On Saturday, Naoto and I went down to the Women’s March in Chicago. I was expecting it to be a pretty small gathering this year, but it was bigger than last year! Three hundred thousand people marched…and this year, it was an actual march, unlike last year where moving didn’t really happen as much. It was both amazing and unsurprising to see that people are still motivated a year later. 
I didn’t make a sign this year, but I always appreciate good wit. 
Cheers to involvement and to change for a better America. Even when we disagree.
kimberly ah
kimberly at home
Author Archives: kimberly ah
2018 Calendars
The Adami Hasegawas are staying organized this year! Last year Naoto joined Forest Park’s Diversity Committee. Between his two jobs and his meetings and our social lives, I was afraid he’d start double booking himself, so I forced a calendar upon him. I think he liked it, because he used it a lot more than I thought he would. For Christmas I got him the Standard Memorandum. It’s really tiny. Perfectly pocket-sized with enough room to write his work schedule and maybe one other note. I also introduced him to the wonders of the Frixion pen for calendars. 
I am on my third year of using the Hobonichi Techo. I love it. For me, it’s the perfect size. I like the daily pages for list keeping and just writing random things about my day. I always decorate the monthly spreads, and the daily pages are more utilitarian. (I can’t believe I’ve never blogged about my love for Hobonichi…) I ordered my Hobonichi from Jet Pens. In the past, I’ve ordered directly from Japan, but this year, Jet Pens had everything I wanted now that they are an official Hobonichi shop. A lot of their Hobonichi offerings are sold out by now, but this post is great for going over all the different options, sizes, and accessories. 
This year I treated myself to a new cover-on-cover. In previous years, I just had a clear cover and I put postcards and stickers inside to personalize my book. The Tokyo themed cover, with its whimsical drawings of ramen and cats and sushi and donuts won me over. 
I also ordered this handy page keeper. 
It tucks into the back pocket of the cover. 
And then the elastic holds the daily or monthly page of your choice. It’s pretty handy. 
A few years ago, I told you about the Heather McAdams Everything But Country Calendar and Show. This is only our fourth year of owning this calendar, but this year marked its 25th anniversary! 
We just love the drawings and the birthday and facts for each day. Since we don’t write on a big communal calendar at home, this one works perfectly for our kitchen.
How about you? Are you a paper calendar and planner person? Any favorites?
2018 Goals, Mail & More…
Is the year flying by, or is it just me? I sent out some New Year’s cards last week and some snow-themed letters this week. I feel like I was a terrible pen pal for most of 2017, so one of my goals is to do better this year. 
Some of my other goals for 2018 are:
- apply to 10 craft shows
- list regularly in my Etsy shop
- add vintage postage to my Etsy shop
- take another screen printing class
- start a podcast with Naoto
- get the apartment organized once and for all
- paint our bedroom
- post here at least twice a week, maybe even on a regular schedule!
- as usual, spend out my stationery and paper stash
- host Hasegawa Happy Hours again
- host more dinner parties
- cook more with Naoto, especially Japanese recipes
- turn off the TV more often
What are your goals for the year?
Cherry Almond Angel Cake
Last week I had a couple of friends over for “Christmas” lunch. I made an orange pomegranate prosecco cocktail, Ina Garten’s split pea soup, a salad, and this cake. Isn’t it cheerful?
It’s a Cherry Almond Angel Cake and it’s basically a doctored box mix cake. I read about this cake many years ago on a blog I can’t find anymore*. She made the cake based off a Betty Crocker recipe and she made hers in two loaf pans. I wrote down the recipe and all these years later, I finally tried it. It’s so fun. My cherry “glaze” was more of a frosting, but it was really delicious so I’m not complaining.
Cherry Almond Angel Cake
1 box angel food cake mix (Betty Crocker gets my mom’s stamp of approval, so that’s what I used.)
1 1/4 cups cold water
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries (One tiny 10 ounce jar will be plenty for this recipe, with a few leftovers for a Manhattan or two!)
Make sure your oven rack is at the lowest level possible and preheat your oven to 350.
In a large bowl, beat cake mix, water, and almond extract on low for 30 seconds. Raise speed to medium and beat for 1 minute.
Fold in cherries.
Pour into an tube cake pan. DO NOT GREASE YOUR PAN! (Also, do not use a non-stick pan!)
Bake for 37-47 minutes until the top is very dry, cracking, and dark golden brown. If the top is still sticky, the cake is not done.
When done, remove from oven and turn over onto a glass bottle. (If you don’t have a glass bottle on hand–this isn’t 1950–you can set your pan on top of 2-3 cans. The important thing is that the cake cools upside down.) Let the cake cool completely. When the cake is cooled, run a knife along the edges of the pan to remove it.
