Kathy Cano-Murillo's Novel!

Most of you know the Crafty Chica for embellishing every surface she can get her glitter-loving hands on, as well as her tender and funny family stories. Now she's combined the two in her new novel, Waking Up In the Land of Glitter, due in March 2010.

Struggling domestic-goddess-in-training Ofy is determined to turn heads at this year's International CraftOlympics. To do that, she'll need the help of her best friend, Star. Considering herself a serious artist, Star is hesitant, but finally agrees to help as a way to end her own creative slump. Truthfully she thinks Ofy is a little loca about the whole craft thing - and about her idol: Local TV personality, Crafty Chloe. Star doesn't trust the bottle-blonde, even after she becomes part of their crafting team. As the competition heats up, Star will learn Chloe's dirty  little secret, why crafting means so much to Ofy, and that beauty, art, and creativity can take many more forms than a canvas hanging in a gallery.

Sounds just like my kind of novel! Bonus fact: this book started out as Kathy Cano-Murillo's Nanowrimo novel--so don't let anyone tell you they're ALL worthless.

The New Jane Brocket!

Ripping Things to Do: The Best Games and Ideas from Children's Books, the follow-up to the much loved Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, is coming in July 2009!

The Knit Would Still be Hers: Chicks With Sticks (Knit Two Together) by Elizabeth Lenhard

She decided if she couldn't fight the angst, she might as well join it in the blogosphere. She plopped herself into her desk chair, opened her laptop, and began surfing. She hit a few of her usuals: the American in Paris who always bragged about the antique knitting needles and precious Euro-yarn she found romantic flea markets; the Indiana spinning guru with the grotesquely fat cat (pictured daily); the comic artist who catalogued her life in daily stick drawings...

Oh La La had spent the previous afternoon finishing a delicate bolero jacket in a chic cafe. The spin guru had had a birthday party and photographed her cat in a goofy party hat. The comic artist drew and ice cream outing and called it Simple Pleasures.

So unsatisfying, Scottie complained in her sleepy mind...Is it too much to ask for just one broken heart?

Oh, Ms. Lenhard, you know us bloggers too well.

In Chicks With Sticks (Knit Two Together), Scottie's gone boy-crazy and it's driving the Chicks up a wall. When a cute artsy boy from NYC moves into her building, she can't believe her luck--not to mention the plum opportunity when his fashion-designer mom commissions knitted lace for her eccentric creations. While they bond over crazy artist moms and their even crazier private school, sugary snacks and classic films, the Chicks unravel boy issues of their own. Amanda's formerly nerdy-cute college boyfriend is turning into a major dumbass, Bella's sworn off dudes--and finds herself swarmed by them. And Tay? Her nice guy John is suddenly Clingy McClingerson, down to joining their stitch'n'bitch. Will the Chicks survive Yarncon, debutant training, utterly grody non-frat frat parties, secret blogs, the blissful highs and nauseating lows of teenage lurve? Course they will! The fun is reading about it.

Next to my blogging buds Carey and Lisa, Elizabeth Lenhard is the person I'd want to show me around Chicago; she does for the Windy City what Francesca Lia Block's done for Los Angeles. Scottie's narration highlights little details others would miss: odd statues, a perfect day atop bread-factory-come-artist's-loft, the prerequisites of an indie coffee shop, and the sights and smells of YarnCon:

Scottie couldn't stop gasping in delight as they began strolling through the fray...At the next tent were jars of adorable stitch markers snazzed up with glass beads, tiny rubber animals, and fuzzy pom-pom creatures--as cute as candy.

There were giant displays of knitting bags, books, needles, and themed T-shirts. People strode around, nibbling chicken satay skewered on knitting needles and giant cookies iced to look like yarn balls. There were gray-haired ladies wearing cardigans, middle-aged mom types, and other teenagers in knitted tanks, badass ribbed wristbands, and bits of yarn woven into their hair.

