Opening this Thursday night!!

So if you are at a loss this Thursday night you should come here:

Modern Times Pop-Up Shop 3
311 Smith St, Fitzroy, 3065

From 6 -8pm you will be able to check out the new and spectacular set up at Modern Times,  (check out their rad site and blog) a fantastic store on Smith Street. I am extremely lucky enough to come on board with my bonsai and they will all be up for sale along with other beautiful wares from talented designers.

So come say hi why don't ya? We can chat and swill wine and look at pretty things.

See ya there

Slow and steady

Slowly, slowly, slowly I try and find my feet. Probably half my problem is I am impatient and want everything now. Maybe the other half is I can be quite hard on myself (but if I'm not who will?). I have been working nearly everyday at my pay the rent job which I really like but I like being in the studio more...but, I have to keep reminding myself to look at the bigger picture, to remember that this is just laying the foundation.

So our new house has an enormous room at the front which is going to be my studio space. It's awesome. I love it. Look at my studio assistant. He loves it too. I have such grand plans for making it lovely. At the moment it's a bit trashy. But thats ok too.

So coming back off the massive effort that was team bonsai, we hopefully have some happy stockists. My latest stockist to come onboard, which I am more than happy about is "Modern Times"

Modern Times are a super rad crew who run a pop up shop on Smith Street. They pair delectable danish style furniture with beautiful contemporary art. While the lease may be temporary, they have been there for quite awhile and just received an extension so to celebrate they have some new artists (me!!) under their belt and will be doing a little launch on Thursaday the 16th of August. There will be art, there will be furniture, there will be wine and there will be beats! I am really excited and if you are in Melbs you should be too!

I got to meet the lovely Amy who runs the space and I really like her thinking, I like busting out of that gallery scene and displaying the work more like it would be if it were in YOUR home. That is how I like to think my work sits. I want it to be lived with, to be loved and not to be squirrelled high up in the china/no touching cabinet.

My goal this year is to expand on my bonsai. I want bonsai in more stockists. I want bonsai in more homes. I want bonsai in photo shoots. I want to think about bonsai in an online shop. I want bonsai to be absolutely rocking it by this time next year. I want to think about streamlining, about lighting, about colour, about killin' it. Yeah.

I wish I could show you some more pics but my computer is being a douche and not letting me upload any more. Thanks, thanks alot. This won't go unforgotten when bonsai world domination hits and all of a sudden someone is looking to upgrade....

Team Bonsai for the Win

It's been a busy week since returning home. Have just started getting settled back into Melbourne life. Did a quick stint back to Adelaide to make some work and had a cracker of a time. Was extremely busy, blowing glass for four consecutive sessions and running a small team to make the works. Super fun, super tiring. Each time I do this I thin, ok so next time I won't blow everyday, why can't I remember this?!

So I think what I would like to do for the remainder of this year is really concentrate on expanding and getting my Yumemiru works exposed. These are my glass bonsai. I love making this line of work and think that there is real scope to move onwards and upwards with them. I seem to get really good feedback on them and am slowly developing a market for them. I have just had a new stockist come onboard; Sandarne who are a lovely little business located in Sorrento on the coast. I also just completed another order for Aspects of Kings Park who are located in Perth, and I will also be supplying works for a pop up shop in Melbourne, details to be announced soon!

To get the works done I headed back to Radelaide where I put together a small team. I made a total of 42 Bonsai in 3 days!! 3 days! I AM MY OWN FACTORY! For the first time I decided to try and make them with a team of three, instead of just me and my assistant. Two words;

Game. Changer.

Holy shitballs! It was amazing! So fast! We worked really hard and got some amazing results. I finally feel as though I have a viable product that I can make some clams from. So in case you were wondering, heres how team bonsai runs:

I have one assistant pick up the colour, pop a bub, then start gathering up. This then gets passed off to me where I make the shape and then my second assistant brings me a punty which allows me to transfer the piece off of the pipe and then shape and finish the top half of the piece. As this is happening my first assistant is prepping for the next piece. As soon as I am finished, my first assistant and I switch pieces so they put away the finished piece to anneal and I take the next piece from them.

