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Wanderlust Wednesdays: Thailand Day 4 [Phuket to Koh Samui Travel Day]

June 29, 2016

The day finally arrived!! L and I were so excited to go to Koh Samui – we googled photos non-stop before our trip and it looked absolutely dreamy. To be perfectly honest, we were kind of really over Phuket. Maybe it was the fact that we didn’t get to see all of it, but it was just too raunchy and full of partiers that it wasn’t the relaxing vacation we had hoped for. We woke up early in the morning, packed our bags, ordered in a breakfast via room service and decided to spend our morning at the beach that our photographer Jaran took us to for our engagement shoot – Paradise Beach. Absolutely beautiful. We arrived early enough that there weren’t that many people, and we got awesome beach chairs right by the water.

Weekly Round-Up: June 20 – June 26

June 27, 2016

Weekly Round-Up is a weekly post about things that have been going on in my life. It’s a more personal side of my blog that I’ve decided to document to look back on as I work on my memory-keeping process. So… it’s mainly for me than anything else, but if someone enjoys it along the way, that’s awesome!

This past week’s theme for me was basically the LAST week of pre-school and health consciousness. I successfully went to the gym every day this week and have been doing everything in my power to eat and be healthy. Turning 28 was a turning point for me. I can’t do 10 push ups a night and look good for the Saturday turn up anymore ? I also powered through the week with pre-school for our last week before summer. We had a trial kid on our last day who looks like she will be enrolling come September.

June 20th would have been my mom and dads 42nd anniversary. L and I wanna keep the day special for her, so he went and picked up some flowers and champagne for her. She was so happy. I guess it was quite bittersweet day for us. Always hard to celebrate these kinds of days when the other half isn’t around anymore.

The weekend was quite uneventful but enjoyable nonetheless. L and I tried to get to the gym on Saturday morning but our regular parking lot was full. All other lots close to our gym cost about $3.50 for 12 minutes. ….what?? Yeah. Crazy. So we decided to grab breakfast instead ? we went to our local bakery, which has the best pastries in the world. So worth it. We mozied around the rest of the day and ended the night at a yakitori izakaya restaurant in our neighborhood. It was our first time going but we loved it! Love discovering new places in and around our neighborhood! Sunday night, my Japanese side of the family came over for dinner. My cousin just got married so we wanted to celebrate him and his new wife! We don’t get to see them much, especially since my dad and grandma’s passing so it was really nice to have them come over and catch up under happy circumstances.

This week is officially my summer break! Which isn’t really a break since I have to interview 3 candidates for a teaching position for summer school, a potential family who’s thinking of enrolling, plan for summer school, and plan for the next school year. But it’s a good break from teaching, I guess! Will miss the kids but looking forward to a productive, heathy summer ahead.

Weekly Round-Up: June 13 – June 19

June 19, 2016

Quite a hectic and quick week for me! Started off strong, going to the gym every morning before pre-school. Been treating myself to convenience store iced coffee, which isn’t really half bad. I love Japanese convenience stores – they truly are the definition of ‘convenience.’ So clean, and always fully stocked of delicious foods, drinks and even stationary!
Second to last week of school this week – last week for one of our kiddos before he headed off to the Philippines with his family for the summer. We decided to have a little outing for our two older kids to celebrate summer and we decided to go to the aquarium since we had been learning about dolphins. We went to Epson Aqua Park in Shinagawa and it was absolutely amazing! Stay tuned for a “Guide to Japan” post about it 🙂

Tried catching up on Project Life this week but didn’t get too far. Completed maybe 2 spreads of April before jumping into a new project (our California mini-album from last Christmas/New Years). Yesterday was an incredibly hot heat wave. Literally didn’t leave the house except to go eat some cold soba, which is especially refreshing on hot days like yesterday. L and I cleaned the filters to the AC around the house…tried to make ourselves useful. Today was a rest day for me regarding the gym, so we decided to go have brunch at a famous brunch-spot close to our house in Futakotamagawa. Post about that outing coming up in the coming weeks, too! The last photo in the collage is the last Father’s Day I spent with my dad before he passed away. We had spent the day at Kinuta Park, walking Alfie and just hanging out. I remember that day, 4 years ago so well. I miss him so incredibly much, especially days like today, but I really do miss him every day. He was such a wonderful dad. I’ll definitely have to make a layout about this day and all the things I love and miss about him.

Well, that’s a wrap for the weekly round-up! I’m so looking forward to summer break and getting away. L has been super stressed out at work, too, so it’ll be a much deserved/needed break. Can’t wait to catch up on a bunch of projects I’ve been working on, too, so I’ll be sharing a lot more crafty stuff in the coming weeks! Talk to you guys then!

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Thailand Day 2 [Phuket Engagement Shoot]

June 14, 2016

Day 2 in Phuket was quite the exciting day! Back in Tokyo, L and I had been talking about hiring a photographer in Thailand. We wanted beachy photos, but not overly corny – photos that showed our true colors. That’s when we found Gina Smith from Gina Smith Photography. We fell in love with her website and portfolio and booked her right away! We talked over e-mail about ideas, then chose a date and a time to meet once we were in Phuket. Since we were only there a few days before moving to Koh Samui, we prayed the weather would co-operate with us since our photoshoot was set to take place in the morning. We were pretty bummed when we woke up to an overcast day, but we had faith the weather would clear up. We decided to spend the early morning eating breakfast at the hotel restaurant and lounging by the pool before cleaning up.

Needless to say, the breakfast was mmmmmm delicious. And the coffee? HEAVENLY.

