Exile by Blackfire, loved it since I first heard it 3 or 4 years ago.
Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez- live version. I don't remember not loving the song, and the fact From Every Stage came out the same year I was born, it tends to support the idea I never did not love it.
Oh My Love by John Lennon- for a very long time. I have no idea when I started liking it.
Stars and Stripes of Corruption by the Dead Kennedys- mid 80s I think?
Bata Hotel- Crass again, mid 80s I think.
Vivaldi- The Four Seasons. Like nearly every version I can get my hands on. My current favorite is Bond. Loved it my whole life.
Air Supply- Making Love Out of Nothing At All- since it came out, but it's only been the last 4 or 5 years I'd admit it in public.
She's Out of Sync- Devo- 80s.
Cry Me a River- Ella Fitzgerald

Newer songs I can't get enough of?
Laugh/Love/F*** by The Coup - this year, a few months back. I looked up Boots Riley after hearing the first couple of songs Street Sweeper Social Club released
November by S.J. Tucker - since it came out this year following the release of Palimpsest.
Vanilla by Marian Call- 2008
Blake Says- Amanda Palmer - since the song came out
All of Me- Jamie Anderson
Bad Things- Jace Everett
Post Mortem- LaM
Promenade- Street Sweeper Social Club

Exile and All of Me are both available for download for free on the artists website.

Wow. I sort of feel like I stripped by listing my favorite songs. But these are the ones on my "I just want to listen to music I love" playlist. Along with about 800 more songs that do get changed out every so often. Those songs are the keepers.

I recently got a copy of Coolio's cookbook to review for Amazon. You can see my review here and all my book reviews here.
I got some of the thick wool-ease to make my son a scarf with. You know, after working with size 5 needles for the last week or so, it's just incredibly fast working with the size 13s. I forgot how fast and easy chunky yarns really are!
Other than that, celebrating the holidays last wound up being very okay.
The socket set I won in a raffle last year is getting a ton of use. But the car is working! Yay!
Reading a book on soapmaking and another one on making cheese now. I think I'm about ready to try making my own soap.

Well, everyone knows now that Kindle is available for PC right?

I love my Kindle. I got it right after the coverage went nation-wide because the original coverage wasn't available in Alaska. For me, it's this whole futuristic thing that appeals to me even more than flying cars would. I read a lot of cyberpunk and sci-fi well.. pretty much my whole life. The Kindle, with the ability to follow blogs and newspapers, near instantly download books and all that.. it is the future to me. Well, that and my ipod.

I love to read. I read all the time, and the reason we lived in the same place for 11 years without looking for a bigger house is because my husband flat out refuses to move my books again "anytime soon". Having the Kindle at least slowed down the books coming into the house. I still buy craft books and cookbooks, plus what I get to review. But fiction I buy mostly in Kindle format.

Anyway, all that gushing to say, I have a list of mostly freebies with the exception of a little booklet I wrote about baking bread that has a bunch of public domain cookbooks.

I need to add some of the Storey Country Wisdom Bulletins to the list. They are under 4 dollars each and are short booklets with a ton of information on all sorts of things. I just finished the one on making liqueurs for gifts which was exactly the information I was looking for. I want to make a vanilla cream liqueur for Mike's boss for the holidays, and I need information on how to make it. It didn't have a recipe for exactly what I want to make, but that's fine, I prefer to make things up myself once I understand the process. I'll post the recipe after I make it. I think it will be a good one for in coffee.

E and I are going to also work on dairy based homemade flavored creamers for coffee that won't have corn syrup in them (boo hiss!).

