First, if you haven't already heard of it elsewhere, Yasmine Surovec from the brilliant A Print a Day blog has a new magazine especially for crafters called Parasol Craft. It's only 2.50 USD, and full of gorgeous things, interviews with artists and pictures of the beautiful things they create, it also comes with some things for scrapbooking, a darling doll project, instructions for creating and using Illustrator brushes with vector files to practice with, and some really lovely embroidery designs. 111 pages of goodness.

Rachel at Instructables has great step by step instructions for making your own panties and bra. Since you make the pattern by using one you have that you kind of like the fit of, you can adjust the fit to be perfect, and unlike some bra projects I've seen on the net, it WILL work for something more than a B cup. Oh how we envy you ladies with the high and perkys! (perkies?)(Umm.. *blushes and waves to the guy in Canada and the guy in Japan* you can ignore that whole last paragraph!)
If you can draft patterns, The Canton of Gleann nam Feòrag Dhuibhe has instructions for making all sorts of garb.
I reposted my pirate eye patch pattern here

This bat mask is a costume all in itself with a gorgeous little black dress. For this? I'd start wearing contact lenses again.
If you are more the Winter Queen type, check out this necklace.

While I was out having coffee with Miss Teri Friday night, I picked up the second issue of Stuffed Magazine by Stampington and Company, the same wonderful company that does Somerset Studio.
It's wonderful. The sort of high quality photography you expect from this company and the projects are lovely and artistic. There are a lot that are just pure inspiration and the techniques are varied. There are hand sewn dolls and a pattern for a Coraline type doll that just thrilled my daughter, and amigurumi that made me very happy. Sock dolls and furry monsters. It's a great magazine if you are into making stuffies, and really, who isn't? I think I must make myself a Coraline style mini-me.


In amigurumi news, I'm working on a pattern for a base for a Momiji style amigurumi. (you know, all the Japanese words I know are craft related?) Ideally, I'll take notes so I can post the pattern for a simple doll form that will have a channel in the bottom that you can put rolled notes into. I could do it for cards, but I think rolled notes will be easier. Momiji are secret message dolls, they are shaped a lot like kokeshi dolls and have a space in the bottom for a wee note.

Speaking of kokeshi dolls, blank kokeshi can be a little expensive, but Miss Teri found a dowel cap and doll form combination that's got great proportions for beading kokeshi style dolls.

I didn't get the packaging from her on Friday to find out what exactly she got that fit together that perfectly, but I will ask. The dowel caps make perfect really big cute heads don't they? You could paint them, or wood burn them, or use thread crochet to cover them, or do what I'm planning and bead them like my little ninja. First one I want to do will be a little green alien, but I look at them and see Guardians of Oa too.

Tonight we are going to go see Marian Call perform. It's an all ages show, which is a good thing, we are all ages fans. I invited a friend along, but I'm not sure if she'll make it. She's a music fan though and a big believer in supporting local musicians, so I'm hoping.
Browncoats rejoice, you can get her album Got to Fly in MP3 format from Amazon. If you liked Michelle Dockrey/Vixy and Tony's Mal's Song, you'll love the songs on this album. I reviewed it and why I like it on the Amazon page,and was more than a little surprised to find out I was the first person who reviewed it.
You can read see all my reviews here.
I'm on the Vine program at Amazon, which is pretty spiffy, they send me 4 books a month for free and since it's a limited list, I wind up reading a lot of things that normally wouldn't occur to me. Books on business, lots of juvenile fiction, that sort of thing. Sometimes I pick books I want from the list, other times, if I see something that the kids or Mike would be interested in, I pick that. Because it's not like it takes me long to read a book. Which is why the business/business motivation books are on the list, and why the Sponge Bob Square Pants with the digital voice changer is on the list. (and E loves that voice changer)

I'm really looking forward to the show tonight. I hope she sings my favorite songs!

This is going to be an odd post, mostly because of the gulf between the two albums I'm recommending. Street Sweeper is Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, and Boots Riley of The Coup. Boots Riley wrote the lyrics and did the vocals, and Tom Morello wrote the music. Boots Riley describes it as "The songs are funk/rock anthems for the revolution." It's good stuff, and I'm pre-ordering the album for myself.

