buzzville

Greetings from Tokyo!

Yokoso! I'm in a state of shock to find myself here in Japan once again... have I mentioned how much I love it here?!? I arrived the evening of May 4th and checked in to the Le Meridien Pacific Hotel - super convenient as it is next to (literally) the Shinagawa station. After breakfast this morning, I'm heading to Nippori Textile Town to see what sort of damage I can do. Seems a fitting start to the trip, no?!?

I don't think I've ever mentioned how much I love Japanese business hotels, so here goes:

• a heated bathroom mirror that never fogs up during a bath or shower
• full control of the room's lighting, air conditioning, and radio from the bedside table - this means that you can crawl into bed, and *then* shut off the lights! (really, it's the simple things that make me happy!)
• every hotel bathroom includes a basket of amenities, always including at least a hairbrush and/or comb, cotton balls, cotton swabs, razor and shaving cream, toothbrush and toothpaste, and shower cap, and often including skincare products. Good quality (no Pert plus here!) shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel are also always included. This makes it easy to pack a very light toiletry bag when I come - so great!
• a source for instant hot water and a variety of tea (usually green, roasted green, and ume kobu tea - a powdered, tart plum variety) - this is how I *must* wake up every morning, and I love it!
• service that extends far beyond what you would ever receive at a comparably priced hotel in the US - tipping is not expected (and generally refused), but the bell staff will go well out of their way to help with any little (or big) thing

I do love Japan - a place of contrast and seeming incongruities, and yet it all seems to work so delightfully. A place where the toilets require an instruction manual thicker than an SLR camera

a place where you are welcomed at the airport by a Hello Kitty vending machine dispensing chocolate candies (into individual cups with lids, of course... melt in your mouth, not in your hand!)

and a place where an elegant bundle of iris leaves is placed in your hotel room to celebrate Children's Day - a big part of Golden Week this week.

"May 5 is traditionally celebrated as the "Tango Festival", praying for the health and happiness of Japan's children. The most familiar custom of this festival is now to put irises ("Shoubu" leaves) into a bathtub where you can be warmed and healed, enjoying the fragrance.

Please feel relaxed with these natural leaves soaked in the bathtub."

Ah, yes indeed...

But perhaps the best news so far of this particular trip is that I will be spending a great deal of it hanging out with Joelle and Jennifer Hoverson, of Purl and Purl Patchwork fame. We met at the airport last night and had a great dinner together. The chatter was as lively as possible, considering how exhausted and disoriented we all were from the long flight and hefty time difference. I'm really looking forward to getting to know both of them this week. By the way, have you seen Joelle's new line of fabric for Moda?!? Yeah, I know... so cool!

Since I'm in the land of technology, I'm hoping to blog daily on what I've been up to... report on Nippori and more coming soon!

rabbits & race-cars!

We've been tearing open boxes right and left, and one box in particular left us even more excited... the new Heather Ross line for Kokka has arrived!

I've been a fan of her sweet, yet cheeky designs since the early Munki Munki days, so I was thrilled to catch a sneak peek of the new prints for Kokka in Japan this past January! Opening the box full of this fun new line is a nice, fresh breath of spring.

As I see them, the designs fall into 2 groups:

the frenetic, busy car prints

 

and the lazy meadow prints

The fabric is 85% cotton, 15% linen, which gives it a soft, yet crisp hand. The fabric is medium-weight (heavier than a quilting weight fabric), but still soft and light enough to be suitable for garments, home dec projects, bags and small craft projects, and even quilts.

Can you tell I'm excited?!? The entire line (including all colorways) is in stock at superbuzzy right now. Enjoy!

Phew!

Thank you so much for the welcome back comments and email messages... it's nice to try to get back into the routine! It's been a crazy day - after picking Brynne up from preschool and grabbing a salad for lunch at the warehouse (Brynne's favorite spot to eat!), I got back to see that Denise had received 21 boxes (!) from UPS! This is the first shipment of the orders I placed while in Japan in January, and it is *such* great stuff! I'm branching out a bit to offer a wider range of Japanese craft supplies, and it's a bit like Christmas seeing the goodies here. Here are some pictures of the madness:

fabric galore!

notions, felt, kits, and more surprises!

sweets in wool felt!

the amazing Futte Futte (widely advertised in the Japanese craft magazines) for making perfect little felt balls!

wool felt sheets in fantastic colors!

   

strawberry bag handles!

It's pretty exciting, I must say. It will take us a bit of time to get it all in the shop, but good stuff is on the way!

superbuzzy preview!

It's been *so* exciting to preview all the new fabric lines the past week or two - it's like opening birthday presents! I attended the International Textiles trade show in Los Angeles, and then got the scoop from Quilt Market in Houston. I kept forgetting to take pictures, but here are some previews of what superbuzzy will be stocking in the next month or two, (Note: the pictures are of finished items that are samples - superbuzzy won't have the finished items in stock, but will have the fabrics!)

