Bal Masque

Some of you who lives in Northern countries actually celebrate Midsummer while it's just another day in wet season down here in Japan.  It's kind of funny since Midwinter is marked on the calender as one of the days of importance.  To be precise, Midsummer is marked as a day of importance on the calender but we do not celebrate or anything.  Perhaps everybody so hate winter and we all need a reminder spring will come eventually, before the weather becomes harsher (the coldest is February here).  

Anyway June in Japan is not a very nice month.  It's VERY WET.  It's either wet and chilly or wet and hot.  It's a transitional month before summer which is worse; July being hotter and humid and August being the hottest and more humid.  

It's not very comfortable to wear a mask in June in Japan (or any other summer month, for that matter) but if I were to attend a masquerade ball on Midsummer's night, then I would like one of these masques here and dress like Titania.  "The Merchant of Venice" is a mask maker whose web page I stumbled across years ago.  They do not update their web page very often, if ever, so after a few visits I stopped checking on it until about a month ago when I moved from Internet Explore to Firefox and thought it was a good idea to make sure all the bookmarks still worked.  The page still exists and I am glad for it but I doubt they have added any new mask since last time I visited their site.  I have not purchased any yet, but my favorite is a one called "succubus" which you can find in Gothic category.  I might one day place an order for it...

Happy Midsummer and enjoy the longest day of the year.

P.S.  I wonder it's also called a midsummer even in Southern hemisphere?

Pink in Bloom part III

This may not have been reported worldwide but on the day of one month anniversary after the earthquake and tsunami, Japan was hit by another big earthquake.  This time it was slightly smaller, magnitude 7.0, but still big enough.  I can only imagine, no, I cannot imagine how frightening it must have been for the people already suffered. 

In 869 A.D. on 13th July in Gregorian Calendar, the same area had been hit by the big earthquake, it's estimated as magnitude 8.3 (I have no idea how they estimate it, though) and the castle excavation site on the hill shows the watermark left by subsequent tsunami which tells how far the tsunami had reached inland and how high it had been, and the disaster and loss of people was recorded, too.  Although the death toll was one thousand in the record, the number just signifies the great number of people was lost and not a numerical accuracy I suppose.  This is said to be one of the biggest earthquake and tsunami in that area in the recorded history.  After over a millennium, we had a very similar disaster last month with 13,591 deaths and 14,497 still missing (as on 15th April, 2011).  Everyone knows what missing means at this late date, but we won't call it dead untill the body is recovered.  Would you please include us in your prayers?

The cherry blossoms will be gone soon.  It's spectacular when these little pink petals dance in the wind.  Please visit Beverly's How Sweet The Sound for more pink.   Wish you happy Pink Saturday.

pink in bloom part II

A tad late but cherry blossoms are in full bloom. The little flowers only last for a few days and they'll be all gone with wind. There is a saying that the flowers are beautiful because they will just go and don't linger...

We had another big aftershock the night before yesterday.  This one was quite big but no tsunami this time.  It has been nearly a month since the Big One.  With the help from all over the country as well as overseas, the things in the affected area have been improved a little.  Some of the towns affected had huge dikes, one of them being 10m in height, which should have withstood tsunami but they didn't.  Whether the affected area is suitable for human habitation remain unclear.

Beverly at How Sweet The Sound is hosting another Pink Saturday this weekend, too.  Please visit her blog and see how a bunch of us concentrate on something pink.  Wish you Happy Pink Saturday.

Time flies and farewell 2010

I had an end of the year luncheon with my mother and sister today and found this on the dish of hors d'oeuvre.  It says Time Flies and indeed it does.  Thank you for reading my blog posts this year and wish you and your family happy and prosperous 2011.

Flowers Up-date IV and thimble related mumblings

Here is the last of this year's peonies. It has been unusually chilly this year, we are still wearing woolen jackets and it's rather unusual for soon-to-be-May. However, we were able to enjoy the flowers longer.

This is my second latest thimble. It has been quite sometime since I last finished the thimble. I have been making a lot of base rings both for thimbles and pin cushions, but they are all for my shop and therefore have to be unfinished. I do not dislike making base rings so making them is not a core for me, but every time I got the fun part, i.e. stitching, I had to stop and it's not very enjoyable after awhile. It was good that I actually finished one for myself.

When I firstly explain how I make my thimble bases long time ago I believe I said that any slippery fabric, such as fancy shiny lining was not suitable because my thimbles were working tools and thimbles with slippery lining would not stay put on the finger. Well, I should have known better but when I stopped by at the craft shop the other day I found very beautiful and shiny satin bias bindings on a shelf. I walked past the shelf eyeing the tapes but had to come back and brought three packets in dusky pink, dark violet, and dark olive to the check out counter. They are cupro, very shiny and very pretty. I told myself that I had enough thimbles, so much so I could sell, so I could make purely decorative ones, too, just so I could admire them. Why not, indeed. Since I haven't proudly posted the finished one, you can safely suppose it didn't turn out favorable. First of all, it's so slippery that I was not able to wrap the base mould with it tightly enough. I somehow managed it and then wrap the core paper around it and turned the edge of the bias binding over, and it was simply a disaster. Cupro bias bindings, at least the ones I bought, are woven looser and the edge of the tape frayed easily and it just didn't work at all. Now I have to figure out how I can use up all three packets of bias bindings...

