I hear that neon...

...is all the rage these days, either that or I have been caught in a time warp and I'm back in the 80's. I do like this dress although I would look ridiculous in it! The bag I could pull off and the shoes are cute but I would probably break my neck trying to wear them. 

You are probably wonder what this sudden interest in high street fashion has got to with anything. Well I had the flag duty bag delivered to me yesterday.... Yes! I think I have this neon street fashion down! What do you think?

As I have talked about before, the kids walk to school in groups on a set route and along the way there are volunteers* placed in areas that the school deem dangerous, road crossing, big junctions and blind corners - which is where I was. All the families are assigned duty days, I think I have to do it 4 times during the course of the year. I have no idea if I was waving my flag correctly since 'flag waving lesson day' is next week, I think I will be giving that a miss. As the kids go past they have to say good morning and I have to do the same, gave some of them a shock seeing a non-Japanese face waving the flag!

*volunteer - in Japan they have a strange concept of the word volunteer, I think of a volunteer position as something you put yourself forward to do but here you often get assigned 'volunteer' duties whether you want to do it or not!

Jubilee bunting.... free printable

This weekend marks the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. I remember the silver jubilee year, well, I remember my mom dressing me up as Britannia and sticking stuff to my riding hat (sorry I don't have a picture). I am sure if I was back in the UK I would be gung-ho about organising a street party but I am not, so we will hang some bunting up instead and I will maybe do something special at the weekend, we will see how the rest of the week goes... considering I spent almost 8 hours trying to fix my blog yesterday I am hoping the rest of the week runs more smoothly!

So, yesterday we made some bunting, the file is at the bottom of the post. There are two union jacks (yeah, I know they are actually called union flags but who calls them that?) per page and I put small dots of blue or red in the sections that have to be coloured to make it easier for the kids to colour them in.

We decided that every flag had to be different, so we got out the ink, pencils, crayons, tissue paper, wash tape, wax pastels, pens... and used a different medium or technique on each flag. Doing this worked for two reasons, first it would soon have got boring colouring in each flag the same and secondly it we could compare the flags when they were done and talk about which we liked the most/least and why.

All you need to do is colour in the flag, cut it out, leave the top attached. Fold over the top and attach to some string, hang it up and.....taa-daa!

I found a load of jubilee printables at the Activity Village and the official jubilee website has lots of info if you are planning on studying it with your kids. If you are celebrating the jubilee in some way, let me know what you are doing!
Union Jack Bunting Jojoebi Designs

Button Muffins

Some days Ebi-kun will ask to cook or bake, he usually manages to time it when I don't have much in by way of ingredients but this time was fine. He got out 'his' cookbook Honest Pretzels (the big brother book to Pretend Soup) and picked out button muffins.

He is very confident in the kitchen these days and can follow the recipe through to the end, my job was to get out the ingredients, most are in a high cupboard, do the oven bits and erm... the washing up!

*TOP TIP* when measuring ingredients put it all on a baking tray, makes clean up so much easier!

He has also mastered the art of cracking eggs, next step will be to learn how to separate them.

Oh yes, I did have another job, we were running short of time so I scooped the mix into the liners and he put in the 'buttons'

Finished muffins, yum! He has decided that next time he makes these he wants to try a different flavour by adding strawberries or banana. I am so glad that he is confident enough to take the basic recipe and mix it up. At this rate I will have him capable of cooking three course meals, unassisted by the time he is ten! eight!

We both like Pretend Soup and Honest Pretzels, the recipes are easy to follow, there is a section for parents to read too. My only gripe would be that there are no recipes involving meat but there are plenty of veggie dishes. What works well for us is that I will prepare/cook the main part of the meal and Ebi-kun is in charge of a veggie side dish. He obviously works slower than I do so it works well for timing the meal too. He was happy to see zucchini in the supermarket the other day because he loves making zucchini moons but is number on favourite recipe? Mac and cheese - from scratch not out of a box.

The Crazy Place That Is Harajuku...

***have you entered the GIVEAWAY yet?***

I am not a big city kinda gal, I was raised in a small village amongst cows and wheat fields, far fetched from the bright lights of Tokyo. That said, I do have a soft spot for Harajuku, I love all the crazy fashion and the complete sensory overload you get after being there for about 10 minutes. I would certainly not like to live there but a day trip is fine. 

