I have loved the stuff at Loop-d-Loop for a while now and I'm excited to see Teva Durham has put out a book!

I recently discovered that I love oatmeal. I don't know how I made it through my life so far without ever having actual oatmeal. I mean, I've had a few packets of sickly flavored instant oatmeal (my favorite being the kind with tiny brown sugar treasure chests that melt to reveal tinier candy keys and jewels, but I didn't love that for the taste, I loved that because it was the food equivalent of a kids video game). But for the last few weeks I've been eating steel cut oats and I love it despite the time it takes to prepare. Next week I'm going to experiment with oatmeal and dried fruit pairings, I'm ridiculously excited about this.

Yesterday I bought myself a really early birthday present - KitchenAid stand mixer, hooray! I got the basic basic model because I know I won't be using it all that often, very likely just for cupcake frosting and Christmas cookies, and because it's on super sale at Amazon, at least I hope it's a really good price. It was on sale enough for me to forgive it for not being orange. Found via the Cooking For Engineers Deals Blog, whom I thank greatly.

These design student concepts for new candy and confectionery are charming. The site includes a full explanation of the project and links to more stories. I especially like the pop ups, noobs and trick n eat.

Tricks of the Trade on uses for, brace yourself, nose oil -- for beer foam and fly fisherman, for film developers and costumers, and for clockmaker, woodwinds musician, computer consultant, and (oh dear) lip balm.

It's airtight, colorful, you can jostle it and hold it upside down and it will protect the precious cargo. It is the Cup-A-Cake: The Cupcake Container Of The Future. (Thanks Conny!)

I don't get too excited over most quilting fabric shops but I had the occasion to visit In The Beginning Fabrics the other week and was impressed. There were lots of neat colorful prints and a great collection of books, notions and tools.

Where to shop for fabric, and park for cheap, in LA.

My first attempt at boiled icing didn't turn out - it's too runny, but very yummy. Mmm. I'm going to try to follow this recipe for Lady Baltimore Frosting to the degree and see how it turns out. (Note to self: the recipe I tried today said to boil the sugar mixture to 220, see how this one at 248 compares.) So far I've seen recipes called Boiled Icing, Seven Minute Frosting, Divinity, and Lady Baltimore Frosting which all basically have the same instructions. Must investigate.

Otherwise the gloriously long days and MI-5 on DVD are working to distract me from baking experiments.

These laptop bags for woment from Lin&Leo are the nicest I've seen so far, but I'd really need to get a laptop to justify buying the bag. More about the bags here at Red Direct. Thanks go to The Bag Lady for finding them.