I Moved!

It has come time for my blogging efforts to move. I mentioned in my last post that I would be moving to a new website—any hopeful self-employer needs a site in this age of the almighty Internet. I've imported this blog and my blog from France (the one that started it all) to their own subdomains for easy access. I'm really excited about the handy little features I can use and am still playing around with the bells and whistles, but the important stuff is all there.

The main site, petunkalunka.com, will mostly deal with my jewelry and creative projects. All my future posts about my life in Kameoka will be on ijapango.petunkalunka.com, so remember to redirect your links and RSS feeds to http://feeds.feedburner.com/IJapanGo! Please stop by and let me know what you'd like to see (I'm going to put up another morning dance video, eventually. Promise). Or just let me know how I'm doing.*


Anywhatsterwho, I need to clean for my houseguest tomorrow, so I'm off to get that finished before bed. Catch you all on the flip side, by which I mean at my new site.








*At running a website, not at life in general. I think I'm okay at life

This Is Now Relevant

I wrote this post when I was but an ignorant youth. Now it's real. This blog will have a new home at ijapango.petunkalunka.com. It's still a work in process, but the great part about the transition is that I can publish from behind firewalls. You know what that means: No Work FOREVER!!! I kid, I kid. I'll work when someone is looking.

Makes a Girl Feel Good

I was featured in an Etsy Treasury called "Natural" by DanuJewelry. It doesn't mean I've sold anything (or that I ever will), but it's still really, really nice.

Secret Project

I'm working on something new. I shan't say what, but it sounds like a ukulele, smells like Vietnamese food, and feels like glass.

Clawing My Way Back Up

…from that horrible test. You know that stress dream (that I've actually never had) about waking up one morning and having a huge final exam for a class that you never attended? Taking the JLPT N3 was like that, but without the dreaming and knowing that I should remember the crap on it because I'd just spent two months studying for it. Since that day I've been recovering, but culture fatigue and a hectic social agenda make it slow. Here's a quick update on the good parts of the last eight days in no particular order.

• Lots of time with people I enjoy
• Calling my family when I feel like it, just to play them the part of the Hallelujah Chorus that I figured out on the ukulele
• Chatting with Hannah
• Kim-Chi fed me soup.
• Home party with Nanami, Teresa and Dara
• Hanging out with Dara and Michie.

The rest is in picture and video form.

The mini watermelon plant in my container garden is bearing a fruit.

This isn't me, but my brother is pretty dang good at the piano, na?
 Check out his site at http://barroncp.com/

I made up a new salad that is perfect for summer. There's crab in it.

I made a lightbox from a cardboard box and leftover craft paper. 

It isn't perfect, and neither are my photography skills (especially since dropping my camera in a koi pond), but allows me to get the job done. It's for helping my to take pictures of jewelry for my Etsy shop.

Like this necklace

And this necklace

And these earrings

Plus there has been a lot of this:

You can't see it, but I'm not wearing any pants.

Moral: God is dang good to me.

DANG YOU, JLPT N3

Everything is on hold until the evening of July 3rd. Everything. Except for work, which means I really should get a move on.

On The Menu

This weekend is for:

• Spring Cleaning (yeah, I'm just now getting started, and I took a week off already)
• Working on the Ganbatte Times, because there's still an article about taxes on our homepage
• Gardening. The only plant I've kept alive for the last two and a half years has finally blossomed, which makes me think that maybe my thumb is greener than I first thought.
• Adding titles and captions to my photos in iPhoto (which will help me get that big Vietnam post together. No falling down on the job like with posting about Trinidad)
• Studying. The JLPT is on July 3rd, and despite plans and lists and good intentions, I've only cracked the books open once. Yipes.

My internet is currently down, because sometimes my modem just decides it doesn't want to work for a month or so. Instead of scrambling to get it fixed, I figure that this is a way for God to tell me to quit spending so much time watching action movies and clips of Whose Line Is It Anyway online. I'm going to use this minimal-web-access interim to knock things off of my To Do list and enjoy being in my apartment again. See ya, kids.

P.S. Below are some photos. Enjoy.

One of the best Bananagrams sessions I've had, despite losing to Sarah RT

My only photo of cherry blossoms from April

Taiwan! Part 2

Taiwan! Part 2, a set on Flickr.

Still working on that Vietnam post. Also, sorry, Facebook readers, because all of these photos are on my Flickr account.

Taiwan Part 1

Petunkalunka's photostream on Flickr.

I'm working on a big Vietnam post, so for now please enjoy the photographic evidence of my short vacation in Taiwan, right after my long vacation in America.