Takeshite street is the main pedestrian shopping street, it is always packed and by the time you have made it to the other end you are exhausted, mentally if not physically.

If you can't find the latest cool fashion item in Takeshite then it is probably yesterdays news. On my wander I saw 5 different sets of people being interviewed or having professional photos taken, it is the hip place to be.

I also like wandering off the main strip and poking around down the side streets, you often find fun quirky stores down in the basement or hidden behind a bigger store. It is quite sad that a lot of big brands have moved in so many of the smaller shops have disappeared, the only one I can't complain about is the MOMA store - oh how I love that shop! 

Why is there a mens clothes shop called 'womb'? Answers on a postcard please..... 

This made me giggle, Papa Pants, and what are Papa Pants? Well they are pants for papa with a photo of their child on the bum! Why? Who knows, I can't decide if it is creepy or just downright silly.

Obviously I hadn't trekked all the way into Harajuku to take silly pictures, although that is a plus. I actually went to get my hair done. I have had many a friend with bodged hair stories because they have trusted a local hair salon so I head off to Tony & Guy because most of their stylists have worked overseas and they have a lot of westerners as customers, so they are used to doing western hair. When I was there I would say 40% of customers were non Japanese. Plus most of the staff speak English. So I had a lovely 3 hours of head pampering, when I am rich I will employ one of their hair washers to come and wash my hair daily...well I can dream!

 As I left I did spotted this vending machine, the middle row has hair products in it, so grab a coffee and hair conditioner at the same time! 

make them fall in love.. pt III blogging series

So, ready for part III? If you have missed the start of this series, here are parts I and part II. Today we will tackle writing and reading, let's get cracking...

Let's start with the writing...

• Obviously, what you write about is an important part of your blog post and writing isn't as easy as it sounds, but with time you will discover your own style and your voice. Whatever you write about do it because you are passionate about it, it will show in your writing.
• Write quality posts, ones that will be interesting or useful to your readers. I am rarely stuck for something to write about, my secret... I keep a notebook with possible blog post topics, they might be those 'in the bath genius ideas' to answers to questions from readers or something that I have suddenly discovered and can't wait to share.
• Before you hit publish, spell and grammar check at least once.
• If you only have time, say once a week, to write your blog posts then make good use of the schedule function, write three or four posts then schedule them to publish over the course of the week, your digest readers will love you for it. This may backfire if you have scheduled happy posts about rainbows then you have an almighty earthquake and a full on national disaster - I am hoping that won't happen again.
• Another time to use the schedule function is when you know you are going to be away for any length of time.
• Also use the draft function, sometimes you get half way through a post and it just doesn't feel right. Don't delete and don't publish it, keep it as a draft and go back to it in a few days time. Looking at it with fresh eyes will really help you decide exactly what to do with it.

Now, I want you to make life easier for your reader...

• If you use a sidebar, keep it neat and tidy.
• If you have badges or banners, keep them all the same size, it looks much neater.
• Keep moving, flashy, blink things to a minimum, it is really distracting if you are trying to read and half a dozen flashy things are going off at you.
• Make it easy for a reader to contact you, having your email address above the fold or on your 'about' page or better still both. If you don't want your email address out there then set one up specifically for your blog or public use. I have several email accounts but they all get forwarded to one, one of the reasons I love gmail is because this is so easy to set up.
• Make sure you have a search box, so many times I revisit a blog looking for something specific but there is no search and I have no joy with labels or tags, I end up giving up.
• Tags and labels, I discovered recently that with blogger you can pick which tags to use as labels, so when I tag my posts I use as many as possible to help when someone does a search but I have a limit of 15 labels that are in my sidebar. I tried to get it down to 10 but I blog about such a wide variety of subjects, it wasn't going to happen.
• Social media - this blogging thing is all about sharing and creating a community and as social media has taken off in an insane way in the last couple of years you need to have those social media share buttons available.
• Make it easy to subscribe to your RSS feed or email list, not everyone actually clicks over to your blog to read it, I read most of mine in google reader, I know some of my readers are reading this through Facebook *wave* and I know other prefer to get it delivered to their inbox.

Finally, this weeks big NO-NO is...

