Salzburg

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Paris

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Brussels!

 

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This is the photo album from Brussels. We weren’t entirely sure what we were going to do here, but it turned into a good time.

Amsterdam!

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Sorry to anyone who has been waiting for me to upload my plethora of pictures. Also sorry that we’ve kind of lost contact with a lot of people lately. Life has been interesting. Hope you enjoy these pictures from Amsterdam, they aren’t great but they’re all we’ve got! It’s fun to look through them again and remember how crazy these two weeks in Europe were.

Goodbye Okinawa, Hello Taipei!

Our adventure has finally begun! After a brief hour and half flight we are now at the Taipei airport waiting out an 11 hour layover. Ew. It was so hard to leave Lily this morning! She was being so cuddly and sweet. It was nice to get some puppy cuddles before leaving though. Hopefully she’ll forgive us maybe we can find her some European dog toys to make it up to her! I’ll try to update about our trip as often as I can.

The Birthday Boy

So as most of you know, Josh’s 23rd birthday was this past Friday! Wow, 23, already? Gifts are always difficult for him, he doesn’t ever want anything! So since I’ve been sewing up a storm lately I decided to whip him up some pajama pants that actually fit. Your all pretty aware that Josh is a tall, lanky fellow. Size smalls usually fit him in the waist but his legs are so long that smalls just look plain silly! I found a decent pattern online and ordered it, luckily they messed up the order and sent me the nighty pattern I wanted, so I contacted them and they shipped this pattern out right away! The nice thing is, I got a free pattern out of it. Thanks Fabric.com ;) ! So Wednesday morning I sprawled out went about making my hunny some jama pants!

We all know the floor is the best place to work! Space is limited in our house! So cutting out pants legs for Joshy long legs was a bit intensive!

Finished project! The only part that the fit was a little off on was the crotch. These are unisex pants so I’m guessing when you make them for men you should lengthen the crotch! Maybe I should suggest that for the pattern. Hah!

I believe that he had a pretty decent birthday! We spent the night in and had a dinner, of his choosing, and some cookies because he didn’t want cake! Today he was supposed to head to Guam but the nearby storm thwarted the plans! They’ll still be going but for a much shorter time period. Come next Sunday we’re Europe bound! What a great little escape nestled between both of our birthday's! Don’t worry we’ll take plenty of pictures and if we get wi-fi along the way I’ll try to keep you updated! I’m going to have to keep up with my classes while we’re gone which has kind of got me down, so I’m trying to get a lot of it out of the way this week. Also trying to sew up a more comfortable version of the birdie sling purse with a longer strap for traveling! Can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Shower of Babies!

Our friends Sandra and Steve are expecting a sweet baby girl in the next two weeks! This past Saturday was the baby shower so I can finally post pictures of the items I made her. I still need to work on my appliqués a bit if I intend to sell any onesies, but it was a good start! I can definitely say that my machine does NOT appreciate the super soft cotton that the onesies are made of and it was a fight. I’ve heard that’s a common problem, so it will just take some love and getting use to.  My FAVORITE project was the Molly Monkey doll! She’s so cute, I really wanted to keep her for myself! Luckily I have plenty more fabric so I will just whip myself up one at a later date!  I also made a monkey laundry bag with removable head for easy washing and/or playing with it! It took the longest but it will be super cute in Lorelei’s monkey themed room!

     

When I grow up…

Lately I’ve been pondering the age old question “what do I want to be when I grow up?” To some of you 22 is grown up and my mind should have been made up some 4-6 years ago and I should be in career mode already. Things just aren’t adding up that way for me. Whenever I was in high school, I had my heart set on a design school, somewhere, anywhere. I wanted to design clothes, and I wanted to do it well. Something happened along the way and that ambition faded, as well as hopes for a potential history degree. Seemed like a good idea until I realized how many papers I would have to write to get that degree, and my heart just isn’t in writing. Luckily my hobbies are taking me other places and I’m starting to get ideas. I love to sew, LOVE, love, LOVE it. Some days I just don’t feel like straining my neck and dealing with a hot iron, but for the most part once I start something I have a hard time putting it down. I’ve cranked out a lot of projects recently(but I can’t post pictures yet because they’re baby shower gifts for a pal) including some custom PJ pants for Josh! I’m starting to think that a home based business venture might be in line for me. I’m not crazy about the idea of getting a job here on one of the bases, and spouses have a hard time getting jobs here since the locals are given preference, anyways. There’s a girl here who sells fabric and patterns and a few custom things on the side, and she told me I should start selling custom purses, that there is a killing to be made. While I love that idea, that’s a lot of work for one product. Purses take a lot of cutting a lot of fabric and a decent bit of sewing to put together. I love making purses, but I’m afraid that wont be good enough. I have a bag idea for a “grocery keeper” so to speak and I might be trying that out soon. There are craft fairs and things here pretty often since there are a good many people who sell different goods from home. Apparently there aren’t a lot of people who sew here, aside from hobby wise. I’ve always been really grounded but now I seem to be floating away again, I’m not sure that this is actually a good thing to get into. Any thoughts or feelings? Should people turn hobbies into jobs? I feel like maybe if I get a jump start now, when we get back to the states I can try to get things lined up to sell to small vendors. Am I going to have support from my family and friends?

