Saturday, November 17, 2007

Birthday indulgences

Yesterday was my birthday... Happy Birthday to me! Rob is unfortunately out of town, but I had a very nice lunch with two of my friends and had a quiet dinner at home, which was promptly followed up with me falling asleep on the couch with Unki and Maggie. Good times!

I did start my birthday a little early last weekend with some indulgence purchases from the Mitsuwa in Torrance.


A tonkatsu (pork cutlet) sandwich and a pastry described as a "whole baked apple". Which it was! So tasty.


From one of the fancy stalls, I bought a monaka, which is red bean anko inside of a crisp rice wafer. I was wondering how the outside would stay crispy... but how could I even doubt the ingenuity of the Japanese?


It was separated into two parts - a pouch with the anko and the wafer.


I open up the pouch and smushed the anko inside.


Super crispy and super delicious!

I also went by the bookstore and bought two magazines.

The November issue of Cotton Time, which is the Christmas issue. I thought all of the Christmas projects were beautifully restrained, and I think that it'll be a great inspiration for future holidays. (Sorry the photos are blurry - it's very overcast today!)





The other magazine I bought is a brand new one called "Home Sweet Craft".

I really dig this magazine, it's kind of a lifestyle magazine with different crafts.


Crochet projects.


I'm not a big fan of yo-yos, but I think this curtain is a great idea.


Bags to sew.


Treats to bake.

There's a French theme to some of the projects.

A Paris bag...

... followed up with a Paris room!


There's a section with a map of a certain area and stores in that area to shop. Cute!


And I really had to post this photo because the girl is too cute! I feel like she's thinking she'd rather be doing ANYTHING else than pretend to be cooking for the photo.

And drumroll.... I'm finished with my quilt! Yay! I'll try to write a post about it this weekend, the overcast sky is not good for taking photos. This was how I got through the hours of hand-sewing the binding on.

I re-watched my beloved Nodame show. But what is that lump under the quilt?

Did you really think that Unki would let me sew on my own?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday! Sounds like you treated yourself well. The Japanese do such interesting things with food.

I love the photos of all the cute things hanging in the windows. I always want to do something like that and then I remember that the cats would destroy anything in about 5 seconds. Silly boys.

Can't wait to see the quilt!

Unknown said...

i want to adopt unki. happy birthday weekend! see you monday.

xo
jen

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday!!!! The quilt is coming along so well.

Stephanie said...

Happy Birthday!!! Sounds like you have had an enjoyable day. Thank you for sharing those magazine pictures. They're so inspiring!

wardstorms said...

Happy Birthday. Just wanted to say hello, I enjoyed this post and all the great inspirational photos of the magazines. Your quilt looks beautiful.

goodkarma said...

Happy Birthday, Mari! I hope you're having a lovely week. xo

MinaG said...

Happy Birthday. And Unki is such a ham.

yaiAnn said...

Happy Birthday! All those magazines look great! Can't wait to see the quilt!

Sarah said...

Happy (belated) birthday!

MamaSutra said...

Hi! De-lurking to say a belated happy birthday, and tell you how much I enjoyed all the loveliness in that post! Thanks for sharing that! Amazing quilt!

goosefairy said...

happy birthday! long may you wave!

i'm not a real fan of yo-yo's either but i love that curtain. something i may have to do. can't you just picture that in different colored sheers? or sheer irridescent fabric?

Anonymous said...

happy belated birthday.