Tokyo will touch your heart.

So, this one time I went to Japan to meet my grandmother and man, was it the trip of a lifetime!
My little Japanese mother decided that it was high time we five (my siblings and I) experienced some of her culture and arranged for three trips out to Japan. My brother went first late last year, two sisters went in the spring, and earlier this month it was me and Steph's turn! I cannot believe all the stuff we got to see and experience. It was amazing.

Here you have a random assortment of pictures from equally random events throughout the trip.

This was the very first picture we took upon landing in Tokyo. Isn't everything so cute in Japan? A pink welcome sign with pictures arranged in a heart? Awww.

First meal in Japan! An okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) place my mom used to go to with her friends in high school. It was super yummy but it was also at like 2am Austin time so it sort of weirded my body out.

This was some artwork in an alleyway in Tokyo. Look at all the bikes!

Me and Steph with our grandma. Isn't she so cute? It makes me feel good about becoming an old person one day because I've got some of her genes in me. 

Me and Steph in front of the Dogo Onsen (bathhouse). Steph recognized it and did some research to figure out that this is the one in Spirited Away! Everything is so similar, right down to the senior citizen stampede to get into the baths first. Poor Steph almost didn't get in for all the cute old Japanese people elbowing her out of the way.

I slurped noodles with the best of them in a tiny alleyway shop in Tokyo. Actually, I was super slow. Three people came and went in that seat next to me before I was done. Those darn chopsticks! I'll figure them out one day.

Here I am, looking like the nerdy tourist that I was. This giant sandal was at the Thunder Gate at Senso-ji (an ancient Buddhist temple) in Tokyo.

Even the manhole covers are cuter in Japan.

Steph was muttering something about symmetry when we took this picture.

We visited the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden...

and tried to recreate Seurat's Sunday Afternoon. We did a pretty good job, right?

This is me next to a couple of tuna at the Tsukiji fish market, which also happens to be the largest fish market IN THE WORLD. Yeah, no big deal. Steph's vegan so I wasn't sure how she would handle it, but I'm pretty sure she mentioned a couple of times that working in that fish market would be an awesome job.

We spent a night in a ryokan (a very traditional Japanese inn), and that was really one of my favorite things that we did. The hotel staff goes through every night and sets up these foutons for all the guests, but during the day it's just a very sparsely furnished room with tatami mats and a low table and chairs. Plus that little shelf/stage thing for flowers and decorations that Steph thought was for entertainment and tried to dance on like a Geisha... Mum was pretty appalled. I about died laughing.

I think I'll post more about Japan - I hate how disorganized this was. But I really don't want this blog to become like one of those slideshows that one of your relatives makes you watch of all their travels. This trip was really so much fun and so different from anything here that I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time.

Little things

I feel so overwhelmed with things to post today that I am going to take it easy.
Here is about all that I can handle right now:

First: Yesterday morning was our first morning home after a long trip. Joseph left for work, I put Elinor and Jacob in the bathtub, and two minutes later Caleb fell and split his head open. Again. Remember this picture from when Caleb was almost two?

Yeah... the new cut is about an inch above the old one. (Awww. Baby Caleb is so cute!) I was so lucky that my awesome friend Reianna was out on the playground and willing to come in and patch him up with a few steri-strips.

Next. This morning I really wanted to go walking with said awesome friend Reianna.  I went to pull out the double stroller, only to find a mud wasp nest on it! I was so creeped out and Joseph was already at school. I ran inside to research whether or not there were live adult wasps inside, and then took a hammer and smashed that thing right off the stroller. Guess how gross wasps are: they lay their eggs inside the nest, add a few paralyzed insects for the larvae to snack on, and seal it off. So Emily and I got to examine some super gross fat white grubs and a bunch of slowly wiggling spiders this morning. Excuse me while I go puke.

And also. Yesterday I pulled out some shorts I had just gotten for Caleb. He saw the pockets and instantly proclaimed them adventure shorts. I asked if he could still wear them so I could see if they fit and he said, "Yeah, I guess we can go on an adventure today." So we did.

It was awesome. I kept feeling like we were on an expotition to the East Pole.
Love those kids.

And one more thing. A while ago, like back in May sometime, Emily came to me with this picture:

I know! I didn't even know I was such an awesome mother that my kids would know about van Gogh and his Starry Night, but here's proof! (okay, so maybe kindergarten had something to do with it, but still.) This one got the frame treatment. Emily was so proud.

And just one last thing. Joseph's current official title is "Robot Handler" on the set of a movie being filmed here in Austin! It has been highly stressful and uncomfortable for him (no ac in a giant barn in Austin in the middle of June? No thanks.), but that's kind of a cool title to have on your resume, right? Kind of like a lion tamer but more techy.

Alright. More to come, but that's it for now. Adventures every day for us!

My Favorite Baby

I was talking to my mom today and she mentioned that she hasn't seen Jacob lately. He's changed a lot. He is currently at that age where you want to pick him up and squeeze him tight and never let go. He is cuddly and mischievous and very, very mobile. So, although we've had a lot going on, here is a post devoted solely to my little Jacobo.

I love that his cowlick swoops all his front hair to the side. It looks like we totally take care of him.

And... here's Professor Emily, just because.

 More on graduation later.

Fabric choices

So, I like to think that most of the time I'm pretty good at choosing fabric for my projects.
Receiving something like this in the mail just makes my day.

I take so long fussing over my choices at the fabric store that it drives my family crazy. Sometimes, though, things just go wrong.
Remember this picture from Christmas?

