croque-choux

Omiyage presents

Nice things I made for nice people. They know who they are :o)
(Waving to Lilou's mommy and my daughter's friend Sandra)
This is my favorite project in Kumiko Sudo's book. Easy, fun, and quick to make too!
I love these little bags. My daughter keeps hers on her dresser and puts jewelry in it.

Another frivolous eBay purchase

"Hey honey, your sumo wrestler fabric came in the mail..."
I am too worn out right now to post anything other than my latest eBay purchase. I hope it will bring a smile to someone's face somewhere :o)

Things I tried not to buy

Not much new here... Friday was the last day of my InDesign class and we've been having weird up & down temperatures here, which probably explains why I have another headache... I am writing this between two doses of Zomig. Since class is over for now, I won't be running around blvd de l'Opéra for awhile trying not to spend any money! Here are the last 2 things that I bought: a Japanese craft magazine called "Couturier", which has a few cute ideas that I'd like to try. The first two on my list are a pea pod purse and a macramé bracelet. I also picked up this Vogue pattern. It's so very embarrassing to spend nearly 17€ on a pattern when you're an ex fashion design graduate. Le moment de honte est vite passé. It will only be more embarrassing if I mention this pattern on my blog, and then never make it. Say tuned.

Robot Jewelry

Ohmygosh, I am just SO wanting some of this adorable Japanese robot jewelry! Four Season has really cute jewelry, original buttons, and hair accessories. Oh yeah, and how about these earrings if you're not into robots, hmmm? I thought so...

Feeding the stash

It's been awhile since I've bought any fabric... I promised myself I would only look at the kimono fabric for sale on eBay, until I found a deal I couldn't pass up that is. They're just small scraps, but pretty and cheerful. Something to brighten up my stash. Luckily, the one on the left turned out to be chirimen silk.

Postcard swap update

Here are the postcards I made for the swap Myra organized. I would've shown photos of these earlier but I didn't want to mess up the element of surprise :o) Well guess what boys n' girls: the surprise is that the cards were late. I hope that the people who get these will like 'em and not be pissed off at me for the delay! I kept hesitating between making fabric postcards or paper postcards, so I made a few fabric ones and the rest with paper and fabric. The froggy cards were inspired by one of my Japanese craft books. As you can see, I'm also trying to finish up a 3-D version in felt for my son. Tomorrow I'll try and post pictures of the cards I received in exchange. They're all so different and pretty and I love them all!

The benefits of tiring one's self out

knackered [from knacker*] adj (British slang):
tired, dead tired, worn out, “I’m bloody knackered”, also broken beyond repair, “that car’s knackered”

A handy word indeed. Commuting to Paris everyday in overcrowded tin cans and sitting for 8 hours in front of a PC trying to cram a lot of knowledge into my little brain in a short time is taking its toll, but I won't bore you with the state of things (i.e. moi) here.
The good side to all of this is that I'm learning a lot (Adobe Illustrator this week, yay!!), and that I have an hour all to myself at lunch time to wander around Paris! I don't spend much of the time eating either- I just grab a sandwich or something and walk around shopping or window shopping. I haven't done this in years and I'd forgotten how many people do this on their lunch break. Okay, it's bad for digestion and I can hear you say: "no wonder she's too tired to update her blog these days!", but it's a rare treat for me to have an hour to myself in Paris. No kids, and nobody saying 'but I don't wanna go here or there' :o) Yesterday I went here and then I went back to one of the Japanese book shops I mentioned the other day, and bought this little Wachifield book! I fell in love with Akiko Ikeda's wonderful illustrations when I visited Japan about 12 years ago. I still have this Wachifield illustration of Dayan cat waiting with his suitcase in poster form on my bedroom wall. (I wish I now that I had bought other Wachifield things while I was there.) My poster reminds me of my trip and of all the adventurous cats I used to share my life with. This image is the first page of a neat little Flash animation presentation of the wonderful world of Wachifield by the way. Watch it!

*knacker n : buyer of old horses for slaughter.

