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Satin & Organza Flower Girl’s Dress

October 3, 2014 By Chie

I made this flower girl’s dress for Kiko for my brother’s wedding last weekend. We don’t have a custom of flower girl or ring boy in Japan, so the made-up function for her at the wedding was a “ring girl”, who brought the wedding rings up to the bride and groom during the ceremony. I was not sure how she can handle it without being shy or running away, but she actually seemed to have enjoyed the task!

My brother’s wedding was the day after we came back from our vacation, so I was in such a hurry in the morning and forgot to take my camera. So today, we went to a nearby park and waited for a sunset to take these pictures.

I made the dress in matte satin and matching color organza. The organza skirt has three layers and the dress is fully lined. I added three flowers in the front chest area, made with satin and pearls. I have not posted this on etsy or my shop, but it is available upon request in any color of your choice! Contact me from here.

先週の弟の結婚式のために、フラワーガールのドレスを作りました。
表布はサテンとオーガンジー。
胸のあたりは手縫いで作ったお花で飾りました。

実際の結婚式では、残念ながらカメラを忘れて行ってしまったので、後日近くの公園で撮影。
夕方の、おひさまが沈む時を狙って、シャッターをきってみました♪

ドレスは、まだショップには載せていないのですが、リクエストがあれば、何色ででもお作りできます。
ご連絡はこちらから★

Here is a short video (35 sec) of our shoot. I enjoyed shooting with my little girl!{find me elsewhere: shop, facebook, etsy, twitter, pinterest, instagram}

Mommy’s Diary: Looking Ahead

September 30, 2014 By Chie

It’s been a while since I wrote mommy’s diary last, but I could not help putting up a post after finding these photo of my daughter taken six months ago. The photos had been waiting to be edited and saved in the hard drive but somehow got lost in the midst of busy days.

We just came back from our 10-day vacation in the U.S. That was the fastest 10 days of my life! It literally flew. I was glad that Kiko was able to meet with her daddy’s side of the family. She spent time with her gam gam (grandma), grandpa and great grand mother. In fact, I barely saw her during the trip because she was always with them.

After the trip, all of the sudden she looks grown up – talking in longer sentences, explaining her reasoning behind her actions (saying “because….”) and looking taller. With the amount of time she spends with Andy (Andy is very involved with the child raising), I thought she would be very much a tom boy, but she, for now, is super feminine. She loves doing her nails with me, playing with beads to make necklaces and braiding strings whenever she finds one long enough . I’m really enjoying having a girl.

Some of you had asked how our adoption process has been going. We are still waiting for a child. It has been two and a half years since we got approved by the adoption agency. We hope that the child will come sometime soon and are willing to wait as long as it takes!

On the bright side, we started to foster a child through a program called “friend home”. There are many kids in group home that are neither adoptable or foster careable in Japan. This blog by Sophelia explains well about the adoption situation in Japan, so I won’t go into the details, but to sum it up, the parental rights in Japanese laws are very strong, which makes it difficult to have kids up for adoption or foster care.

So for the kids who cannot be adopted or foster cared because the parents’ unwillingness to give up the parental rights, Tokyo has a program “friend home” where the kids get to experience home life by visiting certain family on regular bases for a day out or sleep over. We registered with the program last year and finally got referred to a child who will be staying with us once a month. Both my husband and I are very excited and it will be great for Kiko to have another child she can care for.

{find me elsewhere: shop, facebook, etsy, twitter, pinterest, instagram}

Philadelphia Photo Diary

September 20, 2014 By Chie

I am taking ten days off from sewing while traveling to NY, Philadelphia and DC. Here is part 1 of my photo diary. I brought my DSLR, but all the photos below were taken on iPhone 5 and edited with VSCOcam (my favorite iPhone app to edit photos with!).

{Leaving Narita airport. Love the view from the air plane.}

{Philadelphia city hall. The architecture is very impressive. They were doing construction for a long time but finally they have finished the small fountain and open area with cafe.}

{Souvenir – Babushka}

{I spent a good hour hanging out at a local super market. The varieties of things they have at American super markets are amazing. You can never get this many choices in Japan. For mere hot sauce, they have more than 20 different kinds!}

{We rented an apartment using Airbnb for the first time. We could not be happier with this cute apartment in University City, Philly. The place is well kept and is in convenient location. We rented a two-story row house with two bedrooms with two bathrooms. So much more comfortable than staying in a hotel, and we save a lot of money by cooking our own meals}

{Revisited this street in Olde City. This is where I used to sell my handmade clothes during the monthly First Friday event. I used to sell pieces for $20, and it made me so happy to see people paying money for what I made.}{Left: Ecletic purple nails Right: Egg plant as big as Kiko’s head! You never see as big of an egg plant as this in Japan.}