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Fave Finds of Mid-December

I’ve been pretty busy this week. And I’m kind of guessing with Christmas Eve only 10 days away, most of you have been, too.

So I’m keeping it light today and sharing some of my fave finds from around the internet this week. There’s art stuff, books, and holiday gift stuff… which gives you a pretty good idea of what my week looked like.

First Up:

The most helpful article I read this week

  • Lifehacker’s post explaining how to “fix” iTunes after the recent upgrade.  Why in the world do I need to look at 200 album covers in search for a song? The huge images made me back up from my screen every time I clicked over to iTunes. I’m sure whatever they’ve done is so hip right now, but it had me reaching for the Excedrin.

Art Stuff

  • I spent most of the week finishing a new artist site for the Dude’s art stuffs. I’m pretty excited. Both about the site, and that it’s finally done. (Well, not done forever, but done enough for the moment.) I’m sure you know the feeling. That little guy up top is from one of his new art cards. I just can’t get enough of THAT FACE!
  • Also, my friend Dana Tanamachi is currently giving 100% the proceeds from her beautiful original work Live a Quiet Life and Work with Your Hands to several charities (depending on which color is purchased). I bought mine yesterday and am SO excited to have it in my home. (Did you see the O Magazine cover with the chalk art? That was done by Dana. Yeah, she’s pretty great.)

Books

It’s been a great week for books for me:

  • Amazon has some seriously good cookbooks for less than $4. I ordered the one from Saveur, Top Pot Doughnuts, and several others. I mean, less than four bucks?

    **Wondering about cookbook formatting on the Kindle? Here’s my take:

    Use Kindle formatted cookbooks on display-rich devices like a computer or an iPad where they do a better of formatting text and pictures. Also, bump your text-size down a few notches to improve the look of the page. They still won’t look exactlylike the print edition, but it’s close enough for me. And it comes with the upside of having a linked Index.

    But don’t plan to use them on the “real” Kindle. You’ll probably be disappointed.**

  • Margaret Feinberg’s new book Wonderstruck (which I’m incredibly excited about) is available for $7.57 on Amazon, and if you forward your receipt to her people (wonderstruck@margaretfeinberg.com), they’ll send you the Kindle edition for free. Along with some other goodies. You can get all the info here.
  • Also, Noisetrade has Donald Miller’s Through Painted Deserts audio book for free right now. And it comes with a sample of his newest project, Storyline. (I’ve been working through Storyline and I think it might be a game changer for me.)

Holiday Shopping

Turns out, there are still a few days to order gifts online and have them arrive before Christmas. And I stumbled upon many retailers who are offering free shipping on any purchase (regardless of amount). The shipping deadline varies from shop to shop, but seems to generally be between between Monday the 17th and Wednesday the 19th, so there’s still time!

Here are some of the online stores currently offering free shipping:

  • L.L. Bean – I have used this backpack/suitcase for years and LOVE it. I also use one of their backpacks. I feel like years later, their stuff still holds together like new.
  • REI – Tons of outdoor stuff, but they also have travel cubes and the best socks (and tons of other great stuff, too.)
  • Best Buy – C’mon, you know Best Buy.
  • Fossil – I’m including them because I just absolutely adore Fossil.
  • World Market – Ditto on World Market. And they have so many beautiful and reasonably priced things!

Email-able Giftcards (that can be redeemed online!)

I love the idea of getting to pick your own unique sort of gift and have it arrive on your doorstep. These shops have unusual items and offer giftcards that can be sent by email and redeemed online.

  • Photojojo – Photojojo has the most amazing and creative collection of everything photo-ish. Tons of iPhone stuff, photo display stuff (like these magnetic ropes I ordered tons of), even things like a lens ice cream dish. Recently they sent me a share-able link for $5 off a $25 purchase.
  • Think Geek – Have you seen these guys!?!! I love looking through their site at any time of year. Check them out. You’ll thank me.
  • Terrain – In fairness, I just got turned on to this site this week, but it basically seems like a home-and-accessories version of Anthropologie. And they have emailable giftcards!

And don’t forget…

Before you buy online, do a quick search to see if there are any coupons available. I’ve regularly saved an extra 10-20% at the last minute when I’ve remembered to search for a coupon.

…what about you?…

What have you been up to this week? Got anything good for the rest of us?

**Disclaimer: Sometimes I use affiliate links. But I love, list and write first. Always. Period.**

I’m a Quitter (Wanna Join Me?)

