kawaii

New food trend in Japan is "Strong taste". Morinaga released five new sweets that featured "more" or "stronger taste" like Koi Tsuya Pudding or "Koi rich pudding", they added " stronger version" to even old standard products like Mommy. Kirin has released stronger taste tea with double tea leaves or double milk and also "stronger taste "happoshu"(i don't know how it is strong though). SB has stronger stew rou and they said they are making very good sales. Moreover we have "more cheese" snack, "more miso ramen", stronger green tea, etc,.etc,. Analysts said people would feel good deal or reasonable in stronger taste in this bad economy.

Strong taste is said KOI AJI in Japanese.

Earlier this week I shared about the origami lucky hearts I was making. Well, my daughter and I liked them so much that we decided to make them into necklaces for Valentine's Day cards. While I was making them, I realized some of you may wonder why I even go through all this trouble. You may even be asking: Won't most of those go into the trash? Do the kids even appreciate them? Here are my thoughts. . . First, I love creating and making things. I love the design process from beginning to end. I can tell you right now if this wasn't my passion, I would not do this. Instead, I would probably just buy the cards. Also, my kids like and appreciate the personalized cards. The second reason I do this stems back to my own childhood. I absolutely adored Valentine's Day as a child. I can remember being so excited to empty my haul of cards onto my desk (those days we got to look at our cards at school). I would pull out each card an examine it thoroughly. In particular, if it was from a boy I liked, I paid extra attention to the words: did it say friend? valentine? were there any xoxo's on it? That was half the fun but what I liked most were the handmade cards. I was that child. I can remember one of the kids in my fifth grade class had an extra crafty mother. She always made fun cards. I can recall one that had a unique opening with jokes inside. I also remember a card of a heart eating heart. Now that I'm thinking about it, that's kind of strange. Nonetheless, I remembered, liked, and appreciated what she made. So, I can only believe that there is some child besides my own that will appreciate what I make. I'll probably never get as much as a thank you and I don't care. To me it's a small way of making the day fun and special. Here are the templates for the valentine cards. The squares are designed to measure 3.3" x 3.5". To make your own, click on the template, right click, copy, paste and print. Click here for heart folding video. To make the necklace just thread it with string. To attach the necklaces to the cards, I punched two holes at the top and cut a slit from the edge of the card to the hole. This way I could just slide the string into the hole. So the necklaces don't turn into a tangled mess, I taped them in the back. I used washi tape because it's low tack and will be easy for the kids to peel off.

I don’t normally go in much for the whimsical end of twee, but this little bear is really just too cute to resist.

His name is Alex and he’s made by Bijou Kitty. I love his sad expression! I hope he goes to a good home soon!

For more teeny tiny bears, check out the Bijou Kitty shop on Etsy.

I'm back again with my new series At First Site. Once a month I'll be sharing about sites/artists that inspire me. I hope in the process you'll discover something new and get inspired too. Inspiring me this month is designer Mariela Dias who writes the blog Mariela Dias. Mariela designs, makes and sells felt accessories. Her bold colors and creative use with felt instantly attracted my attention. Usually when I think of felt crafts, I picture felt food and softies but Mariela is creating so much more with the medium. Intrigued by Mariela's work, I decided to ask her a few questions. Here's what she had to say: How and when did you start working with felt? I studied Design at the University of Aveiro and during my training I did some work on design/crafts. From that moment, I understood that the design and craftsmanship could result in a perfect marriage. I started working with felt six years ago, first as a secondary activity. Four years ago it became a full time job. My work aims to recreate the essence of Portuguese craftsmanship: based on floral and geometric motifs present in the pottery and embroidery ("lencos dos namorados") and in general, Portuguese traditional crafts and feminine details that coexist in harmony with today's trends. Do you sew all your pieces? It's all done by me. To make a bag, for example, I start by drawing and then the shape is all set. I make the bag template out of cardboard. Using scissors or a scalpel, I cut the felt in accordance with the drawing. Then I baste the pieces and finish the sewing bag. What inspires your artwork? I find inspiration in traditional Portuguese handicraft but also I do daily walks around town. If you have a minute or two, stop by her site to see what she's creating . The photos above are just a small sample of her work.