As I've mentioned before, I don't make soap. I use it though for laundry, for my hair, for my body and if I could find a formulation that worked well with dishes, I'd use soap for that too.
Real soap.
I read a lot of books about soapmaking. Even though I don't make soap I'm fascinated by the process and actually E and I do plan to make some sometime soon.
I just finished reading Soap: Making It, Enjoying It by Ann Bramson, it's not very expensive and it's a good book from the early 70s. Not the best book to start with if you want to start making soap, but if you want a clearer idea of how it's made, the history of soap and some tips on making pretty handcarved bars from a simple box mold, it's good. The reason I don't think it's a good beginning soapmaking book is because soapmaking has come a very long way since the mid-70s, the internet, people sharing information, the fact there is so much more information than there was then means that a lot of the information is out of date. Like she says to put the water into the lye in a glass juice bottle which can be dangerous. More current books explain how to mix lye into water more safely.
But the sheer amount of information on the history of soap was a lot of fun to read, and unlike a lot of how to books, her writing style is accessible enough I was able to read it from cover to cover instead of just reading the parts that looked interesting. Soap is a passion for her and her book was one of the first really good ones on soapmaking. Another thing is that most of her soaps are tallow soap, which means rendering fat to make the tallow. I like tallow soaps. In fact an awful lot of current formulations by major soap companies contain tallow, which makes for a nice hard bar of soap. More modern books focus on vegetable and nut oils that don't need hours of boiling and straining and have no animal by-products.
I've gone into detail about why I like soap, real soap over detergents. At some point I'll have to work on a list to ask soapmakers so you can know what you are using and buying. I usually ask if it's hot or cold process (cold process soap isn't boiled after the lye and fat are mixed, it's given time to age and fully cure to be usable, hot process is boiled to completely saponify all the fat and lye mixture and is usable as soon as it sets), if it's super-fatted (which means fat added that isn't saponified) and what additional ingredients are in it and if it uses essential oils or fragrance oils for scent. I will buy soaps that use fragrance oils, but I like to know for sure. Rose and jasmine soap from cottage industries almost always use a fragrance oil because their essential oils are really expensive.
For store bought soaps, there are a couple kinds that are real soap. Little House in the Suburbs says that Ivory is a good substitute for handmade soaps because it's inexpensive and only has a few ingredients which is what you're looking for in real soap. Mike uses Dr. Bronner's exclusively, the liquid version which seems expensive, but a little bit goes a long way, and can actually be diluted to half water, half soap if the people in your family just can't resist using lots.
One thing that Ms. Bramson recommended in her book to cut down on soap usage was not running the bar across your body and keep it all wet in the shower or bath, but using wet hands to soap up your hands and using your soapy hands which keeps the soap from being too water-logged and helps it last longer.
I love using my soaps. Other than Mike, we mostly use Gladheart Acres soap, which is cold process. We buy several bars at a time and the kids sniff them and pick out their soaps carefully. They love the whole process of it. We use end-cuts and mistakes from them in our kitchen and by our bathroom sinks for handwashing.
I'm reading another book on soapmaking now in between working on my current project which is pin cushion that's just turning out too cute. I should have that done in a day or two to show off and post general instructions for on Beadwork at Bellaonline.com.

I love my Kindle.
One of the nice things about it is that slowly a lot of the public domain material from places like Project Gutenberg is becoming available in Kindle format so I can hit one click buy for free, and turn on my Kindle, open up the connection, and get it in seconds. The weird part is that a lot of it is not being reviewed. So I went to review a cookbook I downloaded and just started really going through in the last couple of days. The cookbook is The Compleat Cook Expertly Prescribing the Most Ready Wayes, Whether Italian, Spanish or French, for Dressing of Flesh and Fish, Ordering Of Sauces or Making of Pastry which was printed in 1658.(Project Gutenberg link to read online or download) The first reviewer said it was from 1658 and you couldn't make the recipes now. I had to disagree and said this..
Yes, the first reviewer is right, this IS a cookbook from 1658. But I don't see that as being a bad thing at all. A lot of the recipes in it are doable now and adaptable. If you are interested in renaissance era cooking at all, it's an invaluable guide and being in Kindle format makes it easy to bookmark things you want to try out later.
It is NOT a step by step cookbook as we are used to now, so it will take a little bit of research to understand what some of the terms are, as well as a decent knowledge of how to cook to be able to do the recipes in it. It will call for "enough flower to make a past" which means enough flour to make a paste/dough, or for cooking in a "quick" oven which means hot. You don't get exact temperatures or times or even exact measurements for a lot of the recipes.
That said, I read some of the recipes to my husband yesterday and he's looking forward to me trying them.
It also has a couple bread recipes in it, and a lot of bread recipes weren't recorded in the middle ages and during the renaissance because it was generally assumed that people knew how to make bread. Which leads to another thing that people miss in older recipes. We are very used to having instant dry yeast available to us, so when we look at older beer or bread recipes that call for a cup of yeast, it's a bit confusing. Yeast at that point was the sourdough yeast culture, a liquid mix of flour and water that had live yeast growing and active in it.
It's free and it's a nice bit of history.
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I'll admit, there is something very strange about reading a cookbook that old on something that seems to be science fiction to me still even having one.
You can see all my book reviews here.
Okay..back to beading.

