I saw the new Shrinky Dinks Maker (easy bake oven like device) somewhere the other day and it reminded me of my once-ambitious plan to make distinctive shrinky dink luggage tags (or at least, something which would make my rolly luggage not look exactly like everybody else's rolly luggage). A thread popped up on Glitter about shrinky dink type stuff and it was mentioned that the oven instructions (which likely caused one's oven to be filled with terrible toxins anyway) were taken off and now it appears that you have to have the official Shrinky Dinks Maker. Yuck. I have seen shrinky dink type material in craft stores which is exactly the same thing. Now I'm thinking about making shrinky dink tree ornaments for the Christmas Shrub we'll soon be getting out of storage. p.s. there is an official shrinky dinks site where you can order materials, and a great article on all thing shrinky at smile and act nice - both links lifted from Glitter, thank you Glitter

I recently came across a cozy little toy store which seemed to carry mostly toys and kits from HearthSong. I had recieved the HearthSong catalog before but it didn't do the stuff justice, it was so much fun. They had kits for weaving, spinning, knitting, beading, making lip balm, body glitter and even bath fizzies. Costumes, balloon animal kits, old fashioned toys, I was delighted. Some of my favorites: make your own candy jewelry kit and lollipop kit, potholder loom (which my mom kept in the car for road trips when I was young, my relatives loved recieving these, at least they always seemed very happy), and the paint your own matreshka kit (just think of the horror you could inflict!). There is so much more I get all excited over like woodburning, fabric dying, candle making, mosaics and a whole lot of board games which look great and I've never seen before. I want the jumbo chess and checkers and the bingo cage. And there is a bunch of fun cooking kits - petite fours, great pancake shapes, rock candy snowflake kit and a make your own rootbeer kit! And for those of us who are feeling a bit lazy about the all-too-quickly coming winter holidays, they have a pre-baked, ready to assemble gingerbread house kit and a candy tree kit and (ooh this is so cool) a treasure ball kit (these are the surprise balls I have such bad pictures of). Wanna help me lobby them for a fill-your-own party cracker kit? I don't doubt that you could do all of this stuff yourself, but sometimes a tidy little kit is nicely encouraging.

Good Housekeeping has up 100 Years of Cookies with recipes - link via opine bovine

cool knit boutiques at girlshop: anna kula claudia rapisarda skim and I want this black and white profile bag

I wish I had known about this site when I was learning to knit - Stitch Guide. They have Quicktime movies of someone actually doing knitting stitches (check out those nails!). Here is the knitting listing. Not all entries have movies, unfortunetly, but this will be a good reference to keep around. The site has cro-tat, crochet, cross stitch, embroidery, tatting, and lots of other stuff I've never heard of before.Thanks to both Jennie and Shannon for the link!

Last weekend we took a little trip to the Jelly Belly Factory. It was fun and colorful and kitschy (and free), they have Jelly Belly shaped burgers and pizza in the cafe, and there is an impressive gift store. The best part was getting to sample the new test flavors - my favorite by far was Sweet Ginger, I wish I had bought an entire bag of them. They had all the Golitz candies there as well, the Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and big bags of bean rejects called Belly Flops, tee hee. Thanks so much to Jennie for the idea, and you can check out the photos of her trip.

another Glitter link good for reference, links on pricing your crafts

I came across a very nice magazine this weekend - Organic Style. I think I have one of the first issues. It's very similar in look and subject to Real Simple, but all about an organic lifestyle which is gentle to the environment. What should be in the first issue other than an article on organic wool with a side note on learning to knit your own scarves (they suggest visiting Patternworks, actually). They also had green gift suggestions and a section on having beautiful hands with safe nail polishes and yummy hand creams. The issue also has an interview with Alice Waters.