 

goodbye and hello

It's been a crazy and surprising few weeks, and I'm still reeling from all the changes that have been taking place! Mariko, the face of Portland superbuzzy, decided she wanted to go her own way. I'll really miss working with Mariko, but I have a feeling she's up to something really fantastic! So, I spent this past weekend up in Portland, packing up all of superbuzzy and moving it down to my home town, Ventura, CA. It's very bittersweet: on the one hand, I'm really excited to have the shop headquarters close to home, but on the other hand, I'm bummed about moving it out of Oregon. I know that superbuzzy has lots of friends in Oregon and nearby, and the support of those friends really helped get us going.

Huge thanks to Oregon and all of our friends there. I'm pretty bummed that my perfect excuse to spend time in Portland has just gone away... Special thanks to Sam, who has got to be the coolest property management guy I have ever met!

The positive side to all of this is that southern California folks can now stop in to say hi and hang out at the new superbuzzy headquarters. We moved into our new location this morning, and we'll start making it a bit more homey and fun in the next week or two. If you are in southern California and would like to stop by, our new location is: 1932 Eastman Avenue, Unit 106, Ventura, CA. (Send a quick email if you'd like to say hi so that we can be sure someone is there.) I'm also really excited to be working with 2 fantastic, crafty women: Nicole and Cathy! We've got lots of great stuff in the works, and we'll keep everyone updated through the superbuzzy newsletter. Once we get all of our pending orders out the door, we'll also be adding a bunch of new product that just arrived... *really* good stuff!

The road trip from Portland was full of ups and downs (Siskiyous and Grapevine anyone?), but our favorite spot was this great motel/diner in Weed, CA, the Hi-Lo. I love stopping at spots like these - so much more fun than the big chains taking over the world! (I guess they ran out of room for the second "c" in construction!)

Lastly, I have to extend a huge thank you to my mom. She enthusiastically volunteered to help me make the move happen, and she even switched to my early-riser schedule to get up each morning, pack heavy boxes, and drive almost 1,000 miles. I couldn't have made it work without her... I feel pretty lucky to have such an amazing mom!

return from Quilt Market!

Mariko and I just returned from the spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City. It was a lot of fun, although both of us had an ailment of some kind while we were there. I came down with a rotten cold on day 2, which was less than perfect timing. Despite this, we had some fun, saw lots of fabric, and got to meet great people! It's been a while since I was last in Salt Lake City, but we enjoyed ourselves and the little reminders of where we were...

Bright orange flags are available to pedestrians on either side of the street so that you can hold one and (hopefully!) cross in safety!

Although I didn't get to meet Denyse Schmidt, I did see the new line of fabric for Free Spirit (recently acquired by Westminster), and the quilt for the new line, Katie Jump Rope (apologies for the pictures - they have horrible, bright shop lights on all of the quilts that make for terrible pictures!):

I did, however, get to meet both Heather Bailey and Anna Maria Horner and see both of their lines in person. Both were sweet and bubbly, which is particularly wonderful given that I talked to them on the last day of the show. They looked much better than I did, with my runny, pink nose and in my drugged (on Dayquil!) mental state! Here is the quilt for Anna Maria's new line:

 

I also chatted briefly with Joel Dewberry next to the gorgeous booth (it won a prize!) displaying his new line. I overheard him describing some of his inspiration for the line as a recent trip to Tuscany... here's a sneak peek:

Many of the displays were quite creative and fun, and it would seem that several (although not all!) of the fabric manufacturers are starting to pay some attention to the growing new generation of crafters. Here are some fun displays I snapped at Robert Kaufman:

I forgot to snap a picture, but Michael Miller was showing a great ironing themed fabric (not yet on the site) and they made a great display with an ironing board covered in the fabric - very cute!

Although Quilt Market is geared as a shopping spree for the trade they also have a small display of quilts and "wearable art" at the show. I took some quick shots of a few of the quilts and added them to my flickr page and the Quilt Festivals flickr group. Enjoy!

But, what news of superbuzzy fabrics?!? We met with many of our friends from Japan, did quite a bit of shopping, and came up with all sorts of grand schemes for the next year. There are too many pictures to post here, but check out the superbuzzy flickr group to see pictures of what is in the shop now, or soon to come! 

brought to you by...

