Mori-chan's garden

Today was a busy day. I am fixing the walls in Rosie and Maggie's bedroom. After I pulled the old wallpaper down it revealed a kakki and cream colored paneling. Yikes. Now I will plaster the snot out of the walls and paint them. After lunch I took this picture of violets growing in my back yard;

Then I finished this new tsumami kanzashi;



I guess they are ume (plum) blossoms, but I just wanted a red kanzashi to go with my yukata. The bell on flower fall is about the size of a green pea. The flowers on the main part of the kanzashi are about the size of a quarter. Just in case you were wondering...

BBC Japanese Tsunami anniversary documentery

This morning I was reading my internet friend Coco's blog, and someone had left this video as a response. Not really sure I would have put it next to a page dedicated to girl's day, but it is very good. This is an hour long documentary about the Tsunami and Fukushima Dai-ichi plant as told by elementary school students on the east coast. Many of these children watched their friends be washed away by the tsunami, or were evacuated from the area near the plant. Warning; definitely cry worthy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_AxnoNrr_8

Since my mother works in a power plant almost just like Dai-ichi she was very interested in what was going on. Brownsferry is a bit different, but all modern plants are built roughly the same way; they have very strict rules on how they are built after Chernobyl.  Nuclear power is very clean and safe if the rules are followed, but no one was planning for such a huge tsunami to hit a power plant. How can you plan for something that has never happened before? After the Tsunami even more rules and procedures were written, some of them by my mother!
She had never really been interested in Japanese culture before the Tsunami, but afterwards she calls the men who stayed to shut down the plant 'my nuclear brothers.' After all, she went through a taste of how scary it must have been for them. A large group of tornadoes ripped through the area about this time last year, and she was stuck in the plant. She had to shut the reactor unit she was watching down, and she couldn't get a hold of any of us siblings. She didn't know we were safe in the basement; she thought I was at college, and that my younger siblings had been sent home with no one there to help them. She had thought we could have been dead, and that our home could've been destroyed. Luckily the tornado missed our house, and I got home safely before the tornadoes came. There were trees down, the power went out, and several houses up the road were damaged, but everyone near us was ok.

Hina Matsuri (Girl's Day)

Today was hina matsuri, or girl's day, in Japan. It is also known as momo-no-sekku, which means peach festival, because this is when Japanese peaches begin to bloom. Girls all over Japan set out their hina ningyo (dolls) several days or weeks before the actual day. The most important dolls are the Emperor and Empress. Every little girl is supposed to have a set of them. There are ministers and servants, soldiers and attendants, and even house wares that are also part of the display. These are not always there; I only have an emperor and empress mayself. They are often passed down from mother to daughter; some of these dolls are two hundred years old! Many snacks are served, and prayers are said for the girl's growth and happiness. Usually one eats oyster soup, sweet sake, and scattered sushi for girl's day: we had udon noodles with veggies, chicken, and seafood instead. Yum!



Hina matsuri dolls. I made them myself. The hardest part was the the outer kimono; my bunnies were a bit chubby around the middle, so they aren't quite right. It's very hard to get the right silks here in the US, so I used brocades instead.


A pink flower tsumami kanzashi I made for my mother. I can't decide if it is a peach (momo) blossom or a cherry (sakura). Maybe it's neither!


This is a doll yukata I sewed for Maggie's doll. It's made out of scraps from her yukata, so they match. I had to put in a few weird seams though... it's almost like patchwork!


Dango. Traditionally sakura cakes and tricolored mochi are eaten, but I had no pickled sakura leaves and Maggie doesn't like mochi without beanpaste. So I just made tricolored dango instead. Maggie helped make them. She's getting to be a pretty good cook for an eight year old!

Tornadoes

Today is looking rather unpleasant. There are thunderstorms, and there are supposed to be tornadoes this afternoon. Some of my friends have had hail. The fact that it is sunny and warm just makes it worse. Just because I live in tornado alley doesn't make me like them very much. Last year the area where my mother works was almost completely flattened in places. Several people died, and the nuclear power plant she works at had to be shut down. Power was out for over a week in some places. There are still roofs missing and buildings flattened. You can even see telephone poles wrapped up like a pretzel! Anybody in or around Tennessee needs to watch out and find shelter soon.

