pinku

Wowza

Whatta weekend! Here's the breakdown:

Friday night: Through the wonderful Glitter community of which Pinn is a regular member, we met up with another Glitter member, Jenny Hart (of Sublime Stitching fame) and her buddy, Stephanie!! This was their first trip to Japan and they were keen to experience Japanese karaoke - we were more than willing to oblige.

Also want to add a congrats to Jenny on being one of the winners of Fred Flare's Next Big Thing contest AND also to Pinn on her second published design - Blosson on Knitty!!!

Here's a cute pic of Pinn and her husband, Seimi before the karaoke madness began:

Um, here we all are in the karaoke room (except daz who is taking the photo) before they delivered the pitchers of beer. We are all still looking respectable at this point.

Darin rocking the mic:

And by this next photo, the beer had clearly worked its magic:

It was a great night (which I paid for heavily the next day!!). See you ladies in Austin in a few months!!

And on to Saturday we go. It rained all day Saturday. Our friends from Tiny Cafe had put a lot of hard work into organizing an outdoor music festival to be held in Akiruno - out near Ome in Tokyo.

Here's a manhole cover in Akiruno - it's for you Martine!!

While nursing karaoke hangovers we head out to the Nutrian festival (named after the animal known as the nutria). The only time it didn't rain was during our 20 minute walk from the station to the festival - lucky us. The green of Akiruno immediately eased my hangover pain.

Hard to believe that this is officially still Tokyo!!

My favourite thing about the festival were these smiley fried potato things - they really made me want to smile!

See they really work!

This is a crap photo of a fun Japanese girl band that traditional style music

The party went on well into the night in the mud and rain. Thanks hisari and oi for all of your hard work!

And finally we come to Sunday! The perfect way to spend a Sunday is at a rooftop bbq in Kichijoji. The weather was pretty miserable Sunday morning but the sun came out in the afternoon to cheer all of us up.

click to view larger version of the panorama

Necklace update

First things first. Here's my post from Glitter updating everyone on the necklace situation.

UPDATE: On May 29, nine weeks after making payment for one necklace from Art School Dropout, I received the necklace I paid for and another additional necklace to make up for this whole debacle.

I FINALLY received an email from the vendor last week apologizing. She said the package had been sent back and that she did not know why. She apologized for her lack of response and admitted that she had acted 'immature' - her words not mine. She said that she had sent off the package again and hoped that it would get there this time.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This is the first time that I have NOT been excited to receive a package in the mail. I really had to work to get this one. Of course the necklaces are just as described but after such a big delay (due to the seller's crappy customer service skills) I just wasn't excited. I really wouldn't have minded such a big shipping delay IF the seller had actually responded to my emails. To me no response meant that she was shady or didn't care.

Anyway, I hope that noone else has to go through a similar experience. Thanks for your advice and support!!

Piggy Love

There's a chance that we may get another guinea pig. Sugar needs a friend. It could be one of these three baby guinea pigs that were born in Japan earlier this month. BEWARE - you might have a heart attack from the cuteness!

These photos were taken the day after they were born - here they are snuggling with mum!

Have a great weekend!!!

Socks and babies

On the Saturday before last, I excitedly received my SockapalOOOza socks from Kathryn in Canada (who has the cutest pitbull, Bogey). Unfortunately I'm an essentially lazy person and didn't email her straightaway to say thanks. Sorry Kathryn! She was worried that I didn't like them, but she couldn't be further from the truth. I love my new socks and actually wore them to Costco the day after they arrived. Here they are in all their pink glory. Perfect for me, huh!

Thanks Kathryn!

Also on the weekend, Daz and I went to a combined birthday party for three one-year olds in Shinjuku gyoen. It was definitely a first for me - there were strollers everywhere.

Here's Nico, Lucy and Aiden with their mums/dads - please take a look at the amazing banana duck birthday cake that Jo made! She's a genius. I won't mention the fact that I was the one that kept asking her when we could eat it and the fact that I was the first to devour a banana cup cake, or the fact that as we were leaving Paul told me that there was yellow icing on my forehead. Shameful!

I personally think Nico will be famous one day. I mean how many one year olds can say they've sat in a Paris Hilton Bag signed by both Paris and Nicky themselves. He doesn't look very happy about it though!!

Hobbies and Hot Dogs

Last Saturday Pinn and I made our way out to Odaiba to attend Japan's largest Hobby Show. It was rainy and cold outside, but luckily there was lots of fun crafty stuff inside to keep us warm. The Hobby Show was on for three days, but I could only make it on the Saturday because of work, so unfortunately I missed out on the Prince's talk show. However we did make it in time to see a talk show with Tomoko Takamori - Japan's leading amigurumi artist - and man, is she cute!

That's her on the right! Cute dress and cute shoes.

