I’ve barely begun my second Ribby Cardi, but I wanted to note my love for the first one. It’s the perfect trip to the post office/coffee shop/pub layer as well as the wrapping myself up to watch television layer. Not many things successfully work the range from jacket to pajamas. [Read more →]

watching:
Heroes Season One
By the end of Chapter Four we were kicking ourselves for wasting all that time watching Lost last year.

stocking:
Sahale snacks
Grown up trail mix for our road trip.

sipping:
Pinot Grigio
Sipping from our (admittedly varietal inappropriate) Riedel Bordeaux tumblers, which I totally love. This is a good white wine, and I usually don’t like whites. Serve it to your guests and don’t show them the box.

loving:
WallaWallaWine.com
Oh winery maps, I heart you.

eating:
Smarties
They are so pretty I’m more inclined to use them as impromptu mosaics for my desk, thank to Domicile for sending along!

Simplehuman activated carbon filter, on certain days I need this. At Da*xiang.

WallMarker, for hanging pictures, at the Seattle PI.

Where can I go online for custom vinyl decals? at Ask Metafilter.

Sundry Mourning put up a nifty Ferm Living wall sticker and it looks great. I really want the power lines.

Panasonic Electric Heated Carpet, if I cannot have heated floors in our basement living room, I will have heated rugs. At AT:LA.

Block Posters, make large posters out of your images. Via Fairfax in the comments of this post.

Wine Wedge at Unclutterer.

Making a sunburst mirror at Home by Sunset.

Use Charcoal to De-Stinkify Your Fridge at Lifehacker.

Adam Frank’s Reveal Light is now available. I was really hoping this would cost closer to $1000, because at $380 I’m very, very tempted to buy one. The Reveal Light splashes what looks like light coming through a window on a wall, and a breeze appears to move through the branches of the tree. Read more about it here.

Beautiful light sculpture by Valérie Boy, at AT:NY.

Doggie-proof Vegetable Loft, maybe something like this will help me foil the neighborhood cats! At AT:NY.

How To Slow-Cook Paint Off of Hardware, at AT:NY.

DIY Wall Decor with Paper and Fabric at Craft.

99-Cent Stained Glass at Craft. I love the effect these give, as well as the privacy, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d be willing to do something so permanent to such a nice door. At Craft.

Slate tries out reusable water bottles.

Belt with a built in measuring system. Motivation or worst nightmare? at Swiss Miss.

“School uniforms are rational. Why? Because they greatly reduce the class stress caused by teen fashions, by flashy back-to-school items.” As someone who attended Catholic school for eight years I think I’m qualified to say: HA! The only thing wearing a uniform taught me was that class differences show themselves in small, subtle ways in clothing, I still have no idea where the rich girls bought their shirts.

Urban cup holder, at Swiss Miss. I would have loved one of these while I was in college, I was constantly needing to set something down to dig a subway pass or library card out of my bag.

Product Review: Trish McEvoy Protective Shield Concealer at Faking Good Breeding

If you aren’t already familiar with The Sampler Indie Fixx lays it all out for you.

Buying Parking Spots at Oh Happy Day, how I wish I knew about this a few years ago. Note to self: write about reserving parking in Seattle.

Five Home Beauty Gadgets That Really Work at the Beauty Brains, I love it when they do these.

A Supertaster’s Superpowers at BlogSoop. I have decided I don’t really want a supertaster rating my wines.

Homemade Dulce de Leche at Chow.

Homemade Maraschino Cherries at Seattle Weekly.

Chow on Adams Peanut Butter, which I love and didn’t realize was a regional thing. Dear people in Cleveland, if I send you Adams Peanut Butter will you send stadium mustard and 50/50?

Absinthe news at The Stranger.

Gridskippers NYC Cupcake Map at Cupakes Take The Cake.

How do you make clear ice cubes? at How Stuff Works, via The Kitchen

Miniature cupcakes at San Diego restaurant Addison. (I heart cupcakes made in candy wrappers.)

Macaroni and Cheese Bake at Cooking For Engineers.

Ricotta Spaetzle at The Kitchen.

Chow on San Marzano Tomatoes.

Chow on Maldon Salt.

Maple Sugar Candy, at Seattlest.

Eight foods you should eat every day at Best Life Magazine.