I enjoyed becoming better acquainted  with the chicks. Amanda's vulnerable side counters her perfect-girl veneer, and it gives her a certain gravitas that makes what could be a totally annoying character really sweet and likeable. Likewise, I adored seeing Bella cut loose and get angry; even manic pixie dream girls can go nuts and avenge their friends every once in a while. Tay continues to be a shining beacon to hetero gender-nonconformists. I think it's great that Lenhard wrote a butchy straight girl with an endearing tender side; some people forget that gender obscurism is open to all shades of the spectrum. Scottie's lovahboy Beck seems like a decent kid, and I really sympathized with his desire to make interesting friends and have a life outside the boyfriend-girlfriend thing.  His love scenes with Scottie are the stuff of teenage dreams: breakfast picnics, nights at an arthouse theater, and smooching in the elevator. He's cute. He can stay.

It took a second reading for this novel to agree with me; initially I was slightly annoyed with all the boy-craziness. Maybe it's the season, or maybe I realized that if I had gone to one of the Seven Sisters instead of Big Catholic East Coast Library School, I would have done just as much pining over anyone with cute hair and a nose ring.  I could totally relate to Scottie's all-encompassing crushy obsession, but also appreciated the words of wisdom from Amanda's punky, free-forming mentor Regan:

"I've seen this happen a million times. A girl falls in love for the first time and loses it. She forgets about her friends. She becomes all about him. What's he's interested in. What he wants to do. Where he wants to go and when he wants to go there. And when the inevitable break-up happens--because what else can such an intense relationship do but crash and burn?--the girl's left all alone. Take my advice, girlfriend. Don't let it happen to you."

Lesson for the day? Boys come and girls go, but your art and your heart are what matter in the end--so treat 'em right. For knitting nuts and teen-nostalgia-seekers, Chicks With Sticks (Knit Two Together) is a fab addition to your shelves.

*Elizabeth Lenhard's website has lots of cool extras for CWS fans. Here's a fun excerpt posted to her blog, with cupcakes and novelty yarn in

*Unsatisfied with the shades on your Local Yarn Stores's shelves? Dye your own with Kool-Aid and revel in the fruity scent and chemically-enhanced colors.

*Gooseflesh crochets wunderkammer-worthy sea life from pre-loved wool and plastic bags.

*I plugged MochiMochi's free patterns in the last post, but her main blog is great, too--posts about other handicrafts and the best of cute and subversive stuffed things, like Bittersweet's Kiwi.

*These vegan knitty cupcakes help me make the blogger's weekly cupcake quota.

*Though I usually shy from linking retail sites, I can't resist passing off COLORBOMB Creation's etsy shop. They have a great sense of humor--yarns named Poop de Peeps and Cheesy Poofs--and sweet kits for embellishing your own handspun. Follow the proprietress's yarn adventures at Velma's World.

*This is a chick wearing a knitted cuff. It is too cute for words.

Celebrate Angstgiving in Crafty Style

Hearts, flowers, smooching couples all over my blogroll...it must be St. Emo's Day again. I'm a happy bachelorette who plans to live the day up ice skating and girl-bar-hopping with her friends, but I know some of you readers may have waited for last minute to get started on your S.O.'s gift. Oops! Well, no worries, because here are the creme de la Stumbleupon for last minute crafty gifts, none needing more than a trip to your local Crafty Emporium (with maybe a side trip to the grocery store). If you're a single lady like me, why not surprise the treasured confidant in whom you confide your true insecurities and share dating horror stories? They deserve your love too!

1. Does she drag you into every toy shop on your route and giggle over little things? Win her heart (and attention span) with Not Martha's Surprise Balls.

2. Does she want to drag you out on V-Day for yet ANOTHER Anonymous Protest? Before you don your masks and hand out the confetti, surprise her with a Flying Spaghetti Monster Necklace.

