Hand towel apron for my girlfriend

Hello all :) It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Southern California and I'm enjoying every moment of it.

I especially love Saturday mornings because our girls are off to their Japanese language school every Saturdays, and after I pack their lunches and send them off to school in the morning, I can have the house to myself, so peaceful and quiet... although I have to pick them up at a little past noon :P   (My hubby usually works on Saturdays.)

今日は土曜日。　南カリフォルニアは今日も良いお天気です。　

我が家では毎週土曜日の午前中は娘たちが日本語学校へ行くので、朝お弁当を作って送り出した後は一人でゆっくり家で過ごすことができます。　といっても、昼すぎには迎えに行かねばなりませんが、今はこの時間を満喫中です♪　

（夫は仕事です...。）

Anyways, today I want to show you the handmade apron that I recently whipped up for my girlfriend's house warming gift.  This apron is made of hand towel so it's super absorbent and very convenient to use. I use mine all the time when I cook in our kitchen.

お友達のお引越し祝いにこんなエプロンを作ってみました。タオルでできているのでとても便利なエプロンです。　私も炊事をするときにはいつも使っています。

The ties and the pocket are made of scrappy patchwork made from my stash. 

エプロンのポケットと紐部分はパッチワークでまとめてみました。

Do you remember this cherry stamp that I hand carved from an eraser recently? I stamped it onto the ribbon tape and sewed it on to the side of the pocket as "side tag".  I think it adds the *zakka* feel to the apron...

 先日けしごむはんこで彫ったばかりのさくらんぼはんこを綾テープにスタンプして、ポケット脇に縫い付けてみました。

  

I selected light blue and navy colors to match the light blue/white polka dots hand towel.  Hope my girlfriend likes my handmade apron :)

 水色ｘ白のタオルに合わせて、ポケットと紐部分も水色と紺色でまとめてみました。　お友達がこのエプロンを使ってくれたら嬉しいな。

Before I gift wrapped the apron, I took a quick pic of my twelve year old being a model here. 

ギフト用ラッピングをする前に、長女（１２才）にモデルになってもらいました。

BTW... her height is now the same as mine (5'1" or 153 cm) and she continues to grow like a weed everyday! My younger girl (ten year old) is also growing at a high pace, so I can see myself being the shortest girl in this house in the next few years (or even months)... :P  Shall I stop drinking wine and switch to milk all at once?   lol!

長女の身長は今では私とまったく同じ１５３センチ。次女（１０才）も日々成長中でこのままではあと数年で（あるいはあと数ヶ月で）この家の中で一番のチビは私になってしまいそうです・・・。 私もワインばかり飲んでないでそろそろ牛乳を飲むようにしたらいいのかな（笑）。

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Hope you are enjoyoing your Saturday morning.

今日も遊びに来てくださってありがとうございます。皆さんも良い週末をお過ごしくださいね。　

Colorful handmades

Just wanted to share you some of the colorful things that I made recently...

I made three sets of these puffy ribbon ponytail holders and matching covered button bobby pins in red, pink, and light blue.  They were made for our friend's three young daughters, ages ten, nine, and five (I think).

知人の3人姉妹のお嬢さんたちにカラフルなリボンヘアゴムとくるみぼたんのヘアピンセットを贈りました。　色は赤、ピンク、水色。　姉妹で仲良く使ってもらえたら嬉しいです。

And these are quick doilies / kitchen scrubbies / coasters that I crocheted from 100% acrylic yarns from Japan. I like the dusty colors of these yarns.

こちらは隙間時間にちょこちょこ編んだドイリー？アクリルたわし？コースター？

つまり何にでも使えるシロモノです。笑。　毛糸は日本製なのでアメリカの毛糸と比べると、少しくすんだ色合いが気に入っています。

 I used Japanese yarns that I got from our local Daiso, which is a popular dollar store from Japan. (Well, actually, because of the current JPY yen exchange rate to US dollar, most items cost $1.50 each at our local store).

