A place for all things kawaii and cute

Christmas Gifts From Japan

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Jen

Many of the Christmas gifts we gave this Christmas were gifts we found in Japan. As you saw yesterday, many of them were chocolates and candy from Japan, but that’s not all we brought back. Our suitcases were filled with lots of other goodies too.

For example, one of our nieces likes stationery and paper items, so we found this washi paper storage box for her:

We found this in Takayama and I just thought it was perfect for her – a little piece of traditional Japan combined with functionality. The lid is made from red washi paper with gold accents. Her favourite colour is red, so it was a good match. We then filled it up with other, smaller stationery items we found throughout Japan.

The stationery items included a Rilakkuma mini memo pad, animal-shaped paper clips, a sakura memo pad (also from Takayama), kawaii correction tape and a few other bits and pieces. One of my favourite items was this set of rose pencils:

I found these at the Shibuya branch of Loft. I thought they were very elegant and sophisticated so I hoped my niece would like them.

Another item we found for her that I particularly liked was a little set of drawers:

I found these at Aeon. They feature a traditional Japanese red floral design. They come flat, so there is a little bit of assembly required. I hope they turned out well. 🙂

While on the look out for stationery items, I was also searching for cosmetics for my soon-to-be 18-year-old niece. It’s not an easy thing to do when you aren’t familiar with the brands and you can’t read most of the labels. Lol. Still I found some little things that I hope she liked.

From left to right, we have glitter eye shadow, pink nail polish in an ice-cream cone key-ring (so Japanese!), hand cream and hand sanitiser. I put these all in a pink sakura bag we found in Kyoto, but I forgot to photograph that. 🙁

Another item I found for her was this sweet pair of tweezers:

This was another find from Takayama (can you tell we did a lot of shopping there!). I thought the pink geisha theme was cute. I later discovered she needed tweezers, so I guess it was a good choice. 🙂

For my youngest niece, I was hunting for hair accessories. There is a huge range of all sorts of hair accessories available in Japan. I’ve never seen so much choice anywhere else. But I was looking for something that was just perfect, so I was pretty fussy. In the end, this is what I chose:

I thought they were all very pretty, especially the hair band. I think my niece liked them too. 🙂

We brought a lot more gifts back from Japan. Unfortunately, I only photographed one more of them – a Disney calendar from Tokyo Disneyland for my sister-in-law:

Like me, my sister-in-law is a Disney fan. I thought this calendar was just stunning and I love the Japanese theme. Of course, Minnie Mouse in a kimono on the front is what first grabbed my attention but the designs on the other pages are amazing too.

I wish I had picked one up for myself now!

I guess that brings us to the end of my Christmas gifts from Japan photos. Other gifts we brought back include Disney stationery items, glasses cases, a pot holder from Tokyo Disneyland and more. If you like any of these gifts, please Pin them to Pinterest.

Posted in Japan, Kawaii Stationery, Tokyo Disney | Tagged Cosmetics, Disney, Geisha, Japan, Tokyo Disneyland, Washi | 2 Comments

Japanese Candy For Christmas

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Jen

Since you’ve seen some of the wonderful Christmas gifts I received this Christmas, I thought you might like to see some of the gifts my husband and I gave. We did most of our Christmas shopping in Japan so many of the gifts are fairly unique. Sadly, I did not photograph everything (I was too eager to start wrapping) but I hope you will enjoy the pictures I did take.

Several of the gifts we brought back from Japan were sweets and chocolates. There are so many amazing choices in Japan that I just couldn’t help myself. And they are all so beautifully packaged! This post will focus on some of the edible gifts we brought back. I will save the other gifts for another day.

First up is a gift pack of traditional Japanese candy.

On the right side of the pack is traditional Japanese star candy. I don’t eat a lot of hard sweets like these, but I do love star candy. On the left are hard sweets made to look like fruit and vegetables. I purchased this set for my niece at one of the traditional Japanese candy stores in Kawagoe. I also picked up a small bag of star candy for another niece there and one for me. 🙂

We also brought home a gift box of ‘Chocolate Crunch’ for my niece’s husband.

