January Update: 

Perfect Comfort Food Recipe: Years ago when I was writing a little book called How to Sew a Button, I learned a bunch of grandmotherly wisdom and got pretty into doing things like baking pies and you know, experimenting with making homemade honey-wine in a jug, but I also rediscovered a delicious family recipe that my own grandmother used to make: Pasties! I've recently shared this meal with my daughters and they LOVE them. Highly recommended for cold days. (Real Simple wrote about this recipe and did a whole photo shoot with me and my mom and I mean, the recipe is at the link, but please also note how cute my mom is and how great my hair looks in this picture! They did our make-up.) 

New Books for Kids: The American Library Association announced the 2022 Youth Media Awards, which honored a ton of great books and authors, including Kazoo fiction contributors A.S.King (who wrote the short story, “The Feelings Shed” for our Art issue), Veera Hiranandani (“Sunny” for our DIY issue), and Jane Yolen (“Arbora and the Airship” for our Steampunk issue). You can pick up their short stories in our shop. Find the full list of winners here. 

Big News: We got a little too into reporting on the Giant Squid for our Big issue, but can you see why? And now, this huge Jellyfish? Undersea Creatures, still amazing. 

Tiny News: Good Bones meets The Great British Baking Show at 1:12 scale. There's going to be a tiny house decorating competition show! Watch this space for more on miniatures in an upcoming issue. (Grab your readers, if necessary.) We are here for it!

Tinker time: We're inspired by Girls Garage founder Emily Pilloton-Lam, who says she teaches girls to build by filling their toolboxes with drills and saws and ferocity and joy. For Kazoo's tinkering projects, we limit our materials to what we think people already have around the house, so readers can do any of our projects without taking a special trip to the hardware or craft store. We end up using a ton of cardboard and glue, but we hope our tinkering projects help prepare our younger readers for more advanced woodworking when they get a little older, too. Plus, we have so much fun making stuff with our kids. 

Arthurian Legend come to life. So, maybe when our girls get a little older they'll be prepared to pull a bronze ax out of the ground, like this 13-year-old girl, who went out with a metal detector and found a hoard of items from more than 3,000 years ago. “We were just laughing our heads off,” she said. Thrilling. 

Now, how are you, really? The WSJ says that Moms are Never alone, but always lonely. Social media has both helped and hurt moms during the pandemic, and the more online we are, the lonelier we feel. I get this, but I'm also glad that you are here. Please reach out to me (erin@kazoomagazine.com) if you want to say "hi," or tell me anything cool, or if you'd like to share a picture of your laptop thrown into a snowbank. 

Up Next: We are hard at work on issue 24!!! It will come out in March and we'll tell you all about it when it's ready. No spoilers yet, so for now just enjoy this behind-the-scenes of a craft photo-shoot from Kazoo HQ (aka our living room).

Yes, it's a string DIY craft, on a shoestring budget (and hair and make-up team nowhere to be found), but we are still having fun! We hope whatever you're up to this January you find some fun it it, too. 

xo,
Erin
Founder & Editor-in-Chief