Anime Christmas Party 2015

 My friends and I met up last night for our annual anime Christmas party, not that we watched anything last night. We sat around and talked for the most part since a lot of us haven't seen one another in a while because of work schedules, etc.

I received a lot of lovely gifts from my friends: lots of books (yay!), a Krispy Kreme donut candle, candy, magnetic bookmarks, a HB gift card, a cute Christmas pot holder, and a framed Sherlock poster!!!

I can't wait to read the books, especially the Fearless Ghost manga. Shambhala Publications has published Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan book as a graphic novel adaptation called The Fearless Ghost.

Ever since my sister had gotten me one of Lafcadio Hearn's books by Tuttle, I have read several of his books on 19th century Japan. I love the fact that his stories have been adapted in a new form by Sean Wilson and Michiru Morikawa.

Thank you for the lovely gifts!!!

Until next time ^____^

Mini Cross Stitch Christmas Pincushion Jars

I stitched up these mini Christmas designs in October and finished them up at the end of November.

I found the containers at Michael's in their dollar section during October. I knew I could make them into something fun as Christmas gifts.

I used metallic cording and ribbon to embellish the edges of the lid and around the cross stitch design on each container.

I opened one of the containers (in lower right of picture). All of them have a shiny silver finish in the inside.

I filled each jar with Hershey kisses for my friends as part of their Christmas gifts.

Until next time ^____^

Anime Christmas Party

My friends and I got together on Friday night (despite the dismal rainy weather) to have our annual anime Christmas party. I thought I was going to be late after having to pick up our car from the shop, but I wasn't the only 'late' person. Nicole had to pick up her car from the shop and Bonnie didn't get out until 6pm. So we ended up chatting until everyone arrived.

We had a lot of fun exchanging gifts, sampling food, and chatting.

This year I included in everyone's package a cross stitched item and a box of candy. The celtic knot biscornu went to Candace, the Tardis biscornu to Nicole, the onigiri pincushion to Bonnie, and I framed the woodland fox design for Kristina.

Here's my loot this year.......books galore and other goodies!

From Nicole I received Wolf Children on dvd and one of the Young Sherlock Holmes novels by Andrew Lane. I have read the Wolf Children manga. I can't wait to watch the animation as the manga was wonderfully drawn and was such a beautiful story.

From Kristina I received the Amigurumi at Home book and another one of the Young Sherlock Holmes novels. The amigurumi book has some great patterns and since I have two friends with babies now, I have a chance to make some kids projects......that little tooth fairy amigurumi is perfect!

From Candace I received Clover and Drunken Dream manga collections. Since they were actually gifts from my birthday that never came in time, she also gave me a beautiful Vera Bradley bag.

From Bonnie I received the first volume of Stepping on Roses manga. She also gave each of us a little Chinese takeout box containing a tiny Christmas ornament, Christmas erasers, and stickers. I will definitely be using the stickers in future resin projects next year.

Thanks for a fantastic Christmas party and all the lovely gifts!!

Onigiri Pincushion Finish

I stitched up this little pincushion on Thursday just in time for my friends annual anime Christmas party on Friday night. I really, really wanted to make it into a pincusion wristband for my friend Bonnie, but our sewing machine is out of commission. My mother had used it to stitch some fringe to one of her weaving projects and we haven't been able to fix the tension since then....sigh....

Thankfully Bonnie still liked it and she even mentioned that it would have been cute as a pincushion wristband. LOL Great minds think alike.

Until next time ^____^

An Anime Christmas

My friends and I met up last Friday for our annual anime Christmas party. We had a lot of fun exchanging gifts, watching the end of To The Beautiful You drama, and eating noodles and spring rolls. And we finished with a delicious grasshopper pie! Yum!

