A Piece O’ Cake Gift Guide — Updated 12/1

Thanksgiving is behind us, and it’s time to turn our attention to the festivities ahead. Here is your updated gift guide with special deals, stocking stuffers, and new ideas.

Find gifts for all ages, for quilters and crafters, and for those who enjoy life in other ways. When visiting pieceocake.com, hover your mouse over Shop in the menu bar at the top of the page. Then hover over The Gift Shop. You’ll see “Gifts for Everyone” and “The Gift of Sewing” with options listed below each.

Gifts For Everyone:

Stocking Stuffers is NEW in Gifts for Everyone. It includes an assortment of small gadgets, scissors, nail files, and other useful and delightful tools and trinkets.

Then Butterflies, Beetles, and Birds! Created and produced in the Netherlands, Assembli Kits are made with paper passion. These eco friendly, sturdy paper kits can be found in Europe, and in a few museums here in the US—and at Piece O’ Cake!!!

They are made from high quality paper, and each comes with a stand that sits on a surface or can be hung on the wall. Assemble more than one and display them together. This is a fun activity for kids and adults! They are neatly packaged flat, and slide easily into a stocking 😉.

“It is the sweet simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” Gingiber Tea Towels + are next in the list.

You’ll find quality tea towels, aprons, art prints, pouches, stickers, and even a small and pretty blank notebook to uplift and encourage.

Stacie Bloomfield, founder of Arkansas-based Gingiber, creates inspiring, bold, art with vibrant colors and unexpected patterns, printed on towels that actually dry your dishes and hands!

I appreciate the density of her pretty patterns on tea towels; they hide stains, and in my kitchen that keeps the tea towels in circulation longer. They also make perfect little gifts to bring to holiday dinners and parties. Make it fancy! —wrap a festive Gingiber tea towel around a bottle of wine or sparkling cider.

(And don’t forget there’s a Tea Towel Deal —buy 4 get $8 off your order— discount applied automatically at checkout.)

I’m committed to wrapping gifts this year with reusable, sustainable cloth—these tea towels, maybe a scarf, or yardage from my stash. I made a quick how-to video for this art of wrapping. In Japan it’s Furoshiki, and Korea it’s Bojagi, and you’ll see at least one comment from a South African where they’ve been doing the same for generations.

Now we come to the very best presents for little ones. eeBoo Puzzles + includes two carefully chosen games this year. One can be uproariously noisy and funny, the other more quiet, pretty, and thoughtful. Both are winners of the Oppenheimer Gold Best Toy Award!

Sloth in a Hurry is an extra-hilarious version of charades. This fast moving improv game is eeBoo’s current best seller.

Memory games are so important for developing brains, and not bad at all for our more fully developed brains as we get older 😉. As always, eeBoo brings the high quality cardboard pieces that really do feel nice to touch and hold. This particular set has the sweetest artwork we’ve ever seen. Woodland Memory & Matching Game is filled with forest fauna and flora, lovely colors, and finished with a luxurious copper colored gilding.

And yes, puzzles! eeBoo makes our most favorite puzzles. They commission well loved artists, use sustainably sourced materials, and create high quality pieces with minimal puzzle dust. All of that really matters, and impacts the touch and feel and enjoyment these puzzles bring. This year saw some of the best puzzles yet!

Absolute best seller, and our favorite of all time, The Alchemist’s Home, was joined this year by The Alchemist’s Orchard. Both display a modern family co-existing with friendly ghosts, and both home and garden are filled with charming details, myriad creatures, and happy plants!

And then there are the Blackwing pencils and accessories, plus a NEW special eraser deal! Read on to discover.

When you hold a Blackwing pencil, feel it pressed onto paper, it can ruin all other pencils 🤣. Seriously. I deeply love these pencils, how they feel and how they write. Give someone you love the joy of Blackwing.

