Hari Kyuou – Say Goodbye (and Thank you) In Japanese

If you wonder about my long love affair with all things Japanese, here is a perfect example:   Hari Kyuou. Japanese women perform this ceremony of consolation over their broken needles and dull pins.

This from Miho Takeuchi’s wonderful blog:

It was believed that  tools and utensils used roughly should become the monsters (the Gods named Tsukumogami) to attack people 100 years later. Tsukumogami, or “artifact spirit”, are a type of Japanese spirit.  According to the Tsukumogami-emaki, tsukumogami originate from items or artifacts  that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware. Any object of this age, from swords to toys, can become a tsukumogami.

I love the thought of thanking the needles and pins for their service, and sending them off with consolation and assurances they will never do harm.  They are such vital tools to what we do, why not honor their service?

Along with consoling their broken needles, women are encouraged to console themselves and bury secrets too personal to reveal. Thanks to Miho for the above post – visit her blog and learn more about the ceremony – it is fascinating.  Studio Aika

Trouble with Templates

Houston we have a problem.  Instead of spending what little free time I have working on my quilts,  I have found myself on my computer endlessly auditioning and rearranging my blog.  There are templates galore, customizable headers, themes, pictures,  ink color changes – it’s like digital quilting. I have addiction issues around computers. I can annihilate an entire day just surfing, reading, tweaking, looking at fabric, newspapers, video, and weird websites. Maybe it is just vacuuming avoidance, laundry  evasion or some other malady.  Maybe it is because the women in my family carry a procrastination gene that scientists dream about studying.  I do not know.  I just know that I need to snap out of it, unplug my computer (literally) and get back in my sewing room.

We Have A Winner!

I did not think it possible, but we have a new winner in the CELL PHONE JACKASS competition.  The former title  (held by a woman who, while sitting in the stall next to me in a public bathroom,  was conducting business while taking care of her, um, business) had held the crown for about 2 years.

No longer the Queen of Cell Phone Jackasses, there is now a KING.  While standing in the teller line of  a very busy bank yesterday,  the new  KOCPJ came in, and with his phone on speakerphone (at a deafening volume) proceeded to make out a lengthy deposit slip while a woman’s voice rambled on (without drawing breath) about the  (expletive) man who has (expletive) her over for years and who deserves (expletive) and  needed to be (expletive).  The boy-man who had the phone resting on the counter picked it up and laughingly said, “Hey, I’m in the bank and I gottcha on speakerphone!” and continued to laugh hilariously.  The reaction of the woman (still on speakerphone) was, “What?  You (expletive)!  I could (expletive) kill you! You dumb (expletive.)”  The man continued the conversation (still on speakerphone) while making his deposit.  The tellers were wide-eyed and speechless.

I went back to work berating myself for not having the spine to stand up to him and say “take it outside, you moron.”  Probably a good thing I did not as he was a bit of a psycho to begin with, as are most of the CPJ I have met up with. But hey, thanks for sharing, fella.   Just promise me you won’t reproduce.