The Year of the Rat - 2020

As I said in the past ... it's no secret that I'm a Chinese New Year enthusiast.  I mean ... you don't study Chinese language from the age of 12 without getting a little joy out of celebrating what is now more commonly known as the Lunar New Year.

Me, age 17, preforming YangGui Fei Zui Jiu in TianJin, China.

Basically, I'm one of the hottest consorts of Chinese history, 

but I have recently lost favor with the Emperor, and am debating suicide.  

LOL!  So not me in real life.

Take down Christmas decor, put up Chinese New Year decor.
Keep the festivities rolling, that's what I say.

So, what's an extra mom like me to do in the year of the rat?  Well ... let me tell you!

First, let's talk about recycling.  For 2020, I once again sent a kid friendly book to school about the New Year that my son's teachers could read in class:

Bringing in the New Year

A book about traditional celebration practices by Grace Lin

But since he's getting old enough now to follow longer story lines, I also sent this to read as well:

The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac, Christopher Corr

FYI, this also has the origin story as to why cats hate mice - LOL!

And recycling ideas from previous years, I found a new coloring sheet and finger puppet gift for his classmates to take home as well:

I opted to go a little different for the kids this year, and purchased zippered coin pouches to put the mice in ... more or less, an upscale gift bag without the cinch string.  Since I bought these at bargain bin costs (Chinese factory direct), quality wasn't great, but the presentation was cute at least.

And of course, a tag applied outside each of the gifts:

The end result for the kids:

As always, for the teachers, I found an assortment of adult appropriate goodies - one each of a gold flower (I think it's meant to be a ring dish), a novelty Year of the Rat charm, and a larger version of the kid's zippered bag:

The adult gift came together to look like this:

In addition to sending gifts to school, this year my son was old enough to attend a Chinese New Year celebration, so we made an effort to find a family friendly event ... and drove to it the weekend prior to Lunar New Year, despite the previous night's major snow storm and extremely icy roads.  This was no small undertaking from the South West suburbs to downtown Minneapolis, let me tell you.

By the way - Midtown Global Market's Chinese New Year celebration is great!  My son will be four in April, and I saw kids up through late grade school there (all of which seemed to be enjoying the event).  I highly recommend the celebration for anyone with kids in that age range.  

Activities in 2020 included: making a dragon out of a paper plate and egg cartons, coloring sheets, Chinese fortune telling, getting a Chinese name, making a "porcelain" necklace (unfortunately ours broke on the way home, darn), learning proper dumpling technique, and lots of other fun booths.  We didn't partake in everything due to the fact that my son is still technically three and he's not quite developed enough to be able to do some things ... like intricate paper cutting ... but again, it was all very fun.  Over the course of the afternoon, my son even ended up with two "hong bao" (red envelopes, which are traditionally given to children with cash inside ... but these included a golden foiled chocolate coin and a $1 coupon to buy a snack at the food stands).

Plus of course, there were performers:

My son was adamant that he was "not afraid" of the lions because they were "just a costume" ... all said while he very "confidently" stood ... behind me and stuck his head around to take a peek, or stood next to me with a death grip on my hand.  LOL!  To be fair, they are a little different than anything in standard American culture, and when you factor in the extremely loud percussion music that accompanies the performance, it's understandable that a kid would be overwhelmed.  After all, he's only three ... and some his age were actually crying at the performance.  

To quote "Bringing in the New Year" ...

"Don't cry, Mei-Mei!"  That was a favorite quote at our house well before Chinese New Year season even began!  LOL!  I think every house needs this board book.  Hahahaha!

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So there you have it.  Another year of Lunar celebrations on the books.  Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Current Stichin' Projects - Early 2020 (and 2019 Leftovers)

Since early 2019, I've been quite prolific in creating cross stitch works.  You've already seen some of what I've made in previous posts, but today I've got more to add to the collection (in rough chronological order).

Before I bombard you with photos - yes, I would be happy to make something via request ... pending size and subject matter.  Meaning: I don't want to take on anything too huge, and want to make sure it would be something fun for me to make as well.  

If you have something in mind, let's chat!


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To begin, a few backlogged photos from end of 2019 and Christmas gifting:

This is a semi-finished place mat set, all that's left is to have the edges completed with a sewing machine.

The set was made from a kit that my husband's late Grandmother gifted my mother in law years ago, 

of which it ended up in my hands ... completed ... and then gifted back to my mother in law!

I like this one because you can actually see the scale of the work.

You will see below that I've become enamored with these dual paned glass tension frames.

Speaking of 2019 final finishes, why not showcase my first finishes of 2020?

I particularly like how these frames function, since you can see the back side of the finished work as well.

In case you're a "completionist" like me, here's a photo stitch of the entire Valentine collection:

And that about does it for now.  Let's see what other fun finishes 2020 brings!