Haniwa, Terra cotta clay figures

I like Haniwa, especially the dancing ones like above picture.
The Haniwa are Terra cotta clay figures and were buried with the dead to decorate their tombs(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haniwa).

I like the face, which looks like "The Scream" of Edvard Munch, and their dancing hands.
Today, I tried to sew plushes of Haniwa, and I made three of them.
But,,, they didn't appear what I expected... I tried to make their face with embroidery thread, buttons and a black fabric. But I couldn't make cute faces...

I'll try again to make better one!




Now, I'm wondering how do I do about these three...
I don't want to put them besides my bed, because they are decoration for tombs...

A bag for my grandmother

Today, I sewed a bag for my grandmother, for her birthday present.
I like her very much from when I was a child. I often visited her house till I was a university student, but now I live very far from her.
So when I go back to my parents house, I usually visit her too. But at the last time, in August, she was not so good and I couldn't see her.
I know she is old now. So I want to see her and talk with her as much as possible.
It's very precious for me talking with old people. So when I stayed in Italy, I visited a lot of old persons lives there. They like talking a lot and they taught me a lot. One of them was 94 years old!
Once, when I and my sister were waiting for a bus in Sicily, an old woman lived near the bus stop came to us and brought two chairs for us. We told her that we had to wait for more 3 hours. Then, she began to talk with us. At that time, I couldn't speak Italian well and she could speak only Italian(My sister could speak only Japanese!). So we couldn't understand her story very well but we enjoyed very much. It was a very peaceful time.

When I think of my grandmother, I remember a lot of old persons I've met in Italy or in Japan. When I was making this bag, I was thinking of them.

Recipe of the Udon with Sesame Miso cold soup

I'm trying to explain how I make the soup for the cold udon.


a half of cucumber, 3 spoons of sesame, 10 shiso(Japanese basil), 2 spoons of miso

1)Make 500 ml of miso soup with miso and Japanese soup.(I made with dried bonito fish). Then cool it down.
1)Slice cucumber and put some salt and mix them. Then, leave them for more than 5 minutes.

2)Grind sesame seeds.

3)Chop shiso(Japanese basil).

4)Put cucumber, sesame, shiso, and the miso soup in a bowl.

5)Put the bowl in the fridge. That's all!

Then, boil the water, put some udon and cook it. Then, take udon from the hot water and cool it down with a lot of cold water.

Japanese dishes

I like cooking very much. My favorite foods are Japanese, Italian, Korean. These are best three for me.
I learned a lot of Italian foods in South Italy, Salerno. I went there for some months to learn Italian language and I stayed in a room of an Italian family. The mamma of that family is very good at cooking, so I learned italian dishes every day.
Sometimes, I made some Japanese dishes for them. They liked some of them, but they cannot eat some... One of their favorite Japanese dish is Okonomiyaki.


Today, I cooked Okonomiyaki. It contains some cabbage, pork, bitter gourd, flour, soup and an egg(In the normal recipe, it doesn't contain bitter gourd, but I like arranging the recipe). Only I have to do is to mix them, and fry in a pan.
I know there is a dish like Okonomiyaki in Korea. I also like it very much, because it has a lot of vegetables and the taste is very simple. I like something simple.


For the dinner, I cooked Japanese wheat noodle, Udon.
I made a soup with some cucumber, a lot of sesame, Japanese basil and miso(Japanese bean paste). It's very light and I could taste the noodle very well.

Every day, I do cook different dishes. I rarely cook same ones because every day, it comes a new recipe in my head. It's like my items in my shop. Everyday, I come up with some new ideas, and I have little time to make same ones what I made before.

When I was young, I didn't like that I cannot continue the same thing. But now, I know that it's my style.

Recycle? Remake???

Today, I changed my clothes for autumn and found some ones that I won't wear no more.

One of them is a knit camisole. Because of washing, it shrank and became really small, and also has a hole.. I like it very much and I wear it for more than 10 years. So, I decided to make a bag from it.

I used almost all and cut only some little pieces. The bottom is made of the rib of the camisole. 

At last, I put a cardboard on the bottom, because I bring my heavy camera every day. My bag is always very heavy.

I'm content because it comes what I wanted. 

Now, I have two old jeans of my boyfriend. They both have some holes on them. I'm thinking of how I can recycle them. It's the most pleasant time for me.

P.S.

In Japanese, it is called "remake" or "reform", but I don't know if English speakers call so. How do you call it in English?

My boom, Sashiko Hand Stitch

These days, I'm stitching with Sashiko cotton thread.
I put my favorite fabrics freely, and sew them together with Sashiko thread.
The works comes very rough taste. I like them very much.

So, to capitalize this taste, I made this bag. It seems not so strong, but it's really strong enough, because of the thick thread.


Japanese people use this thread for strengthen clothes, especially costumes for sports, like Kendo or Judo.

I want to make something new with this technique.

Oh, I love this Japanese girl's bag very much. She uses Sashiko thread and linen fabrics. The bags are really cute!
http://tehariito.web.fc2.com/
(Sorry, it's only in Japanese. Please click "shop" or "blog" to see her works.)