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Crayola Window Crayons* are great! They are cheap, they are fun, and they work. I use them to write on our car windows when Amelia has a swim meet. She is not a swimmer that wins races, so we look for other sources of motivation. The window crayons allow me to let her know how much I love her, how much I am rooting for her, and how excited I am that she is swimming in a race. I use the window crayons to tell the world that I have an athlete and that I am very proud of her hard, hard work and her stick-to-it-iveness. I love seeing her face when she first spies the minivan covered with ”Go, Amelia, go!” type slogans. It doesn’t matter that I have no artistic skills. It just matters that I try.
You can buy a 5 crayon pack from ToysRus for $3. Don’t confuse these with the window markers also by Crayola. Surprisingly, they aren’t nearly as good! The caps don’t fit the markers very well. Then the marker dries out and your money is wasted. Also, the marker colors are pale and harder to see, while the window crayon colors pop! The slightly tinted windows on our van are the perfect background. The crayons go on really smoothly and the colors are bright–messages can be read from many yards away. Cleaning the crayon off the windows isn’t hard–it just takes a moist paper towel.
*I bought the crayons with my own money. No one encouraged me to write this review, and I haven’t received any compensation for it financial or otherwise.
P.S. Amelia achieved two personal best times at her meet this past weekend. Hip, hip hooray! Yea for personal bests! Go, Amelia, go!
We like to play board games. Our family has some new favorites and some old classics that I’d like to recommend. Please recommend your favorites as well!
My highest recommendation goes to Bananagrams: Also, Best Word Game. Bananagrams is basically a set of Scrabble tiles in a bright yellow fabric banana. If you don’t like word games, you won’t like Bananagrams. If you do enjoy word games, this will probably quickly become one of your all-time favorites.
Why Bananagrams is so great: You can play with only 2 people or a larger group. You don’t have to wait for other people to take their turns; everyone plays simultaneously. Both luck (the draw of the tiles) and skill (not just vocabulary but also skill in using tiny words to connect bigger ones) are part of the game. Although I do not consistently win at Bananagrams (I am not interested in memorizing all the possible two letter words, unlike some people I know–Pdad!), I enjoy it because it is fun and quick and you do it with words. The package claims that Bananagrams can be played with children as young as 7, but I think most 7 year olds would find it difficult.
Pmom’s favorites
1. Bananagrams
2. Taboo
3. Conspiracy
5. Monopoly
6. Pit
Pdad’s favorites
1. Bananagrams
2. Balderdash
3. Pit
4. Rummikub
Pmom’s favorites to play with children
1.Sorry!
3. Cooties
4.Go Fish
6.Zingo
Pdad’s favorites to play with children
1. Stratego
3. Sherlock
4. Zingo
5. Jenga
Amelia’s favorites (10 yr old girl)
(Amelia had trouble with the rank ordering so she has a first favorite group and a second favorite group).
1. Bananagrams
1. Chess
2. Stratego
2.Rummikub
2.Scrabble
Duncan’s favorites (5 year old boy)
1. Candyland
5. Perfection
6. Operation
Best Larger Group Games:
Best Games for Two
Best new games
Classics that haven’t lost their luster
Nothing beats fresh garlic. If you are using powdered, jarred, or pre-peeled garlic, you are settling for less. Try fresh garlic again and see whether it isn’t a sensory experience you need in your life.
Given my penchant for fresh garlic, I see the garlic press as a must have item. If you are a garlic press newbie, you need to know that garlic presses are not created equal. Not even close. Many are flimsy, most are inefficient, a lot of them are hard to clean, and some require too much hand strength. None of these negatives is true of the Kuhn Rikon Easy Squeeze. If you have ever tried a garlic press made by another company, when you try this one, you will quickly recognize it as an engineering marvel. It really works well and it is much easier to clean. I don’t think the Easy Squeeze is the best looking press. Kuhn Rikon’s similar stainless steel model is absolutely beautiful. I own it too and it is a work of kitchen design that is truly art. But for those of us with weak hand strength, the less sophisticated easy squeeze model (available in black, red or blue) is both easier and cheaper. I first read about this model at Cook’s Illustrated where it was rated number one out of a field of thirteen presses.
Do you know of any Stuff Worth Buying? I would love to have you guest post. Write me at ChocolateandGarlic [at] gmail.com.
*I have received no financial or other benefits from the companies affiliated with this product. See my review policy at the bottom of my About Me page.
Consumers of the world unite! We need to ask cookbook publishers to include weights in all their cookbooks. It is crucial for baking and it makes sense for other types of cooking as well.
I, for one, prefer measuring three ounces of onion to making myself crazy with internal debates as to whether a given onion qualifies as medium size or not. For ingredients like Parmesan, where how you grated it makes such a big difference to the volume, weighing just makes a ton of sense.
What doesn’t make sense is to bake without referring to weight, because weighing is so much more accurate. If you are stir frying—a little more of this, a little more of that—accuracy isn’t a big deal (unless you have OC issues : ). But if you are making a cake, accuracy is key.
