Being Beata

My random crafty achievements of the week

Flower arrangement

Mac & Cheese

Yes – Mac & Cheese is an acheivement for me .  Those of you who know me know that I don’t cook.  I heat.  And normally, I woudn’t consider boxed Mac & Cheese cooking either, but I was crafty and got some super extra sharp cheddar (the way I like it) and grated it and put it on top.  Then I broiled it.  Mac & Cheese pizza.  OMG – so heavenly.  I really wasn’t going to eat much of it, since I already had sushi for dinner before I even made it, but my body objected.  I had dental surgery that morning, and I guess my body wants the extra calories to recover or something (at least that’s what I’m telling myself).  I ended up eating the whole pan.  Yeah – that was a little bit of binging even for me.  But it was delicious, and I have stuff to make more.  Yum!

I’ve been splurging on flowers whenever I go grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. It is quite therapeutic for me to just stand in my kitchen and arrange my flowers. And then they just make me happy while they bloom and look pretty for two weeks (I was surprised, but they really last that long!). Anyways, here are pictures of the last 2 that I did.

This first one is a sideways cascading arrangement. The vase that I have sweeps up, so I just followed the line and made it fall at the same angle.

I tried to put the roses on feature in this second one, while the others are trying to be a background curtain, if you will. The first picture I took the night that I arranged it. I was pretty disappointing because I didn’t have enough flowers to fill in the space. But then, the flowers bloomed after a few days and filled in pretty nicely, so I took more pictures of it sitting on my dining table.

As received for graduation from mom:

A little Ikebana creativity.  I realized how much I missed doing that.

I’ve always loved scrapbooking, but I only scrapbook when the inspiration hits me, and usually, that’s when the scrapbook store is closed. I also hate glue and scissors, so actual scrapbooking becomes a chore sometimes. However, I recently discovered digital scrapbooking, and I’ve been addicted ever since. I’ve always loved manipulating images on my computer anyway, and this is just another excuse for me to do that more often. I’ve made 2 things so far. What do you think?

So on November 25, I had my last Ikebana class. I’m actually quite sad that it all has to end, but I had lots of fun in the mean time. Instead of doing regular Ikebana, we did a bouquet this time. It’s actually way harder than Ikebana, and we all stayed there way overtime just to try to put it all together. It’s not that big either. Now I completely understand why wedding flowers are so expensive (not that I like it any better).

But anyhow, here it is:

On November 19, the Ikebana class I’m taking had a little exhibition. I did two pieces (with LOTS of help from the teacher’s assistants). They turned out beautiful. (Pictures courtesy of Lauren (Thanks!) , since mine didn’t turn out very well)

Here’s my first one – front and side view. The front view is very interesting – sort of a hidden beauty kind of thing. The side view is much prettier though.

Here’s my second one. This one was especially hard because insetad of putting the branches in the vase, I somehow had to balance the branchs on top of a regular vase (yes, there’s nothing special in the vase – just a regular one.) I rolled up a bunch of branchs to put in the vase and then stuck the branchs through them. Even the assistants were struggling… sigh)

Here are the rest of the Ikebana on display. They’re a little small to save space, but you can just click on them to enlarge them. Eventually, I’ll get them up on my Multiply photo album, but I’m out of space this month.

Here’s my latest Ikebana creation. The materials are called Himemizuki 姫水木 and Kietou 鶏頭 (Plume cockscomb). Freestyle is really kind of fun, except that it’s terribly hard. I had lots of help from the teacher with the red stuff in the middle. But at least it turned out well.

We started freestyle Ikebana this week. It was ridiculously hard, but very fulfilling.

My materials this week was Wingled Spindle (錦木) and Anthurium (アンスリューム).

I did the first one first, so it’s quite a bit better. I had about 30 minutes left after I finished that one, so I tried to do another one real fast. As you can tell, it didn’t quite work out as well.

I love my flowers!

Here’s my most current Ikebana creation. I missed last Friday’s class to go to Nara, but then I come back and we’re doing this whole new thing that’s terribly hard! This style, where you just arrange it in a vase, is called Nageire. The last style, Moribana, had a little pin thing on the bottom where flowers will stay however you arrange it, but this one, you have to just make it balance at the perfect angle in the vase. Mine fell like 5 times before the teacher came and fixed it for me.

A nice little consolation is that I’m not really supposed to learn this one that quick. I think it took the teacher 3 years to master this one (at least that’s what my little Japanese comprehension got me to understand anyway). Well, it looks pretty anyways. And I basically managed to replicate it at home.

Anyways, here it is. Yay! The flowers are called 青文字 (Aomoji), グラジオラス (Gladiolus)、赤い菊 (Red Chrysanthemum)

Tonight was Ikebana night again, so here’s another one of my creations! The flowers used today are Beniaoi 紅葵 and Shirorindou 白竜胆. I have no idea what they’re called in English…

I also got my hair cut today. I kind of got tired of the long hair so I went short (ish) again. What do you think?