Celebrating Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day)

Every year our family celebrates the Japanese holiday Hinamatsuri which falls on March 3rd.  Hinamatsuri translates to doll festival but also refers to Girl's Day.  The holiday is a time girls are celebrated and prayed over by their families.  Part of the tradition includes displaying a special doll set for the holiday.  Our family tradition for this occasion includes giving our daughter a special gift that's Japanese related.  This year I decided to get her one of the mini Hinamatsuri doll sets by Re-Ment (pictured above).

 The dolls represent the emperor and empress.  As you might have guessed, pictured above is the emperor. 

Here's a photo of the empress beside a penny so you can get an idea of just how tiny these dolls are.  I'm always amazed with the detail of these toys considering their scale.

I found this kokeshi doll gift bag at Target which I'm going to use to wrap the gift.  Kokeshi are also Japanese dolls and can be displayed for Girl's Day as well.

Lately it seems like I've been seeing kokeshi dolls everywhere.  Has anyone else noticed this trend?  I'm even seeing more articles about Girl's Day.  In fact, I noticed a blurb about it in the March issue of Family Fun Magazine.

Time to Start Thinking About Summer Camp

Photo of my daughter building a suspension bridge.

Last year my daughter attended Camp Galileo and she absolutely loved it.  She's been proudly wearing her camp t-shirt to school all year.  She's also been relentless about asking me when she gets to go back.  I've been telling her it starts next summer but I suspect she thinks it happens every month (it doesn't but I wish it did).  Thankfully registration just opened up so I was able to tell her that I'm registering her for camp soon.

One of the fun things that comes with registration is picking out which theme or class to attend.  Each year Camp Galileo creates four themes for campers Pre-K - 5th grade.  Last year my daughter picked Celebrate the Golden Gate which delved into bridge engineering and San Francisco inspired art projects. This year's camp themes are, Medieval Adventure, African Safari, Galileo Amusement Park, and Space Odyssey. 

For grades 3rd - 5th, campers have the opportunity to attend the Chabot Space and Science Camp.  We're considering going with this option since both children are eligible for it this year.  Instead of themes, classes are offered in the following categories,  Lego Robotics, GPS Treasure Hunt, Mars Explores, and rocket lab to name a few.

If you would like to learn more about Camp Galileo, you can read about our experiences here, here, and here.  To find out all about there philosophy (very unique) and program, please visit the official Galileo site.

There's also an early bird special going on if you register for camp by February 28th, you get $20 off each week.
 

Disclaimer:  My children are receiving one free paid week of camp as compensation for this post series.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Announcing my Craft Book, Party Origami

I've been keeping a secret for quite sometime now and I'm so glad I can finally share it with all of you.  I created a craft book with Chronicle Books called Party Origami!  The book includes 14 origami ideas specifically created to use for parties.  What sets this book apart from other origami books is that the pieces are designed to serve a function, such as hold a place card or rest a pair of chopsticks. Included with the book are 75 sheets of origami paper. Party Origami will be available March 26, 2013.  You can currently pre-order it on Amazon.  I'm also told it will be carried everywhere books are sold in April.  

If you're curious, here's a little background about the making of the book:

A little over a year ago I was contacted by Laura Lee Mattingly (Chronicle Books Editor) about creating a party themed origami book.  Of course, I was over the moon about it, Chronicle Books creates some of the most beautiful craft books around.  Plus, a lot of their books are Japanese related which appeals to me.  I've always enjoyed origami since I was a small child and you know I like planning parties so it was a perfect fit.

The first step in the process was creating some thumbnails (tiny sketches) of my ideas for the book.   Pictured above are the first sketches I created, some ideas made it into the book, others didn't. 

After the list of projects were finalized, I had to create the instructions and illustrations for all the steps.  This was by far the most challenging part of the book process for me.  Thankfully I had two things going for me.  One I have a graphic design background and was formally trained in Adobe Illustrator.  Two, I've been writing craft directions for the past five years.  Without these key skills, I'm not sure if I could have pulled it off. 

The book comes in a cute little package that unfolds revealing the origami booklet with the origami paper sitting behind it.  Here's something you may or may not know.  Before a book is created, a prototype of the outside cover is created (imagine a book without the pages).  It's a blank white cover and it's designed to give you an idea of what the book will look like. 

Hillary Caudle designed the book layout and the origami paper.  Pictured above is a sample of some of the origami paper you will find in the book. Isn't it gorgeous?!  What's unique about this paper is that it's double sided; there's a print on one side and a solid on the other.  One of my favorite prints are the sprinkles which unfortunately I didn't get a picture of. 

If you would like to see a sneak peek of one of the projects, the Chronicle Books blog shared a post about it earlier this month, click here.

DIY Mini Postage Stamp Flags

Once in awhile a craft project will come about from something I thought I saw.  Let me explain better, a couple weeks ago I was browsing on Pinterest when I thought I saw a flag made out of stamps.  I clicked on the image to get a better look and it turned out just to be a regular flag but the idea stuck with me.  I decided to test it out with some  stamps I was collecting and that's how these cupcake mini postage stamp flags came about.

 Stamps I cut off envelopes form Hong Kong China

Supplies:

Stamps - Any kind will work.  If you're going to use these for a large amount of cupcakes, try choosing ones within a similar color palette. 

Toothpicks

White Paper

Glue Stick

Scissors

Scissors with stamp edge (optional)

 1. If you cut off the stamps from envelopes, you lose the stamp edge.  Go back and cut around the stamp to give it that decorative edge again.  *Optional

2.  Wrap a piece of white paper around toothpick and glue shut.  The paper should be a little smaller than your stamp when adhered to a toothpick.  If it's not, just trim off as much as needed.

3.  Glue stamp on paper.

Weekend Finds

Over the weekend I did a little shopping at the Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose, CA.  Here were a few goodies I found.

1.  Sweet Potato Pie Tea by Lupicia - About a year ago I discovered this brand of specialty teas and have been a fan ever since.  Lupicia just opened a shop in the Mitsuwa market and there was a large assortment of teas I had never seen before.  One tea in particular stood out to me, Sweet Potato Pie.  It's a loose leaf black tea and has dried sweet potato mixed in with the leaves.  The sweet potato flavor is subtle. 

2.  Melon Pocky - I've never seen this flavor before so I decided to try it.  What I didn't realize is that they're super-sized pocky.  They measure about seven inches long and look like bread sticks dipped in orange chocolate.  I prefer the texture of the original size but these were fun once.  They're the kind of thing I could see on a dessert table for a party.

3.  Washi Tape - I picked up a couple rolls of tape at the Kinokuniya bookstore.  I discovered out of all my tapes, I use polka dot prints the most. FYI, you can now get washi tape at Target (they have their own line).  Its  located by the office supplies.  It's easy to miss if you're not looking for it.