3. The bookish sort? Bookmark Books. Seriously, these are the cutest and most useful things for the obsessive reader. Half a dozen with a fresh pick from her Amazon.com wishlist, and she'll be singing your praises on her book blog.

4. If she favors polkadots, Cupcakes Take the Cake, and handmade body products from chichi shops in the city, make her a set of Cupcake Bath Bombs. Cue comments about being good enough to eat.

5. Knitty and fond of knicknacks? MochiMochi has free patterns for cute little love monsters and tiny hearts to show your love for a chick with sticks.

6. Prefer something colorful and edible that screams "I came out yesterday"? Rainbow cupcakes. Psychedelically delicious.

Is that a Doctor in your Pocket?

My bud Lou just came out of felt-and-fabric fueled vision quest with these pocket buddies of all ten Doctor Whos in tow. Each costs a mere tenner--and yes, she's up for commissions. Pick up your own little Four or Eight or Ten to love at her Etsy shop.

The Handmade Toy Alliance

You awesome readers may not know that I have three little cousins that I adore to bits and pieces and love to play with and read to and, especially, shop for.

Did you know that on February 10th, some of their favorite things will be contraband?

Like this Cupcake Bug Tea Party by Dream a Little?

And this Superhero Cape by Her Flying Horses?

And these painfully cute pretend canned foods from Magic Cabin?

From the Handmade Toy Alliance website:
The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small toymakers and manufacturers of children's products, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

This is serious news, awesome readers. This means many small manufacturers and handicrafters will be driven out of business by rising costs--not to mention what will happen to the children's book industry, as stated in this open letter by Random House:

If the CPSIA is applied to paper-based books, as indicated in the advisory opinion of the CPSC General Counsel, children's book publishers, manufacturers and distributors will be confronted with several nightmarish scenarios. All existing paper-based children's books such as The Cat in the Hat, Goodnight Moon and Harry Potter as well as thousands of textbook titles—tens of millions of books—currently on the shelves of our nation's classrooms, public and school libraries, bookstores and in warehouses may simply be removed and destroyed because they cannot feasibly be tested to assure compliance with these unfounded toxicity concerns. All new paper-based books—not plastic toys in the shape of books—will be needlessly subjected to expensive and time-consuming testing that will overwhelm the few laboratories accredited for testing of actual children's toys and other children's products potentially presenting real threats of lead toxicity.

Can you imagine? If this act is carried to its fullest potential, I will have to destroy the entire library--2oo0 well-loved volumes--at the school library where I work. This is madness, awesome readers, and I was all ready to chain myself to the Central Children's Room, before I remembered that it's closed for renovations (another rant for another time).

If you love the vibrant, creative world of handmade children's toys and clothes and want to see these crafters thrive, please spread the word. Save the kids in your life from a childhood of overhyped, overbranded plastic crap!

You can read more at CPSIA Central, National Bankruptcy Day, and Fashion Incubator.

Fairy Love!

My dearest real-life friends have a new chorus, and it's "Oh Rie, your poor butch..."

I'm a happy bachelorette at the moment, but they already sympathize with the strapping young thing who may hold my books, help me over puddles, and warm my heart (and feet) in the future. On the other hand, I know that if I can't bring a lass for brunch at Alice's Tea Cup with a side trip to look at tiny puppies without worrying that her balls will fall off, she's not worth my while.

The answer, by the by, to "How many puppies fit in a tote bag?" is "1 chow chow, 2 french bulldogs, 3 shih tzus and 4 yorkies," or exactly what Heather and I saw in the window.

Anyway.

Last week I was hopping around the Glamourbomb community archives when I spotted an old beloved haunt: FairyLove.

All photos are from the FairyLove website

Long story short, a couple of crazy kids decided to have a go selling wings and rainbow things at music festivals, and soon expanded into a fae-themed B&B in a 15th century country house.

