The people who do Make are coming out with a new magazine – Craft. About, well, you know what.

Yay! Debbie Stoller is going to be Portland and Seattle promoting her book Stitch and Bitch Crochet, The Happy Hooker. Here are the dates:

Tuesday, May 2 � 7:00 pm -8:00 pm : Portland, OR: Powell’s Books

Wednesday, May 3 � 1:00 pm -2:00 pm : Portland, OR: Yarn Garden

Thursday, May 4 � 7:30 pm -8:30 pm : Seattle, WA: Eagle Harbor Books (listed on knithappens.com as Edge Harbor Books)

Friday, May 5 � 7:00 pm -8:00 pm : Seattle, WA: Ravenna Third Place Books

Saturday, May 6 � 12:00 pm -1:00 pm : Seattle, WA: Hill Top Yarns (not listed on their website)

Also! The Subversive Cross Stitch book is out.

Playing Cat and Mouse Droid – Star Wars crafts, for you pets! Check out more geeky crafty things – Droidel (groan), making tiny santa hats for your figurines, a Dagobah terrarium, and the scary/funny Chewie tissue box cozy.

Game of Life at Ask Metafilter, getting some perspective on saving.

Angry Chicken’s freezer paper stencils got mentioned on Makezine along with a round up of other stencil options.

How to keep your toilet happy, at Shelterrific. This is good for me, I’ve recently encountered this for the first time (and I was super glad to find it wasn’t a leak).

Alright, I love Pimp My Snack. Next year I plan to use the Faberge Creme Egg as inspiration.

maze bookshelf.

Things to do in Vancouver, from Thimble.

Built By Wendy has a book coming out Sew U The Built By Wendy Guide To Making Your Own Wardrobe. Super. At tchotchke attack. Also! She has some Simplicity Patterns coming out (see the About page), wowsers.

I’ve long admired Crafty Chica’s stuff and her newest book (of many!) is fabulous. It’s called Crafty Chica’s Art de la Soul: Glittery Ideas to Liven Up Your Life. It’s full of stories of life lessons learned and truly great craft projects including decorated white chocolate skulls for Day of the Dead, making an Empowerment box using silver embossing tin (oooh, I breathed), great paper lights, photo charms made using stained glass solder wire I’m eager to try out, even a list of crafty movies to learn from. All the projects are useful, cheerful and bright. Definitely take a look at this book.

Find your own pose!

Evany‘s book The Secret Language of Sleep is out! Go take the Sleep Test, it may prove eerily accurate.

Recovering from my very bad cold has apparently made me chatty. Warning, I talk about bras below.

One of the good things about having Tivo is that I can use it to edjumacate myself on things I know very little about – like cooking and buying clothes. On the former I can recommend the very obvious option of Alton Brown’s Good Eats, they tell you the food science why behind what you’re doing, something I need otherwise I manage to do it wrong. As for clothes I’ve been watching BBC’s What Not To Wear*. It’s good to see other people wander cluelessly through stores, and then try on things that are absolutely wrong. I grew up fashion impaired due to eight early years of the same Catholic school uniform, the persistence of Land’s End catalogs, and the Eighties. Also, I’m short and, er, curvy, so finding something that fits, let alone flatters, is not something I often have the energy for. And when I find something comfortable I buy multiples. Lately I’ve been loving these:

American Apparel long sleeve scoop neck – the neck isn’t quite as revealing as the model shows it. Nice thin, soft jersey, good for layering with itself, wish they had more colors.

J Crew long sleeve v-neck tee – light weight cotton, flattering neck line, most of the colors I want are on backorder.

American Apparel jersey scarf – I continue to love this very basic item and I have three, I’m planning on getting more. It’s good for the spring chill, and wrapping around your midsection at a restaurant when your shirt is riding up in back and showing your very pale lower back parts.

Gap lightly lined t-shirt bra – It’s two for $48.00 in the stores. Might be gone forever.

I recently went on a bra shopping extravaganza. I managed to get down to my last bra (I don’t know how) and went searching for a new brand. I spent hours in dressing rooms — tv at the Macy’s blaring children’s programs, Gap employees proving the cheerfulness is probably an act (but it’s better than the sullen “you can only have six items” I was expecting), Victoria’s Secret employees, um, completely ignoring me. I bought a bra at Macy’s and when I wore it, just at home, I felt the need to adjust it so often that Scott started asking what I was up to. I bought a couple bras from the Gap that didn’t have cup shapes which were suspiciously pointy, both were t-shirt versions. One made me fidgety, the other was just perfect. Ah. I returned the first and dove in to buy more of the comfortable one and wouldn’t you know it, they were out of the colors and size I wanted. None in that store, none in any other store, and none from the online store. How does online run out of things? Isn’t it an infinitely replicating supply? The girl at the shop assured me that they would restock, as they are one of the most popular styles. But I know better. Every time I find a bra that is perfect it is immediately discontinued and disappears from the face of the earth, forever. I am not the only one this happens to, right?

* Ages ago I was sick at home on a weekday and watched what I think was an American version of What Not To Wear. The show managed to take two sweet young Army wives, give them new hair and clothes and make them look about three decades older. At the reveal their husbands and friends grimaced into the camera and proclaimed “She sure does look, different.”

Happy Easter! Go see Martha Stewart make chocolate eggs by filling real egg shells with chocolate. (Part 1 of 2.) Neato.

A few people have written to let me know that the Confectionary House as the brown cupcake liners back in stock, yay! And thanks for the heads up.

And now for some links.

at Ask Metafilter:

– best Reidel alternatives

– on what type of paint finish to use indoors

– which adhesive to use for acoustic tiles

– how to use Bit Torrent without getting caught

– where to find in-between bra sizes

at Apartment Therapy:

– hanging stuff hardware from Ikea

– neato cubby hole coat hanger thing

at Make:

– fractal chandelier

– theater or studio acoustic treatments

– cheap clothes hanger

– diy pop filter

– halogen to flourescent torchiere lamp conversion (know that compact flourescent lights to make a buzzing noise)

other places:

– rosebud ice cubes at Daily Candy

– hardwood rug at Swiss Miss

– Alternative Apparel, instead of American Apparel, at Cool Hunting

Today I visited the Environmental Home Center on First Avenue in Seattle*. I went to get some zeolite in mesh pouches for my car, as recommended by Treehugger, but I found all the cool home building and decorating stuff I could want. Recycled glass tiles, recycled paper composite countertops, environment and people friendly paint, cork and vinyl flooring in both subtle and bright colors, even hardwood flooring recycled from old buildings. I felt cooler just being there.

* It’s housed in a warehouse South of the West Seattle Bridge on First Ave and right before you head over that gentle rise bridge that tells you you’re now headed down towards the airport. The showroom, where you can purchase smaller items and order larger ones (like flooring), is on the West side of the street. There is a parking lot.