So Much in Nature

There's just so much in nature...
more than enough for a lifetime of discovery!

by Marjolein Bastin

Birthday Meditation at Mother Cabrini Shrine

Yesterday, my husband and I went for a walk along the lake in the park.
The pavement was still covered with snow. It was so crispy cold.
While walking on the pure white snow, I felt I was purifying myself before receiving my next birthday.

Today was my birthday.
I am fortunate to have friends who sung a happy birthday song for me.
I am fortunate to have a husband who took a day off in order to celebrate my birthday with me all day long.





For my birthday today, I asked my husband to take me to Mother Cabrini Shrine.
I love to take a private medication and prayer moment on my birthday.

Starting New Year’s Eve Cleaning

It is a custom for Japanese to do a big cleaning on the New Year’s Eve in order to celebrate the coming New Year.

I have started to clean and organize my rooms for the coming New Year.
With careful concerns for 3Rs, I have tried not to just “dump” stuffs in order to clean up my mess.
I love to get practical but artful ideas for how to organize my spaces from magazine articles and books.

I have read a book written by a Japanese organizing and cleaning expert who recovered from depression through cleaning up the mess in his house.
It is true cleaning brings me a feeling that I have started to work on my mess inside of myself as well.
Even a little bit visual progress to clean up the disorganized house brings me a positive feeling to refresh my life.

Happy Cleaning!

Lair O the Bear Park on Thansgiving Day

Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving !

1 Apple and 1 Lemon A Day

Do you have any advises for keeping strong and healthy body?

I have eaten an apple a day since a child without knowing a proverb, “An Apple a Day keeps the Doctor away.”
I am very happy that I started to be able to purchase fresh apples harvested this fall.
My favorite apples are Fuji Apples and Gela Apples.
I am so looking forward to baking apples pies!

Besides eating an apple a day, I drink fresh lemon water almost every day except during summer.
I am very happy that I started to be able to purchase fresh lemons as well.

Let’s stay healthy this winter!

This Is It by Michael Jackson

Have you watched a movie, This Is It featuring Michael Jackson’s last performance?

My husband and I watched the movie today.
The movie was great!

To me, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross represented “U.S.A.” via radio and records while I grew up in Japan.
They are so special to me.
I wanted to get a privilege to see Michael Jackson’s live performances and I am very sorry I didn't get any chances.

The movie, This Is It made me think again that Michael Jackson was so special for his outstanding talent.
I love his singing and dancing beyond words.

Also, the movie presented Michael Jackson’s love and concern for our earth planet,
“Heal Our Planet”.
One of Michael's messages was “We need to take care of our planet.”

I am so sorry that we lost Michael Jackson.

Snow Days

How is your weather?

We had around 18” heavy snows started from last Wednesday till last night.
Some businesses fully or partially closed and we had very quiet days.


Today, we had a warm beautiful day with blue skies.
At our back yard, I heard a lot of noises of snow and ice melting down from the roof to the ground.

Ducks in our area stay here during winter season.
I am very glad to see ducks survived the heavy snows.

Rubber Weatherseal for Doors

Do you have any good methods to keep your house nice and warm during winter season?

For this coming winter season, my husband purchased the attached EPDM All Climate Rubber Weatherseal at Home Depot and applied them to several doors at our house.

The entrance door between the outside deck and my room always brought the cold air into my room.
I think the referenced Rubber Weatherseal blocks the air coming through the entrance door into my room very well.

One problem of applying the product to the doors is the doors’ spaces got too tight to open and close smoothly.

Another concern is the package instruct to apply the product above 40 F degree(5 C degree) while we have much colder days during winter.
Let’s see how the rubber product reacts to our cold weather this winter.

So far, so good!

Autumn Leaves and Composting Pile

We have been cleaning up leaves fallen from the big trees in our back yard for several weeks.
We have moved all of the leaves into a composting pile.
Our composting pile is just a big hole.



During winter season, we are keep adding kitchen garbages into the composting pile.
This simple composting hole works for us!

