Moving!

Just wanted to let you know that this blog is moving! The move date is this Thursday, May 12th in JP time. I've had my own website (www.vivatveritas.com) for a while, and wanted to integrate the main site and blog into one. With a help of my dear friend Naoko, I will be blogging from my main site! In order to move all the past blog posts from blogger to the new site, there will be no post tomorrow, Wednesday.
For those who come here (www.vivatveritas.blogspot.com), you will be automatically re-directed to the new site. I'm not sure what happens to the followers through bloglovin' and google reader, so I would appreciate it if you can update your link:)

Weekend recap: Birthday weekend

April 28th was my birthday! I just turned to 27. This year's birthday was rather low-key, since the baby kept both me and my husband busy. Also my birthday fell on Thursday, so we celebrated my birthday on Saturday instead. We asked my parents to watch the baby while we went out for some dinner and drinks with close friends. Although we both love our daughter, it was so nice to be out as a couple without the baby and took some break.

Andy also surprised me with a gift of pretty lingerie - I did not own a piece of lingerie before this, since Andy likes "white tank top, sweat pants and white sneakers" on women (so strange, right? totally not my style). I never felt the need to own any sexy lingerie. But I love the color he chose (purple is my favorite color), and it will be great to throw on in the hot summer night.

How was everyone's weekend?

Weekend recap

Let me say this, Spring weather in Japan is so moody!  Its worse than pregnant women! Saturday was beautiful, it was the warmest day we have had in months. My parents and sister came over to my place, and we had a lunch together. We went to a place called Volks, nothing fancy, it's just a Hamberg restaurant.  Many of you may be unfamiliar with the ways of Japan will not know the Hamberg but suffice to say we Japanese took the classic American hamburger and made out of it our own creation.  Volks is nice because it comes with a salad, soup and bread buffet. This time, I went little nuts with the bread bar - I'm usually staying away from bread because of the high calorie count, but on Saturday I allowed myself to enjoy as much bread as I wanted :p My family is excited for the arrival of the baby..maybe in less than 2 weeks now!

But getting back to the weather, Sunday unlike Saturday was miserably cold. Spring weather needs to make up its mind. Andy and I went to church, had people over for the Bible study, and I cooked dinner for the first time in months. I used to cook dinner every night, but for the last couple of months I have been so busy with sewing and work that Andy kindly took over that duty and has been cooking as one of his reular assigned duties. But Sunday I really wanted to feel like a good wife and cook nice meal. In fulfilling this urge I decided to make lasagna. I used to make lasagna a lot when we Andy and I were first married living in Philly, but we havent had it since we moved to Japan. So in preparation for dinner we went to a grocery store to get ingredients, but for some odd reason lasagna noodles in Japan are expensive to the point of being obscene. It was $6 for a tiny box of lasagna, and I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much for noodles that in the States cost $1. So, I ended up getting regular pasta, meat sauce, and cheese, but here again as with the lasagna noodles I was met with resistance.  The store didn't have ricotta cheese. I was irritated but not to be defeated, I improvised.  I used crushed tofu mixed with salt, pepper, and cheese as a replacement  for ricotta cheese and regular spaghetti noodles as a replacement for lasagna. Below on the left is a picture. It wasn't quite good-old Italian lasagna, but Andy and I were both satisfied :) Below on the right is a picture of our $2.95 wine!  I had a taste and Andy had the rest.  It wasnt great but it was better than the boxed wine we used to drink!

As for is weekends sewing, I finished this custom order dress - a cut out dress in gingham check. I love how it came out and I think I'm going to make one for the shop as I still have some fabric left over.
I also finished the last batch of bridesmaid dresses before I go on leave. I'm happy with how the dresses turned out, all have a lovely pearl vintage button in the front :) The same dress was featured on Washiongtonian.com, Etsy Stylist.

The weather was moody, my cooking attempt was weird but satisfying and the dresses were finished and I am pleased with the turnout.  Nothing eventful but not too bad of a weekend.  How about you guys?

Oh if you are interested, check out the interview I did with Girl With a Satchel! I'm also offering special discount at Fabulously Frugal.

