The Disappearing Double Chin Trick for Portrait Photography. Good to know.

XOXO Festival by Andy Baio — Kickstarter. Holy all things that are awesome, if I wasn’t in Seattle for the Dewit Design Camp that weekend (Sept. 15/16) I’d be in Portland for the XOXO Festival. Though, if I were going to the festival I’d be whining about missing the Dewit Design Camp. This too many awesome things is a good problem to have.

The Overthinking Person’s Drinking Game « Thought Catalog. It’s like they can see right into the inside my head. Via The Morning News.

Which PNW badges do you have? | Loobylu. I have so many of these! Wait, does “spotting a bear” include reading the fictional Twitter account of a real bear wandering through my neighborhood?

Is there such a thing as a comfortable high heel? How does one transition from wearing flats/low block heels all the time to wearing high heels? | Ask MetaFilter. Also: Where can I get cute shoes for walking that don’t look like running shoes? | Ask MetaFilter. Lots of great walking shoes that don’t look too sensible in the answers here.

Don’t buy this stuff right now | The Wirecutter. This is a note for Scott who has been longing for a larger television.

A Wearable Planter by wearableplanter on Etsy. I love the little ones that mount on bicycles!

Bike Season at Oh Happy Day. If I didn’t already have a bike I love I’d probably be making an excuse to head to San Francisco to check out these made by Public Bikes.

Help me avoid a fitting room meltdown. | Ask MetaFilter. Oh boy do I need the advice in this thread. I have been known to have fitting room meltdown during a session with a personal stylist at Nordstrom, so I know I have it bad.

Toothy The Tooth Ferry Pillow & Illustrated Story Book. I’m still a bit tooth focused around here.

It might seem strange that I grew up in Ohio but never learned to grill but that is in fact what happened. Last weekend we bought a small (but handsome) grill and thanks to Cook’s Illustrated All-Time Best Grilling Recipes our first two meals were outstanding. I couldn’t find the issue online (it will probably appear here) but it’s on newsstands now.

There is a basics of grilling section, including what features to look for when choosing a grill, that was exactly what I needed since I am starting with zero knowledge. All the recipes have charcoal and gas grill instructions and have very precise information on cooking times and desired effect. We’ve made cheeseburgers, T-bone steaks and corn and we were honestly shocked at how great it all turned out. Now, I know that grilling is hard to get wrong but I assure you that I can mess up just about anything. I was ready to declare the weekend a success if I just avoided burning down the deck. I think a lot of our summer will be spent gazing lovingly at our grill with margaritas in our hands.

Look! Actual grill marks! We were so proud!

We like our grill so much we named it Grilby Grilford Grillington III. Or Grilsby for short (it just stuck). We also considered: Price Grilliam, Goodrow Grillson, Grilson Phillips, Grilford Brimley, Grill Smith and Gril Wheaton.

Living Savvy: Spray Painters Anonymous {meeting #3}. How to get that oh so glossy look. Via Erica Mulherin on Pinterest.

How-To: Use Sewable LED Sequins @Craftzine.com blog.

DIY: Constellation Jar at Design Mom. (A warning: I have cut my finger quite badly when cutting apart the aluminum from disposable baking sheets like this.)

8-bit popup cards | Mini-eco. Via Laughing Squid.

How to Paint Leather Coasters | Freshly Picked.

DIY: Handmade Clay Pots | Say Yes to Hoboken.

How To Make a Statement Necklace | Making it Lovely.

How To: Make Your Own Paper Pencils » Curbly | DIY Design Community.

Earlier this year I bought a backup battery for my iPhone at the airport on a snowy day right before I got on a plane. After the second hour of sitting on the runway (snow in Seattle creates havoc) I felt like I was a genius for getting the battery. It also saved my sanity during several hour long delays on the way home at the end of that trip. I chose the Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation battery because it holds about two full charges and, this was most important to me, it connects to the phone with a cord instead of sticking directly into the phone which means it is easy to keep using the phone while it’s charging. It does have it’s own cord for charging the battery itself (it has a USB end so you can charge using the iPhone’s convertor or your laptop) which means carrying around the battery as well as the extra cord. I’m happy to make the extra space in my bag because it means I never have to fret over whether my phone is charged as I’m heading out the door. It’s like my pet, I should give it a name. And, oh hey, according to their compatibility sheet it will also charge our Kindle. You can also find it on Amazon.