They've got workshops on Freeing Your Fairy and bachelorette parties (check out the photos, they're fantastic!) where you dress up and take photos and scare the villagers and you can have tea and shop for wings and things and oh, it just seems wonderful all around.

I want my honeymoon there. Come on, let's say it all together.

"Oh Rie, your poor butch."

Now, what if you're a postcollegiate like the blogmistress who has to create her own fun instead of chasing it across the Atlantic? No worries--that's what an Leaving Shangri-L.A. and your friendly local library are for!

Seeking fairy attire? Haunt sales racks and thrift shops for last season's gauzy clubwear and hippie skirts, and then make them over with Just For the Frill of It or the 99 Ways series.  The best wing tutorials are on the web--you can watch Emilie Autumn make her own set, or go with this illustrated step-by-step guide at Instructables.

Most fae lore says to never eat or drink what they may offer, but your guests will probably want a nosh. The Fairy, Princess, and Mermaid Cookbooks are the cutest things I have seen in ever and I want all three. You could send your snacks down the rabbit hole with Tiny Treats, or go uber-naturale with Ani's Raw Food Kitchen.

If you're not quite brave enough to face the locals after you're all kitted out, stay in with a movie, crafts, and a sober friend with a digital camera. The Dark Crystal/Labyrinth/Mirrormask trilogy is classic, with the bonus of being progressively odder as the night goes on. The newest Midsummer Night's Dream is visually stunning; even though it's been panned, it's still one of my favorites. Craftwise? Glamourbombers took guerilla art into their own hands to spread wonder and delight, but your tastes may be a bit more profane.  Bead and bake with the jewelry and matching recipes in Beadalicious, or make yourself paper doll curtains or mirror mosaic with The Big-Ass Book of Crafts (I love saying that.)

Once you're suitably sugared up and seeking extra excitement, try the following:

*Make giant bubbles! Preferably at night so the neighbors think you're crazy

*Play 1000 Blank White Cards

*Go all arty-woowoo, pick a SARK poster and do everything on it or pick a goddess, dress up in her guilded clobber and have  a suitably whirly ritual. Think YaYas, without the mind-altering substances.

*Weave yourself a flower wreath and pretend you're in a Sofia Coppola film

*Sneak out to go Bookcrossing or create a Drop Spot

*Raid the kitchen for things to slather on your face, feet, and what have you. I swear by sugar and water on blemishes, but don't be like me--rinse it off before you leave the house.

*Unearth that stash of makeup you never use and make yourself up like your mythical archtype--elfSTRUCK's videos will show you how

All Hail the Crafty Chica

If you're a hands-on kind of gifter, click over to Kathy Cano-Murillo's 50 Fabulous Gifts to Make and Give for the holiday season.

Yep, 50.

My theory is that she crafts in her sleep. Favorites? The Comic Book Belt, Glittered Birdcage, Loteria Luminaria, and Bejeweled Champagne Flutes.

How to Make a 3D Collage

Art by Peregrine Blue

Wait until it rains and turn off your computer. (Unless you want to make a cyber collage, but that's another story.) Get all the cool stuff you've been saving, that poster you peeled off the wall in the city, scraps from magazines, the picture of Moon's place with the sun mysteriously casting stars on the side of the building, that Japanese candy wrapper you found on the ground, and of course the five hundred pics of your pals and enemies and the strangers whose images you like to steal so you can turn them into members of a fictional tribe. Make sure you've got lotsa ordinary stuff, like buildings and trees, and then you start gluing the stuff all together on stuff cardboard and bend it this and that so it stands up and pretty soon you have this whole surrealistic village that you've been doing since you were eight, and Zack picks through it, making the tiny, thin cutouts fly up buy you don't get mad. In fact, you don't even finish cutting out that pic of Orpheus from his CD cover because you'd rather go back online than glue his head onto that fish riding the bicycle through the ill-conceived, half-finished, psychedelic suburban neighborhood.

