This and That Before Christmas

I'm writing down what occurs to me
for the first time in nearly two months.

Anyway, I miss my kittens.
They are not my cats exactly,
but they stayed with us for ten days.

One night, they were abandoned beside my house.
They are about 4 months old,
lovely & tamely, and following me.☆

Interestingly, each of them has his own personality;
nay, "catality" ! wwwwww

A smart guy !


A sweetie !




And, he is independent !

For my memory,
I made some yarn.
adding an atmosphere of my cats.

Furthermore, using this yarn,
I finished a pair of arm warmers
with a cat tail. wwww






I wish you a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year !

See you soon.

G' Day is Open !

G'd Day !

G'd is an abrreviation of Good.

It's an Australian English expression
used as a greeting, meaing, "Hi" or "Have a nice day."

This time, I would like to use it as a name of
my new brand covering everything I make.
For instance, yarn, knitting works, bread, sweets,
and so on.

I am never going to get money from that.
It exists only for my pleasure and satisfaction.
I just want to add some vivid impact to my hobbies.

Suppose I make something and give it to someone as a present.
If there is a tag seal of my brand logotype on the wrapping bag,
it will be all the more pleasant and exciting, I think.




It is also a kind of my policy
in order to enjoy my own life.


Yeah,
Welcome to G'd Day !

G' Day

I'm renewing this blog after a long, long absence.
To say the truth, I've almost forgot about it. www

I've been engaged in various things, so far;
for example, knitting, spinning, baking bread an so on.

Yesterday, I hit upon an idea.

G' Day is the name of my activities.

I don't call it a shop,
because I don't intend to open a shop actually.
I want G' Day to be the space and time
in which I can express myself freely.

Sometimes, I will present the yarn I make,
sometimes, I will show you knitted works,
and at another occasion, something that has occurred to me.

The rule is that "something" should have
a "three-dimensional shape"!

G' Day means "hello" or "have a nice day"
mainly in Australian English.

Trying to spend one day safe and sound
and finding something good on that day --------

I think that's really important for me and
for my family members as well as my friends
and students.

At the same time
I love corriedale, the name of sheep and its fleece
in Australia.

So, I've chosen "G' Day" as the name of my project.

Really, I enjoy planning this and that.

To begin with,
in achieving this project,
I want a logo mark fitted to my concept.

Yeah, let's start !

Back to the Past

My old hair style has come back to me !

This picture was taken about twenty years ago
in Pittsburgh.



With no special reason,
I've wanted to get it back for several months.

I reached the goal this afternoon!

This is now! ☆



It's a little shorter than before,
but I'm really pleased with my new and old curly style !

Traveling Tells Me a Lot

Traveling always tells me a lot,
but my trip on the weekend had something special to me.

Sometimes nature terrifies us human beings.

At Naoshima, however, nature and artificial work
make a good harmony.

Which is true ? Maybe, both.

A friend of mine is now facing a lot of trouble
in Sendai.
But he never loses his calm mind and generosity.
He keeps a tender mind, really positive toward future.
He himself doesn't have a child, but
as soon as a store opened, he bought a lot of chocolate,
which he delivered to the children around him.
It's not a question of things, but a heart.
Even if he manages to lead a life in his car,
he doesn't forget about what comforts others
under such terrible circumstances
caused by the earthquake.

Human beings are weak, but at the same time, strong,
I realized.

Also I've found again how important the bond between
friends as well as between family members.

On the second day of my trip
I looked at the whole city of Kobe,
where a similar terrible earthquake took place
about 16 years ago, from the ferry from Takamatsu.
It has a vivid atmosphere now.

The people have made every effort to take back
their city.
It's infinite power of humans.

All that I have to do now is
get back to my daily routine with a calm mind.
In order to do that, on my way back to Nagoya,
I dropped in at AVRIL in Kyoto.
A great many kinds of yarn welcomed me.
I almost forgot time in choosing which to buy.

These are what I loved the most !

Today

At this time today
the entrance exams to national universities
seem to have started.

Two of my students are challenging them.
Both hope to become doctors.

I know the road to the medical department
is really steep.

I want them, however, to realize that
it's harder and more significant for them
to treat the life of a person in their future
than trying to pass the entrance exams.

I believe that they are trying their best,
which matters more than the results.

