Today was filled with a few more circle treats than usual. Some good ‘ol Oreos and milk and Green Tea mochi. I can’t hide from being Japanese.

Tuesday I celebrated my birthday and received lots of love from the East coast, West coast and Pacific Ocean. Lots of sweets, treats and good eats.

A sunny day in the city is a perfect day to be outside. Today I went to the Japanese Block Fair with Paweena and family. Found myself some Hawaii in SD with a T&C Surfboard among the Japanese crowd, ate some Rita’s, and soy milk herb ramen (really delicious!), picked through some beads and even went to Central Park. What a day, tired but still working!

Hand-delivered with love from Maui, popped open my Maui Style Potato chips today. Do you think the bag is half-empty or half-full?

A speeding car, fast Mexican street food and the bar for the roommate’s birthday—the weekend was over fast and now it’s time to work furiously through homework. Hugs.

A full day of playing tourist in NYC with good friends from Maui. An all day affair of eating. Early morning sun, lasagna lunch from Eataly to an afternoon “snack” from Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles in Chinatown. Small shop, good noodles, just like the movie, Kung Fu Panda.

Scratched glass, colorful cake. This is a picture from a couple days ago when I decided to being home some Tiramisu from Eataly. I had the craving for something sweet. Being in NY with so many amazing, quality treats at my finger tips I spent my extra dollars on something for myself. Best. Dessert. Decision.

Summer was a round robin of travel: Manhattan for July, back to Maui mid-August, then back to Manhattan at the end of August for the start of my second, and final year of grad school. A lot happened in the past month, but it is not the best excuse for not posting any updates.  Below you’ll find a quick recap of my life highlights. I had a good month, and look forward to a great fall.  I got to see lots of friends and family and home, and returned to the city ready for school (I think).

Now that it’s started again there are more things to keep track of like, matsumoto thesis, an ongoing thought process of my year-long project at Parsons. Where it will go? Not sure yet, but stay tuned because the best is yet to come.

To make up for the last month or more of lost matsumoto posts, here are 21 photos that catalogue most of my round robin journey. Have you guess the theme yet? Circle up.

Baked by Melissa | Last day of #myuaemsummer

Pret-A-Manger | Last Lunch

Ippudo New York! 2.5 hours later, I think we deserved dessert.

Back in LA–late night/early morning 3AM hang out session. | Somewhere behind LMU.

Denny’s parking lot | Somewhere in LA, waiting for someone

Manapua, nope it’s not made from cat. | On Maui, but straight from Royal Kitchen, O’ahu

The high school art high. Tom’s Mini Mart shave ice. | Wailuku, Maui

Babies & Bracelets

Flo’s strawberry shake | Tasty Crust, Wailuku, Maui.

Best friend of #NoahNuno

Love those little balls.

Ali`i Kula Lavender Farm | Kula, Maui

King Protea | Kula, Maui

US Open Championships 2012 | Flushing Meadows, Queens NY

Emack & Bolio’s | I’m in Boston.

One of many Boston Gold Domes

Walked the Freedom Trail

NY Fashion’s Night Out Fiasco | Meatpacking District, NYC

Anthropologie | Chelsea Market, NYC

Chandelier’d ceilings | 583 Park Ave. Hermès Festival des Métiers

Saying goodbye to the sun | Lady Liberty to the left, New Jersey to the right. | World FInancial Center

Ping the poser (for pictures, not personality) | Union Square Park, NY

It’s finally here! matsumoto studio–a big sis & lil’ sis collaboration to do what we love most–design! We live on different coasts (Jes on the west & me on the East) and specialize in designing the annie + flo notecard line, stationery, invitations, announcements and more!  We believe that good design should be accessible and affordable to everyone.  All of our invitations and announcements are DIY printables so you can either print them at home or through a print shop. Check out our current selection of products and keep an eye out for updates. It has been a dream to be able to share what we do with everyone and am exciting for this new adventure.

You can also check out our blog where we will post things about what we do, what we are working on, and also what we eat! One thing we want to do is start “Tasty Tuesdays” where we will share a recipe.

Check out this weeks Tasty Tuesday post about baked stuff shrimp and fettuccine.  Yum! Hope everyone enjoys matsumoto studio, because we surely enjoy sharing design with you all.

Circles in my sushi, circles in my pizza.  For the next four weeks (one week already complete!) I am working with UAEM, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines–my fellowship assignment for Parsons.  I work long afternoons and into the night, so the most exciting parts of my day have been my meals! What to eat, where to go, when to go get it…with so many choices in the city you would assume it would be a piece of cake to find food, but it’s not always that easy.  There was a trend at the end of the week and I found CIRCLES, in many of my food choices.  Japanese sushi, Italian Pizza, and Korean Sushi. I love circles, ever since high school I have found that they have always followed me in my designs and now, in my food.