End of the year chores

I'm already hard at work this morning and ready to take a breather. I've just spent two hours changing the paper on our windows in the Japanese room.

This is a typical end of the year project for Japanese families though I don't do this every year. The process itself isn't so difficult but taking off the old paper and washing the wooden lattice takes time... Washing away the dust and glue residue used to hold the old paper.

There are many ways to repaper windows these days and I chose the easiest... iron on! The window paper (plastic in my case... It is a little stronger against cat claws) has iron on bonding like interfacing. But the last time I did this I must have used double sided tape which made for a mess getting off (easy to put on). I will not use that stuff again! Or I could go the old fashioned way and use papering glue (the really old way was to dilute and mash cooked rice!). One year I tried Elmer's glue and it took days to get that paper off and I had to sandpaper down the wooden lattice!

I'm sure all this isn't very interesting but re-papering windows at the end of the year makes me feel very Japanese. I actually have two more windows to go but can't get the one wooden lattice out of its window rail by myself. Stuck solid. Hmmm... I wonder if our house has become tipsy since the earthquake.... The windows may have warped....

Anyway, the paper has little cherry blossoms on it and makes me wish spring were closer!