Easter












A Swedish Easter tree

Polish Easter eggs



I am half Lithuanian and so it is tradition to paint eggs at Easter time.

I spent my childhood Easters at our beachside holiday house dying and then hand painting boiled eggs. I remember running around the garden collecting interesting shaped leaves to use as a relief pattern when dyeing. We would wrap the egg with the leaf and then tightly cover the egg with a stocking before dipping into the dye.

My uncle Gediminas would spend hours designing the one egg usually using a fine point black felt tip pen to draw a family portrait. My aunty Nijole on the other hand would create many wonderfully coloured abstract eggs. I was always somewhere in between - I admired the patience of my uncle Gediminas and yet yearned for the immediate results of the eggs created by my aunty Nijole.

Whichever way you paint eggs though, I promise you hours of fun and some very special family memories. I encourage you to dig out some food colouring and textas and get creative this Easter!

Rosie Flo
















Rosie Flo colouring books are the brainchild of UK Graphic Designer Roz Streeten. These gorgeous books with editions such as Garden, Kitchen, Animal and Night-time are so sweet that even big kids will want to sit down with a cup of tea and a pack of textas and colour in all day. The books have a lovely mix of collage and drawing elements printed in an unexpected sepia toned ink.

Roz says about the books "The paper quality is thick enough to avoid showing through or damaging the picture on the next page. It is sturdy enough to withstand a few journeys without falling apart and small enough to fit in a child's hand luggage. The lines are intentionally not too thick, as this makes it look like it is only for preschool children. The age range is between around 4 to 12 and beyond."


Rosie Flo has also been released in Japanese thanks to publishing company Magazine House.

You can watch a video of Roz's daughters Sasha Rosie and Sophie Flo colouring in some of their mothers amazing colouring in books here.

Rosie Flo books are available in Australia through Lark Handmade and internationally here. I can't wait to see which edition will be next!

Special thanks to the lovely Roz for taking the time to send me the images and video link for this blog post!

Mimashou!



Looking to pass the time before your next trip to Tokyo?

Try watching some Japanese drama or a Japanese movie (with English subtitles thank goodness!) on Korean site My soju. I am a fan of Lunch Queen (the best Omurice story ever), Tokyo Friends, Slow Dance and Zettai Kareshi!

Or, for an old time favourite, why don't you re-watch Lost in Translation while we all wait for the Australian release of Tokyo The Movie. Exciting!

POINT! Mimashou (見ましょう！）translates from Japanese into 'Let's watch!'.

UA







One of the fun things about having a blog is the lovely dialogue between other like-minded types. My friend over at Souzou noted that my post on artist Eleanor Avery reminded her of sets from her favourite kids show in Japan. The show is called Doremi no terebi and stars the multi-talented UA who could be described as Japan's answer to Bjork. UA has also studied at art school, modeled and and is very well known in Japan for her R&B and soul music. Isn't she divine! And aren't the sets just lovely! You can watch her Okinawa style musical performances here , here and here.