It is super fast and pretty exciting. It did take a little getting used to with timings and whatnot. The bonsai have such a specific set up with all that lovely weight on the bottom so the assistant making the initial shape really needs to know what they are doing. I really love working in a team, there is such a good energy. Whats really exciting is that working in this manner gets really good results. Having a couple of orders allowed me to experiment with working in a team. It is hard to get suppliers to take work which is not on consignment so suppliers, such as Sandarne and Aspects who are actually purchasing the work are most welcome!

Also for the vey first time I hired another assistant to do some coldworking for me. This is the cold process which involves grinding and polishing the bottom. Lets just say this is not my strong point....I can do it, I just don't enjoy it that much and really have to concentrate on it. Paying someone who is skilled in this area is awesome! It also meant that I could concentrate on the hot side of things. Having only 5 days in Adelaide meant that I was a little strapped for time, I blew glass everyday but I had to get my head around timing, to get the work not only made but cold worked, packed and shipped. Phew!

And here they are, signed, sealed, (almost) delivered. Yay for me!

So the next step is securing some more stockists, particuarly for Melbourne. I also want to explore the possibilities of getting the bonsai to some bigger outlets. I would love a corporate or hospitality fit out. Just how to nab one.....

And here they are! Two members of team bonsai, the very talented Danielle Rickaby and Jaan Poldaas.Or as I like to call them, Rockabee and Polrock.

Aren't they awesome? 

Raaaaaaaadish!!!!!

In my haste to depart for beers and hugs, I forgot to show you what I have actually been working on at Pilchuck...

RADISHES!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Sorry, I think they are hilarious! I made them all hot too so I am a super proud mama. I had anticipated developing my cacti and succulents more, which I started on in the beginning, but I just could not get the radish that I had seen in Japan out of my head. So I thought when else am I going to get the chance to make a radish? And now I'm hooked and want to make a whole series of radish and beets.

(See? Same, same....!)

But then I go back to the conversation I had with my sister, "who is going to want to buy a glass radish?" but that was the amazing thing about Pilchuck, it was the first time in a long time that I was given the opportunity to create without the hinderance of those pesky money questions. And isn't that what art is about? Sometimes coming from a production background I get the lines mixed up I think. It is an expensive medium and somewhere along the lines it gets a little blurry and I only end up making for money ie functional wares.

Now functional wares have never really been my strong point. I can make vases and bowls I suppose but I always felt like they weren't  good enough. Never thin enough, never tall enough, blah, blah, blah. But with sculpting this all goes out the window! I feel like with my skills I have learnt from production blowing I can be a better sculptor, if that makes sense? And I love it. (that helps too I suppose...) And it is ridiculous amounts of fun.

I got to use the garage for the first time and that was awesome. I found that it works best to make all the radish leaves first then reassemble on the last leave and put it in the garage. Then make the body and reattach the leaves as a whole. Super fun. I ended up having to give the big guy away but I did manage to ship one little guy and store 2 in my backpack. The big guy was the first one I made so the leaves are not as nice (well thats what I told myself as I had to give it up) Now I wanna make some metal stands for them and I would love to have some sticking up from the ground!

These next pics are (unfortunately..) not my work. When we were in Seattle we were fortunate enough to see the brand new Chihuly exhibition. It was absolutely awe inspiring. Honestly it was so beautiful it nearly made me cry. 

Sometimes I think Chihuly gets a bad wrap, for what I'm not exactly sure (being successful? makin the cold hard cash?) but not from me. I still think he is amazing and will always be one of my first inspirations in glass. The man knows colour. His drawings relate so well to his glass. And you know what else I like about him?, how even though he lost the use of an eye and could techncally not blow glass anymore, he made it work. He found a way. He got together these amazing teams to make his visions and be became more successful than ever.

The man is a fucking genius already! I would give my right arm to be on one of his installation teams. At the end of the exhibit you could watch some short movies on his works and it just looks amazing. I had always wondered how he put them together. Hey Mr. Chihuly? If by some freak of nature you ever read this and have any job openings just drop me a line and I guarantee I will pretty much drop everything to get to you.

