furoshiki and a Pinoy Christmas

Yes, I'm feeling Christmasy already. 🎄

Let me tell you about these little furoshiki (cloth-wrapped) gifts, and why I'm doing this in the middle of November. Hint: It's probably because I'm Filipino.

diy: a bouquet of dried (paper) flowers

It seems dried flowers are here to stay, in more ways than one.

This is one of those trends that I wasn't really into at the beginning, but eventually got my interest a full year later. (It's like having an Ariana Grande song in your head: you find yourself singing it right when a different new single tops the charts.)

Lucky for me, dried florals and dried grass are still fresh in 2021, judging by the interior design articles that still call it the year's biggest trend. I guess people are still stuck at home and in need of low-maintenance coziness to fill their void.

So I'm halfway on-board, convinced that I want dead flowers in my home somewhere, but a few major peeves stopped me. First, store-bought dried flower bouquets are pricey, and second, most of them are frickin' imported! Like who spends that much money and burns that much fossil fuel just to transport lifeless plants from Austria?

"Fuck that, I'll make my own," I said, reaching for my stack of old brown paper bags.

Here's how that went.