I talk about my vintage craft books a lot, but not so much about my cookbooks. I have the collections of 2 very active cooks. My grandmother and my mother. They range from a copy of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book that's over 100 years old and in a bag to keep the pages together to an awful lot of 60s cookbooks, to church community cookbooks everybody has to have.
All in all, before my collection, I had about 200 cookbooks. I've been adding to that number steadily.
I get some cookbooks to review. I also buy myself vintage cookbooks. Not every single one I see, just the ones that pertain to one of my interests in cooking. So a bread machine cookbook from the 80s or 90s I'll probably pass on, I like doing it by hand. But Pillsbury's Bake Off Breads Cook Book from 1968? Absolutely irresistible. On the cover it declares proudly "Shortcutted favorites... the best of all the Bake Offs streamlined for use with new instant dry yeast"
I'm thrilled with all the new recipes. There is one for bread made with bacon fat instead of whatever fat you usually use and with crumbled bits of bacon in it. There is also a cheese bread that I really like the look of, but I'll have to adjust the recipe somewhat because nobody in my family likes American cheese.
The part that absolutely charmed me is the spreads section. Because they were all pretty much variations on a theme but all presented as individual recipes. You know..
Festive Olive Spread
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp milk or cream
2 Tbsp chopped green olives
Beat butter and milk until light and fluffy, stir in olives.

Honey Butter
1/2 butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
blend until light and fluffy

There are cream cheese ideas too, along the same vein. Switch the ingredient to accent, but the basic process is the same for each of them. Maraschino cherries, honey, instant coffee and sugar, orange juice.

Reminded me somewhat of one of William's favorite desserts when he was little. I'd make him chocolate cream cheese or chocolate labneh and serve it as a spread for toast with strawberries or blueberries. I haven't made labneh in a long time. Maybe sometime soon.

I really think that comfort cooking is going to be the next big thing. People will still love their gourmet seasonings and all their foodie toys, but there will also be a resurgence in familiar favorites, the sort of foods that your grandmother or mother might have made for family and company.
That's what this cookbook is. Classic homestyle recipes that have stood the test of time. The author wants you to play with them, to find what works for you and your family. Some of the recipes in here I have my own versions of already, but a lot of them, I don't. The recipes are easy and there are a lot of tips for making your time in the kitchen quicker and easier.
Unlike a lot of my cookbooks, this one actually has lots of recipes I can see becoming a part of our regular menu. My husband is patient enough with my experiments in hummus, tofu and white bean chilis and that sort of thing but he really prefers American classic home cooking.
Monkey Bread was one of my mom's standbys, and it was nice to see it in here. My daughter will enjoy making that. My son will love the mushroom bread, and my husband is looking forward to me trying the chicken fried steak recipe because I've never made that for him before.

You can find recipes and more about the cookbook at the author's blog Stir, Laugh, Repeat

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If you haven't noticed, what I'm doing with book reviews is posting most of the cookbook or craft related ones here and in my other blog as well as on Amazon. Not all because I'm not supposed to post reviews anywhere but Amazon for ARCs I get from the Vine program, and not all the reviews I write because they aren't all crafty by any stretch. I also don't review everything I read, but I'm trying to at least review 25% of what I read. So far I'm failing miserably. I can tell you what I like about a cookbook or a bead book, but with fiction, it's harder. I'm working on it.

