Chinese New Year

“Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and you will save his life.” – Confucius 

“Gong Hey Fat Choy,” that means Happy New Year in Chinese and today is Chinese New Year’s. If I didn’t mention it already, I am part Chinese.

Each year my family and I celebrate the New Year with a big meal, a family gathering, and yummy treats. Traditionally, we have our big dinner on the eve of the New Year. When we were all younger my grandmother would spend days preparing dishes and the entire eve cooking. Now we still have a family gathering with lots of food but we choose dishes that don’t require as much prep and work. We have our big meal the day before because you’re not supposed to work on New Year’s day; you’re supposed to rest. We get little red envelopes with money in them at our dinner; if you are married you have to give the envelopes but if you are single and have never been married, you receive them. The way my family celebrates may not be how all Chinese families celebrate but it’s what’s I’ve always known and so I follow all of the family traditions as best as I can. Another thing that my family does is that when you go to someone’s house that is Chinese after New Year’s day, you have to bring oranges, don’t ask me why, it’s just something that we have always done and I have always seen. A lot of the time we bring and receive a Chinese grapefruit called a Pomelo; it is very yummy.

Another thing that people pay close attention to is the Chinese Zodiac Calendar. Certain signs mean certain things and are said to represent how others see you to be or how you see yourself. This year is the year of the Horse. There are 12 different signs to be born under, some the Chinese think are better and luckier than others. I think it’s cool to see what animal all the people I know are and if they are anything like their signs. 

On a side note, I thoroughly enjoy watching Flower Drum Song every Chinese New Year; it’s my own little movie tradition.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Samantha

Our Website

“What the New Year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the New Year.” – Vern McLellan 

January is the first month of the year and a fresh start. We have been kinda talking about things to look forward to in 2014 and fresh new things that have come along with the New Year recently in the blog.

One thing that is fresh and new for us and the business is our website and we thought that we would share with you a little about our new website and our hopes for the business this year. 

Nicole has been working hard on creating our very own website, not an Etsy store that is a bit generic and impersonal, but a unique website that reflects us and best showcases our work. It took a little more time than expected because we are not very tech savvy but just as 2014 began, we launched the website. On it, we have information about us and the business and we have pictures and descriptions of all of our products with links to our Etsy store if people wish to purchase. 

Here’s a link to the website http://paperwhitecreations.wix.com/paperwhitecreations

I think this year we look most forward to promoting our business more and getting our name and products out there. Learning how best to do that can be a bit difficult as both Nicole and I have no experience in that sort of stuff.  When it comes to creating, we have been focusing on paper and ways to perfect our process of making it and marketing it. Bath and beauty products take time to make and test and some of ours are finally ready to be sold, so another focus will be finding ways to package the items we have perfected. I think that taking things slow and not biting off too much at once is important to keep in mind when running a small business. We just have to take one step at a time, which will help the business grow and evolve.

Samantha

Colour of the Year

“Art without colour would lose much of its purpose.” – Andrew Loomis

A big part of crafting is colour! Choosing just the right shades to compliment each other, help to make the piece of art work stand out. 

Each year Pantone chooses a colour of the year; you can see past colours of the year listed on their website. This year, the colour of the year is called “Radiant Orchid” which is a shade of purple. Purple just happens to be both Nicole and my favourite colour so we are excited about using this colour lots and about finding a plethora of supplies and items in this shade.

So this week we have decided to share with you some of our cards which feature purple shades and some items in “Radiant Orchid” that we fancy.

Enjoy the purpleness!

Samantha 

Cards

Purple Things