Bacon Salt at The Stranger.

Troutgirl’s Bacon Salt on Flickr, with a drink suggestion. I encountered some Bacon Salt in the wild recently and made Bacon Salt Chex Mix, which was eaten by people who didn’t realize it was special and reported that it tasted like regular Chex Mix to them. We also contemplated using bacon salt as a bloody mary rim.

Bacon Salt appears again at Seattlest.

Individual pie slice pan at Baking Bites. I’m charmed by this.

The Eyes Have It: Gingerbread Cupcakes with Creamy Lemon Frosting and candy eyes, file away for Halloween.

How to chop an onion, at Gluten-Free Girl.

Make a bacon mat! at Serious Eats. Brought to my attention after finding this 4.5 pound package of pre-sliced bacon at the grocery store.

Ding 3000’s S-XL Cake mold, at Swiss Miss.

The frosting on these chocolate banana peanut butter cupcakes is beautiful, at Cupcakes Take The Cake.

Shelterrific revisits the best chocolate chip cookies, ever.

Southeast Asian Sweet Coffee at Chow.

Hops, Oh Wonderful Hops! at Seattlest. I’m so glad I moved to Seattle for many reasons and near the top is discovering how much I love hoppy beers.

Layered lemon love, at Smitten Kitchen.

How Now, Xiao Long Bao?, at Seattlest.

Roasted Chickpeas, via Spinning-Jennie.

What to do with the O shaped pasta from Trader Joes at Hogwash.

How Many Sets of Wine Glasses Do You Own? at The Kitchen. For us, right now it’s just four Riedel O Bordeaux tumblers. I got them at Williams Sonoma and they came packed in a dramatic tube.

Tara Mae Sue at Bake and Shake.

KitchenAid Hand Mixer & Melamine Bowl Set at Outblush. I need neither of these but my kitchen accessories are orange so I want both of these.

The slow cooker: Uncluttered kitchen cooking, at Unclutterer.

the other side of the bar : keith w @ union, at Metroblogging Seattle.

DIY Food Porn, how to photograph food, at Chow.

Five things to do with a bottle of rum at the Pink of Perfection.

Thank you so much to everybody who left a comment hoping to win sets of Nellie’s Dryerballs from Delight.com in the last few days. I’m tickled at how many of you said this would be a perfect solution for chemical or frequent laundry woes. Delight was (understandably) impressed with the number of people who hoped to win, and I’m extremely pleased to let you know they are offering Not Martha readers 10% off on your purchase of Nellie’s Dryerballs, or anything else at Delight.com, when you use the code NotMartha at checkout. It’s good through October 31st, which is plenty of time to get some Christmas shopping done. (Already? Yup, already.)

I do hope the winners will let us know who they chose to share their second set of Dryerballs with!

It’s another give away! Delight.com wants to spread some eco-friendly laundry love and would like to send Nellie’s Dryerballs to six winners. But listen to this, since Delight is all about giving gifts each winner will receive two sets of Nellie’s Dryerballs, one for themselves and one to give to a friend. How sweet.

Delight send me a set of Nellie’s Dryerballs to try out for myself and I’m heartily impressed. Previously whenever I would do a load of kitchen towels I wouldn’t use dryer sheets since I don’t want a fresh scent transferring onto my hands just before I slice a green pepper. I was used to the kitchen towels either coming out fantastically statically charged, or with a few that got stuck in the middle of a tangle and are still damp. With the dryerballs however, the towels were dry and fluffy and didn’t have any chemical scents on them. My socks, shirts and jeans all came out wrinkle free and soft without using chemicals that coat the surface of the fibers.

I also washed two pillows – one firm and springy, and the other limp yet puffy filled with a down alternative. I threw them in the dryer with the dryerballs and they emerged surprisingly quickly, dry all the way through and fluffier than when they went in. I’m thrilled with how well the dryerballs worked on these, and might get up the courage to wash and dry my down comforter at home.

I expected Nellie’s Dryerballs to dissipate static cling, but I wasn’t expecting them to make my laundry so fluffy or get it to dry faster. I’m very pleased with how well they work. The only downside to the dryerballs is that they are a bit loud in the dryer when you are doing smaller loads, but this is a tiny thing when you think about never having to buy dryer sheets again. We’ve been using them for less than a week and already they just stay in our dryer all ready to go. The balls themselves are ovoid, so they won’t just roll around in your dryer, they’ll bounce drunkenly. Nellie’s Dryerballs come in a cute (and recyclable) box with a cheerful comic strip on the back explaining how they work.