I posted a book review over here of a re-release book from the early 70s about sewing and making your own clothes. It's a wonderful book. Also in that post, embroidery patterns.

Let's see.. just got home from the market. We got a couple dozen eggs, so E is very happy. We also did the pumpkin thing. E made a Pac-man pumpkin. It's super cute. We actually did a ton of shopping. Now I'm recovering while deciding between French toast or teriyaki chicken for dinner. We also found out how keep getting good local eggs through out the winter when the outdoor markets aren't happening. Because yeah.. fresh eggs are just that good. I want chickens so much!

When I was in my early 20s, down the street from my apt was this tiny hole in the wall neighborhood bar. The first time I walked in there out of curiosity, my yards of black lace clothing and teased and sprayed blue-black hair got a couple looks. My age got a bunch more. The average age of the customers was 45. The bartender, Jim, played the saxophone whenever he could get from behind the bar and during the day worked on his small farm outside town. The guitarist who was the regular musician there played a mix of songs everyone knows, and obscure bits of absolute funniest. He learned Punk Rock Girl for me, and it warms your heart to hear that played and sung blue grass style.
Anyway, to get to the point, on holidays, they would have potlucks, and one older lady ALWAYS brought a big old pot of gumbo.
Gumbo, thick and spicy and loaded with different kinds of shellfish and fish. Gumbo that seemed that to have been handed down from her great grandmother, all the flavors were so well combined.
I might have a dinner party with friends to give them turkey and all the trimmings, but I'd eat very little so I could have a spot of that gumbo on a pile of rice because I'm way too wimpy for the amount of heat it had, but I couldn't resist the flavor.
So.. I could be a little biased about New Orleans cooking. It always seemed magical to me. Something to aspire to. A little southern, a little French, a lot of seasoning and a little jazz. That's what it tastes like to me.
All that to say, I picked up a copy of Tom Fitzmorris's New Orleans Food yesterday.
First the quick thing, what I don't like about it is that it's paperback binding, so it won't lay open.
What I do like about it? The author lived in New Orleans all his life except for after Katrina. He's a food writer who really loves his subject.
All those foods you've read about, that you've dreamed about, are in this comprehensive book.
If I were going to do a Julie/Julia thing, this is the book.
Gumbos, bisques, jambalaya, dirty rice, red beans and rice, beignets are all in here. Along with things like deviled eggs with a New Orleans twist, a simple cream cheese recipe, desserts make me feel like I committed the sin of gluttony just reading the recipes and all sorts of main dishes. Over 200 recipes, and so far all of them sound wonderful.
Yes, a lot of the recipes are a bit time consuming and you need some basic kitchen skills like how to make a roux to make them, but many of the recipes are pretty simple too. Also, if you are an experienced cook, there are short cuts you take for quick home cooking, like using good boxed stocks and a food processor to do a lot of the chopping.
If you like seafood, this is also a good cookbook for that, there are a lot of shrimp, scallops, clams, oyster and fish recipes. It's a vital part of cuisine from that part of the country.
Just makes me hungry reading it.
A lot of the reviewers on Amazon from NOLA say that the gumbos are just like Mom or Grandma used to make. What better recommendation is there? If this is a style of cooking you've always want to learn, this is the book that covers all the basics.
Part of the proceeds from sales of the book go to Habitat for Humanity.

Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers:The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation by Stephen Harrod Buhner is a book I picked up because it was cited in Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. Usually I review such things within a couple weeks of getting them, I just realized I hadn't told anyone what I thought of this yet.
It's 450 pages of editorializing, basic instructions for primitive brewing, and information about the religious and healing use of the herbs and plants used in brewing the meads, ales and beers in the book. Some of the herbs used in some of the recipes can be dangerous, but hopefully anyone messing around herbs knows to check a couple sources for possible side effects. I have a couple herbals I use a lot for just that. The author does have a lot of respect for non-Western cultures and belief systems.
I don't recommend this book for anyone who needs step by step instructions to feel confident about making home brews or anyone who thinks that home brews need expensive equipment. The brews are basic and easy with simple fermentation processes. But for people who want that and history of beer-like drinks used in sacred practices around the world, it's fantastic.
Since I'm a lot more interested in simple beers and wines, it's a book I like a lot. Plus knowing the basic processes of fermentation can help you come up with your own recipes for wines and meads. I think I want to try an Alaskan honey mead using flowers native to Alaska, local honey, and local berries next summer and the recipes in this book are easy enough to adapt I feel fairly confident I can.

