Happy New Year!

So, I know it's almost a month into the new year, but I figured if I got it in before Feb 1, it can still count as a New Year's post.  Besides, it's Chinese New Year this weekend, so I have that going for me to, haha

By this time, it seems that the holidays are long gone and a thing of the past....at least it does to me anyway.  But I am really trying to live up to my New Year's resolution, which is to come up with more artwork and not let the day job get in the way of that.  Hope you are all are doing well and keeping up with whatever resolutions you've made for the year.

Gingerbread House Contest

Earlier this month, the bunnies had a gingerbread house contest.  I was too busy, so I didn't get to do one, but which of these is your favorite?  Clockwise from top left:

1.  Brian and Pierre's Candy Classic - candy really is the best theme for a gingerbread house

2.  Roger, Manny and Pawvi's Jolly Nick - inspiration is obvious

3.  Karl and Number Nine's Gingerbread Castle, inspired by Karl's love of all things fabulous

4.  Iris and Pourvabunny's St. Basil's Cathedral, inspired by their love of the game of Tetris

Happy Birthday Beethoven!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite composers, Beethoven.  And in honor of his birthday, the bunnies and I thought we'd start up blog updates again after silence for over 6 months.  It's been a busy time with ninja training and the day job, but I'm reminded today that you need to make time to do what you love.  For those of you who have gotten this far and are thinking "wait, isn't his birthday the 17th???"...that was the day he was baptized, his birthday was the 16th.  Why do I care so much?  Because I've always really enjoyed the fact that we share a birthday.  I often use it as my "fun fact about me" for meeting ice breakers when I fee like it might not be appropriate to share the story about how I met Alice Cooper when I worked at Hot Topic.  

Yeah, so Beethoven....he's one of my favorite composers/pianists not just because of the music, but because he's such an interesting character.  I remember thinking as a kid, "man, that hair!"  As far as favorite pieces, here are the top 3:

1.  Moonlight Sonata (#14):  Beautifully creepy; the song that Shroeder plays in the Peanut cartoons.

2.  Sonata Pathetique (#8):  A commercial success, though considered eccentric at the time

3.  Fur Elise:  First Beethoven piece I learned; it's the one that you hear in music boxes and in babies' mobiles.

Well, there you have it, today's post!  More to come and more often too.  Thanks for checking in :)

I have a Candle Karl!

Hi Everyone - Happy Friday!  I am so happy to share with you that I finally got a Candle Karl....THE Candle Karl.  I was so bummed that I missed my chance to get it back in December because it would be have been an awesome birthday present to me from me, but I didn't even know it existed!  I must not have been following my Instagram meticulously when I was in Japan.  So you can imagine how disappointed I was when I saw it, decided I had to have it, and found out that it was sold out online.  I half though of a reason I might need to go to Europe so I could try to find one, but I really didn't have any plans to be in Europe at the time.

So, as if the candle wasn't already cool enough itself, I came across this pic of the Karl with it and REALLY wanted one:

However, it was still sold out and I couldn't even find one on eBay.  But low and behold, I was randomly on the Karl.com website (I know, shocker that I was online window shopping) and there it was back in stock!  So of course I snatched one and was VERY excited when it finally arrived.  As you can tell from the pic, it's much larger than a normal size candle...I have no intentions of using it, but if I were to light it, I'm sure it would take forever and half to finish burning.  It comes in a fabulous storage box too.  I'm a little bit bummed that it didn't come with a copy of the sketch that Karl made of the candle, but I'll get over it ; )

Unfortunately for anyone wanting one, it seems that they are sold out at the moment, but do keep checking back at http://www.karl.com in case it comes back in stock.  Who knows...maybe the Karl will design another version of it since a candle in his likeness has been so popular.  I'm sure Choupette will have her own candle shortly enough too.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Leap Day!

Hello and happy leap day!  Depending on how you look at it, this is just another day in the year, but as you can see, we like to find a reason to celebrate pretty much anything around here (keeps life fun), so Iris is going nuts in ballet today with her leaps.  She's probably going to be tired tomorrow and have to take the day off and say that she already worked an extra day, haha....

