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Category Archive: other than knitting

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

February 5th, 2013

I try hard not to be addicted to knitting, but it’s difficult to leave my needles and knitting design ideas to one side!

However, I decided that I needed a break and so my current project is an adorable Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt. Only something special can tear me away from my knitting needles and this quilting kit is the perfect project to keep my hands busy with something other than wool!

a very hungry caterpillar quilt

This is my first quilt project and I’m really enjoying tackling another type of creative and practical handcraft! I bought this kit from one of the stands at Knitting & Stitching Show 2 years ago for about £30 (I think it was from Cotton Patch). Initially I thought it might be a little expensive but now that I have started, I think it is worth every penny because it’s very satisfying to see the cute Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt picture/design progress and I just can’t wait to see the finished article. I don’t mind getting another kit again.

The only problem is the backing, because I’m not sure what to use for this. Can I use flannel for the backing or should I use a normal cotton fabric? All advice emails will be read with gratitude!

Anyway, I’ve been looking through some other items on the ‘A Very Hungry Caterpillar’ site. The range of fabrics from Eric Carle Museums is amazing – just looking at them gives me new ideas! Here’s a tiny sample to whet your quilting or sewing appetite!
Candles Fabric

I also found a nice craft idea for making a Very Hungry Caterpillar party invitation cards from Pottery Barn Kids.

caterpillar invitations

And finally here is Eric Carle himself reading the wonderful book!

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Hungry Caterpillar & Afternoon Tea

July 2nd, 2012

So it’s Monday. The new week! In a way I am glad that it is a new week because it has been a bit of a roller coaster couple weeks for me. I thought I would talk about my new series in Simply Knitting but since I have been writing lots about my work on the blog, I will do this in the next post. Today I would like to write about slightly other things.

afternoontea

When I came to the UK over 20 year ago, I was looked after by a Japanese couple as a guardian. To date they are the warmest, kindest and respectful people that I know. They are like my family to me and I love them very much. This year they are moving back to Japan for good and I just miss them so much! The thing is that it is not the end of the world and I can still see them over there. But it also means that I won’t be able to see them as often as before. So last week, I organised a surprise afternoon tea for them just before they fly back. The weather was beautiful and we reminisced our lives together. I will take their kind heart with me and be OK because there are so many wonderful people like you in the world!

hungry_caterpillar_quilt

Some of you might be surprised to see some fabric in the world of CC! I am going to start making a quilt (wwwooot!?) for my nephew. I recently found that one of my nephews have a very rare genetic condition. All of us knew there was something not quite right about him but we never imagined that it is genetic. It was a strange feeling for me because while I was relieved to know what was the cause of all this and to know the right management of it, to see a child going through it and how brave he is, it is imaginable feelings. So I thought I would make a bright quilt for him because he likes the Hungry Caterpillar.

Meanwhile I continue to knit (apart from the above odd quilting project LOL) and I realised once again how much I love knitting and the comfort I get from working stitch by stitch. Right now I am finalising some of the new patterns. I just can’t wait to show you the finished items.

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Diamond Jubilee Weekend

June 4th, 2012

So it was a very historical weekend for Britain. I am honoured to be able to experience Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with everyone in the UK!
I was briefly visiting Framlingham, a very beautiful English countryside in Suffolk before the weekend. All the shops and houses had Union Jack flags and it was so lovely.

I even found a knitted Queen displayed at the show window of an optician. I was inspired.

The weather was terrible. I was drenched, but the atmosphere was amazing and we had a fantastic time cheering for the Queen.

We were very lucky to be able to get into the area and I could see the Queen!

Royal Pageant

We all supported and cheered. It reminded me once again why I love living in the UK.

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Two Long Weekends

May 4th, 2011

I hope you all had wonderful long weekends including Easter It’s been an eventful two weeks for me – good weather, Royal Wedding, food poisoning and broken internet. Two weeks has just passed without blogging!! Luckily, my husband was off last week so he could look after me while I was ill.

Just behind Borough Market.

