Tag: Red Envelope

Happy Year of the Tiger!

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!  It’s my first Chinese New Year and the reign of the cow zodiac is over for another 12 years.

If I could, I would put my hands together and say, “恭喜發財, 紅包拿來” (gong xi fa cai, hong bao na lai), which means, “Wishing you a prosperous year, now may I have a red envelope?”

Mommy & Daddy received two red envelopes people gave to me…totaling  $21!  Haha!  It’s really the thought that counts and Mommy & Daddy are appreciative that I even got any red envelopes considering we are in the U.S.  Mommy & Daddy have put all of my cash gifts (including all those I got from my birth)  into a separate account just for me so that one day, if I behave, I can use it for a wise purchase.

I also got a 棉襖 (traditional Chinese brocade jacket) from Auntie Ching-Chun and a pseudo-silk outfit from one of Daddy’s friends.  Too bad both outfits are too big for me, so I’ll have to debut them next year.

Chinese New Year also happens to fall on Valentine’s Day this year.  Valentine’s Day is was particularly unromantic this year for Mommy & Daddy, in part because I’m in the picture.  However, Daddy did come to the temple with us on New Year’s Day.  (Mommy was quite happy about this!)  Mommy & Daddy also snuck away today for a “date” to see “Avatar” in IMAX 3D while I was at home with the nanny.  Yes, Mommy & Daddy are a little bit behind in seeing this award-winning movie, but better late than never.  Mommy wasn’t too impressed with the storyline, but the beautiful scenery on Pandora was just mesmerizing (especially in 3D)!

My First Art Project

As most of you know, Mommy is an artist at heart and she wasted no time in getting me started on my first art project.  Mommy wanted to preserve my hand and footprints and frame the whole thing with the letterpress announcement. 

After much searching online, Mommy found the “right” frame set from Red Envelope for $49.99 plus 15% off.  It had all the bells and whistles of what she wanted in the frame at a lower cost than what it would have cost to do this a la carte from buying supplies from Michael’s.

frame

The first thing Mommy did was etch my name and birth date into the glass with Armour Etch.  Mommy bought the Armour Etch over 10 years ago and have never used it.  It’s good to know that it still works!  Mommy cut homemade stencil using “Viner Hand” 100 point font on an old vinyl bumper sticker.  This way, Mommy didn’t have go out to buy vinyl masking just for this purpose. 

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 Applying the Armour Etch to the stencil.  It etches after only one minute!

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 See the final etched glass.

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 The middle opening of the mat was a big small, so Mommy bought a mat cutter to make the opening bigger to fit the announcement.  Mommy also thought the plain off-white mat was a bit boring, so she used a Pearl-Ex and gum arabic mixture to paint the mat in this pearly glaze color.

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 Then comes the part where I come in!  After PoPo gave me a bath, Mommy stamped my foot and hand.  We had to try a couple of times because I wasn’t sure what I stepping into.  Was it my own poop?  Was it Mommy’s mushy tummy?  Whatever it was, Mommy was pleased with the results of the print.  The mold had to dry at room temperature for a couple of days.

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Mommy then assembled the print molds onto the frame and put the whole thing together.  See the final product!

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 Maybe I’ll make Mommy proud and be a talented artist (as a side job) in the future!