Spring makeup goodies

Spring has come! At least for today. It was sunny and warm during the day today, about 15 degrees (c) which made me really happy.
On top of that, I received a package from my best friend, Kaitlyn with some make up goodies. She put together a lovely package of all Springy make up items..I love them all!

I usually spend less than 5 minutes on my make up, and I've had the same routine for years now - a little bit of powder, blush, eye brow, black eyeliner and mascara. But it's always fun to experiment new items and different colors of eye shadow and lip gloss. After the two photo shoots I did in February, I have become more motivated to learn about make up and how to use them.  It really can make a huge difference! Anyway, here are the items I used today in getting ready to go out to lunch with my friend:

1. Dolce and Gabana eye shadow quad in eden This is so pretty and Springy, comes with pastel green, white, pink and bluish gray. I used the gray (left bottom).
2. annapie perfect veil, souvenir from Korea
3. Kevin Aucoin sensual skin enhancer this concealer is amazing! A little covers a lot. I tap this around my nose and under my eyes.
4. Trish McEvoy sexy petal
5. Estee Lauder DayWear sheer tint release
6. mally evercolor starlight waterproof liner
7. Maybelling the Magnum volume express super film
I think this version might be availabe in Japan only. This super film form is really easy to remove. I only use hot water to remove it, and it comes off very quickly. Best part, no black circle under my eyes! I will most definitely buy another when this one is finished!

I forgot to take a  picture of this, but I also used NARS angelika blush. It's a pretty blue-toned baby pink with some sparkles...I love this item! I don't think I had any items that I didn't like from NARS.

Scrap heap project

Look at this mess. This is my fabric stash in my closet. sigh...
I don't know what happened. I thought I cleaned it up pretty nicely when I moved into my current place last August. I love fabric. As I wrote in the guest blog post over at the cupcake goddess, visiting fabric shops became a hobby in and of itself. I always buy way too much, but in my defense, the majority of left overs  come from pieces bought for custom orders.  The reason being that I don't like to worry about not having enough fabric to fill the order, and so I often end up with much more than I need.

I am going to be on maternity leave soon. I'm excited and nervous at the same time about this. I'm excited for the obvious reasons - to have some vacation time and time to spend with the baby.  I'm nervous because I am a bit of workaholic. I get jittery if I'm not busy. So, as soon as I get out of the hospital and am able to get up and move again, I want to start a project called "Scrap Heap".   For this project I will make something  from this fabric mess. I plan to make one item a day, Monday through Friday for a month. I think this will give me some schedule so I won't be sitting in front of my TV wearing pajamas all day long. Have any of you done something like this?  Has anyone found a post pregnancy, maternity leave hobby?

During my leave sabattical, I also am thinking of learning how to create patterns on computer. Does anyone know any good software for that?

By the way, thank you so much for those who commented on my last post - I feel so relieved that I don't have to pinch my own nipples! I will leave my nipples out for the time being:)

P.S. Check out my interview post over at Willow Would..thank you Amber! 

Weekend recap & DIY links

Hi lovely readers! Hope you had a nice weekend. Mine was rather quiet. I haven't had such a relaxed weekend in a while. I guess this is the bright side of the earthquake, more time to relax...because I wouldn't choose it on my own:)

1. My Bible study friends threw me a baby shower on Sunday:)
2. My father-in-law is already crazy in love with his grand daughter! I receive a package from him almost every week now
3. More lovely clothes for the baby and Weleda rose oil for stretch marks
4. Last but not least, I won a giveaway over at not enough time for everything! Yay! This handmade jewelry case and knotted bracelet arrived from Portland, Oregon. Thank you Haruna!

❤ This DIY floral crown from Bleubird Vintage blog is so cute! I think it's great for weddings as well.  
❤ Casey has a great tutorial on how to make a fabric covered belt.
❤ Awesome tutorial on how to make detachable collar.
❤ Have you been following Grosgrain Bedroom Makeover Week series? In this post, Katherine shares how she saved on buying less designer fabric to make curtains for her bedroom.
❤ This DIY floral wall instillation is so pretty!