We purchased this in Takayama, in the Japanese Alps. We spent quite a long time choosing which gift box to buy. There were so many to choose from and they all looked delicious! In the end, we chose this one as the contents looked yummy and the packaging was cute but stylish. I hope we made the right choice. The little characters on the front are based on the Japanese good luck charm, known as Sarubobo.

Sarubobo’s were originally given to women as a charm for a good marriage and healthy children. However, now they are given to everyone for good luck and to make bad things ‘go away’. Of course, they are now also a tourist icon from the Hida Takayama region of Japan.

We also purchased a little tin of Sarubobo sweets from Takayama for my nephew, but I forgot to photograph them. 🙁

Next is a cute pack of cat paw sweets that I found for one of my nieces:

These were just in a general store in Tokyo. I just thought they were cute, so I picked them up. They look like they are some sort of pink gummy lolly. I thought they might go well with the pink strawberry Kit Kat we also bought for her. Anyway, I hope they tasted nice.

The last sweets I photographed are some panda lollies I found for my nephew in a candy store in Kyoto.

I thought these were just so kawaii! The candy themselves are little white balls. They are packaged in groups of two, one on top of the other. There is printing on the packaging to make them look like pandas. I saw several versions of this sweet during our trip. One store even had a pack made to look like Pokemon.

Of course, these aren’t the only sweets we brought back. Actually, my suitcase really did have a bit too much sugar in it! I’ll share more Japanese sweets with you in future blog posts and please keep an eye open for my next Christmas gifts post. We did buy some non-sugary gifts too. 🙂

And, if you think any of these pictures are sweet, please Pin them to Pinterest. Thank you!

Posted in Cute Food, Japan | Tagged Cute Food, Japan, Japanese Candy, Japanese Chocolate, Pandas | 4 Comments

More Kawaii Christmas Gifts

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Jen

You’ve now seen all the wonderful kawaii gifts my sweet hubby gave me for Christmas, but what I didn’t mention in my last blog post was that he also arranged for some of my family to give me kawaii gifts this year too! My family are very happy to give me kawaii things for special occasions, but generally, they don’t know where to buy them. That’s where my hubby steps in. 🙂

This Christmas, he helped my parents find nine kawaii letter sets for me. The first four are Bear’s Honey Life letter sets by Mind Wave:

I adore Bear’s Honey Life but I had no idea they had released so many letter sets with these adorable bears. I wonder how many others I’ve missed!

I must apologise for the reflections in the photo. For some reason, I was having a lot of trouble taking pictures today. 🙁

Next is another of my other favourite kawaii bears – Bear’s Cocoa:

These are single design letter sets. They were also released by Mind Wave. They don’t get much cuter than this!

Of course, I don’t just like kawaii bears. The next two kawaii letter sets feature an unusual set of characters, also from Mind Wave, called Paco Pipi:

I don’t know why, but I love these characters, especially the giraffe. In this collection, all the animals have a very square, blocky appearance and for some reason, that makes them super cute. Mind you, I’ve always had a soft spot for giraffes.

The final letter set from my parents is called Dreamy Prism.

Yet again, this is a Mind Wave letter set featuring lots of cute kawaii animals. I love this design. I discovered the Dreamy Prism and Sweet Prism range about a year ago when I found sticker sacks featuring the same animals.

Finally, my uncle also gave me three kawaii letter sets (with my hubby’s guidance):

The one on top is another Bear’s Honey Life letter set from Mind Wave.

The Bear’s Little Sweets set in the middle is by Q-lia. You can only see kawaii bears on the front but they only feature on three of the five designs inside. The other two designs are ‘Kitty’s Little Cosmetics’ and feature cute black and white cats and a range of make-up items.

The third letter set is called Honey Collection and was released by Crux. It features some adorable kawaii bears and bunnies as well as desserts like macaroons and cupcakes.

Once again I have to thank my hubby for making this Christmas extra special and my family for all their wonderful gifts.