More Tulips and Narcissus

How is your garden?

I planted more tulips and narcissus in my garden as we had nice warm weekend.

45 Tulipa Darwin hybrid Van Eijk and 15 Tulipa Darwin hybrid Blushing Apeldoorn.


25 Narcissus large cupped Carlton and 25 Narcissus doble Bridal Crown.


25 Narcissus large cupped Sempre Avanti and 25 Narcissus large cupped Ice Follies.


The total number of new spring bulbs planted as of today is 215.
Hope squirrels don't dig them up!

Let's Play Bowling

Do you exercise?

To me, bowling is a wonderful sport to play all year long.
Brunswick Bowling in my area offers 99 cents / a game from 9am to 12pm every morning.
I go to play 3-5 games 2-3 times a week.
It's a great way to maintain strong muscle, too!

Reuse Vintage Cosmetic Containers

Don't you love antique and vintage cosmetic containers?

I remember my mother's beautiful lip stick holders, powder containers,cream contaniers, and etc.
They were made of metal or ceramic with detailed decorations and were not only containers but also artworks.

I started to reuse vintage cosmetic containers in stead of throwing a lot of disposable cosmetic containers.
It is a pleasure to use something beautiful every day.

Hot Bath and Epson Salt

We had the first frost on the lawn in the garden this morning.

Do you have any special ways how to enjoy cold winter season?

For me, it is a treat to take a hot bath and have a great deep sleep.

I have tried several bath salts and found the simple Epson salt is the best bath salt.
I can feel my skins get nice and smooth, stiff neck and back get relaxed and have a nice deep sleep with nice warm body.

Lair o' the Bear Park in Colorado

Can you enjoy fall leaves in your area?

My husband and I went to the Lai o' the Bear Park and had a nice walk this afternoon.
The weather was gorgeous.


We were surprised to see this new beaver dam.


This is my favorite spot.
Very nice combination with river, evergreen and fall leaves.


The moutain water was so clear.


Shiny glasses in golden color.


Ripe apples on the trees.
It is getting a time to bake fresh apple pies.

Hope you enjoy nice walk, too!

My Favorite Body Soaps

The oatmeal and honey soaps are ones of my favorite soaps.
They don’t let me feel my skins being dried out after taking a shower.



Besides oatmeal and honey soaps, lavender soaps and olive oil soaps made in Italy or USA are good ones as well.

It is a treat to take hot shower with a little bit rich soaps in winter.

If you know any good soaps, please let me know!

My Furry Babies

I have three cats and love them dearly.
I can know that it is getting cooler at night as my cats started to sleep sidling up to me.
Last night, I heard one of them was lightly snoring with very relaxed deep sleep look.
It is a joy to have them in my life.

Happy October

Have you started to plant spring flowers bulbs in your garden?

I picked up all of green tomatoes in my garden today.
I will give several green tomatoes to my friend who loves to cook fried green tomatoes.
For myself, I will try to pickle several green tomatoes with vinegar and sugar.
While staying in Japan last spring, I tasted pickled green tomatoes at a well known pickles store.

Regarding spring flowers, I purchased Tulip Ballerina & Narcissi Tripartite 55 Flower Bulbs at Home Depot.
I would love to fill my garden with a lot of tulips, narcissuses, hyacinths and crocuses.

Japanese Eggplant Flower

Do you like eggplants?

I love lightly grilled eggplants, curry with eggplants, Chinese style spicy eggplants, Japanese style fried eggplants with miso, Italian style tomato sauce with eggplants and etc.

This summer, I planted Japanese eggplants but haven’t been able to harvest any fruits yet.
Probably, no eggplants will be ready for me to eat but I am happy to see cute purple flowers in my garden.

Vintage 1973 Santa and Kewpie Christmas Plate

Have you started Christmas shopping?

My friends told me that they have already started their holiday shopping as some retail department stores have already started to sell 2009 Christmas items at discounted prices.

