DIY: Tattoo Shirt Project

This is a small project i set myself to complete. It's called the "Tattoo Shirt Project". What I'm doing here is: instead of tattooing myself and horrify my mom, I would stitch patterns, words, images on my shirt. The motif of the embroideries I use would be something meaningful to me. I would add as much/less to the shirt depending on how I feel. There's no specific criteria to mark the completion to this piece, but I think that aspect would make this shirt even more special. I share with you the first quote added to this plain white shirt.

What you need: 

needle, thread of choice, something you want to stitch on (optional: embroidery hoop)

attach the embroidery hoop...

...and start stitching!

voila!

"Non je ne regrette rien"

The title of a song sang by Edith Piaf, who I love and adore. I love her voice and the lyrics she chirps. 

Although it may seem that stitching on a piece of shirt does not qualify as having equivalent commitment as to getting a tattoo, the effort you put in to complete an embroidery piece requires equivalent commitment in my opinion. 

I'm sorry if you were expecting a full step by step tutorial on how to do embroideries. I just wanted to share about this project I started. I'm sure someone more considerate than I am would had posted something on that on the internet by now. I got better as I went. If you're a beginner like me, don't give up! If you're tired, let it sit for a day or two and come back.

What's the difference between an university and a college?

14 days till becoming freshman? I thought this summer was never going to end. I want to be busy, i want to have schedules already.

So I thought I'd share with you some things I've been up to during the summer to kill my boredom. You can do what I do to kill your boredom too.

Cooking

I don't usually cook. But I do when I feel like gobbling up food in large portion. I make sweet things in huge batches so I can curl up in a ball and devour them. I made blueberry crumble muffins (recipe) and made short beard cookies form the left over crumble dough. I just added about a tablespoon of butter to it to make it less crumbly. Don't waste resources people.

Embroidery

Uncompleted embroidery piece on white shirt. Completed piece here

Movie

Love of my life, Little Mermaid♥
I watched a lot of movies, in the theaters or not. A lot of childhood Disney & Ghibli movies for recap and some new movies.

Hair Cut

This isn't a very great picture but I got a nape shave done. Made my life a little more exciting than it is. It's starting to grow out again so I have to learn to do it by myself soon. Or get a friend to help me. (i have friends i swear)

Hang Out (a lot)

I hung out with my friend in august which was pretty cool. I'm a Japanese living in Japan so I never got to experience whats it like to be a tourist. Above photo is taken on top of the Tokyo Sky Tree.

So my three month summer is coming to an end, and though it was the longest holiday I've ever had, somethings are left undone. But I don't regret the lazy days of curling up in my futon, scrolling my tumblr dash for what seemed like forever.

Some things I want to achieve in the next few days:

-Make a herb/succulent garden in my balcony
-Change tumblr theme
-Sing more Disney songs and know the lyrics to it by heart

Being Tourists

My friend came over to Tokyo to visit me so I took him around. I dont really tour around Tokyo (i live here) so it was a nice opportunity for me to get to know the place better.

Cute wooden things from Tokyu Hands Shibuya 7th floor.

The Enoshima Aquarium（新江ノ島水族館）was just breathtaking. I love how near you can get to the sea creatures and observe them to the finest details. They put a lot of effort in presenting jellyfishes, my favourite (:

The new born turtles were only 5 cm wide when I saw them a year ago, now they aren't babies anymore...

We had a nice walk around Enoshima Island, and ate barbecued squid. Enoshima is known for seafood. You should try some if you ever visit.

It was very hot that day but windy at the same time. Very nice weather.

Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum had the best ramen noodle I ever had! A cool thing about this museum is that they replicated the Japanese streets in the 1950's precisely. It feels like you've traveled back in time. In the museum, there are variety of shops that offer many kinds of ramen. The above photo is the Salt Ramen from Kamome Shokudo. I definitely reccomend it.

We also had Sushi in Shibuya. I couldn't find a link for the shop ):

The view from 450m above. We went to Tokyo Skytree, first time for both of us. I never really saw the point in paying money just to ride an elevator to see things from higher places, but I was wrong. The whole experience was priceless. The experience was definitely worth the ticket fee. 

MEET: Lady

Internet, say hi to Lady

I got Lady at an exotic pet shop a little far away from where I live in Japan. It took me about a year of researching to finally decide on getting a hedgehog. At first, I was all set on getting a boy hedgehog and naming him Morris because how cute are little boys? (no pedo) The pet shop i went to was out of male hedgehogs that weren't too afraid of me. All hedgehogs are sensitive and doesn't relax easily but Lady was the only hedgie that relaxed easily on my lap. Her body was on the larger side for a 5 months old hedgehog so she was left over, people wanted cute small baby hedgies. She was also the only hedgehog bred outside Japan and the only one without a birth date. The shop owner explained that hedgehogs that are left over until the end gets sold to hedgehog breeders to breed more hedgehog babies. By then I was attached to the left over baby that sat quietly on my lap, I just had to take her home with me.

I mean, look at these.

There are hedgehogs available in many larger chain pet shops in Japan, but often these pet shops stocks hedgehogs without proper knowledge about them. Not that theres a lot of studying required to take care of them, but you do need some knowledge to provide a comfortable home for your hedgehog. Plus, a lot of hedgehog breeders don't give enough milk to babies because they want to breed smaller sized hedgehogs. As I mentioned briefly, smaller hedgehogs are popular in Japan as they are considered 'cuter'. Lady isn't that small but I think she's the cutest thing in the world.

Hedgehogs are super quiet and low maintenance. To tell the truth, hedgehogs are better off alone, they love their peace. They also don't eat in large portions so it's really easy for me to get food ready. Maybe I'll write a separate post on hedgehog petting 101, do you want that? I'm no expert but I'm good enough to keep a hedgehog alive. Let me know (:

DIY: Raw Crystal Ring

Photo From: http://e-a-r-t-h-s-h-i-n-e.tumblr.com/post/51881259132/today

 I saw the above picture on tumblr and fell in love with the raw crystal ring. I've always wanted a ring like that but couldn't find it in stores in Japan. Theres tons of them selling on Esty here but the transport fees would be pricy for me... So I decided to make them myself. The steps are super easy. (coz you're just glueing stuff together... O:) I hope you enjoy it (:

Materials: 

- Any Raw Crystals that you like (i chose Amethyst)

- Super Glue (Check descriptions if it says it works for metals and natural rocks)

- A Plain Ring in the color of your choice ( I chose gold :D)

Optional: Rubbing Alcohol/Ethanol (to cleanse ant germs or dust off the ring and the raw crystals for better adherence)

*all materials used in this tutorial was purchased in Japan*

Method:
1. Pick one (or as much as you want) raw crystal you want to use
2. Cleanse the crystals and the ring (especially the part where the glue comes in contact)
3. Using Super Glue, stick them together
4. Wait until dry
5. Wear it :D

The Amethyst I bought came in packets like this

Applying super glue to ring. The ring I got had platforms which are perfect to glue the crystals onto. However, I think it would work with a normal plain ring. If you can't find a ring like this, get a plain ring and something round and flat and stick the two together. 

voilà!

I made a normal sized ring and a pinky ring

The pinky ring can be worn as a knuckle ring too :D

Have fun making your own (: