"Yuki" Ornament Card & Mochi Pounding Pix

Hope you're all enjoying some nice and sunshiny days. OMG, we've been having rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, and more rain. And it's supposed to be worse tomorrow. Good grief.

Here's an ornament card I made for Linda for the December Secret Sister Swap. The "ornament" is made using a Spellbinder die. How fun! I placed the top on the fold to create this card then inked "Yuki" by Sister Stamps with Copics. The red cherry blossom is from Wild Orchids, small lavendar flowers by Mulberry Bear, large leaf punch by McGill, and small leaf punch by Punch Bunch. To give the leaves more definition I distressed the edges. I LOVE embossing folders and used dots by Cuttlebug on the green trim, then used an EK edge punch.
Here's a peek inside the card.

The sentiment is by Dandelion Design. Don't you think it goes perfectly with Yuki hugging her toy-filled Christmas stocking?

Now on to mochi pounding. Cely requested pictures and here they are. I wish I took more. Shucks.

The day before mochi pounding, we wash then soak a 5 lb. bag of mochi rice in water. The following day, the rice is steamed in a wood fired steamer until it's soft. Then it's transferred into a large stone bowl for pounding. Then several of the guys, each with a long stick, will poke at the same time to soften it more. Now it's ready to be "pounded" which is a 2-person operation.

Well, here I am getting ready to pound with my hubby.

We need to have good timing so we don't end up hitting the other person's "hammer." Also, a good aim is a must so we don't hit the side of the "bowl." If that happens (and I did it before), the "hammer" ends up with splinters. Yikes. Who wants to eat mochi with wood splinters? LOL. Good thing they always have extra hammers.

The men folks do most of the pounding but as each family's mochi is pounded, the members of that family get in a few "hits."

After the mochi is pounded several times, someone will turn the mochi by hand. Oh, and we need to be careful not to pound his hand too.....dangerous job. LOL :-)

Once the mochi is pounded, it gets transferred to a long table that is sprinkle with "katakuriko" so the mochi won't stick to table and our hands. The ladies then make kazari or ko mochi.

Okie dokie, that's Mochi Pounding 101. :-)

Nighty night and thank you for visiting. Have a great week.