First Tomato ;D

The luscious first hydroponic tomato in our garden!
Too precious to eat..... but I had a bite and it was delicious.....!!!

Happy Amazingly Fantastic New Year 2011 ;D

This winter holiday I was in Japan!! :D Happy super-belated first new year post here!! :P
The beautiful New Year's decoration "Okazari" my mother put on our door says "Welcoming spring" ;D

For 2011...

人のためになることを見つける、人に与えること

Find something helpful to people, giving back to people

感謝と敬いの気持ちを忘れない

Remember to appreciate & respect

期待の気持ちを持たないこと

No expectations

何事もやってみる！

Try everything!

物事を延期ばかりしない

Do not postpone things-to-do

何でもポジティブな面を探してみる

Find positive sides of everything

空を見上げてみる

Look up the sky

鳥たちが楽しそうに飛んでいる

Birds are flying joyfully

微笑む

Smile

心でも微笑んでみる

Smile in your heart

深い深呼吸...　息をすって...はいて...

Breathe in... breathe out.....

愛情いっぱい！

Full of LOVE!

My mother's "Ozouni" is the best!! :D I can have this everyday!!! 

The magical ingredients are mochi (Japanese rice cake), carrots, shiitake mushroom, daikon (Japanese radish), shungiku (garden chrysanthemum), satoimo (Japanese taro), yuzu skin on top which has super refreshing aroma, and of course my mother's amazing "LOVE" to make every dish deliciosoooo....!

Super Hydroponic!!

Earth Day, Everyday! ;D I would like to share one of the ultimate ways to reduce our carbon footprints for both human and planetary health: create an organic hydroponic garden in your urban apartment ;D If you live in a house with a yard or greenhouse, it's even better!
This basil plant is happily growing in filtered water and nutrients! This is the first time for me to see basil flowers and I am speechless in their beauty...!

Here are our baby seedlings in "coir": fiber from coconuts husk:

Happy cucumber babies:

Beautiful sunflower baby is coming out:

Our tiny yet super-local organic garden ;D 

If you live in Massachusetts and want to set up a hydroponic garden, you should definitely visit Greenlife Garden Supply in Billerica! These awesome hydroponic gurus, Steve and Matt, will help you all the way to create your garden! They are always fun, the store is full of colorful psychedelic graphics and reggae music is playing so I am feeling at home ;D

From left, Matt, Mihoko and Steve:

All the fun colorful graphics:

And of course their green babies are growing amazingly!! Here is their Swiss Chard; they are as long as my arms!

Super healthy Collard Green:

Matt told me that these purple lights create no heat:

Let's bring organic produce to your super-local garden to keep us and our earth healthy and happy! ;D

Fabulous Moo!

The Altpick Awards gave me the opportunity to create business cards at Moo.com; the Moo experience was so pleasant! Moo's logo and fonts are lovable and the web-interface is an eye pleaser. Their super-user-friendly instructions are crystal-clear all the way! :D

The big difference between a regular printer and Moo is that with Moo you can print various images on your cards! For example, if you are printing 100 business cards, you can have 100 different images if you like. And Moo cares about the environment! They now have 100% recycled paper, which is produced using wind energy! ;D 

My box of Moo cards arrived several days earlier than the estimate delivery date! I respect and admire Moo's packaging ability :D They are thinking about the person who is opening the package; it is a feast for your eyes and super smooth to handle ;) The quality of the "Moo Green" business card is really impressive! All my colors are printed exactly the way I wanted. Several environmental printing companies once told me that the hot pink is very difficult to print on 100% recycled paper but Moo makes it possible!! 

Now when I meet people I fan out a deck of my cards and let them choose the one they like, but they quite often love several of the different artworks so I end up giving multiple cards to each person. So the only problem is that you will give away a lot more cards, which is actually great for your business so it's not really a problem at all! ;D

Sending my Huge Thank YOU to Moo for making artists happy & sparkle, and special thanks to Maria Ragusa-Burfield, the founder of Altpick, for introducing me to Moo! ;D

As a side note, my name in Japanese is 羽方 美穂子 (Hakata Mihoko). On the information side of my business card you may notice the pink stamp, "hanko" in Japanese, showing the character of my first name 美穂子. I curbed the stone and polished it to create the hanko probably back in junior high school in Japan! Dango shape was my inspiration because it is so comfortable for our hands. When you hold this super smooth and sleek hanko, it will make you want to keep stamping! Usually we use red ink for hanko in Japan but of course I chose hot pink color for the business card! ;D

Aloe Baby from Maureen :D

Dear friend, Maureen, gave us a baby aloe! Here is the Thank YOU Card I made for her ;D

This soil is the most fresh & softest soil you have ever touched! It is made by our 24 hours open worm factory and this is the first time to plant anything with the soil! I am really excited to make a little garden near the windows here :D The hard-working earth worms digest our organic vegetables and fruits scraps and their poop become the amazing soil :D They are the smartest & perfect pet you can ever have ;P

You can get to know more about the worm factory here, the fabulous article written by Brandon Welti :)))

Speechless Natural Beauty...

My super talented photographer friend Takami (check out her gorgeous poetic pictures!) came to Concord with a cool hat during the summer and we went canoeing in Sudbury River! Thanks to our sweet neighbour John, we rented his canoe and put on the top of our car! You see the gorgeous reflection here?

