First images from Tokyo

I only took a few photos yesterday on our walk through Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya. We saw a lot of amazing places but I must admit, I just didn't get a lot of photos taken.


Hachiko the faithful dog.


I always seem to find my mother's name on trips abroad. In Brussels I sought out the Lunette cafe, but here I just happened upon this glasses shop.


Out of the hundreds of crazy outfits I saw yesterday, this couple won the crazy costume contest. He is wearing fleece pants and had on a fleece stole which he is now carrying and she is wearing a skirt made entirely of patches of sweater and trimmed with blue fur. Wow!


Our first takoyaki(also known as searing mouth pain) in Japan. These were delicious.


All gone!



Last night's dinner and my very first bowl of ramen in Japan. Shredded, leeks on top of this miso ramen made it very good but a bit strong in flavor. One of the tastiest bowls of ramen I've ever had.

hello! fall cheer

Just adding to my collection of cheery autumnal images for this year:



Apples? again? yes! you see, my extremely thoughtful and sweet neighbor brought these two little cuties down from Julian especially for me. He knows I love cute, little things.





Matthew's favorite halloween plate, since he loves crows. I use it for serving tiny snacks and such.


Seems as though it's the year for fall baskets. These are my very own darling gourds. I really did miss the last ones after I gave them away.



Last Halloween I made this little ghost fellow out of a sake bottle covering and some paper. Just a couple pieces of felt and some glue rounded out the entire project. He's pretty cute blowing around in the wind.

gorgeous gourds and pumpkins

Picked up a few beautiful fall decorations at the market the other day. I always get really excited about pumpkins but honestly, I never buy gourds, simply because they are not edible. I rarely buy food items that can't technically be eaten, just like I rarely grow things that aren't edible. Not to say that I don't end up tossing a good deal of the food I buy, or don't spend half the summer killing off my dear little herb plants, but I like the idea that everything I put my time or money towards serves a practical purpose.**



To justify my purchase of the darling gourds in the photo, I bought them as a hostess gift for a friend and noticed that immediately all my qualms about buying something useless and impractical vanished. And now that I've held in my possession such darling little creatures, though so brief was their visit, I'm beginning to think I should buy a few of them for myself. Maybe the second time around I'll have an easier time convincing myself that they are necessary.




Naturally, little eggyplant wanted to be photographed along with his new friends. What he doesn't know is that he's actually pretty small next to all of them. It's okay, they think he's pretty cute.





**applies only to grocery store items. please see numerous examples of useless and impractical purchases.

Lynnea vs. The Atlantic

Naturally, my first trip to the east coast must include my first encounter with the Atlantic ocean. Let me say this, it was a very short meeting and doesn't have me entirely convinced. I still like the Pacific ocean best, so far, I'm still a west coast girl. Now, admittedly, I was only in the water for 10 seconds or so and the pitiful little beach we found was, by no means a nice representation of what the Atlantic ocean beaches have to offer (I'm guessing/hoping).


Have to admit - we kind of picked a gross beach, but there weren't a lot of public beaches. We still aren't entirely sure this one was.


I pinky swear that we didn't photoshop Matthew into the photo but it sure looks that way.


Ready for a new experience.


Gently approaching my target.


Oh dear! it got me.


Done. Get me off this grody little beach.

I'll just say, the Atlantic won this time, but next time I'll be better prepared.

our quick trip to new england

Slidin' in just under a month with this post! =)

It isn't much but I thought I'd post a few of my favorite images from Matthew's and my trip to Rhode Island. This was the first time I've seen any part of The US that's east of Las Vegas. I must admit, I liked it.


In front of the Mayflower II -which was built in the 1950s - kind of silly but still gives a good idea of the incredibly cramped conditions people endured.


On the porch of Emily Dickinson's family home - I was beyond delighted to visit her home.


I picked up a lot of goodies at the Providence Farmer's Market. Such darling little veggies. Apparently, in Rhode Island they grow the friendliest, sweetest veggies, and their coffee cups all smile up at you when you're drinking out of them.


This little fellow might be delicious fried in butter until golden.


These two just begged me to take them home with me and I couldn't say no. Maybe it was the cuteness overload high or perhaps it was the beyond-perfect weather that made me want to buy everything I saw at the Rhode island farmer's market. I must say, Matthew and I were stunned by the incredible looking produce that the local farmers presented at this farmer's market. Everything was just huge and glowingly beautiful which made it very hard for a veggie crazed little thing like me to resist.


Now, this cup may not look as though it's smiling up at me, but the contents sure tasted like pure happiness in a mug, that is, if happiness is incredible hot chocolate that I am craving even now. I will admit, this isn't the only cup of the stuff that I consumed on our ridiculously short trip. The girls at this shop must have thought I was a chocolate addict or something but I didn't worry about that when I ordered a hot chocolate to chase my morning tea on our last morning in Rhode Island.

A few photos from our trip home in July

Matthew and I did so little on our most recent trip home, other than hang out in the sweltering heat with our darling families. One of the few activities we actually did muster up enough energy for was a visit to the Lavender Farm. I didn't expect much from the Lavender farm but ended up finding it very peaceful and relaxing(probably due to the affect of the lavender). I'm usually not one for relaxing but prefer to keep very busy because I like a sense of accomplishment, but this was a great time just sitting, sipping lavender lemonade with Matthew and his dear, sweet mom.



A labyrinth designed out of lavender - it was used primarily by great swarms of bees =)



The views were, of course, stunning as well.



See how Relaxed I am?

itty bitty glass fishy

On a recent(well, a bit less recently than I think*) trip to Crate and Barrel, I picked up a little bag of fishies. I could resist neither their bright colors and little swirls, nor their little fishy pleas to give them a good home. They were simply adorable! Of course, the next question, after the initial question of whether to purchase them or not was answered, was "what to do with the little cuties." You may notice that I encounter this question a lot, far too often, in fact. But that stems from my "ability" to happily pay money for items that I have no need for and never will find a use for.



I thought they were just too pretty in the little fish bowl, so took a few photos to share. I'm sure I'll find other uses for them but until then they are swimming merrily around in the fishy bowl which I have on my living room table. It's fun!

* By the way, yes, it has been a month exactly since I last posted. Really, really naughty of me. I've been extremely lazy lately. No idea why, but I'm sure I'll find something to blame =)