~The Orpheus Obsession, by Dakota Lane

Nibbles! I love Nibbles!

Tiny things are my weakness: tiny animals, tiny books, and especially teeny tiny food. Miniature worlds always fascinated me as a little girl--I had multiple shoebox houses for my collection of plastic kitties and family of poison dart frogs and I still haven't quite given up on the idea of building my Pullip doll, Amandine (aka Nomy), the artsy loft of her dreams, with wall-to-wall toile scrapbooking paper and the twee-est little pastry stocked kitchen, ever.

One of my tiny loves? Re-Ment, teeny toy food sets from Japan. Popular with Pullip and Blythe collectors (they're scaled to Barbie doll size), each set is deliciously, impossibly detailed. Here are a few of my favorites:


From the Fairytale Sweets collection (Go look, they're all adorable.)

Amandine never suspected that the chessman chocolate molds had been enchanted, but wised up as soon as the rabbit pawns hopped off the cake to declare a truce.

This one would make a nice top for a trinket box, pieces either fixed in place or left loose for an impromptu game of chess.


From the Fairytale Tableware collection

The first teacup she found nestled in the rosebush, the second on her garden path when she walked outside to water. The others clattered their way to her on the bookshelves, in her jewelry box, and on top of her library books.

Could you see them as a wee little charms for a bracelet, maybe spaced with some French pastries?


From the Elegant Sweets collection

"Well now," thought Amandine to herself, "Am I supposed to eat them, wear them, or frame them and admire them longingly from a distance?"

Wouldn't they make a sweet set of delicate rings, two or three to a finger with a frothy white top, jeans, and matching flats?

I found my sets at the Toy Tokyo booth at NYC ComicCon, but you can check the Re-Ment International website for the store nearest you. Till you can track down your own, the Re-Ment Addicts Flickr group is full of photos of every set you can imagine in some pretty creative vignettes. Happy hunting!

Do You Doodle?

Today at Barnes and Noble I ran into a display of some rather silly but sweet books, and one in particular caught my eye.



Do you remember the Anti-Coloring Books? They had a little prompt, a little line drawing for setting, and big white spaces for you to imaginatively doodle to your heart's content. Beautiful Doodles, by Nellie Ryan, has the same premise, but it's relentlessly cute, with pages with pet shops to fill, cakes to decorate, and store windows to design and oh, I could go on, but shall link you to the Amazon.co.uk Preview instead.

(And look! A sequel coming out this fall.)

Inspired? When you finish that one, how about Doodles: A Really Giant Coloring and Doodling Book, The Girls' Doodle Book, The Boys' Doodle Book, and the Rosie Flo and Johnny Joe coloring books. The last two series especially neat, as you're given outlines of dresses and costumes, with the white space to fill in who's wearing them-and before you rant at me about gender roles, nobody's saying that there's a girl in those frocks or a boy in the wetsuit-so get creative! I'd probably fill mine with giraffe, peacock, dinosaur and bunny people just because I can. (Also because I like dinosaurs.)

You could use them as writing prompts, or work them into art journal and scrapbook layouts. You could photocopy them and pass em around to your friends for semi-ironic fun while waiting for dinner at restaurants. You could cut out little people and make a Paper Doll Window Treatment, a la Mark Montano; see The Big Ass Book of Crafts for details. Oh, the possibilities!

Capsule Prize Reviews: That's Pretty

Like those little plastic bubbles you get for 25 cents, here are some teeny reviews to tide you over until I have the stamina for a long review.

(The answer to Why do you review so many craft books, Rie? is They're shorter, easier to digest, and we get a ton of them at Four-Letter-Third-Wave Magazine.)

Tracy Porter's Inspired Gatherings is surreally decadent and fairy-taleish, taking place in a world where the silverware is crowned with millinery flowers, champagne glasses topped with sugar, and plaster cupids embellished with rhinestones. This book gilds, fluffs, and glitters the lily, and I love it all the more for that. With a candy-colored palette and collagelike approach to decorating, this is so much the Weetzie Bat Guide to Parties, and its over-the-topness makes up for a lack of practicality (though I do like the Snowglobe Party Gift idea--get a clear plastic container and fill it with glitter and tiny treasures.)



