What a great idea

My mom was telling me about a family friend, Shirley. She has two grown up daughters who have decided that for Christmas they are only allowed to spend ten pounds per person, that is already a great idea BUT they also added the condition that they are only allowed to spend the money at charity shops! Apparently Shirley's grand daughters have already had some great finds, it would be interesting to se what they found. Sadly, we can't do this in Japan, as there are no charity shops!

Talking of shops, we had to go into town yesterday to pick up some bits and bobs. I don't like shopping with Ebi-kun in tow, it takes me three times longer to get it done but I do like having lunch with him. Ebi-kun LOVES trying new cafes and new food. I admit, I usually only pick places where I can read the menu - so if it is a kanji heavy menu, I give it a miss, I don't eat fish and even if you tell the waiting staff this, they don't class shrimp, clams, anchovies etc. as fish! Anyway, yesterday we spotted a new place, the menu was in French and Japanese so we decided to give it a go - I should note here that I don't speak French either but I reckoned I could make an educated guess.

We had a lovely lunch with French toast in a big salad which came with 4 fancy dressings, Ebi-kun couldn't decide which one so, I put a bit of each and he dip-dipped his salad in them and we had a side dish of gorgonzola potatoes. They were quite strong so I wasn't sure if he would like them, but he wolfed them down. When we had finished he thanked the chef and told him it was delicious. I just love the fact that we can eat out properly and not have to resort to the likes of Mcdonalds.

The lovely Jackie AKA Mee A Bee has given me a Kreative Blogger award, Thank you. I am also keeping the promise I made to myself last time, so thank you again and let's leave it at that!

awards

I would like to thank United Teaching and Leptir for giving me the

and Green V-Neck for the Kreativ Blogger award

Conditions of this award:
- Tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true. Tag ten people with the award, and be sure to let them know they have been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do). Don't forget to link back to the blogger who tagged you.

I am too busy/lazy to do this over three times so here are my 10... (pick which award you would like!)

1. Jacqui at Blooming In Japan
2. Emma at Bagladee
3. Yoshiko at British H
4. Andrea at My Beady Eye
5. Mai at Mairuru
6. Kristel at vlijtig
7. Heather at shinshu life
8. Ezme's mommy at moziesme
9. Sarah at paper-and-string
10. Emma and Rachel at That Little Bit Greener

Go and check them out, they are all great!

and 10 things about me....

1. I am ambidextrous
2. I sleep on my left
3. I really don't like the summer
4. I have a complete inability to follow written instructions!
5. I don't eat fish, except for tinned in water tuna
6. I am allergic to lavender
7. I am usless at languages
8. I know how to weld
9. If I won the lotto I would travel to every country (possible) in the world
10. I really don't like doing these things...

I say this to myself every time but now I am making it official, I am not going to join the award giving anymore. Of course, I love receiving awards but then I get stressed out about the follow up post - hence taking me so long to reply to these then combining them. I have just spend well over an hour doing this post, time I could have used more wisely but then if I didn't do it I would feel guilty - no win situation. So, to save myself time and stress I will bow out gracefully now....

Guess what?

Yep, this is post 500! Quite a milestone I think. When I first started this blog it was for friends and family to see what we were up to, the progress with the house (we were building at the time) and Ebi-kun's adventures. I never imagined the direction it would take me, the friends I have made, all over the world, the things I have learned and the confidence you gave me to go ahead and open the Etsy shop. In some respects it has been a life changer, I thought that the only way I would ever be able to make an income in Japan would be by teaching E.S.L. and as much as I enjoyed it at the time, it isn't really my idea of a career choice. Discovering the blogging world introduced me to some fabulous people and I realised that with a bit of hard work and the power of the internet, I did have more than one career choice.

Over the last couple of years I have gratefully received some awards and I must thank MiniMondas, rhymesandmore and Clemencia for giving me this award.

I get stressed trying to decide who to pass these things on to, I am not the best decision maker at the best of times so instead of passing on the award (is all my hair going to fall out and I will grow hairy warts for not keeping it going?) I am asking every one who reads thins to promise to post a comment on the next blog post you read and enjoy, just a quick hello and tell the blogger how much you enjoyed the post, that includes those who lurk! I know you are out there :o). If you are feeling really inspired you can always take the pledge.

Well, 500 posts is definitely worth a cake and a giveaway. I actually haven't organised anything yet because I only realised it was post 500 yesterday, so I will carve a rubber stamp for the winner, something special and include some other goodies - it will be like a birthday surprise, you will have no idea what you are getting. I will wait until I know who the winner is so that I can fit the prize to the winner.

So, to get your hands on the loot, pop over to my little shop and tell me what your favourite item is, either fabric or something I have made and come back and tell me in the comments section.

For extra entries you can tweet about it, then leave another comment to say you tweeted.

And/Or blog about it again leave another comment and a link to the post.

I will close the entries the evening of the 22nd and pick a random winner the next morning (Japan time)

Right, I am off to eat cake, sadly not as cute as this one...

image belongs to cakejournal via Flickr

Thank You!

