I find wool and most all animal fibers (yes even cashmere, tragic) too itchy to wear. As a result I've missed out on a lot of cozy sweater wearing in the past. Happily manmade fibers seem to have caught up and these days I'm finding more and more acrylic/cotton blends that are soft and fuzzy and, most importantly, warm. My most recent find is this wrap cardigan from Old Navy. I might buy two.

A post about my very favorite drink, The Jasmine, is up over here at Outblush. Go forth and sip.

Ok, look. I know it's maybe a bit early to be talking about Halloween but I myself think that celebrating Halloween for 1/6th of the year is perfectly reasonable. Also I want you to know about this so you can made as many skull shaped cakes as possible before Halloween because a mid-November skull cake is far less acceptable to take into the office than an early-October skull cake.

(Please excuse the crumbs on his nose, you have to trim the cake after it comes out of the pan and, this being my trial run, things got a little messy.)

This is a 3-D skull cake pan sold by Wilton. It's not up on their site but I bought this pan in a big box craft store, and saw it on the shelves of the other big box craft store that might come to mind. I did also find it on Amazon.

I went through a serious crush on the 3-D pumpkin cake pan a few years back but never bought it, and I still look fondly at the giant cupcake pan when I see it but again I've never inspired to buy. But when I found this skull pan in I immediately grabbed it and carried it around the store with me while looking for all the stuff I came for, just in case all three pans on the shelf were gone by the time I came back around. Even though it was, at the time, August. At first I thought I might be overreacting but when I returned to the store a few days later all the pans were gone. It justified my crazy. A bit.

The back part of the skull is molded so that it sits at just the right angle to stare up at you menacingly from the plate.

The pan comes with a pumpkin spice cake recipe, and while making it I rediscovered how much I like the color orange.

Also, thanks to a wonderful girl who happens to be named Cinnamon, I had two types of cinnamon to choose from to use in the cake. The cake was good but too sweet for my preferences. I hope to change it a bit and then maybe add a cream cheese frosting brain surprise inside. Or, oh oh!, cream cheese frosting maggots. Ew.

The pan is nicely heavy and with a little Baker's Joy I had no trouble getting the cake to slide out. (A tip from Alton Brown: spray it over the open door of your dishwasher, it won't leave your floor or countertops slippery and it's a surface that will be washed anyhow.)

I'm in love with this face.

What should I name him?

Down from the mountains « Busywork. Saving Switzerland as a place to visit when I'm feeling old. I love that their transit system is so well run that elderly people can use it with ease.

Pre-paid plan options for smartphone travellers, at Kottke.

Las Vegas show tickets - where to get the best discounts? | Ask MetaFilter.

NYC Summer Streets 2010, Opening Up Park Avenue.

NYC weird stuff to do for visitors. | Ask MetaFilter.

BEST Eats in Vegas? | Ask MetaFilter.

Get Out!: Meteor Showers and Gourmet Meals in Langley - Seattle.

Where can I go for a great view of the New York (Manhattan) skyline? | Ask MetaFilter.

I've talked about my Teva Montecito boots before but it looked like there were discontinued at the end of last season. I've gotten a handful of questions in email about them since so I thought I'd mention here that they are available again this winter.

Last winter I wore these boots all around a rainy Paris and a rainy Nottingham and a rainy Seattle and they held up beautifully. They are the most comfortable pair of shoes that I own. I think I'm in love with them.

I'll sum up all the points from my earlier and longer review: These are mid-calf leather boots with cork soles, they are remarkably light weight and bouncy, the break in period was painless and they never gave me blisters (despite a lot of walking in Paris), I don't miss the arch support like I expected to, the toe and arch area stretched enough to make them comfortable to the point that I simply don't think or worry about my feet when I'm wearing them, a little overlapping flap near the button at the top means there is a lot of wiggle room so they don't hug your calves too tightly, my feet have neither been too hot or too cold when wearing them (though I have not worn them in snowy conditions), and the pattern on the bottom of the sole is pretty. They are high on my list of things I would miss most if something happened to our house (pick one: fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, theft of just our footwear).

Another option that I've read very good things about and have admired being worn by others is the Merrell Tetra Launch waterproof boots with the military inspired button detail.