Sonya Nimri's Beadalicious takes her DIY ethic to jewelry making. Each piece remakes vintage and thrift shop treasures in fresh ways, with accessories to match every aesthetic. The ethereal type may favor a Blossoming Branch necklace, the grown-up candy raver a Goodnight Moon choker, and the rockabilly teenybopper the Fresh Cherry Drops earrings. Like Just for the Frill of It, the instructions are clear and well-detailed (down to where the vintage bits and bobs are acquired) and the jewelry beautifully presented--I love her books' bright, tropical, summery look. To top it all off, Nimri adds a matching recipe to each piece of jewelry: the Spotlight ring gets Drama Queen Pink Lemonade, the Old Time Button Headband is matched to Peach Button Cookies.

Taking Tea With Alice is another devastatingly pretty book that's all charm and less practicality, but is so much fun that I can't help but pore over it and dream a bit. A guide to Victorian Alice-in-Wonderland themed teas, there are games and a little bit of history and many pictures of well-dressed children and delicious looking tea party fare. I've yet to try out the Butterfly Bites or Frozen Charlotte cake, but the recipes look simple enough for a beginning baker. My favorite bit? The fairy themed Midsummer Night Tea. If you can't get to Alice's Tea Cup (my favorite restaurant in NYC, by the by-best described by the words bohemian, Carrollesque, and thebestsconesinNY), this little title may hold you over.

Extra Bits:
*Tracy Porter's Blog
*Naughty Secretary's interview with Sonya
(And for that matter, check out the Beadalicious Flickr and Etsy Shop)
*Pearls and Tea, a livejournal community for pretty little things. If you like the above books, you'll love it there
*If you combine all three titles, you get An Idea, Perfectly Illustrated by Gala Darling, where she elaborates on how to "dress like a cupcake should feel"
*A Fanciful Twist held a Tiny Tea Party on her blog; if you should ever need inspiration for a daily outfit or fashion sketches, visit the comments
*Oktavia's Neo-Martha has an apartment with all the whimsy of Porter, but in a sort of vintage-bohemian way.
*Do you fancy Nature Baroque? Cocotte is a sweet assemblage series made from blown eggs, insect wings, and teardrops

Glamour Bomb!

(Mildly NSFW for language, viewer beware)

Midsummer's Night is my favorite holiday, most likely because of my fond memories of the book Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. I always dreamed of having some sort of magical, whimsical gathering. However, with my coterie, any sort of celebration would end up like the above.

Of course, that's not a bad thing. Maybe I can convince the lot to join me for crafts and a cocktail on the 22nd. I'd wear something floaty with jeans, make everyone a passion fruit mimosa, and bring supplies for making pocket shrines, like this pretty one by OnceUpon.

A Little Dose of Personal Style: Just For the Frill of It by Sonya Nimri

I'm a fiend for fashion. Give me your unloved vintage print tunics, chenille-textured blouses, and brocade Mary Janes, your rhinestone-trimmed chokers and dollar store glass rings. Putting together a great outfit is one of my favorite artistic outlets, but alas, when you are a size twelve, and under five feet tall, finding the appropriate gilded clobber is a wee bit difficult. Lately, I've taken to the idea of reworking what I've got to breathe a bit of life into my post-collegiate wardrobe.

Enter Sonya Nimri, and her DIY fashion guide Just For the Frill of It:

I want to make something that rocks. I want it to be unlike anything I've seen out there--a one-of-a-kind original, Sonya-fied, inspired creation. A piece that comes forth from my brain, which is filled with the influences of street fashion, the runways of Paris, my travels around the world, my latest ideas and notions, and more.

