Let's Go Shopping - The Japan Relief Edition

I'm joining in BrisStyle's Let's Go Shopping meme today, inspired by Wicked Child Design's Japan Relief theme.  

Japan Relief Each Card Hand Drawn Original by ReincarnationStation

Japanese Origami Crane Earrings Pray For Japan by makeawishaz

SADAKO Limited Edition Print - A4 by birdyandme

Thinking of Home (Japan Earthquake Relief) by Naokosstoop

Japan Relief - I Heart You Ninjas - Wood Peg People by Pegged

There are lots of other ways you can help raise money for the Japan appeal.  Poppytalk has some links.  And A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That has been great at organising blog auctions and raffles.  

I'll be adding a couple of my own blog auctions here later today, one an abundance of kimono fabric, and the second of one of my very limited edition kimono cranes.

My Place and Yours - Shoes (at my front door)

Shoes, glorious shoes.

Shoes jumbled in the wardrobe,

Shoes near the car.

Shoes by the door,

The ones loved best.

Thank you to Punky & Me for My Place and Yours.

If you'd like to check out more shoe collections drop by here.

Tagged

I had planned on joining Eye Spy from yesterday, but yesterday ended up being a pajama day. Lovely dh brought me breakfast in bed, Timtams in bad, Lunch in bed and then dinner on the sofa in front of a DVD that he rented for me. Who could ask for better care? I watched two DVDs, finished one book (Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami) and started another (The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova) and slept a lot.

But alas, it's now Monday morning, so I was required to get out of my pjs to come to work.

I have a couple of tags to catch up on, this one is from Jess of In the Burrow.

Outside my window... I'm at school, so, a sand-covered sports field (they don't do grass for sport's fields here) and the school gym. The trees around the field have lost most of their leaves.

I am thinking... that I wish I could go back to bed and about the fun work Christmas party I went to on Saturday night.

I am thankful for... my wonderful husband, family and friends and something else that I'm not telling yet......

From the kitchen... I'm munching on dry Special K.

I am wearing... two pairs of black knee-high socks, black cords, a thermal undershirt, a black woollen turtleneck, a little floral dress over the top and a lap blanket - and I'm still cold!

I am creating... some jewellery and I finished off a dress on Saturday that I wore to the Christmas party that night. I'll have to wait for the weekend to have some light to photograph it in.

I am going... to move to Australia in less than four months now! Time is slipping away!

I am reading... The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

I am hoping... that my classroom will be warm today and my students good.

I am hearing... teachers speaking in Japanese around me.

Around the house... a mess - I haven't done much housework of late.

One of my favorite things... Timtams (I rediscovered just how much I love them this last weekend).

A few plans for the rest of the week... Work, making jewellery, starting on "Christmas", sleep.

A picture I'm sharing...

I'm tagging... I'm not going to tag anyone in particular, but if you have a chance, I'd love to hear your answers to this tag.

This is..... me cheating!

So really, I'm not the best participant in the This is... meme. First I gatecrash weeks late, then I missed the next week (I don't have an inspiration board and didn't do my homework for it as I went away for the weekend) and now... I cheat!

So This is.... looking IN my front door. To be totally honest, looking out my front door is so depressing. All there is, is a carpark, a narrow street and the wall of the house across the road. Before coming to Japan, many people have this image of it being a beautiful country, which it really is in parts. The problem is, for the most parts, the suburbs are ugly. There is no sense of design and as space is at such a premium, houses and apartments are built on tiny blocks, so often have no room for a garden. Oh how I miss trees and the sound of birds in the morning.

My back door wouldn't work either - we don't have one. I was baffled for days of what to do, until yesterday when my friend came over and did this lovely ikebana arrangement. I thought I'd show inside my front door. Sorry Brooke! It's a great theme and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone else's view.



The first thing you may notice is that the front door opens outwards. This is a space saving design, architects don't have to allow an area for a door swing (most of the other doors in our apartment are paper sliding doors). What the swinging-out design doesn't allow for is safety. I had a salesman come to my apartment once, late at night and I couldn't get him to leave. I couldn't shut the door on him as he was between it and myself.

I think most people know that in Japan, you have to take your shoes of before you enter. What is difficult for most people to understand is how clearly defined the shoes-on and shoes-off area really is. The light area you can see on the floor is for shoes on. From there you step out of your shoes onto the darker area which in our apartment, is ever so slightly raised. You would never step on that light area without your shoes. It's funny how ingrained it's become to me now. When I have visitors come and stay and they step on the dark area with their shoes on, or outside with them off I cringe. I yelled at my dad once because he tried to walk in to take his shoes of sitting on the sofa, but didn't have the heart to tell him off later for going outside in his socks to sit on the stairs to put them on again.

The brown cupboard you can see is our shoe cupboard. As shoes are not allowed indoors, this is where they must live. Mine is full of more space saving items to make room for them all to fit, but as you see, my collection is starting to overflow. The big clodhoppers are my husband's of course.

So next week, I promise to try to stick to the rules!

This is... Me (gatecrashing the) Taking A Photo Of Myself In The Mirror With My Favourite Accessory Meme

No posts for a week and then four in two days... you may have noticed that consistency is not my strongpoint...

I hope no-one minds me gatecrashing... I've been lurking for weeks, really enjoying everyone's This is.. meme thought up by Three Buttons.

This weeks This is.... posed a bit of a problem - not a single decent mirror in this apartment. It's funny what you put up with when you know you're only going to be in a place for only a while.

So, my favourite accessory, is that red ring - my engagement ring. While I love diamonds as much as the next girl, I never really imagined having a diamond ring for as an engagement ring. To me, diamonds are a cold, hard beauty and that's not how I see love. To me, love is about celebration, marriage about growth, so I wanted a ring that signified those qualities. I wanted colour. We went to a jeweller whose work I liked for its organic quality. At first, we looked at rubies, but again, there were so many hard, sharp angles. After a few design sessions, in a stroke of genius, he suggested red coral. That was it! And so, my engagement ring was born. My wedding ring is the small band on my pinkie finger.