And please, if you like any of my photos, please Pin them to Pinterest. It means the world to me when you do. 🙂

Posted in Kawaii Stationery, Letter Sets | Tagged Bear's Cocoa, Bear's Honey Life, Kawaii, Kawaii Bears, Letter Set, Paco Pipi | 1 Comment

Kawaii Christmas Gifts

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Jen

As promised, today I thought I would share some photos of the mountains of kawaii my wonderful hubby gave to me for Christmas this year. He really went over the top this time and really spoilt me. 🙂 I’m sorry there aren’t close-up pictures of everything. It was very difficult to fit all my kawaii Christmas gifts in the photos…but you’ll get the idea. 🙂

Please note: This blog post features LOTS of photos!

First up are eleven kawaii letter sets:

Most of these were released two or three years ago. They’re all so cute! I keep changing my mind about which one is my favourite. I love them all!

He also found some sweet Disney letter sets from Japan for me:

The two in the bottom left corner are new releases from Kamio but the rest are pretty old. Most of them were released exclusively at the Disney Store in Japan several years ago. He knows how much I love Eeyore, so there are lots of Winnie the Pooh and Baby Pooh sets in the mix. And, of course, there’s Stitch. He knows he can never go wrong with Stitch. 🙂

Next up are two My Melody letter sets. I was looking everywhere in Japan for these kawaii letter sets but, sadly, I couldn’t find them. I’m very happy to have them now. 🙂

These weren’t the only Sanrio letter sets he found for me. There are also two Hello Kitty letter sets. They both come in cute little plastic folders. Each folder has a separate compartment in the side to hold a pen. Too cute!

He even found two vintage Hello Kitty letter sets from the 90s.

I particularly like the letter set on the right. It reminds me of a set I used to have when I was a teenager and writing letters to my penfriends. It brings back happy memories.

My hubby also bought some loose lots of letter sets for me.

I couldn’t fit all the sets in one picture but it was a nice selection of old and hard to find Disney, Sanrio and San-X letter sets from Japan. I was particularly surprised by the Disney Sea letter sets. I love them!

By the time I had opened all the letter sets, I truly felt very spoilt, but the fun wasn’t over yet. There were still sticker sheets, sticker sacks and memos to come!

The sticker sheets he picked out for me are adorable!

They include some regional Hello Kitty sticker sheets (I particularly love Hello Kitty riding a sting ray!) and a sheet featuring one of my favourite kawaii bears – Bear’s Doodling.

While I love my stickers, my hubby knows I’m obsessed with sticker sacks, so that’s where he went a little overboard.

First is a selection of regular sticker sacks:

I particularly like the sheep sticker sack. I hadn’t seen the four sacks at the bottom before, so I am particularly fond of those too.

He also purchased the Christmas books sticker sacks series for me.

I had had my eye on these for awhile. I love Christmas sacks, but this series was a little more expensive than usual, so I had been putting off buying them. I’m so happy to have them now. They are so cute!

Next are three sticker sacks from Mind Wave. I had been reluctant to buy these too as the charm makes them more expensive. The sticker flake designs are so sweet though.

Also from Mind Wave are six sticker sacks that have been released for New Year.

All of these sticker flakes are made from washi paper. I loooove Washi sticker flakes! The top three sacks feature sakura while the bottom three focus more on New Year icons, in particular, images of horses for the start of the Year of the Horse. I was born in the Year of the Horse, so I really like these. 🙂

Finally, there are four sticker sacks from Crux.

Actually, they are more like little boxes. The packaging is very cute, although I’m having trouble working out how to store them. Flat sacks can be stored a lot easier! I do really like these flakes though so I might have to track down the rest of the series.

Lastly, we come to the memos. I don’t collect a lot of memos, but there are some designs that are just so adorable that I can’t help myself. They are usually regional Sanrio memos, San-X memos or cute kawaii bears and bunnies.

For Christmas, my hubby found some old, mostly Japanese-style, Hello Kitty memos for me.

I adore the one in the middle – the one with Hello Kitty eating onigiri (rice balls). There’s also a mini letter set in the picture (in the middle on the left). So pretty. 🙂

For my kawaii Christmas, my hubby also found an absolute mountain of loose memos for me. This selection is all Japanese regional Hello Kitty memos. They are all so cute!

