Merry Christmas.

December is chaotic. And also filled with lots of fun stuff. I tried to find time to face to my PC for while many times but I didn't make it so far. It is another busy day today. Christmas Eve. I just want to say everyone Merry Christmas and thank you for supporting me and my creativity. It is a quick post but is with a lot of pictures of our Christmas.

Home made fresh Christmas wreath of 2012.

Our Christmas tree is in the family room this year.

Vintage wooden ornaments sent to Japan.

Christmas thank you present for the bus driver and the teacher.

School Christmas concert.

Dressed up in her Christmas dress.

We went to Chicago last weekend to celebrate our anniversary and Holidays.

Lights on Michigan Avenue.

Christmas breakfast at Macy's (previous Marshall Field) Walnut room.

We had so much fun at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Thank you so much for your support for this year. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New year. Hope to see you soon after Christmas!

November look back

I can't believe its already December?! And its already the third? Where did my November go? I know, it is the busiest time of the year. I have been saying the same phrase every year.

This weekend, Nina will be in a big ballet production in the town. If you are a long-term reader of my blog, you must remember that she participated "the Nutcracker" ballet as a snowflake. This is her third Nutcracker stage and she is going to dance an Angel. We have already been busy for rehearsals and the first performances in New Buffalo in Michigan last Saturday. Also I've been making products for my shop and consignment. And just like most of you are, I am busy preparing Holiday gifts and decorations. Oh well, I think I just wanna look back now what my November was like with pictures I took. And take a deep breath to take myself back to push through a couple more weeks.

Beautiful frosty mornings.

Before the frost kills my pretty flowers in pots, I took them in the living room. They are still blooming beautifully and more flowers are coming.

 November 9th was our 10th anniversary. We were invited to the nice restaurant by my parents in law, and we had a big good dinner. I had a Kobe beef steak. It was so delicious. And a piece of rich chocolate cake was a gift from the restaurant. We had a lovely night.

I finished knitting a pair of socks. These were an anniversary gift to Tim. 

Oooops! A little to long for his feet. But I love the pattern which is made automatically by the yarn. And this wool is very soft to the skin. I want make a pair for myself with the same yarn in different colors. It seems not to be happening though. Let's hope the Tim's pair will shrink a bit after a wash.

 One beautiful day, we went nature walking.

And went to the Snite Museum of Art in Notre Dame University.

 We say in Japan "Fall for Art". Which means Fall is the best time of the year to appreciate Arts.

I love Art museums. That is one big thing I really miss in Tokyo. There are so many good museums in the big city and I was able to see the best arts from around the world.

 

Observation day at ballet school.

Making flower brooches for consignment.

I enjoyed making a Ginger bread house with Nina.

Those walls and roofs of the house smell so yummy. Daddy said "I wanna eat them right now!"

I did a Furoshiki wrapping demonstration at Junk Evolution again for a group of Holiday gift shoppers. They gave me a fresh Christmas swag from the Farmers' Market to me. It is hanging on my front door now. Very lovely gift. I love it.

We bought the Christmas tree today at a fire department. It is a fundraiser for breast cancer. They had good trees and we got a very beautiful one. It is already decorated and sitting in our family room. I really need to make a nice tree skirt this year. (It should have happened many years ago!) I hope I can share some photos of our tree and what I am working on in my studio soon. And hope you guys will survive enjoy this busy week as well. Happy December!

Unique felt brooches

I made some unique felt brooches for my Etsy shop. "House and tree" brooches and flower brooches.

I have been enjoying making various houses with different types of trees, and little heart warming scenes. I hope someone will consider these will make very nice Holiday gifts.

A tall house and a tall Christmas tree.

A house with a red door has snow on its roof. 

 A red barn and an apple tree.

 I added a couple of flower brooches in the shop too. You can get felt sheets in many colors. As I said so many times, it is always fun to play with colors.

These are all available at my Etsy store Harujion Design. And you can see more images of these items in my Flickr pool. Happy felt crafting and Holiday gift shopping (under $30!) !!!

Velvet clutches / a bit about fabric manipulation

I have been playing with fabric manipulating technique these weeks. I made a few clutch bags with beautiful velvet which I kept in my stash for years.They are now for sale at my favorite store Junk Evolution in downtown South Bend.

This technique above is one of common smocking stitches called Honeycomb stitch.

On this one, I did some pleating.

This one is also one of smocking technique. This kind of smocking which makes chunky folds on surface is particularly called North American smocking or Canadian smocking. You might have seen those on vintage decorative pillows.

These techniques probably look hard to do, But actually not. Complex effect with pretty simple work. It is such a great execution.

I also featured vintage jewelries in these pieces. These rhinestone pins gave me a hint of a new idea. Adding a large bow on the top of the purse.

This sunflower jewelry was a piece of earring. I remake it into a brooch. I matched the zipper color with the center of the flower. Purple and brown was not a famous color scheme. I am amazed to find those two colors go along well pretty much.

This one has a silver brooch of two lovely flowers. It is fun to find a good combination of different materials in one work.

Thank you for reading. Hope you had a good veterans' day weekend as we did. Happy fabric manipulation! 


***These items are currently not in my Etsy shop. If you are interested in purchasing one of them, please email me to [harujiondesign at gmail dot com]. I will send you back more information about the product.