Happy Joyful Peaceful Painting / ハッピーな絵

This year is a year for me to experiment with colors. I'd started to get more attracted to full of colors. A few years ago was totally opposite of what I like now. I would choose only muted colors or natural and soft colors palette for almost anything. What has happened to me?? When I went to the Disneyland in summer, I enjoyed looking at the paintings of Mary Blair at their special gallery space. I love the colors, simple fun shapes, motives she chose to create scenes for the fantasy land. I was inspired by her and wanted to do my version of happy joyful peaceful painting to depict an imaginary fantasy scene. Ta-da! Here is the result : ) I had lots of fun painting this. I used acrylic so even I messed up, I could go back and rework on the part until I am satisfied with the result.  Cute?

Land of Happy Joyful Peaceful 

(Inspired by work of Mary Blair)

にほんブログ村

Happy Holiday Season! / ポインセチア

Poinsettia can instantly increases the holiday spirit in the air : ) I got it from my friend's mom who have bought 6 of these to decorate her house instead of getting a Christmas tree. I will make this poinsettia as my tree as well!

にほんブログ村

Things to do in fall / 秋のお楽しみ

Hope everyone is enjoying the nice break with friends and family. 

This year, I'm thankful for cerebrating the holiday with a special friend from Atlanta! It feels very relaxing

and free to hang out with friend you've known for 27 years : )

Yesterday we went to Melrose for shopping at vintage clothing stores(American Vintage, SLOW, etc), and Downtown LA for delicious coffee & cakes at Urth Cafe. After the cafe hang out, we went to "Shojikiya" book store in downtown. Where to tomorrow? Happy Thanksgiving : )

にほんブログ村

Cute "BAGGU" from Uber Days

I have a couple of I'm looking forward to read every day. Uber Days by Kaori in Los Angeles is one of my favorites. Though I don't write too much of my personal life here on my blog, it's really enjoyable to see how she tells stories including her personal life. Also her blogs are full of her daily encounters with local food spots, creative outings & activities that give me some inspirations for activities in LA. 


Kaori recently had a present giveaway event on her blog to celebrate her 2nd anniversary of her blog and 3rd anniversary of her relationship with her husband. I participated in the event and to my surprise, I won the prize! (Here is a blog post of Kaori when she announced winner.) The prize was a stylish shopping bag from BAGGU(This is how we pronounce "bag" in Japanese so it makes me giggle.) I didn't expect to win so I was really excited. 


When the package arrived, I was acting kind of like a kid. When I opened the envelope, colorful confetti came out of the envelope! What a cool staging : ) Kaori san, thank you so much for the fun event and the cute shopping bag! As I promise, I will bring this bag when I shop at Trader Joe's : ) 


I was impressed by the power of blog and internet through this experience. I was able to connect to one of the bloggers I like through this experience. Happy Blogging!

BAGGU 

shopping bag

BAGGU 

shopping bag

Kaori wrote me a message on a cute card

Squid gift tag came with the package

にほんブログ村

Happy Friday and Hooray Arts & Crafts!

Hope you had a good Friday. Here are eco-friendly greeting cards I found at the Patchwork show last Sunday. These cards are from "Merry Blues Art" and the artist is from Long Beach, CA. I like the fine and soft line drawings with the fun use of colors. This time I had a chance to talk to the creator of the cards, Ana, about the concept of her work and the use of eco-friendly materials and painting methods and process she takes to create her work. She Also taught me that there is a place called Long Beach Depot for Creative ReUse in Long Beach,CA where you can donate unused materials where people come and pick materials for their next art projects. Cool concept! I will visit the place one of these days for sure. Thank you Ann for artist's helpful tips : ) One of the great thing about going to these local craft show is that you get to meet the artists and the creators of the products and talk to them in person. If you missed the show this time, there will be another Patchwork show in Santa Ana on Sunday, Nov 27th! 

Merry Blues Art

Eco-friendly Greeting Cards

(Printed on Banana Paper)

Merry Blues Art

Eco-friendly Greeting Cards

(Printed on Banana Paper)

Coffee Break at Le Pain Quotidien

Here is a Mixed Berry Tart (Strawberry, Blackberry, Blueberry) I enjoyed at Le Pain Quotidien last Saturday. It was raining and cold so getting warmth from cup of latte and the tart was right thing to do. Berry tart feels so right during the fall season, isn't it?

Le Pain Quotidien

Patchwork Indie Arts& Crafts Festival in Culver City / クラフトフェスティバル in カルバーシティ

Thankfully it wasn't raining at the craft festival on Sunday (it turned out to be an indoor event.) The event was held at a hip historical area called Helms Bakery District. This area itself is worth a visit. I've been there once for dining at Father's Office but I didn't know it's a nice place for a walk and do window shopping : ) 

Highlight of the event for me was definitely talking to Heidi from Rock Scissor Paper (They offer Fun and Colorful designs with vintage flair.) I'd attended Heidi&Susie's Stationary Workshop at Lala Press organized by Krystina Castella (Instructor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena) in 2008.  The workshop was so educational that I couldn't believe how much business secrets Heidi&Susie were willing to share. I loved the experience. Even though it's been a while since the workshop, Heidi remembered me(really, Heidi? thank you!!)

and she was very kind to share her creative business experience and her continuous passion for arts & crafts with me. Like Heidi, I have so much respect for people who are willing to share their knowledge with others without hesitation. I don't have much knowledge to share but I would like to be sincere and supportive if someone approaches me. 

I got some cool arts&craft pieces at the event. When I finish photographing them, I will introduce them here. 

