At Necessitae, we had a special stocking for the festivities. There were so many beautiful things stocked, and still some left.
I decided to make some skirts this time around. I worked from sun up to sun down on these!
This one was made using an Alexander Henry fabric that I have been in love with since the day it arrived. I was saving it for something special, but never could decide what. It's even more beautiful in person. This is oneof my all time favorite fabrics ever.
This one was made out of a cute fabric that I got a while back. It has chopsticks and fortune cookies all over it! Emily is convinced that if she wears hers to the Chinese restaurant, they will give her extra fortune cookies. We'll see how that works.
I also made two diapers. This first one was hand dyed by me in shades of pink. The dye job is better in person, of course. The fabric is organic bamboo velour.
And then this one that is made with my favorite knit that I'm saving for Emily. She doesn't like pink so much, so I can't seem to talk her into letting me make something out of it for her. I'm still hoping.
But enough about me! There were so many things stocked that I fell in love with!
We all know my love for Naturally Luxe products.
Look at this beauty that had my name written all over it. I didn't even get on the computer before it was gone, though.
Made By Maria made a bag with my name all over it too!
And one with Emily's name all over it.
I think the girl on this one looks like my sister.
I would do just about anything to have these hand knit slippers by Kimberly R
I am completely amazed at this necklace!
Okay, that bead is hand made! By a person! She makes them and sells them. Isn't that incredible?
A hand made journal by Becky's Paper Creations
Yarn from Mosaic Moon
A set by Sweet Mama Small Sugar
Little dolls from Where's Waldorf
And so much more, I don't even have time to write about all of them! Check out for yourself if you like.
http://www.necessitae.com/allstores.php
And a huge thank you to Maria for compiling this fact writeup on Chinese New Year!
Chinese New Year Facts
* 2008 is the year of the rat.
* Current year is Year 4706 by the Chinese calendar.
* The holiday usually falls on the second (very rarely third) new moon after the winter solstice.
* People in China believe that as they enter a New Year, they should drop the last year into the silence limbo of the past. Common Chinese New Year Activity includes cleaning the houses from top to bottom, purchasing new clothes, paying off debts, painting their doors and windowpanes, and even getting new haircuts. Traditional Chinese New Year Facts bring forth the essence of new life and new hopes.
* One of the most important characteristics of Chinese New Year Calendar is that it names each of the twelve years after an animal. Tradition says that Lord Buddha had called for all the animals to come to him before he departed from the earth. But only twelve animals came to offer him farewell and as a token Lord Buddha named a year after each of the twelve animals in the order they arrived. According to the popular Chinese myth the animal ruling the year in which a person is born tremendously influences his or her behavior and traits.
* The Spring Festival ceremoniously commences with the practice of offering a sacrifice to the Kitchen God. Kitchen God is a deity sent from Heaven to each house to take charge of family's affairs and make a report on what the family has done in the past year to Heaven annually on the date of the twenty-third. So with the preparations of feeding the Kitchen God, the celebrations of Chinese New Year gets kicked off.
* Traditionally, the celebrations for the Chinese New Year last up to fifteen days. During these days, the Chinese wish each other by saying "Kung Hei Fat Choy" which means having a great fortune, or "Kung Hall Sun Hei", which implies happy New Year. Married couples give red envelopes with lucky money to their kids or relatives of their younger generations instead of giving presents. The money can be used to buy holiday treats.
* The Chinese New Year celebrations are marked by visits to kin, relatives and friends, a practice known as "new-year visits". New clothing is usually worn to signify a New Year. The color red is liberally used in all decorations.
* Traditionally dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, symbolizing prosperity and good wishes. Chinese New Year Dish includes prawns for liveliness and pleasure, dried oysters for all things good in life, raw fish salad to usher in good luck and prosperity, dumplings boiled in water signifying a long-lost good wish for a family and Fai-hai (Angel Hair), edible hair-like seaweed to bring prosperity for the family.
* Chinese love excitement and merriment and New Year gives them an opportunity to do so. Chinese New Year is characterized by street celebrations which include the performance of lion dance and dragon dance with exploding sound of fire crackers. The loud noise made by the fire crackers signifies the getting rid of sadness or bad events of last year and ushering in a good and prosperous coming year.
* Fu - the Chinese character for 'good luck". People paint signs with this character to hang in their homes and in the streets during Chinese New Year. These signs are painted in the traditional red and gold and are hung upside down. The Chinese word for upside down rhymes with the Chinese word for "arrive", so by hanging the sign upside down, good luck will arrive.
* Chinese New Year starts on the first day of the new year containing a new moon (some sources include New Year's Eve)[citation needed] and ends on the Lantern Festival fourteen days later.
* Alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac there is a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are thus distinguished: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, etc. These produce a combined cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936 and in 1996, 60 years apart.
* According to legend, in ancient China, the Nián (年) was a man-eating beast from the mountains (in other versions from under the sea), which came out every 12 months somewhere close to winter to prey on humans. The people later believed that the Nian was sensitive to loud noises and the color red, so they scared it away with explosions, fireworks and the liberal use of the color red. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations. Guò nián, which means to celebrate the New Year, literally means the passover of the Nian.
