In the Name of Charity

We have several gift shops on our local military bases.  They fly to different countries and purchase furniture, accessories, dinnerware, you name it on the cheap.  They have it shipped here, mark up the price a little (but not a lot) and donate the proceeds to charity.  The store is mostly run via volunteers of the military spouses on island, and I loooooove shopping at them.  Especially the Navy Fleet Gift Shop here on good ol' Camp Lester!

So this weekend my friend Diana and I needed to shop.  First we checked out a local place out in town that does similar things but is for-profit.  I found an AMAZING Katagami that I can't wait to have framed and hung!  It is a cherry blossom print which originated in Japan, as I am sure you know.  Katagami, as defined by Wikipedia:

Katagami (型紙) or Ise-katagami is the Japanese art of making paper stencils for kimono printing. The art is traditionally centred around the city of Ise in Mie Prefecture. Multiple layers of thin washi paper are bonded with a glue extracted from persimmon, which makes a strong flexible brown coloured paper. The paper is cut with a combination of knives and punches....The designs can be extremely intricate, and consequently fragile. Nowadays the stencils are sometimes sold as artworks, attached to hand fans, or used to decorate screens and doors in Japanese rooms.

Then we ventured on to the Navy Fleet Gift shop, which had just received their China shipment earlier this week.  Last year I purchased my awesome dining room hutch from their China shipment.  And this year, I bought two more beauties!!!  I LOVE THEM!


This awesome desk matches my hutch almost exactly!  I would even venture to say they are from the same "maker."  I have been looking for a desk since almost day one on this island and they are very rare to find here, so I immediately snatched this one up!

Then there is this big blue beast... I had been looking for a tall cabinet like this for awhile now, because I wanted something to hide the kids' craft supples, coloring books, activity and preschool books, puzzles... you get the idea.  But most of you are probably thinking...why would you buy a bright blue cabinet?!?   I, too, was a bit skeptical at first.  But as my friend Diana pointed out, it is definitely functional and fits the bill, and even though it doesn't currently go with my red living room, it's not about here, this house.  It's about later...and later, I most definitely would LOVE a bright blue cabinet from China to adorn my house as a centerpiece!!!  Plus, the price was right.  So we bought it, and I love it.

Of course, the big blue beast did necessitate changing out the red curtains, but I found a great set at the 100Yen store that match our couch and I love how it turned out!  Plus, I feel way more organized now that the kids' stuff is out of sight.  It also helped to move the bookcase upstairs to Livy's room for toy storage.  Perfection!  And all in the name of Charity... :)