das Sushi

Wrapping up the weekend.

2012-01-16T21:50:00.000+01:00

We had a lovely long weekend filled with triumphs at the swimming pool, the beautiful movie Hugo and birthday parties. Lots of birthday parties. The kids had four invitations in their hot little hands but a mom has to draw the line somewhere, so we only went to three of them. We have twice been the only people to show up at a birthday party. The heartbreak I imagine those kids would have felt if no one at all showed up compels us to try to make it to every party. But, four! In four days! Just no.

Mom had a lot of fun wrapping those three gifts.

When I saw these adorable glittered clothespin Christmas gift toppers from Creature Comforts, I knew I had to recreate them for little girl birthday gifts.

I wish Hello Kitty didn't have a metal hook protruding from her head, but I still love how these came out.

And, funny...I didn't remember the clothespins holding gift tags in the DIY. Totally thought I came up with that myself!

Then, again inspired by Creature Comforts, I set out to master Ez's pom pom method. This is so so much easier than the way I've always made pom poms that I want to make a million of them! What I love the most about this, is that Cheeseball decided that this wrap was pretty, but not quite sparkly enough. So, while I was in the shower, she broke out the glitter glue and made the pom poms perfect.

We were rushing out the door, so all I have is an instagram photo. But, I love the collaboration!

I always find boys to be a little harder to get creative with. Probably because I don't get to just glitter bomb everything. But, the little boy whose party we attended today is the sweetest, old soul of a child. So, I dressed up his gift with a windsor knot and tie. With footballs. Because, he's still 10.

Love is in the air. Or, on the wall.

2012-01-11T10:08:00.000+01:00

So, let's just skip over the usual intermittent blogger dance and dispense with all the "wow, has it really been this long?"'s and "oh look, my blog still here"'s and get right to it.

When I first saw this I Love You Garland by Lovely Indeed (via Creature Comforts) last year, I knew I had to recreate it in sparkly pink for Cheeseball. And, it only took me a year!

I used a finer glitter (Although looking at the original DIY again, I now NEED chunky glitter. Just to have.)

And, I attached the letters to baker's twine with tabs at the top of each letter instead of mid letter. I printed the letters on cardstock, and if I were to do it again, I would glue the letters to a thicker cardboard first before cutting out and glitter bombing. But, I love it and I'm so glad I finally got around to it!

While we are definitely a "fair doesn't mean equal" household, I wanted to put some love up on El Niño's wall too. He is less partial to all things pink and sparkly than his sister. And he has just recently started to move out of the "I am Child and I am Awesome" phase of childhood and begun to discover the self doubt and concern about peer opinion that plagues us all through most of our school age years. So, I wanted to give him a daily reminder that I am still firmly in the "You are Child and You are Awesome" phase of motherhood.

If you would like to print the same in green for yourself, feel free to click through to flickr - just don't forget to click "view all sizes" and grab the largest. I coordinated the color with the JuneCraft print that I do love so. But, I also put together a file with the print in jpegs in several different colors as well as the original photoshop file so you can customize as you like! Download the file here.

I used Market Deco for both projects. Free for personal use!

Working on these two projects over the past two days has been SO fun. I've been feeling Christmas morning levels of anticipation and giddiness. And now, I can't WAIT for the kids to get home from school and see their little surprises.

Weekend Shots

2011-06-20T09:00:00.001+02:00

Pictures from the weekend.

I don't think I've ever seen a cherry tree before. So pretty.

Internationales Strassenfest Sindelfingen (International Street Festival in Sindelfingen, Germany)

2011-06-19T17:15:00.000+02:00

We went to an International Street Festival in a nearby town today with food, music and dancing from lots of different countries. Yummy and fun. We heard and saw dancing and music from all over the world. Even Detroit. Lol. Really, though. Eminem and what must have been the German interpretation of hip hop dancing. It looked more like aerobics, but was quite fascinating.

Happy Father's Day!

