Origami Mommy

Tutorial: A doll's bike seat

I commute everywhere here with the girls on a bike with me, the way many moms do in Japan. The commuting bikes used here are called "mamachari" and they have child seats on the front and the back, so that you can put a baby or toddler in the front basket while your older child rides in back. There's a steep learning curve when you are commuting with two kids, as the bike is pretty heavy (I'll have to take a photo one day), but it's a lot easier to navigate the narrow streets here on that than in a car. 

Anyway, M really wanted to put a bike seat on the back of her own bike so she could pretend to do what I do, so we whipped one up pretty quickly. Here are basic instructions. We made it plain, because there just wasn't a lot of time to decorate, but you or your child can do whatever you want to spiff it up!

All you need are two pieces of rectangular cardboard, around 11 x 14 inches or so.

Fold one near the middle (I think I folded mine about 2/5s of the way down), and then use scissors to cut about two inches in on either side.

Fold up the sides

Fold it over as shown in the photo, and use staples or tape to secure. 

To attach it to your child's bike, take the other piece of cardboard, fold it into thirds and tape it so that it's firm,  and then attach this piece to the bottom of the seat you just made. Then tape the other end to the bottom of the bike's real seat. (I had to tape around the seat a few times for it to stay on there. I also cut a little notch in it so that it would fit snugly around the pole underneath the seat, but you can do what works for you.)

You can add on a seat belt, a bar, or whatever you want. We made a crude makeshift helmet out of leftover cardboard, as you can see on the bunny.

Let me know if you try this project! And don't forget to check out this giveaway (until Nov. 5) if you want a chance to win some Japanese stamps.

Home birth in Japan

A friend of mine - a French woman whose son is in the same class as B. - just had her third baby here in Tokyo. She had a home birth. My third baby, M., was also born at home.

M. with one of our midwives soon after her birth

My first two births were very good experiences, although the labors were very long. I had those babies at a birth center in the U.S. The first birth felt particularly special because I had been hospitalized with a complication for nearly a month from 33-38 weeks. To have been able to birth my baby as I'd hoped to was unexpected and very sweet. I think it's likely that had I birthed in a hospital back home, the births would have been hurried along in some way, since the pushing stage in the first labor was four hours and not much shorter in my second. 

The day before we moved to Japan, I found out I was pregnant with our third child. So one of the first things I did when I got settled in was look for a midwife. 

There are many options for birth here. Usually women birth in a hospital, clinic, or birth house. I think the culture here probably supports natural birth better than back home, regardless of where you choose to birth. (I birthed my fourth baby in a Japanese hospital - and someday I will tell you that story, too - it was quite similar to my birth center births). The vast majority of my Japanese friends have had unmedicated births (in hospitals), so much so that it's utterly unremarkable. That I've had four babies naturally is taken for granted here; even the discomfort of labor is not spoken of that much. Among my friends here, birth isn't not spoken of with particular pride either - it just is what it is. Women give birth - their bodies were made to give birth - that's the message I hear, here.

I've also met quite a few women who have given birth at home. Here's the cover of a book written by one of them, my friend Ito Emiko, who blogs here. Her husband took photos of their fourth child's home birth for this wonderful photo essay:

 

I had no real reason to fear unnecessary interventions or a high c-section rate if I chose a hospital here for my third baby, but I decided to look for a home birth midwife. 

Having a home birth here was such a wonderful experience on so many levels. It was, of course, amazing to be able to labor and birth in my own home. I felt extremely relaxed, and it was good to know my boys were nearby, with all of us in a familiar environment. I'd woken up in the middle of the night in labor, called our midwife, and even baked a cake (inspired by a friend of mine who had baked a pineapple upside down cake in early labor). I loved being able to putter around in my own home during labor. Labor moved so quickly that I forgot to put eggs in the cake!

