so rusty

Yesterday, I wrote on my craft blog about this 

I have been wanting this print by Marimekko for some time now

It's called Pieni Siirtolapuutarha

I think the colors are what I like about this print.

Marimekko is a Finnish brand that I learned about while living in Japan.

AND I'm glad I didn't get rid of this book...I needed it to refresh my memory on how to sew in a lining for the bag.

I am so happy that I now have a bag with this print.
 

tsukurou

The word for mending or darning in Japanese is tsukurou.

I tried darning my socks the other day.

Many moons ago my cousin had given me this wooden mushroom to mash garlic, I used this as my darning mushroom

Bought some embroidery thread at the 100 yen shop, they didn't have black, so I bought this gradient blue and gradient orange.

Many moons ago I bought darning needles at the 100 yen shop 

Gotta work on my stitching but this was pretty easy to do and it was a nice way to save these socks from the landfill.

new bag

After two (brrr) freezing days of rain and flurries, the sun is back! (yeah!!) I spent most of the morning between several loads of laundry and making a new bag.

I ran into a few problems and the bag didn't come out as the book pictured. (Guess I'll have to try it again!) But, I think it will serve its purpose. When we moved to Japan 5 years ago, I hadn't sewed since home economics class in intermediate school, still, I had Satoshi buy me a sewing machine.

Besides food, another thing I love is BAGS, so I figured instead of buying them, I would try to make them. Since then, I have made my own tote bags which I use when grocery shopping. At the grocery stores, they give you extra points on your point card for using your own bag not using their plastic bags.

And we often take these totes with us on our trips or when galavanting around Osaka, they fold up nicely and come in handy especially when we need another bag to bring home our souvenirs or purchases.

In a couple of days, it will be St. Patrick's Day. At home, my mom usually cooks fresh corned beef with cabbage, carrots and potatoes. Since I couldn't find fresh corned beef in our markets, I decided to use canned corned beef and made another dish which we have in Hawaii....Corned beef and cabbage.

There are two ways that my family has this dish. One is with salt and pepper. The other is with shoyu (soy sauce) and sugar (we say shoyu-sugar or satojyoyu). I decided to make it the shoyu-sugar way.

Ingredients
1 can corned beef
1 onion
1 cabbage

1T sugar
1T shoyu

Cut cabbage into bite sized pieces, slice onions
Cook in a non-stick pan
After cabbage and onions slightly wilt, add corned beef
When everything is mixed and heated, add the shoyu and sugar.

An easy dish for busy people!
Enjoy! and Happy St. Patty's Day!