"Glee" in Real Life - My Kid's Summer Mix Tape

Kids' music is pretty terrible. I gave the Wiggles a shot one day and I didn't even make through one song. The lyrics were something like "Fruit salad, yummy yummy, fruit salad yummy!". Is that anyway to teach the beauty of the English language and the power of song?

Ben loves being sung to and we recently signed up for a music class. (Does a 7 month old need a formal music class? No. Does mom need to get out the house? Yes.) The research-based fancy-schmancy music class songs are definitely a cut above the Wiggles, and I can make it through the CD a couple of times, but there's only so much I can take.

With that being said and a summer road trip coming up, it's mix tape time. Here are my picks for a playlist that everyone can enjoy.



Paul Simon - Loves Me Like a Rock
The Beatles - Twist and Shout
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home (does have the word "ass" in it once)
The Be Good Tanyas - The Littlest Birds
The White Stripes - We're Going to be Friends
Dave Matthews Band - So Much to Say
Collective Soul - Shine
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Three Little Birds
Cab Calloway - Hi De Ho Man (Ben has loved this since he was 3 months old)
Feist - 1,2,3,4
Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry, be Happy

Please send me your suggestions!




Found this during my blog ramblings today. These kids look so happy, confident and engaged and their teacher seems really amazing. From what I can tell from watching their videos, these kids are 5th / 6th grade. Look how many boys there are! Look how they are all participating! If you search "PS22 chorus" on YouTube, you can see all of their great work covering pop songs.

Whimsy Tree

It is too hot to knit. Not even the siren song of my KSD cashmere sock yarn can entice me to pick up the sticks. I've been really inspired by all of the embroidery posted over at Feeling Stitchy, so I decided to do some of my own.

I sketched out the trunk and branches and did the leaves freehand. The fabric is some old velvet I've had in the stash forever.

It's by no means perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with my first embroidery effort in years. Perhaps there are some pillow cases or tea towels in my future.