The 100 Yen Store

I've discovered the 100 yen store - there is one about 1 mile away from me! - and they just have the COOLEST stuff there! For those of you who aren't hip to the yen rate - it is currently about 120 yen to the dollar - so everything is about oh um I dunno - but it's less than a dollar, that's for sure LOL!

First, we have bento supplies -
which is just a cute name for styrofoam containers for carrying your lunch - but they're adorable! Check out the little fish shaped containers (at the bottom left of the picture) with the red lids - those are to put soy sauce in - tres clever! :o)

aren't these cardboard baking pans adorable? I haven't tried them out yet - but will be sure to post my reactions once I do! I know that some of the muffins we've bought from local bakeries are baked in these - and I just love the idea of disposable baking pans that are functional yet pretty!

How about these AWESOME erasers?!? I've never seen such cute erasers in my life - and a lot of them are actually scented - like pineapple, or apple, banana, or strawberry! There are clay erasers, critter erasers, Hello Kitty erasers, fruit and sushi and vegetable erasers, and even decadent little dessert erasers! Some of the erasers are even little "puzzles" that you can take apart and (hopefully) put back together - I love Japanese office/school supplies!

Real live tawashi - Japanese scrubbing brushes - I've even found some of the crochet pattern books for tawashi, but I'll talk about that at a later time! These brushes are very cute, but I haven't opened any of them up and used them yet - mainly because they're so cute I don't want to ruin them - but it really is the Japanese way to use these brushes to clean - WITHOUT cleansers or soaps - because the chemicals are not good for the land!

yes - I found yarn and needles at the 100 yen store - the yarn only comes in white, black, and beige, and the needles only come in size 6 - but they are bamboo needles and are actually quite nice - way better than I would have expected for 100 yen! The yarn is antibacterial yarn - which is what the tawashi pattern books call for - so I shall have to get some deciphering done and make up some tawashi!

I'm really not sure what my plan is for this plastic cherry garland - but it's just kitschy enough to be something I would use in my kitchen somehow, so we shall see!

I really didn't need this little wire "bascket" but found the spelling so charming that I just HAD to buy it!

Where the heck have I been?

Busy busy busy - but we are finally settling into our new home in Okinawa Japan! It's VERY hot here, and humid, and it rains just about every single day - but I love it! There are so many new sights and smells and sounds - it's just awesome!
We've seen gigantic flies - well, ONE gigantic fly, and it was dead, but after I tell you how big it was - you'll understand when I say - I'm kinda HAPPY it was dead when I found it!!! It measured approximately 4 inches from wingtip to wingtip, and was approximately 4 inches long - a FLY!!!!! It was crazy to see all of it's bazillion eyes - so big!!! EEEEWWWWW!
There are also LOTS of snails here, most of them seem to be your regular cute little snails - but THESE ones are gigantic - and they make a horrible scary sucking squiching noise when you touch them - shudder - but I still like 'em of course LOL! Ginger (the dog) thinks they're TOYS, until she gets close and they retreat, VERY noisily, into their shells - then she turns tail and runs haha!
Lizards are also running rampant around here - at night you can hear them making their little "chucka chucka chucka" noises - if you don't know what I'm talking about - they puff out their necks and make a kinda squawky noise - hmmmm - maybe I should make a sound bite and insert it in here LOL! Geckos are good luck though - so we all LIKE them - oh yeah - except for Tim who came walking, VERY rapidly, outta the shower the first night we were here. HUGE EYES. Trying to sound calm. "There's a gigantic lizard in the shower". I laughed, and he said, "is he gonna BITE me?" - of course, I had to laugh again LMAO! Mr. big bad Marine, veteran of wars and racetracks - scared of a little lizard! OK, in all fairness, it wasn't THA

Yayyyyy! I've been published!!! Here is a picture of my new leaflet published by Leisure Arts:0)
I'm not sure how long it will take before it is in stores - but you can order it directly from Leisure Arts if you're so inclined!
I'm so excited - my feet haven't touched the ground since I first saw it online at www.leisurearts.com on Tuesday this week!

Bathtime Blossoms

Ooooooh! I’m in love with these Evelyn Clark “Bathtime Blossoms” patterns. I’m not sure that I would want anyone to wash their hiney with them, as they are a little more work and a LOT more concentration than lots of OTHER patterns that could be used for such purposes, but who am I to judge if someone wants to pamper their hiney!?! I used Paton’s Bumblebee Baby Sport yarn and size 3 needles, and they are just SO pretty! There is a third one in the set, and also 3 soap sacks, but I haven’t gotten around to those just yet!
My new trick for knitting cloths with baby sport cotton on size 3 needles is to pull out the ole double points, put some point protectors on the ends (ummmmm, only put a point protector on ONE end of each needle :oP)…and knit away to your hearts’ content with nice short needles…a LOT less strain!!!! Now, of course this won’t work if you have a LOT of stitches – but these cloths are worked in short rows and have only 25-30 stitches or so at any one given time on the needles :o)

Landscape bathroom

There are a lot of things about moving that really SUCK! But, we’re military – so we are “used” to it- and as a matter of fact almost embrace this way of life. Like…now, we’ll be leaving sunny southern California – for a nice little island in Japan called Okinawa. It's beautiful there, and LOTS of cool things to do - and they even have really cool yarn stores!!! And besides - I bet Clover knitting supplies are cheaper over there - without all those cute little taxes they put on all imported goods!
But, I digress! Besides doing the normal “decluttering” that every military spouse must do before that BIG MOVE – I’ve been thinking a LOT about what colors I want in which rooms! (A lot of thinking that has only turned into ONE good solid decision, but I have plenty of time - we'll be leaving sometime in the summer!)I’ve decided that OUR bathroom MUST be the colors of Sugar N Cream “Landscape” yarn. Not sure why exactly – I just know I have fallen in love with these colors! So, over the past few days, I’ve knitted a BUNCH of cloths for our new bathroom :o) TEN to be exact – well, I KNITTED 11, but the one in ecru doesn’t match, so I didn’t count it, poor thing!
Do any of you ever see colors in a ball of yarn, and absolutely fall in love with them, even if they weren’t colors you ever even thought TWICE about before?!? Something about the light green, white, and tan just seems so CALMING to me – and nope, I never even KNEW I liked those colors together ha! So anyway – here are the cloths…..some of them are from copyrighted books so I can’t share the patterns, but I’ll be more than happy to tell you WHERE they came from! :o) PLUS, some of them are from online sources..so those I CAN pass the URL along to you in case you don't already have it!

