Lot of Fishes for CNY and Lot of Hearts for Valentine's Day!

The ATC A*Live session this month coincided with the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day, so Moses planned for us to do a collage fish (年年有余）.

We also had Yusheng (捞鱼生) arranged in a most ingenious way in the shape of a bunny!

The theme for the ATC swap this month was naturally "Heart", I did a heart pocket with teabag folding "Having Lot of Love in the Heart", and "Popping Heart" - a smaller Heart popping out of the weaved Heart by pulling the golden string.

The bottom left ATC is my collage fish done during the session. The top left is a stamped piece I received from Rita, the Heart of Gold is drawn by Sor Huan and the last piece, Kokoro, by scrapbooking expert, Vicki.

Amy McDonald (USA) did a very different Queen for a Day doll for me. With a paper body base and crown, everything else is non-paper - a clay face, yarn hair, fabric cloak, glass crystal choker. Well, I'm inspired to try more types of materials for my subsequent paper dolls too. We'll see!

I'm still trying to tat up the animal for my V cards, but in the meantime, more alphabets arrived: H is for Hat from Norma Mason (USA), T is for Triangle from Hetty van Boven (Australia) and U is for Underwear from Lyn Strauch (USA).

My boy is in his 2nd Year Japanese language class. This is a A4-size Spring poster he conceptualized and printed (the words and photos), while I helped him to complete the piece using die-cuts and hand-cutting. Really hope that we will have a chance to visit Japan in spring to see her famous Sakura!

We have another colleague resigning. I tatted yet another leaf bookmark for her, I just love this particular design!

We had lion dance (舞狮) in our office yesterday, accompanying our bosses' walkabout.

This is a traditional dance in the Chinese culture - performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume. The story goes that once upon a time a monk combined all the lucky magical animals he could think of to made a lion to protect the people from evils plaguing the land.

During Chinese New Year, lion dancer troupes from the Chinese martial art schools or Chinese guilds and associations will visit houses and shops of the Chinese community to perform the traditional custom of "cai ching" (採青), which literally means "plucking the greens", a quest by the 'lion' to pluck the auspicious green, usually vegetables like lettuce which is called 'cái' (菜) in Chinese that sound like 'cái' (财) (fortune) and auspicious fruit like oranges tied to a "Red Envelope" containing money; either hang highly or just put on a table in front of the premises. The "lion" will dance and approach the "green" and "red envelope" like a curious cat, to "eat the green" and "spit" it out leave it in a nice arrangement, like a auspicious character but keep the "red envelope". The lion dance is believed to bring good luck and fortune to the business and the troupe is rewarded with the "red envelope".

I'm ending off with these quick sketches done by my youngest girl, Kristine, just before she went off to sleep. I love the children's doodlings done without pressure and without any restriction - give a most carefree feeling to them. These are to the theme of love - a TV and TV controller loving each other, while the basket and vegetable are not too sure of their love for each other! Cute!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!