the weekend?

Come for a walk with me…

I shared last week how I like to get out of the house once a week and work in a cafe nearby, well I'd like to take you to this weeks spot, Starbucks it is not! I leave my bike in the car park then follow the path…

Past the cars and other odd ornaments and a small shrine, if you are lucky you might see a snake too!

Then you come to the main building…

When you walk in, there is always a display of artwork or ceramics by a local artist, often there are pieces for sale…

Time to settle in with a cup of coffee and homemade cake, like my other frequent haunt, the menu is very limited. I think they have 3 dishes here, I always have the brochette and salad set - which comes with a choice of drink and cake too! It is what my husband would describe as a "ladies lunch" - in other words, he always leaves still hungry!

It is usually full over lunch time, which is quite surpassing since it is in the middle of nowhere! But once the people taking lunch are done, I generally get the place to myself…

I know some people would see this as a downside, but these cafes don't have Internet access, this works for me because it forces me to get on with the job in hand. I get far more writing done when there is no net to distract me! 

After I have done my work, it is time for a walk around the grounds, are you coming?…

There is also an old farmhouse, they often have exhibits on in there too, it was a guy with some beautiful kimono fabrics this time…

As we walk around the garden we spot some pretty flowers…

What is this? Where is it pointing to?…

 Hmm a yurt of sorts, I wonder what is inside…

It's a cat shrine!! You know how much I like cats, I'm outta here…

Don't forget to smell the flowers on your way out…

Picasso and Yorkshire Puds

We went to the MOMA gallery in Kita Urawa for more research for my new book and there happened to be a Picasso exhibit on, Picasso is Ebi-kuns favourite artist so he was super excited to go.

The park that the museum is set in is lovely and has a number of sculptures in it, Ebi-kun said this one reminded him of the Gaudi park we went to in Barcelona…

I asked him about this pieces, whether it reminded him of something. Took him quite a long time before he remembered that at it kindergarten they have another similar sculpture by the same artist in the kindy grounds, of course all the kids clamber on it and it has some shiny spots from where they slide down it.

The exhibition was mainly ceramics, some of which we have seen before, I think they were maybe on lone from the Picasso museum in Hakone. Ebi-kun enjoyed doing the treasure hunt and spent quite a long time sketching different pieces. We weren't able to take photos inside, that annoys me a bit, I understand not taking flash photography but there isn't much need for that these days when you have a semi decent camera and/or photoshop!

Ebi-kun doing his Picasso cubism face!

We had some interesting conversations in there, there were several pieces depicting bull fighting so that was one big conversation and then others about the way Picasso painted simple looking paintings but actually they were difficult and you understand the feelings from the painting. It fascinates me, the observations kids have about art.

Then we headed off for lunch, Ebi-kun wanted to try out a new cafe, Rosies cafe, which does oven baked pancakes, which are basically Yorkshire puddings! We decided to share, so we had a parma ham and salad filled pud first…

And for afters, cinnamon apple, with ice-cream and caramel - so-so good!

It turned out to be a late lunch then we had a bit of shopping to do then headed home. Daddy had to work so it was another mama and boy day out!

Bilingual Play Group Easter Egg Hunt

As the kids are getting older and have their own things to do, it is getting more and more difficult to have get togethers, which is a shame. We always do the egg hunt though and it is always great fun. Usually Eater Sunday falls on the same weekend as the 'perfect cherry blossom viewing day' but not this year. Which was good in a way because we didn't have to battle for a picnic spot. 

We usually send the kids to go and look around the big squirrel enclosure whilst the rest of the adults hide the eggs BUT the squirrel enclosure was damaged with the snow a couple of months back and will be closed for the rest of the year, luckily the kids were too busy playing football to care!

Ready to start the hunt…

We also had to use a different spot to hide the eggs and it turned out to be a bit harder than usual! We will know for next time. Once the eggs were found we had a picnic lunch, we had a great spot under one of the cherry blossom trees. The weather wasn't great, certainly rather chilly but at least it didn't rain!

We seem to be over run with boys at the moment which is a bit rubbish for the girls, especially since their ages are so spread out. Of course the boys were just happy to be playing football at every chance. I organised a treasure hunt of sorts, last years was too easy to I had to up my game, so I made the questions but wrote them in code.

Once they had cracked the first easy code they had to go and ask Yasutoki with the magic word to get the code breakers….

I had a spare copy of the quiz so I gave it to a couple of the dads, it took them soooo long to figure out the magic word! The kids got it straight away. Do you know it? You probably say it to your kids too…What's the magic word?

Please!

I was really impressed how well the kids worked together in teams to figure out how to break each code and then go and find the answer to the questions…

And of course they needed a special prize for all their hard work…



I only do this to entertain myself really! The kids all thought it was funny which is what I love, not sure what the new families to the group thought, best they know know about my daft sense of humour, rather than Halloween!

