bored

thought i should post a picture of the new house (in my dreams).koichi visited this house in N.S.W australia designed by architect Glenn Murcutt.it is actually the owners second house.
today koichi went second house shopping with his mother.they want a house by the beach.id settle for this one by the pond.
hana and i took a walk around the lake next door to our house this morning at 730 am.in complete contrast to my surrounds i listened to sarah blasko and the veronicas on my ipod. the leaves of the maple trees made a roof of stars above our heads and the elderly people swept the leaves like they do every morning although usually i hear them rather than see them doing it.nothing really happened today to write about.i have come to that conclusion after sitting for too long at this computer when i could be doing something to call nothing.cleaning squashed vegies off the floor, eating the breads i bought on our walk (chocolate and ginger cake-did i say bread?) and what i really want to do is cut my hair which right now feels more like a straw broom and i dont need another one of those in the house.really what i want to say is i am bored shitless.

lamingtons

left overs from afternoon.not leftovers actually because i didnt begin to eat them.
the red cubes are a really intense strawberry jelly.the blue waves are a candy with real gold foil sparkles and the fish are very sweet dissolve in your mouth and make the green tea not so bitter kind of traditional japanese sweet sweets.

camera cord

its a hodge podge (whatever that means) of images taken over the past few days

kitchen window, despite the weather there is always a rainbow

that room at night becomes one big futon where hana rolls around and at 5 am crawls all over us

little girl with teeth

this morning

friends

we went to an exhibition on the weekend of artists who use masking tape as their medium.we could buy beautiful coloured tape which they had especially manufactured.the hot pink was irresistable.

hana is not impressed with the hat thing

and thank goodness for my neck she has taken to the pram :-) her neck seemed fine when she woke up too.

green

as always when i come back to japan from drought stricken australia it doesnt stop raining.although our house isnt a traditional japanese house actually its not even a house..the windows here do frame a beautiful green view of the adjacent park.hundertwasser was right in saying that colours are so much more vibrant and beautiful on rainy days.
its quite humid here and the only thing to enjoy about that is the smells coming out of and lingering around my box of essentail oils.
i took little hanny for a walk today, she was fascinated by the umbrella.not sure if fascinated is the right word but she did a good job of getting us both wet. i was so happy to find organic frozen peas at the supermarket. she hasnt really eaten peas and with her obsession for all things small and edible i couldnt resist. when we got home and after steaming them it was such a pleasure to drop them on her tray and watch her pick them up and eat them. that was today's highlight.watching her little fingers dancing with green peas.

here

well its been a long time between posts.so long in fact i dont know what to write.
and the cameras broken and the baby has a cold so i shouldnt really be here right now.

print

it took me a week but i have finally tested out the print goco machine i bought from a flea market last weekend. i forgot how much i love the suprise each time a print is made and how addictive it is.as for the design it is very similar to something i made before called junglegym and well i couldnt get a really clean and clear print so i decided to go with the grit and embrace it.no idea what i will do with all these papers but gee it was fun. hana gave to about 20 minutes of printing pleasure and it was definately long enough to get that little fire in me burning again..



i wish i could say hana looked this happy after i had tried to distract her with one hand as i printed with the other but she didnt. i am happy though to show you her beautiful smile which i finally managed to photograph.her big cheeks are rosy and so much water runs from her mouth but those little teeth are still hiding away (deeply?) in her gums.

cucumber

i had my camera at the supermarket today and couldnt resist this.just what you want for valentines day right? heart shaped cucumbers.......koichi actually loves cucumber especially pickled.the thought should stop there.i wont buy a innocent cucumber forced into being something else and then further torment it by pickling it.

snail

i just lost a verrry long post about nothing in particular but i have no time to write about nothing in particular again so in brief......
have two pouches and one sling.
hana loves being carried allll day.
back is broken.
pouch is adjusted and worn correctly.
hana is just heavy.
back is broken.
search long and hard for the right pram.
conditions being must be light, can be pushed facing to and away from baby, storage space.
see kate spade pram (for maclaren).
fits none of the above conditions.
is green blue and white primarily.
is quilted fabric.
has a very cute appliqued snail.
bought it.
hana doesnt mind it but still wants to be carried.
today pushed home empty pram and carried happy hana in sling.
pram becomes trolley and walking stick on wheels.

