A Wall & some distractions.

We have left these houses & our own real house to go climb a wall.

Climbing a wall : It has always been my dream to bring our kids to China, as they are also part Chinese. My husband & I have been to Beijing a number of times, way back before we had the kids & also before we know each other. This will be the first time we are there, as a complete family.

This week is our autumn break so when you are reading this.....we will be in Beijing, climbing the Great Wall of China (长城/万里长城 Wàn Lǐ Cháng Chéng) !

The Great Wall, built over 2000 years ago, stands for the wisdom, tenacity & spirit of the Chinese people. I was pretty emotional the first time I stood on that Wall, one spring day, many years ago.

Legends of the Great Wall : Many died during the construction & they were buried under it. These "convenient" burials save funeral expenses, save building materials (good, environment friendly bones) & also, bones help "deep fertilize" the wall, making the roots of plants go deep, thus protecting the Great Wall foundations. And I thought roots would wreck foundations but what do I know!

Most all, according to Chinese beliefs : the spirits of those who died for the Great Wall, made it stronger. The Wall is 6400 Kilometres, about 4000 miles long.

And contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall cannot be seen from the moon. It is hardly recognizable from 65,617 feet high. It is totally invisible at a height of 196,850 feet, not to mention from a space ship whose orbital altitude is on average 1,312,333 feet high. So sadly, to say that an astronaut can see the Great Wall is merely an exaggeration.

Click HERE, to see a dizzy 360 degree

panoramic view of the Great Wall.

Sewing : While preparing for this trip, we were sidetracked so many times! I am in the middle of an exciting swap with a fabulous crafty blogger-mom (hi Laurie!) & as she wished for Japanese fabric scraps, I had to start organising my messy lots of scraps.

While sorting, we were so distracted by the colours & made these patchwork items instead of packing. And now, we have new colourful cushion covers to replace the boring old yellow ones, more fabric houses & other cheerful things!

A special time for the Chinese.

Today, the Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, our 2nd most important event after Chinese New Year. We shall have yummy dimsum lunch in Chinatown Yokohama & enjoy the atmosphere there!

If we were in Singapore, we would go to the Chinese Gardens which will be decorated with hundreds & hundreds of lanterns!!! But we are in Japan & sadly, this is not as hugely celebrated here.

Tonight, the children shall take their lanterns through our neighborhood's Komazawa Park. We shall eat "mooncakes" because the moon is at its roundest & fullest. So tonight, go gaze at your moon & see how much rounder & brighter than usual it is !

This year, we made this "moon" lantern. However, we chose the crescent because of it's interesting shape, instead of the full moon - yes, we're weird! This was made in the traditional way, using string, wire, bamboo sticks & rice paper.

Today too, I have my Chinese birthday. Most Chinese do not remember their Chinese birth-dates but my family & friends remember mine because long ago on one Lantern night, I was born.

There's the regular calendar (as most people know & use). Then there's a Chinese lunar calendar based on the phases of the moon. So I had my regular birthday in late September but in the year 19xx when I was born, it also happened to be the 15th day of the 8th lunar month - today - Mid-Autumn or Mooncake or Lantern Festival. Are you confused yet :) ?

Each year, whichever city we live, I would get a mooncake! In addition, I had these wonderful things from my wonderful family :

- Gorgeous flowers in a pretty hand-painted "fishy" vase.

- Colourful cheery card by Niklas & a door-hanger by Annika for my busy sewing/crafting days.
- Lovely chopsticks for my collection.
- Really cute green fabric with rows of children in traditional costumes & all sorts of sweets. I love the adorable Chinese girl in red, with a mooncake!

- 2 books Emma Hardy's "Quilting in no time" & Kaffe Fassett's "Passionate Patchwork" . When these 2 books did not arrive as expected, Annika made 2 little mock-ups for me to have first.

Mooncakes are traditionally golden-brown pastries with fillings of dark brown lotus paste & a egg yolk.



Nowadays, they come in various shapes, shades & flavour too! Some pics here are from magazines since I couldn't find many actual mooncakes here in Tokyo!

And here are the children when they were very little, with more home-made lanterns.

My first hand-piecing !

Since I became interested in quilting, I am visiting mostly sewing & quilting blogs. And...I found Eileen's Attic. Within hours, we were yakking like old friends!

The problem of being self-taught & in a foreign land is that, I can't ask the sewing shop staff for help. But now, I have Eileen to run to, if I need answers!!! I used to think that you can only do basting with a chicken. Now I know better :) .

