Delicious cookies

Thumbprint cookies made with raspberry jam are delicious. I use this recipe for traditional Swedish Rosenmunnar from Allrecipes. They refrigerate well too!

Does anyone else have favorite cookie recipes?

You'll need:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup any flavor fruit jam

Then you'll have to:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add sifted flour, and mix well. Shape dough into 1 inch diameter balls and place on cookie sheets. Imprint your thumb in the center to make a 1/2 inch indentation. Fill with your favorite preserves.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown at the edges.

Weekly health tip #7 - Keep it up!

This is somewhat of an ironic post, as what I have not been doing is keeping up with this blog, but in defense, I have kept up with my exercise plan!

It is hard to get into the habit of exercising daily. It generally takes at least two weeks. But getting out of the habit of exercising? Now, that's easy, just takes a day or two, and there are always good excuses - stress at work, a cold, travel. But don't let those things derail you, especially the stress (exercise helps relieve stress, so if you stop because you have a lot on your mind, you're just feeding the cycle). If you do need a break, try a lighter workout, but give yourself a definite time to get back on track. Specific goals are harder to break than ambiguous ones, so be specific, and keep working out!

Hold on to your cash...

...in one of these lovely fabric wallets from Uplifting Arts. There are three designs available, and each is only $9.99. My favorite is the "Breeze" wallet in turquoise and gray.

Earrings from ap4c

Check out these two new earring designs from a planet for creation: quan yin earrings and these lovely fan-shaped zodiac earrings. Both are only $6 a pair. Make sure to check out the rest of the site too, because just about everything there is wonderful! (ETA: I took the image down because my hotlinking was causing trouble for ap4c, but you should still head over to the website to check out these super-chic earrings!)

Tutus and weddings

New on the greeting card scene is Prima Creative, with a shop over at CafePress. I'm digging all the different holiday dress/tutu cards, and the all-pupose wedding cards would be great for shower invitations or as thank you cards. My favorite design is the Lavendar Sparkle Tutu (left) - I love it!

Prices are $14.99 for packages of 6 cards, or $8.99 for packs of 8 postcards. That's a steal for such chic cards!


P.S. I'm doubling up on posts today because I have a paper deadline coming up, and I won't have time to post this weekend. Sorry!

Round and round...

Shoshona Snow's etsy shop has incredible pottery - the pieces are beautifully made and beautifully glazed. The designs are so chic too, and can fit in almost any decor. I love her modern vase ($25), this gorgeous blue and white pitcher ($28, see image), and the adorable porcelain earrings (various styles, $5.95 and up). The artist makes all her own glazes too - pretty incredible!

I'm back again!

Hello, trusty readers! I apologize for the long hiatus. Between my last health tip and the tryptophan from a delicious Thanksgiving turkey, it seems I took a lot more sleep then usual this past week.

I'm back with a really awesome site, though - Elsewares! This place has great jewelry (baseball cuffs!), housewares (ticket bowls!), toys (whatever this thing is!), and more. Some favorites:

• pearls for $50, shown below
  
• record bowls for $26
• telegram cards for $12
• these sweet purses for $50, $60, and $95, respectively

Happy hunting!

Weekly health tip #6 - Sleep in!

If you aren't getting 6-8 hours of sleep each night, your immune system doesn't work as well, you won't have as much energy, and you won't be as mentally sharp as you should be. So make sure to leave yourself enough time each night to become fully rested. If you are having trouble falling or staying asleep, try some of the following:

• Exercise every day, but always more than 3 hours before you go to bed. Daily exercise will help regulate your neurochemistry, but the endorphin rush can keep you up if it's too close to bedtime.
• Don't watch TV or stay in rooms with bright lights for 30-60 minutes before you hit the sack - the lights will make your brain think it is earlier in the day than it really is.
• Make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet, and the right temperature.

Dishtowels

To go with the lovely apron a penguin featured recently, how about a wonderful set of retro dishtowels? These towels are $12 for a set of two at Sweet Pea Handcrafts. Each set becomes ready for gift-giving in a takeout style box, and the holiday designs come with a mitten cookie cutter too. How sweet!

There are 10 designs to choose from. Sadly, the KitchenAid stand mixer is not included, but matching aprons are available for $27, if that makes you feel any better

Word verification

We've had a few bots come around to spam the comments sections of some of the posts here, so I've enabled word verification for comments. I know it's a pain, but I think it is better than the alternative. Sorry!

Delicious!

Anne recommends this pumpkin pie recipe from epicurious.com. I tried it myself this weekend, and I have to say, it's truly delicious! Like her, I skipped the homemade crust in favor of a store bought one (thank you, Pillsbury dough boy!) even though I'm sure Tanya Patrice could write a book on how bad those crusts really are for you. So next time I will make my own pie crust, from scratch, and also probably add a teaspoon of ground cloves to the recipe.

