adventures | kimberly ah

Sep 12 2013

adventures, Japan 2013, My Love Affair with Tokyo, snail mail

Tokyo: PO

One of my favorite parts of traveling is sending postcards. I usually take a long time choosing cheesy tourist postcards. (Naoto is very tolerant of this habit. I don’t know what he’s thinking while he stands waiting outside the tourist shops, but he certainly isn’t showing impatience!) And I like to write them out during a slow mid-vacation morning, over coffee of course. There’s less pressure that way. I also always send a postcard to Naoto and me, with a little recap of our favorite things about our trip. It is seriously like pulling teeth to get Naoto to participate, but I know someday he’s going to thank me…when we’re old and grey, he’s going to love remembering that his favorite part of Tokyo 2013 was the food (ahem…and of course seeing his family!) Unfortunately, I was rather unorganized during our trip and postcard writing had to wait until the last two days in Japan. It was difficult to find “travel-y” postcards there…but there were plenty of other pretty options to choose from. (The red post box card above is from the post office…I should have bought more of those. The bird ones were from Itoya.) Once I finally collected enough cards, I sat down at Mister Donut on two separate mornings to get the job done. One of those mornings was especially perfect because Naoto had an errand to run. So it was just me, my postcards, my coffee and donuts…a nice way to spend a solo morning.Since we found the post office right away, I bought stamps on the first day. I felt pressured to make a decision (which is silly, because Japan has the most patient and amazing customer service ever!) so I just snagged the first ones that caught my eye. They happened to be in celebration of Letter Writing Day. (Japan issues a stamp–or stamps?–for Letter Writing Day every year in July! I am disappointed that I never knew this before!) The stamps are pictured above (the 50yen ones…the 20 yens just help get those postcards across the ocean!) I originally chose them because of the old-time red mailbox stamp, but I also fell in love with the little boy writing a postcard and the others, too…I mean, isn’t that vegetable stamp wonderful?

The Letter Writing Day stamps have a lovely matte finish and they are the licking kind (technical term). It was fun to tear the perforation and lick ’em and stick ’em. I also appreciate the fact that the perforation goes all around the stamp. (I personally hate when there are only a couple of perforated sides on the stamp and the rest of the sides have straight edges. It happens on many stamps here in the US and I think it looks silly.) So, the stamps all around were quite pleasing to use. I have two other sheets of postage to share with you as soon as I am home and awake during daylight hours. (Jet lag is in full force around here!) The mailbox above was in my mother-in-law’s neighborhood. I love the red and the modern shape of the new boxes, but the traditional style will always be my favorite. This one makes sense for modern times–there is a slot for international mail and small packages and a slot for regular domestic mail–but really…who doesn’t love the old one? (Picture from our 2011 trip to Japan.)

Tagged adventures, mail art, snail mail

Sep 11 2013

4 Comments

adventures, Japan 2013, My Love Affair with Tokyo

Tokyo: Jet Lag Edition

I have so much to tell you about Japan! As good as it feels to be home (and to hug Presley), I can’t help but feel sad that we aren’t in Japan anymore. I feel like our vacation was a love affair with Tokyo. The busy streets, the crazy-stuffed trains, the bustling train stations, the incredible food, the amazing customer service, the gorgeous stationery stores, my best friend Mister Donut, the loud and smoky izakayas…I already feel nostalgic about the whole trip.

Naoto and I had serious jet lag in the beginning of our trip. After our thirteen hour flight, the ninety minute train trip (pictured above) and the two-stop subway trip (which all includes struggling up and down hundreds of stairs with our luggage), we made it to our hotel, grabbed a snack at a convenience store and fell into bed around 11PM. We were both wide awake at 4AM (2PM Chicago time), so we decided to get up, shower and enjoy a little walk around our neighborhood.

We stayed in a little hotel, the b, two blocks away from the Sangen-Jaya station. The hotel was in a pretty residential/non-touristy neighborhood. It was an ideal location: two blocks away from Mister Donut, two blocks away from the subway, three blocks away from a post office, and two train stops away from Shibuya (the Times Square of Tokyo) and some really awesome stationery shopping. I cannot thank my sister-in-law, Hisae, enough for doing the research and finding this dream location.