So Seattle was fantastic. And to conclude:

I hears ya brother, me too.

Mind has been BLOWN

So for the past 2 weeks I have been sluggin it out at Pilchuck. Pilchuck is a glass school in Seattle and it has literally blown my mind. It totally exceeded any expectations I had and blew them out of the water. I took a hot sculpting class with Karen Willenbrink Johnsen and Jasen Johnsen and it was totally off the hook! Those two are super talented and some of the most generous people I have ever met. Generous in their time, their approach to teaching, just everything. I guess before I got to Pilchuck I felt a little meh about glass and my work and wasn't sure which direction I was heading, blah, blah, blah and now I am like WOW, GLASS BLOWING IS AMAZING AND I WANNA TAKE ON THE WORLD!

First off, it's set on this amazing property full of forests with massive pine trees and beautiful maples, then add into the mix a whole bunch of crazy glass obsessed individuals and you got yourself a party. They work you like a dog, we had 5am starts (thats on the floor blowing at 5 so up in the 4am bracket..) and then there are demos in the arvo and usually some sort of parties in the evening. So kind of like being an associate....on steroids...

In the beginning it was pretty intimidating, at least for me, you got all these u.s. kids who have been coming there for summers on end and they all have their buddies and they are pretty skilled up, few clicks going on and what not. I had just rocked in from Japan and it took me awhile to adjust. I had come from this totally different country where everyone is super quiet and polite, it had just been pretty much me and my sister for 3 and a half weeks then BAM, chuck me into a big group of big ole loud mouths and see what happens. It was tougher than I expected. But I got there in the end, I found my own loud mouth voice and I remembered that I did know abit about the hot stuff and that everyone else was there to make stuff too. It also helped that just by luck 2 of my lovely friends happened to be there too! It was amazing to have them there and I had such a good time with them.

This is me blowing glass with a chicken leg as my only tool. There was a game one night called "magic cup", everyone finds a tool, you throw it down then write your name on a list and someone else chooses your tool and thats all you can use to make the cup! Lemme tell you this, a chicken leg really smokes it up like a bitch and there is oil and grease everywhere (does make a good block though...)

Anyways, I gots to run, more later, I gots me a date with my man and a bar!!!

Jet Lagged Ramblin's

It seems so bizarre to tell you that this morning I was in Tokyo eating breakfast with my fam and now I am in Seattle eating a turkey sandwich and drinking a massive coffee but it is really still the same day?....!! jet lag, what a bitch right? So now begins phase two of the deezarock's world tour of '02; Pilchuckin'. But before we get to that I thought I might just spew out a few Japan thoughts while they are fresh (and before my computer's life carks it, here goes;

These are the things I learnt in Japan:
- Japan has 5 kinds of recycling but for someone who values recycling so highly, you will come home from the 7-11 with a million plastic packagings for that one piece of candy you bought, go figure.
- For a nation who is known for their politeness, snakes alive are they brutal in the subway. The amount of times I got cut off, stepped on and generally shoved out of the way, but hey I guess they gots to be at work I guess, a million trains to catch I suppose
- eating your lunches from a convienience store is awesome.
- green tea flavoured kit kats are also awesome
- you can still smoke inside but not on the street, only in certain spots
-  japanese transportation is amazingly efficient
- everyone has buns of steel from the masses of stairs they climb everyday in getting to the subway
- japanese telly is hilarious and informative at the same time
- weiner dogs are the dog of choice in Tokyo
- dressing your dog up and pushing it in a pram is also the way to go
- a bare minimum of 3 people is employed to do 1 persons job, for an outside job, there is always someone wearing a hard hat
- meat on a stick is the best
- beauty can be found in the everyday
- izakeya's don't open until 5...
- avoid catching a train at 8:30am...
- everyone rides a bike
- 100 yen shops are the tits
- japan on the whole is mild mannered and quiet I feel like it has made me quiet and I look forward to laughing loudly again
- sleeping on the train is big
thats all i got for now, my brain is starting to turn to mush. I'll try and get my Ikebana findin's out while they are fresh too, but thats for laters