I carry 3 graphite types (plus one more, limited edition): Soft/Matte for drawing and sketching, Firm and Extra Firm for fabric (lightly!), writing, and sketching (and 2x Extra Firm, limited edition, for the same).

Choosing can be daunting, so we have brought back the Graphite Sampler Set (shown above) that includes 2 each Matte, 602, and Extra-Firm Natural pencils plus the versatile One-Step Sharpener.

I personally have all three Blackwing sharpeners, and use them. If you need more information, my video comparison can help.

Blackwing periodically releases limited edition pencils. These Volumes come with themes and stories, and are very pretty pencils. We have a few that are now unavailable elsewhere. Browse here.

Blackwing’s pencil accessories are effective, sleek, and make life easier, and they are an affordable treat. The Point Guard is a cap that protects your sharpened pencil tip, and also protects your drawer or bag or purse from marks. Blackwing’s Handheld Eraser is a bit magical, my video explains more.

The NEW deal: We double-bought the Handheld Eraser Replacements and you win! We are giving away a whole 3-pack of these magical replacements (which can be used without the holder) with every Blackwing purchase over $35. This deal will last as long as our supplies do. That’s a $10 value!

To get the deal, you need to have at least $35 of Blackwing items in your cart, AND ALSO, in addition to that, one set of the Handheld Eraser Replacements in your cart. But no code is needed, automatically you’ll see the discount pop up as you check out, and the Handheld Eraser Replacements will be FREE.

You will find my YouTube videos all over the Piece O’ Cake store: short, sweet, and helpful. Just like walking through a shop, when you have a question, I’m there. Click here to find all Blackwing products.

Take care of your skin! LoLo is for everyone, and is especially good for crafters and quilters.

We have been faithful fans of LoLo Body skincare for many, many years now. The quality ingredients and LoLo’s formulation create moisture bars that soak in crazy quickly, allowing you to touch fabric, or grip a door knob, and not leave a residue. Because they include beeswax, the moisture is held in through multiple hand washings.

LoLo’s Cuticle Intensive is a little stick that does a fantastic job of keeping our cuticles happy and not catching on materials we are working with. They also make a Moisturizing Soap, which actually leaves your skin more moisturized after washing.

I asked LoLo for a thread conditioner, and Thread Tamer was born. It works just exactly how I want it to, and customers sing its praises. LoLo makes the most lovely subtle scents with all natural ingredients, but if you’d like unscented, choose Plain Jane in any of their products.

The Gift of Sewing

The whole Piece O’ Cake site is full of great gifts for quilting, crafting, and sewing fun! Going back to the site, look under Shop, The Gift Shop, The Gift of Sewing, then Gifts & Handcrafted Notions to find an assortment of gifts, that include handcrafted sewing boxes and notions by woodworking artisan friends.

This is the “aisle” with all kinds of beautiful and unusual gift items, click look around!

Jacquie Klassen, my friend and woodworker extraordinaire, is bringing us new boxes, both Sewing Boxes, and Pencil Boxes. The Pencil Box With More is back for Christmas and includes a free Point Guard —Yay!

For the do-ers on your list, these next items are perfect gifts that take the cake! 😉

Not just any embroidery kit, cozyblue’s kits are uniquely beautiful, and come with everything in the package needed to create a hand-embroidered hoop project. Gorgeous.

Last, but definitely not least, give the gift of organization. Find quality Yazzii organizers and bags, Meori organizing boxes, and more!

I hope you’ve enjoyed wandering through Piece O’ Cake with me. May this season be happy and bright for you and yours.

A Piece O’ Cake Gift Guide — Updated 12/1

Thanksgiving is behind us, and it’s time to turn our attention to the festivities ahead. Here is your updated gift guide with special deals, stocking stuffers, and new ideas.

Find gifts for all ages, for quilters and crafters, and for those who enjoy life in other ways. When visiting pieceocake.com, hover your mouse over Shop in the menu bar at the top of the page. Then hover over The Gift Shop. You’ll see “Gifts for Everyone” and “The Gift of Sewing” with options listed below each.

