Craft:

Here I am, finishing up the week of Blogs We Love! I look at so many blogs that it's a pleasure to concentrate on just one, exploring it for favorite posts and trying to capture a little of its flavor. I'm currently a little in love with Moonstitches, a blog that experiences Japan through a German aesthetic. It's a beautiful pairing!

You can see it perfectly in this post from early last year about tea and the colors of tea: "Chairo, literally translated tea colour... do you know a lovelier way to describe the colour brown?" She then goes on to show a matching up of teapots:

I'd like to show you my teapot. It is from my grandmother. My mother had it for many years.Not exactly what I like because roses are really no favourite flowers of mine, and it is chipped, but more than anything this teapot is memories to me.

The lid was lost some time ago which used to make me a bit sad. But when I broke my dear owl's teapot last year I tried to make the best of it and just let the lid from the broken pot cover my grandmother's lidless teapot. It fit perfectly. And seeing it all together makes me happy everyday.

I love how the blog has a mix of crafts, beloved objects, and glimpses of another culture. The month of December, had a post each day with the number of the date seen around and about (the 27th showed a picture of a photo booth that takes 27 seconds to print, the 26th showed a 26 on the back of a truck).

We also get a glimpse into daily life, and the joy of a hot sweet potato:

Above a ishiyaki imo, a hot, sweet potato, baked on stones, a winter speciality. Mine came from the supermarket and was eaten right from the paper bag, cut on the ironing board because that was the nearest table-like thing when I wanted to eat the potato after returning home, hungry and in a hurry. Slow people always have to hurry. Traditionally the potatoes are sold from little trucks that are driving through the streets, playing the well-known yaki imo song.

A self-confessed fabric addict, she also has a wonderful wealth of fabrics (Japanese or otherwise) to show. Her annual posts about the Japanese International Quilt Festival almost stop my heart, and I love the projects she shares with us, from handknit sweaters to quilt squares. Her photography is as clear as day, and I always end up spending some time looking at her Flickr photo pool after I'm done catching up on the blog. One of the nice things about discovering a blog when it's been around for a while is having the pleasure of exploring old posts depending on your mood. Moonstitches always has something to lift my spirits and start my eye looking in a new direction.

Related:

• Blogs We Love: Evil Mad Scientists - Link.
• Blogs We Love: A Ervilha cor de Rosa - Link.
• Blogs We Love: Oh Joy! - Link.
• Blogs We Love: Knick Knacks & Ric Rac - Link.