Nimri has an eclectic, colorful style that would be right at home in Shangri-L.A. Intimidated? Don't be. In this book, the focus is on reconstructing pieces you already own or can easily thrift, and adding creative embellishments to the finished piece. A ribby tank plus ribbon and a bit of lace becomes the Laced with Charm top; a little black dress and a handful of costume jewelry can make you a Mademoiselle Coco cocktail frock. Starting with an excellent guide to What You Should Own and How You Can Do It (I especially appreciated the illustrated sewing diagrams, which continue throughout the book), the title progresses through an extravagantly femme collection of shrugs, skirts, purses, and creative miscellany, such as a brocade cummerbund and pansy-covered purse. The pieces featured are young and trendy, but that's the idea of books like this one. Why go out and spend goodness knows how much on something that will fall out of style in just a season, when you can create it from bits and bobs you already own? And, better yet, why not create your own sense of style?

Just for the Frill of It is gorgeously designed; the photography is clear and bright, with a beautiful palette. One of the most charming details is Nimri's list of top ten things to do while wearing this piece; you can "bring your neighbor flowers" or "make a family collage" in your Granny Bolero, or "buy yourself a new antique ring" or "talk to the garden fairies" in the Ruffled Around the Edges Skirt. It's such a personable touch; I hope it carries over into her next book on jewelry-making.

My only caveat is a tiny one: I would have liked to have seen a greater range of body types within the diverse set of models. If I could find what I liked off the rack, I wouldn't have picked up a book like this in the first place, and I know young women of all different shapes and sizes who feel the same way.

Bored with your kit? Freaked out by the relentless ebb and flow of trends and styles? Then pick up a copy of Just for the Frill of It, and start making your own wardrobe fabulous as only you can.

Sonya Style, the author's website, has a plethora of simple recipes, costume ideas, and theme party guides. If you love modern-but-colorful room decor, definitely check out the decorate section for unique bits like the strapping room divider and still life wall flowers.
Her second book, Beadalicious: 25 Fresh , Unforgettable Jewelry Projects for Beads Old and New will be out on April 1st.
You can watch Sonya in action, including some of the pieces featured in the book, in her demo reel (I spotted the Let's Get Physical shrug and Highland Lass cardigan):

Hey Day: Super-Amazing, Funk-Da-Crazing, Ultra-Glazing Things to Do, Make and Ponder Every Day of the Year by Super Clea and Keva Marie

Back in the day (the early Oughts), zines were kind of a big deal.
Think of graphic novels or manga now--zines were hot. Girl Power was hot, thanks to the unlikely combination of Dr. Mary Pipher and the Spice Girls. Craftiness was...kind of hot. Nothing like the humongous and all-devouring DIY movement of today, but still hot. So, HarperCollins took a leap and published Hey Day, a zine-ish daybook for the young, empowered and artsy crafty. It was scribed and designed (on an iMac! Those were the days.) by Keva Marie [Dine] and Super Clea [Hantman].

It's big, a little messy and totally exuberant with a charming naiveness. This is a daybook you could have cut and pasted with your best friend in high school during study periods, if you had the stamina. It's full of inside jokes and random asides and cute little doodles in the margin. Organized in a page-a-day format, you instructions for decorating your locker, meanderings about the word "epiphany," and a set of questions for making your friend the ideal birthday cake:

1. When the birthday person orders a milkshake, what flavor does he/she get? This is the flavor the cake should be.
2. If the birthday person were to buy a party wig, would it be blue or green or pink or white or what? This shall determine what flavor/color the frosting should be.
3. What kind of outfit would the birthday person most likely wear? This is how to decorate the cake.