Earthquake

Hi! Just a quick update today.
Thank you for those who sent me a message and twitter..I really appreciate your concern! I'm okay, safe and at home now. I was out with my friend for lunch when the earthquake happened. We just got off the elevator to go outside, and I was so glad that we got off, because otherwise I would have stuck in elevator for hours...
It was really scary and so far the biggest earthquake I've ever experienced in my life.

All the trains and subways were (and still are) stopped, so I walked home. I stopped by at convenience store to use bathroom and noticed that some people stole stuff from the store. Bread, make up products etc were missing, and convenience stores here are never ill-stocked like that! People must have taken some stuff when the lights were out and security cameras were off. What a shame!

Babymoon

Hello all!  How was the weekend?  I had a great weekend.  I finally got to go on my "Babymoon".  I had never heard of a babymoon until I read Hanamik's blog post about her's. After reading her blog post, I kept telling Andy that we need to have one too. Sadly, until I explained it to him, he had no idea what it was.

According to Wikipedia,
"A babymoon is a period of time that parents spend bonding with a recently-born baby.
More recently the term has come to be used to describe a vacation taken by a couple that is expecting a baby in order to allow the couple to enjoy a final trip together before the many sleepless nights that usually accompany a newborn baby. Babymoons usually take place at a resort that offers appropriate services like prenatal massage."

Andy and I have been busy every weekend since January.  One thing after the next. Finally, last Saturday, we made an entire day for ourselves and went on our babymoon:)

I first suggested that we go to a rural resort called Hakone.  It is an onsen (hot spring) resort  about an hour from where we live. But, Andy told me that he thought I would prefer living it up in Tokyo more than relaxing in the country side. I was skeptical at first, but he was right. I really enjoyed wandering around places in Tokyo that I have never been.

We started the day breakfast.  Andy made his (almost world famous)homemade french toast... yum!

Then went to Shimokitazawa for for some thrift store shopping. I have complained in the past, somewhere on the inter-web, that Japan does not have good thrift shops. I was wrong. If you are looking for a good thrifting experience in Japan, you should check out Shimokita!

My new favorite place is called "3 biki no koneko" (three kittens). They have a 630 yen section (about $7 bucks). There I found a really cute tulip print skirt and a great polkadot dress! The polka dot dress opens with front buttons.  the buttons themselves are glass. This dress is perfect for nursing. I will post some pictures soon! 

Above you can see my favorite picture of the day "Andy and fish"! This snack is called "Taiyaki" in Japanese, and it's like a fish shaped waffle with sweet vanilla custard filling. Beyond delicious!

I was happy to find a  store that sold Tootsie Pops.  I was surprised to find them for sale at this coffee shop pictured below. You can't usually find Tootsie Pops in Japan.

After our time in Simokita we walked to Shibuya, and took a break at my favorite coffee shop, Ningen Kankeion a street named Spain Valley (Spain zaka).

After that we walked to Omotesando, and walked around small shops and checked out possible photo shoot locations. We then walked to Shinjuku. We ended up walking 15km in total. How crazy is that? lol But the weather was nice, and Andy and I just kept walking while talking about all kinds of stuff.

Finally we ended the night at the New York Grill. Have you seen a movie "Lost in translation"? The movie itself was terrible, I thought, but I really liked the bar that the main character frequented during the movie. The New York Grill bar is where I took Andy  on the day he proposed me, 5 and a half years ago. It was nice to think that we ended our babymoon night at a place where our marriage life started. They have a live jazz music from 8pm. If ever you have the chance to go, it is located on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt Hotel. The view is just indescribable!

Belated Valentine's day post

It has become our tradition to do gift exchange with $20 spending limit on occasions like Valentine's day and Christmas. I think this tradition had started one Christmas, when we decided that it was just too much money to do something special for our wedding anniversary (12th), buy each other Christmas gift (25th) and buy our family and co-worker Christmas gift all in the same month of December.
Although it started from a practical reason, we ended up really enjoying doing this. The spending limit forces us both to be creative:)

