holidays | kimberly ah

Jan 06 2014

holidays, Japan Does It Better, snail mail

Japan Does It Better 5: Nengajō

I love the tradition of sending holiday cards to my friends and family. I also love that throughout December, my mailbox is a flurry of greetings from people I hear from regularly as well as those friends and family who only send greetings once a year.

In Japan, instead of sending Christmas cards and other holiday greetings, people exchange nengajō–New Year’s Day greetings. These greetings come in the form of postcards, either store-bought or handmade. Usually the messages are handwritten and the cards are always hand-addressed with the sender’s best calligraphy.

The best part of nengajō though–and this is where Japan Does It Better–if you send your cards during a window of time (usually mid to late December), the Japan Post Office holds the cards and delivers them ON New Year’s Day!!! Wouldn’t it be fun to open your mailbox on January 1st to find a flood of new year wishes from all of your family and friends?

The best.

According to this tweet (which includes a great picture of the delivery team), the Japan Post estimated 1.82 billion nengajō cards were sent throughout Japan on the first.

The cards pictured above were nengajō that I purchased at Mitsuwa last month. I filled them out on New Year’s Day, so they won’t be arriving anywhere on time, but the spirit is there. The one on the left says “Happy New Year” and the one on the right says “Welcoming Spring”, both typical nengajō greetings.

Nengajō and well-orchestrated New Year’s wishes…another reason Japan Does It Better!

(For more JDIB posts, click here.)

Tagged holidays, mail art, snail mail

Jan 01 2014

4 Comments

celebrations, Forest Park, Oak Park, Merry & Bright

It’s 2014

Happy 2014!

Our New Years Eve was just about perfect–Karen, Naoto, me…Manhattans and steaks at Golden Steer, wine and sweets at home, and an Adami Prosecco toast at midnight…

It snowed in Chicago, making for the perfect wintry backdrop to the festivities. In fact, it’s pretty much been snowing since New Year’s Eve, making for a quiet start to 2014. All we did on January 1st was watch Law & Order…it’s kind of a tradition on New Year’s Day to get sucked into TV marathons and Law & Order is our favorite. I should be embarrassed to admit that I watched from 9AM (January 1) until 2AM (January 2), but I also hung up my new calendar and wrote out a few New Year cards, so we’ll call that a productive first day of 2014.

Today, I’m putting Christmas away and trying to get organized for real…a constant battle around here.

I hope your new year has been equally fantastic.

Tagged adventures, celebrations, cocktails, food, forest park, holidays, home

Dec 31 2013

4 Comments

celebrations, holidays, homemaking, Merry & Bright, Office Supplies

New Year, New Calendars

The new year is catching me completely off guard. Thankfully, I have a few calendars to keep me on track.

I bought the Sakana Saijiki fish calendar for Naoto. It is full of amazing illustrations of sea life and calligraphy that I cannot read. I’m excited to have a grid again. The calendars that I bought last year were all more decorative than functional. The fish calendar will hang in the kitchen, so it will be nice for Naoto to see what we have planned for the month.

The little “Things With Faces” calendar was a gift from Mollie. I’m looking forward to breaking out my colored pencils or watercolors and filling the pictures in each month.

And the Orange Beautiful calendar was a gift from Donovan. The colors and the fonts are perfect.

As far as a datebook for 2014…well, I’m still waiting. After a couple of months of waffling, I decided yesterday to go back to using Franklin Covey. Once my pages come in (MID-JANUARY!!) I will do a little post on my set-up.

Today I am cleaning house and stringing up a garland for our teeny New Year’s Eve party tonight. We are having dinner at Golden Steer and drinking cocktails at home and maybe making a few resolutions…

Happy New Year!

Tagged celebrations, holidays, home, homemaking, office supplies

Dec 30 2013

5 Comments

Christmas, holidays, Merry & Bright, snail mail, vintage

Our 2013 Holiday Cards

Our 2013 Christmas cards were sent, and hopefully they’ve arrived at their destinations near and far. As I mentioned in this post, I decided to stop putting all the pressure on myself to make our cards. Instead, I bought them. I picked up the Winter Greetings card a few years ago on clearance. I loved the little chubby bird! I purchased the Andy Warhol Christmas tree card this year at Paper Source. I loved its vintage look and tiny size. (I’m a sucker for tiny greeting cards.) And the vintage Season’s Greetings card was a gift from Jennie Hinchcliff who offered them up one day on Instagram. I could not resist those vintage beauties. Here’s a closer look at its charming church illustration and inside message:In case it’s unclear it says

To greet you sincerely at Christmas and to wish you Happiness in the New Year.