And guess how the day finished? Yes, more football - Lads vs Dads, the lads are getting much better and the dads are getting older, won't be long before the lads are wiping the floor with the dads. Dave - one of the dads just wouldn't quit until the dads had scored a goal! He is worse than all the kids put together :)

Another great, fun filled day! Did you get up to anything exciting for Easter?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! 

It was a full day for us, I'll post about the play group egg hunt tomorrow. Ebi-kun loves doing treasure hunts, so I make a pile of clues for him to work out around the house…

After several clues he ended up…

Finding the egg! and a new book, he was actually more excited about the book, it is the second one in the Bear Gyrlls fiction series, he took it to bed with him and when I went to get him up he was already awake and reading - he was on chapter 10! I think that is proof in itself that they are good books. The egg was a great Ikea find, it was empty so I got him some licorice - which is difficult to get hold of here and mom sent him some mini eggs (which I will have to help him eat).

I had to share this genius idea, I saw it on Pinterest but they had mini cupcakes but they used the egg box as the container - great and easy way to carry food about! These are mini chocolate rice krispie cakes with jelly beans for eggs.

Most eggs here come in the plastic packs but we always buy the card packs - so much better for crafting! I will definitely be using egg boxes to transport things around and they are small, bite sized food which is perfect for a pot luck party.

Now I am thinking about what other food I could put in there!

Did you know…

That they always put the flags out on my moms birthday? It's because she is so important - or so she always told me!

Happy 70th Birthday Mom! Wish we could be there to celebrate with you xxx

Muffin Tin Dinners Still Rock…

We started doing theses muffin tin dinners when Ebi-kun was 2 and he still loves them! Now he is big enough to make his own though! Sadly, we don't tend to have them now except for the holidays since he has school dinners.

From the top, clockwise…
Boiled egg, cucumber slices, strawberries, parma ham, tomatoes, pineapple, cheese in the middle and macapone on homemade bread.

On A New Kick…

Ebi-kun has got a new 'thing' with his writing. He started off with Mozart a couple of weeks ago and since then he has done Da Vinci, Sea Animals, Hybrid Cars and the latest being Andy Warhol. 

He starts off by doing a brain storm about the subject matter, using books or the Internet to find out the information he needs and makes notes as he goes along…

Then he uses the information to write a 'story' about the subject. This is working really well at the moment, as he gets to choose what to write about, he is using his research and reading skills and then writing skills. After he has finished I get to check he work, I don't correct anything, instead I will tell him I can find 3 spelling mistakes and 1 grammar error or whatever, and challenge hint o find them. Sometimes he does other times he doesn't. This helps me understand what is just a silly mistake and what he is really struggling with. Capital letters at the start of a sentence is one that he trips up on all the time, so I get hint o check and correct those before I even look at it.

He has a lined notebook with 22 lines per page and he generally fills a page with each subject, I hope as he continues he will start to write more but for now, I am happy for him to write as much as he needs to.

As long as he is enjoying doing it, that is the most important thing for me and I'm sure it will be fun looking back at his stories in a few years time!

Top Tip: If your child gets through paper like there's no tomorrow - buy them notebooks and sketch pads. Seriously, the boy draws and writes all the time and we would end up with realms and realms of bits of paper. Moving him onto notepads and sketch books has made a huge difference plus now I don't worry about throwing out that all important scrap of paper!

Being Location Independent…

One of my big goals is to have a completely location independent business, so that if we ever need to up and leave, we can and still have money coming in plus I want to be able to take long trips abroad and still be able to keep my biz ticking over.

It all started by changing my sewing patterns from paper to digital, I was bit nervous that people wouldn't want to buy digital patterns but how wrong I was, they soon started outselling the paper ones, it wasn't as hard as I though it would be! Although I don't do much advertising with the patterns these days, I sell them through Etsy and Craftsy and still making money every week from them which is rather nice!

My Organized Chaos is my main biz now and both the MOC course and Clear The Clutter are set up in a way that I can work on them from anywhere and that people from anywhere can join. I love that the courses are so international and I'm sure it makes it more interesting for the members because they are constantly learning new things about other countries way of doing things.

Another great thing is that we have a number of cool artisan cafes dotted about, all within biking distance, so I can go and work out of the house too. Working from home is great - no commuter trains for starters but it can feel a bit stagnant being stuck in the same place, so I like to go and work out and about at least once a week.

This cafe is my current favourite haunt, they have a simple menu of 4 different lunch dishes which they change each month, and a couple of sandwiches and they make their own pasta and bread. The food is top notch. They also roast their own beans, so the coffee is lovely too! 

The chef had come up with a new type of dessert the other day, asked me to sample it and name it! I am useless at names but it was a nice gesture!