The technical reason we have a leap year is not that interesting (to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the Sun), but here are some fun facts about leap year that will help you see as more than "just another day"....the source for all this is the bunnies' excellent internet research skills:

1.  There actually exists an Honor Society of Leap Year Babies, a club for people born on Feb. 29, and this society has over 10,000 members.  I wonder what the perks of being in this society are...and if they have annual meetings....or only meeting on leap year???

2.  One of the traditions of leap day is that it is the one day that women can propose marriage.  The source of this tradition is that St. Patrick supposedly granted women this one day because of complaints from women about having to wait to be proposed to...I guess the relevancy of that depends on your cultural background, but if your a guy and not looking to get married any time soon and your girlfriend has been asking....watch out for this day.  Could avoid some awkwardness.  And in Ireland, Queen Margaret of Scotland began the tradition in 1288 that a man refused the proposal, he would be fined a kiss, a silk dress or 12 pairs of gloves.

3.  Without a leap day added to our calendar every four years, we would lose almost six hours every year and by 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days.

4.  There are two women in the world (unrelated) who have given birth to 3 leap year babies!  I wonder what the odds of that are???  Okay, I did some math, and it's at least one in 50 million...while the chances of having a birthday on a leap year are about one in 1,461

5.  There was once a February 30!!!  This date occurred in Sweden and Finland in 1712, when they added an extra Leap Day to February to help catch up their outdated Julian calendar with the new Gregorian calendar.  Seems kind of out there, but if you are every on Jeopardy, this fact could come in handy.

6.  There is an official "Leap Day Cocktail" invented by Harry Craddock at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1928

7.   Generally, leap years are considered bad luck, especially in Taiwan, Greece, and Russia so if you're superstitious, this is not a good year...in efforts to help counter all that, I'm ending this list on #7 for better luck (if you believe in that sort of thing).

Have a great leap day!

Murakami Exhibit @ Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

We are so lucky to be in Tokyo while the Takashi Murakami "The 500 Arhats" is on display at the Mori Art Museum.  I'm a huge fan, so the bunnies and I visited this amazing exhibit over the weekend and as you can see from the pics below....there was something of interest for each bunny (please click on pictures to scroll through)

First few days in town.....

Here is a recap of the first few days of this trip....not that eventful because we were mostly just getting adjusted, but still totally thrilled to be here!

1.  Bunnies made sure our new place was okay by testing the bed's ability to withstand them jumping around on it...they were skeptical because it was really low to the ground, but it passed the test...all good.

2.  Took a walk around the apartment when we arrived so we would know where everything is - most importantly, where is the nearest Family Mart.  They have these awesome "pancake sandwiches" which is two pieces of pancake, with butter and syrup in between, a totally awesome substitute to hold you over if you aren't having the real thing in a restaurant.  AND it's good to go as well.  Not to mention I need a convenient place to get my Orangina...although I am finding out that you can get it pretty much anywhere here.

3.  I got and personalized my Pasmo - so now I can make my way around Tokyo and pick up Orangina from vending machines!

4.  On the way to the office one morning, the bunnies found a bus which they thought would be perfect for their ninja bunny party bus.

5.  This is my office building...this is where I will be spending most of my time while the bunnies are out and about. 

That's all for now, but check back soon for pics of what we did this weekend!

Bunnies in Brussels

Iris, Karl, Piwi and I were in Belgium this week!  Here are a few pics from their adventure.  I was in meetings all day, but they got to go out and see a few things.  They were actually on a mission to find chocolate dachshunds.  Unfortunately, after visiting dozens of chocolate stores, there were not able to find any at all - they saw some chocolate mice, penguins, some dogs and even a hedgehog, but no doxies.  If anyone reading this is in the chocolate industry, I think there is definitely a market opportunity here.  Despite being unable to complete their mission for the week, they had a great time eating waffles and eventually came across a candy store...again, no candy doxies...someone needs to get on top of addressing this unmet need already!