The other album recommendation is S.J. Tucker's Quartered: Songs of Palimpsest. You can listen to the album on that link, and pay what you want for it, minimum 6.00. It's lovely and worth it. An album that suits the book very well.
The book, Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente is the most beautiful thing I've read this year. It's a lush descriptive story that's just easy to get lost in. If you haven't read it, I envy you. I envied you as soon as I finished reading because you get to read it for the first time, and I can't anymore. It's that kind of book.

I'm looking forward to Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey though. I've got it pre-ordered for my Kindle so I'll have it shortly after I wake up. Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books are so good and I'm a comic geek, so I'm looking forward to seeing what she does with a superhero and werewolves.

Okay.. well.. I'm done telling you all about things I'm loving now.
( making dinner tonight )

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!!!

I got my vanilla beans from Vanilla Products USA on Ebay today. First the cold stats. I got a half a lb of their Madagascar Bourbon extract grade beans. This wound up being about 80 beans from 5 (at the shortest, and only a couple of those) to 7 inch beans. Delivery was fast, I did a buy it now on March 17th and got them today. Communication was good. When I opened the vacuum sealed pouch, I was hit by an intense vanilla/bourbon smell. Yum yum. The beans were thin, but full of a nice dense caviar, and they were moist, out of the ones I rendered for my extract, I only hit one woody bean in the bunch. Bonus- they sent me 10 free Tahitian extract grade beans to try. It was 10.95 + 3.12 first class mail. So about 18¢ per bean, which is a really great price.
( lots of vanilla pics )
So to make my extract, I used the method at Vanilla Review, he's got great instructions and takes vanilla super seriously. So I'm just going to give a quick overview and my math on it.
I *can* use a lot of vanilla, I use lots more than most people I think, since the complexities of underrated vanilla never fail to thrill me. And because vanilla meringues toasted to just golden are as close to a guilt free cookie as you can get. So if you're not as much into vanilla and think less will do fine, just reduce measurements.
So a quick reference for people who don't drink and need measurements (like I did.. so I'm just saving you the google time)
1/2 pint= 8 oz
1 pint= 16 oz
Fifth (the standard bottle size) = 1/5 gallon =25.6 ounces
VR recommends an ounce of beans per cup of liquid, and having 80 beans to 8 ounces roughly (I didn't weigh it) meant approximately 10 beans=1 ounce.
I used Skyy vodka because it was the only mid-tier vodka in a colored bottle. He recommends dark bottles, and in this bottle, I feel safe letting it set until it's ready. I won't put it in sunlight, but in one of my cupboards, it's fine. I got a fifth. Because I needed room for the beans, I poured 3/4 of a cup into a jar to use for something else (footspray actually.. I did mention I don't drink right?)
I wanted a double strength or better vanilla extract. So..
(25.6-6)/8= 2.45, or roughly 2 and half cups of vodka. So for a single strength extract, that would be 25 beans, for my double strength thick extract, it would 50 beans. I sliced off the tops and bottoms of the beans with my sharp knife, and put them in the bottle, then I sliced them lengthwise and used the back of the knife to scrape the caviar out and put the caviar in the bottle, and cut up the pods into inch long pieces and put them in the bottle. And did that for 50 beans, which was time consuming, but if you're making a smaller amount,or just want a single strenth you wouldn't need to do that many. I really like vanilla. When I was done, I recapped the bottle (oh.. a nice easy screw cap!) and gave it a good shake.
In 6 months, I'll strain out the beans, and decant it into smaller amber or green bottles and probably give away a few bottles to friends so my next batch can be made with Alaskan vodka. I'm planning to include a recipe for meringue cookies with it when I give away a couple bottles as gifts. It's supposed to be "done enough" after a month, but I want to let it go the full 6 months for the richness of flavor. A couple weeks before we strain the bean pieces out, we plan to make sugar crystals and then put the pieces in with them for a very fancy sugar for tea and coffee.

Of course, my husband was very patient about the whole house smelling like vanilla. Because he rocks like that.