Creative cooking: thinking inside the can when fresh food betrays you and tries to kill off your country

2011-06-06T13:09:00.002+02:00

With the big, scary drugproof e coli threat hanging over us, we had to get creative making a salad to take to a barbecue this weekend. They've gone from blaming unknown meats, to bagged salads, to Spanish cucumbers, to bell peppers to organic bean sprouts for the raging, superhero strength e coli over the last few weeks. And, since it doesn't seem anyone actually knows where the bacteria is coming from, we've been playing it safe and sticking to frozen veggies and canned fruits.

But, a pasta salad should be fresh! Unless it could kill you. So, we threw together oil packed sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, feta cheese, canned olives, marinated artichoke hearts (just for that extra germ killing kick) with tri-color rotini and a sun dried tomato vinaigrette.

And it was actually pretty good! Which taught me two things:

1. Pasta is magical. You can pretty much throw anything into a bowl as long as you add noodles.

2. I sneer at frozen veggies and canned fruits no longer. They could one day save your life.

A new challenge

2011-06-02T13:20:00.001+02:00

Wow, my last post was in March!? I knew I'd been neglecting this poor little space, but wowzas! We've been to Paris, spent a week in Provence and done lots of other fun and some not-so-fun things in the meantime. Maybe one day I'll catch up on some of that here. But, not today.

A friend turned me on to the 30 Days of Creativity challenge, and I'm taking up the reins!

Yesterday, I finished off a pair of baby booties that I carry in my handmade accessories shop.

Source: None via Jennifer on Pinterest

Today, Day 2, I tackled a mini-project that I've been meaning to do for too long. This is what I love about challenges like this - just the incentive I sometimes need when my own personal motivation jumps ship. I covered two recycled cans with fabric to create pencil cups that the kids can keep in the living room.

I stitched hems around two Ikea fabrics, then added a little bias tape around the top (sharp) edge and along the base of the covering fabric. Easy peasy!

LoveForJapan

2011-03-21T07:02:00.000+01:00

I am so very happy to report that Etsy reversed their position on collaborative charity shops and the lovely shop LoveForJapan popped up immediately. All proceeds from sales in the shop are donated to the Red Cross, shipping is covered by the individual sellers.

Fuzzy Sushi donated a set of hair clips, made in Japanese red and white, to the shop.

Red and White Flower Hair Clips Listing

There are tons of other gorgeous listings from other sellers as well! Click on the pictures to get to the listings.

Donated to LoveForJapan by KaleidoscopeByErin

Donated to LoveForJapan by Kimiko611

Visit the LoveForJapan shop to see everything they have!

Trying not to be useless.

2011-03-15T19:30:00.000+01:00

I've been wanting to blog - lots of ideas and things to share! - but have instead focused my time recently on 1. Veronica Mars and 2. building out my hair accessories section in the shop. One of these things is less embarrassing than the other.

I can't sit still and not say anything at all about Japan, though. These satellite photos from before and after the disaster (use the sliders to see) show just how horrifying the devastation is. (via @makingitlovely)

I had wanted to participate in the relief effort through Etsy, by donating handmade pieces to a collaborative charity shop like the amazingly successful HeartsForHaiti. I was involved in the intital discussion to launch a similar effort, but unfortunately Etsy administrators disallowed the collaboration and instead suggested we tag our items with the campaign name and donate our individual profits to charity. Well, in my case that would largely be a symbolic move as my sales are few and far between.

It's times like these that make me wish I were independently wealthy. But, I donated what I could straight to the Red Cross. For whatever reason, neither the Japan Red Cross or American Red Cross sites were working properly for me. So, I went through PayPal. If American readers would like to do the same, click below:

PayPal Donations.

Fuzzy Sushi Accessories Line

2011-03-10T10:17:00.000+01:00

I've been working on rounding out the new accessories line in the shop. I have so many more ideas and can't wait to keep adding to it!

I'm thinking more hair pieces, more jewelry, belts...I'm excited to get my fingers moving!

das Colors

2011-02-23T09:13:00.000+01:00

I'm trying something new here. I want to get more comfortable with color, especially combining different colors. It's really never been my strong suit. The Man can send me pillow covers he found at a street bazaar in Iraq and they will match perfectly in whatever room he says to put them in - a room that he hasn't seen in months. Me...? I can leave my living room, go straight to Ikea and come home with things that don't go at all. Mostly, I'm happy wearing 47 different shades of brown. So, here begins a new feature that I'll keep going...well, as long as I feel like it.

via

Still a lot of browns in there...baby steps, you guys.

Technorati tags: color, photography

Weekend Pics

2011-02-20T10:19:00.000+01:00

We took a quick, three day trip up to Garmisch, Germany this weekend. It's a small ski town on the German/Austrian border, where the Alpine Ski World Cup 2011 just happened to be underway. It was a lovely little jaunt out of town and, though we didn't ski this time, we all had a blast. We wandered around the quaint little town, ate lots of delicious food, swam in the hotel pool, met up for dinner with a big group of friends one evening and walked around the beautiful and frozen Eibsee lake.

There are more pictures in my Flickr stream, but here are a few of my favorites.

Taking It Waaaay Back

2011-02-16T09:25:00.000+01:00

A while back, I fell in love with and purchased an old Bilora Bella 66 medium format film camera. The body itself is so pretty and I love the retro look captured by the camera. Using brand new film and completely modern developing techniques, the pictures look like they were taken 50 years ago! Love that.

I took these pictures back in August. I know, I know. I scanned them in September! Not sure why it took another 5 months to post them but here we are.

I picked up some color medium format film and shot some pictures on our recent Sunday afternoon excursion. I'm hoping to drop those off for developing today!

My Valentine

2011-02-14T10:51:00.002+01:00

Cheeseball and I put together valentines cards for her classmates yesterday. I don't think most of the kids at her German kindergarten will understand what Valentine's Day is, but nor do I suppose most of them will be too concerned about it once they realize candy is involved.

El Niño spotted boxed cards about a month ago and wanted those. While I'd prefer we put together handmade cards, being most likely unable to execute lenticular robots myself I didn't push the issue. Cheeseball, on the other hand, is a ♥ handmade kinda girl. We used designs from this lovely printable class valentines set, put out by the fantastic party resource blog, One Charming Party. I pulled out the two left-most designs and shrunk them down then addressed each to "Mein Freund" while Cheeseball signed them all with a flourish.

To help her differentiate between the teachers' cards and the kids' while she was passing them out, we used these totally modern and pretty valentines tags from Draw It Modern for her teachers' treats.

And, next year - it's always next year! - I really want to make this beautiful garland to hang up in the house. I found the DIY I Love You Garland tutorial on Lovely Indeed via Creature Comforts.

Maybe I'll make it this year in pink to hang in Cheeseball's room year-round...

Weekend Pics

2011-02-08T09:37:00.000+01:00

We had such beautiful weather this weekend, that we had to get out and see something new. So, on Sunday, we took a short drive over to a cute little town called Rottenberg am Neckar, walked by the river, sat outside at a cafe, drank beer, ate cake and watched the kiddos play in the sunshine. It was lovely!

I took more pictures with my old Bilora Bella medium format film camera. (Can't wait to get those developed!) But, I snapped a few with the new school camera, too.

I'm not sure why the bunting was up, but I loved it.

It was such a beautiful day, the reflection in this small drainage creek was amazing.

Oh, no not cats!

2011-02-03T09:00:00.000+01:00

Maybe cats that pray for Deutschland wins are ok.

We've long noticed Deutschland's love of dogs, but - not being cat people ourselves - had no idea on the local feel for felines. A new acquaintance called their hotel before their recent arrival to make sure it accepted pets. Oh yes! We love pets!, he was told. So, he and his family showed up on the doorstep, cat and carrier in hand. Oh, no! Not cats!, he was told.

But, you said you allowed pets...?

Yes, we do! But, not cats.

Imagine his confusion. A common acquaintance with German family roots explained. Cats aren't pets. Consider them more like farm equipment! And, you certainly wouldn't move your oxen or your tractor into your hotel room, would you? I mean, sure, your oxen serves a purpose but it does not sleep by your bed!

???!?!?!?

I found this hilarious.

