odd bits garland

My three-year-old granddaughter is into "threading" at the moment and last week we made this garland. It was a fun thing to do together and it didn't take a lot of preparation - or cleaning up.

To make a garland you will need:

Essentials : scissors, string or fishing line (or other strong thread that doesn't require a needle to thread), drinking straws

Extras :
hole punch
paper (old magazines, newspaper, crepe paper, wrapping paper), card or cardboard
aluminium foil
cellophane
buttons, beads (with holes big enough for your string to pass through)
fabric or felt scraps
lace, ribbon
anything else you can think of

1. Cut paper, foil, cellophane, fabric into shapes - strips, rectangles, triangles, circles, anything you like.
2. Cut or punch holes smaller than the diameter of the straws in your shapes. If you make bigger holes your shapes will slide over the straws. Holes don't have to be in the centre. You can even punch two holes in larger pieces and thread string through both holes so they hang vertically.
3. Cut some drinking straws into different lengths - some long, some short.
4. Cut a long piece of string - the finished length of your garland plus more to make a loop for hanging.
5. Tie something  - a button, bead, piece of cardboard - at the end of your string to stop everything sliding off.
6. Start threading using plenty of drinking straws. The straws help to space out the other pieces.
7. When you're done tie a loop at the top. Hang your garland - in a window is nice.

Listening: Until the hunter by Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions. I especially love Let me get there with Kurt Vile.

Reading: I'm just a person : my year of death, cancer, and epiphany by Tig Notaro (American comedian). Funny (in parts) and insightful. I don't know how I ended up with this after reading All at sea - two "misery" biographies one after the other. It's just how it worked out with the library. You request books and they come whenever.