In the few days I’ve been back in my own bed, I’ve been resettling the house (after the bachelor-status it assumes when my dude is at the helm), fighting jetlag and an oncoming cold, and taking a few steps back and grappling for a wider-angle view of my life.

One thing I’m seeing (again) is how reticent I am to axe things when their time has passed.

Going back a bit…

I used to have this problem with hobbies and crafts and such. I’d develop a new interest, dive into it, and then hold on to the pieces long after my interest waned. There was some piece of me that didn’t want to let go. I didn’t want to acknowledge I’d spent a lot of money on stuff I didn’t use, for one thing. But further down than that, I didn’t want to be a quitter.

My whole life I’ve started things only to stop them a short time later. And in an age that worships specialists and every possible angle of the success-story, quitting gets a pretty bad wrap. “Winners never quit,” right?

I’m no longer sure.

For starters, I’m beginning to accept that I’m a generalist at heart. Many people love something specific, and want to travel as far as the topical rabbit-hole goes. A school subject, an author, a hobby, whatever. They go deep. But the thing I love is thinking itself, and I love learning and reading as extensions of that. I love making connections between dissimilar things and so I naturally skip between the unrelated. All of which means I can be interested in almost anything presented in an engaging way.

Here’s the point…

I like trying things out. I like to think about them. I make connections from them. I learn about them. I share about them. But because I engage so many things, I simply have to quit stuff from time to time. It’s just a supply and demand thing with my finite resources.

It’s like it was with all my craft stuffs: I had to let go of the ideas I’d had, the half-finished projects, and the stuff I’d bought so I could make room for something new. Not because it’s good to always be looking for the next thing (it’s not), but because over time I was discovering new direction, and the craft thing was not where I was going.

I’m starting to see that anytime I encounter a turn in the road, whether in my personal life or in a business venture or for a new aim in general, I’ll have to shed the dead weight if I really want to move forward. If I don’t, I will not only waste time and energy investing in things that I now see as dead-ends, but somehow, even when I’m not engaging them, they’ll continue to distract me as I journey the new road.

So I’m encouraged to think that just like abandoning a goal is the proper move when it’s keeping a person from greater goals, that quitting a something is the proper move when it’s keeping a person from better somethings.

In this spirit, I think it’s time to pull the plug on my still-recently-started Tuesday and Friday “columns.” Though they have been a good learning experience, they are now holding me back from my aims in writing and my hopes for this blog.

And seriously? I doubt anyone cares. I’ll continue writing the same content, just on a different schedule. Nothing’s really going anywhere. But even so, a piece of me feels like I’m the loser quitter.

Now for a clever chap…

Earlier this year I heard Bob Goff speak in conjunction with launching his book, “Love Does” (which I highly recommend, btw), and he challenged us to start quitting things that we didn’t need to keep around anymore. To quit receiving so many mass emails and dwindle our RSS feeds, for example, or to quit feeling guilty about something or to quit pretending. He said he quits something every Thursday (and sometimes they are big things). And he challenged us to start quitting things.

While this soundly resonated with me, I didn’t really get that quitting things would, by definition, make me a quitter. That’s a college degree at work, right there.

Anyway, I’m slowly accepting that, yes, I’m a quitter. And as long as I’m quitting the right things, I’m becoming okay with that.

…what about you?…

Is there anything you need to quit this week to make room for a better something? How do feel about quitting in general?

A Short Break…

This week is Thanksgiving in the U.S., and I have many extra reasons to be thankful. Grey skies, old friends, and true taste have me swooning.

In the spirit of fully living the few moments I have in the states, things may be a little quiet around here for the next week. Or two. Or maybe even three.

If you need a break from the onlines, you’re certainly invited to join in.

Back after more hugs and slices of pie,
a

Homemade Eggnog

DIY EggnogI used to hate eggnog. Like hate it. Every year someone would have a carton of it (usually my MIL, hi, Debbie!) and every year I’d try it and not understand why they were still making the stuff.

One year my curiosity got the better of me and I had to know: Was real eggnog possibly as awful as the stuff in the carton? I mean, surely it made it to mass-production because at some point some people thought it was pretty tasty, right?

And oh-sweet-father-Christmas, there is definitely a reason people used to like it.  A drink of frothy custardy-ness with the zing of spirits that haven’t been burned off. I mean, wow.

I’ve never had another sip of the cartoned stuff. And I’ve never stopped gushing over the homemade kind. Foodist Fridays aren’t really for recipes, but since I haven’t ventured far from this method myself, and since you do need to know about homemade eggnog, I’m sharing a recipe today. A recipe that will make you a lot of friends.

