things mooshpie likes

i really love Studio Ghibli. i think the first film i saw was My Neighbour Totoro a Hayao Miyazaki classic, featuring Totoro a larger than life tree spirit. It’s full of such beauty and tenderness and as with all Ghibli films a bit of a tear jerker for me. 

Minimooshpie’s middle name is Mei after the little girl Mei in the film ( and also for beautiful/ or Plum in chinese depending on where you put the tone!)

While we were in Japan we were lucky enough (after buying our tickets 3 months in advance) to be able to go and visit the Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka. It was AMAZING! the studio rooms where the designers worked on characters was crazy. They were a re-creation of the artists studio space with half used pencil, cigarette butts, full of source images (photos of Bavaria where they had gone to visit) and beautiful sketches of character development and scenes. There was a sketch book  with the billowy skirt that Hayao Miyazaki favours in his female protaganists, featuring pictures of nuns in big frocks and also 1930s fashion.

You could even flick through some pencil tests and watch drawings come to life.

( having done a course in 2D animation i had the flick technique down and it brought back some fond memories of Vanarts and my tweening days! more on that another time)

Here is me outside the museum looking pretty pleased with myself!

We also stayed in an old shutter style house in Hattoji that is very similar to the one in My Neighbour Totoro. The walls were made out of paper and banged about in the snowy gales at night. We spent a couple of frosty nights there wrapped up in duvets and blankets keeping warm by the irori (a pit fire) and the kotatsu ( a heated table) sleeping on futons,  and taking onsens in the cauldron style bath a toasty 40degrees!

All the Ghibli films are timeless classics that i can watch again and again. They always fill me with nostalgia and now having spent some time in Japan it’s almost like being there again…

these are so lovely, i’m thinking of getting a pair for minimooshpie. she is constantly on the go and her little feet would be super comfy in these. The even do brogues too!

They are made inthe UK by the people from Inch Blue. Check out their website for more styles http://www.inch-blue.com/uk

I Love Mameshiba and all things bean like…

I fell in love with Mameshiba when we were in Japan over Christmas and New Year last year(2010)

The cute little bean characters popped up all over the place on adverts (which we didn’t understand until we got back to UK) and in the millions of AMAZING shops like KiddyLand a haven of toys for kids and big kids too. 

I desperately wanted one the little key chains but was talked out of it :-(   heheh.

If you check out the official Mameshiba website you can see which bean you are, i think i am a boiled bean….  as i spent most of my time in onsens in Japan and still dream about their natural hot spring heat and cedar wood baths. Which bean would you be?

and to end with here is one of my beany-pea inspired illustrations! 

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Brighton is always full of nice surprises, that’s why i like living here so much. You can wander down a little street market and come across lovely people like the duo from Yukka & Stamp They cunningly use old pots, tins, cups even old cameras as vessels for cacti and other plants. I think they are rather super and i’m just thinking where i could put one in my nice flat! You should check out their stall every saturday at the Upper Gardner Street Market 

• I love Also  their website is always a joy to have a look around. They are a bunch of super talented creators working on illustration, web design and animation.

AND….

• I became a huge fan of Beci Orpin   when i found her jewellery in The Butcher Shop in Perth (another really great shop too!) she is massively creative and hard working and such an inspiration her blog is a good read too. Her Monster Children exhibition(on website) is dreamy, a silhouetted  tree with boys and girls playing and kites tangled in branches, along side framed drawings! i would really like to see her work in a show in the UK if she ever comes over…

i love Ghostpatrol, i stumbled apon his work a few years ago on flickr and have been hooked ever since. everything from his sketchbooks to prints are amazing. magical, dark, cute boys,girls and lots of woodland characters. here are some of my favourites…

you can find his work on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghostpatrol/

and his website  http://ghostpatrol.net/

enjoy….

blondies are bownies fairer sister! think just baked cookies with a soft gooey center. Thats a blondie!

well i most certainly like the look of these tasty treats. So much so i might have a go at making them myself!

http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/11/blondies-for-a-blondie/

Blondies
Adapted from How to Cook Everything

8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Butter an 8×8 pan
2. Mix melted butter with brown sugar – beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3. Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in any additions (below).
4. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. I always err on the side of caution with baking times — nobody ever complained about a gooey-middled cookie. Cool on rack before cutting them.