But now I should eat something really good for me to make up for the pie. Any suggestions?

Weekly health tip #5 - Pair up!

If you have trouble with motivation, either in terms of sticking to a food plan or an exercise plan, get yourself a partner. Being accountable to someone else will help you reach your goals. So recruit a friend so you can both make sure you stick to your plans, or find an exercise partner who matches your level of athleticism and your exercise interests, at a website like ExerciseFriends.com, or by posting an ad on your local Craigslist (of course, be careful when meeting anyone over the internet).

So get a partner (or two, or three) and see how much it helps you to get, or stay, fit.

Awww...

Okay, Ashley Peldon looks so adorable in this photo! She looks fresh and bright and pretty, and I love her dress even if the Fug Girls don't. (I do want that dress, so if anyone knows where to get a reasonable approximation, 'fess up!)

Evidently Ashley has started her own perfume line, and while I can't vouch for the quality of the products, I do think the whole Hollywood theme is pretty cute. (By the way, she looks really cute in that photo too, except for the mildly excessive cleavage. Maybe I should get bangs.)

Clearly Ashley's degree in psychology is warranted, because now I totally want to buy her perfumes. So here's the deal - if I hear from my readers that the perfumes are a good deal, I'll buy one and review it here.

smitten

It's getting late. Takeout is too expensive (also, often it is the unhealthy choice), so you have to cook, but you're already dolled up. What you need is the perfect apron.

Smitten has the most gorgeous, frilly aprons. I know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but look at this pink one! Gorgeous!

Sprout cocktail earrings!

Okay, I know the title of this post looks like a spam subject line, where several random words are strung together, like "Cardigan jar six-pack" or "leftover cliche heaven" or even "aborigine certified mail". But no, I am referring to the earrings currently on sale over at sprout studios; each is named after a different cocktail drink, and they are all lovely! My favorites are the bird of paradise pair ($14.50, shown left) and the bellevue pair (sold out - oh no!). Snap up a pair, for yourself or a friend, before they are all gone!

Weekly health tip #4 - Drink up!

Everyone knows you should drink six to eight glasses of water a day, right? Well, if those are 8 oz. glasses, that's only good enough for those under about 130 lbs. You should drink 1/2 oz. of water daily for every pound you weigh. So a linebacker weighing in at 230 lbs. needs 115 oz. of water a day, which is about 14 glasses!

I keep a pitcher of filtered water by my desk, and have a glass of water every hour or so. My coworkers might think I'm weird, but who cares?

Win free stuff!

While we here at SG don't have any giveaway contest schedules now (we're working on it though!) we wanted to clue you in to giveaways at other blogs.

Head over to Holland Cox to enter the Happily Handmade giveaway, and you could win a gift basket valued over $200, plus you'll be entered into a second contest for one of Valerie's gorgeous handmade handbags! Once you've entered at Holland Cox, you can visit the other sponsors, and enter at their sites too. But hurry, the contest is only open through Oct. 29.

Done? Great, now visit the Lingerie Post - by joining their newletter you'll be entered into their quarterly lingerie giveaway. All prizes will be shipped through major vendors, so you will be able to pick the colors and sizes you prefer.

Alright kids, one more: the awesome indie blog Modish has a monthly giveaway; you can see this month's incredible gift basket here. Just subscribe to the newsletter and all that stuff could be yours!

Good luck!

Pumpkins!

It's autumn here in the Northern hemisphere, which means we get to eat pumpkin pie [1], and carve Jack-o-Lanterns, and drink spiced apple cider, and go trick-or-treating (okay, maybe some of us are a little too old for trick-or-treating, which is why some long-forgotten genius invented the Halloween party!), and those of us far enough North get gorgeous autumn leaves.

I know that plenty of people dislike Martha Stewart, but there is no denying that these lace patterned Jack-o-Lanterns are pretty incredible. I live in an apartment, so I don't have a front porch on which to display my carved pumpkins, but that won't stop me!

[1] Speaking of pumpkin pie, does anyone have a favorite recipe? I generally use the one on the back of the can of pureed pumpkin, but I'd like to branch out.

Update

An update to this post: U.S. customers can get this knife block set on sale for $59.99 and up, depending on the color you want. Unfortunately Overstock.com will only ship within the U.S., but try Froogle to find vendors in other countries. (Edited to give a valid link.)

Bargain bags

I love the tie-silk bags at J. Crew, and they aren't badly priced either. This wristlet is $29.50, and this makeup bag is $24.50. But if you look in the "crewcuts" section (crewcuts is their children's line) you'll find this handbag (left) on sale for only $14.99, in 4 different patterns. What a steal! You can stock up now and always have one on hand as a last-minute birthday gift.