biscuit tins

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this time, i’m going to talk about nothing to do with weather or floras. well, it’ true that the most enjoyable part of my life is associated with seasonal changes of nature. but, my artsy side seems never to be influenced by seasons or even bad weathers. (oh, it’s another fine summer’s day; ideal for an italian white wine here in osaka.) matter of fact, i’m pretty design-conscious. i can be fussy or crazy about colours, patterns and shapes of end products that some talented persons have created. for this reason, i have a tendency to fall for things that can be my collectibles.

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meanwhile, i tell my mother, who can’t throw anything away without feeling guilty, to stop accumulating rubbish. in her drawers and cupboard, i’ve been seeing a host of strings, rubber bands and shopping bags sit still over these years. i do understand that any woman of my mother’s generation experienced the times when anyone simply could not afford to waste anything because of the war. i, however, say to her mercilessly: “mother, do you really need a dozen of empty plastic yogurt tubs?” it’s no joke.

on the other hand, when it comes to pretty things like ribbons, boxes and biscuit (or tea, coffee, cocoa power?) tins, i am not in a position to tell my mother to get rid of that stuff. actually, i used to have way too many tins. i still keep some in spite of frequent relocations of my base crossing the seas, back and forth, in the past. my old biscuit tins all look ravishingly beautiful. in fact, years back, when i jumped off a double-decker i’d taken from piccadilly after shopping at fortnum & mason, i left my handbag. i was totally carried away with a gorgeous lazzaroni biscuit tin i’d just bought there. i know i’m sometimes such a comic. * **

pic 1
maker-unidentified french bonbons tin: i don’t really remember this … probably i bought this in london since the tin charmed me, while i clearly remember the bonbons were not so tasty. this tin now contains my sawing kit.

pic 2, 3
lazzaroni amaretti cookies tin: this is quite ubiqitous. i used to have all three sizes. the tall one is a perfect size for spaghetti. this spicy macaroon’s tissue wrapper is beautiful, too. design-wise, i prefer retro to modern, by the way.

pic 4
another lazzaroni biscuits tin: i eventually bought this after several visits to fortnum mason. this is the tin that cost me my handbag. several months later i received a letter from the london transport lost property office, telling me to collect my handbag. a good world? but, i had to pay for restoring charge.

pic 5
ladyfingers (french sponge type biscuits) tin: i think i bought this when i lived in 横浜 yokohama. i was going to make a charlotte with these biscuits, but i ate them all before making one. threads, buttons and beads are crammed in there now.

pic 6
末富 suetomi japanese biscuits tins: my new numbers. in my opinion, these minimalistic tins are the best designed confectionery tins in japan. 末富 suetomi, an well-established confectionery in 京都 kyoto, does have its own aesthetics not only for confectioneries but for packaging as well.

pic 7
(additionally) whiteman’s sampler box: i bought this in new york last year. it is not a tin as you see. and it is a bit girly, you might think. still, this nostalgic feel makes me so hard to throw away when empty.

have a beautiful sunday, everyone!
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june whites

today is the last sunday of june. i suppose many couples tied the knot yesterday. any girl, once, now and probably forever, wants to be a june bride. i don’t know where this superstition came from, though. white wedding gowns look gorgeous and really stand out against the background of fresh green in june. “white” remains quite special as the colour of bride, while black is no longer the colour of wearing mourning. many women do attend weddings even in little black dresses these days. when i saw a host of articles about june bridals on the net, my elegant white elephants came back to my mind out of the blue.

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i thought: although i haven’t seen them for ages now, yes, somewhere, i still have those white things that make me feel romantic. Indeed, they were vacuum-packed in a plastic bag and kept in a box in my closet. so i opened the bag and let them out -- just exquisite. i sighed with deep admiration. my admiration obviously was for french women in mid 19th century who had done incredible needlework like these. i found white nightgowns at les puces in paris in the 80’s. flea market was one of my must-visits whenever i made a paris trip back then. i remember how i negotiated the price with the lady antique dealer when i bought the first one.

