Sunday, April 03, 2011

Moving and Shaking

A project for work has led me to need shakers: small hand-held percussion instruments that produce a light, atonal sound. The local music store would, I'm sure, happily sell me some expensive shakers made from mahogany and dried coffee beans from Ecuador. I figured, however, that making them myself with old plastic Easter eggs and rice would be more fun. All right, it's even more fun if I don't do it myself, but invite my favorite toddler to help. Gwendolyn hesitated not at all when I told her about our project.


One half hour of entertainment (and father-daughter bonding time), four shakers, and the saved cost of mahogany and exotic coffee beans: all ours thanks to a stash of rice and old plastic eggs. The only extra price: sweeping up afterwards. And Gwendolyn enjoyed helping with that, too.


~ emrys

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