The Year of the Tiger

Yesterday we went to San Francisco for the Chinese New Year Parade! My husband cannot stand crowds so I considered it a coup that he went with us :) The Boy just loved the sights and sounds of Chinatown, the crowds and excitement were so unlike what we are used to in our sleepy coastal town.

The Chinese Lion and Dragon dancers are my favourite. The colours and movements of the dancers are joyous,if you ever have a chance to attend Chinese New Year festivities I highly recommend going!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Another Jaunt!

On Monday Max was off from school and we decided to take a trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. It was a gorgeous day, we have a membership, how could I resist? We arrived at the front door and lo and behold - it was CLOSED! Ack! I suppose I should have checked before we left......

As I said, the day was lovely and the Palace of Fine Arts (where the Exploratorium is located) is a great spot for a stroll and feeding the ducks and swans. Here are some pics of Max having fun :)

Max and this duck made fast friends although it may have been due to the crispy noodles that Max was snacking on.

He also found this wonderful Cypress tree to climb.

I remember playing here as an eight year old when we lived in San Francisco.

The Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Bernard Maybeck, was originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. They are currently doing a lot of repair and restoration work so unfortunately we were not able to play under the main dome, maybe next time.

I have not been working a lot on crafts for the past few days but plan on getting back into the saddle asap. I'm inspired to work on a new Waldorf Doll and continue to make my lavender gnomes. What next?

Our Sunday Excursion..............

I am so grateful that we live in a place where so many museums, neighborhoods and cultural experiences are at our fingertips. I spent the first eight years of my life in San Francisco and then moved back on my own after for University. Max was also born in the City and loves to drive past the Hospital where he was born.

We live just a short 30 minute ride north of San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge - and yes it is even more spectacular in person. Often we go for quick jaunts into SF, which is what we did yesterday.

My mom, sister, Max and I took a trip to Japantown. This is one of Max's favourite places. He's 8 so for now he loves it for the food and the shops :) This year we plan on attending the 42nd Annual Cherry Blossom Festival (April 21st), George Takei will be the Grand Marshall. Remember him? He was "Sulu" on Star Trek and he's Hiro's father on the TV show Heroe's

Here are some pics from yesterday's trip:

This is the Peace Pagoda, it is the centerpiece of Japantown. The Peace Pagoda was designed by renowned Tokyo architect Yoshiro Taniguchi and donated to Japantown in 1968 by San Francisco's sister city, Osaka.

Godzillaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Max & my sister

At Japantown there is this place called PikaPika where they have dozens of photo booths. Each photo booth is different and offers different styles of pics. Once you take eight differentky themed pictures you can edit each one with stars, crowns, just all sorts of funny stuff. Here are our pics! For only $5 it's worth it!

No trip to Japantwon is complete without Sushi and a visit to our favourite shop, Ichibankan. Ichibankan is the most amazing shopped filled with just about everything. I love all of the funny logos and the style of their packaging. See the cookies shaped as mushrooms? Not only are they adorable but they are tasty too!

These are Max's favourites, little erasers that come in the shape of Pandas to Sushi

If you ever go to San Francisco be sure to visit Japantown. It is a lot slower paced than Chinatown but Parking is a LOT easier and the culture is amazing. They have done a wonderful job of telling visitors about the Japanes Culture in San Francisco, past to present through visual displays dotted all around the area.

Have a great week!

Lots to do

A new week begins. Max had the day off yesterday. For his friend's 8th Birthday a group of us went ice skating in San Francisco. I held the side most of the time, I am not an ice, roller or in-line skater. I can ski, other than that please do not attach things to my feet that roll or slide. It was Max's first time, he did really well and eventually let go of the wall. Although he had several bum numbing falls he wants to go again, it's great to have a new activity that he enjoys.

There were a lot of falls...............

But there were many more smiles!

So, I just signed up for another swap, this one through knitsonya.com. It is a mushroom swap, which is great since I love mushrooms. I have to make 5 so I'll start on that soon. I have almost finished my Buy Handmade swap item. I don't want to post pics of it until I send it off to my swap partner, I want it to be a surprise. This was my first time sewing this particular item so I hope that she likes it. There's that age old nervousness of is it good enough? will she like it? For me , I'm excited to receive a surprise in the mail. Here is a hint of what I am working on.

Just like most of the public (even private) schools all over the country our school is cringing at the current lack of funds, especially looking at future budgets. What to do? My hope is that we can band together as a school, as a community, as a county, as a state and as a country and make a great education available to our kids. We are very blessed in our community. Our one school offers 4 different programs, Open Classroom, Waldorf-Inspired (using CA State Credentialed and fully trained Waldorf Teachers), Montessori and Middle School. Does it get better than this? In these crazy times, thank goodness for my crafts - they keep me sane and give me an outlet to relax.

HOPE, is my word of the year and my new mantra.

Ta Da!

We tried our hand at using natural dyes last evening and it went great. For our first try we were very pleased with our end product! I used Turmeric, Paprika and Cinnamon all with excellent results. Sorry the pics are a bit funky, when I used the flash on my camera the colours were not accurate at all.

So here are the four skeins that we have dyed so far. I need to brush up on my yarn gathering skills, yes they do look a bit messy.

The skein on the left was dyed using Paprika. Once fully rinsed it came out a very nice muted pink/peach colour. On the right is the Turmeric. This skein was dyed in the second Turmeric dye bath so it came out a light yellow.

On the left I used Cinnamon. This was my favorite.It turned out a light brown that almost has a purplish tint to it. The right was the first dye bath of Turmeric. Because this was the first one the yellow came out more gold and was a lot more bold than the second.

We have two more skeins left to dye. I think we will try using artichokes and berries. The problem with using natural dyes it that you love the colours so much that rather than use them, you just want to sit and admire them.

So, I have joined my first swap. It is a Save Handmade Swap and was organized through the blog birdandlittlebird@typepad.com. I already have my partner and am very excited to get started. Tomorrow Max has the day off and we're going ice skating at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. This is his first time and I have the weakest ankles on earth, I think I'll bring some Charmin and Ibuprofen!