I love vintage Christmas items very much.
Especially, it is interesting for me to find vintage Christmas items made in Japan for American market.
They were made in Japan but I didn’t get chances to see them while growing up in Japan.
They are rather new to me but have something so familiar with my childhood.

Bad Summer for Tomatoes

Could you enjoy harvesting fresh tomatoes from your garden this summer?

Even though my tomatoes could survive from a heavy hail storm, I haven't gotten any ripe tomatoes.

It is still sunny but is getting cooler every day.

I am sorry that I didn't get a chance to make delicious homemade salsa with my tomatoes this summer.

Happy Mums

I planted several mums last fall.
All of them came back to bloom this year.
They are beautiful!

Cosmos in Bloom

I love cosmos very much!

Sun Flowers and Bees

I planted 3 packages of sun flower seeds along with nasturtium seeds this summer.

As soon as several sun flowers started to sprout, some bugs or something started to eat them and I lost all of them.



It seems to be true that nasturtiums help other plants to grow without being bothered by bugs.
After several nasturtiums started to sprout, the next several sun flowers started to grow and had flowers.

Suddenly over night, all sun flowers’ flowers disappeared.
I assume that squirrels quickly harvested them.




For myself, I have only 3 sun flowers.
I was so happy to see bees flying around my sun flowers today.

New and Vintage Handkerchieves

In stead of using paper towels at public places, I started to carry a handkerchief with me and try not to use paper towels as much as possible.

Can you buy new handkerchieves in your area?
It is hard to find new handkerchieves available in the U.S., isn't it?

I have a lot of handkerchieves that I purchased in Japan.
Japanese carry a handkerchief as a "must have" item and there are so many new handkerchieves available in many designs in Japan.

Besides Japanese handkerchieves, I love American vintage handkerchieves.
To me, they are special treasures.

Handmade Cloth Napkins

Can you sew?

It is easy to sew cloth napkins.

I have been using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins and have made several cloth napkins.

I just cut fabrics, double fold, baste, and machine stitch.



It is fun to sew various sized cloth napkins with faborite fabrics!

Vintage Treasures Milk Glasswares

Don't you love vintage glasswares?

The attached vintage milk glass snack tray sets are one of my favorite.
It is fun to invite girl friends to come over for a tea with this snack tray sets with a lot of treats.




I also love to use vintage everyday kitchen glasswares especially Pyrex and Fire King.
It was a score for me that I could purchased the attached Pyrex nesting bowls set in great condition.

Beautiful Japanese Silk Remnants

I love sewing and crafting.
I love new fabrics as well as vintage fabrics.
Especially, vintage fabrics which remind me of my childhood are my favorite.






The attached photos are Japanese silk remnant that I purchased in Japan.
These small pieces are hand tied and dyed.
The silk fabrics are very soft and delicate.

These remnants will be large enough to make doll clothes, accessories or garment embellishment.
I was so happy that I could purchase them in Japan as I can’t find silk fabrics in the U.S. easily.

Delicious Local Colorado Peaches and Pears

What kinds of local produces can you enjoy in your area?

In my area, Colorado peaches and pears are delightful local produces.
Not only at farmers’ markets, but also at grocery stores such as Safeway and King's, I can purchase them for $1.00 for a pound.
Colorado peaches and pears are sold at more reasonable prices than peaches and pears carried from California.
They are so juicy and sweet!

Natural Dishwashing Liquid Green Works

Do you use eco friendly dishwashing liquid?


I have just started to use Green Works.
It works very well to wash dishes and other kitchen utensils.



Besides, the Green Works worked so well to clean up my new vintage vinyl doll.
She had very greasy and sticky face that I couldn’t wash by wet cotton puffs with water.
Then, I tried to wipe her face by wet cotton puffs with the Green Works and could easily remove the grease.
I was so happy with the result!

It is really true that dishwashing liquid products don’t have to be colored with strong fragrance.
I highly recommend Green Works.
The retail price at WalMart is around $2.50.