Hey! There will be a Craft magazine release party here in Seattle this Sunday afternoon, I'll be there! I blatantly ripped the following details right off of Moxie's site:

Come play with us as Urban Craft Uprising hosts our very first CRAFT magazine release party! Join us Sunday, September 7th, 1 - 4pm, to celebrate.

CRAFT 08 has a focus on weaving, so we’ll be right at home at Stitches - the ‘not just your typical fabric store’ in Capitol Hill. We’ll have free hands-on craft projects including paper looms from the mag and Kristen Rask from Schmancy will be there to teach us how to make button rings, and Moxie of Made By Moxie will be doing a demo of her Felted Flower Flair Kit, which is also featured in the magazine.

When you add in the snacks, door prizes and the irresistible fashion fabrics, notions, and yarn at Stitches, you have a must-attend event on your hands! We hope you’ll stop in, have some nibbles, and CRAFT with us.

The Wine Offensive is the last person in Seattle to realize that barista is Project-Runway-Blaine, I say this with love! Love you The Wine Offensive!

It's nearly Park-ing Day (see the bottom of that post). I hope there is a space near us. More here at Rainier Valley Post.

Here's one for Dan Savage's files: Rottweiler fights pit bull to save boy

Neal Stephenson book tour dates for the release of Anathem


weekend trip planning:

Bike a trail, listen to chamber music in the Methow

Methow trails draw crowds, but solitude's near

Autumn in the Methow: Where road biking feels like hiking

Travel for Beer: The Methow Valley

The Bring & Brag event at The Lab at Velocity Art and Design here in Seattle last week was fantastic. The Lab's site will have a list of all the bragees soon but two that really stood out for me were Suspect and Fugitive, a year long project combining edible or temporary materials with fantastically bad puns, and Good Stock, custom books made from family photographs and writings. I suspect we'll be seeing Good Stock will be in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine before not too long.

Also! You can listen to the recordings of past Labs here. You can also sign up to receive the Lab podcasts on the main page.

Why did it take me so long to finally get myself into Zenith Supplies here in Seattle? It's only a half a block down from the Ravenna Whole Foods, I have missed out on so many opportunities to go and admire tiny lip balm containers.

In short, Zenith Supplies sells all the things you need to make candles, soap, lotions, balms, perfumes, things for your body, the bath and your home. I went in hoping to find some DPG for making my own reed diffuser scents and not only did they have it but they had a recipe, bottles, reeds, perfumers alcohol and a more than impressive selection of essential and fragrance oils. They have candle and soap molds, jars and bottles of all sizes, lotion bases and bulk oils, salts and dried herbs, more waxes and additives than I knew existed. But most thrillingly they had an excellent selection of small jars for lips balms and solid perfume including the elusive clear plastic compact. They had those old fashioned metal sliding tins, little rollerball containers for scents and teeny pipetts, small atomizers and all sorts of packaging supplies. You can buy just one of anything, which sounds awfully good to me, the girl who still has well over 100 pipettes from my lip balm making experiments. The store is large, clean and orderly and the staff was perfectly happy to answer all my inane questions. It is, as I had been warned by Yelp, a little hippy dippy, expect to find crystals and books on healing arts. I see a solid perfume in my future and maybe, maybe, some serious soapmaking.

The next Lab is this Wednesday, August 20th and it promises to be very interesting. It's a grown up version of show and tell so people who have creative endeavors will be given a few moments to tell us all about it. I'm looking forward to this one, and I have inside information that we'll get a closer look at the rings of Dave Sheely Designs. He's started to embed jewels inside of resin and the effect is that the ruby is floating over your finger. Though, I totally have a soft spot for this one that contains beach glass possibly from an old Rainier beer bottle.

Heidi Kennedy of My Paper Crane will have a show opening tonight at Schmancy. She's come all the way from Pennsylvania, I hope I can make it. Schmancy is at 1932 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, event starts at 6 p.m.

Crystalyn Kae will be selling her bags at a rooftop garden trunk show on Saturday. She'll have bags you cannot see anywhere else, all on a pretty roof in Wallingford. I think a some ice cream from Molly Moon's is the only proper thing to do afterwards. Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 4032 Stone Way North, Seattle, WA 98103

Urban Craft Uprising is now accepting applications for the December show, the deadline is September 8th and you can find applications right here.

art, craft & design is the new (to me) blog of Andrea who owns Bluebottle Art Gallery here in Seattle. It's full of stuff I'm crushing on already.

Every Visit to the Seattle Central Library Reminds Me of the Cheese Shop Sketch a sentiment by The Stranger that I share

Seattlest declares Spencer Elden, whom you might know as the baby on the album cover of Nevermind, has eclipsed the woman on the cover of Whipped Cream and Other Delights as the northwest's most famous album cover model. I've always wanted to make a Halloween costume from the Whipped Cream cover, of course I would need to guys to carry a green canvas behind me at all times.

H&M is open in Southcenter! I cannot help it, I'm crushing on this store.

A street very near me is going to be closed to vehicle traffic in an effort to promote, something. Community? Bicycle riding? Walking? Anyhow, it'll be pretty cool to stand in the middle of the street and not fear for one's life. Not to mention get to walk to the pub in the straightest line and not be blasted by traffic noise.

Is there anything family friendly to do just slightly outside of the greater Seattle area? at Ask Metafilter. I had no idea there is a full time medieval village in Carnation.

Hiking Twin Falls at Seattlest, I like the series on local hikes they've been running lately.

Greenwater Lakes Trail at the Slog.

free tacos downtown, sounds good, at Properly Salted

Snapshots from the Inaugural Sunday Supper at the Corson Building, oh how nice, at Mid Beacon Hill Blog.

Beard Papa in Seattle? At Safeco and Uwajimaya, according to Da*xiang, thanks!

Zenith Supplies, Yelp says this is the place to get soapmaking supplies, and I hope they have reeds for oil diffusers so I can try to undo the memory of how horrible the premixed kind I bought was.