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occasional glimpses

• this is … my best op shop find

  30Jun
  Categories: random Comments: 0

  
  this is … a photo from my old house, wish we’d taken more … I always say that, never do. Lots of op shop and cheap treasures on those shelves, both mine & husband’s … maybe my memories are all the clearer ’cause the photos are a little dark, a little blurry?

  I wanted to show you the angry old lady doll with the fading blue hair and bright orange plastic dress, prim & proper with a white hand bag … but she’s really short and there’ll be no close ups ’till she comes out of storage … next year. She’s from Glebe Markets long, long ago when they had more weird stuff and I used to go for a look most Saturdays …

  Playing along with Lino Forest and THREE BUTTONS

• Foreign Food Friday #03

  28Jun
  Categories: foreign food Comments: 0

  
  These were pretty nice, not amazing but a lot more like I expected, just from looking at them.

  I’ll start with the middle one, minced chicken balls on a stick. I’ve rarely thought “sweet” was a good word for chicken (whatever the foodies say), but this chicken really was sweet, not like a lolly but good.

  The one on the left was chicken and leek with a soy-sauce-based charcoally BBQ flavour, nice, what I expected. Second from left was white chicken meat wrapped in seaweed with wasabi – I like all those flavours, it was fine, but didn’t have a lot of zing or something… The pork, second from right, was thin, barbecuey, ok, again not amazing.

  The one on the right was the most interesting, it is actually a Japanese sweet (mochi, if I remember right). I normally don’t like sweets pretending to be savoury, but this worked really well, particularly with the smokey barbecue soy-sauce flavour. No idea why it was green, ‘tho.

  Again, from the Tokyu store that’s kinda integrated into Shibuya station.

• Made Today: 3/4s of Simplicity 3827

  27Jun
  Categories: sewn Comments: 0

  
  Although my face ;-P may not show it, I’m kinda in two minds about this tester. I wanted something simple, that fit right, straight out of the envelope.

  Simplicity 3827 is specifically designed for D cups, I cut a size larger than RTW, yet its tight … too tight for comfort in a woven I reckon. And it kinda doesn’t hit in the right places, it likely needs a full bust adjustment (come on, I’m not that full that I should need an FBA on an FBA)a sway back adjustment (OK, true) and yep, a zip, some hems and binding round the neck.

  I don’t feel like all that work at the moment, I just want to sew up some simple things on the new machine … might flick through some old burdas tonight, see if I get inspired

• first stitches, new machine

  26Jun
  Categories: sewn Comments: 0

  
  Yes, I actually got her out, threaded up and sewed!

  I wimped out and didn’t end up reading the manual beforehand (I’ve been doing so much dictionary work recently, I didn’t feel like more), but I got on fine just looking at the pictures. Kinda easy really, threading up a sewing machine, starting off … but I was dreading it just a little, I mean, what if I’d made the wrong choice?

  Actually, I’m really happy … shopping around, gesturing, talking broken Japanese to at least 5 different sales reps paid off It has the features I wanted, once I saw what’s available here … no foot pedal option, slo.o.ow setting (such a relief), needle up, needle down, a “slow down immediately” button, pressure adjustments, one step button hole etc.

  No, it’s not a made-in-Japan industrial JUKI, far too expensive for me, but it’s been running well. Nice looking stitches, no needle stuck in the down position, doesn’t shake the desk as I sew … of course my expectations might be artificially low, given my other (left in Sydney) machine.

  Now to buy all the possible feet, attachments and whatnots I might need before I leave Japan … hehehe

• this is … the space in which I create

  25Jun
  Categories: sewn Comments: 1

  
  this is …meme, done around about a week too late?

  But I couldn’t resist, and yes, that’s my new sewing machine, just unpacked, exciting!!!

  And yes, more prosaically, that’s my washing because it’s been raining all week, and yes, behind there is the oshirei*, the lower part of which has become a cubby hole for the kids, doubt that’s traditional … kid’s craft on the wall, glimpse of the bed, it’s a pretty small flat, oh and the table folds up totally, it’s really nifty, from a 2nd hand store

  * Think that’s how it’s spelled … traditional Japanese closet for futons, anyway.