I heart Tina Fey

The impersonation is getting seriously eerie.

Tutorial: Make a cuticle cream

My cuticle cream tutorial is up on CraftStylish. It only takes a few ingredients and a double boiler and the little tins make super stocking stuffers.

Duck fat is the new bacon fat

I went to a Basque wine tasting/food pairing last night at European Vine Selections with my foodie friend Elise. The wines were great and the food was bananas. Check out the menu:

• Sliced Green Pears with Flor de Sel
• Salad of Bitter Greens with Truffle Vinaigrette
• Seared Muscovy Duck Breast with Caramel-Vinegar Sauce
• Wilted Red Cabbage with Chestnuts & Watercress
• Sarlat Potatoes with Hachis
• Stewed Quince with Bay-Scented Cream

The chef from Feast was just wonderful, adding fresh fennel seeds from a plant she found at 19th & Roy to the pears. Several dishes were cooked in the duck fat from the breasts she served and it was beyond decadent. The stewed quince with cream filled my mouth with fall and I'm eager to whip up a harvest crisp now.

I highly recommend looking into these informal events at European Vine Selections. It was a small, friendly crowd talking food and politics; I can't wait to go back.

Leaf-Motif Earrings tutorial up

My tutorial for making a pair of leafy, viney earrings is up on CraftStylish. Check it out.

Goodness/DGH concert coming up

My favorite (and defunct) Seattle band Goodness (fronted by Carrie Akre) is doing a couple final reunion shows at the Tractor Tavern on November 21 and 22. My talented friend Daniel G. Harmann is going to be kicking things off on the 21st so I encourage you to check out what will assuredly be a rockin' show.

It's like peanut butter has met chocolate in a perfect combination of Seattle music.

Tickets are going quickly, and they're available for purchase online. You can get them via TicketWeb.com and also at all Sonic Boom Record locations.

I did the Puyallup

I love fairs of all kinds but I particularly fancy the Puyallup Fair. I moseyed down there last night with my crafty friend Michaela of CraftStylish, her boyfriend Greg, and his daughter Elliott. As you can see, we did it up right, playing games, cruising through the Hobby Hall, going on rides (well, they went on rides while I played with the settings on my camera), and ate more than we should. Michaela, who has Coney Island as her frame of reference for carnivals and rides, was more than a bit blown away by the fair's cleanliness and courtesy. While I took photos of moving rides, she snapped shots of the Hand Wash Station and the clean eating area.

Regardless, we both brought home a bag of the fair's famous scones. I'm munching on one right now and to paraphrase Jean Girard from Talladega Nights, it tastes of America.

The fair runs through Sept. 21.

Shrink-plastic ring tutorial up on CraftStylish

My latest tutorial is up on CraftStylish. Learn to make a cool shrink-plastic ring.

HIGH-larious

Enter CraftStylish's flower power challenge!

Craftanistas, check out the Flower Power Challenge that CraftStylish is running through the end of the month.

Create a pretty flower in your own crafty style, post a picture, and you could bloom as one of four lucky winners. Four winners will receive the ultimate embellishment package: an assortment from the new Crafty Chica Craft product line, the fab Crafty Chica book, The Crafty Chica Collection: Beautiful Ideas for Crafts, Home Decorations and Shrines from the Queen of Latina Style, and a copy of the smokin' hot premiere issue of CraftStylish Quick Gifts to Make.

Click here for more details.

Linen waters tutorial up on craftstylish!

Check out my newest craftstylish tutorial, a quick recipe for making linen waters/room freshener.

Soldiering on...

It's been a planes, trains, and automobiles kind of a week, as I have missed connections, been on a flight that returned to the departing airport, sat in an airport for eight-plus hours, and gotten up at the crack of dawn. Today, I drove across Kansas and arrived in Emporia this afternoon for my lecture at Emporia State, only to find that I was on standby because of a suspicious backpack.

A backpack was abandoned in the building where I was supposed to speak so the bomb squad was called in.

Everything turned out fine (I'd hate to be the owner of that darn backpack) and my Worst-Case Scenario slide show program was only delayed by a few minutes, but somehow I'm feeling as if I'm in the middle of a Final Destination movie. Did I somehow cheat death recently and don't realize it?

Here I am with the awesome University Activities Committee members from ESU, some of whom took me out to Applebees for dinner. I heart fatty salads.

Tomorrow: On the road by 7:30 to get to my lecture in Chicago on time.

Scenes from Nebraska

Just a few pictures from my short and sweet trip to visit my brother John and his family in North Platte, Nebraska. Check out the handwritten ticket from the incredibly lame Great Lakes Airlines (I was stuck in Denver for 8 1/2 hours with this rinky-dink airlines on Monday). Classic.

Jon Stewart + Brian Williams = comedy magic

My favorite photo from Bumbershoot

My musician friend Dan, my high school friend Kevin, and me at the John Vanderslice show.

Make a Shrinky Dink necklace

My shrink plastic necklace tutorial is up on craftstylish. With just some rubber stamps and shrink plastic, you too can make a fun and personalized necklace.