Souvenir, souvenir

When I make presents for people, I'm usually in such a hurry to give them the gift that I almost always forget to take a photograph. Then I kick myself later. I once made a beautiful crazy patchwork bag for my ex-boss (who was also a friend), with black beaded fringe and hand embroidery. It came out really nice, and now 5 years later I can't even remember what it looked like... The sad part is that she's probably forgotton what I look like by now, but that's another story. People change.
Sigh... That's why I was so happy to see this little flower purse again! I made this for one of my daughter's best friends, for her birthday last year. Her friend came to spend the night last week, and I noticed that she brought her little flower bag along with her. She uses it as a jewelry pouch. The nicest thing about seeing the bag again is that I know she uses it and loves it. This made me really happy! My daughter and her friend suggested that I take a picture of it for posterity- well no, for my blog actually, so here's a photo. Anyone who has Kumiko Sudo's lovely book Omiyage will recognize it. There are some really beautful things to make in her book, and it is one of my all-time favorites.

Bear with me

The lack of updates and general chit-chat here lately is due to the fact that I finally started the training courses I mentioned awhile back, which means that I am too braindead afterwards to do much of anything. (This also explains why I am behind in my e-mail, and why my postcards are late...)

Today was my 2nd day of Quark Xpress. Yesterday my head was spinning, but today was better. I'm no longer used to commuting to Paris everyday either, which can be very trying... The nice part, besides the classes of course, is that the classes are in an area of Paris I especially like. Near the Louvre and Opera (not like I have time to go to either!), where I can find English bookstores, a fabric store, plenty of Japanese restaurants and food shops, and best of all- I discovered 2 very cool Japanese book stores in the area! I am so stupid for not having gone there sooner! (^.^#) Junkudo's even has a downstairs which is supposed to have toys and other goodies, but since they were closing I only had time to drool over all the craft books on the ground floor. I saw at least two that I am definitely coming back for, because I haven't seen these anywhere else. The place is a little confusing because the prices are in yen and you have to look up the Euro price on little flyers on the wall, but who cares. The second shop is called Book Off which I guess must be a chain store, and I couldn't believe they opened one in Paris. Why? Because it's a bookstore with friendly staff and great prices on (now this floored me) 2nd hand books, dvds, mangas, etc- all in great condition. I almost lost my mind when I found this place. I'll have to check the craft section frequently. The other day I scored this Handmade Felt book for a 2 Euros (less than 2 bucks)!

Japanese craft books

Hillary over at wee wonderfuls posted some valuable info for all us Japanese craft book addicts, and at her suggestion I'm sharing a few of the books that I have. I hope that anyone interested in one of these books will be able to find it through its isbn number, but if not just ask me for more info.

Here is the Japanese book that started it all for me. I bought this in Kyoto about 12 years ago. I could kick myself now for not buying more! This one is called "Easy Mascot Dolls to Make with Felt Fabrics n°380", it looks like the isbn # for this one is 4939 459603806. I remember making a special trip back to the department store where I saw all these craft books,
and that it was hard just picking one. Here is a little pinguin I made for my daughter from a pattern in this book. It was a little present for her first day of pre-school.

"Mini Quilts with Japanese Fabric" is a book I bought at Brentano's in Paris, where they have a pretty good selection of Japanese books (among other things). I really love this one because it has everything from mini quilts to mini sumos, and there's also a pull out pattern section that a lot of these books don't have. ISBN4-529-02734-1. I also bought this "Wafumomen Patchwork Bags" book at the same place, and it has pull out patterns too. ISBN4-529-02445-8. I like the shapes of these bags, but not all the patchwork piecing involved- I suppose they could be simplified though, to suit your taste. There are some smaller coin purse type bags here too.

This one here with the big "3OO" on the cover is very "Dear Jane" like but I have no idea what it's called in English or in Japanese. It has photos and line drawings of over (you guessed it) 300 miniature quilt blocks, each one 4 x 4 inches big. They run from cute to complicated, and quite honestly a lot of them would give Dear Jane a splitting headache! Fortunately the cute blocks are easier, needless to say, and it's also interesting to see all the Japanese fabrics the author used. ISBN4-529-03549-2.

I bought this last book here from Megumi on eBay. She sells a lot of craft books now along with all the beautiful kimono fabric she usually sells, and girl talk about good service! I think the book is called "Handmade Accesories from Chirimen". No pull out patterns in this little 7"x7" book though, and I'd say that it's not for the novice because the instructions are a little harder to understand than in your average Japanese craft book. However there are some really nice things to make in here, even if you don't use chirimen silk as suggested. I especially like this little basket bag! Isn't this cute? ISBN4-8347-6318-8.