Gifts For Everyone:

Stocking Stuffers is NEW in Gifts for Everyone. It includes an assortment of small gadgets, scissors, nail files, and other useful and delightful tools and trinkets.

Then Butterflies, Beetles, and Birds! Created and produced in the Netherlands, Assembli Kits are made with paper passion. These eco friendly, sturdy paper kits can be found in Europe, and in a few museums here in the US—and at Piece O’ Cake!!!

They are made from high quality paper, and each comes with a stand that sits on a surface or can be hung on the wall. Assemble more than one and display them together. This is a fun activity for kids and adults! They are neatly packaged flat, and slide easily into a stocking 😉.

“It is the sweet simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” Gingiber Tea Towels + are next in the list.

You’ll find quality tea towels, aprons, art prints, pouches, stickers, and even a small and pretty blank notebook to uplift and encourage.

Stacie Bloomfield, founder of Arkansas-based Gingiber, creates inspiring, bold, art with vibrant colors and unexpected patterns, printed on towels that actually dry your dishes and hands!

I appreciate the density of her pretty patterns on tea towels; they hide stains, and in my kitchen that keeps the tea towels in circulation longer. They also make perfect little gifts to bring to holiday dinners and parties. Make it fancy! —wrap a festive Gingiber tea towel around a bottle of wine or sparkling cider.

(And don’t forget there’s a Tea Towel Deal —buy 4 get $8 off your order— discount applied automatically at checkout.)

I’m committed to wrapping gifts this year with reusable, sustainable cloth—these tea towels, maybe a scarf, or yardage from my stash. I made a quick how-to video for this art of wrapping. In Japan it’s Furoshiki, and Korea it’s Bojagi, and you’ll see at least one comment from a South African where they’ve been doing the same for generations.

Now we come to the very best presents for little ones. eeBoo Puzzles + includes two carefully chosen games this year. One can be uproariously noisy and funny, the other more quiet, pretty, and thoughtful. Both are winners of the Oppenheimer Gold Best Toy Award!

Sloth in a Hurry is an extra-hilarious version of charades. This fast moving improv game is eeBoo’s current best seller.

Memory games are so important for developing brains, and not bad at all for our more fully developed brains as we get older 😉. As always, eeBoo brings the high quality cardboard pieces that really do feel nice to touch and hold. This particular set has the sweetest artwork we’ve ever seen. Woodland Memory & Matching Game is filled with forest fauna and flora, lovely colors, and finished with a luxurious copper colored gilding.

And yes, puzzles! eeBoo makes our most favorite puzzles. They commission well loved artists, use sustainably sourced materials, and create high quality pieces with minimal puzzle dust. All of that really matters, and impacts the touch and feel and enjoyment these puzzles bring. This year saw some of the best puzzles yet!

Absolute best seller, and our favorite of all time, The Alchemist’s Home, was joined this year by The Alchemist’s Orchard. Both display a modern family co-existing with friendly ghosts, and both home and garden are filled with charming details, myriad creatures, and happy plants!

And then there are the Blackwing pencils and accessories, plus a NEW special eraser deal! Read on to discover.

When you hold a Blackwing pencil, feel it pressed onto paper, it can ruin all other pencils 🤣. Seriously. I deeply love these pencils, how they feel and how they write. Give someone you love the joy of Blackwing.

I carry 3 graphite types (plus one more, limited edition): Soft/Matte for drawing and sketching, Firm and Extra Firm for fabric (lightly!), writing, and sketching (and 2x Extra Firm, limited edition, for the same).

Choosing can be daunting, so we have brought back the Graphite Sampler Set (shown above) that includes 2 each Matte, 602, and Extra-Firm Natural pencils plus the versatile One-Step Sharpener.

I personally have all three Blackwing sharpeners, and use them. If you need more information, my video comparison can help.