Every year,
as the first thing in the morning of their challenge,
I make it a rule to send a mail to them,
saying, "一発かませ！"
That means, " Be confident and make a winning shot!"

Scent of Spring

It's still cold outside, but
sometimes I feel the scent of spring
in the wind these days.

It's nice to feel it.

For the first time in five years
I put hina-dolls in our living room.
The dolls are over fifty years old.

Isn't it a funny idea to add potato chips
instead of "hishi-mochi" and
clover honey liqueur instead of "ama-sake" ?
(^^)


I'd really like a nice spring to come to
my students.

Yet, the result doesn't count.

Of course, good news is better, but
what's important is whether they try to
make every effort that they can or not
in order to realize their dreams.

How long it takes depends on each individual.
Still, their strong will and patience to do something
will make fruit some day, I believe.
Never give up.

I'm waiting for spring.

Surrounded by Sound

Sometimes I can express myself better in Japanese
than in English.
Of course, it's very natural.
In other cases, however, I feel like describing
what I am thinking in English rather than in Japanese.

Today, the latter.

After two weeks' interval, I joined the blues session.

Because my family caught a cold one by one,
as you know through "Stormy Thursday" in my blog here,
I've been forced to stay home.

Today's session is called the "soft sound" version.
Not as usual, everyone sits and plays with low-volume.

The slow and soft tune comforted me.
I closed my eyes, and almost fell asleep.
But I was surrounded by pleasant sound
all the time.

Yeah, I was really enjoying listening to music
more than playing the keyboard myself today.


A happy moment, it was !

City Ville

I've never got interested in such a kind of game
on Web so far, but
this time the situation is different.

These days, I'm pleased with City Ville on Facebook.

A friend of mine invited me to the game.
At first, I was wondering what it was and
whether it would interest me or not.

It suits me!

The best thing is that I can enjoy it for only five minutes
or so while I'm waiting for a student of mine to come to our
lesson, for example.
It's good to kill time.

Second, anyway, it seems that I love anything that I create,
say, make for myself.
I build houses, shops, or community buildings;
decorate streets with several kind of flowers or items;
arranging them as I'd like them to be.
I also plant crops and harvest.
I'm a mayor.

I'm easy to get tired of one thing(^^), so
I don't know how long I can continue playing it.
However, maybe I can enjoy for the time being ! ☆

Does anyone get interested in it?
Join me on Facebook.
ID : YASUYO SAKAI

Stormy Thursday

(by Eric Y. Clap-Your-Hands)

Call it stormy Thursday,
but Friday's just as bad.
Call it stormy Saturday,
but Sunday's just as bad.
Monday's even worse; Tuesday's awful sad.

I caught a cold on Thursday,
Friday I went to see a doctor.
My husband began to cough on Saturday, and
Sunday my son had a high fever.
Monday, my husband and son went to the hospital,
where they found out that one of them had a flu.

And I say, "Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me."

But Lord doesn't have mercy,
'cause my PC got out of order on Tuesday.

Just trying to find the way to fix the PC,
will you please send me a good idea?

Or send me a new PC !

Lord, oh Lord have mercy, yeah,
won't you please, please have mercy on me.

Call it a stormy week !

A Charm for Good Luck

At this time every year
I make it a rule to go shopping and get
several pairs of socks for my students
who are going to take entrance exams
to universities.

It's a charm for good luck!

And it's also a kind of pleasure for me myself
to choose this for him, and that for her,
hoping that they will try their best and play a
good hand.

I don't remember exactly why that should be a
pair of socks, but I've been keeping it as
my rule. (^-^)

Actually, that makes a difference and has good
effect, I believe.

Maybe, at the last minute after making every effort,
what they need is self-confidence,
that is, they should autosuggest themselves,
talking to themselves, "I'm OK."

I wish these socks can encourage them to be
confident.

"Yes, I can make it, wearing this pair of socks !"

Ahaha(^o^)

I'm Frozen

It has been snowing since early this morning.

I really want to hibernate !

My crazy second daughter went out to Nabana-no-Sato
to see its winter illumination with her boy friend.
On such a freezing day! Crazy!
I hope they'll be back alive.

Also,
some of my students are taking the Center Exam.
I always wonder why they give entrance exams
here in Japan
during such a cold period of the year.

I would like them to do their best,
waiting for a warm and happy spring.