• living in: national velvet
• we like it wild: thanksgiving arrangement using ingredients from the supermarket
• new sneak peeks: alex marshall, susan williams of swans island, katie kirk of 8 hour day, sandrine place, anne lise kjaer
• diy projects: david stark’s twine snowmen, crocheted plastic bag placemats, pretty fabric pumpkins, vintage crate shelves
• before & afters: seating + office makeover, wendy’s elementary school to studio makeover, loveseat from swankyswell, nadia’s bathroom
• small measures with ashley: practicing gratitude
• new recipe: in the kitchen with oh joy’s frozen yogurt and mochi
• cookbook reviews: sweet tooth baking books
• misc.: new rugs from bev hisey, nyc stamp set from yellow owl workshop, wallpaper from eskayel, newsprint posters from the pencil factory, yellena james glass shades for schoolhouse electric,

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Baking Unplugged by Nicole Rees (Wiley). Baking Unplugged is the hands down winner in my spot recipe testing. The recipes are good, easy, and practical. The simple philosophy behind the book is that you can make great desserts without any electrical equipment (except an oven, of course). The preliminary chapters at the beginning review tools, ingredients, methods, and how to read a recipe. The books chapters are then divided into types of baked goods, with no dearth of explanation of technique. The book is clear and concise, easy to understand. I wish I had had this book when I started out baking. This is a book for anyone who wants to get back to basics in the kitchen, someone who has a small kitchen with only a few tools, someone who is lazy and doesn’t feel like plugging in the equipment. It’s a perfect book for beginners– I am a firm believer in the ‘learn in the manual way’ in order to excel in the automated world. I really really like this book. One last important note– there are no photos at all in the book. But please don’t let this discourage you.

All Cakes Considered by Melissa Gray (Chronicle Books). For one year, the author (a producer at National Public Radio’s program All Things Considered) brought in a cake to work every Monday, and this book is the result. It is a fantastically entertaining book. The recipes are a mix between previously published recipes, and the author’s own (bequeathed by friends and family, or tweaked and ‘co-opted’ for personal use from other sources), so of course they have been tested and retested. What I love about the book is the author’s voice, the way the instructions are written, the stories, all of the written text. What I do not like about the book– you need a 10″ tube pan to make the majority of the recipes, or you need shortening. If you live in a place where it’s difficult to find either (especially the latter), you’re out of luck. Comb the internet to find a shortening alternative. If you can get over those two things (I’m still smarting), then this book is a winner. There’s even a chapter on non-cakes (cookies etc)!

The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox (Clarkson Potter). [TOP IMAGE ABOVE] I was so looking forward to this book, a collection of recipes which are a bit less common than you’d normally find in American baking books– recipes like like Lamington cupcakes, pine nut tart with rosemary cream, nut and cherry nougat. As a whole, the collection of recipes is elegant- definitely a notch above average. You’d make a great statement if you served one of these recipes to your friends. And although I had a bit of difficulty with the Ultimate Chocolate Brownies (The cooking time didn’t work out for me?), my shortcoming has been like a challenge to me, which has made me want to come back and try more recipes in the book, maybe toward Christmas when I usually try to bake up five to ten different baked goods and give little boxes of mixed goodies to friends as gifts (You always want unique things people haven’t tried before in those gift boxes). For people who like to experiment with different flavors and adapt recipes for different types of desserts, you’ll appreciate the notes after each recipe which offer tips on how to do just that! In sharp contrast with Baking Unplugged, there are plenty of pictures in this book of the final recipes up close, so you can compare and see how your efforts measure up! While the recipes are generally quite easy to execute, this is definitely the type of book for the person who believes that a tiny bit more effort can produce great desserts.

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About Joy: Joy Deangdeelert Cho is a graphic designer and blogger who has worked with numerous fashion clients in New York before launching her own business, Oh Joy!, in 2006. She now designs textiles, packaging, and branding for clients in the fashion and food industries, sells her stationery line nationwide, and authors the popular Oh Joy blog. She recently launched a new food blog, Happy Lady Eats, chronicling her foodie adventures. Originally from Philadelphia, Joy now lives in San Diego, CA.

CLICK HERE for the full recipe after the jump!

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To this day, I recall the generosity of that stranger with absolute clarity. His gesture was truly one of those random acts of kindness, one with no perceivable expectation of return. As Thanksgiving draws closer, the Small Measure I’d like to share with you this week is simply that of expressing and practicing gratitude. I was so dumbstruck by my brownie-bestower’s gesture that I neglected to thank him for the unexpected happiness he brought me that day, and all of the subsequent times I’ve thought of him and his actions.

Given the opportunity, and a mailing address, I would have sent brownie man a thank you note. I’m of the mindset, thanks to conscientious parents and grandmothers with a serious penchant for thank you notes, that no kind deed should ever go unacknowledged. To that end, I keep a large wooden box upstairs in my office, expressly devoted to stationary. From thank you notes to condolences, from postcards to note sets, the box holds a medley of paper goods, always at the ready for whatever occasion should present itself.

CLICK HERE for the rest of Ashley’s “Express Yourself-Practicing Gratitude” post after the jump!

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yellena recently finished this collaborative project with schoolhouse electric co. as part of their first ever “artist series” collection. yellena’s shade designs, stretto and aria, come in various colors and sizes and put such a nice spin on school house’s beautiful vintage style pieces.

you can check out yellena’s pieces, as well as schoolhouses’ full collection, online right here. thanks, yellena!

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Our local chain supermarket was our starting point where we spotted a pretty oatmeal can on a holiday endcap. We decided to carry the can’s neutral palette into our flowers as well. We wandered the produce and flower section choosing a variety of items in brown, green, white, and a touch of rusty red. After tossing around ideas using wheat, radishes, kalanchoes, and chestnuts we narrowed our final selection to mushrooms and seckel pears, eucalyptus, fall leaves, cream mini-carnations, white alstroemeria, and paperwhites.

CLICK HERE for the full arrangement how-to after the jump!

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