It’s taken verbatim from Fine Cooking, which I cannot recommend highly enough for excellent from-scratch recipes.

Triple-Shot Eggnog

makes 6-8 servings

Heads up: the main mixture will need to mellow and chill in the fridge for about 4 hours before finalizing and serving. So mix up the first part earlier in the day (it takes about 10 minutes) and then finish it (takes about 10 minutes) in the evening when you’re ready to serve it. Not that I’ll judge you for serving it any time of day.

3 large eggs, preferably pasteurized, separated
1⁄2 cup granulated sugar, 100g
Kosher salt
1⁄2 cup dark rum, 4 oz/120ml
1⁄4 cup bourbon, 2 oz/60ml
2 Tbs. brandy, 1 oz/30ml
2 cups whole milk, 16oz/473ml
1 cup heavy cream, 8oz/237ml
1⁄2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg, plus extra for garnish
1⁄2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

  1. Whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl until they just begin to turn a lighter shade of yellow.
  2. Add the sugar and a pinch of salt and whisk until thick and pale yellow.
  3. Whisk in the rum, bourbon, and brandy until well combined and then whisk in the milk, cream, nutmeg, and vanilla until blended.
  4. Chill the mixture, covered, for 4 hours or overnight. Keep the egg whites chilled separately in a medium bowl.
  5. Before serving, whip the egg whites to stiff peaks with a hand-held electric mixer.
  6. Fold the whipped egg whites into the chilled yolk mixture.
  7. Serve immediately, sprinkled with a little freshly grated nutmeg, or chill for
    up to 4 hours. (Whisk the eggnog until smooth before serving.)

As with all recipes, you should taste and tweak this to your liking. We add just a tad more of almost everything except eggs, milk, and salt, just to bolster the oomph a little. If you enjoy subtle mellowness – which I commend you for – you’ll  want to leave it as is.

So the question is, will you try it?

Pinterest’s Secret Boards: a tool for planning gatherings of all kinds

Have you heard?

Pinterest is rolling out looooong-overdue feature: SECRET BOARDS!

Since my very first day on Pinterest, I’ve bemoaned the lack of non-public boards. I mean, Pinterest is the perfect place to collect gift ideas, party ideas, travel ideas… unless making them public will spoil a surprise!

But they’ve (finally) created private boards (which they’re calling “secret boards”), and I’m ecstatic. In celebration, here’s an idea for using them to coordinate jazz for your next group gathering.

This won’t work so well for the “everyone’s invited!” sort of soiree, but for a Family Dinner or Book Group Cocktail Party it could be perfect. I also think it’d be ideal for co-hosted events. Need  to show the other peeps what your cake stand looks like or show your dudes what kind of tent you have for the camping trip? Snap a picture of it and post it to your Secret Board. Ta-da!

Okay, obviously I haven’t used the Secret Boards this way, yet. They just popped up last week. But everything I’ve mentioned below I’ve done myself with Pinterest over the past few days, just to make sure I wasn’t feeding you hogwater. Because that’d be not very nice. And kinda nasty.

Using Pinterest’s New Secret Boards for Group Gatherings and Holiday Parties

Why Use Pinterest?

For one, it’s fun. Seeing what friends are bringing and having a visual of it all makes planning less of a chore. Use it for parties, dinners, roadtrips, showers, whatever!

Also, it’s spur-of-the-moment flexible. At any time, any member of the group can see a current visual of what’s being brought. If anyone needs to make a last-minute adjustment, they can look at the Secret Board and make sure they choose something that fits and isn’t already provided for.

And using it this way alleviates some of the pressure on the point person who is always getting calls about if/what is already accounted for.

Why Use a Secret Board?

So you don’t make the uninvited envious, of course.

But seriously, not everyone in the group will want the world to know what they’re contributing. (Pre-wedding festivities, I’m looking at you.)

Using a private board also alleviates the felt need prettify the photos. You can just use any snapshot without having to gussy it up too much, and can even use pics of written notes or sketches, or capture a screengrab without puzzling the whole Piniverse.

What to Pin

Food, decorations, ideas for gift bags, party favors, invitations… anything and everything that it would benefit the group to have a visual of or know about is fair game.