Cherry Glaze
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons (or more) of maraschino cherry juice
Full disclosure, I broke my hand mixer making this glaze. The hand mixer was pretty old, but also, apparently 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 cups of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of juice were more like wall putty than a nice, glossy glaze. I finished the glaze by hand, with a spoon and ended up using 5 tablespoons of juice and still, my glaze was pretty thick. Start with 2 1/2 tablespoons and add as you go, 1/2 tablespoon at a time to be safe. When it’s the right consistency, drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake
Decorate the cake with extra maraschino cherries and beam at your work like a 1950s housewife.
Three things: Wouldn’t this cake be so cute for Valentine’s Day? I’m going to make it again for a Valentine karaoke party we’re going to next month. And, if you aren’t a frosting person, I always think angel food cakes are delicious on their own. Maybe slightly less cute, but delicious still. Lastly, if you’re interested, the box mix has instructions for making your angel food in two loaf pans. One for yourself, and one for a gift.
*Maybe you’ve read this blog? The woman lived in Champaign, Illinois. She was married, had a corgi, and she made quilts and doilies to show at fairs. She also had an etsy shop where she sold a pattern for aprons made of pillow cases.
Petite Boutique 2017
In November, I did my second Petite Boutique and my fifth craft show ever! Petite Boutique is so well organized and popular in Oak Park. We were in the sunroom again, the same spot as last year, which was perfect. 
This is the sunroom from the outside. Isn’t it gorgeous?
I didn’t really change a ton on my booth set-up. I re-used my Kimberly AH banner since that’s what I used last year, but I need to consider a new banner with Galaxie Safari. I’d like something to go above my booth so you can see it when people are standing in front of my table. Something to work on this winter… I rigged a little bar to hold my “Comparison is the thief of joy” letterpress print and got a felt board for pricing. I really resisted the felt board since it’s so trendy, but really, you can’t beat its convenience and simplicity. 
I still love my card rack. It’s not big enough for all of my designs now (yay for new products) so I highlighted holiday cards, best sellers, and newer designs in the rack. The other designs were in a wooden box. I feel like last year, my holiday designs sold best. But this year, it was a nice mix of things since I had so many other (birthday, love, thank you, friendship, etc) styles to choose from.
I added a ton of framed quotes, so I no longer had space for my typewriter. The framed quotes sold really well, which was so exciting. 
This particular saying sold the best. I actually came home after the show Friday night and made more to sell on Saturday. I’ll be adding a greeting card to my shop next week, too. (As a side note, I’m so excited for the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote. I think we need to throw a huge party.) 
Naoto was a great sales assistant. He wore his Mr. Zip t-shirt “uniform” and manned the booth while I ate lunch and walked around and assisted with bagging and answering questions. It’s so nice to have a partner who is so supportive of this! 
This winter I’m trying to research and apply to more shows. They have been really good and really fun for me. I am, at my core, a last minute person so planning six months to a year ahead of time is mind-boggling, but necessary. I’ve already signed up for two shows in Berwyn this year at Friendly’s Tap. (I’ll be there April 21 and November 17!) And I’m applying to a few more thanks to friends I’ve met along the craft market way. If you’re local and know of any good shows, I’d love to hear from you!
Happy Birthday, Naoto!
Happy birthday to my charming husband. May this year be your best one yet…I know you’re off to a great start in 2018!
XO
Happy 2018
Happy New Year! Naoto & I were committed to staying home and making a bunch of old school appetizers for New Year’s Eve but we got invited to a friend’s party a few blocks away so we decided to take our cocktail wiener show on the road. It was well worth the freeeeezing cold walk and we spent New Year’s Day cozied up at home, cooking and napping, and watching the Rose Parade. 
This week is all about cleaning and taking Christmas down. I’m always so sad to put our decorations away, but I do appreciate how clean and uncluttered the house looks when it’s done. I might leave the village up for January, but that’s just such a slippery slope…pretty soon I’ll be telling myself it’s okay to leave the crispy Christmas tree up until Valentine’s Day.
Christmas Dinner with Julia Child
I didn’t get a good shot of the tree this year with the presents all around it, but here it is, dropping some needles due to dryness and Presley’s hourly visits to drink from the tree stand. (I know, I know…it’s not good for her but seriously, she’s been drinking tree water for all of her years…)
This year, we didn’t make our Christmas voyage to Mitsuwa. I was tired of having to shower and get ready and battle weird weather and traffic on Christmas Day. So this year we stayed home in our pajamas and opened presents and made breakfast and a morning cocktail. We made the Winter Sun, and it is seriously the perfect breakfast cocktail. So citrusy and tart, perfect for a winter morning. Don’t skip the citrus sugared rim or the rosemary. 
