Wednesday, May 14

Crafting your Summer Travel

DRAWSTRING BAG 005
The short post:
I wrote a magazine article! Have Kids Will Travel is a personal essay of sorts published in the Summer issue of Living Crafts Magazine and it comes complete with a sewing pattern for a drawstring travel craft bag (photo above). Wait there's more, this issue also includes an excerpt of Red's Goodie Basket, a crocheted leather basket, from my book, Uncommon Crochet. The magazine is available now in bookstores, craft stores, PCC, and Whole Foods.

The long post (with footnotes):
My family went a little cuckoo last January and decided to drive from Seattle to L.A. for a family vacation. How long is that you ask? Oh, just 18 wee little hours each way*. Thankfully we have a few friends to visit along the way. The purpose for our trip was to see my family and Disneyland (in that order). I also wanted to get a glimpse of the TNNA trade show. While I was at the trade show, I met Pardis Amirshahi, the editor of Living Crafts. I was totally smitten with this magazine last December when it released it's first issue full of natural family craft goodness. Pardis knew my name because they were planning on running an excerpted pattern from my book in their Summer issue. Secretly, I was impressed that anyone at the trade show knew my name, but I went with it. As we madly dashed our way back up the** 5*** I wondered what my kids thought of our family road trips and I found myself reflecting on my own slightly nauseous adventures from the back seat of a powder blue VW Beetle 30 years ago. Apparently, I was creatively inspired because when I got home I wrote an essay about it, included a sewing pattern for a drawstring craft bag, then submitted it to Living Crafts. And they accepted it.

Not only will you find my features but there are some awesome ideas I can't wait to try. In particular there's the Plaited Paper Bowl, a woven bowl that uses recycled paper, like grocery bags and newspapers, and the fantastic article on how to have a Dyeing Party with kids.

* yes, I read about the kids fly free on Alaska Airlines after our trip.
**I've been told that Californians tend to refer to highways and Interstates as "the", as in "The 5" [ETA: Neefer is right, Cali's don't use "I" for Interstate] or "The 101". Washingtonians say "I-5".
***so SkaDaddy could see the Seahawks get smoked at a friends house in Davis

4 comments:

Neefer said...

In the SF bay area, we call the highways and freeways by their number.

580, 84, 880, 680, 5, 205, 101, 1, 280, 980, 24, 92, 120, 99, 780, 80, ... I could go on and on.

Julie said...

No "The" before the number? I wonder how I got into the habit.

Anonymous said...

I have lived most of my life in CA, but a few years ago, my husband and I lived in Kansas for about 2 years. Most of the people there immediately noticed my habit of putting "the" in front of the highway numbers. I never even knew any difference! But as I listened everyone out there never used the word "the"! Now that I'm back in Southern CA, I realize we all do it, even the newscasters!
~Tanya

Anonymous said...

It's the right way, of course. A definite highway needs a definite article.
I did check the spelling twice and was let down after getting excited about a fantastic article on how to have a Dying Party with kids.