New Books!

I bought my first crafting books in Japanese yesterday! There is such a wide variety of crafting books here that it was a difficult task narrowing down my buys to just 2.

Book number one.

Yes, cross stitch. I've been wanting to dabble in some old-school cross stitch for a bit, and when I saw this book, I knew it was calling my name. I did some cross stitching as kid but never really thought about getting into it until recently. Every now and then I'll see a cross stitched piece and want to recreate it. Namely, my grandma's wall hanging of the 1859 poem, Overheard in an Orchard.

This book has some really lovely designs, some even look Scandinavian. I think I'll try to make a runner, perhaps with a combination of these patterns below:

Book two.

As I mentioned before, I want to work on my embroidery skills. I thought this book had some really fun, creative ideas that you could use to spruce up some onesies or kid's t-shirts. Even though it's in Japanese (which I don't speak a lick of) there are detailed pictures explaining each stitch. There's even a few pages at the end of iron-ons!

Here are few of my favorites from the book:

The wolves just make me laugh. And the octopus and penguin, how cute are they?