We didn’t go out anywhere as he had to stay at home to study for an exam, it was nice to walk around the local area for new discoveries.

My fist time being on the bridge when the barrier was up.

I met an invisible man too.

A new furry friend at Clink Street. He is raising money for his furry friends.

We also saw pirates of Carribean.

In the end, Kumo just wanted Wesley to stop studiying.

Meanwhile, I am still knitting. I am hoping to be able to show you something next week!

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London Marathon 2011

April 19th, 2011

We watched London marathon on Sunday. In the morning, the Tower Bridge was already full of people. It was estimated that around 10am the men’s elite will pass the Bridge and there they were. SO FAST!!!!! There were so many people running. Well done everyone!

London Marathon Mens Elite

You may not be able to see it well but the person who is running right at the back (with the green top) actually won the race (2 hours and something.. amazing!).

The weather was so nice and there were sooooo many people!

tower bridge at mile 11

Passing the Tower Bridge is mile 11 and coming back to Tower Bridge is mile 22 (I think). This meant that we were able to see these runners twice.

big pink nurse

At mile 22, I can see people completely exhausted. Here are some of the fun charity runners. It must have been so hard for Rob (above in Pink Nurse costume) to run all the way!

fried egg

This one is my personal favourite.

gorilla

The gorilla came pretty early on in the race so he must have been a very good runner considering the weather was so hot on that day.

I have been so inspired by those who did the run on Sunday. There were quite a few Japanese runners who were running for Tsunami relief. I cheered for them in Japanese and some of them waved back at me which was very nice.

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Welcome to My New Crib

January 11th, 2011

A very Happy New Year to you everyone!

It’s been a chaotic, but very exciting first week of 2011 for the world of C&C. Last Saturday we have finally moved into our new home! Thank you so much to my friends who helped us move. Without their help, we wouldn’t have made it! I have so far spent two days solid to tidy up the place. It’s still messy but I think we are winning Here are the images of before and after the kitchen!

This was how the kitchen was originally. Not at all my taste...

After the refurbishment. It's an IKEA kitchen and I love it!

Things are all over the place at the moment but Kumo and Wata are both helping me tidy up the place

Living in zone 1 of London is a little different because there is a less sense of community. This means we will have to make our effort to meet up with our friends and make new ones. On the other hand, there is a wonderful atmosphere around where we are. There are all sorts of London’s landmarks, restaurants and cafe. I can’t wait to explore more!

Shad Thames' cobble stone street.

Tower Bridge at night.

More important issue is whether Kumo and Wata like the place. So far, they seem to have settled in well but still trying to figure out their own corners.

More to come from C&C from the new hub (LOL!).

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How to Persuade…An Egg Issue

November 9th, 2010

My knitting going really well. Right now I have 4 projects going on: one for The Knitter magazine, the other for my new patterns

So excited about this one. I had another project to show you but the photo came out bad so I will show you next time.

What’s not going well is that I have been struggling to persuade my mother-in-law to buy free-range eggs… Every time an egg appears in front of our eyes, we have a “discussion” about it. Tonight, though, I think I made a progress. She said that she will when she next goes to a supermarket. I do hope this will continue even after we move out…

Why are battery eggs still on sale in shops? I don’t know… Meanwhile, I am knitting away planning on my “egg strategy”…

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A Cheap Nanny

July 28th, 2010

When I was a school girl, I used to wish the day will pass quickly so that I could go back to Japan to see my family. Now, I wish the day to be longer as I have far too many things I want to do.

Time never used to be money for me, but now I am trying to use up every seconds to a full extent.

This month is particularly busy because Wesley and I have decided to have a last minute wedding this year. In fact it’s this weekend….! So I do apologise for scarce posting and commenting. I never realised that even a very small wedding (with the closest family and friends only) it takes a lot to organise it. Thankfully, all I need to do now is to fetch my dress (!) tomorrow. I will be posting photos soon.

Please note that any orders purchased between 30th July to 9th August will only be dispatched on 10th August. All the downloads will be as normal.