It was really interesting to compare midwifery care between the U.S. and Japan. There were many more similarities - the focus on emotional, not just physical, care for a pregnant and laboring mother; the way pregnancy and birth are regarded as natural processes; the midwives' quiet, unobtrusive presence once active labor begins. One of the main differences I noticed had to do with diet. My Japanese midwife focused a lot more on what I ate than my midwives back home had - not weight gain, but what I was eating. I was advised not to eat anything that would chill my body, particularly my midsection. There's a tremendous emphasis on keeping your midsection adequately warm when you're pregnant, based, I'm guessing, on traditional medicinal beliefs about keeping your core warm. Many women wear belly warmers, even in summer. The other area I was advised to keep warm were my feet and ankles. Almost all the Japanese pregnant women I saw were wearing leggings and socks, even in the heat of summer. I was advised to do moxibustion on my inner ankles every day. I was a total skeptic at first, I'll admit. I've heard of moxibustion being performed to help breech babies turn, but it was hard for me to find information about it really helping promote a smoother labor (although the inner ankle points are the same ones used to help induce labor naturally via acupressure). But I figured it couldn't hurt so I tried it for the last few months. And I did start to tune in and notice which areas of my body were feeling cold . 

In any case, my girl was born within five hours. What a happy morning that was!

My friend Jennifer reports on homebirth under fire in the U.S. It makes me sad - especially given my perspective and experience about how normal and unremarkable it seems to be to give birth naturally here - that birth is such a fraught, contested issue back home. 

I'm fascinated by how birth is regarded around the world. What sort of birth options are there where you live? What's the dominant cultural message you hear about birth? 

Water Safety

One of the things I find overwhelming as a school parent in Japan is the sheer amount of paperwork that comes home. In front of me I have an info sheet reminding me that today is the annual "fall into the swimming pool with all your clothes on" so the children can learn how to save themselves if, well, they ever fall into water with all their clothes on. Isn't this interesting, that they do this with the kids every year? My husband says he only practiced doing this when he was training to become a lifeguard.

Here's the list of things the boys need to pack in their swimming bags:

navy blue school swimsuit 

swimming cap

flip flops 

swimming card (on swimming days we are supposed to take their temperature and record it and sign it and send it in. No signature, no swimming. This is a challenge for me since I almost never take their temperatures and hate having to add one more task to the morning rush)

an extra set of clothes

Shoes (this will be a tough one, as the boys only have one or two pair of shoes each and only one of those are sneakers. They're not allowed to wear crocs to school - too much running around/recess/gym class)

a two-liter empty water bottle (to use as a float?)

an empty plastic bag with no holes in it, plus one or two more for carrying wet clothes home

Swimming is taught in Japanese school, and during summer vacation the pool is open for swim class during the morning as well. Kids take swim tests to move up through fifteen different levels. I think this is generally a good thing, although the water is freezing apparently. My Japanese friends are surprised to hear that most schools in the US don't have their own pools (I don't know of any at all, in fact). Swimming is a part of the national curriculum here.

Here's a photo from the annual "pool opening day" - every year there is a little ceremony with speeches and skits (including role playing what NOT to do around the pool - some of the older kids pretend to fool around, much to the delight of the little ones), then the kids go into the pool for the first time that school year. The ones in yellow hats are first graders - they're the only ones who don't go into the pool on the first day.

 

The first graders are wearing their gym uniforms, too - white tops with navy bottoms. Usually they wear a red cap instead of the yellow hats. There's a fondness for hats here!

Notice the lovely urban backdrop? That's what life is like in Tokyo. I am envious of those of you who have a nice view out your windows. Enjoy it.

Here's a photo of some kids walking home on one of the quiet narrow streets that abound here, on their way towards the bigger streets. The first graders (in the yellow hats) also put a yellow cover on their backpacks so that they'll be more visible. The little tiny bags hanging off their backpacks are bags containing their lunch mats (placemats) and a toothbrush. I don't remember carrying either of those to school when I was little. 

 

Our boys learned to swim from us (in fact, I remember teaching B to swim when we went on a vacation in Japan and my husband remarked on how many little toddlers he saw who were able to swim). I once tried to enroll D in a Japanese swimming class that several friends were taking their children to. There were so many children, and so few teachers, and it just wasn't a gentle approach - felt more like a factory. I pulled him out because I felt in my gut that that particular class wouldn't at all suit him. Now he swims like a fish, and I'm wondering how we'll teach our daughter M to swim. She's 3 1/2 and she seems fearful of the water, but water is one of the things I feel really worried about until I know my kids are able to stay afloat on their own. 

Tell me about swimming where you live - how do most children learn to swim? How do you talk to your kids about staying safe around water? Any thoughts on helping my daughter learn to become more comfortable as she learns to swim?

Free-range kids

A few days ago, the school held a safety class for the children, followed by an information session for parents. At this class, they were given this pamphlet:

and taught a few moves and tips for being vigilant as they walk to and from school. They were reminded to do things like stay aware, look behind them, and look alert, not daydreamy; keep a certain amount of distance between themselves and the next person; use their very loud safety buzzer (each child keeps one on his or her backpack) in short frequent bursts if they feel someone suspicious is nearby. They did a lot of role playing of various scenarios and were taught how to use all of their senses to empower themselves. Parents were given tips too, all of which were new to me and very, very interesting.

Here, children begin walking to school by themselves in first grade, which means ages 6-7, usually in little groups of kids walking together. They are also taking public transportation such as trains or buses by themselves. Kids also commute to lessons and to meet friends in the park. They have regular safety classes at school where they learn about traffic safety.  They do this whether they live in the city and have to navigate traffic lights, or in the countryside walking on isolated roads or through rice paddies.

There are parents who don't start quite this young, depending on how far the school is, but after being here for so long I've gotten quite used to the common sight of little ones walking around on their own in their little school hats and backpacks. There's even a well-known children's book called "My First Errand," about a little girl who walks to the neighborhood store to buy a carton of milk for her mother. "I can do it," she tells her mom, "because after all, I'm five!" She has all sorts of little adventures - running into a friend, tripping and losing hold of her coins, getting to the store and finding it hard to speak loudly enough to get the owner's attention, forgetting her change - but she is proud of herself at the end.

 

 

Mission accomplished!

This is one of the things that I feel makes life feel easier for parents here, when kids can go around on their own. Imagine, no carpools, no traffic and stress. No trying to juggle schedules for siblings with different activities (made worse by the fact that schools often don't get out on time and classes end at a different time each day).  Of course, I have seen parents who go to meet their children at school to pick them up, or walk them part way till they get to an intersection with a cross guard. But the overwhelming majority of kids go about on their own. 

It probably takes a certain amount of faith in the universe to say goodbye to little ones in the morning and trust they'll be home later on.  But I think the little kids here doing this every day are becoming savvy about things like traffic and finding their way around, and know what to do about minor problems like getting caught in the rain. I remember when feeling conflicted about this (and in many ways, as a bicultural parent, I still do), talking with a friend from the U.S. about this. She said that when parents are overprotective, they only think about the theoretical dangers they are protecting their children from, and not the sense of adventure, of competence, and the survival instinct that young children who do this are able to develop and hone. A Japanese friend tells me that Japanese returnees - Japanese kids who spent time in the US - are known to have trouble finding their way around when they first come back, because they didn't learn how to develop a sense of direction. 

It's a controversial topic, I know. And I know there are many differences between U.S. and Japanese society that come into play, too many for me to attempt to make any generalizations about the way things should be anywhere. But I see this same sort of letting go in smaller ways too here - in the way that, from a very young age, parents encourage their children to work things out on their own rather than having an adult intervene, hover, advise in their interactions and problems. For better or for worse, these are some salient differences that have really jumped out at me as a parent in two very different countries.

What's it like where you live? At what age do you see children walking around on their own? 

Japanese school food

When we went back to the U.S., one of the things that we experienced culture shock over was the food. Home, school, and institutional cooking is so very different here - it's also pretty different from the stereotypical Japanese dishes you get in Japanese restaurants in the U.S.

Here's the menu for my kids' public school lunch here in Japan over the next few days:

Vegetable fried rice, tofu and kinoko mushroom soup, spicy bean sprouts

Chilled udon with tofu, soy bean and sweet potato fritters, fruit with rice flour dumplings

Bibimbap (a Korean dish - rice with mixed vegetables and an egg), tofu and wakame soup, a plum

Somen noodles with chicken croquettes, chilled boiled komatsuna (a leafy green vegetable similar to spinach), corn, and "Tanabata" gelatin (made special for the Tanabata holiday coming up).

