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Tie dye

May 30, 2010 every day / fashion / handmade / textile
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There are some interesting tie dye pieces in the market this season and one of the designers that I’ve been interested in lately is Rika at opening ceremony. Tie dye fabric is raw and the results are unexpected, making every piece unique as it is made out of different parts of the fabric. Seeing all these hand dyed fabric has reminded me that I use to like doing Shiborizome and brush dyeing when I was in school. So I was motivated me to put what I have learnt into good use…

Tie dye/shibori

brush dyeing

dip dyeing

I am a pretty picky consumer actually. I am always stuck in situations like : I wish they had this in this color, I wish they had mint green instead of lime green…or pink instead of orange…etc. I can never find the perfect item and when I do, they are often way past my budget. So I guess dyeing my own simple tank tops in colors I like would be a solution for me right now.

peng chau

May 25, 2010 lifestyle / travel
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These are some of the pictures I took in Peng Chau, Hong Kong. Peng Chau is a small island located near Lantau Island. In the heart of the island was a stretch of shophouses that looked very much like those in chinatown back in the 80′s. There were shops selling old toys, bone china and traditional handmade chinese pastries. Above these shops where laundries hanging out from the neighboring apartments. Cantonese opera was being played in the background constantly which made the experience even more authentic. We had lunch on a terrace at a thai restaurant, did a bit of hiking and a took a short nap at the park under the hot afternoon sun. A perfect way to spend the lazy sunday.

香港の坪洲(ペンチャウ)島で撮った写真です。坪洲はランタオ島の近くにある島です。島の中心に行くと小さくて古〜い商店街があります。古いおもちゃや陶磁器や手作りパンなどが売ってました。お店の２階は人が普通に住んでて、洗濯ものがベランダからぶら下げてました。後ろで広東語の戯曲がずっと流れてて、まるで８０年代のシンガポールの中華街のようでした。テラスでタイ料理のランチを食べて、ちょっとハイキングをして、最後に公園でちょっとお昼寝もしました。結構最高の日曜日でした。

nikotama

May 23, 2010 every day / Japan / lifestyle
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The weather forecast said that it is going to rain tomorrow so I decided that I had to get out of the house today! Thanks to Iphone I was able to cycle to Nikotama from my house without getting lost. It was quite a cloudy day but the air by the river was cool and fresh. It is nice that there is such a tranquil escape with vast green fields in busy Tokyo. I really enjoyed cycling around alone with no rush today. It has been a while since I had time to do stuff like that.

天気予報によると明日雨が降るそうなので、今日はチャリでどっか行かなきゃって思って、ニコタマまで行ってきました。家からニコタマまで行くのは初めてだったけど、Iphoneのおかけで、道を全然迷いませんでした！今日はちょっと曇ってたけど、川沿いの空気が良くて、ちょっと涼しかった。都内にあんなに広い芝生広場があって本当に素敵ですね。久しぶりにのんびりできて、とても気持ち良い一日でした。

HKTDC

May 22, 2010 exhibition / glee / gleepets / travel
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Last month, we exhibited at the Hong Kong gifts & premium fair. It was our second time exhibiting in Hong Kong and the the response was pretty good. We had many enquiries from Europe, United states and Asia. It was tiring standing for 8 hrs a day and 4 days in a row but it was all worth it as the feedbacks from the customers were really encouraging. Some of the more popular products from the ‘Gleepets’ collection were the blanket set, kira kira croco and the bean bag chairs. One hour before the exhibition ended, we started selling our samples and the crowd went crazy! People were all over our booth and fighting for the products as we only had one piece of each item. It was like a bargain sale except that we were selling them at the actual retail price. The products were almost sold out within the first 10 mins.

先月香港のHong Kong gifts & premium fairっていう展示会に展示しに行ってきました。香港に展示するのは２回目です。今回は結構好評でした！色んな国（ヨーロッパ、アメリカ、アジアなど）の方からお問い合わせをいただきました。４日間連続で毎日８時間ほどずっと立ってて、ちょっと大変だったけど、色んな人と話したり、意見を聞いたりして、とても面白くていい勉強になりました。今回の展示会で、グリーペッツの中に人気あった商品は、ブランケットセットとキラキラクロコくんとビーズチェアさんでした。最終日に展示品を売ることになって、閉場時間より一時間前から売り始めましたが、スタートした瞬間に大勢の客がブースにが詰め掛けました。通常販売価格だったのに、セール見たいにたくさん買っていただきました。１０分後にほとんどの商品が完売になりました。本当に良かったです!


gleepets cushions

gleepets bedroom series – pillow and comforter case

sheep blanket set

kira kira croco

last hour sale

I ♥ sham shui po

May 18, 2010 handmade / travel / zakka
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In my last trip to Hong Kong, we visited Shum Shui Po to look for some new fabric that we can use for our next collection. Sham Shui Po is a wholesale town for different things such as electronic devices, clothes, textile and accessories shops. We went crazy the minute we arrived at the first textile shop as the fabric selection was amazing and they had free fabric swatches displayed everywhere. We took out our huge bags and started collecting swatches. I have been to the textile wholesalers in Shanghai and it is nothing like shum sui po. I was so impressed at how current the designs were! Besides fabrics, there were also lots of other materials such as buttons, ribbons, handbag straps, feathers…etc almost anything you can think of. And they are all so cheap! Imagine the kind of things you can create if you live near Shum Shui Po. Would be a good reason to move to HK.

この間香港の深水ホに新商品用の新しい生地を探しに行ってきました。深水ホでは電化製品、生地、アクセサリーなどのものがホールセールで売っているところです。生地屋さんに入った瞬間、かわいい生地がいっぱいありすぎて興奮しました！しかも生地スワッチは取り放題なので、とても楽しかったです。スワッチを大きい袋２枚入れて持って帰ってきました。上海の生地市場と全然違って、生地のデザインがいまどきで、とても良かってです。生地以外にもボタン、リボン、ストラップ、羽などなど手芸品もありました。そして、すべてのものがとても安かったです。深水ホの近くに住んだら絶対色んなもの作れるな〜！そのため、ちょっと香港に住みたくなったかも！

konichiwa

May 14, 2010 every day / Japan
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Seems like there are some Japanese friends/readers who have been using translation sites to view my blog. I visited one of the sites and was quite amazed at how the translation in Japanese totally didn’t make sense. So I have decided to post in Japanese as well from now on. It would be tough to translate the english content word for word as it would come of real weird in Japanese sometimes. Will try to maintain the gist of post in simple Japanese.

ついに日本語版スタート！
最近通訳サイトでブログを見てくれてる方がいらっしゃるみたいです。なので、これから日本語でも頑張って書こうかなって思ってます。英語と全く同じ感じで通訳できないと思うけど、わかりやい日本語で内容を伝えればと思います。下手な日本語ですみませんが、これからもよろしくお願いします！

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