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This journal is written by Kuma (Felis catus) and Kuma's owner Y (homo sapiens). We have moved from Japan to Australia in 2011.

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2016-06-23 00:43   Making Bread Miniatures

Y (Kuma's owner)

I love miniatures. There are lots of types of miniatures, like cars, dolls, trains, houses and so on. I would like to make houses, furniture or anything that I can make but it's impossible to make all of them so I have chosen four things. Miniature bags, food, books and houses.

As I wrote before, I made miniature tote bags. The reason I had chosen making miniature bags was I had material and tools, like a sewing machine. I had enjoyed making miniature bags enough, so I wanted to make other miniatures.

One day I saw a fantastic book on Amazon. The book was written by Mayu Sekiguchi. The pictures of miniature breads look real. Once I saw the book, I couldn't wait to make miniature breads. The book I bought was sent from Japan. I was so excited but I found out that some materials were unable to get in Australia. The clay to make miniatures seem to be specific one. The author use the polymer clay "MODENA" and I decided to use the same one. I looked for "MODENA" but I couldn't find any in Australia, therefore I bought it from Japan. Yes, as you can imagine, I spent a lot on postage.

Other materials that I bought were a couple of acrylic paints, a tool to measure quantity of the clay (I don't know the name of this tool), colour clay, "Dessert Topping Master" (Artificial sugar for crafts) and "Deco Sauce" (Artificial sauce for crafts). I was amazed that there are so many materials for making miniatures.

Acrylic paints and Artificial sugar for craftstools

When I received a parcel from Japan, I was so excited. I had read the instructions in the book very carefully and had chosen some breads to make.

It had been such a long time since I used clay. I liked making animals by clay when I was small but I haven't even touched clay since then. I hoped I could make miniature breads well.

At first, I made a loaf of bread, because I thought it looked simple and it was easier than others. Well, I think my guessing was wrong. It wasn't so easy to me. I made three balls of clay and had to combine with them and make the shape of a loaf, but I couldn't combine and make a good shape of a loaf bread.

miniature loaf breads and hot dog buns

Then I tried to make buns. Buns weren't so difficult to shape, but it's difficult to cut in half. Almost every time, I made buns deformed. When I cut a bun, I pushed a bun with the cutter and made bun's one side flat. Then I thought I had to wait until the clay could stiffen. And, maybe as you are already guessing, I waited too long, and the clay became hard and I couldn't cut it in half. Bugger! ("Bugger" is an Aussie English word and this seems to not be bad slang because TV programs that are broadcasted on prime-time television used this word.)

miniature loaf breads and hot dogs

After that, I made hot dog buns, lettuce, sausages. I wanted to make hot dogs and I made them 90 per cent. The rest 10 percent was tomato sauce. I didn't expect that the tomato sauce was going to be difficult to make. The tomato sauce I made was watery. I wanted to make it more thick but still didn't succeed. The breads I had made were not so bad, but not very good. I was a bit disappointed. I wanted to make miniature breads that looked real.

I pulled myself together and started making miniature breads again last night. I made baguettes and croissants. They looked better than the others. Phew! I coated them with four acrylic colours very carefully. I looked at pictures on Google images and tried to make them look real. To paint burnt colour is essential. Uneven colour makes croissants' burnt parts look real. Hehe, I'm good at painting uneven. Easy, easy.

Finally, I made breads that I can be satisfied with...well satisfied with 80 percent. This was my first try of making miniature breads. Next time, I will improve some points that I couldn't be satisfied with this time.

baguettes and croissants

| | Category Misc.

2016-06-12 05:42   Queensland weather

Y (Kuma's owner)

I live in Queensland, Australia. My Aussie friends say winter is a beautiful season in Queensland. It's winter now. Yes, as they said it's beautiful. I love Queensland's winter too!

In summer, it's very hot, but I think Queensland's summer is more comfortable than Japan's, especially Tokyo's summer. The point is humidity. If the temperature is the same, high humidity makes you feel more hot.

blue sky

My local people believe that Queensland is humid. To me, it's not so bad. Maybe Queensland is more humid than other states in Australia, but it's not like Tokyo.

I can see the differences of humidity between Brisbane and Tokyo by watching insects. Some locals believe that there are many insects in Brisbane. Well, I don't think so, because I haven't seen many insects here. If they come to Tokyo and see insects, they would be surprised.

Most insects prefer to live in an area with high humidity and warm or hot weather. My impression of insects are weak for a dry environment. I thought of the reason why they prefer humidity. Their body is very small and it's easy to loose water in their body. I thought that is the reason. Please do not believe what I wrote, if you want to know the real reason, please ask an entomologist.

I love gardening and Queensland is a good place to grow plants because there aren't many pests compared with Tokyo. Well, it's nice weather today too. I 'm going to take care of the veggie patch.

| | Category Gardening

2016-06-10 04:59   Starting medication again

Y (Kuma's owner)

As I wrote about my oldest cat Moko-Nyan on my blog dated 4th of June, he had recovered from a nasal issue, I thought. However, it was not as easy as I expected. After about 24 hours he took the last tablet, but nasal mucus started coming out from his nose. Oh, no!

I asked the vet and he started medication for Moko-Nyan again.

Moko-Nyan

The first time when my husband and I gave him a tablet, we both had not a lot of experience of giving a tablet to a cat. So I bought a special tool that looks like a pair of scissors. On the tip of the scissors, there is a rubber part to hold a tablet. When we give him a tablet, we have to drop one as deep as possible into the mouth, otherwise he tries to spit the tablet out.

Tablet Pill Gun

As we have given him a tablet many times, we have got a new idea. We prepare a small amount of tin food before we give him a tablet. Just after we drop a tablet into his mouth, I hold out some tin food in front of him. Before we did not use this method, he sometimes paid attention to the tablet in his mouth and tried to spit it out. If there is food, his attention goes to the food and he swallows a tablet with food. Since we have used this method, we have never failed giving him a tablet.

I hope his nose will be better soon.

| | Category Cats