Rainy Day Tokyo Valentines

Sandwiches! This photo above is one of the many reasons why I just love living in this incredible city! Where else can you see a cute construction site 2D style window complete with potted plants and a series of cute mamacharis parked in front of it!



This is the rainy day view from my apartment today. There was something so beautiful about the white sky and crisp air. When I transferred trains at Yoyogi-uehara today the view was magical.



Winter potted plant collections around the corner to my apartment.





Vines and a bright blue hose. All you need for a photo really. Worth taking my pompom gloves off for this one!



Super cute Yuko-chan and me at a cute little cafe in Ginza.



Yuko-chan gave me the sweetest Valentines Day present - beautifully wrapped in her gorgeous collage style.





We enjoyed making a birthday note for Shio-chan who shares her birthday with Valentines Day!



My friend Rhys presenting his iPhone VJ software at Apple Store Ginza.

I started the day running 7kms at Tipness listening to an old Drum and Bass track made by my friend Luke. I took a night time bike ride to my friend Gracies house to drop off some Valentines Day chocolates. And have just received Tokyo-ga from my friend Joel ありがとうJOEL! (Thank you James for the heads up on this too).

AND! I received the coolest Valentines Day card from my dad! He is making the shape of a heart with different photographs of himself made into a montage! Best Present Ever!



I hope you had a lovely Valentines Day Sandwiches. I can't wait for White Day.

Also! I wanted to share with you the cutest Valentines Day music by the prettiest girl ever Miss Priscilla Ahn. She sent me the EP a few days ago and I have had it on regular rotation here at my mini-me Tokyo apartment and she is just so nice that she is giving her EP away free for Valentines Day! Amazing no? Click over here, enter your email address, and the link will be sent to you to download!


Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo

Shinjuku Gyoen Picnic

What a lovely day it was today!

A spot of embroidery with my morning coffee. A winter morning run along my local nature walk where I spotted these blossoms starting to bloom. I've been riding my mamachari to the nature walk and running 5 to 7 kms through Sangengaya and along to Kannana Dori and back. I've been tracking my runs on RunKeeper. It's an incredible app if you like running outdoors.



After lunch I rode my mamachari to Commune gallery to see the beautiful accessory exhibition and chat with some super cute new friends. If you have time, be sure to pop in to see the accessories before the exhibition comes down on Wednesday.

I then headed off to Shinjuku where I was invited to a lovely picnic in Shinjuku Gyoen by Yuko-san. The lovely Yuko-san was a participant at two of my workshops and she has the most lovely sense. Yuko-san and her husband wore matching Comme des Garcons cardigans (and matching Tupera Tupera badges!) and prepared beautiful scones and hot chocolate to share in the park. They hand decorated paper cups with mt masking tape and presented everything on a mini table that looked like it could have been taken directly from a cute cafe! We all sat down and going around the circle introduced ourselves and spoke a little about what we love / do. I remember when I first moved to Japan how daunting this Japanese introduction system was!

By 4:30 when the sun went down and the 'we're-closing-the-park-now-so-please-leave-onegaishimasu' song came over the loud speakers we brushed the grass off our clothes and headed back to the station. By this time my feet were frozen numb and I was reaching for my bag to see if I had any hidden kairo packs. I did a sneaky detour via Tokyu Hands and Kinokuniya - some of my favourite past times - and took the Odakyu-sen back to Shimokitazawa. A quick trip to my local supermarket Ozeki to stock up on nabe ingredients, and before you knew it I was relaxing at home with a glass of red wine and some delicious nabe.

A perfect winters day.



I hope you had a nice Saturday Sandwiches!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo

Commune Gallery Shimokitazawa

This lovely little gallery and zine shop used to be 5 minutes walk from my apartment. Now it's 16 minutes since they have just re-opened at a brand new location. But that's okay because I love visiting Miyuki-chan in her beautiful new space. The sun streams in and if you ask nicely Miyuki-chan will make you some curry rice or a hot coffee and you can set up on one of the sunny tables and busy yourself scrapbooking or making other craft.

Commune is a gallery, zine shop, other nice goods shop, gallery, and you can even get yourself a nice cold beer from the cute mini Kirin fridge. You can buy cute things such as stamps, t-shirts, cards, badges, earrings and at the moment you can pick up some nice calendars hot off the press.

While I was there the other day, Kana-chan, one of Miyuki-chan's artists came in and gave me a lollypop! It's just a really nice place to be. If you are in Tokyo, I think you might enjoy popping in. It's a short six minute walk from Shimokitazawa (if you're not familiar with the area best to print off the map first as there are some back streets to tackle) or it's super close at two minutes from Shin-Daita station on the same Inokashira line.

Oh! And I'll be hosting a Nengajo making workshop there in December! I hope you can come! Details to come.

There are only a few spots left for my Pocket Tissue Case Making Workshop at Shibaura House on 17th November. Let me know if you'd like to come and I'll reserve you a spot.

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo

Yuzuko-chan's new stitch book!

Yuzuko-chan's new stitch book came in the mail the other day. When mail is too big to fit into my letter box the postman brings it upstairs to my apartment. 'Hello Sandwich sama desu ka?' he said. 'Hai, Hello Sandwich desu. Gokurosama desu!' and he smiled.

We all know and love Yuzuko-chan's illustrations but look just how gorgeous they look when embroidered to furoshiki, tote bags and mini buttons!

Colourful katakana.

The sweetest mini-me buttons.




Assorted drinks!


Placemats with spoon and fork character embroidery.

Yuzuko-chan's new book shows us how to make such lovely contemporary embroidery - just perfect to make on a night in with a good movie!

Love Love

Hello Sandwich

xoxo

Outgoing Mail

Some outgoing mail putting my new mt tapes to good use!

Love Love

Sandwich

xoxo

Kazumi-chan's new book!

When I arrived home yesterday after a lovely bike ride with friends along Kandagawa to Kichijoji, I found a little present from Kazumi-chan! It was a copy of her new book! In her book Kazumi-chan shows us how to make seasonal craft for the entire year long. Cute Christmas wreaths, birthday party crowns, hanging mobiles, paper flower sticks and much more. Her new book is designed by Segawa-san who also designed our new wrapping book.





My eyes lit up when I saw a little paper cup with the name 'Ebony' written on it!!! Ureshiiii!!! And a little secret is, that in my new book I put a little 'Kazumi-chan' on one of the wrapping ideas too! I loved this little secret exchange!

You can pick up Kazumi-chan's new book online here.

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo

Hello Sandwich in Tokyo Bookshops

Some Japanese craft books that I was lucky enough to be included in!














It was just incredible today to walk into Libro Shibuya, Sanseido Shimokitazawa and Shimokitazawa Village Vanguard and see our new wrapping book sitting next to another book I'm on the cover of! This book was on the shelves too! It was such an honour, too, to be on the same shelves as my lovely and amazingly talented friends Udagawa-san, Killigraph-san and Yuzuko-san! You will love Yuzuko-san's new embroidery book too! It's the one on the right with the little smiley face. It's amazing!