note to self: recipe for cold noodles in spicy peanut sauce

I am terrible at writing proper thank you notes (ask all the people who are still waiting for a thank you email from me) – digs magazine has a story today on just that – how to make thank you notes painless [permanent link]. Yikes, I almost feel worse!

This thread over at the Get Crafty boards, Glitter, points us to these Bindi tins which are like the glass topped favor containers sold as wedding favor containers at Martha By Mail. An older Get Crafty thread recommened the ones sold here at Lee Valley, which still looks like the least expensive option.

The place which sells the bindi tins is fabulous though – it’s called Profoundia and they offer choli tops, belly chains, henna for Mehndi body painting, and Bindi body jewelry in thier catalog, and have a nice page of information and links.

Christine [also of Sudsalicious] recommends Bramble Berry for soapmaking supplies. I’m sorry I overlooked this one! A few things which catch my eye are: a whole bunch of lip balm pots, a nice build your own soap making kit, or pre selected soapmaking kits [the kits are of the melt and pour variety], very interesting custom molds – check out the chinese character stone molds, milky way molds including the Venus of Wilendorf and a dragon! a whole bunch of colorants; and micas, and a full line of fragrance oils and lip balm flavorings, which I usually don’t like, but I’ll accept things like Bay rum.

Got any place you recommend?

Keri Smith, illustrator and inspirer extraordinaire, redesigned – it looks wonderful! Warning: flash, the html site is still there for those without flash (thank you).

A number of people have written me about these little lip balm containers I have in this shot of the lip balm project:

I bought mine with lip gloss in it from the drugstore and cleaned it out to reuse. I couldn’t find a them anywhere – does anyone know of a place which offers these little compacts? The only one I could find had a minimum order of 25,000 and I’m not looking to have quite that many. Write to me and let me know, thanks!

How to make those little puffy origami stars – a friend gave me a jar of these in collge, itty bitty ones. There are also premade lucky star kits you can find (another), here is a shot of directions on the back, and here is another page on how to make them.

pick*y cosmetics redesigned – it looks fabulous, take a look

I just ordered a sewing machine! yay!

p.s. I don’t recommend ordering over the Singer website. They are upgrading to a better shopping service as fast as they can, they tell me. I would phone your order in if you’re going to buy a refurbished machine.

How to have the best dang barbecue over at Grand Royal featuring Layne Wooten, bbq-er for the stars and a multitude of tips on prep, sauce, tools, recipes and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective BBQ Artists. Also check out the guide to buying water toys.

I love this – Make-Your-Own-Opoly! also look at the balloon molding starter set. Flax has a number of neat-o craft kits that at the least give me ideas

A few box templates for you gleaned from the getcrafty boards – a take-out box and pyramid box and a bunch of cute interlocking stuff at Mirkwood Designs

Some more quilting links – Shannon points us to Quilthistory.com. It is an introductionto dating quilts, and works as an introduction to the history of quilting in the US. And Mena points us to Quilts and Quiltmaking in America: 1978-1996 at the Library of Congress.

slow food

There is a something truly great going on – Slow Food. The movement began as a reaction to the spread of fast food, and the manifesto proclaims: “Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food”.

The wonderful Malika of Nobody’s Fool: Food Notes and Stories offers these words:

To me, the Slow Food movement is just logical, it just makes sense. We spend so
much of our time rushing around that we’ve lost our connection with each other,
with the seasons, with our communities, and even with ourselves. Cell phones,
email, FedEx, faxes – everything is instant, we need everything NOW. Look at all
the self-help books and glossy magazines that have come out in the last few years
purporting to teach us how to simplify our lives. I believe that the best thing
that any of us can do for ourselves is to sit down and eat dinner every night – a
dinner that we cook ourselves, eaten with people that we enjoy. Not food that is
full of chemicals and not a dinner that we eat in front of the television.

The Slow Food movement is, in a large part, about pleasure, and in my opinion all
you need to do to find pleasure is to pay attention. Go to the farmer’s market
and look at the colors of all the people and all the vegetables. Smell how fruit
smells when it’s ripe and fresh. Notice the textures of lettuce and kale, the
different sizes of grapes and tomatoes, the fuzziness of peaches. Think about
where the food you eat comes from and who grew it and what the land looks like.
Pay attention to the way you prepare your food and pay attention to how it
tastes.