After buying Japanese New Year cards (nengajo) for the past two years, I decided to try making my own for 2016. They were pretty simple…so simple that I made a stack of fifty! So far, I’ve sent out about half of those. 
I started with some A2 Paper Bag flat cards as my base. Last summer, I picked up a traditional nengajo stamp at a (yet-to-be-blogged-about) stamp shop in Kyoto and I was happy to get to use it for these cards. I embossed the Japanese characters and then added my Greetings from Illinois, LWA member, and a giant 2016 in blue, red, and gold inks. I added a quick message to each card. 
On the front side, I added a strip of Japanese patterned washi tape and a label. It feels good to start off the year with good mail momentum!
kimberly ah
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Ringing in 2016
We spent yet another New Year’s Eve at the Golden Steer with our friends. It’s become a tradition that I start looking forward to as soon as I turn the calendar to December. Naoto and I talk about the French Onion soup and the steaks we will order all month. 
After dinner, everyone came back to our apartment for drinks, snacks, and dessert. It’s always nice to ring in the new year in the comforts of home and with the laughter of friends. I made a simple cover for our island with the leftover wrapping paper from Phantom Flight Night™. I taped on some glittery dots that I punched out of gold glitter paper from my stash. It was simple and sparkly. 
New Year’s Day was lazy! We watched part of the Rose Bowl Parade–I only watch for the Trader Joe’s float, pictured above. It’s always fantastic. 
For supper we ate (our version of) toshikoshi soba. In Japan, toshikoshi soba is eaten as the last part of the meal on New Year’s Eve, but since we had dinner plans already*, we decided to eat it on New Year’s Day. We topped our noodles with roasted chicken, scallions, and cabbage, but this recipe has more traditional ideas. And I picked up some special New Year chopsticks last time we were in Japan so it was fun to actually find them in time to use them for New Year’s dinner!
How did you spend your New Year’s Eve?
*I think next year we should serve the noodles as a close-to midnight snack!
All I Want For Christmas 2015
Naoto spoiled me rotten this Christmas. The big gift was a trip to San Francisco to see our friends who moved there last year. He gave me a little Carry-On Cocktail Kit for the flight. It made me laugh and I can’t wait to crack it open once we are on our way.
He went to the Field Notes HQ during their open house and snagged the long-retired Traveling Salesman and Cold Horizon 3-packs for my stocking and gave me a box to hold my ever growing Field Notes collection. 
In other paper-y gifts, he gave me two sets of postcards from Craftgasm, two envelope pins from Paper Pastries, and from Jet Pens, a bottle of J. Herbin anniversary ink, a pencil sharpener, a white Decorese pen, a mint Kaweco Sport, and (unpictured) some Tomoe River paper, a new Frixion stamp, and a converter so I can actually use that fancy ink in my new Kaweco.
Yay for gifts that can be used up…except for the Field Notes, which will go into the “collection”.
Did you get anything fun for Christmas?
P.S. I didn’t get my usual zines in my stocking this year because I didn’t submit my wishlist early enough…so I ordered some as a New Years gift to myself! I’ll report on those soon!
Elvis In My Mailbox!
Today would have been Elvis’s 81st birthday so I’m sharing a couple of Elvis treats I’ve received in the mail lately. Marissa sent this incredible Elvis stocking. She expertly sewed it herself and I’m in love with the striped accent and the starry lining. It came as a total surprise and when I opened the envelope and saw Elvis, I fell over laughing with joy. 
The Elvis fabric is the perfect marriage of Elvis and envelopes, my two favorite things! I know the stocking whispers Christmas, but I’m going to leave it out just a liiiiiiiittle longer, maybe through Valentine’s Day…maybe all year next to some other Elvis cards that live on my desk. (Confession: The tree is still up anyway.)
And Nic, fellow Elvis-lover from California, sent along this Elvis care package that included an Elvis notecard, two postcards from Elvis’s Palm Springs home, and Elvis STAMPS! (The old 29-cent ones!) I am so excited to finally have some real, uncancelled Elvis stamps in my collection! And I had no idea Elvis even had a Palm Springs home, so it’s exciting to know that I have another Elvis destination to visit.
Thank you, Marissa and Nic for making my day! There’s no Return to Sender when it comes to Elvis mail! (Sorry for the bad joke.)
Tonight we are hosting a little birthday party for Naoto…which is slowly morphing into an Elvis-themed party. I’m trying to sneak some Elvis into the Peter, Paul & Mary playlist. (They are Naoto’s favorite!) Happy weekend!
Donabe for Christmas
Our Christmas Day centered around the contents of that box. I gave Naoto a donabe, Japanese hot pot, for Christmas, sending him over the moon with excitement. Donabe are used for table top cooking of Japanese meals, particularly shabu-shabu. We’ve been talking about buying our own donabe and making shabu-shabu at home forever. We casually looked at them while we were in Japan, but it just isn’t practical to carry around a big, breakable pot when you are traveling by train and subway. So, I did what any American would do…I bought one on Amazon. This one, as a matter of fact. It is made in Japan, Naoto’s favorite color and available on Prime. (I was shopping somewhat last-minute. Also, not an affiliate link.) 
