Try It, You'll Like It

If you've never read Dooce, you've got to try it. Today's post is short, hilarious and typically Dooce, a perfect-sized appetizer portion of reality. Just click here.

Where Have I Been Lately?

If you've been wondering, the answer can be found here and here and here. I've been busy finding my CafePress mojo. But I will blog again. I promise. Maybe even tonight.

Lessons I have learned from my travels:

1. You should not try to draw with a mouse, unless you are a glutton for punishment. Surfer girl at Surf School Designs was drawn entirely with a mouse from scratch. Oh gluttony, thou art my favorite sin. Luckily for me, Santa (read Wacom) was delayed and will be bringing me a graphics tablet, either that or wrist splints . . . and a shoulder brace.

2. In the battle of mouse v. human, it's really a draw. While the human eventually manages to force the mouse to do said human's bidding, mouse has also encouraged human to remain tethered to it during time that in all logic should be spent sleeping.

Fresh Holiday Art, Get It While It's Hot

Nature's holiday is captured in clean lines in these idyllic Charley Harper prints featured at Kitsune Noire. A sparrow, a cardinal and at least five raccoons join in the fun.

Read about the artist, Charley Harper, here.

Online Story Time, Fun for the Kiddies

"Snowpeople," by Rick & Ryan Zeeb, is a colorful illustrated tale praising the beauty of individual appearance. It reminds children, "Different is brilliant. It's what makes you you." Hear it read by Marlo Thomas and see every richly colored page at the Saks Fifth Avenue site. Two dollars from the sale of each book will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, one of my favorite charities.

p.s. -- You don't have to buy the book to see it read. Just click above. It's a lot of fun visually, and a nice break from cartoon reruns.

Toys Not Made in China, Making Finding Them Easier

The Cool Mom Picks Safer Toy Guide is a toddler mom's toy fantasy land. It boasts the best finds of the season for moms who are fed up with toy recalls. Sellers offer gifts in almost every price range, from the $6 set of four colorful German-made balls at Oompa Toys to the $249 rocking dory hand-crafted by artisanal Maine wood-workers at Nova Naturals Toys and Crafts.

While major retailers are slower to respond to demand for toys not made in China, some toys made in the USA and in Germany can be found on the web sites of FAO Schwarz, Target and Toys R Us. These retailers don't make it easy though. Searching the sites is time consuming and often fruitless. Many, if not most, of the toys offered are made in China and, particularly in the case of Target and Toys R Us, often little or no manufacturing information is offered. (We found even if we called customer service to ask where a particular product was made, a Kiddi-O Tricycle by Kettler, neither Target nor Toys R Us could tell us. They suggested calling a local store, not exactly an efficient use of time.)

Even "The FAO Schwarz Toy Buying Guide," includes a statement from CEO Ed Schmults saying, "All toys sold in the US must meet certain US government safety standards concerning safety (choking hazards, toxic substances, etc.). However, the recent recalls suggest that it is possible for harmful substances to make it into toys." Perhaps an understatement?

Schmults also says, "There are many quality-oriented factories in China that don’t cut corners, but if you are uncomfortable with China production, then seek out alternative toys made with quality design and quality raw materials." While Scmults acknowledges that some people may be uncomfortable with China production, to continue defending Chinese manufacturers seems almost counterproductive. At this point, parents are more concerned with finding alternatives to toys made in China than trying to find a quality-oriented factory in China that can be trusted with the health of their children.

Schmults does go on to offer some helpful advice about selecting quality toys in general saying, "Look at how the product was designed : Does every part have a purpose? Toys with excessive moving parts can be prone to breakage and factories may use cheaper materials to reduce the cost of manufacturing a complex item." Notably, FAO Schwarz does stay ahead of Target, Wal-Mart and Toys-R-Us by offering the capability to search for toys by country of origin. Then again, based on price and reputation, it seems FAO Schwarz should be offering more non-China products than they are.

All-in-all, mainstream American retailers are still missing the mark in responding to the recent toy recalls, leading former customers to smart solutions like The Cool Mom Picks Safer Toy Guide and new relationships with the toy sellers found there.

Is It Too Late to Return the Turkey?

Best Thanksgiving Help Sites:

Visit CooksIllustrated.com for the full Thanksgiving survival guide.

Better Homes and Gardens offers a step-by-step guide from buying and thawing to roasting and carving.

Hot lines and online help links abound at About.com, links for everything from Butterball to OceanSpray.

"Last Minute Turkey Day Salvation," from Wired.com, features tips for the seemingly unsavable turkey.

Kids table conundrums are solved at MarthaStewart.com, where you'll find creative ideas, complete with instructions and patterns.

Seriously short on time? For easy last-minute options, visit the Boar's Head DigiCatessen. Click on the turkey, and do a little last minute turkey salvation dance as their many options for pre-cooked turkey pop up.

Thanksgiving Dinner

I won't be cooking a big bird. In fact, eating out is my idea of a festive Thanksgiving. How about you?

The Best Saddlebag a Gal Could Ever Have

The Skip*Hop Saddlebag, seen above in pink camo, is perfectly sized to fit diapers, wipes, cell phone, drivers license, and debit card for a quick jaunt out with two toddlers. Velcro straps on back fasten securely onto grocery carts and strollers, and an array of pockets allows easy access to essentials.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I won this one and liked it so much I purchased two Skip*Hop Dash diaper bags which double as very hip messenger bags.