I had also considered the Mophie Juice Pack Plus, a battery built right into an iPhone case. It’s convenient because you don’t need to pull out anything, you just turn it on. But I’m too in love with my squishy iPhone case and being able to scrub said squishy iPhone case with soap and water periodically to give it up.

Vanessa Bruno’s Stacked Paper Lanterns – Remodelista.

swissmiss | Ideapaint CLEAR. Paint that lets you turn any surface into a whiteboard.

How-To: Cityscape Stenciled Canvas Wall Art @Craftzine.com blog.

Paint-Dipped and Lovely – Curated by Summer Robertson | kirtsy. A collection on Kirtsy.

Slow and Steady but Mostly Just Slow. « Manhattan Nest. I love what Daniel has done to his apartment, but I’m also bookmarking this to note that that Enje shades are back at Ikea!

Dewit Design Camp: NOLA Recap – Blog – AB Chao. These pictures from the NOLA camp make me so very excited for the one coming up here in Seattle!

Hold On Tight, An Adjustable Bookshelf Concept seen at Laughing Squid. I want one of these for my cookbooks.

xkcd: Ten Thousand. “Saying ‘what kind of an idiot doesn’t know about the Yellowstone supervolcano’ is so much more boring than telling someone about the Yellowstone supervolcano for the first time.” This.

Where are all the cool lady podcasts? | Ask MetaFilter.

What jokes do you know that absolutely depend on telling a good story? | Ask MetaFilter.

What Are The Best Audiobooks For A Road Trip? | The Awl. I’ll second the recommendation for the His Dark Materials books, usually a full cast recording is awful but this one works. So much so that I was distraught when one of the young male voices was different in the second book.

The 8-bit animated episode of Community on Hulu and a handy retro reference guide to the episode. Via Waxy links.

40 Secret iPhone Features and Shortcuts | iPhone.AppStorm. Via Misty on Pinterest.

Looking for exploration/immersive puzzle games | Ask MetaFilter.

Assessing the “Where Should I Eat?” Apps – Voracious.

swissmiss | Subtle Patterns Free tilable textured patterns for web designers.

New words for internet friends | helenjane.com. My favorite is “misinterpridgnation”.

Old-timer web designer looking to get back up to speed with HTML5 | Ask MetaFilter.

Game/tech blogs | Ask MetaFilter. A good list of sites that will advise you.

I hate hangnails. Haaate them. I’ve been carrying cuticle nippers in my bag since college and my favorite are these mini cuticle nippers made by Tweezerman. They are slim, lightweight and I’ve never been asked to remove them from my luggage when I fly. They come in a small kit of tools but the nippers themselves have a tight fitting rubber cap so you can just slip them in your bag and won’t have to worry about anything being scratched.

Tweezerman also makes two slim larger sized nippers: the Squeeze-n-Snip, which has pink accents, and the Squeeze + Snip Ultra, which is stainless steel. These larger ones are about 4 inches long where the mini ones are 3 inches, about the size of tweezers, and are quite a bit lighter weight.

If they ever stop making the mini ones I will kick myself for not buying backups. They are available at Tweezerman, Sephora, Ulta and Amazon.

what’s cooking | bitter spring cocktail | K.I.D. Collective.

The truth about caramelized onions and How to cook onions: Why recipe writers lie and lie about how long they take to caramelize. – Slate Magazine. Via The Morning News.

Sprinkle Bakes: Deep Dish Berry Pie Tart.

Imbibe Unfiltered: Drink of the Week: Strawberry-Basil-Gin Lemonade.

Expert Advice: Non-Alcoholic Cocktails | The Kitchn.

Vintage Millinery Cupcake Toppers · Edible Crafts.

All pulled from my Pinterest boards.

DIY wrap bracelet from Honestly WTF

DIY pop-up cards from Oh Happy Day

Long streamer decorations from Style Me Pretty, I like that these are fairly simple and very striking

Edible flower in a lollipop from Sprinkle Bakes

Put a marble in balloons to keep them hanging upside down, from Bayside Balloons (Website not available as of the moment I typed this.)

