Stuff is going on! It’s very exciting.

I contributed a project to 10 Simple Sunday Afternoon Crafts which is published over on the shiny new Kirtsy, whose redo launched earlier this week. Lookin’ good ladies. Huge thanks to Blogstar for inviting me along. I showed how I use woodgrain contact paper to repurpose various tins to use around the house. Yes that is a band-aid on my finger and it got there due to a paper cut unrelated to my project and the various sharp edged metal things I had been wielding for it.

Make Grow Gather had me on for an episode of Lazy Summer Radio and I talked about how much I like to find four leaf clovers. (The one pictured above was found in my front yard just last week.) Thanks again Kelly, come back soon!

For the next few weeks I’ll be participating in a Project Runway challenge thanks to the good people at HP, who sent me a TouchSmart computer! I’ll be doing my own version of the challenges the contestants are given, at least in digital format. I’m completely underqualified to do this so the results might be, well, let’s just go with interesting.

I’ll also be keeping an eye on the Project Project Runway girls (Just Crafty Enough and Craftroom) who recreate the challenges on dolls. I loved what they did last season and I’m glad they are doing it again.

I have a list of good stuff over at Supermarket. Narrowing it down to 10 items was very difficult, I have about a hundred more bookmarked. Seriously.

I’ll be speaking at Schoolhouse Craft here in Seattle. I’m doing a panel on blogging with Blair from Wise Craft and Molly from Orangette. We’re doing Blogging 101 on Friday, Sept 23rd at 12:30. The conference will be a collection of great people talking about the business of craft. If you need a recharge this will be where to do it, I came away last year feeling more inspired than I had in a while.

My husband Scott has a few notable shows coming up. He is 1/2 of Kin to Stars, the other half is the very awesome Jerin Falkner. Their very first show is coming up in over a week at Egan’s in Ballard (Seattle) on Saturday, August 6th at 9p.m. More details on their Facebook events page. See you there? He also plays with Explone and among their upcoming shows is a benefit to help cover the medical costs of a great girl who needs some help: We Heart Tracy Dart at The Bridge, 7pm on Sunday, August 7th.

DIY – Concrete Countertops » Moore Blog Lots of step by step pictures. (Still, I’m intimidated.)

How To Make a Hanging Gutter Garden | Apartment Therapy. We have a small house with a sturdy deck but a small back yard and (forgive me) an ugly house next door. So our quest to find a way to screen it out inexpensively has led to vines or trailing plants. I might give pictures some day.

Top Secret « Manhattan Nest. Daniel leaves a note for the next tenants and one gets in touch, this story is so sweet. But, I take extra special note of this one point: “and we’ll also be doing some DIY projects of our own… starting with an oversized mirror that we’re turning into a chalkboard for the kitchen.” What a perfectly strong and flat surface to start with, so smart!

a little macramé | Design*Sponge. We have been searching for an affordable hanging pot for our String of Pearls plant for too long, it’s time to pull out the macramé.

How to Make Abstract Art DIY, at Oh Happy Day. They make it look so easy, maybe even I could do it!

Side Table to Lego Table {IKEA Hack} | Skip To My Lou. I’ve been wanting to do this to our coffee table, we have a Lego collection that needs more attention.

I’m making another batch of grapefruit tarragon infused vodka (the tarragon gets added on day four, so it’s not shown here). The first batch was delicious and we used more than half of it before I got photographs that show how it turned out. Oops. I’ll try for more restraint this time.

Scott and I went on bike rides both Saturday and Sunday. It felt indulgent. Here is a list of what we saw:

• two weddings
• a game of cricket
• the sign shown above (which I had to investigate because all I can see is a pair of eyes with heavy eyebrows, as in: “be warned that we give disapproving looks to those who skateboard here”)
• many people tubing down a shady river on which was likely the hottest day of the year
• a cute hipster geek with skinny jeans wielding some serious camera equipment at a tiny bird
• a massive soccer meet
• a sign that said “No Trespassing – Private Trail” which we completely ignored didn’t see at all
• a guy on old school roller skates (he didn’t have a Walkman or a sweatband around his forehead, I checked)
• a bald eagle
• Mount Rainier and Mount Baker viewed with fields in the foreground and no cars in sight
• Redmond’s first school bell (which I almost broke trying to ring)
• a piece of large public art called “Portal II” (which I almost broke trying to climb on)
• a bronze sculpture of a woman sitting on an invisible chair (which I almost broke by attempting to sit on)
• a rather lovely other world that exists along bike trails just next to rivers hidden from the streets by fields and buildings