Patchwork Indie Arts & Crafts

Coffee Pudding @ JJ Bakery / JJベーカリーのコーヒープリン

Frequency level of going to JJ is becoming more and more high these days. I saw a "New" sign next to this coffee pudding so I gave it a try. There are four layers, latte pudding, straight coffee pudding, cream and chocolate. I like how it is not so sweet. JJ is a great place to stop by even after your meal to get dessert!

JJ Bakery

2370 Crenshaw Blvd

Torrance, CA 90501

JJに行く頻度が、日増しに増えています。安いし美味しいしフレッシュな品揃えも豊富ではなまる。最近は食べ物のことばかりの更新が多いので、フード食べ歩きブログみたいになっていますが、アートやデザインなど、他の事もアップできるようにしまーす。

Italian Food From Japan @ Capricciosa in Torrance

There are many good Japanese Italian restaurants in the south bay area. So far Akanechaya is on top of my list because of their service, food, and especially their homemade bread. I've seen an ad for a new Japanese Italian restaurant arrival in Torrance and wanted to visit for a while. The restaurant is "Capricciosa (It's easy to miss spell)", the famous family style franchise restaurant from Japan. Food was delicious. They are open for lunch too so I want to come back here again for lunch. 

Capricciosa

24301 Crenshaw Blvd

Torrance, CA 90505

Happy Friday and Relaxing at Home

Happy Friday, Everyone! Thankfully today is my day off so I am starting my day nice and slow, waking up one hour later than usual, eating breakfast at home, reading my favorite blogs, and planning my weekend. I'm thinking of finishing the painting piece I started a while ago. I will post it on this blog when it's done. It's a fun colorful piece inspired by Mary Blair's paintings. 

Those of you who live in LA area, there is going to be a local craft show this Sunday, September 13th (11am - 5pm.) Shops at this events are modern and the level of idea and craftsmanship is excellent. I'm always impressed by their presentation as well as their product ideas. Go there an get inspired!

Patchwork - Indie Crafts and Arts Festival

http://www.patchworkshow.com/locations-culver-city.php

HELMS BAKERY VENICE BLVD @ NATIONAL 

Bon Voyage!

So my friend left for Japan. Before my friend's departure, we made a quick stop at In-N-Out Burger by LAX(Los Angeles International Airport.) This In-N-Out is not just another yummy In-N-Out. This place is actually the great spot for looking at planes while eating burgers. My friend is a big time airplane geek so he knew about this place since he'd lived in LA a while ago. He said he would come here to take photos of planes here all day long. While we were there, we saw a new Korean Air A380 taking off from this location. The sound of the plane was massive and looking up the giant aircraft passing above our heads was pretty cool. I saw lots of people saying good bye at the airport. It is always hard to see someone leaves. At the gate, I was waving to my friend and noticed that he was being distracted by beautiful singapore airline flight attendants and that made me smile : ) I hope for the best for my friend and said "Bon Voyage!." 

In-N-Out by LAX

9149 S Sepulveda Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Saturday Lunch @ Eatalian Cafe

My product designer friend from Atlanta visited me on the way back to Japan. He graduated from Art Center in Pasadena and he moved to Malaysia about a year ago and then took another adventure to Tokyo. We did a lot of catching up over delicious italian pizza and penne at Eatalian Cafe. This cafe is located in a neighborhood of auto repair shops and warehouses so you would have a nice surprise once you get inside of the cafe. It has some modern, casual, cozy feel. There was no pictures of pizza because we were too hungry to take photos!! My friend told us that he is currently staying at a guest house where new guests are frequently coming in and out. I was pretty impressed by his willingness to accept the constantly changing environment. Pretty inspiring.

Eatalian Cafe

15500 S. Broadway St. 

Gardena, CA 90248  

Tel: 310.532.8880

Happy Friday and Diva on Red Carpet!

 "Diva on a Red Carpet"

Blurred images are the tiles of company logo placed on the backdrop = )

One week late but here is a photo of a "Diva on a Red Carpet" that me and my friends at work made for company's halloween event. We had so much fun thinking and discussing about what to make and how to make it to win. We ordered a pizza and watch comedy show while we were working on the pumpkin. There were jokes and laughs. 4 of us did showed a great contribution and collaboration and created this fun pumpkin DIVA! It reminded me of the high school days when we all stayed late at school and worked on a float for summer festival at school.Our team also dressed appropriately to go well with the DIVA pumpkin theme. Guess what we were? ......We were paparazzis, stylists, and a fashion designer. Small pumpkins in front of the Diva are actually tangerines disguised as pumpkins . How cute! Hope you had a fun halloween and have a wonderful weekend : )

New Ways to Browse Blogger : Dynamic Views / ブロガーページの新しいデザイン：ダイナミックビュー

Blogger has added a new feature "Dynamic Views" and I tried it on my blog. I get to choose how my page to look and interact with viewers from 7 different design choices. So far I like more visual based presentations like "Flipcard" and "Mosaic" since one of the focuses of my blog is to tell stories using visually attractive images.

As one user, it's impressive how easy it is to change the look and feel of the same website by a click of a button. Content finds its own way to situate itself regardless. Beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

私の使用しているブログサイト、ブロガーが新しく、”ダイナミックビュー”という機能を追加したので、自分のブログで試してみました。

７種類のレイアウトデザインから、どういう見た目でどういう風に使ってもらいたいかのプレゼンテーションを選ぶことが出来ます。私のブログで心がけているひとつの事として、魅力的なビジュアルイメージを使用してストーリーを伝えるということなので、”フリップカード”や”モザイク”というデザインスタイルが合っているかなと思いました。

一個人ユーザーとして使ってみての感想ですが、同じコンテンツを、ただ一回のボタンクリックで違うレイアウトにどんどん変えていけるという事が、簡単で、楽しく感じました。 CSSのパワーは凄いそして美しい！