Flowers Up-date III

It has been a bit chilly recently. Unusual, since it's normal that the temperature goes up to around 20 degrees C while it has been around 15 degrees. However, as a result we are able to enjoy the flowers longer, can't complain.

Most of the flowers are already gone but there are still a few buds left.

*** shop update ***

The medium size pin cushion making material sets are now available in these colours. The finished size is about 42-45cm (a little smaller than 2 inches) and takes about 3-4 hours to finish. They are (naturally) bigger than small pin cushion and they are made with bigger silk threads, too, so they are especially good if you found small pin cushion was too small to work upon. You can jump from here for a quick peek ...

Share Your Thimbles April 2010 closed & Flowers Follow-up II

We had 8 people and 20 thimbles/rings this month including two people who shared their very first thimbles. Now it's time for a lucky draw!

The winner is number 4, ludovic XIV, who shared her lovely ring in blue and metallic stripes. ludovic XIV, please send me an e-mail for shipping address, you can do so from my profile page.

I have received enquiries from time to time where to find some thimble design patterns. I am regret to tell you all that there is virtually no free on-line design sources, even in Japanese. There are a few web pages (in Japanese) which shows you how to make thimbles but the only one available design is bi-coloured scales design and you all know how to make it. Debi from Temari Train ... of Thought kindly shares her diagrams and explanations so you might want to check in on her blog.

I suppose most of the Japanese people who are interested in thimble making may firstly look up online and make their first thimbles, then go buy the books for further designs. The below two books are the most popular;

"Kagano Yubinuki" ISBN 978-4140311400

"Kagano Yubinukito Hanatemari" ISBN 978-4837703082

The latter book features both temari and thimbles so it's useful for temari design sources, too, however, you need to be aware that the way the author tells you to insert a needle is from the edge toward the center while I do it the other way around, that is, from the centre toward the edge. If you are familiar with the way I do, you may find it confusing. The way she represents the design on a diagram is different, I suppose because of the way she make stitches. However, it's a great book none the less. Needless to say, both books are in Japanese.

I created links so that you could jump to Amazon Japan who ships overseas but their shipping charge is extremely costly because they only ship by courier service. I would suggest you firstly try your local bookshop or online auctions, search key words being "kaga" and "yubinuki". If you cannot find a book(s) at reasonable shipping charge, I may be able to help you. If you are interested, please leave a comment in a way so that I can contact with you, like leaving a link to your blog, web page, or profile page from where I can send an e-mail to you.

Now, peonies update.

The Blogger and I are still not on a very friendly term where uploading the large pixels photos is concerned. I took the photo this morning and I had to squeeze it to about a quater,and as a result the photo does not convey how delicate these petals look, like below.

Flowers Follow-up I

Just have to share these two with you...

Flowers of the Month

Long time readers may remember my obsession with peonies. In Japan peonies are in bloom in May, although for some unknown reasons, mine always start unfurling petals in the middle of April.

Here is another picture I took this morning. There should be a picture of cherry blossoms here and I did take some pictures last week, but it seems that I misfiled them and cannot find them :(

*** shop update ***

Thank you for your feed back about pin cushion making kits I previously talked about. They are available now at my shop here. Please note that they do not include any instruction therefore it may not for you if you have never made a thimble/ring yet.

World of Pink - roses

Peonies are long gone, but there are still pink roses...

I have finally figured out how to reduce the pixels without hacking the pictures. So, here whole roses instead of a itsy-bitty part of them.

However, I still like something like this, too, a kind of magical, I think.

Soon, it will be time for hydrangea ...

World of Pink - Last Peony

This is the picture of the last peony this year. The Blogger says I can upload rather big sized pictures however, it doesn't allow me more than 500 pixels wide pic. Therefore I had to trim those peony pictures drastically. When I firstly trimmed it approximately to a quarter in width I had my doubt but now I think I like the result of the trimming of flower pictures. It gives the trimmed picture somehow artistic flare don't you think?

World of Pink

There are still five buds to go. I will update with them next weekend. Thank you.

Oh my peonies...

It's now officially spring in my garden.

Cherry Blossoms over the Stream

Spring is now in full swing and Japanese people love their cherry blossoms. To be honest, it's kind of crazy that they love these small blossoms so much that the weather forecasts gives daily reports on them :)


Above is a picture I took the day before yesterday. However, half the flowers will be gone over the weekend and by the middle of the next week most of them bone, too. It's really dramatic when those small petals fall and dance with the wind. You have to actually see it to understand why Japanese loves cherry blossoms so much.