These are the things I see

Roamin' my hood

Tokyo you really gave me a swift kick in the ovaries (both literally and figuratively unfortunately..). She's a tough city Tokyo, kind of makes me think she can chew people up and spit them out pretty quick smart. I have heard a couple of people use the phrase "Tokyo tired"(Check out this lovely blog. I'm pretty sure I heard this lady say it first) It's not that you are tired of Tokyo but I totally get it. Maybe thats why every second person you see is trying to catch a sneaky snooze? Everywhere! on the train, job site, car, even standing up! I often wonder how many people actually miss their stops on the train? Even I was doing it the other day! I had like 5 stops til Gotanda and I was just like ohhhh close those lil shrimp eyes and catch a breather, heaven!

Tokyo is the city people come to get lost in. Nobody gives a fuck what you look like, what you like to wear (many I have seen some crazy westerners in some fucking craaaazy get ups!! I'm pretty sure I saw a chick donning a black sequin top hat yesterday, a foreigner!!) or what you are doing really. Here you can just fade on right in to the big smoke and lose yourself. I think it could get lonely but at the same time I get that it is an escape from whatever it is that you are running from. It is just so consuming. There is always noise, there is always a million things going on and lets not forget that trying to find street signs is almost non existent. It is tiring. Tokyo tired; I get it.

So to recharge we spent the day around home.

It was fantastic.

Had a snooze in, cooked a nice breakfast, did some washing, played some Spongebob (ahem..) then I decided to hit the streets. Just a nice, leisurely stroll round our hood all on my lonesome. Again...

It was fantastic!

So beautiful, this is the Japan I came for. I just can't get enough of the suburbs here. They are gorgeous. There is so much beauty in the everyday. In a sea of grey there are pops of greens and blues with splashes of orange. People seem to take so much pride in the little space that they have. Maybe thats the key? Instead of wanting more, make the absolute best of what you have already.

Now get ready, I have like a million snaps I want to share with you....

And one of the best things was this tiny second hand shop I found. Inside I found the perfect present for my husband who is working away tirelessly at home; a Japanese edition of Abbey Road on vinyl. Hope you like it.

x

So very very tired...

I am so raggedly tired, this is how I'm sure I look.

We have just been gunning it, trying to cram in as much as possible. Ikebana classes, sight seein', big crazy design festival, about a million flights of stairs, 20 bajillion trains and one matcha flavoured kitkat (that was probably my highlight for today).

So in lieu of sleep deprived (Tokyo is just giving me the crazies dreams) I just wanna share some photos with you instead, be prepared for ramblings when I feel like it...

I would like a Japanese garden on my little balcony when I get home.

Big fan of the radish at the moment, thinking I might like to make one in glass, but then again who's gonna want to buy a glass radish?..

This ones for your Shellsy! Is this not the coolest little lamp you have ever seen?

I wish I could take one of these guys home with me.

Maybe this is why we get lost so often.....

Flower arranging like a boss

So I get this email from my dear friend, goes a little something like, love the blog, looks like you are having an amazing time, yadda yadda yadda, aren't you supposed to be doing some work over there?...

You got me.

You are dead right lil lisa. I am a man with a plan. I came here for one thing. One thing only! And it's not swan boats or cat buses and it's not delectable peach treats no matter how delicious they may be, it's for......

Ikebana!

I came to research and learn from the ancient art of Japanese floristry; Ikebana. I want to then translate these findings to glass and design a range of vessels for Ikebana but catered to Australian natives. So now that the Tokyo information overload has kind of subsided I can get down to work. 

Had my very first class at Sogetsu a massive Ikebana headquarters. The first class was the real deal and it was in Japanese....we were lucky enough to have a lovely translator, phew! Like most things I do, I guess I just like to dive in at the deep end and this was no different. The building itself was very intimidating, not much signage some crazy big sculptures in the foyer so after standing around awkwardly we just had to take a punt and hop in the elevator. Eventually we did find our class and maybe I got the times wrong but they were in full swing by the time we got there.