Our friend Bonnie is our loveable anime convention junkie. Though the rest of us can't say anything (O_o"), but she goes to a lot of conventions with her friends from college. At AWA this year, she got all of us cute handmade bags and charms from the artists' alley. I love my bag! Perfect size for a purse or to carry around some cross stitch supplies when on the road. And those clay cell phone charms are delicious looking! I can't wait to get a new phone to add them to ;)

From Candace I received a box full of goodies! A lovely fold-able jewelry box with a pair of red bow earrings, a cute zipper bag, and a yummy smelling jar candle! Bonnie was telling me that she read somewhere that lighting candles with scents is a good way to get rid of cravings! I wonder if it works?! 

Kristina knows me too well! She got me the first omnibus volume of the Blood Alone series. I started to read that series when I was in England, but never picked it up after getting back to the States. I can't wait to read it! And you see the book underneath! Knowing that I love Sherlock Holmes, she bought me a SH puzzle book. I can't wait to dive into it ;) 

Nicole bought me a cute assortment of Hello Kitty items including a picture frame, ornament, and tin pail. She also got me an adorable teddy bear ornament with the initial "R" on its tummy. I can't wait to display it next year on our Christmas tree!!!

Thanks for the fun evening and the wonderful presents you guys!

Until next time ^_____^

Puppy Pincushion

Design: Puppy, Unknown Designer
Fabric: 32ct Belfast cream Zweigart
Thread: DMC 167
Notions: small red heart buttons
Start/Finish: 12/26-27/2012
Finish as pincushion: 12/27/2012

So I had made all my friends in our anime group a scissors fob from the Kokeshi doll designs as part of their Christmas gift bag, but I had an extra friend to make something for. I didn't want to make another doll as I didn't want to waste time trying to experiment with different thread colors, etc. to make it look different from the other three designs so I looked online for a freebie beagle design. My friend Nicole LOVES beagles. Looking online, I couldn't find anything that was small enough for a fob finish. So I found a design for a dalmatian puppy and thought I could change it a bit to make a beagle. And viola! here's what I came up with.

Sadly, the design still came out a little too large for a scissor fob finish, but I decided to make it into a pincushion. I added Polyfil stuffing and some doll pellets to give it some weight.

I'm glad she liked my last minute stitching effort!!!

Until next time ^_____^

Friendly Gathering

Hi! My friends and I got together this evening for our annual Christmas party. We exchanged gifts and had some fun conversations for several hours.

I took a few pictures of the gifts I received from my friends for Christmas.



From Candace: two artbooks, one on Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke and another on CLAMP's series X.

From Bonnie: a gorgeous teacup and saucer set for the month of June from the Victorian Trading Company. It has a beautiful rose design on it and the box is lined with satin fabric! She also bought me a chocolate brownie with peppermint icing that she had baked! Yummy :)

From Nicole: a cute Hello Kitty clip and some candy. It was boxed in a large pink Chinese takeout box! Cute ^___^

From Kristina: Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation book, a cross stitched bookmark with my name stitched in Japanese characters, and a tiny hot air balloon pin!



Steampunk, anyone? I love it. I'm definitely going to wear it to work tomorrow and show it off >___<

This year I got the following items for my friends:

For Candace: two books, Starting Point: 1979-1996 by Hayao Miyazaki and a cookbook of recipes for wok cooking

For Kristina: a Japanese language software CD, a cross stitch pattern of a Chinese girl, and a small water globe of a Japanese girl in a kimono.

For Bonnie: several manga books and an artbook. Unfortunately, she already had the artbook, but at least I bought it used in new condition so she'll be able to re-gift it to one of her friends :)

For Nicole: a gift card to Starbucks and some candy.

I had a lovely time with my friends. It is always fun to just sit down and chat about anything and everything.

Thanks for all the wonderful gifts and a great time!

Until next time ^____^

Oriental Christmas

Tomorrow night my friends and I are getting together for our annual Christmas party. Over the weekend, I wrapped all their presents and bought some candy for their tins.