Hanging copper gutters as planters from Martha Stewart, we could use this one on our deck

Shopping Paris in 8 hours at Oh Happy Day.

hula seventy: there. If I were a better photographer these are the pictures I would have taken during our stay at the Palm Springs Ace earlier this year. Via Shutterbean.

Rue Montorgueil-Les Halles | David Lebovitz. Restaurant supply stores in Paris.

100 Favorite Dishes: Meatloaf Sandwich at Bakeman’s – Seattle Restaurants and Dining – Voracious.

flora and flying – You cannot make this stuff up: Paris for beginners -Part 1.

So how did having my wisdom teeth taken out go? Pretty well, but it won’t count as one of the favorite weeks of my life.

All of the advice and stories you shared were invaluable for keeping me from freaking out. Thank you so, so much. I’m going to share my experience and what worked for me below in the hopes that it helps a few other people.

Before you read the below know that I am not a doctor and I am only talking about my own experience here. I had two impacted teeth and my recovery wasn’t nearly as easy as some other people. If you are going to be getting your wisdom teeth out you should listen to what your doctor tells you to do. Also, some of the details below are totally gross so proceed with caution.

Before:

I made myself an ice pack device from socks (shown above). I heard about this homemade solution from a few sources but Jess from Hogwash sent me the best directions: buy knee-high basic tube socks (the kind without heels, I found a six pack in the mens department at Target). Overlap them at the toes and stitch two lines. The ice packs will fit in each side of the socks. The overlapped section goes at your chin and the ends of the socks are tied up over the top of your head. This means your chin will be comfortable and the ice will be held at just the right spots on your cheeks while a thin layer of cloth will protect your skin. I found a 2-inch overlap worked best. And DIY ice packs made using snack sized ziplock bags were the perfect size to slip into the socks.

I made DIY ice packs using Dawn dishwashing liquid. I don’t know if one needs to use Dawn specifically but I’d heard it from three places so I figured why mess with it? I’ve also been told you can mix a 25/75 mixture of alcohol/water to get a substance that is still a little pliable after freezing. I got four ice packs from a 14-ounce bottle of dishwashing liquid and triple bagged them in snack sized ziplock bags. (You’ll know if they leak because it will suddenly smell really fresh.) I also had bags of peas, official 6×6 gel packs and the smaller ice packs the doctor sent me home with on hand but I used the homemade ice packs tucked into my knee high sock device the most often. I also wore a hooded sweatshirt most of the week with the string in the hood cinched helped keep the ice snug to my cheeks and redistribute the weight of the ice packs. It was a very sexy look.

Lots of people recommended eating fresh pineapple in the days before the surgery because reportedly it helps prevent swelling. I ate a lot, about two whole pineapples. On the upside I had minimal swelling in the week after. On downside the pineapple irritated my gums and made brushing my teeth uncomfortable. You can also get Bromelain as a supplement, it’s the substance in pineapple that is supposed to help, but I have not heard stories from anybody on if this might work or not. I asked my surgeon about pineapple and she’d never heard of the advice. I wish I could tell you definitively if it worked but I don’t have any more wisdom teeth to take out. Also I don’t want to do this again.

Day of:

Bring some tissues with you, you’ll drool in the car on the way home. It’ll be bloody drool. Yuck.

I brought a scarf with me so when I left the doctor’s office with big white ice packs strapped (that they provided) to my head I was able to wrap the scarf around it and sort of cocoon into my own uncomfortableness. Add big sunglasses and I could nearly pretend I was glamorous while waiting in the car for Scott to pick up my prescription and drooling on myself. I looked kind of like this but more miserable:

I considered wearing flats to the doctor’s office so I could just kick my shoes off later but I was afraid they might fall off while I was in the chair so I wore boots instead. Turns out they needed to attach three electrodes to me and one was meant to go on my ankle. They put it on my stomach instead. So my advice is to wear regular shoes. Or a cropped shirt. Your choice. My doctors also said lots of patients come in wearing pajamas. Smart patients.

I was put under for the operation and when I woke up I was not happy or loopy. I was cranky and groggy and had dry cotton shoved in my mouth. It was the worst part of this whole thing. They had this bear sitting in the recovery area. I wanted to punch this bear:

For most of the day after the surgery my tongue, lower lip and chin were numb. Sipping liquids was out of question but I needed to eat something and stuck to apple sauce and pudding for the first day. Anticipating a lack of clean spoons (we never have enough) I bought a pack of plastic spoons and found they were far easier to eat off of since they had a bit of flexibility and they didn’t get cold in ice cream. Also, if you get clear plastic spoons you can peer at the light coming through your spoonful of jello.