How To Use It With Your Group

  1. Let everyone know the plan some way other than Pinterest. That way, when they get the invitation for the board they’ll know what it is. (It could also give you a heads up if several people don’t use Pinterest.)
  2. Create the Secret Board. Name it something descriptive. To do this, go to your boards (hover on your avatar in the upper right-hand corner and select “boards”), scroll to the bottom of your boards page to the Secret Boards section and click “Create a secret board.”
  3. Invite the members of your group to add to the board.  To do this, click the “edit” button on the board you just created. From the edit page you can add new people by name or by email. And don’t worry, if you forget someone, any other member can invite new members.
  4. Start pinning what you’ll be contributing to the festivities, adding your own comments/questions/etc. in the description sections (you can always add them in the comments later, too.)

By having a shared Secret Board, you’ll all know at a glance what’s covered, what’s not, and whether or not your jello fruit salad will mix with the other offerings. It won’t, of course. You’ll hate yourself for bringing jello salad. It’s 2012. Time for jello salad to go the way of mail-order fruitcake.

(BTW, did you see the “Vintage Mold Recipes” photos Bon Appetit recently posted from the 1960’s? You need to. It’s like awkward family photos for cooks.)

A Few Other Ideas & Suggestions

  • You don’t have to find a photo online of what you’re bringing to pin it. Use the camera from the Pinterest app on your smartphone to take a photo (of the item, a recipe, whatever) and upload it directly, or scribble a note on a sheet of paper, photograph, and upload.
  • Updates to your secret board won’t appear in your feed, so you’ll have to check the board manually, or have Pinterest email you updates, an option you can select on the “edit” screen for the board. (As of the publishing of this post, I don’t think these emails are working correctly for everyone. If they aren’t, hopefully Pinterest will have it remedied soon.)
  • Use the board to dialogue. If you “signed up” to bring pumpkin cheesecake and someone else says they’ll bring pumpkin cupcakes, use the comments to ask about whether you both want to bring pumpkin or if you should change it up a little.
  • As you make spur of the moment decisions when you’re out and about (like when you just found your favorite merlot on sale), snap a pic and update the group.

Final Thoughts

I think the Pinterest Secret Boards are a game changer for shared planning of all kinds. Of course, it’s all new territory, so please share your successes and setbacks as they come. I’d love to hear from you. Happy Partying!

Is it “Down the Pipe” or “Down the Pike”?

We’ve had a lot of discussions about the unknown around here lately. We have several projects spinning, I might get a new job, we might buy a house (for the first time), the list goes on. But nothing is sure on any of those fronts at the moment. It’s a whole lot of wait and see.

Last night through a mouthful of toothpaste, I quipped something to the dude about “never knowing what is coming down the pike.” And, ever the engaged listener, he said, “Are you sure it’s ‘coming down the pike’ and not ‘coming down the pipe’?

Yeah. I’m sure.

Actually, I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t just looked it up the other day because I didn’t know. And really, in modern English you can use either phrase. But if you want to sound oh-so-literary (not always a good idea, mind you), go for “down the pike.” You know, keep ’em guessing.

So, really, it’s “down the pike”?

Well, originally, yes. It was “down the pike.” Apparently, according to my sources which, unfortunately, do not include the insanely awesome Online Oxford Dictionary because it’s so cussing expensive, in the early part of the 20th century, people used “down the pike” kind of like “around the bend.” “Bend” was a bend in the road, “pike” was a “turnpike” or road. Before the days of the telephone and other fast media, news came from travelers who would arrive “down the pike.”

So when talking about not knowing what the future holds, one would say something about not knowing what was “coming down the pike.”

However.

There’s this thing that happens in language – I’ll try to get the dude to find his fancy linguistic term and put it in the comments – where, when people don’t know why a word or phrase is what it is, they substitute something that makes more sense to them. It’s like with “tide over,” if you don’t understand the reference, it’s easy to think it should be “tie over,” like bridging two things.

In the case of “down the pike,” this has happened long enough and wide enough that “down the pipe” has become it’s own acceptable phrase. So you can probably use them both. But if you want to know you are the most correct you can be, use “down the pike,” since it came first.

Update!

I just searched to see if Grammar Girl had written on this topic (since I had only viewed explanations from the Grammarist and Daily Writing Tips), and while I don’t see that she has, she actually mentions “down the pike” in a post about linguistic oddities. And apparently slips of this type are called eggcorns. I’ll let you read for yourself why that is.

…what about you?…

Out of curiosity, if you use this phrase, do you say “down the pike” or “down the pipe”? Or, do you do what I did and avoid it altogether because you aren’t sure?