Then we spent most of the afternoon and evening making Julia Child’s beef bourguignon. We wanted to try a new recipe and something kind of complicated, so we picked beef bourguignon. We watched the original episode of The French Chef where Julia makes the dish and we were enchanted with her easygoing personality and cooking flair. Her show really highlights the tips about browning the meat and sautéing the mushrooms. We felt like we learned more in that thirty minutes than we have in all our years of watching the Food Network! (We don’t really watch anymore, but we used to watch a lot in the early 2000s.)
The dish wasn’t hard. There were a lot of steps and some techniques that we’ve never tried before, but dinner was worth it!! There was so much flavor packed into this dish! And it fed us for three days. Naoto makes a really delicious beef stew, but the flavors here are totally different. We want to make it again this winter, and add more carrots and leave out the pearl onions just because they weren’t our favorite thing. (Don’t get me wrong, they’re good, but we prefer carrots and Julia only uses one which had us arm wrestling for the few bits in the dish.) We also served it over pappardelle on the second day and it was sooooo good. 
One thing I would recommend, and I’m feeling this way about almost all recipes lately: get the cookbook! Whether you buy it or borrow it from the library, cooking from cookbooks has been so much easier for me than constantly running to the computer or waking up my phone. (I know you can change your phone settings but, I don’t.) The beef bourguignon recipe is in three separate places in Mastering the Art of French Cooking and we were constantly clicking on different links and it just would have been better to have the cookbook.
I’d love to know some “complicated” dishes you’ve made that are worth the time and effort. Naoto is going to be around more in 2018 and our goal is to cook together more often.
Cheers to the last post of 2017 and hopefully more blogging in 2018!
Under the Tree
Santa was good to us again this year! 
Presley got a fantastic new toy that is already MIA. It came in a little party popper, that doesn’t pop because that would be scary for cats. It was a cute package though, as you can tell by Presley’s happy face. 
I gave Naoto a Yeti mic so he can start his podcast in the new year. We’ve been talking about it forever, so it’s time! I also gave him some “high-end” instant ramen that shall have its own post here soon. It’s really good. I also gave him some new t-shirts from Sumo Fish and some new food socks. 
In addition to the Putz church, Naoto got me booze…shocking, I know. He found North Shore Distillery’s fall release, Ethel’s Eye of Newt Cordial. I’m looking forward to trying it…or saving it for next Halloween. And he added to my Letherbee collection with their Autumnal release. I have been buying Letherbee’s seasonal releases for a few years now and they’re always delicious and unusual. 
He also bought me two Mitsubishi Kohitsu Shosha 10B pencils. The lead is the softest made and oh my, is it ever! I promised myself I’d practice hand lettering this year (instead of giving up after five minutes) and these are perfect for that. 
And I got an Egg-a-Go-Go tea towel with the cutest cat carrying a parcel. 
And I got a new cat screen print from Fancy Seeing You Here. (Thanks to Melissa for giving Naoto the hint about this!) I’m so excited to frame him up and expand my desk art!
I still want to tell you about our Christmas dinner adventures, so…be prepared for more Christmas posts into the new year.
My Putz House Settlement
Last year, I told Naoto about vintage Putz houses, the tiny Mid-Century glittered paper houses. I’ve always wanted a Christmas village but the newer ones never struck my fancy the way these old beat up ones did. They’re almost impossible to find with the glitter still shining and it’s a rare gem that still has its vellum windows and doors in tact. (Mid-century children must have loved to punch those things out!)
He surprised me at Christmas with two Putz houses–BOTH with all of their vellum in pristine condition! The green one has sweet little details like the curtained window and green door and the red one is so glittery and also has a really special door. He also got me a cast iron Santa riding a sled. I was so excited to pull the village (more like settlement) out this year! 
Then, during the Forest Park Holiday Walk, Karen and I found this blue gem. The windows, as you can see, have been repaired, but its color and two-toned glitter roof really sold me. 
I also picked up this teeny plastic nativity for the village, because every town needs one. 
Every settlement also needs a town Christmas tree, so I painted one at Creativita. Have you noticed ceramic Christmas trees are making a comeback? I highly recommend painting your own! It was such a fun activity! 
The flocked deer are especially fond of the new tree. 
I had to put the village on the sideboard this year because Presley has been napping on the wine cabinet lately. I like it better on the sideboard because the wine cabinet was too high to appreciate the village anyway. 
This year, Naoto added to my collection with a tiny Putz church!! And again, he struck gold with intact windows and doors!! It has some faded trees, but I love the little gate and the blue walkway! This one hardly has any glitter left so I may add some…but I hesitate to mess with its worn charm too much.
Here’s a little video of the complete village…
kimberly ah 