cat power!

[above picture is one i took in my room and was taken with my FIRST digital cam quite a ways back in 2004. i think my niece got this HK doll at mcdonald's and had two of them so i inherited it gladly!]

A Hello Kitty Moment:

As a little girl my mom used to take us to an expensive dept store in existence in the 80's here called Burdines. they had a section in the girl's clothing dept as i was one of those girls who loved clothes shopping and my mom took me a lot. anyway there was this little clear cubicle shelfing thingie that had all kinds of sanrio stuff which included hello kitty and other faves [some i have a few things from and saved from childhood]- my melody (i think thats the name} and little twin stars. these were all fond childhood characters i loved.

My main feel-good memory is my mom would allow me to pick one little thing from the Sanrio section everytime she took us to that dept store and as a treat she'd buy one item for me. it became a ritual and is a fond sentimental childhood memory.

Then in 2000 i found a Sanrio store in a suburb mall in Illinois, Schaumburg [Woodfield] and started shopping there frequently. I bought a lot of HK stationary/stickers + knick knacks and even had a frequent shopper card.

Everytime I go to Hallmark or Target [in the past 4 yrs] I see tons of HK items i want for me!!
My mom + i also got my niece into HK since a baby and she's got a ton of hello kitty oriented toys, clothing and such including the first CD boombox she was given as a 3 yr old by me and my mom for her birthday which was of course a Hello Kitty CD boombox much like the ones so popular back in the 80's- those Sharp ones- I had one of those and it was pink, the only difference is that it wasnt a hello kitty staple and it only had a tape cassette player as CD was not out back then!!!

Oh, the memories!!

+++

i cut out the following clip from my fashion magazine some years ago back in 2004- i think this is from ELLE. the hello kitty trend hasn't died down since and is as hot as ever to this day. i don't think this is a passing trend either. it only gets bigger and better as the years go by and it is definitely one trend i'd like to pass on to my child should i ever have a daughter :D

turning japanese.

By the way, I took some pix of the cool gifts my brother got us from Japan late last nite so I could share them here.

Hello Kitty tin can with delicious thin cookies that remind me of fortune cookies with light vanilla creme inside- both jimmy and I gobbled these up and finished them right away. they were unique, nothing like anything we'd ever had before!!

cool authentic bamboo artistic bookmark allister got for me!



below i included the very cute hello kitty pen allister got me along with the other stuff!!



hello kitty pen + bamboo bookmark again:



here's a close up of that pen!






My absolute favorite of the gifts Allister got me was this adorable sweet kitty cat statue/sculpture which he said in a note posted on it that he thought of Noelle and me when he saw it and got it with her in mind. this statue does remind me of my sweet kitty Noelle very much, even the way the statue's expression looks so content. I put this next to the other cute kitty knick knack that Jimmy got for me on an out of town trip that was also bought because it reminded him of noelle and me :) So here are some pix I took of the kitty, and then a few afterwards with both kitties next to each other. the one round and chubby is the one Jimmy got me and the one with eyes closed and tall/thin looks like its stretching was the one from Japan from Allister!!

[allister's noelle kitty is the one in front]

And, below are some adorable, amusing and cute gifts Allister got for Jimmy. We both really liked his choice and taste and I think Allister was right-on in his choices/ and assessment of picking gifts to go with Jimmy's personality :)


the scroll above and below some of the turtle charm which is located inside above scroll.

I found it amusing he chose this blessing scroll with charm from shrine, with a turtle charm since I am always referring to Jimmy as my turtle and like things with turtles on it- have a few things with turtles etc!

sorry if turtle is a bit blurry. i used macro and tried to avoid flash as to avoid glare but metal glares no matter what i do.

And, we both love this very amusing, hilarious and artistic/cutesy sumo wrestler guy statue which weve placed on top of our dvd tower thing, always good for a laugh and its always in the corner of my eye-view and makes me want to giggle!!

-the end

p.s it's going to be a busy week for us this week. our schedule is something like this:

wed- going to tia's for fajitas with coupon, buy one get one free coupon and planning to get passport photo done at walgreens or cvs. reality tv nite with project runway, top design, millionaire or million dollar listing!

thurs- relax at home

fri- jimmy's childhood/hschl/college friend from chicago is coming into town since his parents live here. he's friend is half japanese and is named ken. lives in chi and we see him every yr he comes down and stayed with him in his condo in 2007 when we were in chicago. we are getting together with him and prob going out to a club or bar for music and drinks. i expect to be exhausted that nite with socializing and for it to be a late drunken nite so i must preserve all my energy.

sat- morning- alessi bakery appt for wedding cake

sun. afternoon- appt with florist for finalization of contract, downpayment, final choices etc.

that's all i can think of right now!