Music. Never Ever have a widget set to auto play music on your blog, you will scare readers away in their droves. Think of your readers, I am a punk chick myself but I appreciate that it is not every ones cup of tea and not only that I know that, there is probably a mom or two reading this whilst their little one is down for  a nap and I am pretty sure they would be using some not-so-nice words if they clicked through to my blog and got blasted with some Rancid which woke sleeping baby and spoilt mama's quiet time.

I like to listen to music or a podcast as I am reading blogs, I don't need no Celine Dion upsetting my vibe! And of course, there are those who are surfing the web when they should be working, you don't want them getting in trouble with their manager do you?

So, what I want to know today is...What is your number one pet peeve when you go to a blog, please share below, I am sure there is something I haven't mentioned! 

If you are enjoying the series then please share with your friends and why not hop onto the mailing list while you are at it.

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Welcome to my office....

The other day, I gave you a peek into my studio over on Whip Up but to be honest I haven't spent much time up there recently. I am working on a new project that involves no sewing and a lot of computer things. So, I have been enjoying an outdoor office this week, I have been proof-reading and prepping (all paperwork) out in the yard.

Our yard isn't the oasis of colour that I would like it to be but then that would mean actually doing some work on it, in our garden it is survival of the fittest! Lovely as it is sitting out, it is also distracting, I can't help watching the bees do their work.

***have you entered the GIVEAWAY yet?***

Imagine a world...

***have you entered the GIVEAWAY yet?***

I feel pretty bad about this, it was one of those projects I started then forgot about. I'm not sure why I started it, curiosity I suppose. I printed 100 identical postcards, a white door/gate on a blue background and they got sent all over the world. The instructions were to complete the picture without looking at anyone elses, put your name, age and where you were from on the back and return it. The ages ranged from 3 to 56 and from places like French Guiana, New Zealand and Czech Republic.

It was fun getting the cards back and seeing the similarities and differences, here are a few random cards, you can see all the ones that were returned here.

What's your name?

***have you entered the GIVEAWAY yet?***

So far, school is going well, we are settling into a routine and Ebi-kun likes everything except math, because he says it is too easy! One of the things I don't like is that all the first years have to walk round with a big name badge on their chest. Fair enough in school but I am really not happy about the walk to and from school with their name posted on them - stranger danger and all that.

We have talked to Ebi-kun about it and he is pretty sensible as far as kids go but it doesn't stop me worrying.

The only cool thing about the name badge is the gadget to attach it to your shirt with. It comes with a pin but as you can imagine tops would get wrecked pretty quickly if you used it. This gadget has a button that you put under the shirt then you push the button into the back and click in place, so it gathers up a bit of the shirt and sandwiches it between the button and the name badge. There are other versions but work in a similar principle.

At least next year he will have a small name badge and you have to get pretty close to read it. Oh yes, and the green 5 sticker is the walking group he is in. Does your child have a name badge for school or is it a Japanesey thing?

bespoke magazine & GIVEAWAY CLOSED

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a link for a crafty magazine - and you know how I love my magazines! This one is called Bespoke, it is an Aussie indie magazine and available as a PDF or printed. 

The latest issue has a great range of topics from sewing tutorials to crafter interviews to stories to book reviews to recipes and I must say, it is good to see some male crafters in their too. It has a nice community feel to it. Although I read a lot of blogs I feel like I am missing out on so many other wonderful artistic people out there, almost all the artists featured in this addition are new-to-me and due to the mix of contributors there is a great mix of writing styles. The other plus is that the layout is clean and easy to read.

Bespoke: an item made to a buyer's specification (personalized or tailored)

Now, you can pop over and BUY a copy right now or you can win a copy, yes, Jessica has kindly offered to send a print copy to one of you.

What do you need to do to get your grubby mitts on a copy?

Leave a comment below answering the following question...

Have you ever had any bespoke item made for you? If so what? If not, what would you like to have made for you?

You MUST leave a contact email address with your comment, no email, no win!

I will draw a winner at random on May 30th, 9am JST.

Jessica is willing to ship worldwide so everyone can enter. 

I personally would love a pair of bespoke leather shoes... one day! Now, what is yours?

Creating for children...

Today's post is over on Whip Up. Kathreen asked me to do a guest post either about creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I couldn't decide which to do so the process post ended up being yesterdays treasure maps post and the parenting and creativity is on her blog. Photos of my studio too!

Go and have a read, if you leave me a question at the end, I promise to answer it! 