The picture at the top was taken around 6AM as we walked around our neighborhood that first morning. All of the shops and restaurants were closed (most shops don’t open until 10 or 11AM), but it was fun to see what was available in a short walk around the area. (Honestly, we were just killing time while we waited for Mister Donut to open!) Did you notice the man in the pink shirt sleeping on the side of the street? Apparently it is not uncommon in Japan to “sleep it off” wherever you happen to pass out.

The only bad thing about our trip was that it was so hot in Tokyo…so hot… I’m not sure if I was just not used to the heat since we’ve had such a mild and cool summer in Chicago, or that the humidity was out to kill me…but I really haven’t felt that kind of boiling madness over a long stretch of days in a really long time. (Shout out to my cousin serving in Kuwait…I know I shouldn’t complain about the heat!!) The weather made it hard to enjoy getting to places, but once we got to our destinations (usually cool, air conditioned destinations), we felt refreshed and ready to take it all in.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another post about our trip. I think we can just consider September “Japan Month” here on the blog.

Tagged adventures, I *heart* Japan

Sep 03 2013

1 Comment

adventures, Office Supplies, snail mail

Packing for Japan: The Important Stuff

Packing my mail supply bag for Japan was probably the most simple thing on my to-do list. There was no need to bring postage stamps, because they won’t work here. I didn’t really need to pack washi tape, because I’m sure I’ll be buying some here. I didn’t really need to bring a variety of pens, because, again, I’m sure I’ll be stocking up. I’m not a big vacation letter writer, so I didn’t need stationery (and again, if I change my mind…I’m in the country of stationery!) I did, however, need my address book (painstakingly updated with all of my pen pals!) and a pen or two to start with.

So, here’s what I have in my mail pouch:

a red StazOn ink pad

2 Japanese rubber stamps (the Japan Post Office icon & a drunk kitty, both acquired on previous trips)

1 “Today Is” stamp (from here)

2 MultiBall pens (they dry quickly on slick surfaces, perfect for postcards!)

1 grey LePen (for writing in my travel journal)

a tape runner for sticking things in my journal or on envelopes

my mini address book (vintage from Greer)

a few rolls of washi tape (for sticking things in my travel journal)

a few paperclips (for clipping things into my travel journal)

A visit to the Tokyo post Office is on the top of my list so I can stock up on Japanese postage and get to my postcard writing! Our morning Mister Donut visits will be the perfect time to write.

My favorite time.

Tagged adventures, coffee, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, shopping, snail mail

Sep 01 2013

Japan 2011

Today, we are hopping on our flight to Japan. YAY! Our bags are packed with (hopefully) everything we need. Our cat sitters are ready to go. (We are so fortunate to have friends who are willing to cover the daytime and the nighttime shifts with Presley–what can we say? We love our cat! Plus, it’s nice to have someone around the apartment day and night to keep an eye on things like our 1970s light fixtures!) Our family is waiting for us in Tokyo. Our hotel bed is also waiting…and we will be longing for it by the time we get off of the thirteen hour flight! When we went to Japan in 2010, I made a little blog of our trip, Meeting My Mother-In-Law. The trip was obviously filled will many trips to Mister Donut, but the purpose of the trip, for me, was to meet my mother-in-law. After (at that point) almost five years of marriage, I finally met my husband’s mother. And, even though some of the pressure was off (at that point, it’s not like Naoto could return me), some new pressure was on. I was meeting her after a thirteen hour plane ride to Japan, an ninety minute commuter train ride to Tokyo, a two hour bullet train ride to Niigata and a twenty minute cab ride to the apartment. I was pretty much a wreck by the time we got there. I had planned on “freshening up” on the train ride, but I was too sleepy to care about personal hygiene by that time. Precious sleep was all I could think of. Thankfully, over the few days that we stayed with her, Naoto’s mom got to see a clean me, a well-rested me and a happy me…it was wonderful to finally meet her.

This time, since Naoto’s mom moved to a retirement community in Tokyo, we will be able to see her after a good night’s sleep (well, that’s the idea anyway…jet lag might have a different plan!) on our first morning in Japan. I’m going to miss seeing Niigata, but it will be lovely to have the whole family together and concentrate on one place this visit!

P.S. If you’d like to try my favorite salad from my last visit to Japan, check out the salad Naoto’s mom made for us! Perfect excuse to use up some fresh garden tomatoes!