Well, today is the last day of the downtown Saturday Market, so.. I'm off to market. To buy fresh local produce and other things!

I wrote a review for 101 Wire Earrings and posted a couple new boxes to Don't Eat the Paste.
Other than that, reading too much. I need to make a list of everything I've read this week.
We went to the mall yesterday to get comic books, and there is a little set up with local NA artists sell their wares there. We went to go get dinner on the second floor.If you know me at all, you know I'm dreadfully afraid of heights, but I looked down at those tables and something caught my eye. Yay! Hair stick type barrettes, a little out of my price range right now unfortunately, but there were also some gorgeous handmade hair sticks and *squints* something else. So after we finished, I went to go look. Yep. Handmade hairsticks and crochet hooks! Yay! They were shiny and smooth and looked almost like ivory except for being too white.
Turns out, they were made out of moose bone, and I'm sure the artist ate the moose, because really? Moose is tasty. After lots of consideration, I found a nice long hair stick that looked good for my hair, and a crochet hook.
( wanna see my shinies? )
I also finally got a picture of the ipod sock I knitted out of the Sugar-n-Cream Stripes yarn. It fits an ipod classic which should give you some idea of how it stripes. But um.. before you look, remember, I SAID I was bad at knitting. I made it to see how the yarn striped and to show E the basics of knitting on dpns. But I'm a hooker, not a knitter. (I just wanted to say that)
( stripes yarn )

Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life is the book I'm reading now.( cutting the review for people who aren't interested )

Guide to Veggie Burgers.. found this link today. I'm going to try a couple of the recipes this week.

Oh! One thing about that book? I've talked to Mike about having goats someday, but she suggests for starting to keep animals for fiber, starting with angora rabbits. I never even thought of that!
The author has her own blog. Cold Antler Farm

Kindle 2 for 299.00 Yes. This is an associate link. But that doesn't change how much I love love love my kindle. I currently have 75 books on it and another 30 archived, and the long battery life is no lie. I've had mine going for 10 hours without an issue. I haven't let it run down yet, but I think it would work well for a weekend camping trip without recharging.
I admit it, I could give up my phone easily enough, or even my television but my Kindle and iPod are my two most used toys. I actually wasn't sure how much I'd use my Kindle when I got it, but really.. my only complaint with it is that I can't take it into the bath with me. S'okay. I have a ton of dead tree books.
I think it might be the right time for me to get one for my dad and William. :) William will love all the classics available for free, and Dad will enjoy a newspaper he can increase the font on while reading it.

Currently reading- Genius Squad by Catherine Jinks. Fun fun books, the first is Evil Genius, which is about a boy named Cadel who is raised by a perfectly awful foster family and finds out he's the son of an evil mastermind who has created a school of world domination especially for him. It could be corny, but it does a good job of portraying a boy who is raised nearly morally bankrupt and socially estranged learning the difference between right and wrong and changing his life. There is a lot of violence, math and spy type action. For the 12-16 set I think. I know I'm encouraging E to read it just for the fun of it. It's a hefty 500 pages with enough action to keep a kid interested. If you or your kids liked Artemis Fowl, you'll probably like this as a step up. No fairies, but the same sort of character.

