The Blues and pinks and green edamame

Hydrangea are in full bloom, everywhere. 

You can see hydrangeas bloom almost at every corner in Tokyo. Seem to make the humid rainy season more enjoyable and something to look forward to. 

There are so many types and colors and sometimes the color is mixed pink to blue. The other day while driving by the tamagawajosui, which is a man made stream which was made to bring water to Tokyo back in the day, I discovered so many hydrangeas planted there! It was great to see the different colors along the long stretch.  I wouldn't have known if I didn't drive at this time. 

Around this time I get inspired by the vibrant colors and choose clothes that are the shades close to the hydrangeas. 

So this is my skirt, and a daifuku. 

Daifuku is rice cake, very soft and usually has red bean inside. They are one of the confectionary that is less sweet. This seasonal daifuku has edamame inside made to a paste with little chunks still remaining. A little sweet and I bit salty. So glad I am here to taste this because I do love edamame. So many things that are seasonal to enjoy by taste and also through scenery, I am still not bored with you Tokyo~!  

Tiny flowers

We are almost at the end of May. 

One of the things I enjoy about living in Tokyo are the seasons. I know there were seasonal changes even in California or Los Angeles. It was just not that apparent for me? Or it could easily be that I was not aware that plants and scenery could change so much. 

I did love the jacaranda trees in LA.  Everywhere I went there was that bright purple tree! And I remember it was was in May when it was graduation season for my school. 

Every year at this time, you can find these tiny flower that grow on the side of the streets. It inspired me to make my hanna collection which are gold tiny flowers you can wear as rings, necklaces and earrings. 

I found a spot right under my mailbox where it grows every year from a crack of the concrete. The flowers seem to cover more surface each year, something that I'll be looking forward to next year. 

The rainy season around the corner

May is about to end. 

I've been spitting these hydrangeas here and there. And that means in no time the rainy season is about to start. 

It's been a little over a year since we moved to this location in Harajuku. We've met so many people who loves jewelry and thank you for coming by and supporting us.  Can't believe how quickly a year had gone by. 

We have made some changes to the store. (Since my last post) We've added bigger windows to the door and made two of them. More edible plants. There's a light added above. 

Inside there are a few updates too and a lot more jewelry!  

July

It is almost going to be our fourth month after opening the store.  Can't believe how fast time has passed. 

Since we have opened our doors, we have been making little  changes like making a window for the door and making our edible plant garden in the front.



It's getting hotter and some days are more humid than others. But the sunsets are really pretty. Yesterday,  it wasn't cloudy and rainy and we saw a glimpse of the sky. the store was more orange like the sky. 




In the photo you can see the sky reflected. 

Every week we change the jewelry on the dress form. This is this week.

Long lapis necklace by Mityl. Long necklace with golden sculptural piece by Steven Hanna. Carrot necklace by Corinne Simon Jewelry. 14k melody necklace by ileava. 

We're open !

Yay~!

Our store is now open!!

Opening day we recieved so many flowers it was really amazing!

It is one of the customs in Japan when a new business opens to send flowers. This way people passing by know that the store is new. First time to be in a position to receive them though and I just love flowers~

Another custom is to give these flowers to the people who came to your store as to share the good luck. 

Interesting Japanese cuatoms!!

new door

It is getting a little warmer day by day and plum blossoms are in full bloom. Love it when I get a whiff of the scent.


We are at a new chapter for ileava. 
We are going to open our very own store!

This is the door that will greet me everyday and everyone who may be curious to see what is in this little store.

We found an antique door and fixed it up a little and gave it a fresh coat. Now it looks really warm and welcoming.



Can't wait for all this to come together. Although there is a lot to prepare still~

why do I love rings so much?

I  started wearing rings, a lot of rings in high school.
As I started taking jewelry classes and was done with college, I realized that I was ruining my rings by wearing then next to each other. I really like those clinking sounds that all my silver rings made...

Now I don't wear them next to each other but I still really really like rings.
There are few rings on both hands that I wear all the time but the rest I change up more often.

This is my recent ring that I made. 
Another ring that I wouldn't mind having myself ... I think this new ring is going to go on my pointer finger. 
It is the tallest and largest ring that covers your finger among the rings in ileava. It is another version of the ring I made a while ago, here I have both on.

It feels almost like metallic lace covering your fingers.

Love rings!