every day life

Hello all!  How was the weekend?  I had a great weekend.  I finally got to go on my “Babymoon”.  I had never heard of a babymoon until I read Hanamik’s blog post about her’s. After reading her blog post, I kept telling Andy that we need to have one too. Sadly, until I explained it to him, he had no idea what it was.

According to Wikipedia,
“A babymoon is a period of time that parents spend bonding with a recently-born baby.
More recently the term has come to be used to describe a vacation taken by a couple that is expecting a baby in order to allow the couple to enjoy a final trip together before the many sleepless nights that usually accompany a newborn baby. Babymoons usually take place at a resort that offers appropriate services like prenatal massage.”

Andy and I have been busy every weekend since January.  One thing after the next. Finally, last Saturday, we made an entire day for ourselves and went on our babymoon:)

I first suggested that we go to a rural resort called Hakone.  It is an onsen (hot spring) resort  about an hour from where we live. But, Andy told me that he thought I would prefer living it up in Tokyo more than relaxing in the country side. I was skeptical at first, but he was right. I really enjoyed wandering around places in Tokyo that I have never been.

We started the day breakfast.  Andy made his (almost world famous)homemade french toast… yum!

Then went to Shimokitazawa for for some thrift store shopping. I have complained in the past, somewhere on the inter-web, that Japan does not have good thrift shops. I was wrong. If you are looking for a good thrifting experience in Japan, you should check out Shimokita!

My new favorite place is called “3 biki no koneko” (three kittens). They have a 630 yen section (about $7 bucks). There I found a really cute tulip print skirt and a great polkadot dress! The polka dot dress opens with front buttons.  the buttons themselves are glass. This dress is perfect for nursing. I will post some pictures soon! 

Above you can see my favorite picture of the day “Andy and fish”! This snack is called “Taiyaki” in Japanese, and it’s like a fish shaped waffle with sweet vanilla custard filling. Beyond delicious!

I was happy to find a  store that sold Tootsie Pops.  I was surprised to find them for sale at this coffee shop pictured below. You can’t usually find Tootsie Pops in Japan.

After our time in Simokita we walked to Shibuya, and took a break at my favorite coffee shop, Ningen Kankeion a street named Spain Valley (Spain zaka).

After that we walked to Omotesando, and walked around small shops and checked out possible photo shoot locations. We then walked to Shinjuku. We ended up walking 15km in total. How crazy is that? lol But the weather was nice, and Andy and I just kept walking while talking about all kinds of stuff.

Finally we ended the night at the New York Grill. Have you seen a movie “Lost in translation”? The movie itself was terrible, I thought, but I really liked the bar that the main character frequented during the movie. The New York Grill bar is where I took Andy  on the day he proposed me, 5 and a half years ago. It was nice to think that we ended our babymoon night at a place where our marriage life started. They have a live jazz music from 8pm. If ever you have the chance to go, it is located on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt Hotel. The view is just indescribable!

It has become our tradition to do gift exchange with $20 spending limit on occasions like Valentine’s day and Christmas. I think this tradition had started one Christmas, when we decided that it was just too much money to do something special for our wedding anniversary (12th), buy each other Christmas gift (25th) and buy our family and co-worker Christmas gift all in the same month of December.
Although it started from a practical reason, we ended up really enjoying doing this. The spending limit forces us both to be creative:)

For this Valentine’s day, I bought Andy push-up bars (not pictured) and made him a handmade T-shirt. I used his favorite Rocky T-shirt as a base. I didn’t even make patterns for the T-shirt, but just placed the T-shirt on the fabric and cut. Men’s T-shirt is so much easier to make than some woman’s clothes! Having no darts or zippers is wonderful. I finished his T-shirt in about half an hour. I added a patch pocket on the left with black and white stripe fabric, and added “Vivat Veritas” fabric tag in the back.
What do you think? Should I start men’s line? :p

Andy knew how much I love Knap jewelry, and surprised me with her handmade earrings and matching necklace. The color is beautiful, it’s a mix of purple and blue, and depending on the light, the color changes.. I’ve already worn them 3 days in a row! He also made me a handmade peanut butter cups. If you follow me on twitter, you might know how much I am obsessed with Reese’s peanut butter cups.. The reason for my obsession is not only because they are delicious but also we cannot buy Reese’s peanut butter cups in Japan. I searched everywhere for this. Different import food stores etc. I guess Japanese people are not so into the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, because I don’t really find those combination in any chocolate stores. So I was thrilled when he made me handmade ones…He made them so big they were almost like a cake! lol.

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice weekend:)
Mine was a lot of fun, busy and as always went too quick. Here is my highlight of the weekend:

1. I worked on some bride’s maid dresses order –  I love sewing bride’s maid dresses! I usually don’t like making same things over and over again, but for some reasons, I really don’t mind the repetition for making bride’s maid dresses. Perhaps it’s the excitement of someone getting married.

2. Wrapped up Valentine’s day gift for my husband♪　I have a ton of scrap fabrics that I can use to make gift wrapping pretty. I cut out a piece of left over fabric in a heart shape, glued it on top of gift box and tie the boxwith yarn.

3. My husband and I had a pregnancy/maternity photo session with our photographer friend, Will Robb. Will shot my A/W2010 lookbook in the past and is an amazing photographer! Can you believe he is a self-taught photographer?!
The photo session lasted five hours, but it felt like it was only half an hour. I can’t wait to show you the finished photos soon!

4. Finally I started working on Casey‘s 1940’s swing dress sew-along. I’m soo behind! I printed out the patterns, and will be assembling them tomorrow, whereas Casey and others already made muslin, and about to cut the fashion fabric. I really need to catch up!

How was your weekend?

By the way to celebrate Valentine’s day, I am offering 15% off for blog readers and twitter followers at my shop! Please use a coupon code “Valentine15″ at check-out. The coupon code is valid only for today and tomorrow!