Origami
This month’s Playdate is Origami. You know those moments when you get so bored that even the all-knowing internet fails to amuse you anymore? Then maybe it’s time you get off your desk, unplug your computer, and go back to basics – and by that we mean go back to traditional sources of entertainment – like origami, for example. What is Origami? If you’re not familiar with origami, origami is the popular Japanese art of paper folding. It is still disputed whether the art of paper folding is actually Japanese in origin since there have been earlier references to paper folding in China, known to Chinese speakers as “Zhe Zhi,” not to mention that modern paper itself was invented in China and was just later introduced by Buddhists monks during their travels in Japan, but it is a widely recognized that the art of paper folding started to gain international attention after a book on how to fold origami models was compiled by Akira Yoshizawa in 1954. How do you do origami? The appeal of origami mainly lies on its simplicity and the large number of designs that you can make with just a piece of paper. Yup, that’s right – just a piece of paper — and an optional pair of scissors if you want. What kind of design you’re going to used would depend on your experience and the amount of time and effort you’re willing to put in, but since we have a t-shirt business on the site, we thought it would be fun if we’ll try some clothing-related designs. Origami Designs We found a great site that offers plenty of tutorials on clothing-related designs, but since we’re no experts at this, we started with the simpler ones first like this t-shirt design first. The t-shirt design was fun to make, but an outfit would not be complete if there won’t be no skirt to match the top, and so we made this skirt: We already have a top and a skirt, so we decided to move on to a one-piece outfit, and since we’re doing origami, we thought we shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to make something Japanese such as a yukata. We’ve already done three kinds of clothes at this point, two more than what we originally planned to, but we had more fun than we expected that the team requested to make one last design before we wrap things up. This time, we chose a rabbit design with clothes. Pretty cute, huh? We wanted to try a couple more designs after this one but we ran out of time, so we had to save them for next time. Anyways, if you have more time than us, why don’t you check out their list of other designs and try them for yourself? Happy folding! (^_^) Source: Origami. (2012, September 05). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:43, September 05 2012, from...
read moreVegetable Planting
Planting Inspirations usually sprout from nowhere, but for the BNP staff, we seem to be more inclined to find inspiration while in the middle of filling our stomachs with food. First, there was that paint-a-mural challenge that we came up after noticing how bare our wall was while we were eating lunch, second was a sudden cosplay skit that we decided to put together while watching an animated series during lunch, and more recently, the planting activity that we decided to do after looking catching a glimpse of our backyard while — you guess it — while having lunch. Yep. From being painters to cosplayers to gardeners – that’s how we break monotony the BNP way. Anyway, one of our artists has a little background on gardening so she volunteered to provide the seedlings and teach the basics to us, and since it was our stomachs that inspired us to do this activity, we decided to plant some vegetables for “future use.” Armed with mustard, okra, chili pepper, horse radish, and eggplant seeds, we headed to the backyard carrying gardening tools and a pair of seedling trays. After finding a good spot, we started digging for soil that we will be transferring to the seedling tray which we then proceeded to fill halfway through its brim. After the seedling trays were ready, we started to sprinkle chilli pepper and mustard seeds all over it, keeping a gap of at least three inches between each seed. We then set the seedling trays aside and started working on the seed beds. For the seedbeds, we prepared two rectangular plots of soil which we dug and cultivated with trowels and garden forks. After they were ready, we then sprinkled mustard and horse radish seeds over it, also maintaining a three-inch gap in between seeds. Still left with okra and eggplant seeds, we thought the seedbeds might get a little too crowded so we decided to plant the remaining seeds in a row around the seedbeds which we did by digging burrows of about two-three inches deep and burying the seeds in them. With no more seeds left to plant, we decided to wrap things up by taking a bucket of water and sprinkling it over the now covered soil. This is what our mini vegetable garden looked like after we finished planting. And this is what it looks like 2 weeks later. Not bad, right? Anyone wants some pakbet or sinigang?...
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