For this Valentine's day, I bought Andy push-up bars (not pictured) and made him a handmade T-shirt. I used his favorite Rocky T-shirt as a base. I didn't even make patterns for the T-shirt, but just placed the T-shirt on the fabric and cut. Men's T-shirt is so much easier to make than some woman's clothes! Having no darts or zippers is wonderful. I finished his T-shirt in about half an hour. I added a patch pocket on the left with black and white stripe fabric, and added "Vivat Veritas" fabric tag in the back.
What do you think? Should I start men's line? :p

Andy knew how much I love Knap jewelry, and surprised me with her handmade earrings and matching necklace. The color is beautiful, it's a mix of purple and blue, and depending on the light, the color changes.. I've already worn them 3 days in a row! He also made me a handmade peanut butter cups. If you follow me on twitter, you might know how much I am obsessed with Reese's peanut butter cups.. The reason for my obsession is not only because they are delicious but also we cannot buy Reese's peanut butter cups in Japan. I searched everywhere for this. Different import food stores etc. I guess Japanese people are not so into the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, because I don't really find those combination in any chocolate stores. So I was thrilled when he made me handmade ones...He made them so big they were almost like a cake! lol.

Weekend recap

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice weekend:)
Mine was a lot of fun, busy and as always went too quick. Here is my highlight of the weekend:

1. I worked on some bride's maid dresses order -  I love sewing bride's maid dresses! I usually don't like making same things over and over again, but for some reasons, I really don't mind the repetition for making bride's maid dresses. Perhaps it's the excitement of someone getting married.

2. Wrapped up Valentine's day gift for my husband♪　I have a ton of scrap fabrics that I can use to make gift wrapping pretty. I cut out a piece of left over fabric in a heart shape, glued it on top of gift box and tie the boxwith yarn.

3. My husband and I had a pregnancy/maternity photo session with our photographer friend, Will Robb. Will shot my A/W2010 lookbook in the past and is an amazing photographer! Can you believe he is a self-taught photographer?!
The photo session lasted five hours, but it felt like it was only half an hour. I can't wait to show you the finished photos soon!

4. Finally I started working on Casey's 1940's swing dress sew-along. I'm soo behind! I printed out the patterns, and will be assembling them tomorrow, whereas Casey and others already made muslin, and about to cut the fashion fabric. I really need to catch up!

How was your weekend?

By the way to celebrate Valentine's day, I am offering 15% off for blog readers and twitter followers at my shop! Please use a coupon code "Valentine15" at check-out. The coupon code is valid only for today and tomorrow!

Five lovely things.

I always enjoy reading Emily's (from Cupcake and Cashmere) Friday "Five Things" posts. She posts five lovely things in her life that make her happy. Although it's not Friday, I imitated her and decided to share some lovely things in my life that made me smile this week.

1. Pumpkin square cake in the morning. I recently discovered this simple pumpkin cake recipe from the book I borrowed from a library. This morning I made it for the second time. It is more like muffin than a cake, and goes perfect with a cup of coffee (decaf) in the morning.

2. I finally switched to iPhone! I love it so much. Emails, twitter and etsy convos are made so much easier with this little gadget.

3. Flowers my husband randomly pick up for me. Although he always ended up buying me kind of flowers we give to dead people in Japan (because those flowers are sold everywhere), it still makes me smile! I love how he tries:p

4. I got these Tory Burch flats as a Christmas gift to myself.I love the exaggerated gold medallions. I could not decide whether I should go for regular black or gold medallions for, literally a week. But I finally decided to go for gold, and I'm really happy with it.

5. Free yarns from mom's friend. I got bunch of colorful yarns - pink, orange, red... I feel happy thinking about what I should make with them.

Finding perfect teal fabric..

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend❤ Mine was nice, but it went all too quick. One of the things I did this weekend was to go to Nippori fabric district to get some fabrics I needed for custom orders. I went there at around 2pm, and ended up wandering around there for about 3 hours, trying to find this perfect, teal color that matches with the ribbon that my customer sent me (right). You have no idea how happy I was when I finally came across with the perfect match! 


My usual routine was to go straight to Tomato and get all my shopping done there. I'm used to Tomato, and I felt like I knew my way around - also thought they had the most reasonable prices in Nippori. However, after checking out bunch of other stores in Nippori this weeknd, I was convinced otherwise. 

