Cherry blossom

My weekend was filled with watching cherry blossoms. When the cherry trees bloom it's madness in Japan. The parks are crowded with people drinking, eating and enjoying the pretty blossoms. So much fun!

Instagram rules!

Wow...people are creating some beautiful stuff on Instagram! I like the work done by Karen Michel, especially love the colors. 

Many of the best shots seem to be taken at beaches, these are also a recurring theme in Matsumotokazuo's shots. 

Eime_e really knows how to work the vintage feel into her pictures.

Sgoralnick makes great shots with a good sense of composition and color.  I hope one day my phone pics will look just as good as hers.

Things to love: Fuji instax mini

A couple of weeks ago we visited Akihabara, also known as Tokyo's electric town. There are many big electronic stores and lots of manga and anime shops (I'll try to remember to post some pics later this week). In one of the shops I was checking out the Diana lomo camera's that everyone is so crazy about when I spotted a strange looking camera. It was the Fuji instax mini 7,  a camera that takes instant pictures just like the famous Polaroid camera's.  The fun thing is that these pictures are credit card sized. I couldn't resist and took a camera home with me. Above are some of the pics I took so far. The pictures have a real retro effect which I like a lot! 

Gloomy mixtape

Thanks to Hello Sandwich I found this great site where you can mix your own cassette tape. Just like the old days! You can even collaborate with others to put a tape together. What a great idea!

Here's the first tape I created. I'm longing for the end of winter. On cold days like yesterday I snuggle up in my apartment and listen to melancholic songs. Some of them are on this tape. Winter by Tori Amos is one of my all-time favorite songs. And I recently discovered Fever Ray who's intense sound gives me chills.



Hope you enjoy this tape as much as I do. And please share your tape with me too!

Things to love: Japanese stationary

Ow how I love Japanese stationary. I've never seen such cute stationary before. The colors, the designs...I'm amazed with the amount of creativity that goes into it. My collection is growing every week. This week I bought two sheets of stickers that show body parts. Not sure where I would stick these on...I mean where would you put a sticker of a liver or lung on? Still I couldn't resist since looking at this design made my day!

Another nice find are these thick plastic animal stickers. Again I fell for the level of detail here. The rabbit has a tiny bow-tie around his neck and the tree is all fluffy and has a paper bird. 

Besides the seals I also found another roll of Japanese masking (washi) tape with a pattern of birds, bows, flowers and macarons. Love the pastel color of it!

Things to love: Pad and Quill iPhone case

I'm so happy with my Little Black Book iPhone case that I bought from Pad and Quill's Etsy shop! It's not only nice to look at, it's also doing a good job protecting my iPhone. The case is handmade, looks like a little black book and contains a little peek hole for the camera (install the Quiet camera app if you want to be a spy).