Yeah.. Flannel was on sale at JoAnn's so I thought it would be a great idea to get cute coordinated fishies for the guys and kitties for the girls. Only I forgot that fishies are sorta cutesie and Joseph would be wearing a man-sized pair of fish pajama pants in bright cotton candy blue. He still wears them occasionally because he loves me but they might disappear one day.

And see this lovely row of stockings we have?

I like most of them, but take a look at this stocking that I made for myself 5 years ago.

I have no idea what I was thinking when I chose that patriotic fabric for the cuff. Yeesh.

And Miss Emily is well on her way to making awesome fabric choices just like I do, with her couch dress and Mystery Mobile dress.

And... sorry, there's no real point to this post, other than getting this annoyance off my chest and out in public.
The family's good. I'm going to bed now.

Field Day

I had to post this picture of Em that her teacher just sent us.

It was field day today and great weather for it!

Piano Lessons

Well over a year ago, our little Casio keyboard started acting funny.  The volume knob simply stopped working.  It was loud enough that we could still play; so we just dealt with it.  But then it started to get quieter.  Eventually, I had to plug in some external speakers that we could crank up to be able to hear the keyboard.  Then we couldn't hear it at all.

So, I opened it up and tried to figure out what was wrong.  I know quite a bit about computer programming, but not much about electronics.  Still there was a little piece that seemed to be the culprit: Casio Board 404-CNB4, the volume knob assembly.  These are hard to find on eBay.  It seems that PacParts is the only place to get Casio pieces from?  Maybe not, but I placed the order.  

In the mean time, I hooked a midi cable from the keyboard to our laptop and sent the audio to the external speakers.  Unfortunately, this tended to introduce a tenth of a second or more of delay between pushing a key and hearing the note.  It made playing fast sequences of notes incredibly difficult.

Six months after I placed the order, our part finally arrived.  I'm glad it came, but it could have been a bit more speedy.  I don't think it's necessarily PacParts' fault.  It seems that Casio dragged their heels in sending it.  It came with a couple extra pieces.  Now I have some backups in case those buttons fail too.

It seems that the keyboard is designed to be difficult to open.  To get at the electronics, one must first remove about a hundred screws from the back. 

Several of the screws are under the mechanism.  I do love having weighted keys though.

Finally, we've got the top off.

This little board on the left has a knob connected to a variable resistor that controls how much sound gets through to the speakers.  Ours was set permanently to zero.  The new one has more options.

Replacing it just involved unplugging the old piece and plugging in the other.

A hundred screws later (putting them back is harder than getting them out), our keyboard works again and we don't have to worry about damaging the kids' sense of rhythm anymore.

A few pictures

This little cupboard is a favorite play place for the kids. They build all kinds of towers and castles with the canned food and occasionally line the inside with pillows and blankets to curl up in. Pretty crowded quarters here.

I took this picture when I looked outside and was struck by how often I find all four kids within three square feet of each other. More often than not they all choose to play in the same room, and usually in the same corner of the same room.

This picture shows off some of Jacob's crazy.

Caleb and Jacob at the piano.

I looked back in our piano notebook today and realized it has been a full year since we started doing piano lessons with the kids! Our first official lesson was on 4/25/2012! They have come a long way.

Sewing Roundup

Well, here we are, just home from a Rabies Awareness Potluck (don't play with dead animals. just don't.) and I got to thinking about all the cool things I've been doing lately. I cycle through interests. Usually reading, exercise, and sewing. Right now it's sewing and I have been loving finishing up these projects that have been in progress for months and months.
Here we go.
First we have these Oliver+S pants I made for Caleb. Super quick and easy, and apparently super comfy, since he reaches for these whenever they're clean.

I'm frustrated about these pictures because I know I took some specifically of the pants, but I couldn't find them and now Caleb's in bed so this is what I have. I really like the fabric though.

The next project I finally finished was Elinor's elephant quilt. I love this little quilt. This is the first quilt that I have used a pattern for, and I have to say, it made things a million times easier. It was designed by Melissa Lunden with Birch Fabrics. I really like her style and will probably use another of her designs for Jacob.

Backing pieced together from scraps of the front fabric.

It is a crib-sized quilt. Emily and Caleb's were smaller, and I will probably do twin size for Jacob now that I realize that kids really do grow up super quickly.

These chairs. They were in sore need of reupholstering, and they are finally done! I used laminated cotton, which has been really nice for spills, but they will probably have to be redone in a couple of years in a sturdier fabric.

And, here's another of Em's dresses. A step up from the couch dress, I must say, but still not something I would have chosen.

Emily noticed and loved the fabric as soon as we entered the store and would not change her mind, even after going through all the other fabric they carried. I was very surprised by her passionate stubbornness. Joseph says it reminds him of the Mystery Mobile.

She chose the dress pattern too. When will I learn?

And finally, Elinor's dress. It is the Oliver + S ice cream dress (two sizes too big). I chose the fabric and the pattern for this one.

She might love the pockets.

And she also got bangs.

This picture with Em in the back playing photog cracks me up.

And this lining might be my favorite part of the dress, which is a shame because no one will ever see it.

So, I have another dress in the works, and hopefully a quilt for Jacob soon, but I feel good about what I've done. I really like that I started most of these so long ago so I can feel super productive spending a few evenings working to get all of these finished products. Ha!

 Quick side note - I may be addicted to Oliver + S. Em's dress was Butterick or something and the whole time I was working on it I was swearing under my breath and vowing (out loud to poor Joseph) that I would never make any other clothing that was not Oliver + S. I wasn't really swearing, but I was pretty frustrated. Try Oliver + S. They will make you love sewing.