No linkity next week! Hopefully there’s enough here to sustain you. 🙂

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (romance) and Dear Author (romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• Bookish links from Becky Black.
• Smart Bitches have tips on handling a reading slump.
• Listen to Neil Gaiman read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
• “Literary tourism: Alnwick, United Kingdom“. (My dad and stepmom have stayed in the castle several times whilst my stepmom was teaching there.)
• Shelfie.
• “11 novels so amazing you can’t tell what genre they are“.
• “24 things people slightly obsessed with reading know to be true“. (Thanks, Jase!)
• “101 lies to tell so you can stay home and read“.
• Most excellent bookish t-shirt.
• Bookish necklaces from etsy.

‘Tis the Season of Gift Guides

• For tea lovers.
• For sports fans.
• For teachers.
• For bread bakers.
• For colorists.
• For coffee lovers.
• For commuters.
• For chocolate lovers.
• For people who love to spend time in the kitchen.
• For when you need a gift that’s $10 or less.
• If you feel like making edible gifts…
• Gifts you can make for readers.
• Last-minute gifts you can make.
• From Smart Bitches: “Useful, Fun, and Silly Things”.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• Gizmodo’s picks for the top 2015 science stories.
• “76 viral images from 2015 that were totally fake“.
• See 120 New York subway stops in 120 seconds.
• If you don’t have time to drop unwanted things at Goodwill, you can ship them for free.
• “Watch the original Star Wars trilogy as it was before George Lucas screwed it up“.
• Tips from a NASA engineer on how to build a Death Star.
• If you missed the Geminid Meteor Shower…
• The sad state of women’s rights in the US.
• 25 tidbits about Minnesota.
• Learn all about Winnipeg, Manitoba… in 1964.

Cookity

• 5 spiced chicken dishes.
• Chicken tamales with pumpkin mole.
• Spicy chipotle bean dip with baked tortilla chips.
• 20 breakfast casseroles.
• 10 sweet and savory pancakes.
• Peanut butter stuffed brownies. (via mackinnons)
• Chocolate crinkle cookies.
• Lumberjack cake. (via mental_floss)

Gluten Free

• Extra chewy chocolate chip cookies.
• Soft and chewy ginger cookies.
• Crispy coconut cookies.

Artsy Crafty

• “Design a scarf with your DNA“.
• Knit the fourth Doctor’s scarf per the Official BBC Directions. (Thanks, PD!)
• “Knit yourself a pair of Netflix socks that pause your show when you fall asleep“.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Galaxy macarons.
• Short animated film about a girl saving a crashed pilot.
• Surreal short video.
• “Beach Cities Christmas“.
• Mural with all the families of birds.
• “Hatching” dinosaur egg candle.
• LEGO kits to replicate famous city skylines.
• Drawing of a black kitty.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Embroidered leaves. (via puckling)
• “Watch as London’s Tube is recreated with over 1500 chocolates“.
• Light saber flask.
• Star Wars gingerbread houses.
• Glowing Star Trek transporter pad coasters.
• Dark Side of the Moon tree topper.

Wha…?

• Sriracha yogurt.
• Bacon-scented underwear.
• World’s ugliest public transit seats.
• Light saber windshield wipers. (scroll down) (via The Mary Sue)
• “15 bizarre Star Wars branded products“.
• “15 bizarre holiday albums“.
• “Curl up this winter with five straight hours of a burning Darth Vader Yule log“.
• Goat-themed Christmas album.
• North Carolina town does not understand what solar power is.
• Moscow’s cemeteries will have wifi.
• Seats in a bubble on top of the airplane.

LOL

• When you can see geese swimming in the lake, the ice is not safe.
• Narrative critique of “Do You Hear What I Hear?”. (via gilajames)
• Batman, Cake Wrecks style. Christmas, Cake Wrecks style. And more Cake Wrecks.
• The Slap Kirk web game.

Teh Cute

• Fancy egret and babies! Baby tiger! Panda and babies! Kitty! Baby tiger!

Reading Update
Printmaking+Mixed Media: Simple Techniques and Projects for Paper and Fabric by Dorit Elisha. Good overview of all sorts of different types of printmaking, from monoprinting to screen printing and more. Definitely found some things I’m going to try out in my art journaling. This is one I’ll be picking up used for reference.
Stencil Girl: Mixed-Media Techniques for Making and Using Stencils by Mary Beth Shaw. I did get some ideas for using stencils in my art journaling, but I wasn’t particularly interested in the sections on woodburning, metalwork, cake decorating, or encaustic.
Dreaming from the Journal Place: Transforming the Sketchbook to Art by Melanie Testa. This one didn’t really work for me. It covers a lot of ground – from drawing and painting to carving rubber stamps to extremely detailed instructions for dyeing fabric. And it felt like the journal bit was more of an afterthought than anything else.
Sidney Crosby: A Hockey Story (Revised and Updated) by Paul Arseneault and Paul Hollingsworth. So-so young adult hockey biography covering the years 2002 through the end of the 2007 season (the season before the Pittsburgh Penguins lost in the Stanley Cup Final to Detroit). This was of the very “rah rah” sorts of YA books – it didn’t touch on the vitriol Crosby faced from parents and players alike, nor did it mention any of the injuries incurred along the way.

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“I wish the birds would come back.” -Mayhem