Today in my editorial chat, after we got done talking about the business end of things and it was just a few of us ladies left, we started talking about green decisions. Pros and cons of various choices, and what our favorite ways of making of a difference environmentally are. Being the wonderful group of ladies they are, nobody had to suggest the obvious of using reusable grocery bags or switching to CFBs. Everyone sort of assumed I think that we were all of course already doing that. I brought up cloth pads because it's always a new idea to someone.

( Cut for that poor guy in Canada who really really doesn't want to know )

My birthday isn't until May, but because we are reasonably flush right now, Mike got me my present early.
A Kindle 2. It's sexy, it's wonderful and I love it so much. We aren't in a 3g area unfortunately. We are just *recently* in the Kindle coverage area, but my first book downloaded in about 4 minutes. When Mike found out I wanted it, and knowing what a bookworm I am, it sounded perfect to him. Less paperbacks around the house make him happy. I get plots stuck in my head like song lyrics, and sometimes need to re-read a book to get them back out again.
But! Here's the thing.. I'm sick. I did finally catch his cold, and my head aches. So in comes an advantage neither of us thought of when we discussed if I would use a Kindle or not.. I can change the text size.
It seems like a little thing, but my head aches, I'm whiny and sort of unhappy and he's sick enough he's left work early every day this week. So being able to get a brand new book to relax and read, and being able to change the font size to something I can read easily? Without having to leave the house? Oh yeah.. *hearts*
My only complaint about it is the size of the keyboard. It's not a big deal for me. I have little hands, but for someone like Mike, it could be a bit trickier. That one little complaint just doesn't matter much compared to how much I like it.
No, nothing will ever replace the smell of paper and the feel of a well loved book, but these have their place too.
I'm going to encourage my son to get one out of his paycheck to share with his grandfather, because using it I see another great use for it. If the text to speech function works with the major newspapers, Dad can change the font size to something big enough he can see it, and highlight an article he wants to "read" then switch on the text to speech. For someone like my dad with his severe vision problems along with his desire to read the paper and keep up with the world, this could be an amazing thing for him.

Yeah.. I love it. Really truly. Now I'm going to lay down and finish reading my book.

E is a very environmentally conscious young lady, she never throws something away without considering if she can use it for her crafts, she doesn't litter, and in fact, while we are walking will pick up other people's litter, and she prefer cloth pads. I wrote sort of extensively about menstrual alternatives here.
So.. this is a review. Of cloth pads from Amy's Rag Bag.
"Amy" uses almost all recycled materials for her pads. She's almost apologetic about the fact the THREAD is new. I can't imagine trying to recycle thread, but I'm sure if there were a way, she would. I'm also sure she would happily use partial spools that weren't otherwise going to be used if you sent them to her. Cloth pads are green, and her pads are the greenest.
The closure on them is unique, it has to be, since in keeping with her recycled materials where ever possible, it's not snaps or hook and loop tape like are more common.It's a toggle type clasp. Her prices are some of the lowest around on pads, and she's willing to do barter deals too. A girl after my own heart, oatmeal raisin cookies are one of my favorites! I'd have offered cookies, but my husband thinks if I'm baking, it should be for him.
I gave her a vague sort of list of what my daughter likes. She likes bright bold patterns, the colors green and blue this week. I got a fantastic stack of pads for E, all different shapes, sizes and parts.
The system is a stacking system, with a base, a liner, and a topper to hold it all in place. The toppers could be used by themselves on light days or as panty liners, a topper and base for medium days, and a extra liner or two when you need it. The liners are folded types, which are preferable to solid sewn ones because you can rinse/wash them out and lay them out to dry and they dry quicker. The bases come in different sizes and shapes to fit your needs.
E loved the colors and patterns, so then she tried one out, she didn't need to, but just to see.
She says it's comfortable and easy to use, and she really likes them. Which ultimately is what's important. She will use them.
( picture of some of the pads )
You can also contact her on here. majortom_thecat is her user name.
As far as it goes, this is my idea of a near perfect product. Cottage industry, green production, nearly 100% post consumer materials, great pricing, service, construction, and made by someone who has as strong a belief in the barter system as I do.