DomiNO it isn't as hard as it looks!

I was having serious troubles with this cloth – I know how to pick up stitches, but I couldn't figure out WHICH sides I was supposed to pick the stitches UP from, and therefore my diagonal lines were forming an "X:" where the designer had them all going in the correct direction! It turned out that I was just over-analyzing the situation, and with the helpful hints and “you can do it”s from my online friends – I finally got it done! I’ll post the specifics later on, but for now – you can see what mine looks like and here's the URL for you so you can make your own! I think this will be a really cool way to use up those bits and pieces of cotton yarn that I've always made scrunchies or "ugly" cloths from!!
http://www.keyway.net/crafts/shesser.html

You want HOW much for that?!?!?!?!?

Hmmmmm…..Happy New Year everyone! I have so much to say – and NO clue where to start. SO – I’ll start in “order” – with little snippets of things that have happened in my life recently – thank heavens they’re mostly FUNNY or SILLY – nothing painful or expensive! (yet – having said that out loud, I’m sure SOME new bill or illness will strike me!)
I went to Wal*Mart in the middle of December, mainly to purchase some fabrics to make some Christmas-y stuff. I still have the fabric…the Christmas-y stuff never happened – maybe THIS Christmas!
Well! I had such a pleasant experience back in the fabric department – the gal and I joked, laughed, talked about kids, hubbies, knitting…and had a GOOD ole time! I was happy to see that FINALLY our local Wal*Mart had hired someone in the fabric department who knew what she was both DOING and TALKING ABOUT! WOOHOO!
After standing in the checkout line for 15 minutes, while watching CSMs chat merrily about their antics with their men the night before (don’t be shocked – normal fare here at my Wal*Mart!), and listening to the cashiers on duty whining about not having had their breaks yet …I get to the register. Plop down all my Christmas-y fabrics (and the HUGE wad of pink and olive green sweatpants material that I just HAD to buy because it was only $1.00 a yard!)…..and man my stations. That means I run to the other end of the register so I can read the display as things are scanned – I can’t TELL you how many times I’ve saved a few cents by doing this! (“Nuuuuu-uuuuuuuuunh!!! It’s priced $8.94 NOT $8.97!!!” HA! Gotcha! Sticking it to the man!!!)
But, this time I saw a price go by, that didn’t look quite right to me – it looked like five hundred something – but I just knew that wasn’t right! Neither hubby NOR the checkbook would allow THAT sort of purchase – and besides – I don’t think there is anything in Wal*Mart that I would WANT to buy 500 bucks’ worth!
But – the cashier rang it all up, turned to me and chirped – yes, CHIRPED!: “$648.66 please!”……the cents’ part may not be totally correct – my ears stopped at the “648” part! I look at her incredulously (translation: like she was an IDIOT!) and said "648.66". Statement. NOT question. Total disbelief. She looked at her display again and said – “mmmmmmmhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm!?!” I said – “there is NO way – this is Wal*Mart, and I have two bags of fabric – there is NO way!” She just looked at me. “Do you want me to call a CSM over?” she asked finally when she sensed she was losing the stare down.
WELL DUH and KISS MY GRITS – hell YEAH I wanna CSM – I want ole Sam himself to come over here and tell me how to fit 650 bucks worth of crap into 2 Wal*Mart bags!!!
So, the CSM came over, and I explained to her, that one of the fabric tickets rang up at 500 and something – and now I had TWO of them looking at me with blank stares…O M G…..I swear my IQ drops 53 points every time I walk into that door! (I must add a disclaimer: I like Wal*Mart, and I know that people make mistakes. I am not in any way picking on Wal*Mart (the corporation) nor it’s employees (most of them are pretty decent folks, and most of them can understand what I am saying to them!) But this gal didn’t understand what I was saying, she called over a CSM who then started speaking in rapid Spanish – and I’m not fluent in Spanish, but the gist of the conversation was this: “She bought a lot of stuff and she likes cream corn in her handsome beer”.
OK – I didn’t have a clue what they were saying – but I know that a THIRD person came over, and HE, yes HE – fixed it for me – they voided the whole transaction, and then rang solely from the fabric tickets they had in the drawer. Which made me a lot RICHER in fabric that day – for only about $20…..because they missed SOME stuff! (I may not be a genius – but $648.66 minus $510.24 still equals $138 and some change – and this isn’t with the erroneous ticket corrected) When I told them they were WAY undercharging me, they just smiled and said “It’s ok, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!” . I think they were getting a little tired of me by that time LMAO! I wasn’t mean by ANY means, but it sure irks me when there is a problem, I can see the problem, THEY can see the problem, and instead of correcting the problem – they have to call 6 OTHER people to TELL them about the problem – stop TELLING people about the danged problem – FIX IT!!! :oP
But I survived, my checkbook survived, and I’m sure the employees involved in the little fiasco all got promotions and a raise and maybe even a Mexican cruise!!! (that’s how we do things in southern Cali)