Going to Japan!

Aaaaaah! I'm so excited! I'm going to Japan on Friday! I put my shops in vacation mode already :D. You guys know me, I always give super short notice... alas, it's the particular combination of work/ fellowship/ berrysprite stuff/ life that makes me a professional procrastinator. The good news is my fellowship is technically over, although we still have to finish the report for it. I got a promotion at work, so that is great! As far as berrysprite stuff, I am working on making some patterns that I will sell in my shop... did you guys know etsy now has a downloadable option? I have to investigate it more, since I don't follow etsy news so closely anymore (so yes, I have no idea when they began supporting this option!), but it seems that this will make it so SUPER easy to buy and sell patterns! This trip to Japan is my celebratory, "Hooray, life is grand!" trip, and I know I'll come back with all kinds of inspiration and kawaii stuff! I've already had people remind me (very nicely... i heart you guys!) that I shouldn't neglect my blog in light of this awesome trip, and I promise I won't. You can expect to see lots of pics about my adventure, so stay tuned!

Here's where I'm going:

• Tokyo
• Kamakura 
• Odawara
• Atami
• Osaka
• Nara
• Kobe
• Kyoto

Pics from my Chicago Trip!

I've been back from Chicago for a while now (I think a bit more than a month?) and so much has happened since then, but I haven't had the chance to post any pics to my blog.  So I thought now was the perfect opportunity, since I'm in between working on some stuff for berrysprite, finishing up my fellowship, and gearing up to go to Maui and then Japan (I'm soooo excited about Japan, but totally not ready yet... too much stuff to do!).  Anyway, Chicago was really excellent... very fun!  I stayed in the Loop, which gave me great access to a lot of cool stuff, which is lucky because I didn't have a car :)  I would go again!

 I got lost on the loop the first day... I got oriented pretty quickly after that!

 View of the city and my first view of Lake Michigan from the Willis/Sears tower at sunset!

So many huge buildings!!!! I'm used to seeing mountains and ocean in Hawaii, and I was amazed at how much like an ocean Lake Michigan seemed!

The famous Chicago Theater!  The Oriental was playing "The Book of Mormon" and I was very tempted to ditch preparing for my conference presentation to catch a show!

 

The Hilton Palmer:  It was suuuuuper nice!  I'm glad my work was paying though, because usually I stay in YMCA's and hostels!

 

Outside the Art Institute of Chicago... I wish I had had more time there! 

At least I got to see Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon, I felt like Ferris Beuller and it was my day off!

  

 

The Bean!  It was sooo shiny!

  

 

You guys can probably tell from my travel posts that I always try to go to museums.  I spent a good half-day at the Field Museum... and I got to see Sue!

 

 My favorite room at the Field Museum!

 

Shedd Aquarium... you guys know I love aquariums too :)

 Peaceful.

They had belugas!  I saw a baby one too, but they were swimming and swimming so it was hard to get a picture on my phone!  Fun fact that I learned at the aquarium:  baby belugas are gray to match their mom's shadow.  When they get bigger/ older they turn white!

On the way back from the Museum and Aquarium I got caught in a rainstorm... Luckily it wasn't too cold; it did make Chicago deserted though!  I was all by myself for about 20 minutes!

 

 You can't go to Chicago without eating the food!  This is a personal pizza from Giordano's (I carried it sideways, so it smooshed). I also ate one from Lou Malnati's... both were fantastic and oh soooo cheeeeeesy!

 

A Chicago dog!  I wish I had known that Max's was right behind my hotel; this dog, fries and a drink only cost me $6.  I would have eaten hot dogs the entire time, because it was cheap and DELICIOUS!

I didn't do much shopping, but I consider what I got to be the best souvenir ever!  This machine makes you a plastic toy... they had one at the Willis/ Sear's Tower that made an Abraham Lincoln, but I was too embarrassed to get one (plus, what would I do with a mini Abe Lincoln?).  But then at the Field Museum you could make DINOSAUR-shaped ones for just $2.00...

 

BEST SOUVENIR EVER!!!!!!!

the great fun sale!

I've been meaning to create my own webpage for berrysprite so that I can offer a wider range of items... I especially tried hard after I won a contest from the lovely ladies over at Super Cute Kawaii for a free shopify account for a year a while back!  In particular, I really wanted to share kawaii-but-not-handmade items I loved with others.   Alas, I found that time/school/work constraints really prohibited me from growing my business much, and my stand-alone website has never come to fruition.

However, I still have a small box of kawaii non-handmade goodies which I've handpicked and absolutely love!  I've been meaning to sell them in my berrysprite store, but I can't list them on etsy. Also I'm going to Japan (the land of KAWAII and CUTENESS) at the end of June... so I figured why hold on to this goodness any longer?