Yukari rice (yukari is a Japanese herb like sesame leaves or basil), whiting fish in a miso/mayo glaze, vegetables in sesame dressing, miso soup

French garlic bread, minestrone soup, cabbage and corn salad

Barley rice with yukari pickles, gingery pork saute, daikon and wakame miso soup

Rice, edamame, mackerel croquettes with grated daikon and soy sauce, clear soup, braised cabbage

Summer vegetable curry, daikon salad, and homemade peach sorbet.

Note that 1) dessert is a rarity (usually it's a small portion of fresh fruit if anything), 2) the food is heavy on grains and vegetables with only small portions of protein, such as small fish (low on the food chain) or side-dish-sized portions of meat, 3) they strive to introduce children to a variety of cuisines (though rice, and Asian flavors, do predominate, and 4) everything is made fresh. The fully-functioning kitchen is on the first floor of the school and our children personally all know the people who make their food. 

Dining etiquette is a pretty big thing here too. The children take turns serving each other in their classroom and then all sit down at tables in their classroom and wait until everyone is seated to begin. I like that the children are taught to sit down to appreciate their meal instead of eating it on the run. They bring their own placemats. They're expected not to waste food, but to eat everything on their plates. Pickiness is strongly discouraged. Everyone cleans up afterwards together - clearing plates, wiping tables, bringing dishes back tthe kitchen, cleaning the floors. Despite how one might feel about some of the etiquette taught in schools - I'm not in favor of every aspect of it and some of it might be considered downright rigid -  at the very least, it's been a chance for our kids to learn that foods - and not just food, but food customs and food culture - are different all around the world. And, sad to say, they've noticed a few things about food culture back home - such as the preponderance of kids' meals and the generally unhealthy offerings for school lunch. (Although I just found a great Facebook page about school lunches done right: School Meals that Rock).

We've never been able to live somewhere where we could cultivate a garden, so I've been happy that here, in most nursery and elementary schools, children grow and harvest vegetables - D brought us baby eggplant a few days in a row and proudly cut it up and served it, and when daikon was in season he brought baby daikon for us to sample.

My kids also gained confidence cutting up vegetables in nursery school - there's a yearly event at which the oldest kids in the school prepare curry lunch for themselves and their parents. 

It's not just in schools that you get freshly prepared food. When I had my fourth baby here - my first time giving birth in a hospital - I was nervous about having to rely on someone else for food but frankly, it was a lot tastier than what I could have managed for myself! Look at these photos:

 Okay, the green beans in the first photo look terribly overcooked, but everything else was fresh. 

And a final photo here is M eating the Japanese version of fast food at a food court in a mall - simple udon noodles.

No place is perfect, and certainly it's not like that here either. We got into a white bread habit that we can't seem to shake (white bread, or "shokupan," is the most commonly found bread around, and white rice and white noodles, as you can see above, are also pretty standard fare). French pastries are hugely popular, as are convenience store treats like Pocky, and of course there are still plenty of other unhealthy options. There's less acceptance of different ways of eating or things like food allergies and intolerances (though awareness of that is growing). And fast food restaurants do abound (the same food court where M ate those noodles has a McDonalds and Mister Donut too). There are some food "rules" I still don't understand, like the disdain for raw produce (considered too cooling for the body), but overall I feel like living here has helped influence us for the better in many ways when it comes to our eating habits and food awareness.

So to sum up, some key values are:

the importance of eating together, sitting down and appreciating your meal.

shopping daily or frequently for fresh ingredients, in small amounts, and less reliance on processed foods. Protein is served in small portions; vegetables predominate.

serving snacks and sweets in very small portions. Traditional sweets rely on sweetened bean paste or rice although there are modern, sugar-laden treats as well.

