Archive for January 2009
Left to right: Morning dew, spider web by Yoko Noguchi [のぐちようこ], Morning in Snowy Mountains by Yuruliku Design [ユルリク], A Delightful Moment by Miya Suwa [スワミヤ]
These are just 3 designs from the “Tenukore” project for the Summer 2008 and Winter/Spring 2009 tenugui collections, where 8 graphic designers were invited to each design a tenugui. Printing on the tenugui is done by hand, using a dyeing technique from the Edo era known as “chusen”.
Tenugui (手拭い) is a traditional Japanese thin hand towel made of cotton. It’s light and very absorbent. It can be used as a washcloth, dishcloth, furoshiki, scarf, bandanna, bandage, decorative wall hanging or treat it like fabric to make a wristlet. The usual size for a tenugui is 90cm long and about 34cm wide.
Both collections are available at AssistOn for 1890 Yen (about SGD 31.37/USD 20.90) per piece.
Just finished watching another episode of Cooking in the Danger Zone on TV. I haven’t been checking the TV guide for a long time and so one night when I was in between switching channels, I caught the trailer for this BBC documentary series and since then I have been glued to the telly for every showing on Thursday night. It’s humbling and disturbing to learn how the scratchy political situations in Ethiopia, Haiti, Mexico and even Afghanistan have affected farming, food prices and food supplies, resulting in food scarcity. This means the poor has to suffer the most. In fact for the Afghan army, *3 meals provided* is an incentive to attract recruits .
Normal cooking shows are about what to cook, what ingredients to buy and how to choose the freshest…all in an environment of abundance, but this cooking series is the opposite; a gross lack of ingredients and the uncertainty of one’s next meal. And even when there’s some food available, the same meal is eaten every single day.
This dainty sewing machine brooch by Chatnoir77 is just *sew* adorable and clever! Got to love that spool with blue thread! But wait, it doesn’t stop here, you are going to love the rest of the chic wirework collection available in the shop!
Wishing you a blooming and blessed Lunar New Year! 新年快乐!
[The peasant painting was taken from a poster in Heeren.]
Yuka Mori [森井 ユカ] is an illustrator and the author of “Supermarket Mania”, a series of 3 books featuring zakka finds scouted along the aisles in hypermarkets + supermarkets in…
Europe (England, France, Finland, Germany, Sweden),
Asia (China, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand) and
America (Boston, New York, Washington DC).
Ahh…isn’t this is the kind of job I’ve been day dreaming about?! I have such a super LOVE for supermarkets that no trip overseas is complete without a shopping spree at a local supermarket or even a small grocery store. Believe me when I say I didn’t want to miss the chance of popping into a mini mart along Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, at night. Got to see what groceries to buy!
Well this mania series has been very well-received by fellow zakka maniacs in Japan and it has even prompted the release of 3 Supermarket Mania toy cameras. These functional cameras are dressed up like packet drinks, each with a different flavour representing each book title; Asian Flavour, American Flavour and European Flavour. The designs were created by the author herself. Here are sample pages from the books to take a peek.
Anyone out there loves supermarkets?
Ever tried hugging a postcard with a warm message from someone dear? Um…or is that done only in the movies? Well whichever the case, this puffy postcard pillow by OIive is a one-of-a-kind surprise to receive or to give to someone dear.
Shop online and the store donates to a charity of your choice at no cost to you!
AidMaker is a free software from aGoodCause.com which is hooked up to more than 5000 online stores where retailers will donate a portion of the sale to a charity of your choice, at no cost to you. The donated amount averages about 7% of the sale as agreed between aGoodCause.com and the retailer. 75% of the commission which the website earns (when a sale is made) goes back to charity and the remaining goes to operating costs.
The list of participating US retailers include Amazon.com, Apple Store, baby-Wise.com, Best Buy, Blockbuster, eBay, eBooks.com, Gap, Kodak, Expedia, Hotels.com, MagazineCity.com, Starbucks, Peapod, REI, Skype, Swarovski, Tumi and West Marine. So if you shop/sell at ebay/buy plane tickets at any of these stores, why not make use of the golden opportunity to help the needy. It doesn’t get any easier than this.
Currently this good cause is operating in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, UK and the US.
All you have to do is to select your country from the option menu, download the AidMaker, which is essentially just a browser plugin, choose from a list of relief organizations and then just shop.
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