2) Weighing is also much faster. Instead of dipping and sweeping multiple cups, you just pour your flour slowly into the bowl until you hit the magic number on the scale.
Which scale? I am sure many scales would work fine, but I love my MyWeigh 7000 (click the picture to visit their website). It is a little bulky, but so much sturdier than my previous scale. This thing has stood up to considerable abuse by my children, and it still works great. Also, it has a higher weight capacity than most scales (almost 15 1/2 lbs), so I don’t have to worry that if I put that fully-loaded heavy bowl on it it might break. Also, with the multiple modes and high weight capacity, the MyWeigh can be used for calculating postage or all sorts of crafts and hobbies.
Read my review policy on the About Me page.
Fingerless Gloves by Lis--Alpaca Yarn
Do you think of your review more as a recommendation of a cool place to visit or as a recommendation of some really great yarn?
I think it is both a really cool place to visit if you’re interested in alpacas, yarn, or both. I can’t get enough of the yarn. If I felt like it were feasible to buy this yarn exclusively I would. This yarn is 5 or 10x better than traditional sheep’s wool because it isn’t scratchy, is softer, and is hypoallergenic. The only advantages to traditional sheep’s wool are that it felts easier and is also water resistant.
Have you tried the yarn? What did you think?
I have tried the yarn. I knitted a pair of fingerless gloves. I loved knitting the yarn. It is amazingly soft, and I love the fact that the yarn is un-dyed yet you get rich full color. Also, alpaca don’t have the oils that sheep have. The yarn is hypoallergenic. So people who are allergic to wool can usually wear alpaca.
How does the cost compare to other yarn? 2x 5x 10x?
NO! its $9 for a 100 yard skein. That is a very reasonable price for a pure fiber probably cheaper than you would find at a yarn shop.
About Blue Moon Ranch: Whereabouts is Woodland, UT?
It is sort of between Kamas and Park City.
This was a day trip, right? Am I right that you didn’t actually stay overnight at the ranch, you just visited?
It was a day trip. We stayed the night at a nearby B&B though.
Did you have to pay anything to visit the ranch? Were you able to buy yarn while you were there?
The visit was free. At the end of the visit she took us to a tiny little store she has off her garage where she has what is left of her yarn. Like I said in the write up, she sells most of her yarn the last weekend in September so the selection was limited. That being said, I was able to buy several skeins of yarn. I bought one skein from various alpaca. I plan to knit more fingerless gloves (one of my favorite things) out of the various yarns so I’ll know which I like best when I go back in September.
Lis blogs at Visual Anarchy
Lis from Visual Anarchy
Lis from Visual Anarchy is the first guest reviewer for Stuff Worth Buying. Lis is one of the most talented people I know. From stained glass to knitting, both a mom and an artist, she excels at the beautiful and the clever. It did not surprise me to learn that she was reviewing yarn. Read her post below.
“Alpaca don’t really like to be hugged, but mine learn to deal with it because I love to hug them.”
– Linda Gardner, Owner of the Blue Moon Ranch in Woodland, Utah
Picture courtesy of Linda Gardner.
This weekend my husband and I had the pleasure of visiting Linda Gardner’s Blue Moon Alpaca Ranch. Linda has been running her ranch, which currently houses 50 or 60 alpaca, for eleven years. Within spending five minutes with Linda you’ll realize she is quite possibly the most passionate alpaca owner you’ll find. She knows the name and personality of every alpaca on her ranch. As we walk around she talks to them like they are her children, “Willy. Get over here. You know I’m talking to you. Come on, get over here.” Willy stands up and comes over.
She also knows the quality of each alpaca’s fleece. She keeps track of this so she can decide which alpaca to breed to get the softness and colors she is looking for. Even though she clearly sees her alpaca as an investment she also has a few “hay burners” she keeps around simply because she’s grown attached to them. “Look at him.” She says pointing to an older alpaca, “He’s an old man, he’s got his easy chair and cigar. I couldn’t make him leave. It just wouldn’t be right.”
She gets approximately fifty skeins of yarn, one hundred yards per skein, per alpaca each year. However, not all of the fleece is worth spinning into yarn. In fact she showed us a bag of fleece she uses as insulation around the windows in her home.
Each summer she flies in a specialist who can shear an alpaca in four minutes. He and a team of helpers can shear the entire herd in a day. The fleece from each alpaca is put into separate bags and labeled with the alpaca’s name. The fleece is then sent to a spinner who also keeps track of what yarn came from what alpaca. The result is amazingly soft yarn with rich, natural, un-dyed color. Each skein is labeled with the face and name of the alpaca it came from, and even has an occasional bit of hay still in it. This is how yarn is meant to be. 
If you are interested, she sells most of her yarn at her ranch on “open farm day” which she holds each year during the last weekend in September. She may also have a booth at the Great Basin Fiber Arts Festival.