Pizza & Sky

This past weekend we took some of the people John works with on a tour of the Northern end of Okinawa. The northern end is not as inhabited as the southern, and there is much jungle and great views. We went to a place called Pizza and Sky for lunch. It is a small pizza place up in the mountains on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It is very unique and a great place to visit. Most of the tables are picnic tables outside and if it is windy it can get very chilly. So there are baskets of blankets for you to use to keep warm. There is only one kind of pizza. It has sausage, garlic, peppers, and corn. And LOTS of cheese! They serve fresh juices and tea in unique glasses on cloth napkins and plates. Each drink has its own type of glass. The pizza is awesome and the view spectacular. A place that you would not want to miss when visiting Okinawa. You can see more photos of the drinks as they were served and the restaurant and view on my photobucket here:
http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd126/okidoki2181/Pizza/

Blue Angels

I made this scrapbook page for the we kit u not monthly challenge. I used the Dixie Pieces December and June kits.

Proud Grandma!!

So...here's my new favorite photo of my grandson Connor. Yep, Proud Grandma!!

Obon and Eisa

I promised in late August photos and descriptions of Obon and the Eisa Festival on Okinawa. Life has taken over a bit and I got distracted. Here's the photos and hopefully I'll get a description of the Obon celebration soon!!! It's my favorite festival and tradition on Okinawa.

Hahri (Dragonboat) Races

We have been to the Dragonboat races in the capital city of Naha before, but I kept reading about the celebrations in the smaller fishing villages, the ones not so advertised and commercialized and had been wanting to go to one of those. The Naha ones are fun, and the military branches each have teams that compete, but I wanted to see a more traditional celebration. Then I saw this article in a newspaper called "Japan Update" It talked about this village called Tomigusuku and how they were trying to recreate a Hahri festival in the life of a King who ruled over 600 years ago. The King, King Wanouso got his title and crown from the Chinese emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He loved wearing costumes and playing with Hahri boats. Tomigusuku City had costumes made in China and sent over that were the same sort of costumes that were worn in Wanouso's day. The festival began with a traditional launching ceremony which was really cool, I just wish I understood Japanese better so I could have followed along more. I am working on my Japanese though!! The Hahri boats were so different than the ones used in Naha, and were more traditional. They were smaller, and much more elaborately decorated heads and tails. Tomigusuku is on the southern end of the Island of Okinawa, and most of the military bases are in Central Okinawa so we only actually saw one other American at the festival. The kids there weren't as used to seeing Americans as those in Central Okinawa and kept coming up to us and saying "Hello" to practice their English. Some used other phrases such as "How are you" and "What is your name." Then they would get embarrased and run off. We were welcomed by the Okinawan Men and Women as well, and as we hadn't brought umbrella's and it was raining off and on, several of them shared their umbrella's with us. We were soaked to the bone when we finally left, but had a great day!! I picked out a few pictures to share with you.

Baby Scrappy Pages!

Yeah!! Baby Scrappy pages are soooo fun!!! Especially when you are the Grandma and have time to do them and not spending all of your time feeding, burping, and being up in the night. Here are a couple recent ones. The first one was made with the awesome Dixie Pieces May Dixie Designs kit, with the exception of the flowers and buttons. You should check them out, the link is on the side of this page.



I had a few requests from people to explain how I did the paper for this one. So I updated to add these instructions. I started with some Bazzill Bling cardstock and stamped it with Inque Boutique's #50355 Dotted Flowers and Flourishes using just a regular Stampin up Stamp pad. Then I used Making Memories Specialty Glaze-Glitter. I painted it over the whole page with a sponge brush so that it smears the ink a little giving it the sort of water color look.

Kodomo no hi

May 5th is children"s day, or Kodomo no hi, in Japan. It was originally known as boy's day, and is a day to honor Sons. Families with boys display colorful carp streamers outside their homes. These are called Koinobori. The carp symbolizes courage and strength, qualities that parents wish their boys to have. Warrior dolls are also displayed in the home. Children's day is a day when parents pray for their children to grow up healthy.