My origami display solution

I have loved folding origami ever since my second grade teacher Mrs. Maetani at Waterford School (Provo, back when it existed) taught my class how.  And then my big sister went on a mission there and brought me back a huge oragami book in Japanese (which didn't matter, because it is based on pictures anyway).  I was an origami fool as a kid.  Bored at church; origami, bored in school; origami, bored ANYWHERE; origami.  I still love to do it.  My perfectionist tendencies get a huge kick with all the crisp exact folding...  The only problem I ever had with folding origami is that I never had a very good place to put it/store it/display it.  And therefore was reluctant to do it as much as I might have otherwise.  I didn't want them to go to waste (especially if it was with real origami paper, which I rarely had).  Because I'm crazy like that too.  But having recently succumbed to the temptation to buy a fat stack of darling little origami papers and so I now have loads AND THEN I saw these tiny clothespins and voila!  A brilliant solution was procured.  I don't know if others have done this before me and I have just been clueless.  It is certainly simple enough I wouldn't be surprised.  But either way, I figured I'd share it with you.

None of my doorways are safe now.

On where I get my mad sewing skills from, and why I take them for granted

My mom is an amazingly talented, meticulous, patient, detailed, precise and incredible seamstress.  This is the gorgeous quilt she made for me.  And because growing up, it was my Mom, I thought that all mom's came built in with that skill and precision. Yeah, they don't.  This is hand quilted people.  Hand appliquéd where the triangles go over the border.  Every corner matches.  All the stitches are even.  She is amazing.  And this is not her first.  Its her fourth big one, with two more in the works.  That is actually not counting all of the little ones she's made for grandkids in between all of the full size quilted works of art she makes for her daughters.  Not a single quilt for herself, not even a simple tied one.  (I will contest that my mother is the most unselfish person alive). 

My mother is the one who taught me to sew.  First by hand (at a pretty young age.. maybe I was 5 or so?  6?)  And then when I was old enough to be entrusted with her sewing machine (10 or 11?) she patiently taught me, and together we worked through the tears and frustration that sewing can sometimes bring.  I only thought it was hard because I was a kid, and she made it look so easy.  I didn't know that everybody goes through that.  (Right? the wanting to pull your hair out when it just. doesn't. make. any. sense! and the unpicking, and the broken needles, and on and on..) 

So, even though I learned from the best I am still trying to achieve the level of perfection in sewing that she has.  That is why I don't ever think my sewing as being very remarkable.  Because look at THAT!  Wow.

Valentine Fun

Sohvi and Max really wanted to cut out heart decorations for Valentine's Day, and finding myself with no good reason not to, I agreed to attempt it. So, I taught Sohvi how to cut out symetrical hearts by folding the paper down the middle, and Max mostly watched and requested asymmetrical hearts, shredded other paper and helped hang them up on the window. While I withstood the temptation to offer placement advice to my kids, and/or hang them all myself instead. That is how much I love my kids, I can stand back and let them make an unbalanced, lopsided, yet lovely splay on my windows all by themselves. I however busied myself making valentine heart snowflakes out of colored paper and abstract valentine art, so I could contribute something.

That was really fun. So it was a good mix of eclectic kid hearts as well as my crazy overboard detailed snowflakes. (which is why I don't usually do decorations.. I spend too much time on them, only to throw them away later, because they've been destroyed, and/or I don't want the bother of saving them and pulling them out for every separate occasion). The heart snowflakes do have really good potential for kid combined with adult projects.

They do the art (theoretically, because by the time I thought of it, Sohvi didn't want to do abstract, and Max's attention span had expired on the whole project). So you (being the adult) cut out the snowflake from the dried art (or your kids if they are old enough to cut their own snowflakes). Sohvi probably could, but was content with cutting plain hearts. So I had to provide the abstract art AND the cutting.
You can do any kind of medium, but white crayon makes for cool wax resist effects if you watercolor on top of it. (which I didn't do, I did red, which I obviously like the effect of as well)

Watercolor is funner for me with abstract, so I did a combination of crayon and watercolor in valentine colors. I also messed around with a tiny hole punch in the snowflakes. It was totally fun, and I made myself stop at four, so I didn't overpower (supposedly) my kids hearts. I like the compliment of both of them together on the window. Try it out!