Going out somewhere to work also means getting some fresh air, it is so easy to just stay in all day, doesn't feed the mind of the soul. Luckily my hay fever hasn't been too bad this year and the weather has been gorgeous, the change from winter to spring always happens so fast here. I must admit, it is very pretty come spring time…

So, I have the second Montessori Inspired book in the works and a small book on the go too, plus My Organized Chaos course is getting a make-over! Watch this space for more exciting things to come…

Our annual event…

in the garden!

We don't have much of a garden, which is just as well considering my gardening skills - or lack of! We haven't touched it all winter so after lunch yesterday we decided, on a whim to go and buy some new plants. Of course, that meant we had to clean up the mess and pull up all the weeds before we could get potting plants…

Hopefully we have made a better choice this time! We did try the square foot garden way but it wasn't all it was cracked up to be and so we have ditched that system. Succulents seem to fair quite well under my gardening regime so I was all for just filling the garden with them but hubby wasn't having any of it! We did get a fair few and I put my foot down regarding marigolds - we always buy them and within a week they have been eaten!

Ebi-kun refuses to get rid of his first bike so we are attempting to turn it into a garden feature! Hmm yeah, we will see how that goes! I want to have a basket on the back with some flowing kinda flowers in it (you can see my garden skills shin through, I am clueless about plant names!)

The other hardcore plant we have got is the rosemary, which all went a bit mental last year, hubby cut it back to about 1/4 of it's size, we need to keep it under control, we still have lemon balm popping up everywhere after that crazy experiment. So the centre box is now all herbs and the big box is a bit of a hodge podge. We found a blackberry plant and rhubarb… yeah I know, what were we thinking! At least it is looking a bit tidier, this time of year it is nice to sit out during the day and now most of the kids are in school, it is pretty peaceful too!

Andy Warhol - 15 Minutes Eternal

Monday was the last day of school break and since we had everything ready I thought we should do something fun. I checked the listings for things on in Tokyo then remembered that most museums are closed on a Monday - bugger! BUT, then I spotted the Andy Warhol Exhibition on at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi - perfect!

The only drawback is the trip there, it takes about an hour and a half and we have to get on a commuter train (which means getting badly squashed). I don't know how people can do that day in and day out - truly awful experience! Ebi-kun wasn't impressed either.

We spotted the Ebisu god as we changed trains, obviously we had to take a photo! Such tourists! 

We made it to the museum just before it opened. I was a bit confused with the tickets, they had set up a special Andy Warhol Cafe, which I thought would be fun to go to but it is in the observation deck and you need an extra ticket to go to the observation deck. Anyway, it turned out that the section where the cafe is, you don't need to pay extra for - just in case you decide to go and are confused too! You also get to see the views without the extra charge!

The Mori building is 54 floors and the gallery is on the 52nd, that is quite a long way up!

You are not allowed to take photos inside the exhibition so you'll have to use your imagination a bit. It was really well done, thoughtfully laid out and the English explanations were great - obviously not done by google translate! I can't say I am a big Warhol fan but I do appreciate the influence he had in modern art culture and it was really interesting to learn more about him and his thinking.

The exhibition is mixed media, so not only his art and sculptures they have a room with video footage that he took and another where they re-created the silver studio where he worked. There were interviews on video and they had The Velvet Underground playing (he was their producer) Ebi-kun was not a fan of their music, he said that it sounds like someone being murdered!

I made Ebi-kun a quiz sheet to take round with him, I will do a separate post on that but it definitely helps to make the exhibitions more meaning full when he has to figure out the answers.

Once we were done, it was lunch time so we eventually figured out where the cafe was and that we didn't need to pay extra to go in! The floor was artificial grass which was fun and there was copies of his artwork on all the tables. They also have an installation of his rain machine set up.

The menu is very limited, we decide to get the lunch set and share it. It was a burger, (cold) fries, signature Campbells soup and a drink…

And we decided to sit at the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, an amazing vista, the skyscrapers in the distance are Shinjuku, we could see Mount Fuji too but only just. It is such a big city, it goes on for miles and miles!

I must admit, the thought of what we would do if there was an earthquake crossed my mind more than once!

For dessert we tried the Warhol Parfait. I have no idea why but Ebi-kun is going through a phase of 'The Fonz' thumbs at the moment!

I think a close up of the parfait in all it's glory is needed! It was very sweet, and a good job we decided to share or I think we would have both been sick! It did get us to wondering what kind of special food would we have in out imaginary artists cafe - I feel a project coming on there!

After lunch we decided to explore the area a bit, we found a map which had all the different outdoor art sculptures on it, so we went on a hunt to find them all. We missed 2, I think and decided we had had enough and headed home - before the trains got too busy.

Great day out, highly recommend the art show, perfect way to finish the holidays!

**edited** We made a great time capsule inspired by this day out, check it out HERE