The story of a map...

Once upon a time there was a pirate, no I think it was a ninja, noooo maybe it was a knight. Anyway the pirate-ninja-knight would often go on adventures, sailing the high seas, battling baddies, slaying dragons and hunting for treasure. The pirate-ninja-knight would never leave home without his sword and map, the problem was his map was forever getting ripped and damaged and slightly singed by dragon breath.

The pirate-ninja-knight mommy thought about making a more durable map, she suggested a plastic coated map but the pirate-ninja-knight scoffed in her face, as if pirate-ninja-knight's used plastic maps. So the mommy pirate-ninja-knight had another think and decided that what was needed was a cloth map. Something durable, believable and could be washed if the pirate-ninja-knight fell in a swamp on his adventures.

So, the mommy pirate-ninja-knight got to work, first she aged some paper using a combined technique of coffee stains, tea stains and lighter flames. To get a really good ancient look she stained the paper three times, leaving it to dry each time. Then she hand drew the different parts of the map and scanned them into her computer along with a scanned copy of the aged paper. Next she spent several hours conjuring up some Photoshop magic putting the map together and adding the colour. She deliberated for sometime about labelling the islands and other parts of the map but decided against it. She thought (and rightly so, if you don't mind me butting in) that the map should be left blank of names so that the pirate-ninja-knight could make up his own names and that if a copy of the map should fall into non English speaking pirate-ninja-knight's they would be able to use it too.

Once the drawing of the map was finished it was printed out with eco-friendly inks on a nice sturdy linen cotton fabric. But then a problem! the fabric, lovely as it was, was prone to fraying, it is bad enough that the islands were shrinking due to global warming never mind map fraying. So, the mommy pirate-ninja-knight rustled up some anti-fray to coat the edges of the map with and rigged up a special map drying rack. Once the map was dry she set to and hand stitched a ribbon to the map so it could be rolled up and tied when not being used.

The map was such a big hit with the pirate-ninja-knight and his friends that the mommy pirate-ninja-knight didn't think it was fair that only one pirate-ninja-knight should have a map so she got cracking and made lots of them.

If you would like a copy of the map for you little pirate-ninja-knight then you can get one by clicking on any of the words map in the story.

And you don't have to take the word of the mommy-ninja-pirate that they are great, listen to what the little  treasure hunters around the of the world have to say.....

"I love my pirate map because it came with treasure"  

                                                           Kanai (6) Texas

 "We had the boat, the eye patch and the cutlass; all we needed was a real treasure map and now we have one"  

                                                            H & N (6 & 8) Japan
                                                       

"Me and my sister use my map to help us find pirate treasure. We love it!"                                                

                                                            George (5) Lancashire, UK
                                                       

"My little pirates have had many happy hours of treasure hunting with this map. It is a wonderful idea for imaginative play, well made and a great addition to their dressing up box" 

                                                             Lesley Robertson, Manchester
                                                
And, because now you know how much time and effort went into creating this very special map and because the mommy pirate-ninja-knight thinks you are lovely, she is offering a 10% discount until the end of the month. Just put pirateninjaknight into the coupon code box when you check out.

The End

make them fall in love.. pt II blogging series

Some great feedback and reasons for blogging in the comments after the last post, thank you. 

Today I want to talk about images or more specifically photos. Now, one of the reasons I started this mini series is because I was asked how to get more traffic/readers and as I said last week, first impressions are everything! I believe there is a simple formula here...

Obviously, it isn't as simple as that but if your blogging content is something you are sharing whether it be a recipe for apple pie, a new gadget you have bought, a craft you did with your kids or your latest garden exploits then good photos are an important part of the equation. Reader and other bloggers are more likely to share your content if you have a great image.

I always try and put up the best images I have but sometimes, especially with kids it doesn't always work out as planned, so I say, keep it realistic. Don't post a rubbish photo just because... unless it is essential to the story you are telling. There are hundreds if not thousands of websites giving information on how to take better pictures and I am not a professional photographer so I am not even going there but I will share these tips...

