Month: August 2006

The post office is releasing the new Gee’s Bend quilt stamps today! Yay!

I received the second issue of Blueprint – the new magazine from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia – yesterday in the mail.

It’s so much better than the first issue! It’s wonderful!

The first section of the magazine is called ‘Perimeter: Personal Style from Every Angle.’ It’s great. It’s just one little find after another – from clever things to buy to clever things to make or repurpose. One of the projects is a simple and neat way to organize and charge cell phones/Blackberries/iPods without having cords show everywhere. That one I’m definitely going to do.

My favorite sections were: a section on putting houseplants in large see-through glass containers, a skin-care expert’s recommendations (I love that one of her picks was the huge jar of Cetaphil moisturizing cream), healthy choices (like the nutritional differences between dairy and soy, red and white wine, olive oil and canola), and ideas for a wine tasting party.

The least helpful section is maybe the etiquette feature. Doesn’t everyone know not to, at the gym, “dangle your gym duffel from one handle of the elliptical machine, your two-foot-wide work tote from the other. Drop your coat, scart, umbrella, and paper shopping bag in a heap resembling a snowman.”?

Overall, the contents are great…especially at the wine tasting party where they make a red wine glass stain at each (brown paper) placesetting, with a guest’s name written inside, rather than the usual card. Love that!

I got an email last week from John Ciba, who just released a compilation of rare soul recordings from Birmingham – it’s called “The Birmingham Sound: The Soul of Neal Hemphill, Vol. 1.” and he mentioned that he thanked me (thanked me!!!) in the liner notes of the cd for Deep Fried Kudzu. He said that DFK helped him with his travels here in the South, and that he hoped I would be okay with that.

Um, of course that’s okay!!

I got my copy at a local independent record store (it really is a record store – it’s been there forever and they have tons of vinyl!), and when I looked for it just now online, I could only find one copy at Amazon. I’m not sure about the distribution at the big stores, but any independent shop can get it if they don’t have it stocked – the label is: The Rabbit Factory, Inc. and the ASIN is: B000HQ2NRA.

The cover story in Birmingham Weekly this past week was “Soul Revival: With a Little Help from Chicago, Birmingham’s Soul is Back” and it’s about the first show in Chicago:

In Chicago, Otis Clay climbed on stage to thrill the crowd with a hilarious rendition of “Baby, I Love You,” that he and Robinson sang back and forth to each other, softer and softer, until, finally, Robinson deadpanned “pucker up your lips.”

The crowd fell apart.

This past weekend, they brought the show home to Birmingham, where they played at Bottletree Cafe. I would have done anything to be there! There are pics on Flickr from the B’ham show here.

I got the cd and it’s great – my favorite is the first track, ‘Specify’:

You take the high road. I’ll take the low.
Giving you all of my love, giving you all of my soul.
Day in, day out, I’m trying desperately to do what I can, to be the one you want me to be.
All you got to do…oh baby…
Specify…..

I just found out that Andrew Dietz, author of The Last Folk Hero, is at Folk Fest in Atlanta right now signing copies of his book.

Back in June, I wrote about TLFH – if you have the chance, definitely get it. If you’re anywhere close to Atlanta, this weekend is a great opportunity to see the work of many of the people in the book, and to meet the author and get a signed copy.

Origins makes some of the most wonderful body scrubs…I got started on the Salt Rub and then the Ginger Salt Scrub, and now I like the spreadable scrubs! This is also my favorite part of getting a manicure or pedicure…and it’s so easy to make it at home.

This is a two-part project – the first is making the scrub and the second is embellishing the jars.

This is the recipe I made up:

Ingredients
Organic Brown Sugar
Turbinado (it’s a brown sugar that is “crystallized from the initial pressing of sugar cane”)
Organic Safflower Oil (or you can use avocado, soybean, olive, or your favorite oil)
Essential Oil (I used grapefruit for this batch, but use whatever scent you like. I got mine at Whole Foods (in New Orleans) where they have a good selection, or you can buy them online too)
Jars – any size. I got mine at Hobby Lobby (see pic, further below)

Depending on how much you feel like making, here are the proportions I use:
1 cup of brown sugar to 1 cup turbinado. As much safflower oil to make it come together but not be overly oily, and as many dashes of essential oil to make it as strong or as subtle a scent as you enjoy. Take a little of the first batch to the bathroom and rub on hands/arms/elbows. If it’s a nice texture – buffs and leaves your skin glowing and soft – it’s perfect. You can tell if it needs a little more or a little less of something.

I make one small batch at a time – this is one cup brown sugar and one cup turbinado:

The nice thing about these two sugars together is that the turbinado is a larger grain, which is good for buffing. Once I’ve added the safflower oil and essential oil and have it to the consistency I like, I get out my jars. I like these jars because of the way they seal (and the Origins salt rub containers are like this, only bigger, and they are great). I got these at Hobby Lobby for $1.33/ea and they hold about 1/2 cup of sugar scrub each. This is the perfect size for gift-giving:

Here’s my first one:

…and a bunch of them – I just think the brown sugar makes it so pretty:

Now they’re just missing some embellishment:

To Embellish:
Scrapbook paper in any design(s) you like
Mod Podge
Foam Brush
Round Hole Punch (my 2-/18″ punch was perfect for these jars)
Tag Punch
Embroidery Thread, and Needle
Scissors
Pen or Fine Marker (to write on tag)

I punched out the scrapbook paper – put some Mod Podge on the lid, added the circle, then added more Mod Podge on top (I used the glossy MP). I get a little crazy with MP, but I love it! I dries perfectly clear, so you can go overboard a little if you like!:

Here are the jars, dry – now I just needed to make tags for them. I got out my tag punch and more scrapbook paper:

…cut the tag shapes out. Now is a good time to write what’s inside and who you’re giving it to on the tag. I took my needle and puched a little hole in the top of the tag, then threaded a little embroidery thread on and through:

…tied it to the opener, and it was all done!

On Tuesdays in the summertime, our local library is open until nine in the evening, so Av and I went there after supper one night this week. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the library, and I like to just walk through the aisles and see what I can find.

One of the books I picked up this week was this little Cath Kidston Tips for Vintage Style, a sweet little 4″x6″ book full of suggestions on how to use vintage, or vintage-style, fabrics. Inside are all kinds of ideas about making tea towels, jam jar covers, dyed sheets, and other simple and cheerful projects. I’m definitely going to try at least a couple!

Cath Kidston has an online shop too, and I’m in love with some of her bed linen designs, especially!