アクリル毛糸は近所に出来たばかりのダイソーで購入しました。　ダイソーは日本では百円均一だと思いますが、こちらでは円高の関係でほとんどの商品は一点$1.50 の価格で売られています。

I enjoy making things that are colorful. It really works like therapy. I can feel my spirits go up as I create colorful items :)

カラフルな毛糸や布を使ってハンドメイドをするのは楽しいです♪　カラーセラピーとでもいうのでしょうか。作っているうちに気分がどんどん明るくなっていくのを感じます。　

Hope you continue to enjoy your weekend.

皆さんもひき続き良い週末をお過ごしくださいね。

Cherry stamps

This afternoon, I carved out a small cherry stamp from a piece of eraser using

X-ACTO knife.

今日は小さなさくらんぼの形のけしごむはんこを彫ってみました。

 The size of the stamp is quite small. It measures approximately 3/4" x 3/4" (2 cm x 2 cm) in size.

今回彫ったのは小さめサイズのはんこで、約2センチｘ2センチの大きさです。

And I was inspired by this to carve this cherry stamp...

今日、なぜさくらんぼのはんこを彫ったかというと・・・。

Yes, fresh rainier cherries!! It's that time of the year and I love these sweet, tasty, fresh cherries from our local farmer's market.  I like to put plenty of them in a bowl and keep it handy on my working desk so that I can munch all day long:)

こちらでは今がさくらんぼの旬！私は特にこのレイニア種（ワシントン州産でしょうか？）が大好きなので、この時期はボウル一杯にさくらんぼを盛って一日中食べ続けています♪

My hubby got these cherries, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and other fresh fruits from the farmer's market this morning and I can't be happier. (He likes to go shopping every weekend to please his family like this :)

毎週末、うちの夫は早朝から近所のファーマーズマーケット（朝市）へ一人で出かけて、さまざまな果物を買ってきてくれます。　今日もこのさくらんぼのほかに、苺、メロン、ブルーベリー、白桃、などなど買ってきてくれました。

 

Hope you're enjoying your Sunday afternoon! 

皆さんも楽しい日曜日の午後をお過ごしくださいね。

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Note: Starting this post, I decided to post in both English and Japanese. I know that majority of my blog readers do not read Japanese, but I figured that my mom (who lives in Japan) checks my blog regularly and I want to do this for my mom... So I hope you bear with me ;)

今日から、日英両語でブログ更新してみることにしました。　日本に住む母が当ブログをチェックしてくれているようなのですが、母は英語を読めないので、しばらくは日本語でも表示してみることにします。　

Tea time mug rug

Hello all! Sorry for the weeks of absence from the blog :(

 I had been busy... and I can't believe that we're already in June, which means that year 2012 is almost half way over... Talk about flying time!

To me, it seems like it was Christmas and New Year only a few weeks ago... Or even last September seems like yesterday when our girls' new school year began...

But in reality, there are only FOUR school days left till our girls' long summer vacation begins, and obviously, they are super excited about it.  While their momma is trying to finish her pile of work and errands as much as possible before the start of their summer... phew.

Anyway, what I need now is a good cup of tea to relax and rewind. This is a close up of the "tea time" mug rug that I whipped up a while ago.

The word "tea" and the steam lines from the cup are hand stitched with embroidery floss.

For backing, I used yummy cakes fabric and quilted with my sewing machine.

 I designed this tea pot and the cup myself and machine appliqued onto the linen front.

 After this mug rug was completed, I was totally happy with how it turned out, enjoying my cup of tea, looking at all the details of this project... Then I found out that I forgot to stitch around the inside of the pot handle!!  Awww... I did it again!

Can you see the unstitched lines below?

Well, it's too late to stitch these lines now, after the binding and everything is finished... (sighs).

But I guess that's okay, as long as I have my favorite chocolates to go with my cup of tea.

Would you like to join me for a cup of tea and a chocolate, and check out on my unstitched lines of my mug rug (lol)?  You are always welcomed to do so!!!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you're enjoying the beautiful days of June :)