Whenever we find an empty circle shaped bit of path or parking lot we ride around and around, sometimes going opposite directions and having conversations in two or three word sections. (“Remember that time” “we were camping” “in Yosemite and” “we heard wolves howling” “and thought they” “might want to” “eat us?”) That’s my favorite part.

If you live in Seattle and are curious about the rides: This weekend we took the Sammamish River Trail from Marymoor Park in Redmond to Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville, where we had lunch and beer, and back. This is a highly recommended trip and wasn’t too long. If you time it right you can take one of their beer tours and have lunch, and possibly more beer. The next day we took the Cedar River Trail, where we recommend parking in the lot just east of and sort of beneath 405. The trail northward through Renton and to the water at the bottom of Lake Washington is walk-only most of the way (a lovely walk though!) and if you bike the streets you’ll need to cross some busy intersections and it’s not fun at all. So park in that lot and head south-ish and there is a really lovely bit through a wooded section and then the trail is sandwiched between the river and Maple Valley Highway. It wasn’t the most interesting out there but it wasn’t crowded, had plenty of places to stop, and had straight enough sections that you could build up some speed and let your mind wander. The King County Bicycling Guidemap has been really useful, but do look for warnings on trail pages, the Green River Trail is currently closed to bicycle traffic which happily we noticed before we went all the way out there.

Tiny holes in your favorite shirts? Kitchen mistery solved. » delicious:days. This happens to me too! I figured out what it was after I started wearing nothing but pajama pants while at home cooking and the holes stopped appearing. (Hooray for soft pants.) This has also been discussed on Ask Metafilter, twice.

HelloGiggles – How to Look Great In Photos.

Black*Eiffel: The Seed Cathedral. This is amazing.

Please share your river tubing hacks. | Ask MetaFilter. I have never been river tubing. I think I have to fix that.

Five reasons why you should be reading “Game of Thrones” « Monstrous Little Voices. I’ll admit I had no desire to read this series of books, then again I have nothing to read right now.

What television show made you realize for the first time that television has the potential not only for entertainment but also for quality storytelling? | Ask MetaFilter.

Movie recommendations for an 11 year old who loved Goonies. | Ask MetaFilter. I loved all these!

money gift box – The Crafts Dept. A little box made from a dollar bill, lovely!

make grow gather – Posts – summercraft: coozie makeover. Turning something that is usually ugly into something lovely.

past & present: pajaki chandeliers + get your own | Design*Sponge.

How to make your own scratch-offs | How About Orange.

True Up | All Fabric, All the Time » Kei Honeycomb Dots. Such simple and colorful fabric. I want some!

poppytalk: How to Make Your Own Leather Passport Holder. This looks like a nice introduction to leather work as well.

Random Recast: Corks Day 2 – DIY Life. Very simple, using corks as a place to stick all those sharp needles and razor bits in your craft room.

crepe paper flowers | Hip Hip Hooray!. A how-to for a full garland, lovely!

Magnetic Googly Eyes: For the Benefit of All Mankind – Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Simple project that could add some levity to your space.

diy project: solid perfume pocket watch locket | Design*Sponge.

Are you at Comic Con right now? First: I’m jealous. Second: Allow me to suggest heading to see Kirby Krackle perform tonight, Thursday, at The Third Annual San Diego Comic-Concert: A Night of Geek Rock at The Stage in Downtown San Diego (6 blocks from the Convention Center) from 8:00pm – 12:00am. You can get tickets here. They put on a damn good show and you will love it, promise. Disclosure: My husband Scott plays bass for Kirby Krackle, but even if not I’d be telling you about this because as it turns out a dear friend of mine grew up with Kyle, one of the founders of the band, and Kyle plays guitar with Explone, which Scott also plays bass with. Seattle is a big-small town that way.

