Start preparing for Chinese New Year!!

Hello girls! Here's some tips for you all for the perfect preparations for Chinese New Year!!

On the days before the New Year celebration Chinese families give their home a thorough cleaning. It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the first day so that luck cannot be swept away.
Homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese auspicious phrases and couplets. Purchasing new clothing, shoes, and receiving a hair-cut also symbolize a fresh start.

The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the dinner - consisting of fish.



On New Years Eve, it's customary to make dumplings. Chinese Dumplings look like silver ingots. Legend has it that the more dumplings you eat during New Year celebration, more money you can make in the New Year. (this I really agree with)!



Its also necessary to make a new year cake (Niangao) after dinner and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year. Niangao literally means increasingly prosperous year in year out.



Not many days left to make your preparations!!!! So get busy :-)

Images from here.


Patsy and I have been so busy sending out lanterns for everyone's parties. Here she is after the end of a hard day's work (sleeping on my handbag)!



Have a great week :-)

Sunday Vietnam Tour - Halong Bay

Hello my friends! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! 3 hours from Hanoi (where we were last week) is this World Heritage Site.

Ha Long means 'descending dragon' - the myth is that a celestial dragon flung herself headlong into the sea, her swishing tail digging deep valleys and crevices in the mainland. As she descended into the sea, these filled with water creating the bay!

Of course, in Vietnam you can shop anywhere! There's always fresh fruit for sale, even on the bay - the vendor will come to you!! I love this service :-)



The fruit sellers and fisherman live in these cute mini villages on the bay!



Hire a boat, to take you wherever you please!! You can even sleep on these if you want to stay a while!



The scenery is beautiful. Even on a cold, dreary, rainy day - its such a lovely part of the world! Next time, I'll go in summer so I can swim from the boat!!



This is 'duck rock'. Don't you think it looks like a duck???



And here I am on 'my' boat. A little wind-blown and cold, but still having fun :-)



Hope you had a lovely time!! See you next week :-)

Lantern winners :-)

Hello all, and Happy Friday :-)
I'm a little late in announcing the winners of the giveaway - sorry! Patsy hurt herself (while playing) on Wednesday night and had to go to the emergency vet! Thankfully, all is fine with Patsy :-) me, on the otherhand almost needed sedatives as I was distressed to see her in pain :-(

So, on a happy note, a big congratulations to my dear friends Caitlin and Mami!! I'll be in touch to get your addresses!!

Here's some lovely lantern pics (from Flickr) to enjoy over the weekend!!










See you all again Sunday for some more Vietnam touring. Hope you can join me!!

Come on a tour of Vietnam with me!

I'm getting itchy feet again .... So thought I'd take a mini tour of one of my favourite places, Hanoi Vietnam - and bring you all with me!!! ***Note: these are not professional pics - this is Vietnam through my eyes!! ***

Hope you enjoy!!

Lets begin at Hoan Kiem Lake (lake of the Restored Sword). I love the story of this lake - In the 15th century, Emporor Le Thai To was supposedly handed a magic sword by a divine tortoise living in the lake, helping him repel Chinese invaders. After the country had been liberated, the tortoise snatched back the sword and disapeared in the lake!!

This is the Rising Sun Bridge - lets all stop and take pics of each other!!


I like to visit this peaceful lake of a morning, and watch the elderly people doing tai chi. Its so serene, and such a contrast from the rest of the crazy/noisy city!






Here is Thap Rua (Tortoise Tower) - dedicated to this mythical creature! Its a three tiered tower. I think it looks very mystical!



Next stop Tran Quoc Pagoda. This is my favourite pagoda in Hanoi.
Founded in the 6th century, but relocated to present site in 17th century as the original site was prone to flooding. This area was formerly the Buddhist centre of ancient Hanoi.



The buddhas and lotus flowers are so crisp and white!



I actually have many pics of this Buddhism pagoda, but for some reason in all my pics the tower looks like it leans (just like Pisa). But I'm sure in reality it doesn't!!!!



I love to do a lot of walking when I'm in Vietnam. You can stumble across the most amazing temples, shops, beauty parlours, eateries .... etc.

So, its vitally important to allow time at the end of your day for some reflexology and manicure/pedicure. There are 100's of places to choose from, and very cheap!!

I always get a design on my toenails ....



Here are some cute ladybirds on my fingernails!! Love these :-)



Hope you have enjoyed the mini tour. I've had so much fun I'm gonna take another one next Sunday.
Hope to see you next week. ***Don't forget my lovely follower friends to enter my giveaway (see post below). Prize drawn on Wednesday***

Lantern giveaway time!

Congratulations to Patsy and myself and our little blog for having 100 dear sweet followers now! So, as promised, to celebrate we are having a giveaway to our loyal friends!!! We'd also like to thank you all for visiting us regularly and leaving your comments - we just love it (and have become quite addicted to the whole thing)!

We will be having 2 prizes :-) and the winners will be drawn randomly. The lanterns are all from our most recent shipment which arrived just after Christmas!
Plenty of choices - you can select your prize from the following. Oh, and I will post anywhere in the world!

I do apologise, the photos are not quite as I had planned, but as it has been over 30 degrees C every day lately and the humidity is very high I haven't been wanting to stand in the heat and take new pics!

A. Set of 9 20cm round lanterns (one of each colour as shown)


B. Set of 12 party lanterns in various colours


C. Set of 12 'happiness' lanterns (perfect for Chinese New Year - February 14)


D. Large cherryblossom lantern (35cm) with 1 20cm white lantern, 2 20cm red and 1 20cm black


E. Large dragonfly lantern (35cm) with 2 20cm white lanterns, 2 20cm black lanterns


My giveaway is open to anyone following the blog, and to enter just leave your selection in the comments section below - too easy!!!

All the lanterns are paper, and they all fold flat when not in use - so you can use them over and over again :-) All items from Lanternshop.

To give you all enough time to enter, we will draw the prizes on Wednesday night 3 February (Aussie time), and will post the winning details on the Thursday.

Thanks again, for making our blogging experience so enjoyable. Patsy and I have made some really great friendships with people (and animals too)!

Good luck - and lots of love to you all, Karen & Sweet Patsy xo

Happy Australia Day - drop in to my party!

Happy Australia Day my friends. Its a public holiday :-)

So, grab your Aussie cozzie,


your Aussie thongs,


And drop into my place for celebrations!!! Grab a drink from my well-stocked fridge


Bring your furry friends


And have a great day!!!! Its stinking hot again here in sunny Queensland - so don't forget your sunscreen!

Cheers!


Pics from here.

What a hot weekend!!

What a great weekend - but the heat has just been so incredibly hard to take.

Thankfully, we were lucky enough to spend most of the weekend in the pool.
Here's little Gracey (the newest member of the extended Dragonfly family), she's only 2 months old! Isn't she adorable - she's showing off her beautiful bathers! I think I'd like these in my size!! She enjoys the pool too!!



And my baby Patsy, who is definately struggling in this heat wearing her fur jacket!
At the moment, we only have one room in the house with airconditioning - my office. Unfortunately its incredibly messy :-( Here she is squeezed in amongst the mess this morning taking a well-earned nap!!

Isn't she just the cutest???

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!!
This week I'm going to photo the choices for the giveaway prize and post ASAP!

Happy Monday my friends :-) Australia Day holiday tomorrow! Yipee!