Urlaub in Berlin, Tag Zwei

2011-02-02T19:22:00.000+01:00

^Holiday in Berlin, Day Two

Oops, I took too long to post and now I'm losing steam. Day Two in Berlin was what we were calling Super Fun Kid Day. I'm not sure why, but giving things Engrish style labels makes them even more awesome.

We started out at the Berlin Zoo, where it was so pretty, fun for the kids, and ohhhh so very cold.

Then, we headed into the Aquarium where it was much warmer. El Niño is really into that type of thing. Cheeseball is more into surprise relaxation spots.

Hours and hours and hours later Mom hijacked Super Fun Kid Day to drag the kids to the KaDeWe department store. It claims to be the biggest department store on the European continent and I think that's probably about right. It was ridiculously huge. I actually just wanted to pop into the Idee craft store, housed in the department store. But, that crafty El Niño hijacked my hijack and spotted the Lego Berlin store on the way.

Pretty stoked.

After that, we headed to the flea market where my pictures came to a crashing halt, because you know...propietors, goods...I have a thing. But, I did pick up some vintage buttons and a sweet pin to embellish some pieces for the store.

Day Three I can roll up in one sentence: swim meet. Actually, that's not even a sentence. We spent the entire day at the pool. I was hoping we would make it out of there in time to hop over to (what I heard was) an even cooler flea market. But, the meet ran long and that was that. Next time!

We had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to another trip to Berlin sometime. For now, though, we're thinking about Spring Break and what we want to see then!

Printable February Seasonal Veggies Calendar

2011-01-31T10:00:00.000+01:00

Another month, more veggies!

Grab from flickr or download here. Enjoy!

A little bite of Hawaii. An incredibly fattening, totally awesome, nothing quite like it bite.

2011-01-29T14:06:00.000+01:00

A friend of a friend recently moved to Hawaii and raved about her discovery of Chocolate Haupia pie, making me crave one of my hometown favorites. Also, making me simultaneously want to kiss and kick her.

I'm not the prettiest pie maker. But, it's darn tasty.

Haupia is described as coconut pudding, but it's really more of a jello usually. In this pie, though...all pudding. Alllll good.

I found a Chocolate Haupia Pie recipe here. Actually, I found a ton of them all over the web, and all exactly the same with the minor exception of the inclusion of coconut extract in some but not others. Weird. There cannot only be one way to make this, but apparently no one has published anything different. Which is a bummer, because frankly I would commit a lot of unconscionable crimes for Ted's Bakery's recipe.

I made a pie without the extract just before leaving for Berlin. It was good, but could stand to be more coconut-y. And the semisweet chocolate was kind of gross. Most of that pie went in the garbage. Not because it was terrible, but it just wasn't good enough to snarf the whole thing before we left.

Yesterday, I made the pie with the extract and with The Most Incredible Chocolate In The Universe in place of semi-sweet. I also added a little coconut extract when I was whipping the cream topping. It's pretty awesome. The only drawback is that - on the first go round - the filling almost overflowed the crust, so I reserved some of the chocolate mixture before adding the haupia layer. I reserved waaaay too much. As you can see.

Still awesome.

I find it's more coconut-y on Day 2, so make ahead and refrigerate overnight.

Chocolate Haupia Pie

♥ Ingredients:

1 9-in. unbaked pie crust
1 cup milk
1 can coconut milk (14 oz.)
1 tbsp. coconut extract
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup cornstarch
7/8 cup The Most Incredible Chocolate in The Universe
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
more coconut extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Bake crust for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

3. In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, coconut milk, coconut extract and 1 cup sugar.

4. In a separate bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in water.

5. After bringing coconut milk mixture to a boil, reduce to simmer and slowly whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Continue stirring over low heat until thickened—about three minutes. Divide evenly into two bowls.

6. In another bowl, microwave chocolate until melted.

7. Mix chocolate into one of the bowls of coconut pudding, then pour mixture into the pie crust, spread and let sit.

8. Spoon the remaining bowl of coconut pudding on top of the chocolate-coconut pudding mixture and spread smooth being careful nut to mix the two layers. (Don't pour in the middle or the chocolate layer will part like the red seas and you're Moses.) Refrigerate the pie for an hour or more.

