Happy Birthday, Annika !

When you keep moving around the way we do, it is hard to form any friendship, let alone maintain the friendship when it's time to move again. So my little girl became my best friend & we do many things together. 

She draws & sews , like me. She knows which fabric goes with which & which fabric I would like. Today, my little girl has grown a little. 

Well, actually, she is now taller than me & she just turned 11 today! 

This is this year's homemade birthday party invitation card 
& 5 friends will come over, for lots of splashing fun in the pool. 

Each year, we make our own cake too.  

Happy 11th Birthday, Annika !  

Happy, Happy Day !

I do have much to blog about & no time to blog. In past months : the cherry blossom season came & went, I have become more interested in quilting, acquired a new, fabulous sewing machine (Bernina QE 440), & made a couple of quilts too.

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The children grew older & Annika played at her first piano recital, in this homemade dress. She also turns 10 today.

Annika was born in Singapore, 15. May 2000, the Year of the Golden Dragon. She set her alarm clock to 7.55am as that's the time she was born. Coincidentally, her brother, Niklas was born at 8.44am (on 15. Oct).

Happy Birthday to my sweet child, my partner in sewing.

We got married...

...on a Christmas Eve, 15 years ago, at the German Lutheran Church in New York City. We got married in the morning then immediately went to the Post Office, to mail off our 150 handmade wedding announcement cards.
The announcement (a Xue-Original ;-) design ) consists of a card bearing an actual pair of chopsticks, tied with gold string with these words, "Lily & Martin. We tied the knot".

It was a very small wedding with 5 people - Pastor Schmidt-Lange, us & our 2 witnesses (good friends Katrin & Gerald who were visiting from Germany). Actually Katrin & Gerald didn't know then, that they were to be our witnesses. We only told them to "bring something proper to wear as we will be going to a formal place on Christmas Eve". And we did, we went to the church to get married!

Martin & I met years ago, in the Australian Consulate in Shanghai. Shortly after we met, he left for his next job posting in New York City. I stayed on with my job in Shanghai & joined him later, in NYC. where we then lived for a few years.

Our son, Niklas was born in Hongkong (1997) & our daughter, Annika, in Singapore (2000). Now, we live in Tokyo in this cosy home & the children attend the German school here, where they learn English, French, German, & Japanese.

Happy 15th Anniversary to us!
Merry Christmas to you!

Our firstborn.

In 1997, our son was born in Hongkong - a historical year as this was months after the British handover. His name is Niklas Quan Sager.

We found "Niklas" in an old book that my husband used to read each night to the "baby" when he was still in my tummy. "Quan" (pronounced with the Q sounding like "ch") means "power" in Chinese as when the baby cried, he had the power to make his parents come running!

It took 3 years of fertility treatment & injections before Niklas came along. He is a good son.

When he was 2 1/2 years old, he would come home from the nursery & run to me, saying "Ok Mama, I'm home now. You can rest. I'll take care of the baby." And he did.

Today, he is 11 years old.
Almost as tall as me (or taller!).
Does this mean I'm short?

sheng re kuai le, Quan Quan!
ma ma ai ni.

He dances all over the world !

A slight variation from my regular posting. This video footage makes me so happy, watching Matt Harding (an American) dances. He quit his job a few years ago & has been traveling around, dancing all over the world! It makes me smile & yet emotional at the same time.

It's my first attempt to post videos only because my super husband wrote out the instructions in details, print them out & put it right by my laptop. And I still don't know how to do this correctly so he ended up doing everything!

MK, this is for you, for our rantings, to brighten your day & hope you get well soon! And to Tracy because he danced in Brisbane too! Please click on the video footage. And if you enjoyed it, scroll right down for more of Matt's dancing!

Be cool.

Just minutes' walk from our home, is a fountain, a little river & pretty flowers.

Happy Summer!

Today, we start off eastwards to America & around the world! From Las Vegas, we will explore a couple of canyons & national parks. It will be our first time in a RV! Then we head towards San Diego & Los Angeles & fly out again.

We will also meet up with friends & relatives in Germany & Singapore. And then, home to Tokyo. Have a happy summer!

The dimsum goes around in Chinatown Yokohama.

So off we went again, to have yummy food at a favorite restaurant & view all those scrumptuos delicacies rolling by before us. Yes, rolling by as the food in little plates or bamboo baskets, were on this merry-go-round conveyor belt, that really went around the whole restaurant!
All you do after you arrive is to plonk yourself down & start eating - no waiting at all - how's that for service!




Dim sum (in Cantonese dialect) or "dian xin ( in Mandarin) is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves many light dishes served alongside Chinese tea since tea helps "wash" the fats away (- I wish!!!).

Usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants & at specialty dim sum eateries, you can have it for dinner like we did.

Dishes come in small portions and include meat, seafood, vegetables & all sorts of desserts. The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate. "Yum cha" (in Cantonese) or "he cha (in Mandarin) is the term used to describe the dining session.

The only problem is that it's hard to stop eating! You take food off the conveyor belt, finish them & the empty plates get cleared away quickly so then, you lose track of what you've eaten. We always end up eating waaaay too much!

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!

Happy, Happy Day !

Today, our Annika turns 8.
She was "made" in Vienna, born in Singapore, lives in Tokyo & goes to the German school in Yokohama.

Happy Birthday, Mei-Mei from Ke-Ke, Mama & Papa . . . . . . how you have grown !

A mother's tale

Once upon a time, there was a new baby & people came to visit. The baby cries & lay uncovered, unattended. Her family couldn’t bear the sight of her. “But she is so young & needs care or she will die”, some said. Her family said “that’s ok, she’s only a girl & if she don’t die, we will give her away”. One woman felt so sad, she said “...then let me have her. She is 4 days old now & I will take her when she is a month’s old”.

A week later, the woman came to visit again. Somehow, the baby is smaller than before because “milk is expensive”. With sorrow in her heart, she said “I will take her home now”. And she did & she became my mother.

I think of my mother often, how she saved me. On Mother’s Day, I think of the biological woman, how she gave birth & gave me up so easily. To be given up for adoption is not uncommon. However, shortly after I left, they bought a baby boy to replace me.

My mother said she is not extraordinary, that she did what any normal person would do. She was already a mother then & she could not walk away knowing that a baby might die. So, she took me even though she & my father are poor. She said I will understand better when I become a mother. I became a mother & in that hospital room, with my baby in my arms, I cried so much, for my mother who saved me & for the bio woman because of what she did.

It was tough growing up in poverty, to not know when your next meal will be. It was tough growing up when people expect the worst of you because “you have bad blood”. It was even tougher to grow up without papers as the bio family said “legal adoption is too troublesome for only a girl”. I never attended any field trip nor school camp because there was no authorized signature for my permission slip. There was no art school as there was no money. So I did the best I could – I grew up strong & independent. I work hard & try not to get into any trouble. I try to be more than just only a girl. I try to be a good mother, like my mother.
Happy Mother’s Day to all kind mothers !

And the AWARDS goes to !

My week is more special, because of a Blog Award (on left) from Jennifer at jcnstudios. How kind of her! I feel honoured to be a recipient with the others, especially when there's so many, many blogs out there. This Chinese character (on right) is "Xie", which means 'thank you". I do appreciate it when someone takes time to visit & then stay to comment. I like to visit other blogs & I do thank you for visiting mine.

It's not easy to pick who, to pass these awards to, among the super-duper ones that I like. So now, the "Arte y Pico" BLOG AWARDS go to.....
Alasmydear, Hey Harriet, High Desert Diva, Tatsuko, & The Senakams:Corgi+2. They make me smile, pause & ponder. And I can even see pictures, in their descriptions! I do like them & I hope they like their Blog Awards.

Xie Xie! Thank you!

Yesterday, in the midst of chaotic cleaning & packing, I received an appreciative email from Julie King.
This talented, self-taught artist mentioned me in her blog & she made my day!
Julie does incredible torn-paper collage work that looks like mosiac art & we love mosiac art !

A super, super day!

Hurray! I’m being featured by Heather of Azure Designs in her blog, since Wednesday so please take a peek. Besides making & working with polymer, I do create jewelry designs with various materials like glass, except I don't know how to make glass creations (not yet!).

I am sooo happy & got a little teary at this kind gesture by Heather. We have been corresponding like penpals & she is truly a nice person. Hopefully this will generate sales !!!!
Ok, I’m off to do some jigs around the neighbourhood! Have a great weekend !

Cycling on a Sunday

On a little street in Tokyo,
in our neighbourhood....

Some trees were soooo old, they had to be propped up!

Sadly, the strong winds we've had in the past days, meant that the trees were not as pink & fluffy! There were many petals on the ground instead.

Hanami Picnic at Kinuta Park - a beautiful day !

After school, we headed for Kinuta Park to find that thousands of people had the same idea - to have a picnic on a Wednesday afternoon! Luckily the park was huge enough for all of us.

There was also enough cherry blossoms to share since there's about 1000 beautiful trees in this park! We ate yummy Sakura Mochi - made from chewy-soft glutinous rice, pounded into flour, filled with bean paste & shaped into petals.

"Hana" means flower & "mi" means to view. Do click on the image to see the full size photo.