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Green Nintendo DS Case

Hi everyone!  I've made two more Nintendo DS cases - made to fit a Nintendo DS Lite video gaming portable system.  They can also fit a variety of other things since it is a zippered knit pouch - your camera, iPod, cell phone, make-up, or anything else you would like to organize or transport around with you!

The first case that I made is made from green Merino wool - the lining is super cute and has little pigs!  The fabric is straight from a fabric shop in Kyoto, Japan. 

Green Nintendo DS Case

The case is knit by hand and the fabric lining, as well as the zipper, are all sewed by hand.  On the front of the green case, there is a cute 1" pinback button attached, featuring a cat jumping into the air, like a Jack-in-the-Box (a cat in the box?)  :) 

The green knit case is available for purchase in my Etsy shop for $15.00.

Green-Gray Nintendo DS Case

The next case, also available in my Etsy shop, is made with a beautiful shade of green-gray wool, 100% Merino wool.  It has slight hints of gold and blue in the sunlight - a great natural earthy tone called "Treebark Mix" by the company.  Similar to the other cases that I create, there is a Japanese fabric used on the inside featuring swimming turtles on navy blue.  The fabric and the zipper are sewed by hand.

Green-Gray Nintendo DS Case

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Mario Magnets

I've created some brand new items for my Etsy shop!  These are all completely handmade, fully hand stitched, needlepoint fridge magnets!  I have brought back my Tetris fridge magnets (which were featured in the wonderful Craft: magazine online blog a while back!) and added some new ones to my shop as well, including a Mario set, a Bubble Bobble set, and a Pacman set!

The Mario fridge magnets (pictured to the left) feature a question mark block, a red mushroom, a green 1up mushroom, a fire flower, a star, and a gold coin - all in fridge magnet form!

Pacman Magnets

The Pacman fridge magnets are a set of six needlepoint magnets:  Pacman, Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Clyde (the four ghosts), and the dark blue ghost that Pacman can eat. 

The Bubble Bobble / Bust a Move fridge magnets are also a set of six, that feature four of the enemies (including the super scary invincible white ghost that comes to get you after a certain amount of time...if you played Bubble Bobble as a child, I'm sure you were pretty scared of him, too!), and the two dragon heroes (Bub and Bob). 

Bubble Bobble Magnets

All of the fridge magnets are completely stitched by hand and the back of the character is covered completely with felt to hide all of the stitches.  Attached to the felt is a sturdy magnet, allowing you to use these on your fridge, your locker, or anywhere magnetic!

I hope you enjoyed viewing these as much as I enjoyed making them!  More to come in the works...or if you have any requests, I can pretty much make any video game character, and I'm always happy to take custom orders!  :)

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昨日は僕の誕生日でした。一日中楽しく過ごして良かった。おとといの夜、妻に大きいな抱っこをされて、ちょっと寝坊して、今朝からずっといい日でした。

梅の花

ビザの事がまだ続いているけど今日は、僕の出生証明書が届いてちょっと安心しました。後はパスポートだけで準備ができるようになります。息子がちょっと元気になったので図書館に行ってきました。そこでいつも彼がひとつずっつ本を返しながら、尾声で「はいどうぞう！」って言っています。風邪がまだ残っているけど調子がいいので嬉しいです。

図書館の帰り道で買い物を行かされて、ついでにビールを買ってきました。 普通に何回言っても妻がビールを買ってくれないけど今日は特別な日何ので知らずに買ってくれました。それで ビールの余裕があります。やはり男はダメですね。

おばさんたちに花やあられやビタミンCやしおりなどを貰いました。ケーキも買ってくれて、嬉です。個人レッソンから帰ったらすき焼きを食べて、チーズケーキを食べて、子供たち寝かせて、一人になりました。

今日はまたパーティがあります。今度は送別会。日本は寂しくなるね。いい仕事ができますように。

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I'll tell you how I feel and I wonder if anyone agrees or disagrees.

In English, I feel that most words are tied to a distinct meaning. "This" is this, and "that" is that. This not that and that is not this. Such as a car. A car is a car and not a truck. A truck is not a car. But a vehicle can be a car or a truck. But a bicycle is not a vehicle. Anyway, most words are pretty distinct and do not cross over into another dimension.

But not so in Japanese! In Japanese "blue" can be blue or green! In fact, there are so many examples like this, where we would say they are not the same in English but in Japanese the words may not have as specific of a meaning as what they are translated to in the dictionary. This is a real source of frustration for learners of Japanese. That is why when you look up a word in the J-E dictionary you get so many words and many of them have very specific and distinct meanings in English.

Many Japanese words do not have English equivalents. What that means is that ideas and things are thought about in a completely different way. You will hear "shikaku." And you would probably associate it with the meaning "square." What it actually means is "four angles." So it can be a square or a rectangle. A real square is "mashikaku" but I've yet to hear that used. I look in my dictionary and it says "shikaku" is a square. So you confirm with the dictionary what it "means" and people are using "shikaku" for squares all the time and then one day somebody calls something "shikaku" that isn't square, it's a rectangle! And that's when you start pulling your hair out and going crazy.

OK, so those are just the nouns. I won't be going into "expressions" which are completely different from your native language!

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来月帰国するので日本語を使う機会がすくなくなるかも知れません。今の家庭の影響でいろんなことを覚えられました。大切なのはお金が抄かなくても愛情がいっぱい。今から日本が寂しくなる一歩で、ちょっとだけ家族と跳ねれると厳しいです。

六月ぐらい妻の両親が妻と子供たちをオーストラリアまで見送ってくれるのであんしんします。おばあさんとおじいさんは一週間で日本に帰るつもりですけど。もちろん僕たちがいつか日本に帰ってきます。二人子供がいるのでおばあさんとおじいさんと一緒にお正月とか時間をゆくりすごしたいと思います。

森森

今朝この夢を見ました。夫婦があざ笑ったり、皮肉を喋ったり、仲良く出来ました。夢の意味があまり分からないけど、僕たちの将来が明るいと思います。

起きたらまた雪が降ってきました。今度はきれいなおおきいめの雪でした。 この寒い真冬の中で暖かく感じます。 お金の代わりにお金のなる木を妻にあげました。

明日、息子の友達の誕生日パーティを楽しみにしています。

佐々と寝ます。

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最近、引越しや家族のオーストラリアのビザのことなどばかりを考えっています。今朝皆に役に立つように、早起き、紙ゴミを捨ててきて、必死で引越しの準備を続けてしました。必死で働いていたのでおばさんたちの個人レッソンをさっぱり忘れました。

家内安全

ちょっと休憩を取って、携帯が鳴って、そのおばさんたちからメールが来ました。「今日のレッソンに来られる？」って。そう言いわれってもしょうがなくて、レッソンの気もありませんでした。すまんこと。

それでも引越し準備とビザを取るの手続きが進んでいます。今晩もやる気があったけど妻がぐすっり寝ています。昨日ちょっと妻の結婚する前の日記を読めていただきました。二人の歴史を書くためにいろんな覚えられないことを書かなきゃなりません。例えば、初めてのデートとか、いつ結婚に決めたとか、初め二人暮らしがいつだとか。

その結婚する前の妻の字を見るともっと可愛く見えます。今の生活は大変苦しいけど、一緒にすれば、もっと上手くいけるとおもいます。妻にきっと感謝しています。

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Japanese Time Capsule 02

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