Tagged adventures, Japan, memories

Aug 27 2013

3 Comments

homemaking, Jell-O, thrifted, vintage

I Heart Snack Sets & 1950s Entertaining

Last week while thrifting with my parents, I came across these snack sets. They were only $1 per set, so I bought all four. I justified this purchase (I already have another collection of four smaller snack sets) by noting that the plates on these are almost dinner-sized, so they would be more useful for luncheons and larger servings. The ladies at the thrift store encouraged me to buy all of the snack sets, but I resisted. (It was hard to resist.)

I have an obsession with snack sets. They make me think of well-dressed ladies getting together and playing cards or having a wedding shower, eating tiny sandwiches and homemade Jell-O salads and drinking tea or coffee from the tiny cups. I feel like now, when I get together with my friends, we are wearing yoga pants as we crack open a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers and call it a day. I long for the days of more polished entertaining.

On Sunday night I had some friends over for paper crafting. We ate veggies and homemade dip, chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, roasted tomato caprese salad and other tasty treats off of the snack plates. We drank summer red wine out of the tiny cups. (There were frequent refills.)

I’m thinking of hosting a snack set luncheon when I return…maybe as a last hurrah for the summer? I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime…do you get all fancy when you entertain? I can’t be the only one who dreams of fancy parties with homemade salads and tiny glass cups, right?

Tagged adventures, homemaking, parents, shopping, thrifting, vintage

Aug 22 2013

2 Comments

celebrations, crafty adventures, handmade=happiness

(Belated)

Today I’m making the drive down to shop and have lunch with my parents. I haven’t seen them since they came up to visit with my grandma (and I didn’t have the Mother’s Day gift ready then) so I’m finally delivering the gifts for both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

I worked on this embroidery project over the 30 Days of Creativity in June. The pattern is from Mollie’s blog, Wild Olive, and can be found here. I really loved stitching it–it was a nice mix of back stitching and French knots (I love stitching those knots!) and I finished it in an evening. Yesterday, I typed up a little message on blush paper and pasted it on the back of the embroidery hoop. I know there’s a nicer way to do this (where the fabric tucks around the larger hoop and the paper backing goes back into the smaller hoop), but sadly, I cut my fabric just a bit too short to make it all happen. So, I glued the fabric down to the back of the hoops and glued the paper backing on top. It looks fine, but the perfectionist in me is annoyed at the fact that it could be better. But, the important thing is, the front is lovely, the back is fine and the gift is (finally) going to be delivered this afternoon!

Here it is all wrapped up in a flat paper bag with some twine, a Martha Stewart flower sticker (from my huge sticker stash, collected over the years) and with a tiny piece of tape from Oh Hello Friend. Simple.

And, in case you’re curious, for Father’s Day we got my dad a Blackhawks cap and these fancy County Fair Field Notes (the Illinois ones, of course!)

Off to central Illinois for some thrifting and dining!

Tagged adventures, celebrations, crafts, diy, holidays, parents

Aug 20 2013

Pleasant Home Movies on the Porch: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

On Friday night, I dragged Naoto to see a silent movie.

Pleasant Home, a historic home/museum in our neighborhood, is hosting Silent Movies on the Porch this month. The porch is huge, the summer nights are mild and there is live piano accompaniment! It felt like a real old-time theater experience! I have never seen a silent movie (sad, I know!) so I thought watching one on a porch with live music was a great place to start. At least if the movie lost my interest, I could appreciate the piano, right? Well, the movie never lost my interest…even Naoto had a great time!

Friday’s movie was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a 1920 German horror film. The movie was kind of weird, kind of scary (though not scary by today’s standards). The set was charming–characters walked among jaggedly painted buildings and hills, they opened oddly-shaped doors and windows, they congregated in tiny, spare rooms… The actors were fun to watch…great facial expressions, great hand motions…without the captions, you could still get a feel for what was going on. There was a plot twist at the end. (I love a good plot twist.)The best part about this particular movie on the porch, though, was that the pianist, Thomas Holmes, wrote his own score for this movie! (You can read more about that here.) Apparently, the movie’s original score was too string-heavy to duplicate with just a piano, so he decided to write a new one…no big deal, right? His music really made the movie come alive–the suspenseful scenes were so much more effective with the piano behind them! There were several extreme close-ups of creepy Dr. Caligari during the movie, and Holmes’s music for these scenes was perfect to set the creepy mood!

