ETCs: Chinese New Year 2012 (Part 1 of 2)

A's not much of a special holiday person. So since we got married, we don't do anything much for the Chinese New Year. The closest activity that I could recall was last year when we had to roll 17 pieces of kiat kiat from our main door. Snuz had to participate of course since we could enter our home one at a time in a specific order. This is year, along with the new slate movement that we've been going through the past few weeks, is different.

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My inactivity during Christmas last year and the New Year (Gregorian calendar) caused a build up of "getting into the spirit" feeling that I ended up making preps for the Chinese New Year. I guess being married to somebody who belongs to the culture has given me more reason to do so.

I found this digital photo artwork by Kim Cameron over at CUDigitals:

Luckily, the templates were being sold for just $2.00 on the site. So, I went ahead to buy the templates and rekindled my relationship with Photoshop to come up with the one that's now hanging on our wall. 

I designed a koi photo using photoshop (dimensions 20' x 30") and had it mounted on a foam board.  

Next on the list was having a scroll of some sort that has Chinese calligraphy in it. I don't think Photoshop could help me out on this one. So, I had somebody make on for us. Thanks to Louie Siy, we now have this:

This means "The luck that comes to this house may have four seasons of happiness. When spring comes to the family door,may it draw them closer and love one another." We had this placed on our makeshift foyer.

The other calligraphy work means "welcoming dragon wins all." It sounds like something I'd hear on a bet, but then again, translating Chinese to English isn't easy. I'll accept the jungle English translation.

Well, that's for the year-long prep. Will post again for the preps that we made for the offering table.