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dawn work, embroidery, pin-tucked pleats, trimming, scallop and ruffle are genuine vintage and all hand-sewn (a few seams in some parts were reinforced by machine). so, when did i wear these french white cotton chemise ancienne? well, one of them was cropped off to wear as a blouse; i wore it back in the new romanticism era. also, i’ve worn some with simple needlework as nightgowns. but, as i was scared to wear out, i was saving the complicated rest for special occasions, which have never happened so far. meanwhile, my other romantic whites: a lingerie bag bought from vietnam and a swatow hankie from china are new, so that i can use them without fears.
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blue and white

in kansai area where i live, the rainy season officially began on tuesday and june is a sullen month in japan usually. we’ve been having little rain so far, however. today, it looks even sunnier than yesterday, which makes me feel great. i, along with some two hundred workmates, completed a big translation project on friday, which means i’ll be staying home during daytime and weekdays from this week again. hooray!
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i really should go back to my own unfinished project right away. but my alter ego keeps telling me to take it easy; there’s no point in wasting a sunny day of a rainy month for the project with no definite deadline. ok. one more day, just one more day i should forget the fact that i made a vow to become a flagellant and remain an epicurean? i thought so. so, i’ve been lying on my sofa thinking what i would associate with june since this morning. i am imaging something refreshing – like blue hydrangeas in the rain for instance?

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and then refreshing colours – blue and white, perhaps? like my tea towels i bought myself in different global cities. also like my old china. i used to visit antique fairs in tokyo to buy 伊万里　imari (porcelain wares): sometimes a bit pricy 染付 sometsuke (hand painted with blue and other colours) and mainly inexpensive blue-and-white 印判　inban (blue-pattern printed), some of which i had to give up at some time or other when i changed the direction of my life.

luckily, my favourite blue-and-white café-au-lait bowls and plates are still kept in my cupboard. i bought one by one whenever i visited paris in my twenties. i was kind of obsessed about blue-and-white crockery when i was young. i had various english blue-and-white porcelain wares, too. then i got a little bit bored with them as i got old. therefore, i didn’t really care whenever i left many of them behind (i now regret that). at any rate, blue and white will forever be my favourite colour combination. and, what’s yours?

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lock, canal, stables and rocking horses

each time i hear of the news about the recent recession in britain, i recall the time when business remained slack but people were as sturdy as their wellington boots in this country. my 1st london life, which i personally call my “london flower-period” (i was studying floristry then), happened from 1988 to 1991. at the time, we didn’t really have a great choice of places to go on dreary sundays in the cold months. due to the sunday trading act, shops were not allowed to trade on sundays. even oxford street was deserted, you couldn’t imagine that now. so i’d take my kids to museums. or, another choice was flea markets, which i now miss most about london.

it’s february. a year ago, i learned that a large fire broke out in the camden market area on an online newspaper. i wondered and worried how much had affected the markets, because camden lock used to be my playground. but yet, i know camden lock is not what it used to be. i witnessed it changing over time during the 2nd and 3rd spans of my london life that lasted until 2005. i miss my london days when people still clung onto victoriana. it was before they had chucked out their chintz, which was ikea’s infamous tv campaign encouraging britain to buy brand new things; it was before “cool britannia” was born and also it was before a celebrity culture was rather hysterically welcomed be the british.

the camden markets have always been considered a tourist trap. it’s probably true. in the late 80’s i saw punks and goths hanging around the tube station, who obviously attracted tourists. i simply enjoyed being an onlooker, though i kind of sensed young people’s dissatisfaction with their society and themselves, or whatever. but then, i knew that there was something nice to be found and i could be a finder if only i’d drive my rickety austin metro heading for camden town: the lock, the canal and the stables markets of which stalls dealt food, crafts, second-hand clothes, used furniture, antiques and bric-a-brac, that is, a pile of junk.

i loved treasure-hunting at the markets. i still keep some of the stuff i bought there like jugs, vases and candle holders, although most of them just went missing as i’ve moved from place to place crossing the oceans so many times in my past 2 decades. things i found at the markets as love at first sight but sadly i couldn’t afford to take any home were rocking horses. i was a little girl who fantasised about going on horseback in the fairytale forest while riding on a merry-go-round; it’d always been my childhood dream to have my own horse till i realised it was a dream that would never come true. so, i’ve always had my soft spot for them.

i never forget about the sunday that i ran into one with cute wicked eyes, sitting nervously on a shabby arm chair next to the heart brand signboard. as much as i wanted to take it with me, it was a bit big for an impulse buy. i hoped that someone with a heart of gold would have that rocking horse join his or her family…well, like always, i think i am taking a trip down memory lane right now. anyway, as years went past, many antique (junk?) stalls disappeared from the camden markets. but certainly, there was a good old time for good old rocking horses. where did all the rocking horses go? ---i’m still thinking of them, and wishing them a warm home.