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Thailand Day 1 [Travel + Patong]

June 8, 2016

The first set of posts from this series is our trip to Thailand in 2015. This is about to get personal, but bear with me. Last summer, L and I were planning on taking a trip to Europe and road-tripping along the coast of France and Italy. Unfortunately, we had to scrap that plan since L couldn’t get enough days off to make the trip worth it so we’ll probably save it for our honeymoon. We surfed the net to see what the most affordable flights out of Tokyo were and we saw a flight to Bangkok was pretty reasonable. 3 years ago, my father suddenly passed away while he was on a business trip to Bangkok so I knew I didn’t want to really spend any time there. I’d also been there before and I’m more of a beach girl when I’m on vacation so I wasn’t really interested in going back. L wanted to go to Bangkok but he was understanding and we decided to go see Phuket and Koh Samui – two places I really wanted to see. We booked an Air Bnb at each place, booked our inter-island tickets, and got ready to depart on our Thailand adventure!

12×12 Thailand Scrapbook Pages

June 5, 2016

As an avid project lifer + mini album maker, I’m often not too good at journaling a lot on my scrapbook layouts. I’ve started doing that a little more after listening to Tracie Caliborne & Tiffany Lowder‘s podcast, The Scrap Gals Podcast (a must listen!) though. But these Thailand scrapbook pages were inspired by Marcy Penner’s minimalistic style. I am truly unashamed about scrap lifting as I’m not too confident about my scrapbook layout skills yet, and I feel like I’m still finding my style.

I love this photo of L lounging in the infinity pool at our Air BnB. I’m so sorry I don’t remember most of the products used but this was my first time using my sewing machine. Clearly, I’m not trying that again. It’s actually a hand-me-down from my grandma and she can’t find the pedal sooooo it’s kind of an acrobatic maneuver to use it. If you guys could see me, you’d probably be laughing.

I haven’t blogged about our time in Samui yet but it was probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. We had SUCH an amazing time and it’s definitely on our would-go-back list. This Studio Calico alpha stamp is by far my favorite alpha stamp for layouts these days. Love how skinny, yet bold it is. And can we talk about this acrylic flamingo?! TOO CUTE. We didn’t see any flamingos, but whatever, it matched the layout. #deceptive

Week in the Life: Sunday Photos + Stories

August 24, 2015

I can’t believe WITL documentation is already over! It has been such an interesting week and I won’t lie in saying that I’m a little relieved I can put my camera back on the shelf, instead of carrying it in my purse everywhere. But, I must say I learned so much during this week in terms of documenting, and in terms of our family. It made me see and appreciate how much my mom does for L and I, and how much Alfie really affects our family. I see how much I value the time L and I spend together during the week. Although limited, it means so much to be able to laugh ourselves to sleep. No matter what may get me down during the day, when I can go to sleep with my best friend with a smile on my face, nothing matters. It really is the little things that mean the most. Anyway, enough with the sappy, onwards with the photos!

Week in the Life: Friday & Saturday Photos + Stories

August 24, 2015

So far, these have been my worst days in terms of recording photos. But, I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I think I deserve a good ole pat on the back for making it this far – and it’s my first year! I’m kind of nervous about setting up the album but fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

Sorry for the photo heavy post, but here is our Friday and Saturday.

L’s 1 Year in Japan Mini-Album

March 27, 2015

WARNING: SUPER PICTURE HEAVY POST.

The month of March in this household is a pretty eventful month. March 20th marked one year since my fiancé moved to Japan. As seen in my last post, March 23rd was my birthday. March 30th is a year since he proposed. So, yes, it’s a crazy month. I wanted to do something to commemerate his year in Japan so decided upon a mini-album inspired by Stephanie Bryan (one of my favorite crafters of all time). A couple of weeks before I decided to make a mini-album, she posted a blog post about a mini she made for her and her husband’s 8 year anniversary. It was so beautiful and inspiring that I decided to take a shot at my first ever actual mini-album. I was SO happy with the result and L was so, so happy – he claims it made him cry. This statement cannot be confirmed as I was asleep when he saw it… ha. I went through my stash and pulled out a bunch of patterned papers I love, journal cards, some vellum, embellishments, a date stamp, printed my pictures and went to town. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 15, 2015

On Friday, L and I went to celebrate our own Valentine’s Day at Lawry’s in Ebisu. We had prime rib and feasted like kings. I wasn’t feeling too good so had to force him to drink most of the bottle of wine we ordered…oops. But overall we had a lovely time. Almost 3 years together and can you believe I’m not sick of him yet? Ha. He is lovely – there is nobody who can make me laugh like him, and make me feel better when I’m not feeling 100%. Nobody I’d rather go on adventures with or even sit around at home doing my taxes with 😉

We also celebrated Valentine’s at the preschool and I made gift bags for my babies with some chocolates and these adorable gift bags I picked up at Loft (post about this amazing store coming soon). I added names using some alphas from Studio Calico – my kids loved them. I think they turned out great!

Valentine’s is my precious grandma’s birthday and this year was her 90th birthday!! So happy we got to spend it with her. She just moved into a nursing home in January so this was her second outing and she was so happy. We took her to a delicious Japanese restaurant then had cake at her home. I love seeing how happy she is when all her kids are together. Her oldest, my uncle, is visiting from the States so she must have been SO delighted.

I know I’ve been so behind on this blog – so many exciting posts I haven’t gotten around to. This year has started full throttle with the school in panic mode: I’m losing 2 pre-schoolers who will be starting Japanese kindergarten in April and a big school fair we will be participating in next week. That + all the events happening in February have been weighing on me. I know no one likes to read excuses. So I will leave you with the promise of posts and wishes for a great Valentine’s Day filled with love and happiness.