totoros part II

it's totoro! the soft and cuddly version...on your bento box...
and chopsticks...
and cotton gauze hankie.
all available in my little shop here: http://feltcafejapan.myshopify.com/

totoros part I

look! cute little totoro stamps! this set of 4 come with their own stamp pad, in a little case.
and this one has 2 totoros with dandelion seeds. these stamps are all in my etsy shop, and there is more totoro cuteness on the way for tomorrow...

tiny elephant japanese cotton print

this adorable soft cotton fabric is a brand new addition to my shop, it's available in these 4 colors.
the elephants are seriously tiny, about 1 cm tall.
here's the new fabric shown with the larger cotton canvas elephant print in grey, which is also back in stock (in grey only, for now).

felt food, harvest feast and sandwich

this amazing harvest feast made of felt by dana at made was the winner of the so you think you're crafty contest. via craft.
and this lovely felt sandwich was made by tania of myrtle and eunice.

these are some great blogs, be sure to check them out. and of course, i love these wonderful high quality felt craft projects, with great tutorials to go along with them.

tiny knit turkey from spud and chloë

and here's a little knitting project for november! the pattern for this cute little turkey is available for free over on the spud and chloë blog.

christmas and winter felt tutorials

i really did a lot of felting last year at christmas time! here's some of the photos in my holiday felt flickr set.

i wanted to share in one place a few tutorials i created around christmas last year; i thought i would bring them back if anyone wants to make some felt projects this winter. and by the way, did you notice that i put links to all the tutorials i've written on this blog? they are over there on the right, all the way at the top so that they are easy to find anytime!

felt candy canes-these are soooo easy, perfect for kids, beginners, parties.
little stocking ornaments-one step up from beginner, they include felting around a little resist (made of bubble wrap). this is actually the perfect project to try that, since it's small and manageable, and the final project doesn't have to fit anything exactly.



these are heart-shaped oven mitts-which also involve felting around a flat bubble wrap resist. when you are ready to try a little bit bigger project.
and a felt french press cozy-it uses a big flat piece of felt. so the felt making is simple, but again you are working at a little bit larger scale. and then you trim the felt piece and refelt the edges, so the goal is a piece of felt that is pretty uniform. you could also use commerical felt for this project.

some of these tutorials mention things that i don't have in my etsy shop right now, but if you want a custom order, it might be possible. the felt ball ornaments won't be available this year (i don't have a dryer to make the felt balls nice and smooth), but i'm planning on writing a tutorial for them, and trying some new needle felting ornament projects.

and, for anyone who likes felt, (i assume that's you, otherwise you would have stopped reading by now), you should visit the fabric blog true up, where this whole week, kim will be posting about wool felt. yay!

getting (and staying) organized

are you a list maker? i sure am! i LOVE these little (9 by 14 cm) to do list notebooks from muji. so simple, so easy. i don't know about you, but as soon as i write down what i need to do on a list, i already feel a million times more organized. and then of course later you get the reward of checking things off!this is what the notebook looks like from the outside.



this is one of the drawings from the 2010 ed emberley make your world calendar, of a very orderly house. maybe it's my architecture background (ok, i know it is) but i love section drawings.
here's the cover of the calander. i really like the square format.

both the calander and the notebook are for sale in my new shop, at www.feltcafejapan.myshopify.com. it's a shop i'm putting together for stationary and other design goods, from japan.

and this is a fabric calander, in my etsy shop. i like the japanese fabric calendars so much, they remind me of old fashioned tea towels.
my notebook and planner, from muji of course.

the good, the bad, and the googeous

special local soba noodles in niigata last month, served with a mushroom soup, and a rice ball made of wonderful niigata rice:good!
a bagel that i bought at the supermarket near my house: bad. it came with a little packet of a cream cheese like substance inside, and has directions for how long to heat it up in the microwave. i can't over emphasize how bad it was. and i knew, when i bought it that it was almost certainly going to be disappointing, but i went to the store hungry, and i really miss bagels. and my bagel standards are quite low, compared to, say, a new yorker.
an ice cream treat, with coffee flavored ice cream, topped with a layer of chocolate, nuts, and some kind of a praline-line bits: great! i was a little bit puzzled by the name googeous, or written underneath in phonetic japanese: goo-jya-su. perhaps a combination of the word gooey? gorgeous? delicious? i asked some of my students, and they said it probably meant good + something else. delicious, maybe. sadly, i couldn't find it at the convenience store the next time i went.

sewn/drawn

recently i've been noticing embroidery and stitching, and thinking about how stitches are like drawings. these soft mushrooms are from das kaninchen.
seen from above.
amazing embellished mittens and hat by dadaya
and a simple yet compelling design from moth and squirrel.

i can't fight that feeling anymore

i can't stop thinking about christmas crafts! and the wonderful things popping up in the blogosphere don't help! these ornaments,
and these,
and these! are all at rare device here, which i found via poppy talk here and more ornaments here.
there's a new ebook with ornament projects on crafypod,

and an easy elegant ornament made from simple felt circles from zakka life via craft.
and then today i saw this large scale advent calendar from gingerbread snowflakes, also via craft.

i promise to blog about other non-christmas-related things, but there may be more christmas crafts in the next few weeks! you can't say i didn't warn you.

felt, fall, leaves and scarves

elena from the etsy shop odds and ends always creates amazing and inspirational felt work, and this scarf is gorgeous!
this handknit rainbow scarf is from namolio, doesn't it just look so snugly?

this project is from raspberry fairy on flickr, and i saw it in this collection of felt leaf garland crafts, which i heard about thanks to the long thread.

ok, so to be completely honest i feel like winter is already here, or at least around the very next corner. and i am certainly already thinking ahead to some crafting for the december holiday already. but first, i wanted to take a moment to share some lovely fall and felt projects i've come across recently. and besides, the height of brilliant fall leaves here in kyoto is still a few weeks off!
ok, this one is wintery, but they are wearing red scarfs! and they are soooo cute. they are made by jesse from all things small, which is her darling shop filled with wee creatures.

stamps, lovely stamps

i found these stamps last week, and brought them home with me. this is the park set, 13 stamps on wooden blocks. i put them in my shop, but many of them have sold before i could tell you about them here!
victorian building 'downtown' set of 13 wooden stamps. but never fear, i will have them back in stock in no time. and of course, you can contact me directly if you want to reserve a set.
these little matchbox sets of 2 are also so sweet. matryoshka.
sewing.
and sweden, that's a dalahast horse and 'tack' which is swedish for thanks.

first crochet

recently, i've been feeling really inspired to try crochet. i am a complete, utter beginner, but i love the way that crochet can be structural, and how you can add to it, and how it lends itself to freeform creations. tawashi, sometimes called 'eco' tawashi, are dish scrubbies, made from acrylic and sometimes antibacterial yarn, and they've been popular in japan for a while now. their 'eco' nature comes from their ability to clean without soap (or with less soap), and also i would suggest because they last longer than sponges. so this little tawashi above is my first completed crochet project! and it actually does clean dishes really well, although i would definitely use a little soap for greasy pans.

i used this pattern from this book, natural tawashi, which has a great selection of tawashi.i'm working on the coffee cup one now.

i also tried a project from this book, which has a really nice variety of very simple and more complicated patterns. for me, it think it's going to be a book that i can work my way through as i (hopefully!) get better at crochet. and i think that done with acrylic yarn, the leaves on the cover would make a good scrubbie.
i also want to try to make some of these little baskets...and of course amigurumi is on the list!and slippers!

both of these books are now available in my shop.