To be honest, I haven’t counted how many there are, but I’m guessing there are about 350 different designs. I had no idea there were that many designs out there. I’m sure I’ll be looking at these over and over again! Sorry you can’t see much from the photo. It’s challenging to work out how to show them all. Perhaps I will do another blog post just for them so you can see some of the designs up close.

There was also a collection of Japanese regional Hello Kitty mini memos:

Again, I haven’t counted them, but I am guessing there are about 300 different designs. I think I will have to do a separate blog post for them too. 🙂

Finally, there was a random selection of Sanrio memos.

I couldn’t fit them in all in the picture, but you get the idea. A lot of them are die-cut memos. Most of them feature Hello Kitty but there are few Charmmy Kitty ones as well. There are even a few from Sanrio Puroland!

Well, now you know why I feel so lucky and spoilt! My hubby has been so sweet in finding all this kawaii for me. The last few months have been such a challenge with surgery and everything…and this certainly brought a smile to my face. I feel very blessed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed looking through my photos. I will feature some of the items here on separate blog posts sometime so you can have a closer look. In meantime, if you see any pictures you like, please pin them to Pinterest. It helps me work out what you would like to see more of. 🙂

Posted in Hello Kitty, Kawaii Stationery, Kawaii Stickers, Letter Sets | Tagged Bambi, Disney, Hello Kitty, Kawaii, Kawaii Stickers, Letter Set, Memos, Mickey Mouse, My Melody, San-X, Sanrio, Sticker Flakes, Sticker Sacks, Stickers, Stitch, Winnie The Pooh | 4 Comments

Christmas Food

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Jen

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great Christmas Day this year. My parents, my uncle, my husband’s parents and my husband’s sister’s family all came around to our place for a big family lunch. There were 15 of us in total, mountains of food and lots of laughs.

Today, I just thought I would share with you a little peak at some of the food we enjoyed on the day. I also have lots of kawaii photos to share (my husband really spoilt me this year) but I will save those for another day.

Since we are in Australia, we enjoy Christmas in the middle of summer so our meals are generally cold meats and salads. This is what our selection looked like this year:

One thing that was very special to me this year was that everyone contributed to the meal and almost everything that could be home made was home made. From the picture above, my sister-in-law made the garden salad, Caesar salad and the punch; my niece made the pasta salad (the bowl at the back with the red spoon); my mother-in-law made the coleslaw (the brown bowl at the back) and I made the potato salad (the red bowl at the back).

Of course, I couldn’t resist adding a touch of Japan to the meal. The potato salad was actually a Japanese potato salad recipe. I generally don’t like potato salad as most places absolutely smother it in sauce. But, I had made this one before and really liked it, so I thought it would work well for Christmas.

The highlight though, of course, were the desserts:

Again, these were all home made. My mother-in-law made the Christmas pudding. She makes it every year and it is definitely a family favourite. My niece made the cheesecake (bottom right corner). It was the second time she had brought a cheesecake to a family function and I think it is fast becoming a family favourite too. 🙂

The rest of the desserts were my own creations. I make the fruit salad every year and always use a hollowed-out watermelon for the bowl (that way I can take it anywhere and not have to worry about bringing a bowl home). This year, I topped it off with some watermelon stars made with cookie cutters.

I also made the little cups. They are actually mousse cups in Christmas colours. The green layer is made from honeydew melon, the pink layer is made from watermelon and white layer on top is made with lychees (yum!). I topped them off with a melon ball. I thought it looked a little like a Christmas ornament. 🙂

Finally, there is my raspberry and chocolate mousse cake (bottom left corner). I hadn’t made it before so I was a little worried about it, but it turned out great. I did have a slight disaster with it that almost derailed the whole thing though. The spring on my springform cake pan came open while in the oven! Still, I managed to recover from it and I think I still pulled it off. It tasted delicious and my hubby loves it…so I can’t ask for anything more. 🙂

I think that’s enough food indulgence for today. I did make truffles too, but I’ll leave them for another time too. Besides, looking at these pictures makes me hungry again! If you like our creations, please pin them to Pinterest. Thank you!