Through this 3 hours of wandering around, I found a new shop called "Zak Zak". I think you would love or hate Zak Zak, because the place is not all well organized. It's like a warehouse type of place, and reminds me of the warehouse fabric place I used to go in Philly, called "Jomar".  I love it because it is like a treasure hunt, and I can find good deals there at amazing prices - if you have time to kill, that's the place to check out. Also it's great when you don't have any particular fabric shopping list, to enjoy what you can find in such a mess! 


Also the other shop I like is "Miki". I go there if I am looking for dressy fabrics, like satin or silk. They have different varieties of higher end fabrics, and that's where I found the teal fabric. Although the satin is in polyester, it is rather higher quality and drapes it well as compared to some 290yen (3 bucks) a meter poly satin you find at Tomato. 


I also enjoyed reading this article on Sew, Mama, Sew! blog about Japanese craft store.The writer of the article, Karen has a cute blog, called Seam Ripper.
If you live in Europe, this article about European sewing scene might interest you:)

What I've been working on...

Hello! How was your weekend? Mine went too quick. I have a day off today for MLK's day, but I basically sat at a tax office to get my taxes filed all day long...sad. The weather was beautiful out, and I wanted to do something fun, but I really needed to get my taxes filed before I forget.

Here is a sneak peak of what I've been working on the past couple of weeks - mini Spring collection! I wanted to make a small collection and a lookbook of it before the baby comes. It's "mini" because it will be a collection of dresses in 2-3 different designs, made in different colors and patterns.

The one below is one of them. I wanted to incorporate my favorite "cut out" detail, this time in the front, and sweet heart neckline. This black one is just a proto-type, and the actual collection will be in more Springy color, like lavender or light blue. The black one is available for sample sale in my shop, here.
I've worked with friend photographers to shoot for a lookbook in the past, but this time it will be my first time working with real photographer and coordinating with models and hair & make-up person. I'm excited, but it is a lot of work! The entire collection will be available sometime in mid February, so stay tuned:)

Buying fabric online for the first time

I bought fabric online this week, for the first time in my life. I know, I've been sewing and selling my clothes online for over 2 years now, but I had never purchased fabrics online before. I always went to fabric stores, touch the fabrics as much as I want before I decide to buy it. Fabric shopping is one of the most crucial parts of my creating process, since I come up with so many new ideas for new clothes while I'm staring and touching different fabrics at the shop.

This week, I finally decided to buy fabrics online, since I found a good online shop in Japan, where it offers free shipping for order above 3000 yen (30 dollars). I also felt a bit lazy to go all the way to Nippori fabric district this week, simply because it has been so cold here! It hasn't snowed yet so I should not complain, but the air is icing cold. I truly miss Summer!

Here is what I bought online:

from left to right:

1. black cotton jersey
2. black white and red plaid wool
3. grayish white cotton jersey
4. pink jersey (?) although it doesnt have much stretch. mix of cotton and poly. percentage unknown
5. animal print for baby clothes

As a conclusion, I'm pretty satisfied with fabrics I received. The service was great, I received my order within two days, which I think is pretty good. Online fabric shopping will come really handy once the baby is born, when I will have less time to travel & carry around heavy fabrics in train.

One drawback to this experience was that I could not expect how much stretch the fabrics had. Some of my orders were jersey, but #4 pink jersey wasn't really jersey. It has very minimal stretch, and I was a bit disappointed because I intended to use the fabric to make T-shirt type stuff.

Do you online shop fabrics much? Any tips or advice on how to get what you are really looking for without feeling the fabrics?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a nice & relaxing Holiday time. My husband and I wend back to my parents' house on New Year's Eve and spent two nights there. I would say Japanese New Year Eve is more like Thanksgiving in the U.S. - lot of food and family time.