9. Whip the heavy cream with 1/4 cup of sugar and some coconut extract until stiff. Layer the whipped cream on the pie surface.

Urlaub in Berlin, Tag Eins

2011-01-25T18:19:00.000+01:00

^Holiday in Berlin, Day One

Last week El Niño had a swim meet in Berlin, which we used as an excuse to spend several days exploring. Berlin is newly minted as one of my favorite cities in the world. It has so much character and style and the oddest charm - kind of communist chic. So much of the old Soviet style is evident in the Eastern section, but modern sensibilities are taking over and making for a fantastically unique mix.

I need to warn you now that we did not visit Checkpoint Charlie or Das Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) or see any remnants of the wall or any of the new memorials to opposition politicians or Holocaust victims. It's not that I'm not interested in history or Nazi sites. It's just that I'm that tourist. I will go to Paris and never see the Eiffel Tower. I only saw the Mall in D.C. briefly and because I tagged along with others for whom it was a priority. I have an interest in visiting a place like Auschwitz where I believe the experience in person will be completely different than what you get from a printed account. But, to stand in line to look at the outside of the building where a handful of nutjobs dreamed up The Final Solution? Or to scurry all the way across town to get a glimpse of a place where there used to be a wall? No, thanks.

I was more interested in exploring the fabulously hip Prenzlauer Berg district and Berlin's storied flea markets. The kids were far more interested in checking out the zoo. So, we did what we wanted to do and we had an absolutely lovely time. I took a pathetic number of pictures, but here they are:

The sheer amount of graffiti - particularly in East Berlin - was astounding. And the quality was fantastic. I loved the way the artistic youth have absolutely reclaimed their city. Without it, the whole place would still look a lot like this:

Some people seemed determined to keep their spaces art free, and they were lovely too. I can't imagine the battle it requires, though.

There were so many cute shops and little cafes and restaurants of all different world cuisines! I wish I was less self-conscious about taking pictures inside establishments but I have a thing, what can I say.

Suffice it to say that El Niño got his sushi fix, I got my adorable eclectic shop fix and Cheeseball got very tired. After that, we hopped over to the slightly more tony Hackescher Markt. There was a cool Japanese department store called Muji of which I again took no pictures, but we loved exploring all the stuff. Their selection was definitely of the modern, sleek stylish Japanese variety rather than the kawaii, colorful adorable Japanese variety. Less interesting for the kids, but I loved it.

We wandered by this gorgeous synagogue, guarded by three fully armed Polizei.

Then stumbled on this beautiful building on the river.

And that was day one!

More Mustache!

2011-01-13T15:57:00.002+01:00

I decided one thing my creations were lacking was facial hair. So, I remedied that posthaste.

Soft Merino Beanie Now With More Mustache

Like The Fuzz.

2011-01-12T14:31:00.000+01:00

I mean, if you want to...

Aht. More aht, dahling.

2011-01-06T09:42:00.002+01:00

Without really intending to, I've been slowly but surely turning the fourth "bedroom" in our house into a craft room. Albeit a small-appliances-books-and-exercise-equipment-storage-accomodating-craft-room, but I like to share. And, what's this...? I have a shop! That officially upgrades this from a craft room into a studio. Aaaaand, suddenly I feel glamorous. Everybody should have a corner of their house that makes them feel glamorous, no?

Since purchasing this print by june craft for El Niño's room, I've been looking for other independent artist's prints for the rest of the house. And this letterpress print by Julie West would be perfect for mah stuuuudio, dahling.

Love, love, love.

Via paper crave

Das Stew

2011-01-04T12:00:00.002+01:00

On New Year's Eve, I made a delicious beef stew in the slow cooker. I started with this stew recipe, and sushi'd it up. I've been wanting to cook a stew (with carrots - in season this month!) and this was perfect!

Ingredients:

2 lbs chuck roast, cubed
flour
salt
pepper
butter

3 cans beef consommé + water to equal 4 cups
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp pepper
salt
dash of paprika

6 small potatoes, chopped
6 small carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped

4 tsp cornstarch
4 tsp water

I mixed flour with salt and pepper, dredged the meat in it and then browned them in butter. I browned the meat in three batches, to make sure each piece had lots of space. I think it's best to do this on a fairly high heat, so they get nice and browned on the outside quickly and don't cook too far in.

