Sunday, July 26, 2009

*27th Birthday*

tako9

"Welcome to my Pink Penguin Blog."

tako10

"On July 23rd in 2009, ayumills turned.."

tako11

"27!"

Being 27 is a big deal to me. When I was 18 living in Tokyo,
I met someone who was 27. To me she was a perfection.
She was my co-worker at a dental office who taught me
all the tasks. I thought she was so much better than me
in every single way. She was so mature, so smart, so nice,
so beautiful, so creative, and so humble. I often compared
myself to her and got frustrated in the gap.
"Don't worry, you'll be like her by the time you're 27"
is the only thing I could tell myself to cheer me up.

So now what. I turned 27, didn't I?
Am I like her? Hmm.....Nope.

I am pretty much the same. Nothing changed except
that I like how I am now. I don't try to be a
different person anymore. I have come to the point
where I can embrace who I am. Now that I think about it,
maybe it was confidence that she had that made her
look so cool to me. She was happy to be who she was
unlike me who didn't even know to accept myself as it is.

I am really happy.
I am very lucky to be me.
Hopefully, this realization made me a little mature.

tako1

I had a fabulous birthday.
We had a Takoyaki party at my place.
Takoyaki is my favorite food ever!

tako3

Takoyaki is basically octopus balls.
In each of the sphere ball, there is a little piece of
octopus inside. It originally comes from Osaka, Japan.
You'll find a whole bunch of Takoyaki street vendors there.

tako2

Cooking Takoyaki is as fun as actual-eating.
It keeps everyone busy!


tako8

This is a birthday gift from my sister.
Sweet citrus jelly. Oh how crazy I am about it.

tako5

These are from my friend Vy.
I've wanted mini towels like these!!
Great choice! Vy!

tako6

From my friend Sachiko in Japan.
She always sends me lovely birthday gifts.

tako7
From my friend Victoria.
I was so jealous that she had gone to the craft
fair in San Francisco a few weeks ago!
What a surprise she was getting yummy goodies for me!

tako4

Joe got me the sewing scissor and the ruler.
The mini iron is from our friend Saurabh!
I am so excited to use these!!

Patchwork Drawstring Bag

This is a patchwork drawstring bag I made for my
Scottish friend who shares the same birthday as me!
Happy Birthday, AJ! I figured she likes green,
so I used several different kids of green fabrics.
I sent her this bag along with the magazine Stitch.

Speaking of Stitch, there was another thing that
made my 27th birthday more special. On July 22nd here
(July 23rd in Japan - my technical birthday),
I received an e-mail that made me teary in joy.
I want to keep this a secret until you find out..!!!


Thanks for coming and reading!!

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Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sunday Stash

sunday1

I thought I'd play along Sunday Stash to introduce
my precious vintage fabric collections today.

sunday3

Having no car, I can't really rely on yard-saling for vintage
stuff search, so my vintage fabric stash comes mostly from ebay/etsy shopping.

sunday2

All these came together as a set of Pink feedsack scraps.
I adore them so much. Some fabric - I buy it so that I can
make something out of it. Some fabric - I get it just because
looking at it and knowing that I own it makes me smile ;)





patchwork bag

Thank you so much for sweet comments on my
patchwork bag! It has been listed in my shop.

(If you let me know that you came from this blog
in the note to the seller, I'd like to include
three different small pieces of cute Japanese fabric ;))


Thanks for coming and reading!



Friday, July 10, 2009

Patchwork Tote Bag again ;)

patchwork bag

I made this bag about a month ago and have wanted to
show it here, because I really love how it turned out.
Each fabric is one of my favorite stash.

patchwork bag

This is the other side. For this side, I used gray fabric
with white polka dots instead of the shocking pink fabric.
A little difference makes a pretty big difference, doesn't it?
Either way, I love it *smile*

The denim fabric for the exterior handles comes from
my recycled jeans.


bag

It might be kinda hard to see, but this side I used
bright yellow thread to quilt, and the other side
was done with soft pink thread. I really enjoy this
parallel quilting and always used white thread but
this time I decided to be a little more open-minded
and adventurous by using different colors' one.
It was fun ;)


fab

I'm sure we all go through this but my fave stashes
change all the time. At this moment, I love fabric
like these: fabric consisting of no more than two colors.
I still like bold, vibrant colors but am not too
crazy about busy-looking fabric. I haven't been to
fabric stores for a long time. I hope I'll see fabric
like this next time I go there ... ;) Wish me luck!


