Some fun stuff found during a trip to the dreaded mall:

• Santa aprons at Old Navy
• and kid sized elf aprons
• mini gingerbread house kit
• mini sushi kit
• mini fondue kit
• actually, I think all the Mini Kits are adorable
• leather magazine holder at Crate and Barrel
• star sprinkles to decorate the table top – a friend of mine said she used these small foil wrapped candies to decorate her table last year, so colorful!
• drink clips
• and this jubilee glassware made me want to get some mismatched thrift store stemware and a few glass paint markers

Before I forget again: For spiced cider I have taken to sticking the cloves in a small apple and floating that in the cider. Otherwise, I find the cloves floating in my cup annoying. I saw this somewhere but I cannot find it again, so credit is due to somone out there. It looks neat too.

recycled link: recipe for a cute sounding cider bug. I’m not so sure about all the sugar involved however.

I was recently looking for those teensy tiny rare earth magnets, and I found some at Radio Shack of all places. But in my search I came across this variety of magnets at Lee Valley Hardware (they of the many glass topped containers as usually seen for wedding favor containers). This pin and needle retriever looks very handy, as does most of the stuff on this page. The magnetic parts tray reminds me of something I saw on Martha a while ago – magnetic pin dish. I saw something like these on sale at a quilt show recently, they were pretty expensive considering.

There is some pretty cool stuff over at Museum of Cakes (which is a business, not actually a museum). Reading the Meet the Chef I see he does gingerbread too, I want pictures of the gingerbread creations.

Warning: Flash.

I never really paid much attention to Marshall Field’s, but I got a catalog and it’s a funny store. Sort of a cross between the in-flight catalog and the museum shop catalog. Anyway, there were a few things I liked:

• coinstruction something to do with all those pennies
• magnetic spice board
• copper treasure box I just like round container thingies
• champagne bouquet set This reminds me of a story I heard somewhere about a glass blower who blew a bunch of drink horns for a community party. Because you couldn’t put the glass down it added to fun of the gathering. Or something like that… it sounded a lot better the way they told it.

  And it reminds me of these teensy plastic toast glasses cake toppers at Archie McPhee.

There is one particular thing in Budget Living magazine which has caught my attention – the light fixture in the center of this spread. Click on the little green square at the bottom to read it. I didn’t realize that they made half-silvered bulbs. I hate (hate) direct down light, I feel like I’m being interrogated. I wonder if these bulbs would make me happier?

Check out Jennie’s Pocket Shrine to Hellenic St. Christopher, patron saint of travel. She works off of this project, and I’ve seen lots of stuff about mini shrines on Glitter.

I was slicing an avacado the other night and I was kind of excited to use the Martha way to take out the pit – tap whack the knife into the pit, then twist a little and the pit comes right out still sticking into the knife. Except in my world the knife won’t stick into the pit and after a few times the avacado is face down on the floor in front of me, the knife is somewhere on the floor to my left, and the pit has flown all the way across the kitchen and bounced off the fridge door.

Oh my. This place will make personalized confetti with your photos. I am immediately torn between thinking this a the greatest thing ever, and this is the most ridiculous thing ever. Via not my dissertation.

Last night The Best Of did a whole segment on my (sort of) local diner – Peninsula Fountain and Grill. Neat. The segment mentioned the $150 item on the menu called The Bubbly Burger. The place was recommended to me by Ugly Green Chair, thanks!

I’ve been trying out new makeup – recently I bought L’oreal Lash Architect mascara, which was clumpy for a week but has settled down a little. L’oreal Line Intensifique liquid eyeliner, at Squib’s excellent recommendation. It’s great, such a nice applicator. Lucky Magazine has been talking up Revlon Colorstay Overtime Lash Tint like crazy. I have some and I’m not so sure how I feel about it yet. It does certainly stay on for days and days, but it clumps on my lashes because it beads up when I apply it. Anyone tried this stuff? Like it? Hate it?

One lost mascara which I really liked wasn’t really mascara – it was Covergirl (I think) lash tint. It may have been in with the CG Smoothers collection. It was like a thin mascara and made my lashes look super long and spectacular, oddly enough because it didn’t try to add volume. And it looked natural. I miss it.

I saw some chrome liquid eyeliner in the cheap cosmetics section at a drugstore yesterday. I wonder how it would look – I may go back and get some to try out.

Keri Smith has up some new adventures of Miss Bea – exotic vintage covered envelopes, alternative holiday gift ideas (many diy, super great).

hee hee! Check out the BrideAudit demo over at Going Bridal.

The caramel recipe I used last week said it could cover 12 lady apples. I didn’t really know what lady apples were, but I figured they were small. I didn’t know just how small, and charming, they are. I found some this weekend:

That is a quarter for scale, more pictures.

The produce place also carried incredibly small potatos and Wee Bee Baby Pumpkins, which are larger than those decorative squat mini pumpkins, but small enough to be pushed off a ledge by a wimpy squirrel.

Some pictures of the pretzel Witches Fingers. With some notes for myself for next time.

I also made some caramel apples, but my “nest of spun sugar” idea didn’t look so hot, and I didn’t get any pictures. But I had more luck with the spinning of the sugar this time. My kitchen is a big mess now.