Sincere Christmas greetings? Absolutely. The card is gorgeously embossed–the church, the bells, the people and the tiny snow details are raised on the page. I had to save just one…the others went to lucky pen pals. I ordered these holiday paper coasters from the Paper Source and added them with some of my cards. In a moment of bad planning, I realized that my Andy Warhol cards were too small to hold the coaster…oops. Naoto and I are using the leftovers for entertaining at home. They feel very festive, especially when cocktails are involved. In spite of having a table full of mail art stuff for the Christmas Card Writing Party, I didn’t go too crazy with mail art. I was having fun playing around with my handwriting and I just used some washi tape, rubber stamps and Stickles to add a tiny bit of pizzazz to the envelopes.

Holiday time is my favorite time of the year for checking my mailbox. People keep saying that no one writes Christmas cards anymore…I’m very lucky that many of my friends and family still value this tradition. A full mailbox is the best Christmas gift.

Tagged Christmas, crafts, holidays, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, vintage, washi tape

Dec 28 2013

4 Comments

celebrations, Christmas, holidays, Merry & Bright, Peggy's Parties

Book Club Christmas Tea

Last Saturday, we had a Pleasant Home Book Club Christmas Tea at Peggy’s house. There were so many of us that we had to sit at two different and wonderfully decorated tables at Peggy’s.

We enjoyed ham salad (made by me), egg salad, cucumber sandwiches, cherry almond scones, homemade ricotta, homemade lemon curd and homemade Meyer lemon curd (so delicious, I can’t even explain), Christmas cookies, champagne cocktails, tea…my tiny plate above was the first of many. Christmas Tea at Peggy's 3 After we ate, we moved into the sitting room and talked about our book–The Cat by Colette. (By the way, The Cat deserves its own blog post sometime in January.)It happened to be the Winter Solstice, so we got to enjoy Peggy’s beautifully lit sitting room as the sun went down. It seriously is Christmas heaven over there…so many twinkle lights!

Thank you to Peggy for another wonderful Christmas time!

Tagged books, celebrations, Christmas, decorating, holidays

Dec 27 2013

5 Comments

Christmas, holidays, Merry & Bright

A Fine Christmas Indeed…

It feels like Christmas was weeks ago…

Naoto and I enjoyed our usual Christmas tradition of sleeping in, opening gifts, going to Mitsuwa and coming home for cocktails and Christmas dinner. The day felt long, in the best possible way. Naoto had only practical (ahem…boring) things on his Christmas list, so I had to add in a little SPAM surprise. I think he liked it. (Also, I’m not sure why I picked an Instagram filter that made Naoto look like he hasn’t seen the sun in years…)

And, as always, Naoto chose the most perfect gifts for me (pictured at the top): Redemption High Rye, Burt’s Bees chapstick, a Vintage Email stamp from Wit & Whistle, a Kaweco Sport fountain pen and ink, a Paper Parcel Subscription from Saturday Morning Vintage and tickets to a Blackhawks game on January 5th!!

It was a white Christmas…by the time we left Mitsuwa, it was snowing pretty hard. Thankfully the roads were clear (and empty!) for our drive home.

In the evening, I made Aviations and Old Fashioneds and set the table while Naoto cooked tonkatsu (recipe coming soon!) for dinner. (During dinner, Presley lurked on the wine cabinet and watched us eat…not creepy at all, right?) evergreen candle from Yearbook After dinner, Karen stopped over for a little visit…the perfect end to a relaxing Christmas.

(Presley sends her holiday wishes.)

Tagged Christmas, cocktails, holidays, rubber stamp

Dec 19 2013

3 Comments

Christmas, holidays, Merry & Bright, thrifted, vintage

Whimsical Christmas Pins

I have a significant collection of vintage brooches. Most of them could be categorized as “granny chic”. (You might remember when Mary added to my collection when she sent some fabulous selections from her grandmother.) But when it comes to the holidays, I like to wear whimsical kid pins from my own childhood (and thrifted gifts from my mom!)

The snowflake on the left is vintage Avon from my childhood. (You can see a better picture here.) I actually have two of them because I misplaced mine and randomly came across one in a box of junk at a flea market. I was over the moon to find a replacement for fifty cents! Of course, a week or two later, I found mine. (Doesn’t it always work out that way?) I love the sparkle from the Aurora Borealis stones.

The other snowflake is an antique store find. (It’s unmarked, and I couldn’t find one online.)

The bear in the box is from my childhood. I kind of remember it being a gift…but memories are fuzzy from way back then. He can be found here.

My mom bought me the owl at a flea market last year. It was perfect timing, since owls felt very trendy last year. (I’m still wearing him this year.) He’s vintage Hallmark and can be found here.

I’ve had the snowman pin since first grade. In grade school we drew names and did a little gift exchange every Christmas. Kyle S had my name and gave me a tiny box. This pin was inside. I remember feeling very special and grown up because I got jewelry from a boy for Christmas. My family still teases me about my attachment to this pin. I didn’t wear it for years because the pin part broke off of it, but my handy-dad fixed it for me last year and it’s in the holiday pin rotation again. He can be found here.

The Santa is from my childhood, I think. He’s vintage Hallmark (from 1981, according to his back) and can be found here.

