As you are aware, we had the worst earthquake in Japan recently. I will donate my works to this event, I'm afraid that I will not be there on the day as we have a small baby and a child.

My son's birthday is coming very soon and I was thinking about those 'goody bags'. There are many not lovely items in shops everywhere..so I decided to make something for girls. I'm very pleased with the resolts! I haven't got any great ideas for boys so I will end up buying from shops, buy at least I made quite nice things for my friend's daughters..hope they like them..I will make some more and put them in my shop!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and new year. We had a great time in north London and it's been wonderful spending time with our neighbour. I also want to say thank you for those came to see me at 'look mum no hands' craft fair in Dec. I had such a good response there and met interesting people there. I sold all buffs (this is cyclist's scarf. My husband Paul is mad about cycling as you know..) so I will be making some more very soon. This is the book I have bought for Juntaro as one of Christmas gifts. It has amazing graphic and we love it very much.

Thank you very much for coming to see me in Phoenix garden in September. I have met lovely people and had a great time there. The time is flying and already it's October. Our new baby is almost 3month old! I started to make some plans for Christmas items and having a craft fair before then. I will make Christmas cards, lavender bags, and new jewellies as well. Please keep checking my website...meanwhile this is my recent favourite carrot cake! Yum.

I will be having a stall in this fayre on 4th September Sat! Please come and see me.It is in central London and this is the website.

http://www.thephoenixgarden.ik.com/home.ikml

My elder son is on summer holiday, so we are having a great time in London. As we just had a new family last month, we are not going abroad this summer. I didn't know that having two children is quite hard...( I have some friends have 3 or 4 children! Wow..), but it's also lovely as well. Whenever the new little one is sleeping, we try to do something fun like this cookie baking or art. This is Nigella Lawson's recipe and our favourite.

Yes, I have been absent for long long time. I had a quite hard pregnancy and finally delivered our new family. His name is Kazumi (Paul picked this name, and we really love it. Mostly it's girl's name in Japan, but we like the sound very much.) Compare to the pregnancy, the delivery was quick and I recovered really well. He is 3 weeks old and growing so fast. At the moment it's hard to find the time to do sewing but I already miss it very much.

Recently I have finished this quilt and it reminded me that how much I love hand quilting...I am not good at machine-quilting though. I have tried several times and it doesn't suit me and I found it very stressful. Hand quilting takes so long but this is something I really enjoy. When I started quilting (oh, dear it is about 10years ago), I though I never finish my quilt, but with practice and patience I have managed to finish quite many quilts now.

After this long long winter, spring is on the way! It's been very warm and lovely this week in London. I even managed to get to West End for shopping and meeting with my friends. I wanted to get a pair of jeans but I could not find them and typically I ended up buying something for my son! In the end of the shopping day I went to buy a cupcake from Primrose bakery. I do love baking, but it is nice to get something I didn't make occacionaly. I picked vanilla flavour one and it was really delicious. The sponge was not too sweet and the icing was a bit sweet but I loved it!  

Thank you very much for coming to see me on Sun at Highgate craft fair. It was such a bittery cold day, but I had a great day. I met lovely artist there as well. It's always interesting to see other artist. I'm hoping to do it again in May when they have a big festival in the park. These are my new brooches, I have made them with some spring colour to cheer me up!

This is the book I have picked from my local library the other day. I actually picked it purely from the cover. I liked this picture and graphic and in fact I really enjoyed it very much. I got this tip from my friend Eri and it often works quite well. I used read only classic in Japan and again Eri introduced me some modern Japanese authors ( now I love Banana Yoshimoto, Kaori Ekuni etc.) So how do you pick a book?

I have updated my shop today, so please take a look. There are some new items and something spring feel. I also made more brooches and hope to add them in my shop this week as well. We had a half term last week and it was great. I took my son to swimming and met up with some of my friends and their children. The next big holiday will be Easter and we will be visiting Japan.

These are the buttons I was given by Sally the other day. Yes, they are my little treasure!   Apparently they are spare buttons some of which came with her clothing in the 80's. I was looking at them and discussing them with my son (who also loves buttons so much) and we never got bored. I also wondered about some of the 80's outfits that these came from. I'm planning to make some accessaries using these as well.

I will be attending a craft fair again in Highgate! It's called Lauderdale arts and crafts on 7th March 11am-6pm http://www.lauderdalehouse.co.uk. I will be selling new items and a sample sale as well. I have been making some rattles and bibs for babies etc. I really hope it will be a nice warm spring day. Please come to see me if you are around the Highgate area on the day!

