Weird things we do at restaurants

I get a little fidgety when I get bored or nervous.  Or when my meal is over and we're still sitting around talking.  I don't know what it is, but we've managed to leave some interesting things for those who had the pleasure, or pain, of serving my friends and I.

The kiddo and I went out to eat with a friend (not romantic) on Valentine's Day.  We brought cards and talked and ate and had a pretty good time.  When we were getting ready to go, my son requested a ninja star.  My friend has recently learned how to make ninja stars and has made a ton of them. 

I, of course, suddenly remembered the second placemat hadn't been used at all.  I couldn't have that!  So I made a Swedish heart by tearing paper.  I'm pretty pleased with it given that I had no scissors and only used my hands.   The kiddo colored the paper so you can't see how it's woven that well.

 Halfway through, my friend was said, "You could just quill a heart instead."

 Not to be outdone, I decided to put my tip money in my woven heart.

More tips for the waitress.

Create: Cherry Blossoms in Summer

I've always loved cherry blossoms.  They are possibly my favorite flower in art and movies.  Whether they are my favorite flower flower is still up for grabs, but I love the decorative quality of these little delicate blossoms.  I typically don't care for pink, so it is slightly weird that I am drawn to these flowers.  But at the same time, I love love love art that involves branches.  I'm weird, I know.

Cherry blossoms in Haiku are a signal word for Spring.  And I tend to think of cherry blossoms when I think of Asian art.  So today I give you a cherry branch!

 This now hangs outside my cube at work.  It is made with origami cherry blossoms, candy wrapper centers, and a FedEx envelope.

To make the blossoms, take a square of paper and fold it like this.  I had to use a variation on step eight, however, as it was just not working for me.  Instead of folding the corner back and intuiting where the fold is, I folded it like I learned when making a crane.

Basically, put the open ends towards you.  Fold the side flaps towards the crease in the middle so that you end up with the shape above.  Fold the top triangle down towards you and crease.  Open up the flaps and fold like the directions say.  This provides you with a guide for where the paper should be creased.

To make the center:  This is pretty much a free hand style of your choice.  I ripped/cut a long triangle of candy wrapper, folded one end to make a flat space, and twisted the remaining wrapper into a stem.  It turned out looking mostly like a clove.  I rolled the stem in glue and pressed it into the opening left in the blossom.  Then I pressed the flat part flatter against the center of the blossom.

To make the branch:  I free-handed the shape of a basic branch with curly bits on the ends and cut it out.  The part that shows is the inside of the FedEx envelope.  I thought I might have to color it darker, but it turned out pretty well.

To connect them all:  The back side of your blossom will have a triangle shaped stem that you can fold over to make the blossom lay flat.  Add glue to the flap and blossom and stick your branch between them.  This way it will be held on both sides and will not be so easy to fall off. 

Tadaa!  You are done.

Now go pretty up your space. :)