Introducing my first brand from the U.S.!!!  Founder and designer, Katherine Edmonds hand makes these beautiful pieces in her Manhattan studio(even the fabrics are tinted in the studio!).  Not only do her creations inspires our little artists and adventurers but also US adults!!!  It brings the little child in us, don’t you think?  You can not help but get drawn into the world of Wovenplay.

I am very excited to be introducing Wovenplay.  While current pieces are very limited, I am expecting to have more come in the late fall for the Autumn Winter- so stay excited!!

Sorry- a bit personal today because its our Wedding Anniversary!  Remembering the beautiful wedding in Kauai coordinated by  I Do Weddings.  Time just flies by!!! I just would like to take this opportunity and thank my husband – who has been supportive of the decisions I have made, of Storytime,…and so much more!!  THANK YOU JIM!!!! And yes, let’s not forget—”Forever Young”!

The wedding in Kauai. Beautiful photos by a beautiful couple and photographers, Lexi and Christiaan.

My forever young husband (playing in Witchdoctor).  

I must admit I have not been able to write as much as I have been so busy trying to launch (still targeting this week to the newsletter subscribers!).  BUT…I would like to introduce PEEP.  They have these amazing darling baby shoes (and other shoes, too) which will make you want either want to have a baby, want to make you have ANOTHER baby, buy it for someone as a gift…OR find someone to buy it as a gift- LOL. You can peek now. ENJOY

Husband and wife team Tatsuya Kameyama and Atsuko Nakagawa helm the design unit of Tupera Tupera.  Since 2002, they have inspired people in designing books, illustrations to 3D art, animation, stationery, and have held various workshops through various mediums including Television. Through color and imagination, they draw the attention of any age to their beautiful designs.

I am excited to say that I will be carrying two of their fun books. “Kao note”, an interactive sticker book which allows children (and adults!) to make various faces sticking the stickers of facial features onto various face.  What kind of face will you or your little one come up with!?

Also, we have the Alphabet Animal Circus that goes through the entire alphabet introducing the circus animals in both Japanese and in English. It does not have to be for Japanese speakers as it is a fun book to just go through in English as well.  Just love the use of their colours, colours, colours!!!!  Have fun!

…to say thank you to all of you for reading my blog.  I truly appreciate it and hope you are enjoying reading it.  Here is a little flower to all of you!!  Never feels bad to receive a flower, does it!? LOL

Also, I will be looking to launch next week to those who have signed up to my newsletter first (you will get a secret shhhhhhhh! password) before I make it public to the rest of the world.  So if you have not signed up and are interested, please make sure to sign up to our newsletter here.

I have been busy trying to launch this..but also am beginning to get nervous and excited!

I hope you had a nice weekend.  We certainly did– but very busy catching up with some old time friends from NY, swimming, more barbecue..baking cookies…going to dim sum….and of course…data input for my store!

I feel like I haven’t done a brand introduction in a while…so- here you go!!!

SO EXCITED TO INTRODUCE-  Atsuyo et Akiko!!!

Japanese founders  Atsuyo Yang and Akiko Mukae live in New York, where they bring a fresh approach to fashion accessories design.  The two share an affinity for screenprinting and combine illustration with ordinary items that appear to tell a story.  The current collection tells the story of a little girl, SARA, who loves her home in Brooklyn. She shares her life with her favorite animal friends, MERRY the little sheep, and two SPARROWS, who follow her all the way to Paris, France.

Shortly will be available at storytime.jp, you can enjoy the comfort of the items SARA and friends use on their journey.　I have T-shirts..bags…dolls..and adorable wings!

Here is the tutu in lilac colour but its a bit more blue-ish…take a look at the little cute stones on the ribbon…wearing this will just make them feel like they are princess or ballerinas!!!

As I wrote on my newsletter, today is a very special day in Japan (and a quite romantic one…don’t you think?).  I hope your wishes will come true, too☆

If you haven’t received it and would like to get it, please subscribe and I can send it to you. Its a sweet story to tell your children.

Attaching some photos of the little porcelain dolls and of the bamboo tree with wishes for Tanabata. Aren’t they so adorable? The rabbit is cute, too!

Here is the one our daughter made at school.  I couldn’t find a tree but I did find bamboo leaves in the house!

This is one of the many cute postcards from Heart Creations that I will be introducing online. Do you see the cute little pig?

Ok- I must now focus on my online boutique….have so much to do!

After much thinking, I decided to go with eco-friendly pouches when sending the precious little things to my customers.  Comes in 3 different size- S, M, L.  Sourcing the producer was a very tough part but its finally done!!!Must thank Samuel and his team from Success Labels. So much time and effort was needed for sourcing these pouches..and felt the lucky bells ring when I walked into Samuel’s office (they deal with major brands from the US and other countries, but was kind enough to deal with me!).  Design was done by my webdesigner, Mieko Sai…her story to follow after the completion of my web!Thank you very much!

Made the letters in these pressed silver sparkles with the star of the “i” embroidered in yellow…this part, I came up with the idea!

My husband upgraded to  a barbecue gas grill (from a charcoal one) and decided to throw a 4th of July party a day earlier.  Had a fabulous time. Everyone- Thank you for coming over!

Working the grill.

The kids are enjoying themselves…can’t even see them..or did I drink too much?

The food is ready! Line up!!!

The sun has gone down but we continued to..enjoy..drink!?It was a great day- thank you for coming!