Currently working on- Nothing at all except staying cool. This is revenge time for all the people I mocked when they complained it was so cool at 40°F during the winter. You can all mock me now. It's been in the high 70s-mid 80s with a ton of haze from forest fires. So pretty much I've been sitting by a fan and reading, taking regular walks, and NOT COOKING. Nope. Uh uh. Not turning on the oven.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery is fantastic.
I'm only up to page 227 in this 900 page book and I'm wildly enthused about it. I don't know if I'll ever read the whole thing cover to cover, a lot of the information in it isn't applicable to my life, but what is, is a goldmine.
If you were only going to buy one book this year, this should be the one.If you have an interest in living frugally,naturally, and greenly this book is invaluable. If you live some place you can grow a kitchen garden, she's got hints and tips for growing almost everything, from sugar cane to broom corn and all the stuff you eat regularly in between. If you decided to try and live off the grid, this is a good starting place for information of all sorts.
Even living in the city, this provides a ton of information for how to live more frugally and greener including some ideas I've never heard of but make so much sense in retrospect, I wonder why I didn't think of that. She mentions Lehman's non-powered washing machines and washing boards, but her method is so much easier on clothes and costs very little. A dedicated to clothes washing plunger. Looking at it, it makes perfect sense, you agitate the water, and rubber is easier on clothes then washing boards. She says to use your wash water until it's too dirty, then put detergent in your rinse bucket and fill a new rinse bucket which is a great idea. I'll definitely be trying it with the clothes E and I for every day use.
On a personal note, this book fits in perfectly with my life philosophy. To me, living green should be also living frugally, it shouldn't be something it costs a lot to do, but does take more effort. It should be about making do,mending and repurposing rather then the constant consumerism. But with green being trendy, it is a marketing ploy now. This book is a nice get back to basics type book. Last year my favorite book that I bought was Wild Fermentation, this year, hands down, this is it. This is my favorite.
Mike likes reading these as much as I do. I frequently think if we were to get into re-enactment, it would be weekends of living in Ingalls-tech.

In other news, I'm going to try and start a wild yeast tomorrow that's going to be using a decoction of hops and rye to start with, and then switching out the rye a half cup at a time for the whole wheat flour I use most often. A lot of starters are started with just water and flour which didn't work well for me, I'm not sure if it's because I was trying in winter and my kitchen just got to cold or why else it might have failed. The HRS baker I was talking to the other day was using a starter that used potato water in it, which I've heard good things about, but it's not period. Hops are, and since baking and brewing went hand in hand in that time period, and since rye is easier to grow and was more used by peasants then regular flour, even it's not strictly accurate, it's still at least feasible that some yeasts were cultivated that way. Which in a round about way, brings me back to The EoCL, she has a ton of recipes for breads and ideas for bread, and instruction for making yeast cakes with starter. Yay!

Sleeping Naked Is Green by Vanessa Farquharson
I was lucky, I got an advance copy of this and just finished it. This is what I posted on Amazon about it.
I sat down and started reading this and didn't stop until I was done. I admit, I'm sort of crunchy, but a lot of my friends aren't, and they are just starting to get green and a lot of them think some of the stuff my family does is just taking it too far. I plan to get them this book next time I have a reason to buy them gifts.
Vanessa's book, documenting her changes from being a hipster journalist who is hooked on styled hair, expensive wines and convenience to making a green change every single day for a leap year is clever, not preachy and at times laugh out loud funny. I giggled up a storm while reading it. A lot of the changes she made may seem a bit extreme to some people and a lot of them are small changes anyone can make. The manner is conversational, easy to read, a bit sarcastic at times and inspiring.
I love how she described so perfectly the guilt you feel about not being quite green enough and how doing small things counts too. It's not a "How to live green" book, but a book on how green choices impacted her life and outlook and her relationships with other people.

Now the rest of the story. You all know I'm sort of crunchy, fortunately, I have a family who completely supports me in it even if my friends look at me sort of weird for it sometimes. Press recently said "It's funny, all these people trending green so hard and it's how you've always been. You're trendy Shala!". I know the people I'm considering giving this book to will consider some of the changes, but for the most part, a lot of it is way too extreme for them. Hopefully it will make them giggle as hard as I did and at least consider some changes. The author found when it was done, some of the changes were changes she didn't want to stick to but most of them she did stick to after her year was up. I think that's the best part of the book, it's concrete proof that it's doable and that you can still have a sense of humor, you don't have to be militant to make a difference.

