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My pal Mama Cutsworth is a DJ who also has crafty tendencies. “Drop the Needle” is a name she hatched years ago, but now she’s got the event to go with the moniker — a monthly series of music + craft nights at the Lo Pub!

This is the second installment. Unfortunately, I was out of town for the first (though, to be fair, so was Mama C — it was a very last-minute thing she threw together before taking off for NYC for a holiday), but we’re both back in full action for Drop the Needle: the Book-Binding Badge.

Chantale Maynard will drop the book-binding knowledge; I will curate a special set of craft-related music.

Here are the details per Mama C:

Drop the Needle is Winnipeg’s new monthly crafting and DJ party at the Lo Pub!!!!!

This month, learn how to make hand-bound books with paper, needles and thread with artist Chantale Maynard while Mama Cutsworth plays the night’s soundtrack! We’ll have a curated music set with Jenny from CKUW’s The Book of Right-On at 7:30!

We kick off each party around 7pm and feature a mini workshop with a local artist between 8 and 9. Live DJing begins a bit later, dancing and prizes topping off the night!

Bring your friends and your own projects to work on too – any form of handicraft is welcome! Embroidery! Collage! Puppet making! We’ll have desk lamps on most tables to light your crafting. For this workshop, we will provide some materials, but we will send out a note to all attending soon regarding materials.

SUNDAY, February 21st
Lo Pub, 330 Kennedy street
Doors are at 7, the workshop begins shortly after.
Admission is 5 dollars.

Drop The Needle is brought to you by Mama Cutsworth, Kerri-Lynn Reeves, Sew Dandee, MAWA, Kustom Kulture and UMFM 101.5

If you have a business that is interested in sponsoring future Drop The Needles or have a crafty prize to donate, contact sarah at mamacutsworth.com

>>> Facebook event

>>>mamacutsworth.com

>>>thebookofrighton.com

Every year, my friend Sarah throws a New Year’s Eve party. I daresay it’s the best ticket in town (not that you need a ticket, though it is friends and friends-of-friends only) on the big night — great people, great tunes, tasty food and drink, complete with champagne at midnight.

The centrepiece of the party is the gingerbread “house.” Sarah and friends conceptualize and execute a gingerbread masterpiece which often isn’t completed until the day of the party (as was the case this year). Past years’ dioramas have included the Empire State Building, the Manitoba Legislature, an Ancient Egyptian scene, and a pirate ship. This year it was the sinking city, Venice. I think that the imperfections of gingerbread lent themselves well to replicating the ancient stonework of Venezia, and the jello-as-water was an inspired maneuver.

Notice the fine detail work on the gingerpeople! These Venezians get stripes and scarves. Also, you can’t see her in any of my pictures, but there was also a ginger rendering of Katharine Hepburn, who reportedly lost some of her vision after falling into the highly polluted and toxic canal during a movie shoot.

Check out Sarah’s food blog, Food Adventure Club, for similarly adventurous and appealing edibles.

Last Friday my mom hosted a dinner party where half the guests were children under 12. For dessert, she made it interactive — and not just for the kids! She baked sugar cookies and got everyone to get wild with icing and candy.

Now that I think about it, it’s kind of her thing to throw parties with a craft-related activity. It really does make things more fun.

Here’s a sampling of the evening’s creative output. The kids overwhelmingly chose the large snowman cookies as opposed to the smaller teddy bear and gingerbread men .

Last week I participated in yet another rite of wedding season — the bridal shower. A family friend (son of my mom’s good friend, high school friend of my brother, who is in the wedding party) is getting married at the end of the month, and so my mom and I participated in the throwing of a shower for his intended.

I think I can take credit for coming up with the idea that frees us from the seemingly-obligatory and uniformly awful bridal shower games. I just have no interest in any of the following:

1. Making wedding dresses out of toilet paper

2. Playing “What’s Missing from the Tray?” memory games

3. Playing “How Well Do You Know the Bride?” trivia games

4. Anything else called an “icebreaker.”

So here’s what we do. We specify that all guests bring one or two favourite recipes. When they arrive, we have tables set up, laden with patterned paper, stickers, pens and markers, and scissors. Then we get everyone to “scrapbook” their recipe onto a page. I typically lead everyone in this activity, and I stress that it’s a no-pressure kind of thing. You can just glue the recipe card down and stick a sticker on and be done. Or, for those who are comfortable with fancier techniques, you can mat your recipe and draw illustrations or whatever. Basically, these are skills you learned in kindergarten, so just go for it!

At the end of the shower, we gather all the pages and place them in page protectors and put them in a nice binder. The bride goes home with an artifact that’s not only useful (containing many excellent, tried-and-true recipes), but a tangible expression of love.

The other benefit to doing the scrapbooking during the shower is that it truly is a great icebreaker. You give people a project and it gives them something to chat about even if they have nothing else in common but a relationship to the bride or groom.

Another tip for a successful shower, especially one where not everyone knows each other, is to make detailed nametags. This was my mom’s idea — she made simple pin-on nametags that had the individual’s name, their relationship to the bride or groom (“Groom’s grandmother,” “Bride’s friend”) and also put the neighbourhood or town the person hails from. I suppose that might be too dorky for some, but I’m an advocate of name-tagging at these kinds of social events.

I’ll leave you with an adorable shot of the bride (left) and her sisters.

Yesterday was Art’s Birthday. Not the guy, the concept. There were a few events around town to mark the annual occasion, including one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery which was out of our price range. So my pals and I celebrated at the Royal Albert Arms for VideoPool’s blowout.

First we had to make costumes.

Chantal designed this number that reads “Art Is a Man’s Name” with some puffy rosettes at the hem.

Here’s me in the zebra and Ruth in the blue leopard. I made us our awesome masks. I think from now on I’m going to be adding feathers to everything. The zebra print dress is actually just a fabric tube that I picked up at the Bay garage sale (yes, that again!). I made the obi-style belt and naturally the teal tights were already in my everyday wardrobe.

As for the event itself, I’ll just leave you with some photo montages. My photography was not particularly stellar but hopefully you can get some of the idea of the wonderment.

1. Woah, 2. Amazing, 3. Cam’s Duct-Tape Suit, 4. Vilar & Co-Op

1. Cam as “Liberal Guilt”, 2. Where’s Rob Vilar?, 3. Tim Hoover & Freya Olafson, 4. Characters