The worst part of having a numb mouth was that I could not loudly whine about how unhappy I was. The second worst was that my smile was uneven, one side of my mouth would not go up, and I could not complain about how I would have a lopsided face for the rest of my liiiiiife. (I was back to normal by 8pm.)

I read a whole bunch of stories and it seems like a lot of people stop and get food (Wendy’s Frosty) on the way home but I needed a good two hours before I stopped bleeding into the horrible gauze. More advice that I found both from people and the information packet my doctor gave me is that that you could switch to biting on a steeped and cooled black tea bags (the tannins help stop the bleeding) but I couldn’t get off the couch long enough to bother. I also couldn’t talk well enough to explain to my loyal manservant how to prepare it for me.

More good advice given to me: have your couch or bed area ready to flop into when you get home. I had pillows, blankets, remote controls and laptop all in position so I could get straight to the drugged out television watching stage. Also, use pillowcases and towels you are willing to bleed a bit on. I didn’t get any blood on anything at home but if I’d been asleep all day it might have been different.

I didn’t spend the first day asleep the way some people warned me I might, I was groggy from the medication but my brain wouldn’t stop going. I was chatting online with a friend and she actually said I sounded too alert and asked if I’d been traumatized. So, apparently, pain medications don’t turn off my brain. Good to know.

Rest of the week:

For the first few days I stuck to pudding, ice cream, green smoothie juices and soup. Cashew Carrot Ginger soup was very welcome. After that I tried scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes. (Did you know Bob’s Red Mill sells instant mashed potato flakes? It somehow seems more dignified than other sorts.) I also ate overcooked Annie’s mac and cheese but I wish I hadn’t, anything that needed even that bit of chewing was too much for me. A full week later and I’m adding polenta with spicy tomato sauce, more pureed soups and I’m wishing I’d thought to make and stock up on my own gravy. I’m also eating mashed cauliflower, mashed peas and mashed sweet potatoes. Basically I’m still afraid of solid foods. I had two impacted wisdom teeth and they had to cut into the bone on my jaw a bit to wrench one from me, so you might have a much speedier recovery than I.

I read so much about the dreaded dry socket that I followed all the rules very carefully – no sipping through straws (hard to remember), no smoking of anything (not so much a problem), no aggressive gargling, no blowing your nose (also hard to remember). I was even a little worried about swallowing too enthusiastically. But it turns out I was also a little too gentle in cleaning back by the sockets. During a followup visit my surgeon showed me that after a week you can put that little irrigator thing way back there and squeeze away using salt water or diluted mouthwash. It’s gross and interesting.

I found I still needed to use ice packs for swelling five days after my surgery. As I mentioned above my swelling wasn’t bad but it was determined to stick around.

If your pill schedule is on a six hour rotation try to hit the 12noon/6pm/12midnight/6am cycle so you’re not waking up at 3 a.m. to take antibiotics.

And lastly, try to get an awesome oral surgeon who includes a card for a free cupcake in the little bag of stuff they give you on your way out. Incentive for getting back to chewing things:

If you’re getting ready to have your wisdom teeth out go see all the advice my most awesome readers shared and a bunch of questions over at Ask Metafilter. And you’ll feel better in a week, promise.

What is the difference in quality between Home Depot/Lowe’s porcelain tile and that from a specialty tile store? | Ask MetaFilter.

Flushmount Lighting Fixtures | Making it Lovely. “This is my least favorite category of ceiling lighting, but often in our homes, flushmounts are the only option that will work.” As a lady with 8 foot ceilings I highly appreciate this list.

The Brick House, paint dipped cord wrapped table legs. Simple and lovely.

Propagating Rosemary at Juniper Moon Fiber Farm.

This is neat! Bloggers have created cards available over at Jack Cards. Huge high five to Sarah Bryden Brown from Blogstar for setting this up.

Go buy them so we can have more awesome bloggers make more awesome cards.

By The Jealous Curator.

By Amy Furgeson of Old Sweet Song.

By Melanie Biehle of Inward Facing Girl.