First you get to chose your materials, one greenery,

One flowers and they already had a vessel out for us to use, a big round low dish. I was kind of hoping to pick from something like this;

So you walk in and there are maybe 30 plus people seated and working on their arrangements. I think it was good to do this class first because you got to see all the other skilled practitioners working. It was pretty beautiful in there, (i wanna say real classy like, but then you will peg me for the real moron i am) they were playing soft classical music and the view from up there was spectacular.

We had a lovely lady helping us (and when I say helping she really made it for us) I get the impression this is what happens on your first lesson. It's just like a teaser, we'll show you the basics kid but look around at what all the big kids are playing with, we know you'll be back. Cunning.

So my first lesson was for a 'basic upright style'.

You use 3 main pieces, the Shin, Soe and lastly the Hikae. These pieces make a triangle (i always knew  3 was a good number) The tallest is the 'shin', this is double the hight of the vessel plus the diameter, this guy goes at a 10 - 15 degree angle. You always make them facing you. The next guy is the'soe', he goes at a 45 degree angle from the shin. Last in the frame, is the 'hikae' which is the flower and goes at a 75 degree angle. 

By the way all these are attached to the kenzan at the bottom of the vessel (spikey guy). So these are your main points then you kind of just add more to cover the kenzan. There are lots of cool tricks to keep weaker stems in play and cutting on the angle and things like that. 

The teacher gave an example of two different styles. The second was of a straight and curved line arrangement together, talking about harmony between the two.

I really liked seeing what the other students were up to. It seemed as there were a mix of skill levels in the class, some were from all over the world (i think we had a lady next to us who was kind of a big deal in denmark..)

Loved this crazy vessel.

Ladies workin their magic.

If there were classes like this, I would go every week. Then at the end the teacher rolls round and critiques everyones work (apparently you should bow lower than the teach, i missed this and gave her the upwards nod, you know like the 'sup' teach kinda nod by accident)

Then at the end of the class you dismantle your arrangement and wrap up the blooms in paper to take them home! Kawaiii! 

Next lesson I am going to be there earlier and get my pick of the blooms! (i actually was there early, like an hour earlier but i was killing time in the park!!)

What's the turning circle like on that swan?

I got to ride around one of these lil babies! A pedal swan boat! Now my life might be complete. Although, the swan does have some downsides (i know, i know but its a swan and you boat around on it, i hear you) 1. i think these swans were not made for wookies, i felt like i was peddling with my knees around my ears. Also they sure do like to sit upright in swans, no reclining here. 2. this is really not the swans fault, but i nearly dropped my purse in the lake and into a snapping turtles waiting jaws! sayonara credit-o-card, id, all my yen, konichiwa tokyo sans cash... i guess those are the only real downsides but the entire cuteness of your mode of transportation trumps everything! (sorry spine, we'll talk later..)

So first up ya gotta get your keys, ie buy a ticket. 700 yen buys you one sweet hour in a swan.

Then you get to hop in your beauty! Some guy (swan handler) helps you in and out. Thank god, I was fine with the getting in bit, it was the docking bit i was not so sure on. The dude probably explained it to us but seeing as my Japanese is not up to scratch I didn't hear a word of it. All I got was bring her back in by 3:45, you gots an hour in the swan lady.

You could of picked one of these.

Or one of these. But why on earth would you pick one of those when you could have one of these?!!

There seemed to be lots of dates going on in the lake but mostly in rowboats. And there was one chick in a rowboat just reading a book...there were two other goons in a swan just like us they also were in hysterics as they were repeatedly driving their swan into the trees. You can really get some speed up in those things too, I could only imagine what a sunny day would bring, imagine that whole lake just filling up with swans, it would be like bumper boats, they give out the keys (pedals) to any idiot!

But really the swans were just a bonus, we were really heading out to see the big guy; Totoro.

Of course no journey is complete without a peach flavoured drink.

