We’ve had friends visiting and they brought their PS3 and Rock Band game – so much fun! The game is played with a guitar, drums and a microphone – but the noise of the drumsticks hitting the drums is LOUD, so you have to play at high volume to hear the song over your drumming.

We needed a quick solution for this (didn’t want to use up valuable game time), so I wrapped the tips of the drumsticks with multiple layers of batting and used some stretch denim from my stash to sew a quick sleeve to cover each tip. Then we just tied the sleeves onto the sticks by wrapping household string around the bottom of the sleeves very tightly. They worked really well to muffle the sound of the sticks hitting the drums without impeding the gameplay. And they look kind of cool too.

For any other Rock Band owners, the other way to modify it (this takes longer and requires specific supplies) would be to add foam padding to the drum pads – I just did some googling and found a run-down of mods others have tried. Or just buy some rubber-tipped drumsticks 🙂

I’ve been busy today, baking tray after tray of sugar and spice cookies:

They were intended as gifts, but bad weather changed our plans, and now we’ll be eating dozens of delicious cookies ourselves! What a hardship 😉

Cookie, anyone? Help yourself…

Happy Christmas to all my readers! I hope your holidays are happy and restful.

Getting the face of your amigurumi just right is a very important step – they need that cute expression! I get a lot of questions about what to use for the eyes and noses. I’ve compiled a run-down of some options you can try.

My box of ami eyes and noses (yes, it used to be a Jelly Belly box!)

This article is linked below and also from my new page Amigurumi Help on the sidebar – my new one-stop shop for amigurumi tutorials.

>> Continue to the Eyes and Noses article

I was out looking for some new origami papers last night, when I saw a pack of paper strips for making Lucky Stars. I’ve always wanted to know how to make them, and I thought I couldn’t go far wrong for under a dollar.

They are actually really easy to fold – if you want to make your own, the hardest part would be to cut the strips of paper (although even that wouldn’t be much hardship with a paper cutter/guillotine).

Each 25 x 1cm strip made one 1.5cm star. I strung them into a garland with seed beads as spacers. The finished result (sorry about the backlighting) makes a really cute window decoration:

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They would also make a nice tree garland! If you want to make some yourself, here are some instructions, and a video that shows how easy it is to make one.

PS – While I was out, I couldn’t resist picking up this pen pot featuring Elephant and his ‘Favorite’ upside-down monkey friend, who apparently like bananas very much. You can’t argue with random cuteness like that 🙂

Okay, I’m officially hooked on modular origami. Making the multiple units and then slotting them all together is really relaxing. I made this stellated icosahedron (thanks to Alice (futuregirl) for the idea) from 5 different patterns of origami paper.

I found this Youtube video showing how to make the Sonobe module. 30 modules later, plus some coaxing to fit them all together, and this is the result:

There was almost a disaster this morning as my cat decided it was a new toy for him and got hold of it before I had a chance to photograph it! Luckily the modules weren’t damaged, they had just pulled apart, so I just had to reassemble most of it before taking this shot.

Does anyone know of any other interesting modular origami shapes/tutorials I can try? Let me know in the comments!

Jess of How About Orange posted an inspirational round-up of 3D paper holiday ornaments. I have a nice stock of pretty origami papers that I never get around to using, so this seemed like a sign…

I decided to try the many pointed star – the tutorial is in the form of a video (really useful because you can pause and rewind to re-watch the tricky parts). Wouldn’t this star look great hanging on a Christmas tree?

Technically, this is an example of modular origami, because one star is made from six sheets of paper, although there is no cutting or gluing involved. I used six 3″ squares of origami paper and the finished star is about 2.5″ at it’s widest points.

I got stuck at one point in the folding sequence, but I watched that part of the video a few more times and once I’d figured it out, it was all plain sailing from there. Assembling the star was quite easy too. It’s quite time-consuming to make, but watch a DVD at the same time and the time will fly by!

PS – Apologies to any mailing list subscribers who just got this post e-mailed to them! Slight technical glitch…

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Here’s a quick project to crochet: a little Christmas Pudding (aka Plum Pudding) in time for Christmas. Hang it on your Christmas tree, or sit it on your mantelpiece or as a decoration on your Christmas table! This amigurumi xmas pudding pattern comes complete with white sauce and is topped with a sprig of holly leaves and berries.

Click for larger pic

I designed and crocheted this one last night in about an hour, so it’d work up even more quickly if you follow the pattern!

Continue to the pattern instructions >>

In plenty of time for a last-minute Christmas present, PlanetJune Gift Certificates are now available in denominations ranging from $5 to $100. These would make a perfect gift for anyone you know who crochets!

A small selection of the many patterns available for purchase with a PlanetJune Gift Certificate!

Gift Certificates are available safely and securely through PayPal, and can either be delivered by e-mail directly to your recipient (on the date you specify), or you can elect to print the certificate and give it directly to your recipient. There is also space on the certificate for you to leave your personalized Christmas message!

To purchase a Gift Certificate, either click the button above, or purchase it directly from the store.