It's very cold here again...(well it's winter, so I shouldn't complain.) . Also I have a cold as well. I have been very lucky and haven't had a cold since last summer. I guess that I have been busy on my work and catching up with my friends a lot. ( I love it! ) So I will take a break this week and tidy up, do some more creative work at home & some baking! It's a bit of a shame that my son is not too keen on home made cakes etc. His favourite sweet is actually Tic Tacs! Paul and I end up eating my cakes...

My friend Julie brought this bouquet for me the other day as a thank you for my help during the recent snow. The flowers have beautiful scent and the colour combination is just how I like it. It really makes  me feel very special and I'm  thrilled. I took Japanese flower arrangement  and tea ceremony courses  for years in Japan when I was in my 20s. I loved both courses because it's something where you relax and observe time and the changing seasons. I learned about the delicacy of Japanese culture and history.  What I learnt is still with me and I use the essence in my life in England.

We have a big cleaning day at the end of the year in Japan. It's the busiest time of the year in Japan as we celebrate New Year's day rather than Christmas. Mums and housewives get so busy, shopping for the special meal and getting ready. But they still manage to get the cleaning done as well. In Europe they do spring cleaning, I find this makes much more sense because it's warm and dry and it's a quiet time of the year. Being Japanese I still felt like tidying up at New Year too, but I could not find the time, so now, gradually, I've started my late cleaning and tidy up. I will clean this lovely machine today.

Happy new year. Here we still have a lot of snow in North London. It's really cold, but I prefer snow to frost anyway. And everything stops! The trains, school & local shops etc. You feel like you must slow down and have a break. In 2010 I will try to do some more screen printing when the weather gets warmer, and I will make some more jewellery with fabrics and baby items. I will also try to attend more craft fairs as well.

I have been very busy for Christmas fairs and working for some orders. I really had a good time to meet lovely people. The weather was not great but I enjoyed it. It has been so wet last 3weeks in London. Finally it's dry and slightly warm as well. I even feel like to get out and do some gardening today.

Well, it's nothing to do with the Xmas or the weather, but these are the my favorite polka dot fabrics. I have been collecting them over the years. They are from Japan, America, England. It's amazing to see how different designs you get from this fundamental simple design.

I just had a confirmation about it. It's such a short notice, but I'm really excited about it. It's in Waterlow Park in Highgate, and my favourite park as well. This is a beautiful period house and I'm honor to have a store there. I will be selling my usual items, Xmas stuff and some sample sales as well. If you have a chance to come to this area this Sunday, please come and see me. It will be Sunday 11am-5:30 22nd November www.lauderdalehouse.co.uk

The perfect address for me! Paul spotted it when we were around in Columbia Road. It's really small quiet street and I'd love to live there one day. It's so cold and wet here now. The winter is coming and the problem is this darkness. I do rely on natural light for my photo shoot as I don't have that professional lighting equipment with me. (I wish there is something small and not so expensive.) So these days I'm always waiting for the sun comes and get ready and photo done!

As previous lavender bags were popular and I have sold them all, so I have made some more! Some of them are made with Liberty fabric as well. And I have added handmade cards and some bibs for babies as well. Please take a look. I'm very happy to give you some discount if you buy 5 cards together, please email me. It's very cold here in north London, but it's a beautiful day. I did some gardening this mornig and I feel really refreshed and good.

This is the sweet shop Paul used to go when he was little. The amazing thing is that this shop is still very popular and always there are some queue even outside!!   It's great this traditional shop survive well and of course I love it! I used to go to Japanese sweet shop (called Dagashiya) when I was little with my pocket money and I used to buy strange colourful sweets.

I'm getting ready for Christmas fair. It will be interesting to sit down and sell my stuff. I'm very excited to see some of my friends as well. I will be selling Christmas cards,cushions,lavender bags,dolls,Christmas stockings,scarves etc.And I made this bag for my stall. I have used Paul's old pair of jeans. It's so cold this week in London and getting dark day by day. Making my stuff keeps me calm and happy.

After the lovely break at English country side, I made some cards for sale. I will have Christmas fair at local school in north London. If you are interested in that, please email me. I will give you the detail. I will be selling small gift items for Christmas like cards, lavender bags, cushions etc.

My son wanted to do some origami and these are the creations! I'm afraid that I'm not so good at it. There are so many different crafts in the world. I do love most of them and I suppose that sewing is my thing. I have done pottery, felt making, dyeing, screen printing, embroidery, machine knitting, hand knitting etc. Screen printing is still a favourite of mine as well, so I'll be making some printed things when the weather is better.

I went to the knitting and stitching show at  Alexandra Palace with Jenny on Friday. I have been going to this event for almost 10 years. I loved the university students' selected textile work. They always have a very high standard and they're inspiring. There are more and more young students coming to this show and I think this is great. Knitting has been very trendy recently and I'm not sure about quilting's popularity which is a bit worrying.