Now.. I need to find out how much it's going to cost to mail my threadbare flannel sheet to Amy's Rag Bag.

Simply Sublime Bags: 30 No-Sew, Low-Sew Projects by Jodi Kahn was one of the other books William got me for my b-day.
It lives up to it's name, most of the projects in the book can be done without a sewing machine, and some of the most clever and cute purses are made fabric, duct tape, and a stapler. You can't get much simpler or lower sew than that. It's inspiring, and better than that? It's a great book to use with tweens and younger girls because there is a lot of room for personalizing and customizing in projects that are easily done, and quickly enough done not to bore.A lot of the projects are perfectly appropriate for gifts for grandmas and aunts. I do recommend for younger kids, you pick a project together and you read through the instructions and set everything up.

If you ever meet E, you'll notice she's carrying a bag of some sort. She switches purses regularly, and uses lots of things for purses. She has used lunch boxes, polly pocket boxes, duct tape bags, duct tape covered notebooks with handles and pockets for extras, embellished totes and her current favorite is a cheap shopping bag from HT. One of the Music=Life ones that's a great size for comics.I see a lot more bags in our future, and I'm looking forward to seeing what new ideas those inspire.

Sock and Glove : Creating Charming Softy Friends From Cast Off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori is really just that, charming. If you like Japanese style cuteness but want quicker projects then amigurumi, this is a great book.
I just noticed this book was released on my birthday in 2007, which is wonderful appropriate because I got it on my birthday this year from my son.
I love it so much. None of the projects are really complicated or require specialized skills or equipment. If you can hand sew a good seam, and embroider, you can do everything in it and the projects are adorable.
What makes it really special is the introduction, which takes up most of the book to all the animals in it. It's sweet, and the photographs are fantastic.
I think my favorite project is the zebra made from a striped sock.
The construction ideas and tips will give a lot of crafters other ideas for things to do with socks and mittens. I think a lot of the stray socks accumulated in my family will start finding their way into my sewing basket and my daughter's sewing basket after reading this instead being used to dust. I highly recommend it.
I think E, being doll girl lately, is really going to love it. I'll have to make sure she doesn't decide my knee high stripey socks need to be a zebra!
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One more day left to score my little orange design on Threadless. Well.. okay, if you won't score my silly little design,you could score others. Lots of talented artists with ideas that make a lot more sense than mine!

( Dinner, tourist style )
Today, Mike's got to do some coffee related research, so I'm going with him to do that. Apparently his boss asked the execs "Which of you is the coffee fiend?" and Mike said "My wife." I was a little taken aback by that. I don't do 5 dollar cups of coffee often. So when he explained this to Dad and I, I said "I'm not a coffee fiend." and dad said "Yes, you are." and Mike just laughed out loud and said "Uh huh.. why won't you drink Starbucks?" We have a bunch of GOOD local coffee roasters who don't burn the beans. I don't think this makes me a coffee fiend. But good coffee is like good beer or good wine. You can taste notes and flavors in it, but when the beans are burnt, the overwhelming flavor is that burn. You lose the complexity that inherent in a good cup of coffee. Coffee can taste bright, or creamy, have chocolate-y or berry notes, burnt is not the flavor I'm looking for.
But I'm not a *fiend* about it. I've never even gone to a coffee tasting or done any research on it. I just know what I prefer. Fair trade, shade grown, beans drum roasted dark. I like French, Espresso, and Turkish roasts, but I want the beans to be drum roasted to a uniform dark, and still oily to the touch. A good dark roast IS shiny and oily and not dark, matte and dry. Drum roasting helps keep the beans from scorching. Dark roasts also have less caffeine then light roasts so they make good after dinner coffees.
I think today I'm also going to work some on beading, and I wrote a book review for Beaded Chain Mail Jewelry by Dyson Whyte, it's a great book if you have any interest in small scale mail for jewelry.