Always fun to see what Noodoll have been up to lately. My favourites are the colourful card designs, the London bus notebook and the adorable Rice Dust bag!

Aikido; Japanese bujutsu to avoid fight.

Every morning Pi-chan wants this. My husband can’t just say no to it…

She’s too independent. She always likes to be close to us. But we don’t feel it’s a good idea to let her sleep with us in the same bed, we only allow her to join for a nap in a couch. Then what happened? Every morning Pi-chan begs my husband to get out of his bed to sleep with her in a couch. My husband is too nice to her, he never minds that, no matter how sleepy he feels. -_- Pi-chan is spoiled…haha. I’d say NO to her if I want to sleep more in my own bed… :p

Now under the table, what is she doing there?

She’s staying there because I was working there. You see this is how she is. I could step on her without knowing… o_0 English-Spanish dictionary and a paper that shows Spanish keyboard layout are always around my computer. I listen to Spanish conversation audio and watch Spanish speaking drama everyday and write to some Spanish speaking friends frequently. There’s almost no day that I don’t hear or write Spanish nowadays. ^_^

What can she see from there? Seeing things from her angle, I’m shocked how some part of the floor is dusty…(x_x) *sorry, Pi-chan!*

To avoid the same mistake from last winter, we let her fur grow this winter. Her face has become bigger due to the grown fur. Sometimes she looks busa-kawaii (ugly kawaii). ^ ^;;

Hope you are doing well. Kirin and Pi-chan

 

Bonjour, mes amis. Tis I, Le Bun, here to tell to you my latest kawaii adventures. I am knowing zat you are always on ze edge of ze chair waiting for mon news,  non?

Zis week, I am in ze Alps in Switzerland avec le petite Jacques. He is teaching to me the safer way to be skiing. You must be remembering zat I have ze accident a while ago on ze snow – zis is why ma belle bun Celeste is not knowing where we are, haw hee haw! Ma belle Celeste is thinking we are looking at ze model railway but we are on ze slopes and eating beaucoup de petite gateaux!

Maintenant, I am telling to you about ze giveaway I have for you zis time. La tres jolie Yeni from Cupcakes Craft is providing ze prize magnifique! Regardez, the I Love You Kit:

It is containing:

Button Up Canvas Coin Pouch Crown Ballpoint Pen Countryside Mini Notebook Candy Series Adjustable Ring Sweet Shop Pen & Lip Gloss Sweetie Heart Bracelet

Ze tres generous prize, non? To be in with ze chance of winning, please to visit the Cupcakes Craft website and tell to us what your favourite item is. What would do with it?

For ze additional chance to be winning, you can be following Cupcakes Craft on Facebook here. For yet another chance to win, leave a comment on Facebook introducing yourself.  So you can be having 3 entries, ooh la la!

To be in ze draw, please to be making your entry before 6th February at midnight GMT. I will be choosing ze winner from Jacques ski boot, haw hee haw!

Now I am going to ze slopes for one more run before ze hot chocolat break.

Au revoir et bonne chance!

Hello!Lucky is offering free printable valentine cards for their fans. There's a total of four designs to choose from which include a banana, cuckoo clock, monkey and owl. Stop by Hello!Lucky to download the cards. And if you have the time, check out their stationary. The letterpress cards are just delightful. via Craft

What better way to enjoy candy than the guilt-free way? Guilt Free Candy have kawaii jewellery and accessories to make you go squeee!

Check out these iCat sunglasses - guaranteed to make you look and feel just like everyone’s favourite Kitty.

For kawaii bows, faux cakes and even alarm clocks with the cute touch, check out their Etsy here.

Have you wondered if you can’t make sushi at home? Yes, you can. There are chirashi type, roll type, and pressed type of sushi. Edomaezushi like this is not usually made at home.

Today, I’ll share with you how to make chirashizushi, thanks to Chika’s collaboration, as always. (Chika is my good friend and she helps me write most of the food posts.) Chirashizushi is chirashi + sushi but we call it chirashizushi (s tuns z) for easier pronunciation. There are many Japanese words that sound like this. For example, Wakarizurai 分かりづらい(=hard to understand) is originally from wakaru 分かる(understand) tsurai つらい(difficult), however, tsurai has become zurai . Just a piece of information for some Japanese learners. :p So here we go! There are several kind of sushi in Japan, and they are very regional. Here is a sample of Chirashizushi that we can easily make at home.

step 1: First off, here is a recipe for sushi rice. But before that, please wash rice (3 cups) and set it in a rice cooker with appropriate amount of water (less than normal for sushi rice) added. You need to wait 30-60 minutes with rice being soaked in water, before you start cooking it. You’d better start cooking rice and then get down to the followings. I’d also take time to reconstitute dried shiitake mushrooms (at step 4), so I’d do it first.

