Monday’s randomly picked winner is…Kelley! She’s got a pink Jimi heading her way. Congrats! And stay tuned – you’ve got four more chances to win.

In other matters, I am addicted to making these little paper pennants.

We’re having a party Friday night and these take about 5 minutes to make (after you’ve already cut the paper, which is nothing to sniff at). I’ve been meaning to make these with fabric scraps for a while, but this time of year, I have odds and ends of decorative paper, so I used those instead. I cut circles, which was kind of a time suck, folded them roughly in half, and zipped some stitches along the flat edge. I realize now that I could have  cut squares, folded them into triangles, and the paper cutting would have been way faster. These are great at cheering up random corners of our apartment, and I’m digging the asymmetrical drape.

And one more tidbit: here is a great segment from the radio program To the Best of our Knowledge, called “Reconsidering Craft.” I listened to it while making the above project so it sounded particularly apropos. The show includes a neuroscientist talking about craft as medicine; a very accurate and insightful visit to an indie craft fair; and an interview with a graphic designer who wrote a book on vintage scrapbooks that were created long before the arrival of television and Michael’s scrapbooking section. I have to fess up that I’m not into scrapbooking at all but this interview and book is right up my nostalgic-tactile-voyeuristic alley. And you can almost feel the author’s visceral connection to those old albums through the radio waves. Have a listen for yourself.