* The period around Chinese New Year is also the time of the largest human migration, when migrant workers in China, as well as overseas Chinese around the world travel home to have reunion dinners with their families on Chinese New Year's eve. More interurban trips are taken in mainland China in this 40-day period than the total population of China.
* The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth. Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time when families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended family, usually their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.
* The second day of the Chinese New Year is for married daughters to visit their birth parents.
* The third and fourth day of the Chinese New Year are generally accepted as inappropriate days to visit relatives and friends due to the following schools of thought. People may subscribe to one or both thoughts.
* The third and fourth day of the Chinese New Year are generally accepted as inappropriate days to visit relatives and friends due to the following schools of thought. People may subscribe to one or both thoughts.
1: It is known as "chì kǒu" meaning it is easy to get into arguments, it has been suggested that this is due to the fried food and also visiting family for the first 2 days of New Year.
2: Families who had an immediate kin deceased in the past 3 years will not go house-visiting as a form of respect to the dead. The third day of the New Year is allocated to grave-visiting instead. Some people conclude it is inauspicious to do any house visiting at all.
* On the Fifth day of the New Year in northern China, people eat Jiǎozi (dumplings) on the morning of Po Wu. This is also the birthday of the Chinese god of wealth.
* The seventh day, traditionally known as renri 人日, the common man's birthday, the day when everyone grows one year older.
* The ninth day of the New Year is a day for Chinese to offer prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven (天公) in the Taoist Pantheon. This day is especially important to Hokkiens (Min Nan speakers). Come midnight of the eighth day of the new year, the Hokkiens will offer thanks giving prayers to the Emperor of Heaven. Offerings will include sugarcane as it was the sugarcane that had protected the Hokkiens from certain extermination generations ago. Tea is served as a customary protocol for paying respect to an honored person.
* On the fifteenth day of the New Year, a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, is eaten this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival, and families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns.
* Bamboo stems filled with gunpowder that were burnt to create small explosions were once used in ancient China to drive away evil spirits. In modern times, this method has eventually evolved into the use of firecrackers during the festive season.
* Clothing mainly featuring the color red is commonly worn throughout the Chinese New Year because it is believed that red will scare away evil spirits and bad fortune. In addition, people typically wear new clothes from head to toe to symbolize a new beginning in the New Year.
Good luck
* Opening windows and/or doors is considered to bring in the good luck of the new year.
* Switching on the lights for the night is considered good luck to 'scare away' ghosts and spirits of misfortune that may compromise the luck and fortune of the new year.
* Sweets are eaten to ensure the consumer a "sweet" year.
* It is important to have the house completely clean from top to bottom before New Year's Day for good luck in the coming year. (however, as explained below, cleaning the house after New Year's Day is frowned upon)
* Some believe that what happens on the first day of the new year reflects the rest of the year to come. Asians will often gamble at the beginning of the year, hoping to get luck and prosperity.
* Wearing a new pair of slippers that is bought before the new year, because it means to step on the people who gossip about you.
* The night before the new year, bathe yourself in pomelo leaves and some say that you will be healthy for the rest of the new year.
Bad Luck
* Buying a pair of shoes is considered bad luck amongst some Chinese. The word "shoes" is a homophone for the word for "rough" in Cantonese, or "evil" in Mandarin.
* Buying a pair of pants is considered bad luck. The word "pants"(kù) is a homophone for the word for "bitter"(kŭ) in Cantonese. (Although some perceive it to be positive, as the word 'pants'(fu) in Cantonese is also a homophone for the word for "wealth".)
* Washing your hair is also considered to be washing away one's own luck (although modern hygienic concerns take precedence over this tradition)
* Sweeping the floor is usually forbidden on the first day, as it will sweep away the good fortune and luck for the new year.
* Talking about death is inappropriate for the first few days of Chinese New Year, as it is considered inauspicious as well.
* Buying books is bad luck because the word for "book" is a homonym to the word "lose".
* Avoid clothes in black and white, as black is a symbol of bad luck, and white is a traditional funeral color.
In other news, I managed to stock my store as well.
I made some Night Owls!
and a couple of fitted diapers out of Emily's favorite fabric that I have right now
These were made as a Chinese New Year thing. The inside is red, and the outside is bright and colorful.
While I was stocking my stuff for Necessitae, Emily found a bag of poly filling for stuffing pillows. It snowed in our house.
For those who have read through all of this stuff just to find an update on The Beast, here is the update. I am sorry to say that he is not doing very well now. We are hoping that he gets better. Yesterday he was throwing up everything, and several times. I kept trying to get the Cerenia in him, but he would throw it up within seconds, and it was still whole. I did finally get it in him around 9pm. I waited an hour, then went to give him his antibiotics. He ran from me, as he does now, and went on my bed. Once on my bed, I found the morning's antibiotic pill setting there. Somehow, he had not swallowed it and had spit it out when I left the room. We think this is why he was doing so bad, so are hopeful that he will get back on track. We are pretty worried now, though. His quality of life is pretty poor right now. I know it's selfish, but I can't let him go just yet. I don't think he wants to go. I am not sure how one knows when it's time, though. If there are signs? If the dog does something? At the moment, he wants to go hide outside. I have to search for him and bring him back in. sigh. Cross your fingers for us.
TTFN
Ta ta for now!
