A few new favorite things....

Step into our home office and you'll see I have a bit of a paper fetish. A new favorite is cards from ThePaperPrincess.com . A few arrived in the December Sampler and I promptly ordered more. They arrived today - the quality of the paper is luscious — a smooth satiny matte that takes ink nicely. The images, colors, and patterns are sweet without being sappy. Fresh without trying to be hip.

Tasty Sourdough? Until 2 weeks ago that was an oxymoron for me. But then I tasted the fantastic Sour Rye bread at Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle. The owner was the captain of the GOLD medal team in the World Baking Competition in Paris. If you go there, you won't be able to miss the ginormous trophy sitting on the counter. The place is still fairly new. When I went, the sign was just handlettered on a piece of paper taped to a sandwich board. You'll find it just a few doors south of Northwest Art and Frame in the Junction.

Bento Boxes

I love packing my son's lunches in bento boxes. They are reusable; they keep the food in good shape; and they help make lunch more fun and attractive. They make it fun for me and that's important, dammit -- because making lunch every night is boring!

We just bought this Shinkansen bento box at the Sanrio store at Bellevue Square.

We bought this Pokemon bento box during our trip to Japan last year

Feeding a 7 year old food critic

One night after returning home from working late, I found this little critique of the Fontina cheese I had purchased waiting for me in the refrigerator. A very poor image due to the dim light and my inept use of my new camera, I'm afraid. I was told the green colored blob is someone who died from eating the cheese. The face on the bottom is someone who "is sick and will likely die" from eating this cheese. I like the coining of the term "off-demand". I use it all the time now.

School has started and it's back to making lunches. I've decided to start keeping a log of all the lunches I make - since it consumes more of my energy and time than I would like.

This lunch menu: Prosciutto,Turkey & Havarti Wraps; cherry tomatoes from our garden; and kiwi/huckleberries - plus milk and a secret tiny ritter bar hidden in his lunch box.

Furoshiki Tips

Recently found another helpful furoshiki wrapping guide
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This site also took me to a great photoblog with loads of interesting images taken in Japan.

Origami plus

I love origami - but I can't make anything that doesn't already have a pattern. Check out the what MIT students created for the MIT Origami contest

Artful Manhole Covers...err...Hatchcovers

Seattle Utilities has a new hatchcover design (will hatchcover really ever catch on?)


Here are some lovely utilitylids/ manhole covers /hatchcovers I saw in Japan recently. Looks like there are loads of Japanese manhole appreciation sites: Frangipani has a striking collection , here is a collection of Tokyo manholes...even quilts inspired by Japanese manholes

Kamakura


Iga Ueno


Samurai District, Kanazawa


Shitamachi,Tokyo


Kyoto


Takayama


Having Trouble remembering...wonder if it was Kanazawa

Squeezable Mimi balls

During my recent travel to Japan I came across this interesting stress reliever. You really should click on the image and view it at the larger size so you can note other variations of the mimi ball (keychain, wristpad, etc.) and have a good look at the text on the display box. They appear to be selling rather well. According to the signage it's a great toy for ages 5+....ooooh baby!

What to do when the box is huge?

My mom's present required a VERY large box. So large that I couldn't find any nice paper that would fit. So, I ditched paper altogether and just used decorative tape and a funky Target Christmas ornament...and I was pretty pleased with the results. The tape was pretty hard to cut - probably pretty apparent by looking at the picture, so next time I would cut in ways that don't require precision.