Blackwing periodically releases limited edition pencils. These Volumes come with themes and stories, and are very pretty pencils. We have a few that are now unavailable elsewhere. Browse here.

Blackwing’s pencil accessories are effective, sleek, and make life easier, and they are an affordable treat. The Point Guard is a cap that protects your sharpened pencil tip, and also protects your drawer or bag or purse from marks. Blackwing’s Handheld Eraser is a bit magical, my video explains more.

The NEW deal: We double-bought the Handheld Eraser Replacements and you win! We are giving away a whole 3-pack of these magical replacements (which can be used without the holder) with every Blackwing purchase over $35. This deal will last as long as our supplies do. That’s a $10 value!

To get the deal, you need to have at least $35 of Blackwing items in your cart, AND ALSO, in addition to that, one set of the Handheld Eraser Replacements in your cart. But no code is needed, automatically you’ll see the discount pop up as you check out, and the Handheld Eraser Replacements will be FREE.

You will find my YouTube videos all over the Piece O’ Cake store: short, sweet, and helpful. Just like walking through a shop, when you have a question, I’m there. Click here to find all Blackwing products.

Take care of your skin! LoLo is for everyone, and is especially good for crafters and quilters.

We have been faithful fans of LoLo Body skincare for many, many years now. The quality ingredients and LoLo’s formulation create moisture bars that soak in crazy quickly, allowing you to touch fabric, or grip a door knob, and not leave a residue. Because they include beeswax, the moisture is held in through multiple hand washings.

LoLo’s Cuticle Intensive is a little stick that does a fantastic job of keeping our cuticles happy and not catching on materials we are working with. They also make a Moisturizing Soap, which actually leaves your skin more moisturized after washing.

I asked LoLo for a thread conditioner, and Thread Tamer was born. It works just exactly how I want it to, and customers sing its praises. LoLo makes the most lovely subtle scents with all natural ingredients, but if you’d like unscented, choose Plain Jane in any of their products.

The Gift of Sewing

The whole Piece O’ Cake site is full of great gifts for quilting, crafting, and sewing fun! Going back to the site, look under Shop, The Gift Shop, The Gift of Sewing, then Gifts & Handcrafted Notions to find an assortment of gifts, that include handcrafted sewing boxes and notions by woodworking artisan friends.

This is the “aisle” with all kinds of beautiful and unusual gift items, click look around!

Jacquie Klassen, my friend and woodworker extraordinaire, is bringing us new boxes, both Sewing Boxes, and Pencil Boxes. The Pencil Box With More is back for Christmas and includes a free Point Guard —Yay!

For the do-ers on your list, these next items are perfect gifts that take the cake! 😉

Not just any embroidery kit, cozyblue’s kits are uniquely beautiful, and come with everything in the package needed to create a hand-embroidered hoop project. Gorgeous.

Last, but definitely not least, give the gift of organization. Find quality Yazzii organizers and bags, Meori organizing boxes, and more!

I hope you’ve enjoyed wandering through Piece O’ Cake with me. May this season be happy and bright for you and yours.

Piece O’ NYC: Romancing the Weekend

There are a lot of weekdays when Jeff and I get home really late from work and school. We often feel like we don’t have enough time to connect and it can feel like we’re more married to our work than to each other — even when we do have time during the week, it’s used to run errands, clean the house, or do all the other little things that build up at the house (a major reason we started up Blue Apron was to save time and headache). I guess this is what you go through during this stage of life, but boy is it distressing sometimes. Honestly, the weekend should have three days and not just two…

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We should probably put down our phones during brunch, huh?

But in efforts to keep the romance alive, Jeff and I try to do fun and special things together. We have a great city to take advantage of, so it should be easy right? Sometimes it is, and sometimes we really just want to chill and veg out on the couch with our cats. Lately we’ve been going for long walks and runs in Central Park. A few times, we’ve tried a new brunch spot we’ve never been to and consumed copious amounts of fun brunch cocktails. Last weekend, we went to the only Cat Cafe in NYC, Meow Parlour — leave it to me to find something to do with cats during “us” time ;p. The upside was that Meow Parlour also has a patisserie down the street that sells cat shaped macarons…and they were yummy!
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This is Carlton, our own cat. He always needs a little weekend romance too.