And fyi if you are going to the ghibli museum to ride the cat bus (and who wouldn't?) apparently its only for 'small children'. Pffft. What a rip! Everyone digs the cat bus and it is more than equipped for its larger sized lovers. This is the only snap i have as photos are not allowed, I had to secret squirrell this one hence the fuzziness. 

HE IS THE BEST.

Now if i could only remember where i parked.....

Bathrooms and the love of Peach

There are two things I love about Japan at the moment.

The bathrooms.

And their love for the flavour peach.

Do you know how much I love peach? If I was given the choice of only having to taste one flavour for the rest of my life I would give some heavy consideration to the peach flavour. At home it is ridiculously hard to get your mitts on even a peach spritz anymore, that is unless you can borrow the delorian for a couple of hours and take a spin back to the early nineties. Peach is a big hit in Japan. So far I have had maybe 6 different peach drinks! 6! Flat peach, fizzy peach, fuzzy peach, natural peach, peach that is so artificial it makes your teeth cry.

I have also had a peach filled chocolate that is to die for and just today weenie informed me that she saw a peach flavoured gum. (Why the hell she didn't buy some for me is still a sore point, she told me I had to "use my looking"...)

I am contemplating throwing all my clothes out and coming home just with a bag filled with peach flavoured goods.

(As you will notice I am also partial to the colour peach, my love for peach knows no boundaries, smell, sight, all good in my book.)

Now lets talk bathrooms.

If I am ever fortunate enough to build my own house it will be having a Japanese style bathroom. 

They are the bees knees of bathrooms.

It's kinda like one whole wet room. So on the other side you get undressed and dump all your clothes, then you go into the other room which is all tiled real nice and you can splash the water round as much as you like. THere is also a tub in there but it is short and deep rather than long and shallow. I had my very first bath in there today with some soak that had a picture of vegetables then a lady looking tired, then not so tired after her bath and I thought I'm a lady, I'm tired, lets give it a go...

Amazing.

(Cept the only problem, like all baths I run, I ran it too hot and ended up kinda stewing in there. Well sweating and stewing in my brown beef stock looking bath...not a great image I know.) So now the whole apartment smells like cloves and thats ok by me.

Another crazy thing about this bathroom is that the drain for the tub just runs out onto the floor of everything so like weenie found out, if you leave your pj pants on the floor then pull the plug on the tub, they will get wet...

The shower is on one of those hoses that you can fix to the wall or mount. I love everything about it and I want one.

I also saw this timy dog being blowdried by a surly shop assistant...hahahahaha!

Fushimi Inari

We took a trip on the shinkansen to Kyoto to try and out run some of the rainy weather. Nothin like travellin by the bullet. Probably the nicest train I have ever been on, soooo much leg room, and for a wookie thats kind of a big deal. 

I think in Kyoto I walked for miles and miles and miles....no thats probably wrong, most of Japan has been like that. Snakes alive are my get away sticks tired, from that and the mountains of stairs I have climbed. Buns of steel I tells ya. Every subway you pop out of you are greeted by a mountain of stairs, always looks like a pyramid to me for some reason.

This Shrine is Fushimi Inari and see those red gates? They go on for miles up a mountain. THey are amazing and I think one of my favourite places. From what I can gather it is a shrine dedicated to foxes for protection. The surroundings are so lush and green, even with the hoards of people (thanks golden week) it is serene and calm. The higher up you go the thinner the crowds become.

How to spend a rainy Tokyo day

It has been bucketing down in Tokyo! Just pouring. So rather than hang out in the apartment contemplating how to work the washing machine,

(we ended up pressing the button with a picture of a shirt on it, it was a 2 wookie job) we decided to head to Ikebukuro for some serious indoor mall action. It was massive! There was this place called Sunshine City that was like 3 buildings wide and 9 floors tall which had its own aquarium and planetarium!! The line for the aquarium was like three days long so after weenie says to me "i seen fish before..." we headed into some crazy gaming parlours for some claw action.

However, the claws were ridiculously loose! So pretty much our faces ended up like this:

On top pf one of the floors of a department store was a pet shop and inside they had this crazy cat room where you could pay to go in and pat the cats! Of course we paid but sadly it was not as fun as i had hoped. The cats looked pretty mad. There were like 20 people all trying to pat a cat at once.