2: How to make sushi rice (3 cups of rice) -vinegar (6tbs) -sugar (5tbs) -salt (1tsp) 　

3: Put the above ingredients into a heat-resistant container and microwave for 1-1.5 minutes and mix it well. (This is when your microwave oven has 500-600W, if it’s more powerful, under 1 minute maybe fine. Or you can make it warm in a pot, but do not make it boil!) Then wait for the rice to be cooked, and meanwhile you are going to cut vegetables.

Ingredients for 2-3 people -egg (3) -carrot (half) -fried bean curd (1) -dried shiitake mushroom (3) -chikuwa (=fish sausage) (2)

***You can substitute more carrot or shiitake for fried bean curd or chikuwa, if you can’t find them in your area.)

4: Reconstitute dried shiitake mushrooms in 1 cup of water. Keep this soup, don’t throw it away! That’s the reason you have to use “dried” shiitake, not the fresh one.

5: Cut the shiitake mushrooms, carrot, fried bean curd, and chikuwa into small pieces. The prepare the following ingredients.

-Shiitake soup, taken out of dried shiitake mushrooms (2/3 cup, which is about 120mm) -soy sauce (2tbs) -sugar (1tbs) -mirin, or sweet cooking rice wine (1tbs) -sake (1tbs)

6: Put all the ingredients above into a pot…

and keep simmering until you see no soup.

7: As for the 3 eggs, beat them, mix the following ingredients and make scrambled egg. -sugar (2tbs) -salt (2/3 tsp) -dashi or water (2tbs)

8: The rice is cooked by this time. Put the “step 2″ ingredients into the cooked rice and mix well. Do it while the rice is still hot.

9: Then add the vegetables

and mix the whole thing well. It’s tasty if you add some while sesame seeds, but only if you like.

10: Place it on a dish and spread the scrambled egg. This time, Chika added radish sprouts to make it look more colorful, but you can also put thinly sliced laver or pickled ginger. To make it even more gorgeous, you can add boiled shrimp or sashimi on the top.

You can actually make various kind of sushi at home, if only you know how to make sushi rice. I hope to release another sushi post (probably pressed sushi) some of these days. Enjoy your chirashizushi!

How many people you can tell?

Some day I really need to learn how to crochet – there are so many amazing patterns out there, not least these cuties from Jaravee in Thailand. The peas in a pod are my favourites but there’s lots to choose from including dolls, monsters, fruit, flowers and a whole lot of cute puppies!

You've heard of lucky stars but have you heard of lucky hearts? They're constructed similar to lucky stars with only a few adjustments. They're also just as quick to make. Fill up a jar for a Valentine's Day gift or string one on thread to make a necklace. Click here for the video tutorial.

Copyright © www.ohmysocute.com Fruit tart anyone? How about some grapefruit to go along? You can even choose to have a full breakfast set right in your bed if you like! But there’s a caveat... © www.ohmysocute.com. If you're not reading this as a news feed, this site you're reading is a splog guilty of copyright infringement. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

It’s almost Chinese New Year, which means Yozo Craft are having a holiday until the 29th. That shouldn’t stop you buying though as during the break registered members get 1 point for every $10 spent which is equal to $1 you can spend on your next visit. It’s free to register so go have a look.

There’s lots of cute new stuff in store, including some cute and clever stand-up sticky notes and these adorable mousemats, plus some fun shaped paper clips, Decole items galore and much more. There’s also a big sale section and many items have free shipping.

I was having a dig around in the SCK Flickr group and spotted these little apple people from Creations by Cree. Turns out she has a shop full of cuteness with hand-stitched toys, pincushions and tape measures. As well as the apples, I’m rather smitten with this tape measure with a tiny mouse friend – so adorable!

