Monday, January 14, 2013

Snowy January

Our day started when I opened the curtain and saw this through our window. It is one to zero degree (Celcius) here and we`re having a freezing snowy holiday.


I don`t usually get excited when the snow falls, but since it seems like we won`t have snowy winter this much again (or probably, at all) in Shizuoka, I quickly changed, grabbed my point-and-shoot, wore my rain boots (yes, those are all I`ve got) and headed outside to the winter wonderland enjoying every steps on the fresh layers of snow flakes.

This is where we usually get our daily groceries.

This lady was not the only person who was brave and skillful enough to ride a bicycle under this kind of weather. I barely could walk straight with the snow going inside my eyes, let alone riding something!

When I walked home thinking about making soup for dinner, I realized that I wanted to share a list of dishes I`ve made that might be good for cold days, although you can find them through my Recipe list. Some of the recipes, especially the old ones, don`t have measurements for the ingredients (yet I still call them "recipes"), but hopefully the images can still give you the ideas for making your own version of soup.

Here they are!













 

Now get your spoon and have a happy slurpy soup day!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

My recycling debut in 2013

Hello 2013! 
My first post in this new year has nothing fancy at all, but I`d like to show you about our domestic holiday (if there`s such a thing). Other than some grocery trips or occasional shopping at the city, this holiday we have no adventurous trip, which certainly means no outdoor photographing either. But I`m not about to complain here as I can actually make use of the long holiday to rest after the hectic weeks last month and to prepare myself for a job interview next week (crossing all my fingers here). My husband is also facing his busy weeks preparing for his Master`s defense this month. So, things like sitting in front of our computers, typing, reading, sighing, drinking coffee, or asking him "how do you say this in Japanese?" like hundred times a day (obviously, this one is me) have mostly become our routines these days. 
Now, because the temperature in our room in winter is about 6 to 10 degrees Celcius, I need to figure out ways to keep me warm during my  "home office" routine. I have this cute little friend filled with hot water inside, a warm and fluffy pair of shoes, a heater under my table, and layers of sweaters wrapping me tight, so my feet and body have no complaints at all. 


There was only one big problem I had. My  hands seem to be left out in the open cold air and typing becomes a hard work since my fingers sometime get stiff when they`re too cold.  

I know that this isn`t like the innovation of the year because obviously you can buy this item easily everywhere. My husband even have his own with warmers inside connected by USB to the computer. But I`d like to share this one-step recycling work anyway because apparently, I`m not afraid in embarrassing myself with my lack of craftiness. 

So, the story is, I always lost gloves every, single, year, and it`s not like I`ve lost the whole pair, but always one of it. I ended up with many unpaired gloves only to finally tossing them away just because I couldn`t think of anything I wanted to do with them. But not this year, apparently. After finding out about his high-tech oh-so-warm gloves, I wanted ones too but I definitely don`t want  cables hanging around everything. So I did some digging in my closet and (so far) I found two unpaired gloves. So I just cut the tips open and yaaay, now I have my "typing gloves"!

I needed to make sure if I could type with it well, and hey, it works great! My hands are warm and my fingers can work on the keyboard just fine! My fingers can even flip open the book pages without problems. Just wonderful. How come I didn`t come up with this stuff years before???

Naturally, I want both hands to be warm, so I cut open the other glove that I found. But, I prefer the first one than this one. Because the second glove is much thicker and bulkier, typing with it isn`t effortless and it feels a little heavy on the hand.

Now who cares if you wear unpaired gloves at home? Certainly not me ;)

If you`re thinking to make use of your old gloves for working at home too, start from the the thinner ones first and see how you like them. Needless to say, sewing the tips around would be the right thing to do (which I don`t, oops) so they don`t stray away and wander into your coffee :p

Stay warm, my friends!

p.s. The cup is not for an ad, but it happens to be my favorite coffee cup ;)