I'm excited that there's a food revolution brewing in the US - it's so long overdue. In addition to checking out School Meals that Rock, take a look at these two blogs - their commentary on current kid/food matters always inspires and informs: LettuceEatKale: Musings on Food, Family, Friends, and Growing Greens and SpoonFed: Raising Kids to Think About the Food They Eat.

What's the food culture like around you? If you have children who go to school, what's the school food like? What do you like and what (if anything) do you wish you could change, and what do you do to encourage your kids to eat healthfully?

Japanese Sweet Potato Cakes

It's fall harvest season in Japan.

We've been eating persimmons, chestnuts, apples, and of course, sweet potatoes.

We could eat these all day long. Field trips in the fall to harvest sweet potatoes (oimo hori) are a common activity in kindergarten, and I still remember our children getting on a bus, and coming back hours later, covered in dirt and proudly carrying their bags full of sweet potatoes fresh from the earth. I miss apple picking back home in New England terribly - it's something we did every fall with the boys before we moved here - but I am so glad they get to have this sort of experience while living here.

One spring, they even got to plant sweet potatoes at our homestay family in Gifu-ken, and they have also planted them on the garden in their kindergarten, along with many other vegetables.

The other day our homestay family sent us a wonderful package of freshly harvested sweet potatoes and chestnuts and lotus root. Plain, roasted sweet potato, or yaki imo, is the best. It is less sweet than the sweet potatoes, or yams, I grew up with. It's a beautiful golden color (you can also get purple ones these days) and the taste is reminiscent of chestnut. You can roast it at home in an oven at 400 degrees for a wonderful plain after-school snack, or, if you live here, you can purchase it from the "yaki imo" vendor who makes his rounds in the neighborhood in the fall.  I will never forget lying with my newborn daughter the day she was born and hearing the distinctive sound of the potato man in our neighborhood. Such a Japanese fall sound for me, forever linked now with the lovely memory of a peaceful birth.

In addition to plain roasted sweet potato, I like to cook it in a vegetable braise, dice it and roast it with olive oil and herbs, make caramelized sweet potato (daigaku imo), and bake sweet potato cakes. Sweet potato cakes are a wonderful way to enhance the sweetness without going overboard. Here's a photo. A recipe follows, and I'll try to post a recipe for daigaku imo too sometime in the next few days.

Japanese Sweet Potato Cakes

Sweet potatoes, about 2 medium or 400 grams 

40 grams butter (about 2-3 tablespoons), softened

70 grams sugar (about 1/3 of a cup)

One egg yolk

2 T cream

Flour

For flavoring - a splash of rum, or a generous teaspoon of vanilla essence, or cinnamon. We love vanilla.

One more egg yolk for brushing on top of the cakes before baking.

*Note: All measurements are approximate and leave much room for flexibility! I'm not much of a measurer. A few potatoes, a dollop of butter, a splash of cream - this is how I bake these and it turns out fine. These are more forgiving than other baked goods. So don't worry about this part too much and definitely don't feel you need to race out to buy a cooking scale! I happen to own one because Japanese recipes call for them. 

Directions:

Roast your sweet potatoes in the oven until they are soft, then cut in half and scoop out the insides into a bowl. If you mix in the butter right away there is no need to wait for it to soften, as the heat of the potatoes will do it for you. Mix in the egg yolk, cream, sugar, and flavoring of your choice, and mash all together with a wooden spoon until creamy. Kids love doing this part! Now add enough flour to bind it all together so that you can mold it without it losing its shape. Add flour only a little at a time, because you want the dough to remain creamy and soft. Some recipes don't even call for any flour at all but I think it is helpful. I probably added about 1/2 a cup in the end altogether.

Put your cakes on a greased cookie sheet (I usually use parchment paper instead of grease) and then brush the tops with egg yolk. Pop them in the oven at 350 for about 15-20 minutes, and enjoy! 

If you can't get Japanese sweet potato where you live, perhaps this would be good with butternut squash, pumpkin, or yams. 

What are your favorite ways to cook with fall harvest vegetables and fruits? I'd love to hear. 

