bigger tea box

This weekend Yuri's friend the tea box teacher showed us how to make large tea boxes covered in fabric and padding. Since I used to do the minor upholstery work, this was somewhat second nature. We whipped this one out in a couple of hours: sewed part by machine, part by hand and part by staples. The teacher could resist taking over a bit and it was fun to watch her. She has been doing it for over 15 years and is very, very good at it. Earlier we went to her house and saw the beautiful boxes she made displayed around her home in Hayama: rich Japanese fabrics, one made from a Buddhist priest's robe gotten somewhere in Tokyo, one an antique fabric she had gotten years ago.

She cracked us all up with her enthusiasm for her two pet beetles that she had been raising for about a year (it is popular in Japan to buy a huge stag beetle and keep it for a pet in the summer, but hers have lived a long time). Her lovebirds laid some eggs which hatched and she kept those in a separate jar. "Aren't they cute?" "Aren't they sweet?" I tried to stifle a scream when she held up a beetle for me to pet. Then she asked if my boys wouldn't enjoy raising one of the babies once they get a little older. I artfully dodged that bullet. Ummm, hey, look at that huge butterfly out there!

Across from her house was a pottery shop having a sale, so we couldn't resist having a look, and we all left with some new treasures. My lovely square plate with a light blue wave on it, looking very Japanese, is still in the trunk of Yuri's car.

Lunch at the Cantina rocked. As always, the food was excellent. I had a summer vegetable pasta and got to try bites of sardine pizza and also fish egg and potato pizza (not my favorite).

Meanwhile, Frankie was home earning babysitting money and Nate was playing video games with his friend William, eating regular frozen pizza. I did bake it though, that was nice of me. Poor babies.