My husband and I were in Southeast Asia this past summer on our honeymoon. On our way back...we "got stuck" in Tokyo and "had" to spend the night. (Read between the lines....we gave up our seats....told our people that we had no control over it....and got a free 24 hour trip to galavant about the city...not to mention $1000 voucher for a future flight! Love it!)

So being the lover of Japanese-anything that I am...I picked up this stationary...Its a cut out placed on top of the most beautiful (and PERFECTLY placed - gotta love that precision) origami paper.

The above picture is this gorgeous mural/mosiac/peice-of-art-that-makes-me-happy-to-live-in-San-Francisco. I'm lucky enough to live next door to it, and often sit at my window spying on boat loads of tourists posing next to it for photographs. Is it rude that I yell at them out of the window "move it, your ruining the picture"??

Am I the only person that thinks it's weird that tourists want to be IN the picture? I can't tell you how many laughs we got while in Indonesia watching tourists pose next to a statue....often times imitating the face on the statue....usually in sacred places....odd.

Other news in the blogosphere:

I'm into tissue holders these days....check out these that Bird in the Hand made.
An a tutorial by Stardust Shoes.

Great Blogs: Mommy Coddle and Simple Sparrow

Great Concept: Use What You Have Month

and I love this quilted handbag.....Wise made so many of them...and so did Creative Little Daisy...

PDX Super Crafty of Portland put together this great resource for crafsters thinking of building their own businesses.

What a fun secret pal you've been. Love the fact that Stacey had to find you. Cool blog!

ohhhh i love the cut paper!!!! i had an asian american lit class and the teacher knew i loved paper... she gave me tons of old cuts from japan in the 1970's.... they are so fragile, delicate, and just unreal!!!! i use an x-acto blade; i couldnt imagine using a itty bitty scissors!!! and you went to japan for your honeymoon?! how wonderful!

That swap bot thing looks great. We should just launch with our current banner. I'm excited to get started.