Once done, I drained off most of the butter then poured some consommé into the pan to pick up the nice little bits cooked on to the bottom. I poured all the consommé in to the slow cooker with the rosemary, parsley, bay leaves, pepper, salt and paprika then placed the meat in.

I cooked that all on high for a few hours, then added in the veggies and the cornstarch and left it on high for a few hours longer. Since the recipe was on the stove and I used a slow cooker, I ended up having to add extra cornstarch (4 tsp, instead of 2 called for in the recipe). Next time, I'll probably use one less can of consommé instead. I think I'll probably also use basil butter, add garlic and some thyme.

We've had the perfect weather for stews and soups and slow cooker cookin' and I'm thinking about picking up The Gourmet Slow Cooker: Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the World. Doesn't that sound yummy?

Sometimes the universe is in perfect alignment.

2011-01-01T13:08:00.000+01:00

We own one soup thermos, which is a problem when both kids want to take leftovers for lunch. Or when I want to make oatmeal in a thermos for El Niño for breakfast after swim practice and send soup for lunch. So, I've been hunting for another.

Apparently, Germans don't do thermoses for lunch, because they are nowhere to be found here. And, the military post store and their stupid automated ordering system have been thwarting me for the last six months. I have looked every time I've been in the store since Back to School shopping last summer and they are always sold out. The employees keep assuring me that they have received more, but they fly right out the door.

So, I was thrilled when we stopped in yesterday and they had them in stock! I immediately threw one in the basket and did a little happy dance. Then, the fire alarm went off, the store was evacuated and we were hustled out the door. Really!? I almost could not believe it.

But, then! Then! About an hour later, I got an email from my Dad that he had spotted some thermoses he thought the kids would like and was on his way to the post office to send them to us. I don't remember if I had filled him in on my thermos woes or if it was just a completely happy coincidence. But, I just love when things work out that way. And I think it's a sign that 2011 is going to be a great year.

source

What are you expecting for the new year? Good things, I hope.

Printable January 2011 Calendar

2011-01-01T11:40:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to another fabulous year and formulating my own resolutions to make it happen. One of those is to focus our fruit and veggie buying on greens and sweets that are at their peak harvest times. Not only are they more delicious then, but it seems more natural to eat things when they are meant to be harvested!

I use a small, weekly calendar to record appointments and things to remember (so old school!) but I also like to be able to see the days of the month at a glance without digging that out of my purse. So, I'm creating printable calendar pages for the year, featuring the most prime fruits and veggies of each month. Love January because brussel sprouts roasted with a bit of olive oil, garlic and sea salt are one of my absolute faves!

I print on cardstock, then trim about an inch off each side for a slightly more streamlined look. You can download the full size jpg from flickr or here.

Enjoy! And enjoy making the year fabulous!

UPDATE: Oops! It's been pointed out to me that the numbering was off. I've corrected and reuploaded. Thanks, Al!

das Sushi

Wrapping up the weekend.

Love is in the air. Or, on the wall.

Weekend Shots

Internationales Strassenfest Sindelfingen (International Street Festival in Sindelfingen, Germany)

Creative cooking: thinking *inside* the can when fresh food betrays you and tries to kill off your country

A new challenge

LoveForJapan

Trying not to be useless.

Fuzzy Sushi Accessories Line

das Colors

Weekend Pics

Taking It Waaaay Back

My Valentine

Weekend Pics

Oh, no not cats!

Urlaub in Berlin, Tag Zwei

Printable February Seasonal Veggies Calendar

A little bite of Hawaii. An incredibly fattening, totally awesome, nothing quite like it bite.

Urlaub in Berlin, Tag Eins

More Mustache!

Like The Fuzz.

Aht. More aht, dahling.

Das Stew

Sometimes the universe is in perfect alignment.

Printable January 2011 Calendar

Creative cooking: thinking inside the can when fresh food betrays you and tries to kill off your country