For Veterans Day, Holiday Parcels to Iraq

For all our armed forces do and sacrifice, Liv is organizing a parcel sending party to bring a little home for the holidays to our men and women in Iraq. Click here to visit her blog to learn more.

Shopping with Style, While Wearing Pajamas

Ah, the luxury of shopping online, pajamas, a bottomless cup of cappuccino, no disgruntled sales clerks, and now Etsy. Featuring hand-made, hippest of the hip goods, Etsy.com offers shoppers an alternative to stale products mass-produced in China. From cork mats to superhero capes, there is an abundance of creative goods to keep the debit card warm.

Among the many currently calling to my card:

Holiday Cards from MagnoliaMoonlight. Retro Christmas trees and Asian inspired snowflake vines top cards edgy, but not over the top.

Hand-stitched vintage textiles and papers from Cotton Bird Designs. Little birds stitched from vintage fabrics, old maps, and ticket paper give recycled items new life.

Retro-fab car litter bags from Allyson Hill. Remember that lame plastic trash bag Grandma insisted on taking in the car in 1975? Now that I have kids, I so understand. Car litter bags are back and with ever so much more style.

Kids' custom superhero capes from Panjo. What all the cool superheros will be wearing this spring.

Cork mats from Shandke. Aesthetically pleasing in color, shape, and texture, subtly varied shades of cork arranged in a staggered pattern tempt bare toes.

These and more are available at Etsy, where independent designers and crafters share their goods.

Art Sports Online -- Layer Tennis

Layer Tennis -- A graphic design throw-down, roughly the equivalent of playing the dozens in Adobe Illustrator. An initial design is volleyed back and forth between two artists, each applying his or her own spin with each revision.

Commentary by Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com. Art by Marian Bantjes and Armin Vit.

View the match at Coudal.com.

It's NaBloPoMo. Let's Go!

For one crazy month, bloggers around the world participate in National Blog Posting Month. 30 days, 30 posts. Sheer madness. Visit here daily to chronicle a journey through NaBloPoMo.

Let's go!


To join the fun, visit www.nablopomo.com and sign up.

Southern California Fires: Helpful Links

-- Current San Diego County fire news

-- Breaking fire news from LA's ABC affiliate, heavily focused on Malibu, with some coverage for other areas

-- Tips for preparing for evacuation

-- Guide to maintaining indoor air quality during wildfires

Weekend Political Feature: In Their Words, Iraq War Blogs

A roundup of commentary from soldiers and their spouses and Iraqi citizens:


Dragonfly, the blog of a personal friend whose husband is currently serving in Iraq. This post is particularly insightful. I admire the grace and strength with which she approaches life while her husband is at war.

She Who Waits from the loving wife of a marine serving another tour of duty in Iraq.

Intel Dump from Phillip Carter who served in the Army's 101st Airborne Division as an adviser to the Iraqi police in 2005 and 2006.

Great Baghdad, the blog of Al-Rasheed, a 33-year-old man living and working in Baghdad. In "The Federal State of Iraq" he supplies an analysis of what some politicians and pundits positively spin as federalism in Iraq.

My War
"Endlessly surprising…delightfully profane… an unfiltered, often ferocious expression of his boots-on-the-ground point-of-view of the Iraq war."
- Arianna Huffington

An American Soldier, in Still Alive, January 15, 2007, Rob offers a first-hand account of Al Qaeda's strong presence in Iraq.

Baghdad Burning a young Iraqi woman tells of her plight and that of her country.

365 and a Wakeup from soldier who returned home in 2006. Excellent photos from a soldier's viewpoint. Albums accessible from the right column. Links to United States Central Command and Military.com sites.


(Blogs of current soldiers and military spouses are subject to regulation under military code and therefore may be subjected to heightened scrutiny.)

Think Pink

Okay, so I don't drink coffee from a pink cup. yet. Only because I don't have one. But I would so very gladly vacuum my house with a pink vacuum. And if I could help beat breast cancer by doing so? Well, that would just rock. Check out the new PINK Dyson debuting at Target and the giveaway going on at ModMom.

Mortgage Market Woes Explained -- A Brief Explanation of the "Loan to Own" Approach of Lenders

If you have any financial decisions to make, other than just how to spend the interest income from your inexhaustible trust fund, it's important to understand the cause and impact of the current mortgage crisis. In this video, John Vogel, from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, gives a brief, easy to understand explanation of the "Loan to Own" theory that furthered the competitive mortgage lending frenzy.

I found it interesting and think you might too.

Video from Beet.TV

Flitting through the Blogosphere -- New Faves

Ah, the life of the bloginista, so much to read and so little time. How to decide? I will share with you a few of my recent finds.

You can be sure these are really, really enticing. How can you be sure? Because my friends, I have the attention span of an impatient fruit fly on crack. If a blog does not catch and hold my attention within the first half second, I'm off flitting through the blogosphere in search of the next tasty morsel upon which to feast my starving mind.

Mom 101 -- Funny, real and touching.

Lawyer Mama -- Never afraid to take on the tough topics, always writing with style.

Slacker-Moms-R-Us -- Funny, oh so funny, and the real deal.

Blog Con Queso -- A riot, an absolute laugh riot.

from The Toddler Files

You can create your own card at Blyberg.net. Thanks to Jerusalem at My Little Life for the great find.

Friday Fun -- Gustafer for Fun

Click here to explore Gustafer's lovely life and home. See if you can find the mint green bee and the cookie recipe.

Want a quick summary on Gustafer? Click to watch the video below.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine Animation by Jlaruby