I came up with some New Year's resolution for year 2011:

Image via weheartit

1. Bake more.
Since my husband and I moved into a place of our own in August last year, we have had more chance to have friends over. I rarely bake for two of ourselves (we both try to cut down on some sugar:p ), but I love baking for other people, and want to be better at it.

image via weheartit

2. Learn to surf.
I surfed for the first time in Bali last year, and I absolutely loved it. Now we moved closer to the beaches (30 min away, as opposed to 1.5 hour away before we moved), I can't wait to start surfing once I give birth.

image via weheartit

3. Continue sewing, and don't waste scraps.
Being a mom and wife, working full time and keeping up with my etsy shop could be a lot, but I would love to continue sewing and crafting. Last year I learned I do better when I'm busy than not busy, and giving myself a small project helps me stay focused. I have some projects that I would like to share here soon!
Also I decided to use scrap fabrics from clothes making more wisely - as you can see in these fabric coasters!

image via weheartit

4. Learn to use camera
I have a nice camera - Nikon DSLR, but I still haven't figured out how I can use it well. So that's one of my 2011 New Year resolutions!

What are your resolutions this year?

Two Thousand Ten

In year 2010, I made a lot of dresses.

I got obsessed with weird quicky prints like tiger print, bicycle print and crab print.
Also went crazy with back details, such as twisted back, cut out back and back V details.

Shot one lookbook with model Sue.

I started to crochet.

Had a chance to interview bows from BurdaStyle and had Sunni from the cupcake goddess for a guest post.

I participated Tokyo Made Market with Novita in January, and Yokohama craft fair with Novita and Kayo in July. Also participated in BurdaStyle book making as a contributor, and met lovely people at BurdaStyle in person in November when I visited NY.

I got to travel much this year: I had a chance to visit Thailand, Bali, and NY and Philly twice, in April and November.

I got pregnant and expecting in April 2011.

I'm excited to see what the year 2011 will bring! Thank you so much for reading my blog! xoxo
Happy New Year! :)

Merry Christmas!

(Belated) Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope all is having a wonderful holiday.
My husband and I went to a candle service at a church on 24th, and had some friends over at our place later that night. It was a lot of fun, but with different parties and going out last week, I'm a bit drained now:p

1. My gingerbread house - first time making the house! I used a recipe for sugar cookies instead of ginger cookies. I like sugar cookies much better. I drafted a pattern for the house, and used icing as a glue to put the cookies together. It was kinda hard, and you can see some m&ms are coming off! But it was so much fun making it!
2. My decorated Christmas tree
3. Festive nails - red & glitter
4. Some handmade gift for my little sister

Party dress for my friend's wedding

I made a dress for myself to wear to my friend's wedding the other day. I knew about the wedding wayyy ahead of time, but I did not make it until one week before the wedding, because I wasn't sure how much my belly was going to grow and how much weight I was going to gain. Although I made the dress a week before the weeding, I was a bit nervous whether I can fit in it comfortably.

I had a general idea for what I wanted in the dress - I wanted cinched waist (rather right under bust line) and I-line skirt to show off the bump:) I love how the dress came out, and I really loved wearing it! The only thing I would change, is to make the dress with a fabric with some stretch - I don't know why I didn't think of it while I was making it, but it would have been so much more comfortable to wear, and eat during the wedding had I made it with stretch fabric! I picked Satin, which has no stretch, I don't know why. I do love the deep navy blue color though.

I got the necklace from forever 21, and vintage clutch from a thrift shop in Philly (only $5!). I don't remember where the pumps came from, since I've had them for so long.


Wedding was a lot of fun. Beautiful bride, great food, sunny weather..it was almost like a high school reunion with many of my friends from the same high school:)

New York photo diary & meeting BurdaStyle people!

I took a trip to NY in early November to see my husband's family and my friends from Philly. I got to spend 3 days in NY, and it was a lot of fun!

Walked around Soho, had lunch at Thai place, had a super mini cupcakes (this adorable shop is located across the street from forever21 in Union Square), went to a fabric district in NY with tons of beautiful notions, trims, fabrics..had a change to visit the famous Mood fabrics. It was like a sewer's heaven there! I bet I can find any fabric I want at Mood. It was a bit pricey and I did not have any particular garment project in mind, so I ended up coming out of the store, empty handed. But I really enjoyed walking around between the rows of beautiful fabrics.

Also had a chance to visit BurdaStyle office:) It was really nice to finally meet people behind this amazing website. The last picture is me, with Rachel and David. They are wearing the handmade headbands I brought over as a small gift<3