New Year Preparations

Chinese New Year that is...This will be my first time experiencing the craziness of Chinese New Year season in asia.  At my local town center area, they've set up pasar malam - which is a night market (except it's open all day long)...Lots of vendors have set up shop selling all sorts of stuff....cheap clothing, bags, cds, decorations...you name it, they got it.  I even picked up some sewing supplies at dirt cheap prices at this one shop that sold everything from door stoppers to ear cleaning tools.  It's fantastic!

This is one of the many stalls selling New Years decorations.  

I also happened to catch the God of Fortune wandering around the market....actually, there were about 10 of them walking in a line, but by the time I whipped out my camera, there was only one left.

Since we are living in Asia and I am Asian, I felt the need to get a decoration for my house too...(note, I said a decoration - that's right - only one).  We picked this funny little sign to put on our front door.  Andy liked this one because of the happy fat kids.

Then there's the food.  They've got all sorts of things-on-a-stick.....like seaweed chicken on a stick, fishballs on a stick, siew mai on a stick, even chicken wings on a stick.

For Chinese New Year, we're heading out of town to Taiwan.  I'm really looking forward to celebrating with my grandma, aunts, and uncles, since that's what New Year is all about.  We're gonna have hot pot - yum!  Can't wait to eat it up in Taiwan!

Of course, since this is the first time I've seen some of my Taiwan family in 6 years, I must arrive bearing some gifts.  So, I've decided to do handmade gifts.  I based my bag off this tutorial and made my own pattern incorporating some changes and added some extras like pockets, zippers, and buttons. Here's a sneak peak at my works in progress:

I still have to sew the buttons on, so when I finish them all up, I'll be sure to show you all.  Hope my aunts like them!