This Thursday night at 7 p.m. Amy Karol (Angry Chicken) will be at The Quilting Loft to sign her book Bend The Rules With Fabric. I be there with that and her first book, Bend-The-Rules Sewing, in hand.

This weekend is the Urban Craft Uprising! Dec. 5th and 6th, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. So many of my favorites will be there:

• Cakespy paintings and cards
• Crystalyn Kae handbags
• Dave Sheely Designs resin jewelry
• Devout Dolls
• Dinah Coops sustainable home goods
• Ex Libris Anonymous journals made from old books
• Glamscience glitter jewelry and clothing
• Idolatre clothing
• Made By Moxie felt lovelies
• Matthew Porter art and books for kids
• Monsieur T. t-shirts
• Polymath Design Labs geek jewelry
• Urban Soule home goods
• Schmancy handmade goods
• Secret Stash Sea Salts flavored salts

Wednesday, Dec. 9th is the Anniversary Party for the Grassroots Business Association. We'll be gathering at Vermillion to talk over the year that has passed, there will be cupcakes.

I'm excited about our upcoming meeting for the Seattle Grassroots Business Association, we'll have Kaytlyn Sanders of Beneficial Design joining us for a night of Q&A With A Web Designer. She'll be talking a little about how to find and work with a web designer for your business website, but mostly she'd like to take questions. I heard about Kaytlyn through Shauna James Ahern of Gluten-free Girl and The Chef and have since discovered that Kaytlyn has designed a whole lot of websites I read.

The November meeting is also the first one where we'll be charging an entrance fee or taking annual memberships that will be good for all meetings through the end of 2010. We need to do this in order to cover our costs, so far we've been paying for things ourselves and hoping to break even while asking for donations. (Huge thanks go out to people who have donated through the year, you've been the reason we have been able to keep going.) An annual membership also gets you access to the meeting notes we'll be putting on the website. Annual membership is $25, or if you just want to attend this meeting it's $5. We deeply appreciate the support and hope you want to join us next year as well.

Please do RSVP to let us know you're coming. Thanks!

when and where:

Wednesday, Nov. 18th, 7:00 p.m. at the Richard Hugo House
1634 11th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

I went apple picking with some friends last weekend, it was fantastic. It was muddy though, so I'm glad I wore boots. Also? The reusable shopping bags were very helpful.

I heard about Jones Creek Farms from a friend and this past weekend just happened to be their Harvest Festival. They have pick your own apples service August through November, it was a little late for picking this year as it was an early growing season. As a result there was a lot of fruit on the ground, and sometimes hard to find an good apple left on the trees (and no pears left to be found). The farm is welcoming, and you're encouraged to try a sample of an apple before you pick a whole bunch, as a result we tasted a whole lot of delicious apples. I came home with nine pounds and I hardly think it is enough. I'm already planning to return next year.

This one is my favorite. It has an almost geometric shape, it's nice and weighty and has a crisp texture with a bit of tartness. Unforunately I have no idea which variety it is. If you're in the Seattle area Jones Creek Farms sells at a bunch of farmers markets (the list is at the bottom of the page).

The Seattle Grassroots Business Association meeting tomorrow is with Kaie Wellman of the eat.shop guides who will be taking about self publishing. More details here, we'll be meeting at Vermillion.

If you're in Seattle and going to be a bride the upcoming year or two you might want to consider going to Get Hitched, Give Hope. I'll quote Eliza Truitt (a photographer who will have an engagement photo session up for auction) here:

"For those of you who don’t know, it’s a big fun swanky party for brides and grooms that raises money for the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation. The basic idea of the night (aside from getting dressed up and having cocktails and generally enjoying yourself) is that some of Seattle’s top wedding vendors donate their services, and then brides and grooms bid on them in silent and live auctions. All the money goes to charity."

There is so much fabulous stuff up for auction, you'll get it for your party and the money will go to a very good cause. Fantastic!

There are a few things going on this weekend that will thrill you. The Plush You! show is opening with Artists' Receptions on two nights, Friday, Oct. 9th at Schmancy (and Fancy and Nancy), and Saturday, Oct. 10th at Blue Bottle Art Gallery, both from 5 to 10 p.m. And on Saturday and Sunday there are two screenings of Faythe Levine's Handmade Nation (get tickets here). On Sunday at 5:30 p.m. there is a Happy Hour with Faythe Levine at Vermillion.

Saturday the 10th you should most definitely visit the Mobile Chowdown featuring Seattle's shiny new food trucks. Located in the Interbay (details) 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can keep up with developments with Mobile Chowdown on Twitter.

I'm seeking out waffles in Seattle. I want to find a few examples of good, or correct, texture, in this case the toppings are not important. Here's why: we were given an expensive waffle maker recently and after using it a few times I'm fairly convinced it doesn't actually work that well. But, before I condemn it I'd like to have an ideal waffle texture to compare, a control group if you will.

Here is what I have so far:

- Arosa in First Hill, according to Yelp Hans came out of retirement to serve snack waffles once again.

- Rusty Pelican in Wallingford, a few steps away from my first house in Seattle.

- Vera's in Ballard.