• When you are taking photo's of something you know you will be blogging about, more is less. Professional photographers shoot hundreds of shots yet only one or two will make the final cut.
• If you are taking photos of something such as step by step for a craft, make sure the area is well lit, natural light from a window works best.
• Don't be afraid to edit your images. There are a lot of free editing software packages out there, I personally use Photoshop. Adjusting the lighting or contrast can make all the difference.
• Add a watermark with your blog or business name to all your images. Having a watermark reduces the chance of your image being stolen as passed off as someone else's. People who steal others work are not likely to be the type to sit as remove a watermark. Also, some sites such as Facebook and Pinterest strip all the meta data from the image so there is no way of knowing where the image came from.
• Keep the sizes of your images consistent, when I use the frames I stick to 600px wide. Just plain photos are 5x7 or 7x5.
• If you use someone else's image for whatever reason CREDIT them and link back to where you found it, it is good practice to ask first too.
• Cropping an image can completely change and improve it. Give it a go! 
• Reduce your image size, this will make the page load faster, better for your readers. Depending what your images are of go for anything from 72dpi to 150dpi - anything bigger than that is wasted.
• Use templates  - I tried this several times before and have only just found a way of doing it that is both quick and easy. The recent templates are from Pugly Pixel, if you use photoshop, get yourself over there, she shares loads of great things and does some fab tutorials. Although I basically know my way around photoshop, I have learnt a lot of new tricks from her.

A few other points, your header - keep it to a reasonable size. Think of a newspaper, folded and face up, across the top is the name of the paper, big and bold, underneath is the 'grabbing headline' and the most important story. Your blog is the same, if your header is too big then the reader has to scroll down to get to that very important post you wrote, so in effect you are pushing your important content down the screen or 'beneath the fold'.

Finally, NEVER EVER post pictures of naked or semi-naked children on your blog. No matter what your do, your images can be taken off your blog one way or another. There are a lot of sick and twisted people out there who trade and share stolen images of children. Would you leave your naked child alone with a bloke you have never met before? OF COURSE NOT, so don't share your adorable naked kids pics online whether it be Facebook, flickr, instagram or your blog. Keep them in an album, at home to be pulled out when they bring their first girl/boyfriend home :o)

Have I missed anything? Possibly. Now, I don't know much about the free photo editing software out there so if you use something please share in the comments section and let us all know what you think of it or if there is anything else you want to share please do. 

Part III coming next week and if you have found this useful, please share with your friends.

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A good loser?

I recently taught Ebi-kun how to play rummy but one of the problem he has (like most kids I think) is holding the cards, so I was chuffed when I spotted this idea via pinterest. So simple, just get two CD's and some super glue. Put some glue around the centre hole and stick together but make sure there is an offset, if they are completely aligned it will be difficult to put the cards in. If you click through to the post there is a full tutorial.

Once the glue is dry you are ready to play. Genius!

One thing I won't tolerate is a bad loser, of course losing is crap and no-one wants to lose but I won't stand for tantrums and screaming if someone loses. I used to teach a 9 year old who did just that whenever she lost something in class, it was awful. So when Ebi-kun got to that point where he understood winning and losing, maybe about 3 or 4 we introduced 'good sportsmanship'. Whenever we play a game, the loser has to shake hands with the winner and congratulate them in the same vein the winner has to say commiserations to the loser. The winner is allowed to celebrate (usually with a happy dance) but not allowed to gloat.

Ebi-kun has got to the point where he is really competitive so having this really helps, even though there are sometimes tears and sulks generally the good sportsman rule works a treat. 

Do you have any tips and tricks for encouraging good sportsmanship, please share in the comments.

Are you in Saitama or Chiba?

It has been reported in the news that formaldehyde has been found in the tap water! Those with little ones might want to keep them off the tap water until the situation has cleared up. You can read about it here or Japanese here.

Dali - melting clock sculpture

Our latest artist adventures have introduced us to Salvador Dali (using this book). We touched on him briefly before when we visited the Dali museum in Fukushima a couple of years ago. The melting clocks definitely made an impression so I suggested to Ebi-kun to made a melting clock sculpture.

He used paper clay, something I hate working with but Ebi-kun seems quite happy to use it. First he rolled it flat and then used a cutter to cut out a circle. To get the melting effect he used the paper clay box and molded the clay to the box and then stretched out the bottom. He then left it to dry over night.

The next day he painted it, you will not believe how much gold paint we get through in this house! A little trick when doing the numbers, get them to put 12 on first then 6 followed by 9 and 3, that way it is easier to put in the other numbers in the correct positions.