Eileen is so nice & talented & I do admire her for her handmade creations, from Raggedy Anns to beautiful quilts.

With Eileen's encouragement, I tried hand-piecing for the first time.

MK & Tracy, this means hand-sewing pieces together to form something :)

The hexagons were quite fun to do. But don't look too closely as you can see the stitches!

These stacks of fabric will eventually form a "Coin Stack Quilt". It was very difficult deciding which fabrics to use. I think the hardest part for me, will always be the selection of fabrics!

Soon we will be traveling. I look forward to the cities but I dread the thought of not sewing or crafting for weeks. So I am planning & cutting stuff to bring along. Small projects to occupy me when flying over 15 hours in a plane or relaxing by the sea & sand dunes.

Eileen suggested mini hand-sewn quilts. What else can you suggest? I shouldn't take up too much luggage space, heading out as I prefer to load up with goodies, coming back.


And a pic of 2 crafty kids :

Annika, stamping a bag, with our home-made stamps.

Niklas, doing free-motion stitching.

Good day! G'day!

This has been a good week. First, I sold these 3 items within an hour of uploading on my empty-for-so-long Etsy shop. They will be going to a new owner in France. Thank you, V !

Then today, I woke up to this wonderful post over at Hey Harriet. I find it touching as even though she is so terribly, terribly busy, Tracy kindly compiled this for me & we all know how tedious all those uploading, editing, writing posts can be at times!

You have truly made my day, Tracy. I can't wait to show my kids your post when they get home. They will get a kick out of seeing their names in a fabulous Australian blog!

And heeding your encouragement, there are more stuff like these (lower left pic) on the Etsy shop ... all homemade & handmade by us.

Spring Colours

These past weeks, I've been having spring/hay fever. My eyes are hurting & I've been sneezing my head off! Meanwhile, the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom in Tokyo & soon, I'll be taking hundreds of pics of these blossoms.

These are things we like in spring :
- Annika's new felt purse for school

- Egg-shaped Kokeshi dolls displayed in a restaurant.

- Egg & Chick. A felt-sewing craft with Annika's 3rd Grade class.

- This pair of bunnies "walk" when you squeeze fingers into its legs & make them walk - which you can't tell since I didn't take any pics of the back.

A stamping frenzy!

Yes, we are really going crazy with our homemade stamps! I combined my sewing with this latest craze of ours & ta-dah!.....personalised aprons.

The first one was for Annika who is having fun in her cooking class at school. A mother there saw her apron & ordered one, so here's a custom order for Michael, a super 4th Grader who enjoys cooking.

This is for a friend, whom I hope, will enjoy her colouring set. This "Colours in a Wrap" will be a suitable gift for anyone (young, old, big, small or lopsided!), who loves to get creative anytime, anywhere.

The same beige cotton wrap can also be used for crochet hooks, cutlery, carving knives, brushes, anything...& Willow suggested knitting needles!

If you like anything on my blog, do email me for details. Or check in my Etsy store.

An order & an award

Yippee!
My first custom order for a stamp. This design is for a very talented Etsy photographer & artist & popular blogger, Hey Harriet, of sunny Australia. Say "cheese!".

I carved it with my wonderful carving tools in a cotton wrap, with my own "Xue" stamp (naturally!).

With encouragement from Tracy & MK, I am also making cute stamps of Kokeshi dolls & maybe some other stamps too, for my Etsy store so come back sometime later to check on those ok?

AND...an award from Mel, whose blog I visit because of her ongoing journey with her 2 girls, who came all the way from China to start their new life with Mel & Garry.

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

I can't post as regularly as some because life gets in the way at times. I am a mother, I am Chinese & I am quite handy to have around :) so I write about things that is quite normal in our life in Tokyo. our latest "homeland" after 18 years of living overseas.

The best part about blogging is the surprise personal emails that pop up every now & then, & the friendship that follows. Thank you, Mel for this & thank you everyone for visiting.

Cut it up & stamp it out!

It's school holidays for us at the moment. It's also been raining mostly with only a very slight sprinkling of snow.

So with lots of time on our hands, we did this - our latest craze! Handmade stamps & homemade cards.

We made lots of rubber stamps, got lots of little cuts on our hands..... & then made these cards & stickers!

Annika made a lot for her own little "shop". We stamped on cards & bags to sell to anyone out there. Hmmm...I ought to load them onto my Etsy store which has been empty for so long.

If you are interested in handmade cards, totes, postcards, tags - with our hand-stamped designs.....please do email me directly, if I have not gotten around to uploading them on Etsy.