If you’d like to win some fabulous Nellie’s Dryerballs, please leave a comment on this thread. You’ve got until 6 p.m. PST (Los Angeles time) this Friday, Sept. 21st. At that point I’ll let the random number generator choose six winners and you’ll be contacted for a mailing address.

Small print: Even though your email address won’t show up in the comments, I’ll be able to see it. If you have not commented on this site before I’ll need to approve it, so if your comment doesn’t appear right away wait a few hours and I’ll get to it. Let me know if you have any questions.

If you don’t win you can console yourself and get a set here at Delight (they are very good about wrapping things up prettily and including freebies whenever they can).

update: Congratulations to the winners! (I’m still waiting to hear back from one person.)

– Ellen is going to share with her sister Sue.

– Ceri isn’t sure who to share with, but she is happy to win.

– Dawn is going to share with her sister who has a large family and therefore lots of laundry.

– Jennifer is going to share with her friend Theresa whose sons are outdoorsy and get clothing very dirty. The dryerballs will also help to alleviate asthma and allergies in the family.

– Teri has three siblings and she’ll have to choose which has the most laundry to deal with.

Scott and I will be taking an end of summer road trip soon. We’ll be zipping over to Spokane where he’s playing a gig, then we’re taking a few days to work our way down to Portland. I’ve been lazily bookmarking some things to do (linked below) and hope a bit of serendipity comes into play to fill the days. Of course, if you have any recommendations on things to see if, you know, we’re nearby and have time, I’m grateful to hear them.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• Two Days of Wine and Tacos in the Yakima Valley at Seattle Weekly.
• Travel for Beer: The Methow Valley at Seattlest.
• Roadtrip Rationale: Walla Walla Wineries at Seattlest.
• Balls to the Walla, Walla Walla Road Trip at Daily Candy.
• Seattle, WA. Adventures You Can Have on One Tank of Gas at The Splendid Table.
• Waitsburg, WA was named in the top 10 Coolest Small Towns by Newsweek. The paragraph lists four places to eat, mentions wine and beer and art, Coca-Cola cake and sheep’s-milk gelato.
• Road Trip: Soap Lake at The Stranger
• I’d like to see how Roslyn is doing now that the Suncadia Resort is there, this article in the Seattle Times from April of 2006 was wary of how things were going to be changing.
• There were very few entries at Roadfood.com – Maltby Cafe in Snohomish and Frank’s Diner in Spokane were the only ones that caught my eye. In the forums I found Spokane to Walla Walla, Portland to Walla Walla, Astoria to Seattle, and WA and northern OR.

Know of anything we might want to check out? Beers to drink? (I like hops.) Wineries to visit? (I was a member of the Bonny Doon wine club for a long time.) Fun motels or inns to stay at? (I’m not a B&B person.) Views to see? (We own a GPS.) Things we should be sure to see before we leave the Spokane/Coeur D’Alene area? Road food we should be sure to seek out? Heritage produce we shouldn’t miss? Anyone wanna just plan the whole trip for me?

I appreciate any recommendations!

p.s. Thanks so much to every body who left podcast recommendations the other day, iTunes is telling me I cannot download any more until I free up some space on my hard drive and I couldn’t be happier.

watchinging:
Casino Royale
A good vacation film.

playing:
Uno Attack
Attack Uno! Also really good for vacation.

loving:
Moo stickers
Scott had these made for his new album pre-orders.

reading:
Princess Academy
On the recommendation of Bookshelves of Doom. (p.s. Avoid the full cast audiobook of this one.)

breaking out:
mulling spices
Autumn is here! Yay!

I have cast on for my second sweater. I’m making another Ribby Cardi, again using Cotton Ease yarn in Stone. This time I’m knitting all the parts for the body in one piece, and the sleeves in the round and I will knit the collar up without binding off anything (if I can). I’m making a size smaller (38 chest), and using #4 circulars (last time I used #5 for most of the sweater). What you see above is the bottom edge of my beloved 2×2 rib tubular cast on, I cast on using #5 needles (my experiments using #8 turned out flabby). I did all my calculations and scribbled a pattern on notebook paper. I figure if I run into something confusing I’ll only have to consult my first one.