Bento lunches and a giveaway

I read an article in the New York Times recently about the growing popularity of bento boxes for packing lunch. My boys had bento lunches for 3 years while they attended Japanese kindergarten. I was daunted at first but started to enjoy the process after awhile. A few rice balls (onigiri), some vegetables (sometimes frozen edamame just tucked into the lunch box and perfectly thawed by lunchtime), a small portion of fish, meat, egg or tofu (sometimes using leftovers from dinner the night before, sometimes using frozen food sold for this purpose), and then a bit of fruit for dessert. Once I got into a rhythm it wasn't all that overwhelming. Japanese mothers sometimes put a lot of effort into making bento lunches attractive for their children, but I don't think that it really involves that much more time than making a sandwich.

There are a lot of quick and easy ways to make food appealing-looking to children. Keeping portions small and having some variety and balance is important. One trick is to have small cookie cutters on hand. I have tiny flower-shaped cutters which can cut carrots into flowery shapes, and I also have these contraptions that are like paper punches, which cut nori (seaweed) into shapes to sprinkle on top of rice. However, most days call for simple and fast preparation.

We usually have rice every day for dinner, so there is often quite a bit leftover for lunch. Fried rice is really easy to make - best made with cold leftover rice - and you can throw just about anything in there that you like. In Japan it's common to flavor fried rice with ketchup, but I usually use garlic and a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil for something that tastes more Korean.

My children's kindergarten asked parents to provide a little lunch mat (preferably handmade), and then the children stacked their utensil sets and their little bento boxes on top. They also brought their own little cups to school.

Our babysitter and my dear friend often helped me out by making bento lunch for my sons, especially when Mia was a baby and mornings were hectic. Here's an adorable one she made, much to my son's delight.

Another thing that is really useful are these little picks:

We still use them all the time when serving cut fruit, etc. One or two can be easily tucked into a bento box and make lunchtime a little more fun for your little one.

One more thing that is pretty neat are rice ball molds. These help you form rice into cute little shapes that you can then decorate (if so inclined) to make little faces. I confess I didn't do this that often, but when I did have the time the kids were delighted.

The molds come in two parts. Take it apart, fill the canister with rice about halfway up:

and fit the two parts back together again to smush the rice down into the canister.

Then, take it apart again and turn the canister over. On the bottom there's a little flap you can press on to gently nudge the rice out. It should be formed in the shape of a little bear's face.

So.....big moment for me, I am going to do a giveaway of these picks and molds! I am so appreciative of all of you who come by and visit, read, subscribe, and comment, and I'd love the chance to send these out to one of you. 

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is comment on this post down below and mention what is your child's (or your) favorite thing to pack for lunch. The giveaway will last 2 weeks and end on October 11th at midnight EST, and then I will send these items to the lucky winner.  The one caveat is, that is so close to my due date, that there may be a delay in sending - but I won't forget. :-)  Good luck.

The clearest river

We're back now from our trip to the countryside. We were in a village called Gujo-Hachiman, which is where DH and I first met years ago. It's famous for clear rivers, fishing, and rock jumping.

Afternoons were spent at the river, where soothing water sounds and glistening rocks were the best therapy for our city-weary selves.

I was amazed by the simple beauty of rocks under cold river water. I gazed at them all afternoon and the children gathered them for their little games and pretend play or just skipped rocks in the river.

We stayed in an inn where my husband did his homestay when we first lived in this village. We always stay in the same beautiful room facing the mountains.

I lugged along some of my handcrafting (of course!) and completed a few little "sarubobo" (courtesy of Mairuru), which I've since found originate right near this village, in a city just north of here called Takayama. Such an apt coincidence.

The boys had their summer Japanese homework to do, and Mia always drags out her "work" when they are studying or drawing. It's really adorable to see 3 little heads bent down in concentration like this.

Now we are back, and getting ready for end-of-summer guests and the start of school. Hopefully that means I'll have finally have time again for a new origami or recyclable tutorial for you soon!

Tutorial: A bouquet of paper hyacinths

Daniel came home from school a few weeks ago clutching a little bouquet of flowers he proudly presented to me. They were super-easy to make, as he showed me, and you can make a lot of creative decisions to make this project your own - size, color, type of paper, etc. I tried lengthening the flowery part and they came out looking like hyacinths (or some other similar type flower - I'm not really good with flower names, so if you can help me out here please do!)