I do not like this new 'updating' of Google blog. It has messed with and erased my posts, made it harder to do anything, and now requires me to use Picasa. I really don't like Picasa; it limits my pictures and I have to open it seperately to post pictures. I am considering moving to another blog site; if I'm going to have to repost everything any way why not?

St Valentine's Day

So for St. Valentine's day I made all my sister's hair pin kanzashi. My brother Robert and I made one for mom as well. I made up a new recipe for linguini using chicken, tomatoes, and king oyster mushrooms. They really do taste like oysters. A little cheese, some spices and pesto sauce and it was ready to go. Of course for dessert we had chocolate.(^.^)



Holly's hair pin kanzashi. I still think I should have painted a little white something on the middle bead.



Maggie's hair pin kanzashi, plus one for her doll. The big one looks longer than it really is; I have no idea why the photo came out this way

Nashville Parthenon

Today we went to The Nashville Parthenon. They filmed a movie here; Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Of course, when they shot it the the new statue of Athena wasn't there, so that was totally different. It was funny watching the movie later and going "I know those water fountains, I drank from those!" I took a ton of pictures, though Maggie stole my camera halfway through; maybe she needs a camera next? Of course, the twins spent the most time trying to decide why this one statue had only part of his parts, if you know what I mean. Never mind it was missing his head; the fact that his trouser snake was gone was much more interesting.

The Parthenon. Notice the way the columns are shaped.

Is it just me, or does the scupltor of Athena have a snake fetish? She is covered in them, and she looks like one herself. The gold eyebrows and lashes don't help with the snake image at all; the only thing that isn't white or gold on her is her eyes. Apparently Greeks are one of those groups of people who think snakes are lucky or something. Yikes!

Amigurumi

Amigurumi is a Japanese word simply meaning knit/crocheted toy. Basically amigurumi are stuffed animals, dolls, etc which is made by knitting/crocheting the form of the toy and then stuffing. The method of making these toys is not Japanese at all; however, those that knit or crochet often use the word amigurumi simply because saying something like 'a stuffed, crocheted cat' is a mouthful.
Amigurumi are usually worked in the round, which means instead of working back and forth like you see in afghans and sweaters, you work around and around. Amigurumi have very few if any seams; often the only stitching involved is the attaching of limbs. They come in as many shapes and sizes as any other soft toy, and are gaining popularity with both handicrafters and toy collectors of all ages.
I crochet, not knit, so the only example pictures I have are of crocheted amigurumi. I can't knit something that doesn't look like a cat chewed it to save my life! However, if you search for images under amigurumi, you can see many different types. Some are really creative, like an amigurumi Spock^^



An amigurumi Curious George. He's over 60 cm (two feet) tall, and does NOT have a tail. Curious George is a rather odd monkey like that^^



A mouse amigurumi, roughly 10 cm (4 inches) tall

Holly's Birthday

It's seems like all I blog about are birthdays. This time it's Holly's 16th. Her party was held at the local skating rink, and the theme was a Chinese water garden. The cakes turned out ok, but I'm not sure Mom and I will ever try to make our own fondant again.

Holly's present.

Sushi cakes.
Also paper plum blossoms. 

Chinese take out cakes 

Rosie's Birthday

Rosie's Birthday involved a dozen 13/14 year old girls spending the night. Activities included eating junk food, getting reminded that this party is PG, general hullaballoo, staying up 'till five in the morning, and Chaos. Lots of Chaos.

Rosie's new zebra striped necklace.
Zebra is apparently required of all teenaged girls.

Card Games. The most tame I saw them all night.

No idea what they're doing.
At least they stopped playing truth or dare.

They covered their cell phones in duck-tape.
I was told I wasn't cool enough to understand.