Just start paddling the canoe, Che jumped into the water!! She has already experienced taking a bath, riding a loud and busy New York Subway, swimming in the Walden Pond, cuddling with me in bed, so maybe this was her new challenge?! Probably her curiosity made her jump! We are not sure why she jumped, did she like water or she didn't like canoeing? Hmmm... either way, now she is happily sleeping in my arm :D

Beautiful graphic patterns on water... speechless...

Happy moment surrounded by nature... :D Yes, this is taken by Takami Shimura ;D Arigatooo as Always!!!

And the gorgeous sunset!!

Puppy sitting ;D

My friend Claudine needed a puppy sitting for 2 weeks. Of course, we say, "YES WE CAN!" with big smiles :D

You are right, I don't own a dog, I have never had a dog, this is the first time to do a puppy sitting! It is fun to have such a beautiful sweetest creature with you everyday, it is tough to wake up 6 AM every morning to go for a walk and wait for your dog to do pee and/or poop and the same goes to the night time! Like me, who sleeps and wakes up whenever I feel like, this puppy sitting experience made our life like the one of Buddhist monks! :P

This sweetest Bernese Mountain dog is just a 8 weeks old. Her name is Che, yes, she is a girl but Claudine named her Che, because of her passion for Cuba and Che Guevara. Che smells like a milky baby, super sweet, her stomach is soooo kissable and always smooth and warm. She will be a big dog so she has huge soft paws which I can't stop touching :P Her nose is so cute too, very soft and pink. You cannot get tired of just looking at her!

My super smart friend Roshan is right. A dog dreams! Che often dreams. She moves her legs and make noises, while she is sleeping. Amazing.

If you are single and looking for a partner or just want more new friends!!, I definitely recommend to own a dog ;P But the dog has to be cute and friendly and if possible a rare dog (better to avoid loud barking dogs like chiwawa etc) so people will talk to you! :D So many people stopped us when we went for a walk. It will take a way longer to just walk several blocks because everyone wants to talk to you and touch your dog ;P So be ready for that~!!

"Happy in my shadow" - Che loves a shade, she doesn't like hot weather at all. She is a master of finding a shade! When she gets tired of walking, she often sits in my shadow and gives me a happy smile like this :D

Very GREEN Massachusetts :D

Oh dear Bloc11 Cafe~!! Found my new favorite place in Massachusetts ;D It is a real deal "Green" cafe with a touch of East Village coziness and New York City cool-ness ;D

Friendly people with delicious food and coffee... I wish I lived near this cafe! Yeah then I would come here every day ;P

They DO recycle, everything! The register lady told us that they have composting bins in the back. And you see, they use "ecotainer" here ;D Viva Bloc11~!!!

You will see only his back in this pic but that is my new fabulous friend Max Jackson with his creation Didgeridoo :D Visit his website to see his Didgeridoo, purchase one, listen to his music and more!! ;D

Maureen sunrise ;P Enjoying delicious brunch in their beautiful garden terrace :D I LOVE this picture of her!

This building was a bank before and they kept the bank doors! How cool is that! Fantastic idea :D Kids were playing inside of the vault ;D

And in Concord, MA, where I spent the month of August, you have to pay $1.50 for these Green tickets and put them on your garbage bags when you throw away :) That is a gooood thing~!!

Cute Frog on the Salad?!

My dear friend Zoe's cute frog on our super fresh herb salad?! ;D It was SO MUCH FUN as always!! Big ARIGATO to you, Zoeeee ;D See YOU very soon! :)))

Blooming Solar Flowers on Broadway ;D

When you see huge flowers like these suddenly blooming on Broadway, you will be so surprised! So was I! My dear friend Jeanne, Roshan and Melissa planned to go to the Madison Square Park one night with their cute dog Manny, we found out recently they installed these Toyota "Prius" free Wi-Fi Solar Flowers on Broadway! Here is the press release.

Colorful Encounter :D

Naked Bodies in Union Square ;P

One evening I found these naked bodies in Union Square when the vendor was ready to go home! I asked the vendor guy to do this and played with colors but if you see it carefully, the body he was touching was actually a male body! ;P

"Hoping you have a Better Day Today than you did Yesterday"

Look what I found at C train Spring Street station! Passionate beautiful roses and bright yellow papers on the ground!! It is said, "Hoping you have a Better Day Today than you did Yesterday"... At this same station, I saw several times scattered roses on the ground (no bright yellow papers, just flowers), all smashed, which looks like someone broke someone's heart or some couple had a big fight because everyone stepped on those roses and look rough on the ground... what do you imagine? ...make all the possible scenarios in your head...??
This is indeed "Street" Art, communicating with audience without any control of being stepped on and re-arranged by people, animals or thunder storm! It just hit my heart and went deep inside of me... even my veins are drinking up this fantastic moment... I wish they put their contact information or website address or something so I can express how much appreciate the artist!!
I want to do more artworks like that! Pure intention of making people feel fabulous!!!

Cats Hug Glen :D

Big Thank YOU for your purchase, Glen!! My pink cats are happy with you and your cutie cat :D
Glen is not only a magician and professional blackjack player who does circus arts, but also a programmer who recently created this cool graphic i-Phone application "5BX"! What a Renaissance man!
"The 5BX exercise system was developed by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1970s. "
You can support him by purchasing this program for only $0.99 and write a great review for him! ;)))