There are love paens to your local library (<3!), weird little-known holidays to celebrate and essays on the beauty of girls with glasses and how one visit to a cool aunt's flat can change your perspective forever:

Ahh, the bliss I felt when she led us down the long white hall into her studio. My eyes raced over the room.Tables with paints sprawled all about, stacks of canvases, buckets of brushes and pens and pencils, piles of multicolored construction paper, and every tool you could imagine. Oh, and books, so many books. Books on Thai architecture, books on Paul Klee, Andy Warhol and even Madonna. More books than I'd ever seen in someone's house before.

I was overloaded, overjoyed. I had a flash. A moment of clarity: people do live art. Women do make art for a living. It is possible to live in the blissful creation of your own devices. I decided right then and there that when I had my own home I would revel in its beauty. I would live in it to the fullest and one day, one day when I was able to do it, I would work at home and make art. But in the meantime, I continued to sew buttons on everything.

Hey Day is kicky and young and eccentric, full of creative energy and good things to ponder. Though sadly out of print, it's worth picking up for the artsy/bookish/quirky pre-teen on your giftlist, or yourself if you're having a fit of nostalgia.

Excuse me while I turn up Patti Smith and make some fairy bread. The year 2001 is calling and she wants to reminisce.

Hey Day: Super Amazing, Funk-da-Crazing, Ultra-Glazing Things to Do, Make and Ponder Every Day of the Year by Super Clea and Keva Marie

Sadly, out of print, but try the fine sellers at Amazon.com (be sure to check their feedback!) and Albris. Bookcloseouts.com sometimes sells remainder copies; I recommend them wholeheartedly as they've given me the best service of any online bookseller.

Keva Dine, now a professional recruiter of creative types, has her own website.
I adore her essay on Why Girls Kick Ass.
Clea Hantman recently published the I Wanna series; 30 Days to Getting Over the Dork You Used To Call Your Boyfriend will be out in January 2008.

You can read interviews with the authors at Craftygal and TeenReads.com.

Oh, and here's a recipe for fairy bread. Randomly, Australia has really cute snacks: fairy bread, lamingtons, butterfly cakes, pavlova...lamington butterfly cakes.

The New Breed of Scrapbookers: Scrap City by Paul Gambino

So loving parents of large families do it, that one's a given. Professional mermaids do it, too. So do the members of Bettie After Midnight, and tattooed sword-swallowers.

Of course they scrapbook. Everyone does nowadays. Good in that antique key stickers, rub on type and stunning handmade papers can be found in your local Micheal's. Bad in that unless you're into pastels and cutesy sayings, you'll have to dig around for suitable materials to illustrate such events in your life as "My First Day at the Strand, or Why Rie Isn't Allowed to Buy More Books Than She Can Carry" or "Marina's Day Scaring Necking Couples in the Greenbelt." Or maybe that's just my life....

Fortunately, within the past year more publishers have been coming out with material for the atypical scrapbooker and then some, this book being one of them. Featured within Scrap City are artfully preserved memories of a photoshoot in an antique train yard, a season's collection of art bras (no, really, with a collaborative Panty Journal to match), and anti-war protests in Italy. The styles range from Tracy Galasso's deftly simple pages with glassine envelopes and spidery text to the darkly baroque digital collages of Estelle Ever. Each artist was given free range to describe their work and techniques; my only regret is that more of them did not choose to write about the process and emotions going into the work as opposed to the actual construction of them. Though the artists receive top billing, the book closes with a short section on crafting your own scrapbook--I was especially impressed by the thorough discussion on archival materials.

Pick it up if you're a Somerset Studios kind of crafter and want something both pretty and practical for the coffee table.

Scrap City by Paul Gambino
Official Website (history, multimedia bits and bobs, sample pages, a place to submit your own pages, and so on and so forth)
Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Powell's

Inspired? Try Silver Crow Creations for the "fun to funky, pretty to poetic, esoteric to ethereal - gifts, artistic rubber stamps, art supplies, and sundries of all kinds," Turtle Arts for "journals, sketchbooks, journaling and altered book supplies" and FLAXart for arty gifts and chichi supplies to drool over.