I made some doll's bedding! It was really good fun and I could not stop smiling at them. When I was a little girl I spent most of my time with my dolls. In Japan they are called 'Rica-chan'. I'm afraid that I don't have any dolls left from my childhood. I used make kimono and clothes and bags for them with various fabric. I didn't have any sewing skills then, so I just wrapped and taped them! I really wished I could sew and make them properly. After many years it's good to be doing this now.

This is the scarf I made for my son, I thought it would be nice to show how it looks. It's getting colder and darker in London now. We all need scarves and gloves! I have used fabric from BEYOND FABRICS, www.beyond-fabrics.co.uk. (see my blog on 21st Sept) The back is wool 100% and the front panel is made out of 3 different fabrics and a vintage button for the finishing touch. Originally these are for boys but I think they look very chic for girls as well. Don't you think? I have added more items to the shop as well. Please take a look.

This another photo from last Wednesday. It's 'the phoenix garden' www.thephoenixgarden.ik.com it's tucked in behind the phoenix theatre on Charing Cross Road. It's a great place to rest after a busy day shopping in London. I prefer here to Soho square as it's not so busy and commercial. The locals come here with their lunch and it's a very important place for families who live in central London as they have no private gardens. The garden has a very English and wild feel to it which I try to re-create in my own garden. They have family events here in the summer too.

I have created this little space to show my works at home. This is the smallest room in our house and I've displayed my work everywhere. My friend Pashla came to shop for Christmas. (Yes, it is already October and Christmas is coming!) It was really nice to talk over Christmas gifts with some coffee. I do really appreciate other people's opinions, they are interesting. Everybody has a different idea about what they find beautiful.

It was a wonderful weekend in London. I still don't believe its October this week. It seems this week is also nice, so we should enjoy the weather. We went to Trent park on Sunday. It was great to walk around & do a little bit of 'autumn watch'. How great to get fresh air and just look at the trees. I never get bored from it. The smell, texture & lines...so inspiring.

These are the scarves I have made on Friday. I really enjoyed making them, but I feel I should have gone out to get some fresh air. It has been warm and lovely this week in London. I found it very hard this time of the year because it is getting darker & cold. Although we went to NY for this summer, I do love English summer. The time I really like to go away from England is November for me. It's sill beautiful today (Sunday now), so I will make sure to do something outdoor today!

It was a very busy weekend for festivals in London. (And I'm quite late to update these news.) We went to the Japanese Matsuri in Spitalfield market and also watched some of the Tour of Britain in Westminster on Saturday. We also went to the Food festival in Green lanes on Sunday too. There is an amazing Turkish restaurant called 'Antepliler' (46 Grand Parade, Green Lanes), and they do the best Turkish cuisine. (Thanks to Elif and Albert who introduced us to this place.) If you ever come to Green lanes, highy recommended!

It's harvest time! I love gardening and eating our produce very much. This year we had swiss chard, spinach, spring onions, tomatos, salad, potatoes, beans, blackberries, figs and many different herbs. I was also given some Victoria plums and cooking apples by my friends as well. We're almost self sufficient!  

The summer holiday is over. My son is back to school and life is going back to our normal routine. We are very fortune to have some of our family in America and this summer we had an amazing holiday. Thank you very much to Jo and Mark (my sister-in-law and her husband). The fact is that we enjoyed being with them more than anything else. Going to beaches and BBQ and chatting....NYC is a great city and we would love to go back there again! 

This is the window display from Barney's NY.   I still remember that when Barney's opened Tokyo branch, and I went shopping there about 15years ago.   ( I was so excited and have bought a pair of brown gloves. ) They have grown up quirky style there.  

I was walking on my own because Paul decided to take Juntaro to Intrepid museum.   It was a bit strange to be on my own as I'm always with my family or friends.   But I enjoy myself very much.   I also went to Takashimaya as I was told Takashimaya in NY is very special place.   Indeed it's totally different from Japan and they have boutique feels in whole store.   I managed to have a coffee in the restaurant.

This is the gift from Paul's colleague Maria.   Yes, Portuguese Cock !   Since I saw it on TV long time ago, I always wanted it.   I'm so thrilled and love it so much.   The colour is so vivd and wonderful and very inspiring for my work as well.   Thank you, Maria !

These are my birthday treats from Paul. They are from Sketch in London and I always wanted to try some. I'm not keen on coffee or chocolate sweets, so these are the choices. I really loved all of them. They had delicate flavour not too sweet. 

Hello & welcome to my blog.   Hope you enjoy it. These are this year's first figs I picked from my garden.   In fact this tree belongs to my next door, but most of the tree is growing into my garden because of the sun.   Lucky me !!!  They are very sweet and delicious.