Shanghai crafternoons

I've really been missing last winter's Wednesday crafternoons at Steeps, where I and other introverted girls worked on needlecrafts and other projects while chatting about life. It's great that crafts have become trendy, because I really think making stuff with your hands is extra-gratifying when your fingers have become most comfortable on a keyboard or punching text messages into tiny phones. So, I was super-happy to have Poppy and Julia over this Wednesday afternoon for Christmas-related craftiness - I needed to start decorating my wee tree, Julia needed to wrap presents, and Poppy was determined to make enough teeny paper stars to make a chain. I felt bad that the herbal tea I brought from home tasted more like paper cup than blackberry, but we had a good time anyway. Love you, Martha!

And then, on Friday, our Reading teacher let us spend a whole class learning how to make friendship bracelets. Huge treat: we all pushed our desks together (reminded me of elementary school when we had "work tables" instead of desks) and knotted together string to the jingling of the tiny bells we added on. Jenny and I chose the same colour and pattern; her creation and water-bottle innovation below.