What a busy week! As some of you may already know, superbuzzy is featured in issue 3 of Craft magazine (the Bazaar section). We couldn't be more thrilled, especially since the theme of the issue is Japan Style! I'm a huge fan of the magazine (a charter subscriber!), and I was so excited when we were contacted about this particular issue. Go snatch up your own copy to see all of the great projects! (Issues are always so diverse in content... it's a fantastic way to try out something completely new!) Here's a scan of Natalie's awesome write-up:

In other superbuzzy news, Mariko and I are gearing up for a trip to Salt Lake City for International Quilt Market May 4-6. It will be our first time to attend this monster of all fabric trade shows, so we are quite excited! If anyone has suggestions for food/shopping close to downtown, we'd love your recommendations. We won't have a car, so we'll be limited to places within walking distance. Most companies don't allow photos to be taken of the new lines, but we'll keep asking just in case! Once we get back from Utah, we'll be getting ready to launch our biggest update yet. It's pretty crazy - these latest shipments have our heart rates elevated for all the right reasons!

my folklore

Sometimes I just get the shivers when we get new shipments for superbuzzy. Today we added a new line of fabrics that did just that. The line is folky, and it makes me think of Scandinavia, rosy-cheeked little blonde kids, sculpted, modern wood furniture, and warm, happy kitchens. What do you think?

We also got in some cute Raggedy Ann & Andy fabric, and a great panel that looks like vintage embroidery:

Just click to see all of the new products!   

Catching up...

Geesh - it's been an incredibly long time since I've been able to sit down a write a post. Things over at superbuzzy are literally buzzing, and it's been keeping us on our toes. We completed a major upgrade to the site last weekend, and we now accept Paypal! More new things are in the works for the shop, and we're getting stuff done as quickly as our 2-woman show can!

I was so excited to see everyone's valentine's day crafts and activities. For the first time this year, we had a preschool party to prepare for. There's nothing quite as cute as a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds passing out valentines to their classmates. I think that the day is much more fun now that we can celebrate with Brynne. Just look at these cuties!

I finally got my crochet hook out again and made this little cutie for my sweetie:

 

He came complete with a vintage "jump hour" watch around his waist as a gift for my valentine. I snatched up the pattern for this cute bear from anapaulaoli, and the pattern worked out perfectly. He has a female counterpart, so I need to find some time to make her as well... Check out all of her great patterns and finished amigurumi!

I made a trip down to Los Angeles to meet with a superbuzzy distributor (more great fabric coming soon!), and Brynne came along with me for the first time. After our meeting, I made my traditional stop at the Torrance Mitsuwa for lunch, and Brynne was thrilled to have her own child's bento, complete with Miffy plate!

Yes, life is definitely better with Miffy and jello!

Otherwise, life goes on as usual, just a bit more hectic! The balance in my life has completely disappeared, but a possible solution may be on the horizon. Change is a bit scary, but I'm gearing up to make a big leap... wish me luck!

buried and in shock

I'm not sure how Mariko does it, but somehow she's still been getting posts into her blog the past few days. We've been thrilled with the overwhelming response to our latest superbuzzy update, and it's been all each of us can do to keep up with the many issues bound to arise with so many people visiting and shopping at the site. We are truly thankful to all of our blog friends who have supported us in so many ways, and thanks also to our new friends who have found the shop and our blogs. Mariko mentioned it today, and I totally agree - we think of everyone who comes to superbuzzy as a friend. We are definitely experiencing a few growing pains - boring ol' technical difficulties and such - so I'm planning on working to fix as much as I can this weekend. You may see the site down for a bit as I try to tinker...

In my other life, I'm currently obsessed with small appliances. Our microwave just died, and I'm excited about the prospects of buying a new one this weekend. Of course, with me it's all about the looks, but I supposed I should pay some attention to function as well, right? Does anyone have a stunning microwave that actually works? I'd love any suggestions!

But, there is more I need to share about small appliances... My dearest hubby treated me with exactly what I wanted for Christmas - a tea maker! I had been eyeing the Zarafina tea maker since I first saw it in the Sur La Table catalog, and it showed up for Christmas. Since receiving it, we've been using it at least twice a day, and it's really great. The really nice thing about it is that it has specific settings for brewing different teas (black, oolong, green, herbal, loose, bagged, etc.) at different strengths. I love that I can just select the tea, and then don't have to worry about temperature, brewing time, etc. - it does it for me! My only complaint is that it brews just 2 cups at a time, but then I realized that I seldom drink more than that in one sitting anyway. Plus, it's really a pretty cute little contraption!

And, there's yet another bit of small appliance love going on over here (weird, I know!). With some much appreciated Christmas gift money, I purchased a Scooba for myself. The Scooba is the robot mop that has changed my life. We don't have a bit of carpet in our house - most of it is tile, and then we have hardwood in the bedrooms. So, mopping and floor upkeep is a huge chore - especially given that we now have one little girl, two cats, and a dog to contend with! I've used the Roomba for quite some time to try to manage the dust bunnies, but mopping has still been a nightmare - until now! I can personally vouch that the Scooba is incredible - it does a better job than I did with my old system, and it can do it while I'm sleeping or out of the house. I'm quickly becoming a fan of gadgets that are timesavers, because goodness knows there are dozens of things I'd rather be doing than mopping!

Sorry if this post seems like a sales pitch, but I just had to share these little wonders that are making my life a bit more manageable amidst all this other insanity! At this point in my life, it's the simple pleasures (like an occasionally clean floor!) that are really making a difference!