Lulu Bonanza

My friend, Michelle (a.k.a. Lulu Bonanza), works at New England Comics in Allston, MA. We used to frequent the comic shop as much to buy comics as to hang out with the super friendly employees. Michelle's enthusiasm is completely infectious, and she always has lots of recommendations for every genre, age and interest. She's never steared me wrong!

I'm thrilled that Michelle has started her own blog to publish her videos about comics: lulubonanza.blogspot.com They're silly and she admits that they're "a little odd", but that's why I love them! She's not doing this because she's getting paid for it, or anything like that. She's just sharing her love of comics, which shines through beautifully.

Go, Lulu Bonanza! <3

Also, she's totally right about Bone, by Jeff Smith. Read it! Get it from your local comic book purveyor, or www.boneville.com.

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1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse

I'm in a book!! It's pretty crazy to see a bunch of my products in a real live printed craft book, but it's even crazier that one of the photos actually has me in it! My fantastic mustache pint glass model, Zoe, (screenprinting helper and daughter of Salmon St. Studio owners) is also featured in the book, and I can't wait to give her a copy.

Garth Johnson's 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse book is a huge image collection of re-purposed crafty projects, products and art. There aren't any instructions for remaking anything in the book, but it's a treasure-trove of glossy, colorful inspiration.

 I would have bought this book, even if I wasn't a contributor. It's great for setting on the coffeetable (or in my case, next to my computer), ready to browse for a little creative boost. I've flipped through it a dozen times, and I'm still discovering new things I hadn't noticed before!

Check out Eye Pop Art's Recycled Record Mandala bowl on the left page here, which is in the same colors as the clock she gave me!

I love that this book includes such a wide range of projects, from wearables to installation art. I keep getting new ideas for furniture and decor items that I want to make (or shop for--let's be realistic, now). I really love the cinder block drawers on the left page above.

This book would make a perfect gift for any crafter, hobbyist, or consumer interested in sustainable design, and looking for some eye-candy. Buy your copy on Amazon, or support our local bookstore, Powell's.

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LOLcat Book Winner

I just drew the winner of my LOLcat book giveaway using random.org, and it's Rachel! Congratulations, you lucky winner, you!

Please email me your address, and I'll make sure you get your copy of How to Take Over Teh Wurld, A lolcat Guide 2 Winning. You're totally going to love it!

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How to Take Over Teh Wurld

This book is brilliant. I've seen most of these LOLcats on the i can has cheezburger? website, but somehow they were funnier in print. Yes, you can read this book in one sitting. No, it won't make you smarter. But it will prove that the little ball of fur that sleeps on your clean clothes is plotting more than just a new way to steal cheeseburgers.

I've had this book sitting next to my computer desk for a few days, and every time I have a free minute (waiting for inspiration to strike or for a website to load) I flip open a random page and find myself feeling better about the world.

This is a perfect gift for anyone who loves cats, or who knows that cats can be truly evil. It's great for people who don't use the internet much, or for avid followers of the site. Leave it in your bathroom, or on your coffeetable as a conversation starter. My cat even used it as a pillow. There's nothing like a glossy paper copy of some of your favorite lols.

U can buys it at: Amazon.com, Borders, B&N

I'll be giving away a free copy to one of my readers, so hop over to this post and leave a comment with a link to your favorite lolcat image. I'm drawing a winner in just a few hours, so do it now!

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FREE LOLcat Book Giveaway!

Everyone knows that I love LOLcats. They make my days worth living, quite honestly. Not only am I thrilled to be receiving a copy of the newest print book to review, but I'll also be giving away a FREE copy to one of my faithful blog readers!

THE RULES: Simply leave a comment on this post with a link to your favorite LOLcat image from the icanhascheezburger site. Oh, and your shipping address must be in the continental U.S. to be eligible (sorry, everyone else!). I'll randomly choose a winner next Friday, Sept. 4th. Yay!

If you'd like to pick up your own copy of the book, you can pre-order them now and get a set of sweet limited edition icons for your computer, or wait until the book goes on sale 9/1. Get more info here.

If you don't know what the heck a "LOLcat" is, then you should probably head straight over here, and continue to click through the site until you find yourself ROFLing. If you still don't get "lolspeak", then here's a wiki page about it.

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Now available at Powell's

I forgot to mention this the other day, but an assortment of my pint glasses are now available for sale at Powell's Books for Home & Garden (3747 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR). Yay! It's right next to Pastaworks, if you happen to be in the neighborhood looking for cannoli shells.

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Monkey World

I love picking out new calendars every year, and this year I was fortunate enough to have discovered Matthew Porter and his Monkey World at the UCU fair last month. Each month features little monkey-people in new adventurous settings. January has a giant octopus attacking the monkey-pirates and their ship! February is a safari setting with a tiger. How great is that?

Just looking through the pages of Mr. Porter's beautifully painted artwork is inspiring for me, which is why I'm so thrilled that the calendar came with a mini coloring book calendar! Holy cow!! It's about a quarter of the size of the original, and it features close-ups of a monkey character from each month's artwork, all ready to be colored in. I can't tell you how exciting that is for me.

You can buy your own Monkey World calendar from Amazon right here, or check out Matthew's other children's books (including an absolute must-have ABC book!) here.

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Best Recipes

If you're looking for a good cookbook that has a little bit of everything, then you can't go wrong with The New Best Recipe cookbook by the editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine. Not only does this book have detailed explanations on the hows and whys of every single recipe, but it also contains product reviews for cooking gadgets, tools and ingredients.

I wish I'd purchased this book instead of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, since Bittman has some bizarre food preferences (I recall a pasta recipe where he clearly states his dislike of cheese on top of pasta) and he gives sparse prep instructions. The Best Recipe folks might have slightly more demanding recipes, but at least they give you really good reasons why you should do it their way! I may not be learning all the chemistry involved in making muffins, but at least I understand why I'm adding sour cream to them.

Speaking of muffins, these photos are of some blueberry raspberry muffins I made recently after berry-picking on Sauvie Island, here in Portland. I doubled the recipe so I had some muffin mini-loaves and a mini-bundt cake, which all turned out thick, dense and amazing!

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Stuff White People Like

In case you're wondering how to befriend more white people, this blog has all the tips you need. If you already have enough white friends, it has some great insight into their predictable habits.

Embarrassingly, I used to work for New Balance shoes (#96), and can claim quite a few of the items on the list as things that I like. Of course, Portland, Oregon is one of the things listed in the Stuff White People Like book, so now I really am a stereotype!

Check out the full list here. It's totally worth your time.

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Virtual bookshelves are spacesavers

I'm one of those people who multi-tasks as a way of life. My job involves wearing earplugs (to block the high-pitched harmonics from my drill on glass), but that doesn't mean I can't listen to audio books at the same time! It just means I have the volume cranked way up on a pair of big ol' headphones. (They're actually the $1 headphones you can buy from Jetblue when you fly with them! Sound quality doesn't matter much when you're just listening to someone read.)

To organize all my reading (and listening) material, I joined the Goodreads website. They let you add books to your virtual bookshelves so you can review what you've read and keep track of your book list for the future.

There are also groups for book discussions, and a community to keep up with your friends' reading. I've found the discussions and reviews mightily helpful when trying to pick new books to read, and I actually love the friend feed where I can read my friend's reviews as they write them.

Goodreads also has some fun widgets to add to your blog (as you can see), so you can share your literary cred with the world!

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