And finally, a special thank you to my family for making Christmas 2013 so special! *hugs*

Posted in Cute Food | Tagged Christmas, Christmas Food, Cute Food, Desserts | 1 Comment

Kawaii Mini Album

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Jen

Today, I want to share something a little different with you – a cute kawaii mini album that I made for my friend, Carla, for her birthday. I have been dying to write this post for weeks now, but I didn’t want to post pictures until she had actually received her gift. I didn’t want to ruin the surprise! 🙂

To create this mini album, I used plain white cardstock for the cover and purple cardstock to make the pages. I decorated them all with images cut out from kawaii memos and then tied everything together with purple ribbon. It took awhile to finish everything, but I had a lot of fun!

I decorated the outside with some cute little kawaii critters and kawaii desserts. I even added some Milk Choco deco tape along the bottom:

The album itself is not very thick as it only has eight pages. However, I added some dashes and hearts to the spine. Actually, this is a line cut from a kawaii memo sheet. 🙂

To open the mini album, you lift the top flap. As you can see, there are some cute creatures to greet you when you do. I’ve also added a personalised message to the inside front cover.

Next, you open the bottom flap and the pages are revealed.

The first page of this kawaii mini album is a simple ‘Happy Birthday’ message. I used a range of Party of Bears memos to create this page. I thought the images were particularly appropriate for a birthday page.

The rest of the pages feature various friendship quotes I found by digging around the internet.

Page 2 follows a star theme. The quote reads ‘Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you always know they are there’. It was the perfect quote to partner with the Sentimental Circus moon and star range.

The third page has a coffee theme. The quote reads ‘Good coffee is like friendship – rich, warm & strong’. The images come from a Fortissimo kawaii memo called Café Time Lapin.

The next page features San’X’s Chou-Fleur. Carla loves Chou-Fleur, so I had to feature her somewhere. 🙂 The quote reads ‘If friends were flowers, I’d pick you’.

The fifth page is one of my favourites (although, it’s hard to choose a favourite). I used a mixture of memos to create this one – some from Bear Is Looking, some from Baby Tail and some from a Crux memo called ‘I Like You’. The quote reads ‘Side by side or miles apart, good friends are always close to the heart’. As you can see, I replaced the word ‘heart’ with an actual heart.

Page 6 features San’X’s adorable little panda, Chocopa, and, of course, lots of chocolate. The quote reads ‘Good friends are like chocolates – it’s what’s inside that makes them special’.

The next page follows a kawaii macaroon theme and features the cute little bears from Crux’s Happiness Town. The quote reads ‘Sweet is the thought of distant friends’.

You might notice that a lot of the quotes refer to distant friendships. I should explain – Carla and I have never actually met. We live on different continents. However, we keep in touch regularly and I truly value her friendship. Hence, the ‘distant friendship’ quotes. 🙂

The eighth and final page of this kawaii mini album features another character from San-X called Berry Puppy and lots of strawberries. The quote reads ‘One who finds a friend, finds a treasure’.

I hope you have enjoyed looking through my kawaii mini album. It was a lot of fun to make and I’m glad I was able to share it with you. Do you have a favourite page? If you do, I’d love to know which one. Please tell me in the comments below.

Also, if you like my kawaii creations, please pin them to Pinterest. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Posted in Kawaii Crafts, Kawaii Stationery, San-X | Tagged Berry Puppy, Chocopa, Chou-Fleur, Kawaii, Kawaii Crafts, Memos, San-X, Sentimental Circus | 2 Comments

Kawaii Pens

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Jen

During our trip to Japan, I was on a mission to buy kawaii pens. I had meant to buy some on our previous trip but for some reason, I only came home with one. So, this time, I was determined to bring home a whole bunch. I wasn’t after anything in particular…just something that was cute and that I could use for writing letters to my penfriends. And this is what I ended up with:

