Update

Hello all! Konnitchiwa minna-san!

Greetings from Japan! I had amazing vacation! Very busy, very well organized. Maybe too busy, you might think. And I wonder if that's true. At times I felt like I have to stop. I have to breath in and then breath out. Relax. Live in the moment. But then again, I was too busy for that! Too many places to explore. Too many stores to go to. Too many people to see. Too much everything to have time to stop. And I loved it! Every
second of it.

Tokyo Guide Before

Tokyo Guide After

The controlled chaos. I don't think I'd enjoy chaos in India, or in China, or in any other Asian country. Other than Japan where it's strictly controlled and organized. Japan or should I say Tokyo is like me. There's chaos, there has to be because there's so much of everything, but it's also very controlled. In the case of Tokyo the control comes from outside, in the form of laws and regulations, in my case it comes from the inside. My own laws control me.

Oh, man! That's not what I want to talk about! Sorry!

The trip! That's what I want to talk about! It was all I wanted and a lot more! I was a bit lonely, though. Kind of strange, since I like to travel alone, I'm very used to it. I really needed somebody to slow me down a bit. (I'm talking about my husband, I really wanted him to be there even though I knew he would've hated it. Almost everything about it. My birthday was the worst. I even cried a bit! Lol. Silly me. I wanted to wear "Birthday Girl" pin on my chest but I couldn't find on on time. (the next day I saw one!)

Since I've been there so many times before I could skip all the tourist stuff and focus on the stuff I really wanted to do. I did go to Asakusa, though. To take pictures. And for the first time I saw cherry blossoms in Japan! The season was almost over, actually all the flowers were gone before I left so my timing was really good!

I ate well, in my own room. So strange, but that's the way I chose to do it. I ate out four times. It was a lot of fun and it was a lot of work. To locate the places I knew would be vegan or vegan friendly. Two of these places I've been to many times before, and  one of them was new to me. And that became my favorite. Deva Deva Cafe. I ate Teriyaki "Chicken" burger and a slice of cake. 

Deva Deva Cafe

Brown Rice Cafe 

I did a lot (and I mean a LOT!) of shopping. I bought fabric, dolls, toys, washi tape, stickers, books, kitchen stuff to name some.

Books!

Day 2, Nippori/Textile  Town/Paradise

Birthday presents

Nakano! Another kind of paradise!

I liked it a lot! I went to small art galleries, Studio Ghibli Museum, craft shops, big stores, small stores, stores that sell used items, stores that sell brand new items, I went to shrines, and I got lost every day many times. I walked holes on my socks and I talked Japanese!! So proud of my self about that! Not much and definitely nothing complicated.

I had two full suitcases to bring back home, it was a bit of a nightmare to get all that stuff to the airport, but I managed to do that. I kept dropping a Blythe helmet and people had to help me to pick it up, two or three times but other than that it was pretty okay.

I was really happy to go home, I had done everything I wanted, I was broke and eager to see my family.

On my first morning here we celebrated my birthday, I got a laptop! :) I had asked for garden fork but I guess my hubby thought I needed a new laptop more than a garden tool.

I've been very jet lagged for a week and a half, but finally getting back to normal. Yay! 

Okay, need to go back to work. I've had very little time to sew, I've been sleeping a lot more than I usually do, I've been very tired all time, and I have this two-month course I need to participate,  6 hours a day, every day. :( So I really haven't been sewing that much at all. And last weekend I was at Tampere, scrapbooking. 

Take care!

xoxo, 

Raisa

Advice/opinion needed!!

This is completely theoretical question...or not.

Lets say I have a son who's a teenager. We get along well, but only if I don't mind little annoying things he occationally says, like "Shut up", "Stupid mom" and so on. Nothing major, but bad behavior anyway, and something I wouldn't want my kids to say to me or anybody else. If I let it go, he'd let it go, too and soon he'd be saying things I like to hear, like "Good night, mom" or "I love you, mom". But if I get mad at him for calling me stupid he'd get mad, too and this could go on for days. In this theoretical situation we would both be very (read extremely!) stubborn. And we would end up both saying things that should not be said outloud. 

Life's a lot easier if I let little things just pass unnoticed. But I don't want my son to think it's okay to say Shut your face! to anybody, specially to a grown up. To his mother!

If this was the case in our family, what do you think I should do? Just let it go and wait if it gets any worse, or get stuck in every little word he says that I don't like and start a small war?

(You guessed it right, I'm really talking about me and my son.)

I have been extremely lazy with sewing lately, I've decided to finish at least two sleepsacks and two bags I've never made before, so I better get to work!! But before I go I want to tell you what I did yesterday!!!

A friend of mine had invited me to her work place since they have all these incredible machinery there, like vinyl cutter and 3D printer. With the vinyl cutter you can cut images to be pressed on fabric! I've probably mentioned about how important fabric and everything related to fabric is to me. I really love it! Fabric printing is something I'd love to do, but I really don't know how to achieve a good quality results, fast enough. I'm used to making stencils, but they take forever and the risk of ruining the fabric you are working is too big: the paint leaks under the stencil and ruins your work way too often. And cutting the stencil is a pain in the butt!!

But with the vinyl cutter you let the machine do most of the work!! Wohoo!! You only need to pick off the pieces you don't want to print on your fabric. And the vinyl stuff is so amazing, the colors are great, it feels good, not plastic-y at all, or maybe just a teeny tiny bit, but not bad at all.

So, I was printing some simple images yesterday at Kaupunkiverstas. I had some unfinished pieces of fabric with me (our old table cloths from our wedding :) and a memory stick with couple images. I will post more about this once I get the bags finished, now I'll just show you the result of the printing. I was supposed to be there two hours, but ran out of time so we booked me another two hours :) It was so much fun!! Now I can't wait to go there again, with more ideas to print!

I made two of these Candy vs. Animals, and bunch of Blythe con Europe bags, for customers who buy two or more sleepsacks! 

Of course I had to stop by at fabric store. Look what I found!! Cute! And so weird! I even dreamed about some of the characters (a nightmare).

Bye!! Don't forget to leave your opinion/advice on my problem!!

xoxo,
Raisa