Hana Hana

little hana and her new friend that her obaachan bought for her after insisting on their similarity.....they both squeek..
today i completely exhausted us both by travellling across town to take back my new coat as the button fell off. only after i unsuccessfully tried to swap the coat for a new one as the button cannot be replaced did i realise how small a button is in comparison to how tired i became.i dont care the button is missing. our energy is far more important. buttons are sooooo small.

Elf

Well she isn t quite an elf but i had to write something to do with christmas...actually this post is about her pants.and they are green...
i found this great site (which i would give a link to if i knew how to) that taught me how to make baby pants from old sweaters.so this is my attempt.the arms became legs and the turtle neck became a belly warmer. i bought the sweater at a fleamarket for 50cents-yen. now all those sweaters that are too small for me right now ,sitting in my cupboards, are under threat...
as for little hana these days or should i say nights..she has decided it is time to scream.i have no idea how to stop her.tonight i had to laugh at myself because i was explaining to her that even though i screamed just like that when she was born i had a very good reason and she cant just scream for no really good reason. its just getting too cold to put her in the sling and do blockies.

not melting

if i were home i would be melting....but im in japan and its freezing.its also nearly christmas and my homesickness is amplified at this time of year.starbucks christmas carols just doesnt do it for me.
my camera has about 400 photos on it so to download anything will take an afternoon and i only have minutes because it is daytime and hana knows it is daytime so she knows to sleep only 20minutes maximum.so todays photo is from my mobile phone.i spent a week sitting at the kitchen table meticulously cutting away at coloured contact to make tiny christmas decorations for our big tree.sometimes it feels like i have no time and then its like i have all the time in the world.

change

hana has a new change table.actually she didnt have an old one.she has wet my futon 2 days in a row so i think an easily wipe downable aluminium table will suit us better.she loves no nappy.and she loves been up on this table surrounded by all my bits and pieces.today her favourite was possibly the windchime.

her feet

day and night

my breakfast banana and strawberry smoothie was extra nice to me and gave me a smile, it knows i am not sleeping.

perhaps the lack of sleep had something to do with finding the ultimate baby shoe pattern and really wanting to started on it, hence sewing on the snap buttons by 6am. my baby has hardly any clothes, no bed, no blankets but it will have warm feet.

look at this cake made by hiromi san for the soccer party last night. unfortunately i was too full on curry rice to eat it. the grass was green tea powder, it smelt wonderful.

friends

thankyou to our friends for a very special dinner on sunday to celebrate our marriage and pregnancy.our small apartment now looks like a flower shop thanks to you, new beauty from colours and smells.
recently i have had so much on my mind the weight of it all has slowed me down prematurely. but over the past few days i have managed to cross many words off the list: visa, flight,hospital visit...
i made my first toy? for baby from koichi and my sweaters.it was supposed to be an owl but many people have called it other things.this is good, the kind of toy i would have liked to make, one where it becomes what the viewer sees..i wonder what baby will think it is.

running stitch

up to

magic

sweet confetti

these are little individually bagged sweets (conpetto and smartie like chocolates) i bought in kyoto.i wish i could stop eating them for long enough to admire the amazing colour combinations that occur in this 5x4cm bag.lucky i have a camera.

kyoto easter

easter came and went quickly. only happy memories and severe constipation remain.koichi and i made a last minute decision to go to kyoto for the weekend.the highlights are endless the photos not many..we went to a craft market at chionji temple, not the eucalyptus smelling kind of market i grew up with and loved but the atmosphere was the similiar.
lots of pickles, pottery, kimonos and cakes. warming chai and relaxing massage.didnt matter about the rain and wet feet...i will never find a pair of water proof shoes..
i found a house i would be more than happy to take off the owners hands.

along the sakura lined philosophers canal we walked to the hundertwasser exhibition!
ahhhhhhhhh... the pictures oozed beauty, dripping down the walls leaking under the doors and out into the streets painting the grey day with drenching colour.ahhhhh......................i wish everyone had the chance to see this exhibition.

from here we indulged in the food street of nishijiki market, where i ate too many tofu donuts and anything else i wanted to compensate for missing my yearly tradition of overdosing on easter eggs.
little did i know i would also do this when i got back to tokyo.easter koala and rabbits actually.the eggs were last week.......

now i wait for the beautiful green linen i bought yesterday in tokyos own sydney road brunswick, nippori, to dry before i make a tent to accomodate this daily growing bundle of bouncing, turning ,squirming ,delight in my belly :-)