Sorry about the seriousness of this entry, it’s just been bugging me a lot lately. If you have some ideas, suggestions, or advice please throw it my way.

Okinawa Bullfights

 

Neglected Photos

Since it’s been ages since I’ve posted a legitimate blog post, let me start by unloading some of the pictures that I haven’t posted for a while. That’s always a fun start. Also got some bullfighting videos up on youtube, so I will post those shortly!

Trip to the aquarium puffer fish, the large whale shark tank from ground level, a lion fish, and a grumpy old man fish( don’t remember the name)

  

 

These are pictures from the day of the bullfight. Once a bull wins his match there is a small very quick celebration where they put the fabric over him, tie streamers onto his head, sometimes throw confetti, or sometimes people will hop on the bull in celebration. Occasionally people put their kids on for a picture opportunity and to let them share in the victory. Interesting! Would you put your children on a bull? The mouth watering picture to the right is from MOS burger. I got the chicken teriyaki burger and fries, yum! MOS Burger is a very popular fast food chain here in Okinawa, there is even a MOS Burger Licca(click for picture) which is similar to McDonald’s Barbie.

 

The next two are obviously a familiar face. The first is Josh playing at the last concert =] And the second is Josh helping to take down the lattice divider between our house and the neighbor’s that was ripped apart by Typhoon Songda.

These pictures are from our trip to Ikei island. We went up for a picnic on the beach and it was beautiful!

 

These babies right here are what really get me excited! My veggies are actually noticeably growing, yes I’m aware that’s how gardening works but I’m new to this. So far my lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower are doing the best. My grandparents sure were right about not transplanting carrots, that didn’t work well at all! There are a few that survived and they seem to be growing much slower than everything else. I suppose it’s because none of my vegetables are in season that they are growing REALLLY slow. My friend planted tomatoes and melons a few days before me and they are outrageous. It could also be the nature of these vegetables, I haven’t researched much. I’m well aware that I planted my lettuces way too close together, but with the way I kill things I figured half of them would be dead by now. Not the case! I’m so happy with those two in the front that are getting big( to the right in the bin), I can’t wait to eat a fresh salad.

Surviving carrots(left) and (I’m guessing) a green leaf lettuce(right). The words on the seed packets were in Japanese. 

Broccoli and cauliflower(left) and more lettuce(right) These sprouted way later than the others.

Always the Same

I know that I constantly find myself apologizing on my blog about my lack of updates. Life has been a tad busy lately. I have some videos from the last concert and some pictures/videos from the bullfights we went to today. Crazy huh!?? They’re not like the Spanish ones, with matadors and fancy costumes. These are actually two bulls fighting against each other, and no one dies in the end. More info about that later. Happy Mother’s day to everyone reading this!!! Hopefully people are reading this. Thanks to my mom, Mama Kim, Christa, my Grandma, Grandma Pruss, Grandma Lois, Aunt Dawn, Amber, Ericka, Selina, Iori, Erin, and all of the other mamas in our family and friends. Congrats to Angela who is spending this mother’s day as her first! You all make such a difference. Even if it’s not always easy, it’s always worth it. I hope that everyone was celebrated and thanked for their daily efforts. I suppose I could have celebrated too, seeing as how I’m a puppy mother and all. Haha. But really, I hope it’s a great day for all of you and we love you all very much!! Thanks for your contributions to our lives and the lives of those around us. Also thanks for giving us such beautiful babies to kiss on!! I have a good many to meet when we get back!!! =] I can’t wait!

New Ventures

 

We decided to try and plant some veggies!! Most of the flowers I bought, aren’t looking so hot, so I wanted to try something else. Our broccoli and cauliflower have broken soil now and are looking pretty good!! Also our strawberries are doing pretty well. The plant our neighbor gave us isn’t fruiting as much as the other one I bought at Make-man to accompany it. Also a pretty picture of one of our new hibiscus bushes that our landlord put in. They all seem to be different colors, but I’m partial to the coral colored ones.