I love the possibilities here - made with construction paper, they have more structure and shape; made with tissue paper, they are airier and lighter. You can see examples of both in the first photo of this post. I'll demonstrate below with origami paper, but I love the look of tissue paper flowers too.

Begin with two pieces of paper, one for your flower and one for the stem. Any size, as long as it's roughly square.

Start rolling up the stem paper as tightly as you can into a little paper roll. Secure with tape. I cut my stems in half to get two stems out of one piece of paper, but you can leave it as is, of course.

Take your piece for the flower and fold it in half, then fold in half again, or else fold into thirds. Really, you can fold any way you like, as long as you have some closed-fold sides to cut into later.

Daniel folded his like the picture above, but to get the hyacinth look, I found it was helpful to fold like the picture below - into thirds, slightly uneven, with two closed folded edges on the same side. 

Begin cutting through those closed folds at intervals, but not all the way to the other side, just like the photo below. Keep on cutting till you reach the end.

Now, attach one end to your stem with some tape, and then begin rolling, moving ever so slightly down the stem as you do so. Secure the end with tape.

If you use tissue paper the petals will fall gracefully; depending on the thickness of the construction paper you use you might want to tease out some of the petal layers. Other than that, you're done. Make a whole bunch and put them together in a small vase by a window - so pretty!

This last photo is of the bouquet Daniel brought to me - I love how child-friendly and quick this project is.

Sewing on Mt. Fuji

We escaped Tokyo over the weekend for a little weekend trip with friends to Mt. Fuji and a lake called Yamanaka-ko. While the rest of the group went into a hot spring and went swimming, I dug into a bag of felt and fabric scraps I'd brought along for some handsewing projects because it was so wrenching to be torn away from my sewing machine just when I'd started falling in love with it so.

Before I left, I made a new skirt and a dress for Mia. The dress was made of Japanese double-gauze fabric (which I adore - two more double-gauze fabric dresses are in the works right now), and was loosely based on the pillowcase dresses that you see tutorials for everywhere. I sewed elastic in the front and back and then made bias tape out of the material that I used in the armholes and for shoulder straps because I had no ribbon. I realize I am much happier winging it when making a dress rather than sticking to a precise pattern. I made a matching scarf out of the same double-gauze fabric with a pale pink striped cotton backing on the other side.

I also made a skirt out of a small piece of Heather Ross's Far Far Away fabric by Kokka, combined with a tiny ruffle made of Rowan fabric.

This, too, I made without a pattern. I just made each tier a bit bigger than the one on top and then used my newly-learned ruffling techniques (making a loose running stitch along the top and then pulling gently on the bobbin threads to gather) to experiment. I learn something new with each sewing project. This time I learned that I have to pay close attention while cutting fabric so I don't ruin the design - there are no whole unicorns on this skirt anywhere, which was a great disappointment!

I also made some bags - a tiny treasure pouch for Mia to carry small toys in and a larger tote bag for me out of canvas. I especially like the button detail on the bottom.

We went to a few really nice places on this trip. It was balm to my soul to be away from people and buildings. I was raised in the countryside so living in cities all these years and raising my children in urban areas has been hard for me. 

Mountains and water were everywhere and the weather was cool, although foggy. The fogginess made it challenging to take good photos, and in the end we never did get any good photos of Mount Fuji, although we drove up partway by car and then hiked a little bit up the mountain.....just a bit.

We also went to a children's nature park where they could play around in the water....

make things out of wood....that woodpile, heaven for my little boys! and saws and chisels and hammers and nails everywhere....

My brave friend allowed her foot to be used as leverage while the kids were wielding their saws...!

While the others were busy with their activities, I hand-sewed a bunch of little felt things and also got started on some embroidery at last. I don't think I was too successful with my first batch of felt mascots at all, but my children loved them and loved being able be involved in choosing colors and that's all that matters. 

As evening approached we got settled into an inn...

and then ate a lovely dinner

Sparklers afterwards....so much fun on a summer evening!