Hub and I met my family for a buffet dinner in an open-kitchen restaurant in a hotel on Saturday. That’s how cutlery is arranged on each table.
When I was heading to the salad bar, just a distance away someone signaled to me to have his plate removed from his table. Clearly it was my black blouse, which was somewhat similar to the waiters. If only he had seen my bermuda shorts. To pretend that nothing had happened and perhaps save him from embarrassment, I just went straight for my greens.
During the course of the meal, the waiters band together to sing a birthday chorus and to present a cake at 3 different tables. There’s actually one more May baby at our table but the birthday girl didn’t want the attention.
Sweet Denise sent me all these which includes a Spanish home decor ‘Mi Casa’ (My Home) magazine and pin buttons made with lovely prints by Kirin & Co.
I think the buttons and Lotta’s berry blobs go hand in hand.
Among the many tea packs, she packed in some from Stash which brings to my mind a sample pack of Stash white tea which I was once given together with a copy of this write up and the thing was because I wanted to reserve the tea for later, I kept it safe, forgot about it and eventually it expired. Never got to taste it but now…
Thanks Denise for a great swap! You can visit her at Flickr too! Lots of crafty + lovable pictures + paper toys too.
Chinese knotting is an old and traditional art form developed in the Tang (618 – 907 BC) and Song (960-1279 AD) dynasties.
Many Chinese knots are identical both sides. They are decorative and functional, able to hold things securely.
Knots were a form of communication and a means to express good wishes and blessings.
This ancient art was on the verge of being lost due to the effects of industrialization and the Cultural Revolution. The how-tos were passed down from one generation to the next through word of mouth.
A series of articles on Chinese knots was published in a Taiwanese magazine after its publishers sought out the few remaining elderly women knotters in Taiwan. That was in 1976.
It is believed that the Japanese (hanamusubi) and Korean (maedup) knotting originated from China.
Almost every known knot has a name, some have more than one. The simplest knot we ALL tie is called an overhand knot (that’s the one you see above).
Records show that the knotwork go way back to more than several thousand years ago.
In ancient days, tying knots was a way to keep track of events, genealogies and stock.
According to expert knot tyer and author Geoffrey Budworth, knots are divided into 3 groups:
A knot joining 2 ropes is a bend.
A knot that attaches a rope to a rail, bar or any object is called a hitch.
Anything else that is neither a knot nor a hitch is a knot; which is subdivided into stopper knots, bindings, shortening, loops and nooses.
Even weaver birds tie different types of knots (with grass) to make their nests.
There are certain life-support knots that are specifically used by those who have to scale heights and depths.
As an early Scandinavian form of birth control, when a couple decided they had enough children, they would name their last-born boy Knut, which means knot.
[Source: ‘The Complete Book of Knots & Ropework’ and ‘Knots (Collins Need to Know?)’ by Geoffrey Budworth]
According to this article from the Christian SIM Now magazine that I was reading last night, at least 27 million men, women and children are serving as slaves.
The article begins with a story about a young boy from a poor family in West Africa whose father sent him to a local religious leader (a common practice) who takes in boys to live and work at his school until they reach their mid-teens. However what really happens is that the boys are sent out to beg for their own food and also for money which they have to surrender to the religious leader. The boys usually wander around the city without shoes, they are dirty and beg in busy traffic. They’re also regularly beaten and can only eat what they had begged for.
When the father heard the truth of what his son has to go through, he went out to rescue him. There are thousands of boys still caught within this accepted practice.
From Africa to Pakistan to Nepal to India to China to Eastern Europe to the US, Europe and Japan, people are involved either as slave providers or as slave consumers. Such a sad and ugly truth!
Slavery here and now has several resources for our action: reading lists, prayer lists, how to involve your kids, how to show support for abolitionist agencies and also products to avoid buying from companies with documented human rights abuses.
For most part of these 2 weeks, I’ve been devoting much time to knotting and so do join me in the coming days as I unveil my new bloom knots and fill you in on some quick ‘knottingpedia’.
Email this to a friend