The movie on the porch was so much fun that I think we’re going to do it again. This week Pleasant Home is showing Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality. I’ll be spending all week talking it up to Naoto…but we all know he’s going to enjoy it, right?

Tagged adventures, Pleasant Home, summer

Aug 19 2013

2 Comments

adventures, Honor Flight Chicago

A Bears Game Double Date

Last Thursday, my friend Barb and I had the pleasure of escorting two World War II veterans to a Bears game. That’s us above with Bill and Bill. As far as dates go, Barb and I hit the jackpot. The Bills were perfect gentlemen and we all had an amazing and special night. The activity was an Honor Flight Chicago event. The Bears gave us tickets to the game that included access to the United Club, a “hospitality area” in the stadium that serves amazing cocktails and beer and gourmet food that you could either eat in the (climate-controlled) dining area or take to your cozy cushioned seat. We all felt a little spoiled by the services, the amazing food (hello freshly carved barbeque beef brisket on a challah roll!) and the spacious seating. We ate inside before the game, and then came back inside to meet up with the other volunteers and veterans at half-time. Otherwise, we were outside enjoying a great game (lots of scoring and a WIN for the Bears!) on a perfectly cool August night in Chicago. I mean…isn’t that a gorgeous view?During the game, George McCaskey came over to thank Bill and Bill for their service to our country. Both veterans were floored at this visit…as were all of the people around us. It was a really great moment in their night. Our “seat neighbor” during the game has been a season ticket holder for five years. He was so kind to Bill and Bill. He helped us safely assist the two Bills up and down the stairs and chatted to them about their service and Soldier Field and he was just a downright great guy. Thanks Season Ticket Holder Section 311 Row 6 Seats 13 & 14!

One really funny/scary moment in the night occurred as we were entering Soldier Field. We were going through the ticket gates and (tall) Bill didn’t have his ticket. He explained to the ticket-taker that Barb had it. Barb had already gone through the gate and I reminded Bill that I had given him his ticket in the parking garage. He shook his head and said that I hadn’t given him a ticket. For a moment, I was questioning my own sanity, but then Barb came over and said she had seen me handing off the ticket to Bill. We thought maybe he had dropped it by the car or something. We had all entered through the gate but Bill, and you can’t re-enter once your ticket has been scanned, so we had a small moment of panic. No one wanted Bill to walk alone all the way back to the car to look for his ticket. I felt regretful that I had allowed Bill to be a gentleman and let me go first. But then, Bill went into his pocket and protested, “This sheet of paper is the only thing you gave me outside!” IT WAS HIS TICKET!! He just didn’t realize it was a paper-printed ticket (instead of the “real” tickets he was used to). The ticket-taker hugged him, I hugged her and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief that we were able to go inside without anymore drama and worry.

We all had a great time and I really felt honored to be able to spend the evening with Bill and Bill. When we dropped them off, they hugged us both and thanked us for choosing them to go…it was the least we could do. We have so much more to thank them for.

Tagged adventures, Chicago Bears, Honor Flight Chicago

Aug 12 2013

6 Comments

adventures, crafty adventures, homemaking

Shark Week Cake…& Party

As I mentioned Saturday, we went to a Shark Week Party this weekend. So much fun! Shark-fan Stacy decked out the apartment with hundreds of paper fish, shark decorations, shark-themed food and drinks, Sharknado! on the ceiling (if you haven’t watched it…you should!) and a shark-themed Brett, who sported these fabulous shark footie pajamas. Pictured above is a blurry Naoto at the Bloody Mary bar…he was studying the shark poster for the quiz later that evening.

