gift guides!

• soapbox girls buyers guide
• at keri smith
• at superhero designs
• bust store
• the perpetual i buy diy
• another girl at play gift guide

There is cool stuff going on over at Susan Stars: she has a new craft column at a Nervy Girl, loads of new stuff (all handmade) for sale, she'll be at Riches At Rimsky's art sale in Portland on Dec. 6th and 7th, and she has some new projects up on her how to page!

In the grocery store the other day I found a make your own chocolate Santa kit - it was just a plastic snap together ornament (like the ones I used to make the bath bombs, but Santa shaped) and some chocolate chips. You melt the chips in the microwave, pour them into the mold, close the mold, and turn is so that the inside is covered. Let it cool sitting on one side for a while, then turn it over, then pop it into the fridge for an hour and it's done. Pretty easy looking -- the best part was that the company name was apparently "Choco Treat".

Yarn I want -- Dream by Marks & Kattens. It's a blend of synthetics and angora. Has anyone touched it? Is it lovely?

The Tully's near me (which has a convenient post office box right outside, convenient because it provides an excuse to buy some coffee) is selling tins of something called Coffee Puffs - they are the consistency of pillow mints but are meant to act like as flavored sugar for you coffee. I love the idea that your coffee deserves it's own candies.

25% OFF at Fred Flare when you enter "notmartha" at checkout (details here). The goodness ends at midnight. They have really fun stuff so go on if you were thinking about it, go on! It's a happy thing!

And because I love lists here is another one:
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More stuff from Fred Flare that I love:

• gift ideas and stocking stuffers
• colorful disposable placemats with little recipes on them
• 
  sew cute note set comes with a mini sewing kit in a gorgeous little snap bag
• lollipop note set comes with a lollipop for you
• jack and lulu gift tags made from those little wooden sample spoons which come with ice cream
• The House on East 88th Street - this looks really familiar to me, I must have had it when I was a kid
• now I totally wanna reread the Nancy Drew books

The book Beer-Can Chicken contains a recipe for Beer-Can Turkey using an extra large can of beer, perfect for that classy holiday meal. (There is a recipe for Cel-Ray Chicken in there as well.) You can find a recipe, with pictures that are slightly disturbing, for Beer Butt Chicken at Out of the Frying Pan.

I bought some Tom's of Maine toothpaste the other day and inside was a sample of Strawberry flavored toothpaste, meant for kids. I tried it, of course, and it was just as horrible as you might suspect. First off it was a pink paste, I found this oddly disturbing since I was expecting a gel, like hard candy or jelly. And it tasted like really poorly flavored strawberry milk. Shudder.

Everybody's talking about Craftster.

A terrific resource for the gift buying season - I Buy DIY, a site which lists small DIY businesses and some info about who they are, as well as bazaars and trunk shows. So very useful, and run by the wonderful Tracy, who I used to knit in a bar with!