An apron for a little cook

Last week, my daughter joined a cooking class. Last week, we dabbled with home-made stamps.

The result was this apron. The green ice-cream cone was Annika's first stamp & she is so excited with it. We have since made about 50 stamps!

A custom order came about when a mother in school spotted Annika's apron. So now, I have for sale : full aprons for children & half aprons for adults. Do email me directly (see left sidebar) if any of my work interest you.

Christmas at home

When Annika & Niklas were 3 1/2 & 5 years old respectively, they started to make these paper gingerbread boys & girls. I had pre-cut these from 3 shades of brown paper. Each day when they got home from kindergarten, they would completed a couple. Trust me, if you start in June, you will get hundreds by the time it is Christmas! Each Christmas, we put these up somewhere - their work, when they were so small.

















On our tree, besides twig-stars, gold & red tinsel balls, we have hand-painted mini clay dolls from China, kawaii painted wooden clogs from Japan.




Beneath the tree is part of our Brio trains, a collection which started when Niklas was 1.

Here & there too, are craft made by the children, like this Christmas mobile which Annika made in Kindergarten.














And as in most family with kids, we have the traditional Christmas photos over the years.....from 1999 till now.

a shoebox, a restaurant, an apartment...

I did not have a single toy as a child. When I mentioned this to my son who was 4 at that time, he said "oh Mama, how sad...we can share our toys & you can play with them anytime". One of those times that a Mama will always remember.

We do many craft projects & here is one that we are fascinated with at the moment - our shoebox dollhouse. Although it has now evolved into a "Japanese cafe downstairs" & "owner's apartment upstairs". If these shots are not so clear, it's because it was in the evening & were taken without flash.

Green futons are cardboard covered with washi paper.
The stylish ikebana is a bamboo toothpick holder, now holding green plastic strips.
Round tables are covers from jars standing on toothpicks, the stools are plastic bootle caps.
Wall pictures are little cut-outs which Annika pasted & then drew frames around.

Wall mirror is aluminium foil on a card with pretty beads.

"Glass" display cabinet is a plastic packaging box.

Stack up makeup sponges for a perfect display counter.

Pots of all sorts

Both our kids are not into big parties (whew!). So for her birthday, Annika just wanted 4 friends & her brother, to do craft with her. First, everyone made a kaleidoscope at home, with coloured stones, glitter & beads & even some Swarovski crystals.

Then, we walked over to the pottery studio, just a few minutes from our home. Everyone made little pots or plates or teacups, according to their fancy. No one got to take their work home today though. The finished results would have to wait till the drying, baking, glazing is done, in a of weeks!

And then back home, to the waiting pot of spaghetti with button mushrooms, quail eggs, baby corns & minced meat in a tomato base. And also to funny colourful jellies like these!

we came, we bought, we sold ...

Yes, that always happen to us. We'll go to a Flea-Market & for every item we sell, we bought more! Actually, we always start buying before we start selling! We had quite a good day & sold most of our old books & board games.

This was the ladybird who kept us company that morning.
She seems to like Niklas' old cuddly doggie!

And.....(drum-roll)....my kids were a hit with their handiwork (see previous post), named "Kawaii Magnets by Kawaii Kodomo" meaning Cute Magnets by Cute Kids. We even sold magnets via email, after their classmates' mothers saw them in this blog! And serious interest too, from a blog visitor all the way in Australia!

Kawaii Magnets by Kawaii Kids.

It’s our school’s Spring Flea-Market this Saturday & right now, our house looks like a flea-market too! Lots of stuff everywhere waiting to be sorted out & tagged, so that we can hopefully sell it off.

Also, my kids made many, many Japanese Magnets, which is regular magnets but with Japanese motifs, cherry blossoms & kimono clad children playing.

Annika & Niklas are saving up for a WII & I have no heart to tell them that it's going to take them a very l..o..n..g time to save for that 1 item!

A busy morning, drawing ...

A few days ago, Freddy was born - a little brother for Alice, a baby boy for Yuka & Henry de la Trobe! A classmate of Niklas, Alice is a sweet girl who has been wishing for a brother, a looong time!

"Welcome Freddy"
by Annika Xue Sager, Age 7.

When we first played with mosaics ...

We made these when Annika was 6 & Niklas was 8 & Mama was not too young.

The children likes to draw & make things. This was one project that we had so much fun experimenting. After many cuts & blisters, these was what we come up as our first pieces. We have since made a few more !

Annika did the "flower".
Niklas did the "fish".
Mama did the "square".