So I spent part of this holiday weekend building a mini-boutique store right here on my blog... Click over to the "Great Fun Shop" tab to go shopping!  You can buy stuff right off my blog (how cool is that?)

And to celebrate, I'm having a sale there right now...After checkout, everything is discounted at least $1 to $2! At first I was going to have a discount applied after checkout, but I'm not sure if that will work, so I just marked stuff down.  I'm also waiving my standard handling fees, so shipping will be whatever USPS normally charges for first class parcel shipping, domestic and international: no more, no less! 

Here's a little preview of the offerings:

Please take a look at the Great Fun Shop :)  I'd be happy to answer any questions.  Also, here are the current USPS postage rates:

US International First Class Mail:

US Domestic First Class Mail:

Hana Trip

Since I've traveled so much in the past 2 weeks, I thought I'd break it up into two posts.  So here's pics from my Hana, Maui trip!  I don't really know what to say except that it was AWESOME.  We were there for my fellowship and we talked to people in the community about their community-based marine resource management.  The people were so warm and caring (but were also definitely concerned about the depletion of their resources from overuse and overfishing, as well as concerned about disrespect for their places and ways of life). It was definitely a trip I'll never forget :)

Alau Island at Koki Beach

Keanae

Keanae

Koki Beach

Community rescue surfboard at Koki

Muolea

Hana Bay

Hana Park

Kipahulu

Kaupo

Keanae

Keanae

Taro patches in Keanae

Getting fresh water straight out of the mountain for drinking (don't worry, its safe to drink!)

Keanae

Kolea

Travel!

I will be traveling SOOO much in the coming months, its a bit ridiculous (but in a good way?)
First off, there's Chicago for 5 days beginning next week for a conference.  (I'm hoping to sneak away before and after my presentation for some sightseeing since I've never been there, but that may be difficult since my boss lady will be there too!)

Then, two days after I get back, I fly to Hana, Maui for my fellowship.  It was a bit stressful putting it all together, but hopefully it will be a great trip!  I haven't been to Hana in over 10 years.  The Hana trip will round out my April!

Then for two weeks in May, I will be holed up in the countryside/ on a mountain and isolated from everyone except my fellow cohort members to write up our findings and do reporting like mad!  It will be like I'm on a trip (I consider any period of time where I'm not sleeping in my own bed a trip!  I may even sleep in a tent, who knows!) even though I'll technically still be on the same island. 

Our final project presentation is in June (3 nights away on the same island again) and then...

IMMA GOING TO JAPAN!   I'M SOOOOO EXCITED.
So, yeah my sister and I are going after a long time of me not being able to go (thesising/ fellowships/ work, etc). She told me that if I didn't go with her this year she was going to go without me and then never travel with me again, haha.  So I made it work!  Late June and Early July I will be touring Japan, with extensions in Osaka and Tokyo.  I've never been to Japan before, but I imagine it will be mindblowingly awesome, since it is where all the cuteness comes from!  The trip itself is going to be quite expensive for me, but I know I'll have to start saving $$$ so that I can shop! Maybe in between all my traveling and work I'll be able to fill up my shop/ have a sale... one can only hope!   

Bamboo Splash

Huzzah!  For our Christmas party at work (yes, it was a little while ago) I won a $50 gift card to Best Buy (much to the chagrin of my non-winning coworkers, because I WIN SOMETHING EVERY YEAR!!!  last last year I won a Kindle Fire and the year before that I won a gift card to Macy's... I bet I'm jinxing myself right now).  Well I got a Wacom Bamboo Splash Tablet with my winnings!   For those of you who don't know, these kinds of tablets allow you to draw illustrations on your computer using a pen, rather than a mouse... it makes for way better control and ease of drawing.  The tablet I got runs around $89 so I did have to pay some out of pocket money, but it is sooo worth it!  I have a really old version of the bamboo tablet (the Bamboo Fun)... see there it is down there 

Anyway, the new one is DELICIOUS.
I mean, the bamboo fun was good, but the Splash is AWESOME!  The drawing surface is much bigger, and it seems more responsive to the stylus; it looks more sleek too!  The only drawback is that the tablet is no longer bundled with Adobe Photoshop Elements or Corel Painter (but I have Adobe Photoshop CS6 anyway).   Overall, I absolutely love it.  I can't wait for more free time, so that I can draw more cutie things!

I love it.  I am drawing many things using it.  Here is one thing I drew.  Hopefully I will draw many more things and this will jumpstart my fabric designing again.

Drawn with my new Bamboo Splash and Inkscape Vector Software :)