Joe and I are going to San Francisco tomorrow.
We have been such stubborn homebodies.
Staying home is nice, but sometimes I just need
to get out, appreciate this awesome weather, and have fun.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

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Thanks for coming and reading!



Thursday, July 9, 2009

Handmade Stamps from Japan

Beach Field Stamps

Beach Field Stamps
(Photos borrowed from BeachField)

Some of you who looked at my last post asked me whether
you can get hands on the stamps designed by ako of Beach Field.
When I told her that her stamps are getting lots of attention here,
she was super delighted and said she would absolutely LOVE to let
her stamps go global!

I really like to share things I got from Japanese little online
shops in this blog, but it always made me sad to find out that
those shops were often, very often, reluctant to accept paypal/credit
card payment and/or to ship internationally. The language barrier is a
part of it too. It made me the saddest when you excitingly contacted me
to ask if you can purchase those and my answer was 'no'.

I've helped some people personally, being an intermediary between
a shop in Japan and a buyer in America, or the other way around.
It was nice to be able to help, but every time the transaction
happened I wished I could do for many more people at the same time:
Buying a bunch from Japan all at once and send individual packages
from here so that you can save money on shipping.

So, I am really excited to announce that this time, I want
to make the collective purchase happen! If you can let me know
how many of which stamps you want, I'll order yours with mine.
As soon as the package arrives here, I'll send yours to you from here, California.

These stamps are designd by ako of Beach Field whose crafty blog
places No.1 in Handmade Stamp Blog Ranking in Japan. Her stamps
are only available in Japan at this moment, but like I said,
she wants her stamps to travel to many countries.
The manufacturer of the stamps confirmed with me that
there is no upper limit as to quantities to be ordered,
so if you're interested, take this opportunities to get
these super kawaii stamps this time.

This is how it works.
1) Send me an e-mail letting me know what you want to order.
2) I'll get back to you within 24 hours with a total cost
including shipping. (Here, shipping means shipping from California
to where you live. The prices of the stamps given below already
include shipping from Japan to the USA. So if you are someone
living in the US and ordering a few small stamps, it will be
like $2 plus the cost for your items. For shipping to other countries,
I would need to find out, but I'd be more than willing
to send your packages internationally.)
3) You send me a payment via paypal/check/money order by
July 25th. I'll place an order on that day.
4) The package arrives here
5) I'll notify you and send your items to you.

Anyway, it was too much blah blah blah..
Let me now show you the cute stamps!

Beach Field Stamps
Beach Field Stamps
Beach Field Stamps

These stamps from No.1 to No.15 are $3.80 USD each.
Each stamp measures 0.6" x 0.6" x 2.4" (15mm x 15mm x 60mm).


$12 USD. Measurement:1" x 1.8" x 1"(25mm x 45mm x 25mm).



$17 USD. Measurement:1.8" x 2" x 1"(45mm x 50mm x 25mm).


$8.40 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 1.6" x 1"(30mm x 40mm x 25mm).


$26 USD. Measurement:2.2" x 4.1" x 1"(55mm x 105mm x 25mm).


$13 USD. Measurement:1.4" x 2.4" x 1"(35mm x 60mm x 25mm).


$15.50 USD. Measurement:1.6" x 2.4" x 1"(40mm x 60mm x 25mm).


$15.50 USD. Measurement:1.8" x 2.2" x 1"(45mm x 55mm x 25mm).


$8.40 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 1.8" x 1"(30mm x 45mm x 25mm).


$16.50 USD. Measurement:1.4" x 3.1" x 1"(35mm x 80mm x 25mm).


$15.60 USD. Measurement:1.6" x 3.1" x 1"(40mm x 80mm x 25mm).


$8.40 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 1.4" x 1"(30mm x 35mm x 25mm).


$7.20 USD. Measurement:1" x 1.2" x 1"(25mm x 30mm x 25mm).


$7.20 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 1.4" x 1"(30mm x 35mm x 25mm).


$13.20 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 3.1" x 1"(30mm x 80mm x 25mm).


$8.40 USD. Measurement:1" x 1.8" x 1"(25mm x 45mm x 25mm).


$9.20 USD. Measurement:1" x 2.2" x 1"(25mm x 55mm x 25mm).


$15.60 USD. Measurement:2" x 2" x 1"(50mm x 50mm x 25mm).


$10.80 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 2.4" x 1"(30mm x 60mm x 25mm).

If you're interested, e-mail at ayumi_seattle at hotmail dot com
or leave a comment under this post letting me know what you
want to order and your e-mail address. And please remember that
July 25th is the deadline. This may be the only time I can do
this, so please make sure to let me know by July 25th.


Thanks for coming and reading!