Cool Tools: Restaurant Grade Sheet Pans. Like the ones in the Pioneer Woman cookbook! Being too lazy/intimidated/wary to walk into a restaurant supply store here I'm glad to know where to find them.

DIY Polka Dot Fruit Roll Ups · Edible Crafts @ CraftGossip.

Orange, Bitter, & Refreshing: 5 Classic Campari Cocktails | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn.

Tasty Planner - Article - The Problem with Ice-Planets. We were recently rewatching Firefly so I was happy to find that somebody created this dessert from the show.

Bubble gin and tonic, at Kottke. Want this.

Baked Alaska on a Stick · Edible Crafts.

Pancakes with Blueberry Butter | Not Without Salt. Blueberry butter, brilliant!

The Food Lab: Do 'Better' Eggs Really Taste Better? | Serious Eats. Comparing egg color (he takes them to the green place) and perception of flavor, bringing it around to New Coke.

I Baked a Mini Cherry Pie Into a Dark Chocolate Cupcake | Slog. Awesome.

3-D Waffles · Edible Crafts. An iron that makes waffle cups!

The Videos: Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Mrs. Agnes Marshall, Culinary Time Traveler - Voracious. Distinguished Lecturers series from the University of Washington with the guys who wrote Modernist Cuisine.

John Carmack Demos 'Rage' on iPhone at QuakeCon 2010 | Touch Arcade. This one is bookmarked for Scott.

Twitter / Tweet Button. They have their own button!

YouTube - Digital Makeup - PSMama's Lip Gloss Optimizer - Part 1, from this mostly unrelated post over at Wired.

Where can I find out about browser-related issues when writing CSS/HTML/JavaScript? | Ask MetaFilter.

Cool Tools: Google Drawing. Sold: "The best simple drawing program there is is hidden away inside of Google Docs. It's free, and completely intuitive to use. Google Drawing is the opposite of Adobe's Illustrator..."

How do I update my iPhone to iOS 3.1.3--not iOS 4.0? | Ask MetaFilter. Very good question for those of us with 3G phones.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Great Small Object Photography.

I'm so happy to be part of the Creative, Inc. blog book tour today. Creative, Inc. is written by Meg Mateo Ilasco who wrote Craft, Inc. and does a lot of things, and Joy Deangdeelert Cho who is a prolific designer and whom you might know best as the person behind the blog Oh Joy!.

The description on the back of the book reads: "Packed with real-life advice from freelance superstars who have excelled in their industries (and made mistakes you can now avoid!), this book is an essential resource for all creatives -- from illustrators and photographers to graphic designers, animators, stylists, and more -- who want to succeed and doing what they love." The book covers topic on how to promote your work, set fees, license your artwork, deal with taxes and hire and manage. Each chapter goes into depth on what you need to know, offers examples of working out fees or invoicing, and includes an interview or two with a creative professional that gives up a huge amount of great information. They are realistic about when you should charge more or less depending on the advantage, how to look at a licensing deal, whether you should expand a business or close it, whether you should hire (or fire) an agent. Most all of this information is mostly new to me and presented in a way that makes me feel like somebody has my back.

Sound like information you need? Lucky you I have a book to give away! If you'd like to get it please leave a comment with this post. The Fine Print applies. I'm going to do a shorter than normal deadline for this one, you'll have two days to enter and The Random Number generator will be picking a winner on Wed. Sept. 1st at 4 p.m. PST. Good Luck! Winner randomly chosen and is being contacted, thanks for entering!

Next month we're headed out for a coastal road trip, we're taking Highway 1 and Highway 101 along the coast from San Francisco to Seattle. It's going to be epic. I would love to know if anybody has suggestions on places not to miss. I've scoured Ask Metafilter for suggestions on this very route and found a bunch of information - one, two, three, four and five. But have you been? Did you find something really great? Oldey timey diner? Ice cream stand? Underrated beach? Tide pools? Regional brewery? Bit of strange American history? Treasure maps?

Any suggestions are very much appreciated!

The episode of the Craftsanity podcast recorded at the Conference for Creative Entrepreneurs with Jennifer interviewing me is now available to listen to. I should warn you my brain stopped working half way through. (I wasn't expecting to record it in front of an audience! I became a bit overwhelmed, I admit.) Many thanks to Jennifer Ackermann-Haywood for the interview, I had fun! (Flickr photo by Maryjanesattic, thanks!)