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!

Ok, so now that I have the cast iron pans I need a little clarification. When it comes to cleaning a skillet (the regular everyday type of cleaning, not the seasoning or the restoring type of cleaning) I know that one should dry it thoroughly then rub it with vegetable oil — but do I need to rub the entire surface (inside and out, bottom and handle and all), or just the interior surface that the food would touch? I looked everywhere but nowhere could I find this bit of specific info.

Links to the care and usage of cast iron:
Lodge (the brand we have), at Martha Stewart, and at The Splendid Table. Also, the book Home Comforts (Thank you again Laura!) says to go ahead and use dish soap when washing out a cast iron pan (Sarah pointed this out in the comments of a prior post, thanks!)

Turkey & Gravy Soda?

Who loves you? Fred Flare loves you!

To celebrate carrying the Stitch ‘n Bitch book, and the holidays, and just happy things in general Fred Flare is offering Not Martha readers (that’s you!) 25% OFF the entire site for this week when you enter “notmartha” at the checkout.

fine print: You need to enter “notmartha” into the special instructions at checkout to qualify. The discount won’t appear automatically, but will be credited after the order is placed (the limitations of some technology…) Confirmation of the credit will be emailed within 24 hours. This offer cannot be combined with any other offer. The offer ends midnight on Friday, November 21st, 2003 when the carriage turns back into a pumpkin.

This couldn’t be better timing, you need presents (even if they are for yourself) and I don’t think Fred Flare has never looked better!

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Holiday gift goodness from Fred Flare!

books!
• Stitch ‘n Bitch, the new book by Debbie Stoller with the coolest knitting patterns ever, and great instructions.
• Sew Fast, Sew Easy which is a fun way to learn to sew, it comes with patterns tucked into the back, and the instructions are very clear.
• the Personal Library Kit
• the Librarian Action Figure with push-button shushing action! This is modeled after Nancy Pearl, a librarian here in Seattle.
• the Food Critic Kit
• All the books Fred Flare carries are great — Very London Styleguide! Arcade Fever! Easy Bake Oven Gourmet!

  holiday stuff

• holiday cards (including Scratch and Sniff)
• gift wrap
• stockings and stocking stuffers
• decorations (even a mini snowflake machine!).
• Snowman In-a-box Kit even comes with a corn cob pipe

  stuff to wear

• scarves
• mod belts with a matching handbag

  more fun stuff

• This is something I have – Atari video game kit. You plug this joystick into the back of your tv and you are magically transported back into the age of Pong, Asteroids and Yar’s Revenge. I spent an entire day playing Adventure.
• And look! A pink toolkit in a tidy box.
• This is something I haven’t seen before – whizzer scissor which does all the work for you.
• Something fun for the cubicle – magic tree and snowman, just add water and watch it grow.
• I also love all the magnetic stuff by Three By Three.

While you’re there be sure to check out the stuff in the Diary section, especially all of the interviews in Fred Friends including Built By Wendy, 31 Corn Lane, and Three By Three Seattle.

I will never forget the time a college roommate of mine came home to find that another roommate had used her giant, antique cast iron skillet, then meticulously scrubbed it with soap and left it in the rack to drip dry. It was in sad shape, and the owner (who had given us a dramatic explanation of what would happen to the skillet if washed, and a graphic description of what whould happen to us) was understandably pissed.

This memory brought to you courtesy of our purchase of large and small cast iron skillets this weekend after this report of the bad stuff which happens to Teflon when it’s heated. A few weeks ago Marc Marone on MS Living TV talked about a gas which is released when Teflon is heated to a certain point which will kill birds instantly. Pretty scary.

We also got a Pepper Ball after deciding the little 4″ grinder we were using was difficult to grasp for cooking purposes. So far I really dig the Pepper Ball.

This weekend we made sour cream cloud pancakes, they were good but I think I actually prefer the cloud pancakes made with cottage cheese.