We made our annual visit to Mitsuwa on Christmas afternoon to pick up the table top burner and ingredients for shabu-shabu. We bought (clockwise, pictured above) cabbage, scallion, tofu, shirataki (yam noodle), enoki mushroom, and carrots. The carrots were supposed to be cut like flowers, but Naoto is still working on his skills. (But I do find that those little carrot pinwheels very charming!) And we bought a pound of the very thinly sliced beef. 
On Christmas night, we made a cocktail, lit some candles, and fired up the little stove. Naoto seasoned the water with some seaweed. 
When the water was bubbling, he took out the seaweed and we were ready to cook! It only took a couple of swishes and the beef was cooked to perfection. 
And the best part…the ponzu dipping sauce! The citrusy sauce is the perfect complement to the beef! I want to put it on evvvvverything!
We borrowed Japanese Hot Pots and Donabe from the library so we can learn how to expand our donabe cooking beyond shabu-shabu. And tomorrow night, we are hosting a mini shabu-shabu party for Naoto’s birthday. I’m excited to try a few recipes at the dining room table this winter!
The First Post of 2016
Happy New Year! It always seems like December flies by without a chance to catch my breath. The first week always feels full of possibility and then I’m always rushing to finish projects and parties by the end. But in the end, the work is worth it, the parties are fun and full of laughter, and I know I have all of January to recover.
I am so looking forward to this month.
January is the introvert’s delight.
The parties are over. The shopping is over. The weather in Chicago makes going out difficult. I’m looking forward to hibernation and working on a couple of projects around the house and on my desk. I’m also looking forward to popping in here more often. I got out of the blogging habit at the end of last year…for many reasons that may deserve their own post someday. But I think I’m ready to come back…slowwwwly. Sitting here at my desk, I have a running list of things I want to share, including bits about the holidays, some great mail that’s been showing up in my mailbox, and well…more about Japan. Oh, and perhaps some resolutions?
Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to what 2016 may bring.
It’s time to take down the Christmas tree…
(Have you taken yours down yet?)
Happy Christmas 2015!
Happy Christmas from the Hasegawas! We hope you had a wonderful holiday!
Xo,
N, K, and P
Thrifted Treasures 3
The last time I went thrifting with my parents, I scored a fun postal find–this postal truck stamp holder. I’ve been looking for a stamp holder for my roll of one cent bobcat stamps so I was thrilled when my mom found this in the kid’s section at Goodwill. 
The stamps go in a little drawer in the back of the truck and there’s a little sponge in the front of the truck that pulls out so you could wet your stamps (back before they were stickers.) Sadly, in spite of what I’m showing above, the stamps don’t really fit. Because the truck was made for the rolls of perforated lickable stamps, the adhesive versions with their paper backing don’t fit in the truck. And the roll is too big, too. But I’m determined to make it work, so I cut off twenty stamps from the roll and trimmed the excess paper backing off the top and the bottom, rolled them back into a coil and made them fit! It’s a lame amount of work for a few stamps though. (But I’m not opposed.)
I have a small collection of mail things and someday they will have a permanent home someplace in our apartment. Right now the truck is on my desk (along with a thousand other things) and it’s the last big thing that needs to be tidied and cleaned and decorated for Christmas.
I will be back later this week with pictures of the tree…and hopefully the rest of the place if I can finish up a couple of paper projects.
The LWA Holiday Letter Social
Tomorrow, I’ll be joining Kathy and Donovan for the LWA Holiday Virtual Letter Social. We’ll be writing out our holiday cards and chatting about postal and non-postal topics (the subject of cocktails usually comes up!) So get out your Christmas cards and a cup of tea and join in!
Have you gotten any cards yet? My Aunt Karen was the first this year, closely followed by Ryan, whose card came from the North Pole again!
Thanksgiving Mail
I finally finished my Thanksgiving invitation…about three hours before Thanksgiving. I wasn’t feeling very inspired in November but I really wanted the invitation to include the vellum ledger paper and vintage Avery metallic tape I bought on Instagram. (Note: Vintage paper sales on Instagram are very addictive. And fun.)
I always try to add a quote to our Thanksgiving invitations. (Here’s a list of some favorites.) “Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way” is a Native America saying and I love how optimistic it is. I typed it out on a leaf that I cut from patterned paper and layered it with some other leaves from my stash. I added a strip of the vellum and a bit of the tape and a Japanese stamp. Done, right? Well, no. I had to make a mess of things and try to stamp the year on the top with my giant number stamp. But I didn’t press down hard enough and the numbers were messed up so I had to write over the numbers…anyway…I’m trying not to dwell on the numbers…or the fact that I handed the invitation to my parents when they walked in the door on Thanksgiving Day…
I did send some other Thanksgiving mail. A few weeks ago I attended the LWA letter social at my library and there were some vintage books available for mail art. I had too much fun choosing images for mail art. And when I didn’t use vintage paper, I had fun using postage stamps and turkey stickers to jazz things up. (That Write More Letters postcard is from Craftgasm. I added the turkey.) 
And now…holiday card season begins. Once I finish decorating, that is.
Have you started your cards yet?
kimberly ah 