Kirby Krackle is also debuting their shiny brand new album, Super Powered Love, at the con and you can buy it right from them at booth #1803. There is one song in particular that is worth the purchase, you’ll know which when you hear it. Tell them I said hello! And if you speak beer geek ask Kyle about his Charging Hippo Brewing Company. I’m a picky beer drinker and can confidently say you’ll be hearing about it in the future.

It was decidedly un-summerish yesterday so we fought back by eating strawberries and overexposing photographs. I drove home with these on the dashboard and they made my whole car smell like strawberries.

We don’t plan on having any strawberries left over but if we did I would definitely make this Strawberry Conserve seen over at Orangette.

I’ve decided to make my own nougat. Please give me tips and recipes! | Ask MetaFilter. I have a source that has her people bring this amazing nougat from Taiwan. It’s seriously addictive. If we could figure out how to make our own we could sell it for street value, for reals.

And a decaf for me « Busywork. Laura accidentally discovers how to make her own vanilla tea, excellent!

Snakes on a Stick · Edible Crafts. Well presented breadsticks, I’m keeping this one for Halloween.

Toasted S’more-Stuffed Strawberries. (with a gluten-free option), at 1 Fine Cookie. These are so lovely!

Pourfect Whisk-A-Bowl « Baking Bites. A spring whisk for your mixer which works faster than the balloon whisk, nice.

Welcome – Stitch & Hem. A brand new online marketplace dedicated to custom made clothing, that is all made to measurement. As a pear shaped petite woman I would love to find a dress that actually fits and this site looks like the perfect resource for that. I think I have a crush on this gingham dress.

Martha Stewart Faux Bois Tree Stand – Grandin Road. If we had real trees at Christmas I would absolutely buy this. It’s a wide fake tree trunk that waters your real tree. Oops! It’s actually for artificial trees.

How to Buy the Perfect Gift for Your Niece or Nephew | The Hairpin.

CB2 – bamboo dry erase. I wonder if I could fit this into my office room?

swissmiss | Just launched: Tattly. Awesome temporary tattoos created by designers.

Last month I took a picture of the Space Needle from the Columbia Tower Observation Deck (also shown below). Last night I happened to find myself on top of the Space Needle, so I took a picture of the Columbia Tower to compare. They both seem tiny from these vantage points. Hello tiny self way over there!

I found a larger jar, that’s better. (Previously: my first jar was too small, because I have little common sense. See also: recipe for Salted Tarragon Greyhounds at Kitchen Konfidence.)

Hi there! Today is a stop on the blog book tour for 1, 2, 3 Sew: Build Your Skills with 33 Simple Projects—Bags, Accessories, Home Accents, and More written by Ellen of The Long Thread. The book is filled with happy and useful projects and has a whole section for organizers. If you head on over the the book’s page you can find a preview of some pages, and you can also see the book trailer on YouTube. It’s stop motion and I’m sort of in love with it.

There is also a free tutorial for the Market Tote which is completely adorable. I must make one.

Next up on the blog book tour is Modern Kiddo, and you can see the whole schedule right over here.

Pro tip: When making grapefruit and tarragon infused vodka in order to have some salted tarragon grayhounds ready for Sunday you might want to keep in mind that 750ml of vodka + one whole grapefruit > a one liter jar. Duh.

Potato Print Artwork DIY, at Oh Happy Day!. This is lovely and simple.

J-Me | Nest Wall Shoe Rack. Nice and compact.

When apartment-hunting, how can you tell if a place has good inter-unit sound insulation? | Ask MetaFilter. Knock on the laminate flooring that I own, may I never have to worry about this again. Then again, as I type this it’s 1:46 a.m. and I just heard my (otherwise very quiet) next door neighbor sneeze.

shelterrific » desk zen: footed aeriums. I want one of these.

shelterrific » kinda genius: painted foam core bookcase inserts. Instead of painting the bookcase itself, fake it with foam core. As somebody who hates commitment I salute this.