Turned out pretty cool. Since he made it I am wondering if we could make a real clock in the same way, I know I can get the clock mechanism, I think as long as the numbers were placed correctly we could do it, hmm, you maybe seeing a melted clock 2.0 in the future!

If you are wondering what the clock is sitting on, it is his writing station, there is a detailed post here and Mariah has just done a great round up of writing stations including Meg's, a bit of writing station envy going on over here!

bully or not a bully, that is the question.

Ebi-kun seems to have settled in at school OK despite the bumpy start to the year. He has started to get homework every day, I suppose they need to start at the basics for the kids that haven't had any help from home but I was still surprised he came home with a sheet where he had to match the numbers 1-5 to pictures of 1-5 fish! He also has to do reading practice every night.

Over the last week he has had to take in a urine sample and a bum patch sample (testing for worms) and he gets a full medical and dental check. They seem to do it over the course of 2 weeks, he has also been tested on things like how far he can throw a ball, how fast he can run and how many sit ups he can do. I believe this is done every year up until university. I think it is a great idea especial for those kids whose parents don't take them to the dentist etc. I remember having my eyes and teeth checked at school and of course the visit from the 'nit nurse' but I think that was it.

Yesterday we had the Sensei home visit, it must be knackering for the Sensei's, having to teach a full day and then go round to a handful of kids homes after school for 2 weeks. Anyway, I wasn't sure whether the Sensei would come in or stay in the genkan (entrance area), different friends said different things so I asked the mom down the road so at least I knew I had to clean the whole downstairs and not just the genkan!

Then there is the dilemma of should we serve tea and snack or not, they usually say don't offer anything but then is that rude and you are supposed to offer something anyway? I have no idea and neither does my husband so we followed the rules and didn't offer anything, I probably have a black mark by my name now. Oh well.

Anyway, everything seems to be fine, Ebi-kun is confident and enthusiastic and always helping his classmates. The only issue is with S-kun who keeps hitting him. When he first started another boy in the class was kicking him so my advice was that next time he kicked, Ebi-kun should grab hold of him and in his scariest voice tell the kid if he kicked him again he would tell Sensei. The tactic worked and they are now friends, I imagine it was the whole pecking order thing going on. Back to S-kun who sits in front of Ebi-kun, every day Ebi-kun comes home and complains S-kun has hit him, he tried the same tactic as he used with kicking boy but that didn't work, he has also told Sensei about it but that doesn't work either. 

After talking to Sensei it sounds like S-kun isn't good at controlling his emotions yet. What usually happens is that S-kun turns round and annoys Ebi-kun so Ebi-kun 'tells him off' and S-kun thumps him. So, Sensei has moved S-kun and we told Ebi-kun to just ignore him, hopefully it will sort it's self out.

I don't think this is a bullying instance but it is so easy to jump to that conclusion, especially when you only hear one side of the story. We have talked to Ebi-kun about bullies but not just what they do and why it is wrong but why they do it too, often it is learned behaviour and the child is not really to blame, I explained that the behaviour has to be stopped though before something really bad happens and so he is to tell me if anything happens.

Want to hear my bully story? 

When I was 11 I transferred to a new school and went straight into the 2nd year. One of the boys in my class was the school bully and he would pick out a kid and bully them until they cried and then move onto another kid, I didn't know this at the time. Anyway, we were in music class and the boy was sat behind me being really horrible, pulling my hair name calling etc. for the whole lesson. I turned round and told him to shut it or I would punch him - ripples of laughter from the back row boys (no one punched this kid). By the end of the lesson I was seriously pissed off so as we left, bully boy was stood in front of me, I tapped him on the shoulder then when he turned round I punched him as had as I could in the face. I said 'I warned you' and walked off, leaving him and his mates in silence. I also know that the teacher saw me do it but turned a blind eye.

The outcome, the boy never spoke to me again. He did end up getting expelled from high school for hitting a teacher with a chair or something like that. When I look back now, I wonder what was going on at home to make him turn out the way he did.

So, that is my bully story, do you have one to share?

mini lasagna cups...

The other day I picked up a pack of gyoza wrappers, I'm not sure why, gyoza is one of the very few things that Ebi-kun doesn't like, due to the texture, so it is something I never make. So, I posted the question of what to do with them on a FB group (Japan Friendly Recipes) and got back loads of suggestions, the first to try were mini lasagna.

