more kurumie

As I said before.. I got addicted!!! My cousin went to japan and brought plents of shikishi... so I have suply for a long time... :)
This is my latest works... the first one is my own design... the others I took from a book.

This thing is quite addictive!! This is my last work... the first one is small and the second one is medium size.
The second one is my own design, a Maiko (geisha apprentice) in front of Toji temple in Kyoto ( a place that will be always in my heart!)

One more...

This last weekend I made another paper doll...

This one gave me a bit of work cause it has more details, but I loved the final result.
I just wanted to post the photo of this new work.

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I last posted, during this time I went to Japan... it was so nice to be back there!! I bought some craft books so I ll have many things to try!
Today I started a craft which is called "くるみ絵". I'm not sure Im doing it right, but I liked the result...

Basically what I did was copy the picture and after that cut the pieces and paste... quite easy, huh? (the paper in the back is a shikishi and for the kimono origami paper).
I wish I had drawing abilities so I could do my own pattern, but for now I ll be using the ones I found in the book (やさしいくるみ絵 by 沖原とし子　植田 みよ子）.
The book has many patterns.. so I ll have a lot to play with ;p

Recicling...

My brother decided to give away some of his old clothes (it wouldn't fit him anymore) and as I did like some of the fabrics I decided to recicle it and from 2 shorts I made two small reversible bags!

Before:


After:


I liked so much the result that I made two more bags (luckly my brother didnt fit in many of his shorts... hihihi). And I gave as a bday present, one to my cousin and the other one to my friend Priscila. I didnt take photos :(

I must say that now I am more confortable with the sewing machine, but I still struggle a little bit so the final result is not so professional... But I am proud of my bags... ;p

Bags

Few years ago I decided that it was time to lear how to use a sew machine, at that time I didn't want to spend money buying X-mas presents and I thought it would be nice if I could make my presents.

One thing that I thought it would be easy project was a tote bag, I must say that I made a mess but in the end I came with something near a tote bag!! and I became a bit ambicious and decided to make a bag, I looked over the net and found this site, and it didn't seem so hard to make one.

So I started the first one, and then something went wrong...

To cool down a bit I start another project which was my brother's present, as he was always in bussiness trips I made him a toiletbag and it was way much easier to make! (unfortunately I dont have photos)

Back to the bag... started the second one... something wrong again!!!

Third one.... almost giving up!!!

Finally the forth one was ok, and became my sister's X-mas present (dont have the photo either), after having succeed in that bag I began others projects...

This year while I was organizing my fabrics I found the 3 bags I had started and never finished, as I was much more familiar with the sew machine I tried to fix the mistakes and see what I could save... so.. here are the bags.

well... didnt turn so bad afterall but in this photos you can't really see how it really looks... anyways, better than I would expect!!!

my plants...

The other thing that I enjoy doing while I'm bored is taking care of my plants...

The one I care the most is the momiji tree (first photo)... I have so many photos of momiji that I took while I was living in Kyoto and now I can have my own tree (thanks to jimmy's dad)!!! I can't wait for my momiji to grow bigger and I do hope it gets red leaves... Though it is still so small and the weather here is not (at all) the same as in Japan...

One of the things that I always wanted to have and thought that I could never have was a Jabuticaba tree! In my house there is no space to plant a tree... but a friend of my mom gave us the tree (second photo) and the only thing we had to do was buy a huge vase :) if I only had thought of that years ago... But I must say the difficult thing is keeping my mom away of the tree, she also loves jabuticaba and keeps eating the fruits!!!

The last photo is my small kitchen-graden, I have pepper, oregano, basil, parsley mint, and also have some flowers, lavender and roses.
I must say that I wasnt good at taking care of plants, I have "killed" some before. But I guess now I am more responsible or either have too much time in my hands! hihihi