Friday Round Up

Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania-beautiful little corner of Southwestern, PA. Filled with rural beauty and a host of critters. Wild turkeys, rabbits, possums, deer, pheasants and skunks all call this bucolic place home. I don't recall ever actually seeing that many skunks, but every once in awhile you would catch the aroma of one, or one of the poor things would get themselves squashed on the road. These skunks were the black and white variety. Speaking of that someone should write a children's book on all of the black and white animals-skunks, orcas, magpies, zebras....Anywho-back to skunks. I didn't know that there were other varieties of skunks until I visited the Skunk Haven website. Any and everything one could possibly know about skunks is on this site. Scroll down to the Skunk Colors link (it's PDF)and see the variety.

Any event that I have attended for the last couple of years has had a plethora of cupcakes. They have been all of the rage. And why not. There are hundreds of recipes, thousands of different types of icing or frosting and loads of ways to decorate cupcakes. Plus they are perfect for kids parties. What might have proved tricky is transporting these babies. Not anymore. Meet the cupcake courier.
Here's Linens N Things version.

Some very cool and helpful knitter has created a Random Stripe generator.

I'm a sugar addict all the way, but every once in awhile I get a hankering for potato chips. My favorite from when I was a kid was Wise Barbecued Potato Chips. The couple times a year I "need" to nourish my salt craving I usually end up with Pringles or whatever I can find in the drugstore. The Chippie might assist me in broadening my salty horizons.

If you are in the market for ribbons, buttons, any sort of bric-a-brac then visit the Tinsel Trading Company website and if you are lucky enough to be in New York City give them a visit. There story is just as charming as their website and I'm sure their store.

Belly timber, hissian and betokens aren't words you hear very often. Twould though it should be. After perusing the list of words on the How to Speak 19th Century site I was surprised and pleased to see how many words are still used in every day language.

I sometimes wonder where I have been to have missed certain things in life. Even though I do relish in these discoveries, those moments when it seems like the universe is really a great place and is even focusing on you for a millisecond. That is how I felt when I discovered these Enid Collins purses. I love folk art, more so than any other type of art. These purses just blew me away. There are quite a few on eBay, most out of my price range. Here are some that have been lovingly placed on Flickr.

And speaking of things I have never heard of vist Dirty Laundry's wonderful blog and see her post and image of the Silkie Chicken. Who knew????

If you have small children or if you are just a children's literature nut like I am you must, must read Alphaoops!: The Day Z went First by Alethea Kontis. I have a thing about alphabet books anyway and this one is just adorable and very clever.

Have a wonderful weekend. (I'm so excited it's finally getting to be my type of weather-YIPEEE!!!!)

"Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?" Stephen Wright