My Domestic Art

I made more CNY decorations over the weekend. There's something about creating something with my hands that makes life fun. And therapeutic! These are my ang pow wheels of fortune. My little one insists that they are flowers and not wheels. They do look like flowers from below. I made 3 of them as I happen to have 3 sets of these ang pow packets in different colours. Since we are learning about lucky/unlucky numbers , 3 is also considered a lucky number in Chinese as it sounds similar to "birth" (sheng) in Chinese. There are 3 important stages in a person's life: birth, marriage and death. Chinese culture stresses upon family and children so this number is seen in a positive light. These ang pow packets are horizontal so they are great folded in half with the pictures still visible. I used 10 ang pow packets for each lantern. Fold them in half. Put 2 ang pow packets together and staple them, on the top and the bottom, somewhere in the m...

We took the boys out to Chinatown on a whim over the weekend. We hardly come to Chinatown at all. It's not a place that they are interested in. Sadly, my city kids would prefer going to air-conditioned shopping centres any day or simply staying home with their gadgets or books. (sigh...) But I am glad we went! It turned out to be more interesting than we all anticipated. We happened to go last Saturday, which was the official street light up and opening ceremony. The roads were closed to cars. There were live performances, cultural songs and dance. It was massively crowded and we didn't stop to see the performances. But we walked. We started at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Upper Cross Street, which is where the centrepiece - the massive Rooster was situated. There were lanterns shaped like roosters, hens, chicks, golden eggs and peach blossoms behind the rooster all along the road.  Then we headed to the annual ...

I don't know if having a CNY wreath hung on the door is traditionally done. I have never had it and as a matter of fact, I've not seen it in other people's houses either! I was taking down all my Christmas decorations and I thought it would be nice to make something for the door too. I used the red flowers and berries for Christmas and now being re-used here. I just had to add the 2 ang pows to make it more like Chinese New Year, right! In the spirit of learning more about Chinese customs and beliefs , the boys ask why does everything have to be so red? For as long as I can remember, we are always encouraged to wear new red clothes, put up red decorations and lanterns around the house, and receive/give red packets during Chinese New Year. But I never knew why red? This is what we discovered from the Internet: According to the tales, there was a mythical beast called the Nian who used to appear at the beginning of Chin...

I enjoy doing art and craft with the kids. I guess it's me trying to connect with them in some ways. As they grow up, they are much more interested in their gadgets and books or Nerf guns and Lego and all those other boy stuff that I find we are spending less and less time with each other. Doing art is my rare moments with them when we can just sit down and work together and chat. Since we are doing Chinese New Year decorations, the boys have lots of questions about the Chinese traditions and superstitions. I have to admit I don't know most of the answers so Google has been very helpful here. As we were making the lucky number Eight wall decoration, the boys were asking me why the number eight and not any other number? 8 is considered the most auspicious number in Chinese culture. Number 8 is read as "ba" which sounds like "Fa" which means wealth and prosperity in Chinese. So the Chinese usually try to incorporate 8 whenever they can. The boy...

It's only the beginning of January, I'm still in the midst of taking down all my Christmas decorations, and yet here I am making Chinese New Year decorations already! The shops have already taken down their Christmas decorations and replaced them with Chinese New Year themes. They are starting to play typical CNY songs, and displaying all things red! It's crazy that Christmas had come and gone so quickly, and now everyone is getting ready for another big festive celebration. I have collected a large collection of ang pow packets over the years and I'm always excited to make CNY decorations every year. I don't follow the Chinese traditions much but I just like to decorate the house with red and gold and follow traditional themes like fortune, wealth, luck, happiness etc... I will get down to doing proper spring cleaning of the house too, but right now I just want to make some lanterns. Lol Today I'm going to show you my lucky seven lantern. I ...

I remember making wontons with my flatmates during my University days... it was easy to make, but so yummy and satisfying especially in the cold weather. I haven't made them in ages as store-bought wontons are aplenty around here. I was craving for some home-made wontons, only problem is that it can be quite time consuming to wrap the wontons by myself to feed my growing boys! So I did what any self-respecting mother would do and enlisted the help of the boys. Luckily they were game enough to try their hand at wrapping wontons. I even had an extra pair of hands in the form of the boys' cousin who was over to play. Now we can get dinner sorted in under an hour. I can enjoy my wontons without the tedious task of wrapping them. The boys can do something productive away from their screens too. Win-win! Pork and Shrimp Wontons Ingredients: 200g mince pork 100g frozen shrimps - finely chopped 4 pcs shitake mushroom - minced 2...