Hope you are having a great Memorial Day holiday today… xo Hijiri

Picture is from the rooftop of 2nd avenue and Houston — The Empire State Building is blue, white and red this weekend!

Posted under NYC

I know I am so late on this, but I just saw this video on etsy blog — Handmade Portraits: Sharon Montrose.

I have been a big fan of her work and so seeing this video was such a treat and I was so inspired by her love of photographing animals. So precious.

Make sure to check out her amazing work here. If she ever takes photos of dachshunds or chinchillas, I am SO getting it…

Posted under Inspiration

Wishing you a very Happy Valentine’s day!

As you know, I could never get enough “hearts” and when I realized, my flickr favorites and etsy favorites were filled with hearts! So I decided to share some here for a celebration of… love! Enjoy :)

Heart Factory:

via dottie angel:

Tiny Sterling Silver Heart Ring:

via dayataglance:

via mrs. french:

Heart balloon planter (my friend yuki also sent me this shortly after I hearted this on etsy):

via kygp:

via sa_su:

Vintage sweet Valentine Card:

via tinytoadstool from dadaya:

via simple + pretty:

Happy Happy weekend! <3<3<3

I will be back on Tuesday! (Monday is a President’s Day holiday here in US and we are celebrating our pre-wedding-anniversary! *we got married on the President’s Day, but the actual date is the 19th… and the actual celebration will be on the 19th so it is “pre” anniversary… yes, it’s complicated :))

Posted under Inspiration

I have been having such a great time in Japan, but it is time to say good-bye and get back to my creative life in New York… I am leaving tomorrow morning, traveling all day, all night, and another day long (sigh, soo long) — just wanted to post some more pictures from Japanese new year before it is too late to even talk about it… (time really flies!)

Hatsuhinode (first sunrise of the year):

Omikuji (random fortunes):

My omikuji being attached to a wall of metal wires in the shrine (read more about it here)

Osechi (traditional Japanese New Year foods):

Love this special chopstick cover — do you see the embossed art? The silver and gold Mizuhiki knot is great, too.

I want to thank all my family and friends who made this trip even more special. I got lots of great energy from them and I couldn’t thank them enough!!! I can’t wait to use this energy to create something new this year!!!

See you all later this week from New York — will be back fully, posting 1-2 posts everyday again :)

Posted under Japanese

Hello, hello!! It’s me! How are you, everyone? It’s year 2010! How has your new year been so far?! I hope you are off to a great start! Mine has been pretty awesome — spending a quality time with my family and friends, traveling around and seeing lots of great places/things here in Japan, eating lots of yummy foods… I couldn’t ask for more :)

Just wanted to stop by here and say hi real quick :) I have so many pictures already, I hope to share them all here so please stay tuned…

Picture is from Japanese new year — “kadomatsu” in front of my parents’ pharmacy.

I have so many hopes and things I’d love to accomplish this year, I still need to sit down and really think about them… it’s always nice to have a goal!

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and exciting new year 2010!!!

Posted under Japanese, events, trip

Wow, can you believe 2009 is almost over? Just wanted to wish you a Happy December! My neighborhood treeline street looks already winter-like since all the leaves are gone…

Off to letterpress studio, see you all tomorrow! :)

Posted under Park Slope

One of my favorite photographers, Amy at Montague is having a giveaway! Just comment on her post and you are entered to win her beautiful calendar for year 2010!

Check out her gorgeous photos on montague, too… sigh… so pretty…

Wednesday morning inspiration… I’m inspired…

Posted under art

Unlike last year, I got to enjoy a whole day and night of Halloween this year! As you’ve seen Maia’s witch costume, it was fun to walk around with her — she was the most popular dog on the street!

Went to 7th Avenue Halloween Parade in Park Slope for a start. It was the safest and the most wholesome Halloween parade I’ve ever been to :) Filled with lots of kids and parents, it was fun.

Maia watching people go by.

I met Hine who was in town from Canada! So nice to meet you!!

Family Halloween photo (I was a hippie… Randy was ??):

and then, I went to Manhattan with my friends — it was crazy just as I imagined.

In front of Webster Hall. No way we could have gotten in… It was raining so the picture came out moody and I like it.

How was your Halloween?!

Posted under Maia, NYC, Park Slope, events

So I was in Meredith, New Hampshire over the weekend for my friend Liz’s girls celebration before she gets married in D.C…. (it’s this Saturday!) It was such a fun trip, I saw lots of beautiful fall scenery everywhere we went, here are some pictures from the trip… enjoy!

Found type — Cruise ticket office sign.

I always love coin-operated binocular viewers. This one was by the lake…

We took a train that goes around the lake for like an hour.

A red tree. Isn’t it romantic?

Driving around the lake…

These were so beautiful…

Stopped by this really tiny vineyard for a wine tasting. It was special.

On Sunday… it snowed…! Looking out the window from our lake house we rented… (you might not see well here, but it was snowing so much!)

Have a great day, everyone!

Posted under trip

Happy Friday, everyone and today is the last day for the Autumn Color Week… and today’s color is RED. It’s been so fun and I was inspired by the each color everyday and looking at the flickr pool has been such a treat! Thank you, Jan and Earl, for such a wonderful idea :)

And here are some red inspired photos I took…

My neighbor’s Red Door. (really pretty)

In New York, you will see this emergency tower everywhere on the street.

and… here are some sneak peeks for my holiday cards… coming very soon at my shop…

I can’t wait to share more… :)

Thank you so much for being with me this week for the autumn color week! xo

Posted under Inspiration