Maybe a shirt collar and tie for your cat?

Or how about just a badge to remember your time?

Spin the wheel get a cat?

After dicking around trying to pet the cats we needed some lunch and found this awesome izekaya where a guy stading out on the street is yelling about it in a bright orange coat. If you go and say hi he then takes you there! We never would have found it on our own...

Tomorrow we are going to head to Kyoto on the shinkansen! I can't believe we actually managed to book the tickets ourselves and managed to get like the last room available! It's Golden Week and shits gonna get crazy! Well thats what we are hoping for anyways...

Hidden tea house, matcha shake, a win for the wookies

Nothin says "2 giant wookies in Japan" like hello kitty glasses sans lenses. (I'm thinkin about tryin to get glass blowing lenses put in mine...)

So I think slowly we are settling into our new life, finding our groove, maybe? kinda? I hope so. Still, everyday I feel like an idiot at least 63 times, today was no different. Today we thought we would tackle Harajuku, see whats what. I'll tell you whats what, tacky shit everywhere!! Hence these rad glasses, but Harajuku is funny because on one side is all this crazy kitch stuff and cheap crap, but then you cross over and there is total fancy, lahdeedah stuff, like ralph lauren, issey miyake, all the stuff we can't afford but don't want, I prefer my plastic frames with no lenses thank you very much.

But saying that, we did manage to find one hidden gem. I think the thing about Tokyo is that if it is hard to find then it is totally worth it. (Sometimes it takes us allllllll day to find one thing on a map)

Weeinie spotted this hidden gem, Aoyama Flower Market from the street when we were searching for Kiddyland... anyways it was a beautiful florist with lots of gorgeous blooms. Japan really values the small as much as they value the big. There were some super sweet little posies I guess I like it so much because it's about making the everyday beautiful. Not everything has to be giant and in your face. So we ferreted around in this place for awhile then you go a little deeper and check out what is out the back....

A tea room!!! Think ladies who lunch, we're ladies! We lunch! It was freakin amazing in there!! The food was gorgeous, the plants beautiful, check out what we chowed down on,

The teas were amazing. I had an oolong with rhubarb and cornflowers and weenie had that amazing refresh blend. It was just like a little hidden oasis. The girls working there were so sweet too. We picked up some rad ikebana supplies too. I could have just hung out there all day sluggin back tea. Maybe ladies don't slug? I don't know.

We also popped in for an extremely delicious ("tottemo oishi!") drink ontop of this crazy rooftop overlooking Harajuku, you know, as you do. We went in for coffees ("Kohee wa kudasi") but instead walked out with these!

 Soy and Matcha frappe thingey, flip yea they were good!! From here we set out to try and find yoyogi park for some shrine action, man did we get lost. Our map reading skills were not on it today thats fo sure. But we figured it (hopped on a subway as we had walked from harajuku to shibuya!! doh) and finally we gots to where we wanted to be.

There also happened to be an Ikebana exhibition on in the shrine. Score.

So another action packed day, we were pretty happy to roll back into our little hood for a beer on the way home, pick up a snack from the stick shop (food on a stick yea)

 Not a bad day for 2 wookies.

Nakemeguro and Shibuya

I missed the Cherry Blossoms by about a week I think, but managed to catch the tail end, so better than nothing I guess. They are beautiful and I can only imagine what they must look like en masse. They are puffier than I expected! We headed in to this cute city called Nakemeguro to check out the last of the blooms over this cute canal that runs through the town. So everything is going pretty sweet, you know, oh it’s beautiful, so pretty and what not, then; “is that what i think it is?...”, “what?”, “that!” my sister has just spotted a massive snake coiled up, hiding in the greenery!! Aaaaaggghhh!, he was just sittin there all creepy and hidden and he looked massive!! ugh! serpents! I didn’t know there were snakes in Japan! And there were kids and little dogs around, no one else seemed worried, maybe they just didn’t spot him?...

