Fun with Money, Honey!

I had a Japanese friend in college named Kaz (... i think) and he liked to do 'tricks' with his cigarette smoke while we were out getting inebriated at the bar. He could blow smoke rings with ease and did something where he'd roll up a dollar bill and blow smoke into it and it would bubble thru his beer or something, to pop and poof in the air. Shoot - i don't remember the details, but i remember being mesmorized by it all. I vaguely remember him doing other stuff with that dollar bill and i would love it.

Then, 11 yrs later, i worked at Jelly Beans as a waitress, and one time, a nice lady left me a $5 tip in the form of a neatly folded origami heart. I unfolded that heart carefully, to study it's composition, and thought it was the coolest thing and kept it in my waitress book as a keepsake.

This Christmas, i thought it would be cool to give money to our tween and teen family, but fold it up all funky and fun. I found a cool website online that had a bunch of ideas and i opted for the SHIRT, cuz i think it looks so real and sharp and i'm completely taken with the fact that the collar looks REAL! ;-) I showed my friends and they all commissioned me (for free, haha) to fold them some money for their honeys. Folding the SHIRT is wicked easy... "YOU CAN DO IT TOO!"

Because I was so taken with the SHIRT outcome, I decided to find paper-folding tree ornament designs online. i found a really cool STAR one that actually uses 8 folded papers, all tucked into one another to make a star. I had a really good time making those for three very special friends. Of course, i picked appropriate paper/designs to match their personalities.

A couple times growing up, as a Christmas gift, I remember getting origami folding paper and instructions for making all sorts of animals. I loved doing it and i was pretty good at it. Just this past New Year's Day, our friend Miwa brought origami paper and was making cranes with her daughter Nina. It sparked ALL the above memories and thoughts and i think i'd like to revisit paper-folding for a little bit. As with most things with me, though, origami eventually wears out its welcome and tucks itself snuggly in the back of my mind for years before it emerges with a great big stretch and a song and dance!