Life in a small town

Ice-skating after school.

Kusudama Tutorial

I enjoy giving these as gifts, and several people have asked how I make them. I originally saw them on the Folding Trees website, and here is the tutorial for the kusudama balls. I use traditional origami or chiyogami papers, but, with some help from my daughter, I am in the process of making a ball from paper recycled from security envelopes (the kind your bank might use). I will post a picture when it is completed.

Thank you FT for your great tutorials and this photo.

And the Winner is...

...Laura. She said,
"Purple, green, blue
And I would hang it in my bedroom. Those are gorgeous!!"

Thank you to everyone who entered.

Becky Home-Ecky

That's what my husband likes to call me sometimes. But I don't mind, and I don't think he minded much either when I made him these cupcakes for his birthday.

I was inspired by the designs in the book "Hello, Cupcake". You can check out their designs at their website.

A GiveAway

I am participating in Bloggy GiveAway's Winter Carnival. Just in time for Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day, I am giving away a handmade kusudama origami ball. Kusudama are dodecahedrons (12 regular pentagonal faces) and the word kusudama translates literally to "medicine ball". The photos are just samples - I will make it in reds and golds for Lunar New Year, reds, white, and pink for Valentine's day, or any other color combination you choose. It comes with a beaded loop and tassle for hanging it up.

In order to be eligible for the giveaway:

• you will need to post a comment about what three colors you would like, or
• any theme for your kusudama ball (valentine, baby, sports, flowers, etc), or
• where you would hang the origami ball.

Additional entries can be gained by:

• Subscribing to this blog, or
• Subscribing to my Complete Kitchens blog, or
• Posting a link on your blog to this giveaway

A winner will be selected using a random number generator on February 2nd and posted on this blog; I will contact you if you have a Blogspot account or if you leave your email address or blog address in the comments posting. I am willing to ship internationally, but I cannot guarantee delivery by Valentine's day for international winners.