[Read more →]

I’m looking for podcasts to listen to on my recently inherited iPod. All the podcast directories are huge and most of the favorites lists I can find are tech heavy, so I’ve decided I need some individual recommendations. Here is what I listen to now:

• Splendid Table
• Lip Gloss and Laptops
• Day to Day
• On the Media
• Fair Game
• Savage Love Podcast
• SModcast
• This American Life

Do you have any favorite podcasts? I’d love to hear about them.

Plush You! is an annual exhibit of soft toys held by Kristen Rask here in Seattle at her more-than-awesome shop Schmancy, and this October her book Plush You!: Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff is coming out (congratulations Kristen!).

There are a few events surrounding the book release and this year’s Plush You show. The show itself will be spread across a few shops will all reside in the same block (next to the Moore Theater), Schmancy, Fancy + Pants and Nancy will all exhibit. It’s set to go up October 12th from 5 to 9 p.m.

On September 30th there is a pre-Plush You event being held at Victrola Coffee, Schmancy is getting together with Made By Moxie who will be demonstrating and teaching needle felting from 1 to 4 p.m. The event is free, here is more from the Plush You site: “No experience is necessary and NO supplies either. Moxie has been very generous and is willing to bring supplies so you just need to bring yourself and money for coffee! She will be on hand during these four hours to answer questions, guide you and give you the moral support you might need for your first needle felting project. If you are in love with the craft by the time you leave, she will be selling her kits so you can go home and keep on working. If you are a more experienced felter, feel free to come along and share your ideas, meet fellow crafters and drink a damn good cup of coffee.”

There is also going to be an event at the Elliott Bay Book Company which will be the first official book party. Kristen is looking for a crafter or artist to do a tutorial for this event, details here.

If you’re coming to Seattle for the Plush You show this year, Kristen has posted a bit on where to stay, which is the Moore Hotel, which is right there in the block with the shops holding the show, which is right next to the Moore Theatre. It’s so much coolness packed together!

Also be sure to check out the Plush You Flickr group.

buying:
Riedel O wine tumblers
Vinum shape at Vivant prices. This purchase was brought about by my finding a very nice wine glass at a thrift shop and discovering it makes all wine taste better. The gorgeous thrift store glass was tragically broken last weekend (I knew it couldn’t last) so new wine glasses are in order.

eating:
Breyers Triple Chocolate Ice Cream
About as mmm as grocery store ice cream can get.

touching:
Comfort yarn by Berroco
This is a 50/50 acrylic/nylon yarn that doesn’t feel like anything other than soft, I’m hoping it will make a good sweater. There are lots of very grown up shades. I feel like somebody is finally paying attention to my cries for a good synthetic yarn.

reading:
My Boring-Ass Life
Kevin Smith’s fascinatingly candid online diary all bound up and published. (p.s. You can buy a signed version here.)

still seeking:
new glasses
I’m still looking for new glasses. These frames from Modo are cool but didn’t quite look right on me.

Fabric bucket tutorial via Craft.

Wonder Woman Sweater, via everydamnwhere but more specifically Craft.

Lovely Lucy Scarf at Topstitchgirl (pattern in French as well). This looks like something you’d find in Anthropologie, how beautiful.

Tutorial to make a grocery bag holder, I have one of these hanging from a doorknob and use it all the time.

Supermaggie interview!, at Indie Fixx.

Bag handles 101 at U-handblog.

Help me find cheap-but-comfy yarns, at Ask Metafilter.

the sweater: Ribby Cardi by Bonne Marie Burns
the yarn: Cotton-Ease in charcoal

I’d like to say I started wearing the sweater the moment I got the zipper sewn in but the truth is I started wearing it a few days before that as it was just the perfect layer to bring along, zipper or no. I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s cozy and I know I’m going to love this sweater even more as the dark weather closes in around us here in Seattle. It’s a good layer to bring along because it acts like a jacket but bunches up like a scarf. I have to admit I went from treating it gingerly to tossing it into the back seat of my car with surprising speed. This is a good sign.

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