To Christie at Sweet Tidings and Sarah In The Woods for giving me these awards, it is always great to know that people enjoy your blog.

Now, I am supposed to nominate some more blogs for the award but I am a bit pushed for time and when I have done this before it always takes me forever to pick which ones to nominate and so....

If you have me in your blog reader consider yourself nominated for the Lemonade Stand award and if you follow me either with blogger or twitter, you are awarded the Kreativ Blogger award.

Congratulations!

I have just got back from Ikea and I am shattered, will be back after some sleep....

All good things come in 3s

and here is number 3!

Thank you to Jennifer AKA Montessori Mama, a blog I love not only for her creative ideas and all the things that she shares but also for her blunt, honest posts.

Here's what I've gotta do:
The rules are:
- List six things that inspire my creativity
- Pass the award on to 6 more kreativ bloggers
- Link back to the person who gave you the award
- Link to the people you are passing it on to and leave them a comment to let them know.

1. Living in a foreign country, there is always something new catching my eye.
2. Other peoples blogs, often ideas are sparked by something I have seen on the net.
3. My son
4. The great outdoors, design ideas often come to me when we are in the park.
5. books - especially kids storybooks, so many great illustrators out there.
6. window shopping in zakka stores

Now the hard part, who to pass it on to, I am trying to stick to the rule that I am giving them to people who I haven't given one to before....

1. The Crafty Crow (have you checked out the Monday Give-aways?)
2. Her Cup overfloweth (MTD queen)
3. Gray Family Circus.
4. crafting a green world
5. Croqzine
6. jumping overboard

So go and check them out, they all inspire me in very different ways, as always it is a mixed bag of blogs :o)

Yesterday was a much better day, thank you for all your well wishes. We don't know what causes his nose bleeds, he gets them all year rounds, weather isn't a factor. The doctor said, as long as the blood clots, not to worry and he will probably grow out of it, which is probably right since my brother and my mom had the same thing when they were kids.

The Japanese say nose bleeds are caused by too much peanuts and chocolate, he doesn't eat peanuts and only a small amount of chocolate (and if chocolate was a cause I would be having the nose bleeds, not him :o) )

Be sure to pop back tomorrow, I have discovered the bestest give-away thingy. Not only a give-away on my blog but LOTS of them. I have my Japanese class today so you will just have to wait and see what I am am waffling about....

whoo-hoo another award!

Lovely Emma the bagladee has given me an award....

5 Addictions...

1. Making stuff, any stuff, I have to making something all the time.
2. Fabric - need I say more?
3. Chocolate, if it is in the house, I will eat it!
4. My Mac (the computer type not a coat)
5. Life On Mars - which has just started showing here and I am hooked.

and now for my 5 nominations...

1. Tricia Rennea Art
2. Stevens happy Accidents
3. WhiMSy Love
4. fon.ne.tic.lee speaking
5. Clare Corner

All fab people in their own way, go check them out and have course go and have a mooch around Emma's pad, I am sure she won't mind :o).

Another Award to start off the New Year

Nino's Mum at The Nino Effect had given me an award and it is a lovely one at that.

About the award: This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!

I love the bloggy world and the fact that it has put me in contact with so many wonderful people. I have found friends who have the same ideas and interests and learned so much about other peoples cultures and lifestyles.  Now is the hard part, just picking 8 to pass the award on to, quite a challenge since I have over 100 in my reader. Although it would be easy to hand out awards to the same ole folk, I have decided that these winners will not have recieved an award from me before, it is a bit of a mix, you will be flitting all over the world, so get you passport at the ready, so, in no particular order...

itty bitty love. A Montessori teacher, this time from Montana, USA who shares an interesting mix of school and home.

La Paz Home Learning. A home schooling mom in Alaska who shares her ideas and home schooling life, I love all the posts about life in Alaska, it seems like a different world from where I am, check out the post with her son throwing a saucepan of water off the porch.

MoziEsme another blogger form another corner of the world, blogging from Mozambique, Little Ezme has a lot to say on the subject of home-schooling and the exciting things she gets up to.

Jo in Japan. Now, Jo is a real life friend but I met her through the internet we both used to hang at the Thorntree. She tells it as it is, makes friends where ever she goes and loves learning about new cultures. She also has to come and pick this award up, in person, at my house...when she gets back from India that is.

Sweet Tidings a whole lot of cuteness and I am a sucker for cute! This is a blog to turn to when you need inspiration.

Nor at Mommy2H is in the same boat as myself, bringing up boys in Japan using Montessori at home. I finally got to meet Nor in real life and she is lovely, she also has files to share, pop over and have a look.

Julie K in Taiwan always has her kids doing something interesting with a bit of culture learning from Taiwan it is always an interesting read.

Sycamore Stirrings I started reading this blog when I stumbled onto Muffin Tin Dinners now I love to catch up on new family adventure as they set up life in Luxemburg and the ups and downs that come with re-locating overseas.