I found these Oriental bags at World Market across the bay in the Eastern Shore Centre. I usually buy British candy and foodstuffs while at the World Market, but I ended up putting a good majority of it back on the shelves and decided to buy these bags to use for my friends' Christmas gifts instead :)

I ran by a local Asian market on Saturday and bought a bunch of different candies to go along with their gifts. There are some panda-shaped chocolate biscuits, Hi-chew candies, lychee cups, fruit jellies, and coconut flavored candies in their tins.

My friend Kristina is having her friend over for the party so I got her a gift card to Starbucks and filled a small bag from Hobby Lobby with chocolate candy. I didn't want her to feel left out of all the fun. I decided to go with normal candy for her bag as I'm not sure if she's into trying Asian sweets, which can be quite an experience >___<

Until next time ^_____^

I'm late, very, very late!

During a trip to the MRGS' rock and gem show at the fairgrounds last November, my sister and I actually picked up two other brooches that I couldn't talk about until after the holidays because they were gifts for my Aunt Snowbird.


Knitting pin

My sister bought my aunt this lovely Danecraft knitting-themed pin. Isn't it cute?


Sewing pin

Who would have thought that we would see another hobby-themed pin in the bunch? I saw this Serger sewing-themed pin and knew it was perfect for my aunt.

During December, my friends and I had our annual anime Christmas get together. My friend Kristina bought me two pins, which I hadn't the time to photograph until now.

She bought me a lovely flower bouquet pin and Christmas tree pin.


Flower bouquet pin


Christmas tree pin

I love both of these pins! The flower bouquet is perfect for wearing to work and you can never have too many holiday pins ;)

Enjoy your Sunday!

Until next time ^___^

Anime Christmas 2010

Hi, everyone. I spent the evening with friends exchanging gifts and watching The Sorcerer's Apprentice.



Every year I get the same three basic items that make up the start of a gift bag for each friend: a bento box, a manga volume, and a cell phone charm. I then add some small gifts to the overall Christmas bag.

This year I saw these lovely bento drawstring bags on eBay so I bought those instead of bento boxes. Each bag had a different fruit design: apples, bananas, or grapes. The small gifts added to each bag were a ceramic rice bowl decorated with flowers, a cherry blossom metal bookmark, a 'tiniest in the world' puzzle kit, various candy such as Pocky, lucky stars, gummies, rice candy, and Yan-Yans.

I put alot of the candy in a gingerbread box. Aren't they cute? I found those boxes at Target in their dollar section. I really should have bought more of them for next year!!

I added two special gifts to my friend Kristina's bag: the photo-ornament with the Christmas Bells that I had stitched earlier in the month and a daily planner from Taiwan featuring one of her favorite bands, Fahrenheit.

I received some nice gifts from my friends including The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Kinuko Y. Craft, one of my favorite children's illustrators. I loved that fairy tale as a child. I also received two brooches (to add to my growing stash!), purple ear buds (they match my iPod), stationery, a candle decorated with my favorite anime characters, scented hand sanitizer, and a bag of Dove chocolates (yummy!).

Thanks to my friends for such a fun evening!

Until next time ^____^

Gathering of Friends

Hello, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the holiday season with your friends and family. On Sunday, I got the chance to hang out with my friends from our anime group. We exchanged presents. My usual gifts to my friends are a box of assorted Japanese candy, a cell phone charm, and the latest manga volume from whatever series they are currently reading.

One of my friends surprised me this year by stitching me a little bunny design as a Christmas present. She used a small photo frame to display it. When I got home, I immediately put it on one of the bookshelves in the living room. I have very few stitched items from my friends, as I know they are busy with other projects and life in general, so it always a joy to receive something they have made.

