Japan-Cuts Movie: Rent-A-Cat

Last night I went to Japan-Cuts at the Japan Society, the Japanese film festival, and I saw Rent-A-Cat. Such a sweet and charming movie. Really funny, the actress is adorable and quirky and the kitties are all little stars. The movie is about a young woman, who's been living by herself for two years after her grandmother passed away with a house full of cats. She walks around the park with a cart full of cats and kittens to rent to lonely people. The cats fill the "hole" in their lives and she gets to interact with other lonely people like herself. She has a tranny neighbor who is constantly making fun of her, she tries to beat the heat in odd ways, she also has multiple weird jobs aside from renting cats. She lives in the most adorable Japanese house. The movie is visually beautiful and highly entertaining. I really recommend watching it when it is publicly released, or comes to your area. Here are some stills and the trailer, unfortunately I couldn't find the english subtitle one.

Art papers for crafting

I've been working on these prints for gift wrap/art papers in between my design work this past week. I will be putting up a set for sale in my etsy store shortly keep an eye out. You'll get 6 pieces 2 of each design, Ditzy Dots, Pastel Trifecta, and Auntie Em's pink gingham. Plus a sheet of labels to cut and paste on to your gifts, notebooks, sketchbooks or turn them into tags like I did here in the pics. I'm considering adding a mini zine with how-to's on making the flower pom, trifecta poms and accordion bow. Stay tuned in the next couple of days and I will let you know when its up in my etsy store.

A little Japan in your Kitchen-Seaweed wrap

I started making these, salmon avocado seaweed wraps, after I had one at my favorite japanese cafe in Greenpoint I thought I'd share since they are really easy to make and quite tasty.
Things you'll need:
Makes 4-5 wraps
-Nori (roasted seaweed wraps not the little snacky ones but the full sheets)
-1 can of salmon
-pinch of salt
-1/4 teaspoon sriacha
-2 tbsp kewpie mayonnaise
-1 ripe haas avocado, sliced into quarters lengthwise
-1 cup of steamed sushi rice

Step 1- cook rice according to package. Let rice cool a little, it should be warm not burning hot.

Step 2- add pinch of salt to salmon

Step 3- slice your avocado into long slices like these. Avocado should be ripe.

Step 4- cut with a pair of scissors your nori into 4in wide strips, leaving them long to roll.

Step 5-mix sriacha and mayo, it should be like peach color when mixed. Also you can adjust spiciness to your taste by adding more or less sriacha.

Step 6- Assemble! lay the Nori on a flat surface, on one end put a good amount of rice, then add your salmon, your spicy mayo next, and lastly a slice of avocado. From the end that's filled with all the goodness, start rolling the steam of the rice will help it all stick together.

Repeat to make more, I usually eat two. You can always refrigerate your ingredients separately and warm the rice up again to have it the next day.

Paper Goods from Japan

I received my awesome package from Hiki-chan's store Uguisu, yesterday. I was so excited! Some of the prettiest paper goods I've ever laid my eyes on, and it got here soooo fast! I love that Hiki has a total no-hassle store that ships to the U.S., I will absolutely order from her again. I can't even say which is my favorite they're all so pretty. I definitely will be covering some sketchbooks and make some paper crafts with these. Hiki-cahn also included here lovely black & white photo zine of indoor gardens it's beautiful and a wonderful addition to my zine collection. Thanks Hiki!