I didn't have any minced meat so I cooked some chicken with onions then added tinned tomatoes and whizzed it up into a baby food type of mush. Then I set Ebi-kun to work.

1. Grease the muffin tin, I used a bit of olive oil. Pop a gyoza wrapper in each one.

2. Add a dollop of meat sauce and a dollop of ricotta (if you want to make your own, here is my recipe)

3. Add another wrapper to the top and another dollop of meat sauce. Finish with some cheese on top - this is when I discovered the only cheese I had left was 'plastic' cheese squares!

Stick in the oven for 20mins at 200c or until browned.

And they were delicious, I will definitely be making these again and I think they will probably become a go-to recipe for pot luck parties since they are easy to eat with your hands. I also think the same method would work well with a sweet filling, apple maybe..hmmmm

So, do you have any gyoza wrapper recipes to share? A long shot, I know!

The story of a bag....

A long, long time ago when I was a little girl of about 8 or 9 my best friends were a pair of sisters called Emma and Sally. Not only were we good friends but our parents were too, their dad worked for mine  and their mom was a school sewing teacher. As far as I remember she never taught be any sewing but she did make us three girls matching-but-different bags, we all had the same style but she picked out different fabric for each of us and what was super-cool was the bag was reversible, a two-for-one yeah!

I think the fact that bag was made for me and my friends had the same-but-different was what made the bag so special. Mine was a plain chocolaty brown on one side and a pretty brown flower design on the other. I used it for school until the day that my black cherry yoghurt exploded, making a right old mess and in the middle of summer it didn't smell to great either! I used a studier bag for school after that little incident and it put me off yoghurt for months.

Anyway, I was thinking I needed a new bag (my husband is rolling his eyes as he reads this!), one a bit smaller than my usual bag and something a bit summery so I decided to recreate my childhood bag. In essence it is a simple messenger bag with two pockets on each side. The polka dots are actually little apples on linen and the yellow side is teeny tiny polka dots and a bit of Heather Bailey? fabric for the flap.

I am afraid it is a bit wrinkly, my iron is on it's last legs and only works when it feels like it and then it is hit and miss if you get steam too! What have you been making recently?

My head might implode!

I want you to imagine a place full or artists, dancers, musicians, crafters, designers, steam punkers, glass blowers, jewelry designers, paper makers, potters, candle makers, soap makers throw in a good handful of  people in costume and a good sprinkling of nutters put them all under one roof in one of the coolest cities in the world and what do you have?

Design Festa!

This time last year was just a couple of months after the quake and it wasn't nearly as busy as yesterday, the stalls were sold out and there was creativity oozing from every section of the hall. I always enjoy watching the amazing creative live artists at work. Ebi-kun always likes looking out for the 'strange people' as he calls them, people in costume that is, yesterday there were plenty about and daddy ebi always enjoys sampling the imported real ale!

top left: photographer HAGIRI,
bottom right: Tawianese Artist Mr.Ogay

I don't have all the info to credit all the pictures I took, I have no idea who the yellow and green fellas are but Ebi-kun thought it was hysterical that their noses pulled off. What bemuses me that people people hand out their cards but then the web info on it is wrong, surely if you are there to network at least make sure your card info is up to date!

Anyway... there is an amazing array of handmade goodness going on, too much maybe, I can never decide what to buy and usually end up buying nothing - and regretting it by the time I get home.

top left: doop top right: glass asobi tom
bottom left: candy fish

There are a few stalls which I didn't think were suitable for Ebi-kun so we steered him away from there and there was a lot of just weird and wonderful stuff too which left you thinking why? or how? Art that makes you think!

top right Junklaw

I also love meeting lovely artists such as Chiaki, take a look at those pictures just above her head, they are silhouettes  but also beautiful fish. She explained that they are made using wax crayon then painted with black on top and then you scrap away the black. Something I did many times as a child and have done with Ebi-kun but she takes it to a whole new level.

Ebi-kun was drawn to any stall that had people showing off their skills such as the hanko maker and the woman carving a water melon - might have to try my hand at that which they come into season. And as if all that isn't enough there were also live performances ranging from fashion shows to dance inside and a rock stage outside

All in all it was a great day but my head was banging when I got home, too much creative stimulation in one go I think! 

So, what got your creative juices flowing this weekend?