Ever since the Shark Week party of 2011, I’ve been filling up a Pinterest board of all my favorite Shark Week ideas in preparation for another party. I fell in love with the idea of this cake*. So I spent Saturday baking a cake and making frosting. I never bake, so it always makes me nervous that the cake won’t rise or it will taste terrible…and cakes are especially stressful because you don’t really know how bad or how good things are until you cut it open at the party…

Thankfully everything worked out and the cake was quite tasty. I made this cake. I’ve made the cake a few times (but never the Cloudburst Frosting). I always use Hershey’s Extra Dark Cocoa Powder. It makes a nice, deep, dark chocolate cake that works well with all sorts of frostings. I decided to be daring and try to make the Cloudburst Frosting for the first time. It was surprisingly easy, though it did take all day because of waiting for the milk/flour mixture to cool down. But most of that time was waiting, not hands-on. The frosting was good–not too sweet or too buttery–like a slightly elevated buttercream. And it really was easy enough to become my new go-to recipe. (You know, for when I bake again next year…)For the toppings, I used Teddy Grahams, gummy sharks, vanilla wafer cookies, peach gummy rings, cocktail umbrellas and a toothpick with a typed BEWARE OF SHARKS sign. I giggled the whole time I was creating the little shark scene…Sigh…every week really should be Shark Week…

*Sadly, I cannot find the source for the original cake…both inspiration pins (here and here) only go to a picture. If you know the source, please contact me and I will include it!

Tagged adventures, celebrations, diy, food, homemaking, Shark Week

Aug 08 2013

2 Comments

adventures, cocktails, what's for dinner

K&N and the Girl & the Goat

Naoto has been wanting to eat at Stephanie Izard’s Girl & the Goat for years. Our neighbors have eaten there a few times and have raved about it so much. Naoto has been trying to get us a reservation for awhile now…he was especially anxious to eat there after we ate at Little Goat and had such a delicious experience.

Last Friday, we were able to go after one of his co-workers offered up her reservation to us. (Thanks, Missy!) So at five o’clock on a Friday night, we sat down to a dining adventure at the Goat. My favorite part was the cocktails. Don’t get me wrong–the food was AMAZING–but my cocktail, the Foghorn, was the scene-stealer (pictured above with Naoto’s boring beer). The Foghorn is, according to the menu, “SanFrancisco’s answer to the Manhattan”. It is made with gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino liqueur and orange bitters, garnished with an orange peel. So simple, but when it’s the right mix of quality ingredients and good proportions, simple can be so good! It was sweet, but not too sweet and no one ingredient overpowered the others–a perfect drink in my book. I also enjoyed the Charlie Ross cocktail (gin, sugar and bitters)…so tasty!

The menu at Girl & the Goat is separated into three parts: veggies, fish and meat. It is a small-plate restaurant, where you order several things and share a few bites of each thing. I like this style of restaurant, because if something is underwhelming, it’s good to know something new and different will be showing up at the table soon. But, at Girl & the Goat, nothing was underwhelming.

We ordered six dishes (pictured in order below): Squash Blossom Rangoon (crab and yogurt inside a lightly fried squash blossom), Kona Kompachi Crudo (raw fish with aioli and pork), Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon (salmon with a peach panzanelle salad), Roasted Cauliflower (pure heaven, with pine nuts), Sweet Corn Goat Cheese Wontons (goat cheese wontons served with tiny heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn and popcorn!) and Wood Oven Roasted Pig Face (pork cheek served with a fried egg and potatoes). Every dish was really creative and interesting, but my favorite was probably the most simple–the cauliflower. Naoto and I roast cauliflower pretty often around here, and it’s pretty delicious, but it’s nothing like this. I can’t stop thinking that they must really have a secret to making it so good… I’m glad Naoto let me eat most of the cauliflower, and because of his generosity, I only had a bite of the pig face. He was crazy excited to eat Girl & the Goat’s most popular dish. Of course, we had to get coffee and dessert. Naoto got the Miso-Butterscotch Budino (a creamy miso and butterscotch pudding with cashews, pineapple and bacon toffee on top). After this dessert, and the other miso dessert at the Little Goat Diner, I’m convinced that Naoto has the utmost respect for Stephanie Izard and her skills with this Japanese ingredient. I ordered the Goat Cheese Bavarois (brown sugar cake topped with blueberries, caramel krispies and goat cheese). I would tell you that the creamy goat cheese was the best part of this dessert, but then I’d be leaving out how amazing the brown sugar cake was, and the blueberries, and the caramelized krispie gems…What I liked best about Girl & the Goat was that it’s a casual restaurant…no white tablecloths or pretentious servers…it’s just incredibly creative food in a comfortable atmosphere. We definitely want to go back again…the menu changes all the time, so it would be fun to go back in another season to see what’s new. And to get another Foghorn.