After exchanging gifts, we all decided to play HP Clue. This must be my third or fourth time playing the game and I still cannot seem to win. When someone declares the answers, I’m always wrong. LOL Sunday night, the answer was Dolores Umbridge, which I had marked off for some reason. Oh, well! ~

Along with all the Christmas presents, I bought a box of Japanese mochi for all of us to try. I happened to see it while I was at a local Asian market and thought it would be nice if we had it at the party since it was the last time we would meet before the New Year. Mochi is a rice paste that can be shaped into balls or cubes and usually stuffed with a variety of different fillings. It can be eaten throughout the year, but is traditional eaten during the Japanese New Year.

The box I picked up contained three different types of mochi. The plain white mochi was filled with an (sweet red bean paste ~yum~) and the light brown mochi was dusted with some sort of powder and filled with.…..oddly enough….peanut butter. The mochi rolled in sesame seeds was a mystery filling to us. It was a black filling and it had a sweet taste. The ingredients listed on the back of the package mentioned tapioca so maybe that’s the flavor.


Mochi - three flavored box

My friends actually liked the mochi with the an paste inside. They said it seemed to be sweeter than the an that is usually in red bean buns. I had them try the red bean buns the last time we met and they didn’t really like it, LOL so I ended up taking some home and eating them myself. ~ more for me, yummy

Ah, bean buns! It makes me miss the Minamoto Kitchoan, a Japanese confectionary shop in London, Piccadilly Circus. I came across the store when I searching for Asian markets/stores in the city. It was a bit out of the way for me to go, but always worth the trip.


Picture I took while in London ;) Yes, I'm a geek!

By the time I found this little jewel of a store, I was already half way through my school year. I tried the following sweets during my various stops by the store:

- Iwamura: plum jelly
- Kurihoka: bean jelly
- Jyukushi: persimmon jelly
- Sakura: cherry blossom jelly with a cherry inside
- Yuka: citron jelly
- Kurizutsumi: bean cake
- Oribenishiki: Japanese traditional Kurimanju, using chestnut and sweet red bean paste wrapped in Japanese cake.
- Hakuun-no-Hotori: Milky flavored white bean paste wrapped in Japanese cake.
- Fukuwatashi-Senbei: Japanese style vanilla cream filled cookie.
- Tenka taihei bean cake, which is shaped like a fish and contains sweet red bean paste and chestnuts.
- Yamatowakakusa bean cake: a mugwort flavored fluffy cake with sweet red bean paste and a soft rice cake inside it.
- Tsuya: Sweet red beans sandwiched between sweet mini pancakes.

There is something to be said about simplicity in Japanese sweets. You are never really overpowered by Japanese desserts compared to American ones. My all time favorites at the store beside the tsuya buns were the seasonal jellies. Every time I came to the store, there would be something different. My favorite was the sakura jelly that they sold during the spring.

Sadly, the Minamoto Kitchoan is only located in four cities in the world so the only time I’ll be able to go again is if I make a trip to NY or London. (sigh) So if you are in either area, stop by and enjoy some Japanese sweets! You won’t be disappointed ;)

~ Sorry for the mini-rant about Japanese sweets! It’s all the mochi’s fault leading my brain to think about Minamoto Kitchoan!! LOL ~

Until next time!

Friends and the holidays

I finished up my shopping for friends today. I had a few things to get and when I got home, I boxed up my purchases.



These gifts are for members of our anime group. I can't wait to exchange gifts this year. It was fun last year hanging out, exchanging gifts, and watching anime.

Until next time ^____^

Thought that counts....

Bento Box!

I’ve been quite forgetful lately about posting about things I wanted to share with everyone! Before Christmas, I had bought several bento boxes for my friends as part of a Japanese-themed gift for each of them. While doing so I purchased a cute bento box set that is decorated with pink strawberries! The set came with a two-tiered bento, a single bento, a cup, a fork and holder, a set of chopsticks, and an onigiri box!


LOL I’ve used everything in the set so far except for the cup, chopsticks and onigiri box. The cup is quite cute, but I couldn’t imagine using it at work while eating lunch?! I can use chopsticks, but when I do so I concentrate too much on using them and eat rather slowly. I’ve been using my bento boxes to carry my lunch to work, which has usually been salad, a variety of veggies, or tuna.

