Selma’s 2nd grade musical was last night, it was called Nuts and was about the life cycle of a nut–Selma’s music teacher, Ms. Bruner did an amazing job herding the almost 150 students on and off the stage as they sang and recited their lines. Parents worked hard on costumes and sets–it was a standing-room-only crowd last night and lots of fun. To thank Ms. Bruner, I helped Selma make this felted acorn necklace (sorry about the poor photo, we didn’t get to do a photo shoot before the play.)

Oh, and here’s a gratuitous photo of Selma as an acorn. She’s front and center with arms outstretched (obviously dreaming of her debut as Orphan Annie).

Brain Shawl
Originally uploaded by ladylinoleum

Oh my–I love this shawl–Regina says:

“Using a US size 6 steel hook and size 10 cotton thread (approximately 3000 yards) I created this brainy shawl. Took me about a month and a half to make.”

Amazing.

Finished Foliage
Originally uploaded by plainsight

I actually finished this hat in the evening after Thanksgiving. It was a quick knit, made quicker by the fact that I omitted the last lace repeat and just lengthened the ribbing a little because it looked like it would have been too long.

On Friday, we had the perfect cold and sunny day to test it out, we went to downtown DC, had lunch at the Museum of the American Indian which has the coolest cafeteria ever with different stations featuring native dishes from all over the country–I had a wild rice pilaf, mushroom corn pone and blueberry fritters from the Northwest coast. Selma had a squash soup from the Central Plains. The current exhibit is a historical look at women’s native dresses. I didn’t get to see it on Friday, but my parents did, and loved it. I’ll have to go back.

While my parents were exploring that exhibit, James and I took the kids to the Freer gallery where there was an “origami open house.” Staff members were on hand to teach different folding techniques and there were instruction sheets and tons of pretty origami paper. Selma loved making a cat and a fish, we got stuck on a snail, but finished it with help. The picture shows our friends Lisa and Allen with their kids who had coincidentally arrived just before us to the origami event.

Later that evening, we had early cupcakes for Jay’s birthday (which was yesterday), because my parents were in town.

Yesterday, I made two batches of cupcakes–one for his school: the kids frosted them with marshmallow fluff and decorated them with sprinkles; and one for home: a recipe for Agave Vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The cupcakes were delicious and had a perfect spongy, moist texture.

I’d most definitely make them again, but I failed at my attempt to make the recommended frosting, (an agave chocolate frosting, which ended up tasting too much like soy milk powder, one of the ingredients), so I chucked that, and made my old standby, a vegan chocolate buttercream. Mmmm…. Not suprisingly, we have no leftover cupcakes.

Greeting Card – Amigurumi Owl
Originally uploaded by Pepika

Pepika is selling a hi-res image that you can print out as a greeting card. She has two images featuring crocheted amigurumi on a background she illustrated. I love the idea that you can print them out yourself using your own choice of paper, etc. The image is just $10.00 and you can make as many cards as you want. [Link]

On Saturday night, after the kids were in bed, my mom and I decided to catch up on Project Runway, at the same time, we had a little sewing of our own to do. Mom had offered to make me thermal shades for our playroom which is not insulated, and gets very cold:

I used blanket binding and d-rings from my stash to raise and lower the shades which are just hung with expansion rods because we didn’t want to do anything crazy like get out a drill…

At a the Sugar Loaf craft fair, one of the few cool booths was True Blue TC Collection–hand dyed indigo fabric and things made from it. I bought a yard of fabric and I stitched it into PJ sacks for the kids–in a vain hope that perhaps they’ll put their pajamas away instead of strewing them about the floor. I’ll add them to my mom’s usual night-before-christmas present of new pajamas.

Living Crafts magazine has just hit the newsstands. It’s a new magazine with a focus on crafts made from sustainable and recycled materials. The theme of the first issue is crafts for kids, and its full of fund projects with a decidedly waldorf-y focus. There’s a cute snail made from beeswax, a town to felt, and a birthday crown to crochet (They’ve actually posted a free pattern for the crown on their web site.

The magazine has a conventional feel–it begins with product recommendations–but they’re cool eco-friendly products like strong, non-toxic kids glue and bio-degratable needle-felting foam, but continues with columns like “Soul Craft,” which in this issue is about creating your own prayer beads (and she uses “prayer” in an ecumenical sense), I love the line, “The alchemy that turns ‘beads’ into ‘prayers’ is simply the intention behind their creation and use.

This issue has a cute baby doll top designed by Suss Cousins (for adults), and the back of the magazine holds a directory of natural craft supplies. I’ve already subscribed, and I’m looking forward to future issues.