August will not just end with my wedding though. I am also flying back to Japan at the end of the month. This is another last minute decision. Unfortunately my nephew and niece who are 5 and 2, respectively both have severe asthma. My niece especially has been in and out of the hospital frequently. Their mum (my sister) is expecting her third baby in any minute and she won’t be able to move so easily anymore. Her husband is working long hours, my other sister is with her small baby, my mum being unwell, and it’s very expensive to get a home helper…

… which left my sister just me. It’s a long way to go and I have so much to do, but nothing can replace my family so I am going there for 3 1/2 weeks to look after my nephew and niece. I hope to explore some Japanese knit scene and will blog while I am there too. I have never stayed in Japan this long so it will be very exciting.

The shop will be running partially. I will be dispatching items from Japan so a temporary shipping rate will be applied during this period.

Just before I go, I thought I will share with you a nice cuddly pic of K & W.

Anyhow, I will try to post my last minute preparation on Friday / Saturday Until then, have a cool week!

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Birthday – The Aftermath

May 25th, 2010

Good morning! Thank you so much for all your wonderful birthday wishes. I was very touched I had a great time (although there was a moment of migraine attack). Now, after just under a week of chilling out in general, I am back in the blog land proper.

Today I would like to show you some of the photos taken on my birthday. I made a Genoise birthday cake (from River Cottage Every Day
recipe) topped with lots of strawberries. It really was a success.

So super kindly, my friends got me a proper birthday cake as they thought I shouldn’t make my own BD cake and put candles hehe. It was a little bit of a hard work blowing the candles… Wesley helped me a little towards the end (was he supposed to?). Can you see behind me in the photo that Wata is very subtly waiting to see if there are any food that he could eat from the table?

Since I have a mountain full of knitting books, this year I was give lots of baking books. Andrew and Angela gave me Bourke Street Bakery (BTW, this books is really amazing and I can’t wait to bake something from this book).

Wesley gave me lots of running gears. They are all very useful and this has equipped me properly for next week’s run Now I can listen to my iPhone while running and drink my special energy water using this doughnut bottle!

A couple of days later I noticed that I had a post from my Japanese friend. Lots of goodies!

Usually Kumo steals Wata’s toy but this time Wata got to the new toy first. Now it’s his and he is really proud and happy. Thank you so much for all your kind heart. Both my cats and I had a wonderful day…

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Talented People

May 12th, 2010

It’s been sooooo cold here in London. I have seriously started to think about knitting myself a new pair of gloves…

Anyway, today, I would like to talk about some of the crafty ventures and creations by talented people. I think it is wonderful that there are more independent crafty business around the world. As much as I support my own, I would like to help their business flourish. One of the means of doing this is by me blogging about them.

My blog friend Alice has started a new craft business called Backstitch. It is where you can buy lovely fabrics, sewing patterns and kits. There is a Backstitch blog where you can read people’s review about the sewing patterns. I seriously recommend you to check it out!

Also I would like to mention Atelie Retalho Chic from Brazil. This is Mary’s shop where you can buy patchwork and sewing materials. There are courses and workshops you can attend. I am particularly interested in Forração de Caixa which is like fabric decoupage on a box.

I just could not resist but to get this gorgeous tomato pouch.

Onto creations. I just have to tell you about this cute tomato pouch made by Dinky Daisy from her Folksy Shop. I don’t eat raw tomatoes and this has been the case since I was a child. But I do know tomatoes are so good for you with lots of lycopnenes etc. so I have recently started to eat more of them. When I saw this pouch, I knew it was something that I had to get in order to motivate myself to eat more tomatoes. I just love their smiley faces!

I do spin but not as good as Linda's above (mine is more like random blobs).

I have recently won a skein of handspun from Linda at Leafgreen Knits. It’s a great yarn – so bouncy and lovely handspun texture. I do love the welcoming apricot colour and I am thinking of making a pair of fingerless gloves (may be a mitten if I have enough).

Thank you for all your wonderful creativity!

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