Show Me How- 500 Things You Should Know is the book E and I picked a couple weeks ago. Both of us love how to do thing type books like this. The sort that are filled with all sorts of things you knew, didn't know, will never use, and that inspire you. And this one is great. One of the best of it's sort I've ever seen. What makes it different is that it's almost all illustration dependent. The text is just to clarify the nicely done and colorful vector diagrams.
It's NOT a good book for kids unless you trust your children not do dangerous or illegal things. Like one of the projects is how to tag pavement in a sneaky way, and there is a whole section on mixing and drinking alcohol, including very irresponsible things like keg stands. I do trust my 13 yo as long as I know we are reading and discussing the same things.
It's also got a bunch of diagrams and instructions for things children would be interested in doing. In the last couple of days, I've learned how remove hair with thread (like a manual epilady. Ouch. But effective!) and how to "quick peel" a boiled egg by blowing it out of it's shell (today being colored egg day, Mike and I tried it, I had better luck than he did. It was funny watching him do it though.) It's got a huge variety of projects and tips. Surviving, crafts, cooking, drinking, fashion, sewing, astrology, flirting, reading tea leaves. It's a lot of fun.
E liked it well enough she gave it a hug before letting me read it.

We had terribly unhealthy biscuits and gravy for breakfast, so we are having something healthy for dinner, and I picked up some jerky for W made with seitan, and I think I'm going to try making my own seitan and jerking it with my homemade teriyaki sauce.I also found some kosher gelatin, so I'm going to try that in a couple things.

Please vote for my threadless slogan? I'm so sick of vampires..... I want it so much as a teeshirt!!!

Homemade Root Beer, Soda & Pop by Stephen Cresswell is full of win. Both old turn of the last century recipes, and modern recipes. Plus a lot of history. Most of the focus is on US type soft drinks, like root beer and cream soda.
Real recipes. Not just using extract like we've been using, but brewing from roots into root beer, flavor suggestions and all sorts of great information. Like that a lot of old recipes that call for what seems like an extreme amount of yeast actually mean bread dough, not yeast since buying yeast at the grocery store is a relatively new thing.
We like making our sodas, and carbonating with yeast. It might not be for everyone since using regular yeast, you do taste a bit of it in the final product, but we enjoy the flavor.

Today is a high pain day, so we are watching tv, and I'm working on a scarf using some really pretty turquoise silk, so far, I've frogged twice working on getting what I see in my head just right. It's much like the stole pattern I posted the other day, but not exactly. I'll post pics and pattern when I'm done.

So.. after several weeks of "No. I'm not going outside, you can't make me. I'm staying right here with my blanket and my space heater and my cup of tea." we had a sudden heatwave.

Which closed down schools yesterday and today. Which would ONLY happen here. Really. See, after a week of seriously sub-zero temps, -20°F, the ground was frozen. So yesterday when it hit 32-34°F which is about 0°C for everyone not from the US, it rained. A freezing rain which hit the frozen ground and froze into nice big sheets of black ice. People were driving 2-3 miles per hour in some areas if they had to drive at all, and school was canceled for Anchorage and the Mat-Su valley. Today, it got up to 46°F, which just fwiw, almost unheard of for January in Anchorage. All the rain and snow? Is huge puddles, some of them, a foot or more deep. Plus high winds, seriously like push with all your weight to get doors open type winds. A strong Chinook wind in January.

Baked the Fudge Cake from the Dining on Dime Cookbook to test the recipe before E makes it for Dad for his b-day Sunday. We tried it with peppermint ice cream. Best served hot and molten with ice cream, and served individually because it's messy, it's got a hot fudge-y center. This cookbook is great. Lots of simple easy to make recipes, which makes it a great cookbooks for beginners or kids, lots of tips for saving money which makes it great for *everyone*, and it's seriously non-intimidating. It's a friendly cookbook! It doesn't have big color pictures or anything like that. It's just a nice plain friendly cookbook, with craft recipes and beauty product recipes in it as well. Not affiliated, just love the cookbook.
( recipe )