Treat yourself

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As I wrote in my other post, I was baking bread with a friend of mine at her place when the bell rang. She answered the door and half a minute later she walked in with a big smile on her face and a small package. 

She was excited to open the box like a little girl on Christmas Day.

In it was this:

She explained that she had subscribed to My Little Box and that each month she was getting a little box full of small surprises as a way to treat yourself. I was hooked up. 

The idea is brilliant because who doesn't like to receive a little surprising gift with well-chosen cute items on a regular basis? I also love the quality of their website. 

German bread

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Most Japanese prefer soft white bread. Therefore it's not easy to find dark, hearty, rich, densely textured bread in Japan. By the number of adjectives I used it’s not hard to guess how much I miss REAL bread!!!!

My mother and a friend were so sweet to send me a few bread mix packages from Germany the other day and all of them were quite healthy dark bread types. One was even gluten-, lactose-, and wheat-free.  Mind blowing! 

I always find a way to mess up even easy instructions and I didn't want to take any chances here. That’s why I was happy to meet up with one of my friends, who is enrolled in a one-year bread-baking course. She really knows how to make crusty, beautiful baguette and other kinds of bread. She is also very interested in organic food in general.

We were both looking forward to baking all bread mix packages on one single day.

We had one oven, three bread mixes, and 6 hours in total to get everything done.

“Why sweat?” (as one of my friends likes to say), you’ll think – “That sounds like a lot of time!”,  but different bread have different rest times, which made the whole process a little challenging.

Luckily, my friend had learned at her bread baking course how to plan out a time table and so we managed to not only finish baking all three bread mixes but we also had time to a “Brotzeit”, a light meal at the end. 

LOHAS Festa

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The other day I went to Banpaku Park in Osaka, where an event called LOHAS Festa, which stands for Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability, was held.

We were lucky with the weather - It was a beautiful autumn day with a blue sky, which made the leaves that had already changed colour look even prettier.

I didn't know what to expect but I was thrilled to see lots and lots of tents on a wide field functioning as shops and beautiful, creative handmade items or old goods, just like at flea markets. Around the shops people were picnicking and enjoying all kinds of different dishes from various food stands. 

We had a fantastic time, wandering from shop to shop and admiring knit-, wood-, pottery work and all kinds of accessories as well as antique glass work and so on. At some point we were overwhelmed by the amount of shops, up to the point we didn't know anymore what we liked and what we wanted to buy. 

One thing I DID buy was a balloon dog at a shop that sold all kinds of balloon animals. It was so cute I thought I had a new pet. I named him Luke and thought my little 2-year-old nephew might enjoy playing with him. After the event I went to their house and he was indeed very happy about his new friend.

 I visited my nephew and Luke just yesterday - it looked like poor Luke had lost some … air. 

Anyways, if you decide to go to the next LOHAS Festa event then I recommend to bring your own picnic blanket, plates, cups, and cutlery so that you don't have to pay for that when you visit the food stands. 

LOHAS takes place twice a year (in autumn and spring) at Banpaku Park in Osaka. 

Here is the link: (only in Japanese though)

Luke and I on the train. 

Luke and I on the train. 

Chick Lit

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In my opinion Lisa Kleypas is the best historical chick lit author I've ever read. I don't get tired of her style.

Did you have a stressful month at work? Do you just want to unwind for a couple of hours by reading a predictable love story packed with humour, vivid character description and lots of jaw-dropping romantic sex scenes? Then she is your woman.  

I also love how she connects her books by sharing characters - in one book the woman is a supporting character and in the next one she is the protagonist.

Warning: It is very difficult to put the book down once you have started.  You may easily find yourself reading until you hear birds singing in the wee hours of the morning. Though you read the book to relax you will need a day off to make up for the lack of sleep. 

If you decide to start reading her books I recommend to start with the Wallflower Series.

Little Red Restaurant

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The other day my husband and I went to this French Bistro / Restaurant to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.

Unfortunately, it's hard for us to get over the prejudice that French food is mostly a white big plate … with some food on it but this place proofed us wrong. The portions are more than filling, each dish had its own splendid taste, and desert was to melt for.

It's a charming little place with little items and decorations everywhere that show the bistro has a history. The music reminds you of Hollywood movies in which an American visits Paris. I loved that. 

Everything mentioned above wouldn't have made that much of an impression on us if the waiter and the chef had not been sweet and wonderful to us. We thank them for a quiet and beautiful first anniversary. 

Check this link out: 

Begin Again

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I liked the movie very much. Check out my short post on it in my "on screen". The soundtrack was cute-romantic, light but deep.

Begin Again: Music from and Inspired by the Original Motion Picture
￥ 1,329
By Various Artists, Keira Knightley, CeeLo Green, Cessyl Orchestra, Adan Levine
Buy on Amazon

Below is a clip from the movie, where Keira Knightly sings "Coming Up Roses". It's not my favourite song, though I like ALL songs on the album. I chose this one because it's not a movie spoiler and it gives you an idea of what type of music you can expect. 

Osaka based business and marketing consultant Jacqui Miyabayashi

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I worked with Jacqui this past summer and autumn to get my business idea up and running. Phase one is this website!

It is a real pleasure and fun to work with her! I feel like we share the same taste when it comes to photos, set up of websites, table ware, inferior design, napkins and so many more things … 

Jacqui is great at putting any simple idea, vision, and thought that you haven't given much weight on paper, and understanding what your ultimate goal or dream is, so that she can help you put all steps in order. That process is necessary in order to understand ,what you need to focus on a daily or weekly basis. 

She is very enthusiastic and I thank her for believing in me and not making me feel like I'm all over the place with my ideas and dreams. She keeps things real and gets a lot done in one afternoon. 

If you want to start a business but don't know where to start, then start by clicking at the link at the bottom. It will take you to Jacqui's website.

By the way, she is not just a Business Consultant, she also has her own successful Internet shop on Etsy - she sells cute little bags. 

Jacqui Miyabayashi Creative Business Consultant

Begin Again

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Begin Again: Music from and Inspired by the Original Motion Picture
￥ 1,320
By Various Artists, Keira Knightley, CeeLo Green, Cessyl Orchestra, Adan Levine
Buy on Amazon

This musical comedy-drama was a nice surprise and felt like a walk in the park (and I don't mean the idiom "walk in the park"). It was refreshing and filled me with good energy. It was cute, smart, creative and the lyrics and soundtrack was like topping the walk in the park with an ice cream. 

Check out the soundtrack in "music".