We were introduced to Takamori-san later by my friend from Nihon-Vogue and even though we talked about her visiting the Tokyo S+B, I didn't think that she would come to our next meeting three days later. Of course I didn't have my camera with me. Dumb. I am going to do an interview with Takamori-san though - the interview will appear on my new Japanese craft site...which will hopefully be up soon!!

Here's Pinn looking super cute in her handmade beret and capelet. We were lucky enough to receive a free bento lunch from my friend - yay!

I actually don't have many photos from the Hobby Show as photography was not exactly allowed. Here's the three other photos I took.

Um, I think this one needs no explanation.

And here's Rira-kuma (relax bear). You could have a polaroid taken with Rira-kuma so I went to line up, but they told me I needed some silly special ticket.....I was so sad.

But the excitement does not end there. The next day Daz and I head off to Costco for the first time. We had fun because everything was BIG.

I made French toast for breakfast with blueberries and stewed apples with walnuts and raisins - yum!

It took us about 40 minutes to get to the Costco at Tamasakai by train. It's really easy to get to and only a 10 minute (or less) walk from the station. Good directions in English here.

We found it!

Daz feels right at home with the gigantic trolleys (or carts as you Americans say)

Since we were hungry when we arrived, we went straight to the eatery. We ordered two hot dogs, one pizza slice, one churro, and two bottomless cups of soft drink - it all came to less than 1000 yen.

Me using the relish machine to load up our hot dogs

Darin eating the gigantic pizza slice

Click to continue on below and see some photos of really large amounts of food. We actually didn't buy any of the featured products....except for the 4kg box of old fashioned oats!!

Art School Dropout....literally

Thank you all so much for your comments and feedback! I really needed to get that off my chest. So Paypal ruled in my favour because the merchant did not respond to the claim within 10 days. However, she did not have sufficient funds in her account, so I was refunded $2.26 of the $38 I paid in total ($30 for the necklace and $8 for international shipping). I'm not sure what to do next. It's gotten to a point where I am sick of sending emails and leaving random comments. It's her responsibility to get back to me - not mine.

So I've decided to reveal the merchant on my blog as a public service to all of the crafty gals/guys out there. I'm sure people have had fine experiences with her, but mine was not.

The merchant I have been dealing with is Jessica (Jessee) Maloney of Art School Dropout.

Her flickr account.

Her sites update journal.

Here's the necklace I was to receive, but never did. BTW, she's upped the prices of her necklaces to $40, so beware.

So apart from this negative blight, my weekend was great even though the weather was crappy. On Saturday Pinn and I went to the Hobby Show in Odaiba (photos to come) and on Sunday Darin and I went to America....well actually we just made a trip out to Costco but the size and price of the pizza slices and the free soda refills led us to believe we were really in the US!! Photos to come!

Trying to Stay Positive

I always try and remain positive on my blog mainly because a very long time ago a friend said that email and the internet are not places to be mean or nasty and I agree. I save being mean and nasty for when I'm tired and cranky and riding the elevator and I get pushed into the corner by someone who has plenty of room in front of them but that's another story (deep breath).

I love handmade stuff and love to buy from people that are creative and talented. I have bought pieces from Antifactory (more than once, ahem), Pretty Raccoon, Supayana, Boygirlparty, Veritas El Pulchra, Frecklewonder, Spicy Toast, The Vintage Doctor, Heather Joy, and Dying Breed to name a few. I love supporting independent crafters. More than 90% of these independent business owners are helpful and have great customer service - sending emails to confirm items are sent/received, etc. I have only had a few problems and most of them are resolved quickly but recently I tried to buy a necklace online from a young independent crafter and it has been an ABSOLUTE nightmare.

I bought and paid for the necklace on March 23. The seller was great about emailing at this point and seemed very helpful. Four weeks later nothing had arrived so I sent two or three emails to the seller's business email address and got no response. I finally left a comment on her livejournal and she responded apologizing and said that the necklace had never been sent. She had asked her boyfriend to do it, but he didn't send it because he couldn't work out how to fill in the little customs form on the package. I was totally nice and understanding and she was repentant saying that she'd thrown in another necklace for free. Awesome. I was so happy to finally hear from her and get things resolved. Two weeks after that exchange - NOTHING. No necklaces in the mail, so I start sending emails again. No response. Left two comments on her livejournal. No response. She has been sick but has had time to update her livejournal, attend a craft fair, update her flickr account. I also emailed another email address that she recently asked customers who had not received their products to respond to. No response. I'm so sad.

I won't mention who it is coz that's not nice. I finally lodged a paypal complaint last week and sent her another two emails saying that if she'd just respond and tell me when she sent the necklaces or when she will send them, then I'd withdraw the complaint and that even if I got the money back then I would repay her. NO response. I'm so tired of this and know I should just let it all go for the sake of my sanity but it truly bugs me. I've even considered calling her residence in the US, but I probably won't.

I haven't lost faith though in all of you crafty girls out there. I just wish that this one would respond to my emails. I'm beginning to feel like a stalker.