The fawn is another flea market find from my mom. I love this one because of the green pipe cleaner wreath around its neck. He’s vintage Hallmark and can be found here.

Sigh…vintage Hallmark and vintage Avon…two of my favorite things.

Would it be weird if I wore all of my Christmas pins once on Christmas Eve? I kind of want to do it…like my own version of the ugly Christmas sweater.

P.S. Another sentimental childhood Christmas pin can be found here.

Tagged Christmas, holidays, memories, thrifting, vintage

Dec 17 2013

1 Comment

Christmas, crafty adventures, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail, vintage

Christmas Card Writing Party

On Sunday night I hosted a little Christmas card writing party. I sent out some (last minute) vintage invitations from Saturday Morning Vintage. Aren’t they cute? It’s hard to tell in the pictures, but I added a touch of glitter to each wreath using my favorite glue pen and some Martha glitter. I typed up gold labels for the addresses (some were mailed, some were hand delivered) and embellished the envelopes with some washi tape. Fun stuff. I started collecting my holiday-ish supplies all last week. I have loads of things, mainly from making my own cards in the past. On Sunday morning, I covered the table with kraft paper and set out the stamps, tapes, inks, Stickles and stickers. (I learned from the best by attending so many LWA socials!) On Sunday evening, the ladies came over and we ate funeral buns (I told you they would be a new party staple!) and salmon dip and caramels. We enjoyed mulled wine and got more done than I thought we would! Jackie already finished her holiday cards, so she painted some ornaments. Karen and I wrote our cards. I got through the L’s…not including my pen pals (because their envelopes are more involved than some of the rest of my list). Tonight, my goal is to finish them up…I’m in a mail art kind of mood, so it should be a fun project!

I’ll report back on the cards soon. I want them to make it to their destinations before sharing on the blog.

Have you finished your holiday cards? Have you been getting a lot in your mailbox?

Tagged Christmas, crafts, holidays, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Dec 16 2013

6 Comments

adventures, Christmas, homemaking, Merry & Bright, Oh Tannenbaum

Oh Christmas Tree 2013

We got our Christmas tree the week after Thanksgiving. Naoto has been taking Thursdays off, so it was the perfect day to head over to Menards for our usual $15 tree special. We were going to splurge on a $25 fir. Their branches hold heavier ornaments better and we had a pine last year, so I thought it would be a nice change. But when the tree guy shook the firs, needles flew everywhere. When we shook this one, not a single needle fell. Decision made! Plus, there is just something so soft and fluffy about the longer needles of the white pine.

The tree guy at Menards was in good spirits and laughed at our “backseat method” of carrying the tree home. It felt like the tree stuck out a little further than normal this year…Naoto did all of the heavy lifting and I did all of the decorating, as usual. (He doesn’t mind it that way one bit…)After last year’s leaning tree debacle, I am happy to report that this tree is standing straight and tall. I lost my ornament hooks and had to improvise with a limited supply of bent paperclips, so fewer ornaments made it onto the tree this year. The ones that made it are the most special ones, so the tree is all right with me. And the sage green bedsheet/tree skirt is lame…you would think I would have a real tree skirt by now…but really, Presley attacks the tree skirt on a regular basis, so something not-so-precious is really the best decision. Presley approves (and simultaneously tries to destroy).

Tagged Christmas, decorating, holidays, home, homemaking

Dec 11 2013

3 Comments

adventures at the library, Christmas, crafty adventures

Block Printing at the Library

On Saturday afternoon, I went to a block printing class at our library. The class was taught by Liz and Gabe from Hoofprint Workshop in Chicago. They brought their portable press, made from a car jack (!!!) and had small 3×4 inch blocks for each of us to carve. The class was advertised as a holiday card printmaking class, but Liz made it clear we could carve whatever we wanted. I decided, since I cannot draw (and because I have a little bit of PTSD from a previous printmaking class I tried and promptly dropped out of–a story for another time…or a therapist), that I would do a candy cane striped H. I wanted something with simple lines so I could practice making deep, thick stripes and shallow thin ones and getting comfortable with the tool. I was the first one done cutting my block (most people had more intricate designs) so I inked and printed my block. My first print was okay, but you could barely see the thinnest lines so I worked the rest of the class widening those lines and fussing with the other lines. In the end, the one above was my best impression. It’s more challenging than it looks to get the right amount of ink and the right amount of pressure on the press. Practice, practice, practice! That’s Liz above working the car jack press. I’m obsessed with how genius it is…and Dad, do we have a spare car jack?

I have two linoleum blocks in my craft cupboard and now I have the confidence to tackle them and an idea that involves a little bit more drawing skills than our monogram…wish me luck!

For a better picture of the car jack press and a great article about Hoofprint Workshop, go here. Their workshop is in an old funeral home!!

And, for more Adventures at the Library posts, go here.

Thanks to the Forest Park Public Library for hosting another awesome event and to Liz and Gabe of Hoofprint for sharing their expertise with us!

Tagged adventures, crafts, forest park, holidays