I haven’t had an opportunity to make any rice balls. I think I might purchase some rice molds online eventually. I realize that making rice balls by hand isn’t that hard, but I’m a disaster in the kitchen unless I’m baking so any extra help, like rice molds, is much appreciated!!! I’ve seen some good recipes online for fillings to place inside the rice balls.

If I’m not mistaken, onigiri is made with a type of rice called sticky rice, which is also used in sushi. If you are a bit hesitant about trying sushi because you don’t like the idea of consuming raw meat, you can always try the vegetarian types. I love vegetarian sushi since I am one of those people who are hesitant about raw meat. While I was in Egham, the local Tesco store sold packages of vegetarian sushi for 99p. Yummy!

Speaking of sushi, sticky rice, and the like, I read an article online that said that the Japanese actually have something called rice burgers! Sounds yummy, doesn’t it? Especially with lots of vegetable toppings!

While writing this post, I was trying to think of a word and checked Merriam-Webster’s website. They have a wonderful feature called an ‘open dictionary’ where you can submit your own words. I quite like the word that was featured today:

forgetful speech syndrome (noun) : the time when you think of something to add to your conversation, but the person you're having a conversation with is talking so much that by the time you get to speak, you completely forgot what you were going to say.
"Stop talking or I'll forget what I was going to say. You know I have forgetful speech syndrome!"

LOL I am guilty of the ‘forgetful speech syndrome,’ especially when my sister and I start talking! I definitely think this noun should be submitted into the English dictionary for the sheer fact that everyone has had this happen to them at one time or another!

Have a great rest of the week ^____^

An Anime Christmas

I can't believe I haven't posted since the 11th of December! Busy with work and life in general! Yesterday after work I went by a friend's house for our Friday anime night. LOL We didn't get around to watching much anime, just talking and enjoying the company of friends. I've got a few pictures of the gifts that I gave this year. I went with an Japanese theme of course :)


Just a group shot of all the gift bags, a gift card for Books-A-Million, and 50 Things We Love About Japan book! Everyone with the gift bags got the same book in addition to the items below. I didn't get the one guy in our group the same gifts, just a gift card because I knew he wouldn't like the girly-ness below ^__^

For the girls' gifts, I got each of them a different colored/themed Hello Kitty bento box filled with Japanese fruit gummies and hard candy. Don't you just love this cute bento box! It is two-tier and small; perfect for snacks or a small salad and veggies! They all got a box of strawberry Pocky, the same book, and a cell phone charm. Each cell phone charm was different depending on what anime they favored :) The cell charm in this photo is a cute Totoro with an acorn; it is from the anime My Neighbor Totoro. I love Studio Ghibli films, Hayao Miyazaki is a brilliant visionary when it comes to Japanese anime.

One of my friends absolutely LOVES Sailor Moon anime/manga series! She collects anything dealing with SM. It's a pity that the series' license expired in the U.S. and it is no longer in print! I found a lovely cell charm on eBay that has a picture of all the Sailor Scouts on it. Her bento box has Hello Kitty in front of a castle :)


LOL My other friend loves D-Grayman so I got her a cute charm with the character Allen Walker. He is always eating so I thought this charm was perfect! The manga for this series is good; hopefully a U.S. company will pick up the anime series! Her bento box has Hello Kitty in front of a little town ^__^ Too cute!



A picture of my stash of gifts from the girls in my anime group! I got the latest issue of the Gothic/Lolita Bible put out by TokyoPop in the U.S. and a lovely antique-ish brooch with amethyst and diamond-like stones from one friend. A beautiful statue of a Japanese geisha holding a piece of embroidery in her hand! The girl that got it for me also cross stitches so it was a thoughtful gift. My other friend got me a keychain with the character Irvine Kinneas from Final Fantasy 8, one my favorite FF games and some stickers from the Clamp series Magical Rayearth.

I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season!