My hubby didn’t quite understand why I wanted so many (especially since we have plenty of perfectly functional, but boring looking pens around the house) but he indulged my obsession and walked round and round the pen sections with me in many stores. 🙂

The first pens I bought were from the Sanseido Stationery store in Osaka. They are part of a range of scented pens called ‘Sweets Party’. All the scents are based on a particular dessert. I was tempted to buy the complete set, but since it was my first real shopping day, I restricted myself to two. I’m not really sure what the scent of the blue one is, but the pictures show blue and white ice-cream as well as mint leaves. Whatever the scent is, it is sweet. The pink one is sakura tea, perhaps with berries. I thought it was a very appropriate Japanese souvenir.

Later on in our trip, I discovered another range of kawaii scented pens made by the same company, but this time in association with Lipton Tea. Again, I was going to buy the whole collection, but when going through the testers, I discovered that some of them smelt terrible! So, I just bought the ones I liked. 🙂 They are Apple Tea, Caramel Tea au Lait, Peach Tea and Vanilla Tea au Lait. My penfriends and swappers can look forward to some very nice scented notes in the near future. 🙂

My favourite kawaii pen purchase was a set of three Minnie Mouse pens from Tokyo Disneyland. They were on special, so I just couldn’t resist them! Each one features Minnie Mouse dressed in a kimono on a floral Japanese background. They all also have a floral Minnie Mouse ears charm attached and a little bell. They are just regular black pens, but they are so sweet!

Incidentally, the purple pencil case they are sitting on is something I picked up in Takayama. 🙂

The last purchase I wanted to share are my Hello Kitty pens. They came in a gift pack with stickers, a memo pad, a bag, some Hello Kitty tissues and a few other bits and bobs. The yellow one is actually a mechanical pencil, but it’s one of my favourites. I usually don’t buy things with charms on them as they tend to be a bit expensive, so these were a nice find.

I’m sure I could have bought even more kawaii pens in Japan. There are so many cute pens all over the place. But, I’m extremely happy with my finds and can’t wait to get writing with them!

If you like these kawaii pens, please pin these pictures to your Pinterest. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Posted in Hello Kitty, Kawaii Stationery | Tagged Disney, Hello Kitty, Kawaii, Kawaii Pens, Sanrio, Scented Pens, Tokyo Disneyland | 1 Comment

One Point Kawaii Stickers

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Jen

Today I thought I might introduce you to an adorable range of kawaii stickers from Japan, but first I wanted to apologise for my absence. I am currently recovering from surgery so I haven’t had a chance to blog. It’s good to be back though. 🙂

Anyway, the stickers I wanted to share with you are from a company called Premium. From what I gather, they are either owned by or are associated with popular kawaii company, Mind Wave. I first discovered these stickers in Japan in 2012 and I fell in love with them. They are just too cute! So, on my 2013 trip, I picked up another fifteen sheets.

These kawaii stickers are part of the Premium Simple Collection and are called ‘One Point Seal’. The name is a little unusual, but I assume that the ‘One Point’ refers to the fact that the individual stickers on these sheets are tiny. Each sticker is less than 1cm (3/8 inch) tall.

I think these kawaii stickers are generally intended to be used to decorate calendars and planners (a popular activity in Japan) but I think they would also be great for decorating letters. The only problem is that they are so cute that I can’t bring myself to actually use them. I guess next time I will have to buy duplicates!

I won’t put pictures of all of them here, but I thought I would share a few of my favourites. The first features cute little kawaii elephants.

The next features cute little pastel-coloured teddy bears and love hearts.

And, last but not least, are some cute little apple stickers. I just love the little worms!

Sadly, I have yet to find anyone online who is selling these stickers. However, if you are in Japan, you can find them in lots of kawaii shops. Your best chance, though, is to visit a branch of Tokyu Hands. Every branch I have been to seems to keep them in stock.

If you like these kawaii stickers, please pin these pictures to your Pinterest. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Posted in Kawaii Stickers | Tagged Bears, Elephants, Kawaii, Kawaii Stickers, Pandas, Stickers, Teddy Bears | Leave a comment

My Kawaii Life