                                                    

 

Not alot was open in Nakemeguro because I think that it is golden week. We thought we better head to a bigger town if we wanna see some action so we headed to Shibuya....holy shitballs is that place crazy! People everywhere, lights, big buildings, little dogs with jackets on (mostly long haired weenies!!! i gotta learn how to say “can i pat your dog?” i’m having withdrawls!!) japanese hipster kids, crazy shopping, this place has everything. I reckon we were out for like 8hrs yesterday just walking, round and round, getting lost in the maddness. The thing that got me was, you could go from total pandemonium crowds then walk up just a little bit, then there would be hardly anyone. At one point we were so tired, we just wanted a beer, and to not catch the rush hour train home, we walked around for aaaaages trying to find somewhere. Finally weenie spotted one “there, see? go” and she pushed me forward. Bar 5 i think it was called, and get this, we were the only ones in it! How can that be in Shibuya? This is what I like about Japan, the crazy extremes. The bar was cute and tiny, i liked that on their menu there was “sarami”.

Weenie is really taking to Japanese tv, should have heard her yukking it up yesterday at some ridiculous show she was watching, something with fire eating then searching foor gators and giant snapping turtles. (i think it was a dare show). Right now she is watching some infomercial show telling me the diet tea looks real good. Our apartment is quite cute. Cute but rowdy for sleepin but thats ok. I love our neighbourhood its the best. Cute lil 100 yen shops, good places for eats, little supermarket and super close to the subway. I am stoked to be living here and not in somewhere like shibuya (my head might explode..)

So far we have been nailing it with the trains, thank god because our japanese is terrible and really there is not that much english goin around. Travelling is just so nuts because it challenges you and tests you in so many ways. Sometimes you don’t have time to think you just do. It rips you from your comfort zone and asks you who you are. I’ pretty sure I was due for this for a long time, I’d forgotten that I can be brave.

So this is the scary bit (mum, maybe don’t read this bit, I don’t want you to worry) I’m pretty sure on the first night we had a tremor. I was dicking around on the internet, weenie was pouring us a beer, we had some music on then everything kinda starts wobbling. At first I thought I was just kickin along on the bed to the music but then I realised thats not me. I look over at the tv and its shakin back and forth. We just kind of look at each other wide eyed. We didn’t really know what to do so we didn’t do anything. We tried to tell ourselves it was just a train going past, but we been here two nights now and I ain’t felt that again (trains in Japan are ALWAYS regular...) so shit scary but out of my control, nothing I can do about it. 

But we are ok! (you hear that mum?) and today is another adventure for two wookies in Japan. There really are not many westerners around I think weenies count is up to 6? In our hood I’ve only seen 2 (and thats not me and her...smart ass) 

Konichiwa!!

Konichiwa! I made it!

After 2+ years of planning, one natural disaster, a year in limbo, countless tears and who knows how many hours spent researching this trip, I am finally here.

I am in Tokyo.

I kind of can't believe it, so this post is going to be brief with a couple of snaps because, holy smokes am I beat! Beat but totally proud of where I am and how I managed to get here. Flights, trains, a massive pack, a dodgy map, you name it!

I don't know who this guy is but he is everywhere!!

How do I pick a green tea?

Supermarkets are rad.

So tomorrow maybe I'll tell you what it actually is that I'm doing here...

Showcase of Works

Hey Adelaide friends!!

Whatcha doin this Friday arvo? Wanna come see some stuff? Come down to 'The Council of Objects', 248 Grenfell St, and say hi! Elise has kindly let me take over the window space for a mini show case of three bodies of work! It's gonna be sweet, there will be bonsai, terrariums and ikebana vessels with flowers by my lovely sister. 

Come pop in anywhere between 4pm and 9pm.

Hope to see you there.

xxx

Sit yourself down this may take awhile.....

WEDDING!!

WE MADE IT!!!

This is what I have been up to for the past few months, funny thing, planning a wedding takes up a bit of your time!! I can't wait to share some more shots with you (there are some corkers!) but here is a little teaser of my good lookin' bridal party!!