NPR's All Things Considered ran a story called Cool Knitters yesterday which I caught. They spoke with someone from Crafy Gal and Debbie Stoller from Bust Magazine. Here is the audio link if you'd like to listen. Thanks to dangerous chunky and Beth Schaffer for the link! p.s. dangerous chunky links to some archived knitting stories too

easy recipe for later: fake creme filling for donuts found via the most wonderful donuty

Natalie wrote me asking about long distance Valentines gift ideas, I wrote back and went on and on about stuff, and decided she shouldn't be the only one tortured, so here you go: Hm let's see. I like surprises. One of the most romantic things a guy ever did for me was to slip fortunes from fortune cookies into my hands one by one over the course of a day (this was in high school). They all said something along the lines of "someone likes you" and "love is coming your way". Along those lines I've been admiring the Nips cards which are small card with a sentimental message inside. Last year for Valentines Day I did something with small cards. I made a bunch (I think 24) of cards using colored papers, I cut out 24 tiny 2" square cards and 24 colored hearts, glued the hearts to the front of a contrasting color card. I then hid them around the house as a treasure hunt, with clues to the next place. I wrote the clues in the form of "I love you when...". So the first card was taped to the front door for him to find when he arrived home with the clue "I love you when you brush your teeth". The clue was for where the toothpaste was, and there was a second card which said "I love you when you cook", leading to the stove where a clean pan with a lid on it held the next card and so on. All leading to a present hidden somewhere in our very very small apartment. For mother's day last year I took a tip from Martha and made my own fortune cookies and put fortunes inside. I love the idea of baking things inside of a cake, perhaps you could bake a few messages incased in some sort of safe plastic thing inside of cupcakes. Ooh, how about those metal message capsules Tops Malibu makes, I keep seeing them in office supply stores around here: bottom of the page - Mystery Capsules The other day I ran across these teeny tiny envelopes made by Impress rubber stamps seen here about half way down. And I thought they would be perfect to glue inside of a card. You could do something like get twelve cards which seem normal and mail them one day at a time (hoping they all arrive in sequence and before Vday) with these tiny envelopes in side holding special messages. (continued in next post, shame on Blogger)

Last Valentine's day I made surprise balls for everyone (the pictures aren't so good) These are wonderful. You wind crepe paper into a ball hiding things as you go along. I found a puzzle card, a card which was heart shaped and had puzzle shapes cut into it. I wrote a message on the card, broke it into it's pieces and hid the pieces one by one into the surprise ball along with lots of other stuff. The recipient had to find the pieces, and assemble the heart to read it. I sent them to friends and family and everyone really enjoyed them. You can still order the puzzle cards here. Mostly I'm drawn to things which are fun and romantic at the same time. Things which need to be opened or discovered always resonate really well. And things which come in multiples leading up to the day, or the gift, are very exciting. I've found things which are fun tend to take that I Love You You Must Love Me Too Or Else I'm Going To Cry And You Will Be A Bad Person edge off of emerging relationships. I think this year for friends and family for either Vday or Easter I'm going to make mini-pinata like things, an idea I saw in Martha Stewart Living around Halloween. You use smallish scraps of tissue paper to cover a balloon which is small (water balloon sized) or only partially blown up, let it dry and remove the balloon, fill with stuff and use more tissue paper to close the hole. The recipient has to break the tissue paper to get inside. I'm not sure how well these will travel however, I'll probably test it out really soon. For easter last year I dyed eyes, blew them out, let them dry and filled with stuff, here. I glued a patch to the hole in the bottom. The recipient had to crack the egg to get inside. They were a big hit with everyone. You could paint hearts on a few eggs and hide messages and candy inside. I mailed an entire carton to friends back home and they made it without breaking! Impress Rubber Stamps has a load of decorative ideas, poke around their site. There are great ideas being exchanged for just this same long distance gift ideas on Glitter (hee! including the fortune cookie thing!) And I'm sure there are more threads from past years. Good luck!

cute chocolate from Dean and Deluca: filled chocolate pumpkin, dinner for two poppers, rose chocolate bar, an entire mini chocolate dresser, and these gorgeous bittersweet paves

afghans for Afghans is a humanitarian organization which accepts hand knit or crocheted blankets and will send them on to the people of Afghanistan in refugee camps. If you're interested in donating some work they have full instructions, as well as links to knitting and crochet patterns here, including the restriction of using patterns which don't depict representational images.

Last weekend I made some baked donuts with my Jelly Doughnut Kit from Plum Party! The baked donuts are more like jam filled biscuits than deep fried anything, they were very yummy. We ate them all before I could get any photographs!

I can be a little slow sometimes. After twittering about how sad it is that the knitting magazine Rebecca is so great and so inaccessable I find that you can get back issues (11-18) of it online at eKnitting.com. I'm sure I could also find it at yarn shops if only I could get my lazy self to one. I ordered some Zucca and some Brittany Birch needles (so pretty) to make a black scarf. I'm curious if Zucca will act like Geisha and matt down after a while losing all it's fuzzy charm.

one for the i-only-wish-i-could-do-that file: take a look at the labels erica mulherin made for the bath products she gave as christmas gifts, they are terrific!

yummy easy recipe from Karissa:

Chili Verde - aka "sorta-kinda Arroz con Pollo" 1 can Italian recipe stewed tomatoes 1 cup chicken broth 2 lb chicken - cut in chunks 1 small can diced green chilis 1 diced onion That's the original recipe I got from a friend but I usually use two cans of tomatoes and the entire can of chicken broth. It makes it a little thicker. Brown chicken. Cook onion (separately from chicken) in a little bit of oil but don't brown. Combine chicken, onion, tomatoes, chicken broth and chilis in a large pot and simmer for 2-2 1/2 hours. I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do with it but I always serve it w/ lots of shredded cheese, rice with tortillas. Kind of like a messed up version of arroz con pollo. It makes a lot and with rice is pretty filling - we can usually feed 4 people and have some leftovers. My old roommate and I always froze single servings in ziplock bags for quick dinners. It's really yummy!

The kitty hat spotted on a co-worker at Halloween has been leant to me! yay! I'm going to attempt to recreate the pattern, or at least get good documentation of it so that I can attempt it when I have a bit experience. It was made by Brooklyn Handknit, who might have a site at www.brooklynhandknit.com (it's being slow or nonexistent), but you can see a lot of great stuff in this interview (check out all three pages). I love the skirt seen in the first pictures on this page. Yay for knitted things which aren't ugly!

i troll martha stewart so you don't have to: new products

• baby dragees are admittedly very cute
• gem soap kit
• dremel multi pro tool
• handy clear grid rulers with angle lines and everything
• crafters hole punch
• cast iron heart muffin/brownie/treat pan
• red chewy scottie doggies
• lipped boot tray (I've had too many run-ins with cheap rubber mats)
• pull-down indoor clothes line