Memoirs of the Summer #1

We came back from Japan last Tuesday. Our four weeks vacation in Japan has been over. It is always a little sad when I have to say Sayonara to my dear family and friends in my home country. The weather in Japan this Summer was extremely hot and humid. It went very close to 100°F in the area where my family live. There are some other places have gone over 100°F. After we came home it was very cool, even cold in South Bend. That made my lonesomeness grow a bit more. But awhile later the Summer came back so that cheered up my feeling and helped us coming back to our ordinary life.

A new school year just started this morning. It is always exciting for Nina to have a new teacher and new class mates. I am very sure that she is going to have another great year. I will get up at 5:30am every weekday morning to prepare her lunch like I did last year. I am glad we recovered from our long jet lag by today! (Pheeeew! It took so long this time!)

I was away from blogging for about three weeks. So I would like to update what I wanted to share with you during my absence. I am going to write some more about Japan in a series of posts later. So I'll just share my memories of this Summer today. (I don't wanna say the Summer is over, but sadly, I guess it is almost coming to the end. )

Before Nina and I went to Japan, Nina attended to three different themed acting camps at our favorite South Bend Civic Theater. Nina is getting interested in acting and theater activities more and more since her first appearance in "The little mermaid. Jr".

This is the picture of Nina's first rock climbing. My husband took her there so I wasn't there. He told me Nina surely got good balance and physical strength. I agree.

Nina also attended to the trampoline camp. I am sorry that the picture below looks so out of focus. The observation seats were very far from the area they performed. It must be hard to tell, but this is a photo of the big moment you don't want to miss!

We enjoyed the magnificent evening view of Down Town South Bend.

Then watched fireworks in a  beautiful Summer night.

After we came back from Japan, we went peach picking to a farm in Michigan. Peach season is almost over. But there were really ripe ones left. They were small but very juicy and sweet.

We got a box of good treats.

I also bought a pound of basil too. My whole house was filled with the yummy scent of basil.

Homemade peach pie. Doesn't look so beautiful but that tasted gooooood!

Homemade basil pesto. I made two small jars of pesto from a pound of basil.

I tried some spreading on toast. It was so super yummy! I'll make a simple pasta dish with this for the next!

OK, that's all for today. Sorry you ladies (and gentlemen) who expected some crafty subject in this post. I will post the next one soon and there will be a bit of crafty elements. Thank you for reading such a long post. I hope you are enjoying the rest of your Summer (if you are in the Northern Hemisphere!) .

Material shopping trip to Shinjuku (in Tokyo)

I can't believe that we only have ten days left in Japan. I didn't plan many things to do this Summer because my schedule in Japan usually tends to be congested and I get very tired. But material shopping to Tokyo is crucial to me. So I went for it last Saturday. The destination was Shinjuku. There are two large well known mass-sales craft stores close to Shinjuku station.

 I usually take trains which go along Tokyo Bay to Tokyo from my home town. This is the view from the train window.

The view of the east side of Shinjuku Station. 

There is "OKADAYA" about three minutes walk away from the station. They have good amount of various fabrics. Especially materials for making costumes and clothing.

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This picture of the train trucks is taken from 11th floor of TAKASHIMAYA Department store. That is on the South side of Shinjuku station. There is "YUZAWAYA" in this building. It is a craft store chain in Tokyo area.

Oume Highway goes in front of Shinjuku Station South exit.

This year I got some colored lacy crochet threads. I like the quality of Japanese yarns. There are many choices.

Japanese Sewing books.

Cute prints of Suzuko Koseki.

Basic Polka dots.

Soleiado is a long seller series in Japan.

Bias tapes made of Soleiado fabrics.

 Naniiro Double Gauze.

Liberty print seems very popular in Japan as well. The store was showing beautiful products made of Libarty fabric too.

I forgot to check who make these pretty floral prints. They were very attractive.

My favorite material heavy weight felts. They are 2mm thick. You can get 3mm thick ones in rolls. Very handy.

It seems needle felting is still in trend in Japan. I saw many of super cute needle felting kits.

These are some of my purchase this time.

And I keeps making things. This motif is made of the thread I got here.

If you are planning a trip to Tokyo and need information about material shopping there, please let me know!

Thank you for reading such a long post! I hope you enjoyed it. It is hard to find time to write now, but I will try to update my days in Japan. I have a lot more to telly you!