A while back FamilyFun Magazine requested to use my Superhero Lollipop Valentine idea. It has been a long wait but the February issue is finally out featuring the project. Also featured in the magazine are some cute ideas from bloggers Design Mom and Dollhouse Bake Shoppe. If you get a chance, check out the magazine. It's filled with lots of cute ideas for Valentine crafts. I particularly have my eye on the chocolate kiss ring project.

I found an interesting video about cool kitchen tools that was broadcasted by NHK.

There are many interesting cooking tools in Japan. I’m not really interested in them however, because my kitchen is small and I know I’ll eventually suffer from finding a small space to store them. I’d try to make use of limited tools as often as possible instead of enjoying a collection of various tools…well I totally feel familiar with the Ugandan woman’s comment at 10:15. ^ ^;; 01:40 I’ve used the silicon wrap but I didn’t like it at all. It was not for me…I’m sorry I threw it away. (Oh that sounds I’m so eco-unfriendly!) There’s no room to keep things that I don’t use any more! I’ve been wondering if I really I want to buy a new Tamagoyaki pan for over 6 months, since the old one got damaged. Maybe it’s only when I find extra room in my kitchen.

03:50 I have only 1 cutting board (まな板 “manaita” in Japanese), 1 big frying pan (フライパン “furai pan” in Japanese), 3 pots (なべ “nabe” in Japanese) sized small, medium and large, 1 deep pot, 1 earthen pot (土鍋 “donabe”), 1 milk pan…I guess that’s all. :p

05:56 I know this. We can easily peel off the eggshell by letting the air out of the bottom of the egg. But I wouldn’t buy a special tool to do that. I usually crack the bottom of the egg slightly before boiling, and I never screw it up. (But don’t do it too strongly, as you’re going to break it.)

10:56 It’s true, however, that we can enjoy cooking more if we have variety of interesting tools. OK, I will love to use all these tools if cooking has become my hobby. :p Unfortunately it’s nothing but an everyday’s chore… -_-

12:32 I think I also feel familiar with the Indonesian woman’s comment, or the kiwi woman’s comment at 12:44.

13:10 It’s true, we cook various cuisine such as Italian, Chinese, Japanese, French-inspired cuisine, German, Russian, Korean, or whatever at every single home.

14:03 I also use oven! (You’ve noticed we pronounce it as “O-bun”. There are many English words we imported into Japanese but have different pronunciations.)

You may have wondered how my kitchen looks like… ^ ^ Here it is.

It’s about 2.5m long and it’s 80cm between the kitchen and the cabinet.

The bottles of water are there to keep Pi-chan out. I don’t want her to come into the kitchen while cooking.

I wish I could have a second small sink exclusive for Pi-chan’s sponge and dishes. The yellow dishes in a small basket are only for Pi-chan to use. I also wash and dry plastic plates, milk container, bottles, cans, pet-bottles, pet-bottle caps and etc., for recycle…so I need some space for those as well…

I have to place a coffee maker, a tea pot, a kettle, some mugs and etc. on the counter because I cannot find space for those. -_-

It’s about 65cm between the sink and the stove. Cooking would be much easier if I had more space here…

A cupboard and some storage. I pull the board when I’m cooking rice, because the rice cooker ejects steam upward.

A kitchen like this is average for a family of 3-4 people in the city. But it’s almost impossible to have 2 people cooking together in this kitchen. That’s why I carry minimum kitchen tools and I want to make it tidy all the time.

What do you think about the interesting kitchen tools in the video for example? Do you have anything that you wish to have? I guess I will have to organize the storage space more effectively before I think of buying something new. ^ ^;; But I will love to make use of the kitchen tools with which I can reduce my labor. ^ ^;; In that sense I don’t think I use kitchen tools for fun cooking, I’d use them to make cooking easier and less time-consuming. How about you?

Two Bad Bananas is not only the coolest name for a shop ever, but is also stuffed to the brim with cute handmade charms and jewellery.

Exhibit A – four bad bananas, to hang from your ears!

This sushi charm bracelet is super kawaii! My birthday is a mere 3 months away…

Check out Two Bad Bananas here for more cuteness! And because they are just so cool, you can get 10% off your order by using the code SUPERCUTE at the checkout until 14th February – sweet!