I've also dug up this list at Seattlest and this one from Yelp. I've never heard of Walter's Waffles and wonder if it (still? actually? exists. And I'll be sure to visit Sweet Iron Waffles this Autumn -- "Introducing the Liége Waffle, a sumptuous combination of brioche style dough, pearl sugar and the perfect iron to seal the authenticity of this treat." Yum.

But I'm hoping to get a first person recommendation for a solid example of a good waffle, got one?

One of the things I was looking forward to finding the time to do post-reception was finally getting to eat at Delancey. Delancey, if you don't know, is the restaurant opened by Brandon (whom you might know as the husband of Molly), and Molly (she who writes Orangette and the author of A Homemade Life). I've read updates with anticipation as the restaurant come together, all the delays and triumphs, on Molly's site and on the Delancey Twitter stream, so the expectation was immense, like going to a rock concert you bought tickets for back in March.

We went under the worst possible conditions. I was hungry verging on angry (we call this hangry), and Scott was tired from getting stuck late at work on a Friday. It was getting dark earlier than we were used to and we had settled into what we shorthand as A Bad Date, an evening where we just accept that the mood will be cranky as neither of us has the energy to cheer the other up but we need to eat and since we are out of the house we might as well have dinner. Delancey, however, is magic and banished all traces A Bad Date. We left elated.

We were lucky enough to get seats at the bar where you can observe the pizza making in action and saw how much care they put into everything. The food was amazing and they truly love everything they offer. The service was warm and caring and they took fantastic care of us.

We got the burrata (you need to eat this, Molly talks about it here) and the very last of the tomato and corn salad before the season ends. I do wish we'd also had room for the vegetable salad made from things they had pickled themselves. We got two pizzas (each pizza could feed two, but we don't shy away from leftovers) and the proscuitto was outstandingly yummy. The house made fennel sausage, however, was the one Scott was still talking about 24 hours later. (Our plan is to find a way to bribe them to have an available supply of fennel sausage somehow appear in our fridge on a weekly basis.) It was too dark to get a picture of the plum crumble we shared for dessert, but let's just take a moment to remember how good it was. Molly is sweet enough to offer up the recipe.

Scott and I live in an area of Seattle sometimes called Garlic Gulch due to the number of Italian immigrants that settled here. It's easier for us to get wood fired pizza than any other food, and we've had a lot of it. I say without hesitation that the pizza at Delancey is the best I've eaten.

I was pleased (and not at all surprised) to find a table full of Tea and Cookies, Simply Recipes, Not Without Salt, Seattle Bon Vivant and Savory Sweet Life relaxing after attending the Food Snap conference that day. It was the coolest to run into you all!

The other thing I took note of was the din of the happy diners. Delancey is small but the good mood was amazing. It was clear that everything was just right with the world for everybody there. Brandon and Molly have put a tremendous amount of love into Delancey and it translates very clearly, kudos!

I'll be attending the Pie Off at Curio Confections this Sunday, I'm pretty excited. I won't be entering a pie since I have nothing I know well enough to have ready between now and then. You can come too! It's a $5 fee (prize money) to either enter a pie or just come and eat some. Sunday, 3 p.m., Curio Confections at 5509 University Way NE, Seattle. More details on the Events page on the Curio site.

Here are the details on the Grassroots meeting coming up tomorrow (Wednesday night), see you there?

Small Business Owner Panel Discussion

Wednesday, Sept 16th, 7 p.m. at the Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

Thinking of opening up a small business? Already have one and looking to expand? Want to be in the papers? Magazines? Don't know how to start your brick and mortar? Find out from some pros. We will have a small panel discussion with a variety of small business owners. The panel will include the owners of Vain, Yellow Leaf Cupcakes and Immortal Dog.

Read more and let us know you're coming!

A while back I had the pleasure of getting to attend an event at Pulcinella Pizzeria celebrating their recent certification by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana.

The delegates from Italy came and talked about what the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana is and what they do, then rolled up their sleeves and made some delicious pizza.

Pulcinella Pizzeria is a warm and friendly place located on Rainier Avenue South near the waterfront and Lakeridge Park. If you can, snag a seat at the bar so you can watch the pizza makers in action. One side of their sign on the street is upside down, a tribute to the bar that used to inhabit that space.

I was also introduced to this dessert drink they call Dolce Fine. It's not on the menu but everybody will know what you want when you order it. It's meant to be drank all at once and it is a very yummy and sweet ending to your meal.

Huge thanks go out to Seattle Tall Poppy for letting me know about this remarkable experience.

Scott and I splurged a little for our upcoming reception and had thank you cards and cards to give out with favors letterpressed for us. I'm awfully glad we did.

I found Iron Curtain Press at the summer Urban Craft Uprising. I was lucky enough to get to peek at the shop when I went to approve the proofs and Rosanna was kind enough to let me take pictures while I was there.

Here is our ink:

Her studio is bright and filled with drawers and drawers of antique stamps.

I love this bicycle:

She showed off an example of this neat newsprint like effect made from an old stamp:

And her favorite stamp:

And the press itself:

Iron Curtain Press also has an Etsy shop which you should keep an eye on, she let me peek at a few Christmas cards that were very cool, cross your fingers that she offers them again this year.