Argh, there hasn't been a Friday Feeling post for a few weeks - I am so sorry! Not sure quite why I have failed so miserably in my mission to bring my favourite Etsy finds of the week to you, please forgive me! Anyway, some of you will have noticed that this week I am slightly obsessed with ninjas... so this week is of course dedicated to the ninjas. Of the cute variety...
The Surprise Ninja makes an appearance on this cute badge by TheHappyWhale
And this ninja is lurking on a card ready to strike with his shuriken by CompassionCardCo
YAY! I love these little guys! So I guess I should find some interesting facts about ninjas for you...
Ninjas have been around since about the 14th Century. The art of Ninjutsu means the art of stealth and ninjas were traditionally spies, saboteurs and assassins.
Ninjas aren't called ninjas at all - they were called Shinobi meaning 'to steal away'. Apparently the name ninja only came about after the Second World War when Westerners couldn't pronounce shinobi so started calling them ninjas.
Ninjas and Samurai are totally different - the Samurai were mostly of the nobility, while Ninjas came from mountain villages. Samurai fought in the open while Ninjas were more covert in their operations.
The traditional ninja uniform was not black. It's kind of conspicuous when you are a hired assassin to go around mountain villages wearing black so they would have worn whatever anyone else was wearing to blend in. They may have worn dark colours in the dark to help with concealment but that's about as far as it gets.
While searching for interesting facts about ninjas I came across all sorts of websites stating wonderful things about ninjas, from 'Ninjas don't sweat' to 'Ninjas can predict the next tune on their iPod shuffle'. Obviously most of them are not true... or are they?
OK so Kung-Fu and Ninja are not related but hey... when else will I have an opportunity to have Kung Fu Fighting as the song of the week here? Sorry for being totally incorrect (and in the wrong country) here, but I couldn't resist:
Today's theme is: RAINBOWS! It's been a bit of a weird week weatherwise - from getting sunburnt in my flat to sitting under a blanket shivering I think we've had it all since last Friday. And what happens when you get sunshine and rain? Rainbows of course. This week's Etsy shout outs are rainbow-coloured inspired and aren't they so cute? LOVE!
In order to see a rainbow you need to have your back to the sun - it's the effect of light being split through drops of water making the waves of light bounce off in different directions. You can only see a rainbow if your eye, the sun and the centre of the rainbow's arc are aligned.
Rainbow was one of my favourite TV shows when I was a child - I liked Zippy best.
In Greek mythology the rainbow was used as a path between the Gods and Earth by the messenger Iris. In Norse mythology the rainbow is said to connect the two worlds of Humans and Gods.
I have never understood the song 'I can sing a rainbow' - for a start the colours are in the wrong order but also how do you listen with your eyes? Just doesn't make sense to me...
A simple way to remember the colours of the rainbow is this mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) You can also say: ROY G BIV
It's possible to see a double rainbow - the colours of the outer rainbow will appear reversed. These are actually quite common but we don't look out for them most of the time. If you do see a double rainbow, promise me you won't have the reaction that the guy in this video does... Every time I see a rainbow now I think: 'What does this mean? It's so bright!' (I don't make the noises though!!)