 

Also wanted to mention that I got sick of the abundance of plastic grocery bags in our drawer and decided to go all fabric!! so now I keep this neat little pouch with me stuffed with fabric grocery bags. They sell them at the 100 Yen store here, so it was a pretty cheap and easy switch.

There hasn’t been much going on here lately. Josh finally graduated Sgts. course yesterday so I’m (kinda) glad to have him home, joking. Very glad.

Cupcakes Galore!

I made a new apron today!! I cut most of the pieces and sewed it all in one evening. May not look like a lot of work, but it certainly felt like it! I’m hoping to do some kitchen towels to go with it! You can’t tell from far away but it was sewn with a hot pink thread that shows up pretty well on the brown! I hope I can keep up with this productive streak and get those towels done this week! Didn’t have a better way to display my apron for the picture, but you get the idea! Also you get another candid of Lily in the process!

Bathroom- Check!

Thanks to Erin for telling me about picasa now I can make fun photo collages!! Here is one for our new bathroom set. The towel turned out really well. but I can’t say that I’m really in love with the sink-skirt. It did do the one thing I wanted though, and that was make some storage space for extra toilet paper!! Every time I take pictures it seems like Lily has to be somewhere in the mix. I hope I can continue on my productive path! I even got another project done tonight, I’ll post it separately!

More Personality

I wanted to give our blog a little more personality, and Josh even okayed it! I really like our new personalized banner at the top, it only took me forever. Hope you like the new look. Also thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for all of the comments and Mama Kim. =] Glad to know you guys are keeping up with us. Now that we have a fully functioning blog (hopefully the comments still work), what would you like to know more about? I spent today rearranging my blog with Erin, so I hope I can finish my bathroom set tomorrow. Here’s hoping!

Note: this is also a test post. The previous post has been reformatted into a way that I can’t change. It’s kind of running over it’s borders and out onto the polka dots, please excuse it. And in the new banner there are pictures of me, lily and Josh but when I access it on my phone it cuts their pictures off! I still have some work to do. Guess I'll have to make it smaller again =[

A new space

So aside from quickly killing my flowers, I’ve been rather busy babysitting. I made almost $300 for my three days and am glad I won’t have to see 5:50 am anytime soon. For some reason when I keep really busy I get home and yearn to be productive. I’m redecorating the ‘toilet room’, it’s a little boring and feels like you’re stuck in the back of a warehouse. Even though I really enjoy the industrial minimalist feel of the house there are a few things that are bugging me. The ‘toilet room’(only referring to it that way because there is no bath present) has no storage for things that could be rather useful to store in there. It would be rather handy to keep extra toilet paper, toilet cleaner, and maybe a few unmentionables at close reach. I decided that I would make a curtain type thing to velcro underneath the sink to use the space. I’m giving it a shot, and I also thought I would trim a hand towel in matching fabric here are a few starter shots of my project. This is not yet finished, but hopefully it will be all done by tomorrow *fingers crossed*. Side note: the fabric is Clematis by Amy Butler, she’s the reason I decided to start sewing. Such gorgeous fabrics and patterns, hopefully I put them to good use!

  

If you made it this far you’re probably wondering about my dying flowers. I am too honestly. My hydrangea wilted on day two(no, not dead, but not gorgeous anymore either), I’m assuming from too much direct sunlight. I thought I had it in a nice shady place, I suppose I was mistaken. A few of my others aren’t doing so hot either. Today was a rather gloomy rainy day and I’m afraid it did nothing for my flowers at all. I hope they don’t have root rot, I have a tendency to over water. Also, our neighbor told us we are getting hibiscus bushes along our other fence! I’m pretty excited about it, hope we can keep our yard in good shape for now! I know a few of you are excellent with plants, any tips other than not overwatering and abiding by the info on sunlight exposure? How’s about plant food? Help a clueless woman out.

Going to give this a shot

  So my Grandparents and my Mom both have green thumbs, and it’s never really been my thing. Lately I’ve become a little engrossed in the idea of gardening and growing things for some reason. So this morning Josh and I headed to Make-man to find some things to plant. I’ve identified all but one of them and I’m thinking it’s some sort of Japanese wisteria. We ended up with a pink and purple theme that started out unintentionally. Josh even got into it and picked out two of them! My favorite are the hydrangeas, and if I can keep them alive for a bit I have a feeling I will go back to get more. I’ve made myself a spreadsheet with their names, amount of sunlight, pruning habits, helpful plant food, and watering habits. Let’s hope I don’t have a brown thumb!! =]