Teru Teru Bozu & Flowers!

Teru Teru Bozu!

of course, nobody reading my blog really knows what that is, do they?

Teru Teru bozu are traditional charms made by children in Japan

to ward off bad weather, made with paper or cottonballs, white cloth and yarn.

the word Teru Teru Bozu literally translates as "shiny shiny bald headed monk".

i don't really know why. anyway, i remembered them when i was rereading

yotsuba the 5th, and i found the chapter where she makes them.

here's a picture of the one page:

this one is in Japanese, so I'll translate: first panel, yotsuba: "hang all of them!"

First panel, koiwai: "that big one will be good enough."

Second panel, yotsuba: "please make it sunny tomorrow.

Second, panel, koiwai: "it's a religion now?"

heh heh. anyway, i'm planning on making little ones and selling them for the craft fair.

well, on to flowers.

we have a huge hole in the backyard from a day when me and owen got bored.

so last winter dad covered in with dirt and mulch, and now we're going to plant a butterfly garden! we have Sunflowers, Snapdragons, Parsley, (for blue swallowtail caterpillars)

Alyssum, A "wildflower mix", and Anise Hyssop. we're also going to get Milkweed.

I can wait to see it when they're all grown!

well... bye!

oh, and here's a picture of a Teru Teru Bozu:

UPDATE: ugh. blogger won't let me format it without spacing. sorry!

Sunflowers!

I'm going to try and grow sunflowers this year!
i picked a variety called the "lemon queen". it has long, big, bright yellow petals,
and a choclate center. very nice sunflower. sunflowers are my favorite flowers, you know.
they're very pretty and yellow.

Breakfast.

Hi! guess who just got a new pillowtopper? meee!
*happy dance* yeah! the problem is, i also got new sheets,
and they have so much friction that it's really, REALLY hard to move.
i ended up sleeping in the same position all night.
thank you very much, ikea! (i was being sarcastic there.)
anyway, today i got up, got dressed, and my mom and Owen were in Owen's room.
(about that, it's almost finished!) they were trying on Owen's summer clothes,
so mom asked me to make my own breakfast. long story short, i ended up
singing a song about breakfast to the tune of "crazy train". *snicker*.
i'm told i'm good at making up songs like that. like the hot chocolate song!
or the bunny song! heh heh. well, bye.

BOOOOOORED.

I'm bored again. This family isn't exciting enough for me.
I'm bored. bored bored bored bored bored. bow-red. boo-ard.
boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooored.
somebody please rescue me from my boredom.

Knitting & Teddy Bears

I've decided to try a new knitting pattern! *gasp*!
As long as i can learn how to purl. Again.
I've learned twice before, and i just can't remember.
if i can purl I'm going to make a ribbed scarf.
Wish me luck! Well, anyway, I've been researching teddy bears lately.
I recently got this really nice one from the thrift store named Sebastian.
(the bear, not the store!) Apparently he's from a pretty nice brand
called the "Vermont Teddy Bear Company". Back to research,
i found the Wikipedia page! It had the usual trivia about Theodore Roosevelt
and the hunting trip and what not, but a lot more interesting stuff too.
Apparently the first Teddy Bears were made to look like real bears,
with an elongated nose and little eyes, sometimes they would be on all fours.
But a while back someone decided to give them more baby-like features,
shorten the nose a bit, and make the standing/sitting position a standard,
and lo and behold, the teddy bear we know today was born!
Then of course, even today there are different kinds of teddy bears.
You have your sloppy, under-stuffed mass-produced kind of teddy bear,
and then there are the ones that are still mass produced but still better.
They aren't sold in dollar stores, they're stuffed just right, and their fur is nice.
Then there are the kinds that really stand out from the others.
Ones handmade by the really big brands like Steiff and Boyd.
Those are usually slightly stiffer because they have more stuffing,
and they have joints instead of just the whole bear being one big thing.
That's the kind i like. In fact, the one i bought from the thrift store is like that!
those are usually expensive, fair enough since they're made so well,
but i got mine second hand so it was only around five or six dollars.
;-) Hooray for Unique Thrift! Heh. Well, i also have this book about bears.
Apparently, there is a Teddy Bear Hotel.
you can drop off your teddy bear, where he will sleep in a comfortable bed,
be read bedtime stories, and be given repairs if needed.
And all for an affordable *cough* not *cough* price!
for a little extra money. you can even have your Bear's portrait painted,
or bring two and have a teddy wedding! Sounds a little extravagant for stuffed animals, right?
But they still have customers, and quite a few i might add.
Well, i have nothing more to say about teddy bears. If i find anything else
interesting about them, I'll post it here! Bye for now!

Penny!

i just found a banana penny! that's what my mom calls the ones
from a long time ago with wheat on the back. when she was little she thought
they were banana pennies, sooo... hence the name! i shined it up and now
it's living happily on mom's desk. :-D

Pennies and music boxes!

Hi! my mom recently gave me this beautiful green lacquer music box
that plays "the way we were". not only have i decided to learn the lyrics to that song, but i have decided to start a collection of music boxes.
on another note, i found two pennies from 1983 and 1959!
they were pretty tarnished, so i looked up how to shine pennies and got some pretty good results. first i rubbed the pennies all over with an eraser,
then i used a toothbrush to scrub them with ketchup. then i rinsed off the penny and the brush,and scrubbed the penny in baking soda, mixed with warm water into a thick paste.
rinse it off, and ta dah! this technique is surprisingly fast and very effective.
you can also subsitute your thumb for an eraser in a pinch.
on yet another note, i just cut off the spiderplant i'm going to give to lucy!
i've decided that it'll probably be ready to give to her on the 20th.
that's also when i'll be cutting off delilah, the one i'm keeping for myself.