Another day we went to the Whitney Museum. Jeff loves modern and abstract art and, though I’m not a huge fan of modern art, I loved the new museum. It’s in a great location and is down the street from ‘bruffins‘, so I was content to visit with a pit stop along the way. If you visit the Whitney, get lunch at Bubby’s afterwards and go for a stroll on the High Line. Bubby’s had an amazing corn salsa that we tried and we will definitely be replicating this weekend.

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Nice views at the Whitney Museum, no?

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Since we know that as soon as the academic year commences, and our stress levels elevate, Jeff and I are on a serious mission to try as many new brunch spots and new things together! Gotta keep the romance alive! Do you and your partner do anything special to connect or reconnect? We’re all ears!

Maybe I could paint that!

Perspective is a technique whereby an artist implies distance on a 2-dimensional surface. This idea did not exist before the Renaissance.

Johannes Vermeer (1632 – 1675) went way beyond getting the perspective right in his paintings. The man was a practically a human camera—painting the image he saw nearly perfectly on canvas as you can see in his painting, The Milkmaid (1658). How on earth did he do that?

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Tim Jennison has figured out how Vermeer could have done it. I think that you will enjoy the 10-15 minutes you will spend reading this story. All I can say is that, no matter what, I’m impressed by both Vermeer and Tim Jennison.

Some artists might use the best technology available to them to help them in their art. And it’s good to be reminded that if they do use that technology (the way great artists in the past may have used the best technology of their day), it’s not cheating. That’s a happy thought in our very tech-heavy world.

Here’s a trailer for the documentary, produced by Penn and Teller, that shows Mr. Jennison’s journey. I’m definitely going to have to watch the film.

 

 

The Modern…

I visited the Trinity Valley Quilt Guild and the Denton Quilt Guild this week. Such nice people! I taught and lectured and didn't have time to snap a photo of any of it. You know, I ought to give my camera to someone in the room and ask them to be the photographer! If I end up visiting your guild and you want to volunteer, just ask!

LucienFreudAfter the lecture on Friday, I had time to visit The Modern Art Musem in Ft. Worth. I had been wanting to see the exhibit of portraits by Lucien Freud and it was worth seeing. He spent his life painting people and he did it well. That said, I'm not sure he was a happy man.

Many, if not most, of the figures in this exhibit were painted with downcast eyes. It made me realize how much I like a portrait that looks me in the eye.

I had time to eat lunch in the cafe. Great food, lovely setting.

I visited some of the works from the permanent collection. I don't know why but I have always loved this painting (Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 1960, by Robert Motherwell)…

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I have no idea how it relates to the Spanish Republic and I don't care. I like it. And I like this:

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I didn't make note of the artist's name but the placement of this piece is perfect. It is in a passageway, opposite a huge window and outside of that is the very large reflecting pool. Nice. It made me spend some moments thinking about reflections, and reflecting.

I like modern art in general but I don't love it all. (Refer back to the post on what is or isn't art). For instance, the works in this room…

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Really, if you saw any of these in a yard sale, would you take them home? 

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I sort of like the box/cube but I know I wouldn't pay for it what the museum paid for it. And the words in boxes on the wall… I wonder if the artist was grinning all the way to the bank after installing that one.

I feel completely certain that there is deeply thought out idea and lengthy artist's statement to go with each of these works. I didn't stop to read them this time. Even when text helps to place a piece in context, I like the work to stand on its own without explanation. I suppose I'm a philistine (one uninformed in a special area of knowledge). I can live with that.

One more thing about The Modern – the building and grounds are lovely. Worth visiting. And if you go, touch the walls. The feel of the concrete is amazing – smooth, velvety. Lovely to look at.