1. This lovely poster featuring the words of 14th century Persian poet Hafez by Katie Daisy is available at The Wheatfield Etsy Shop. A nice thought to keep in mind during these crazy times. 🙂

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2. Speaking of poets, Kelly Ramsdell Fineman’s very first chapbook, The Universe Comes Knocking (Maverick Duck Press, 2015)  will be officially released this Friday, March 13th! There’s a Launch Party at the Daily Grind (48 High Street) in Mount Holly, New Jersey at 7 p.m. Admission is free and there’ll be an open reading afterwards. Check it out if you live in the area! You can read the title poem here. Congratulations, Kelly!

 

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3. It’s no secret we’re big fans of dumplings and dim sum here at Alphabet Soup. LOVE this definitive Guide to Chinese Dumplings compiled by The Cleaver Quarterly at Lucky Peach. There are cute drawings, mouthwatering descriptions, and interesting historical and cultural tidbits about each type, and they’re grouped according to how they’re cooked: Steamed, Pan-Fried, Deep-Fried, and Boiled. Happy to see pepeiao from Hawai’i on the list, and I learned about a lot of different varieties I didn’t even know existed. Yum! Pass the har gow!

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4. It’s also no secret that I like toys (who, me?), so I was happy to stumble upon Zard Apuya’s site recently. Originally from Guam, he now lives in San Francisco where he’s busy designing vinyl toys and pursuing a graduate degree in Business Administration. Check out a few of his charming “kid at art” creations (some available for purchase):

 

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5. Food memoirs are probably my favorite genre to read for pleasure. Here’s a nice list of “The 50 Best Food Memoirs” at AbeBooks. Since I’ve only read 6 of these so far, I’d better get busy!

 

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6. Award-winning needlework and fabric relief artist Salley Mavor has just published a new how-to book! Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures (C&T Publishing, 2015) includes directions, pictures and patterns to make 120 dolls with a variety of outfits, hairstyles and armatures. They’re featured in enchanting scenes of the miniature worlds Salley is famous for (woodland fairies, children playing in snow, dollhouse families), and the book is appropriate for all skill levels from beginner to advanced. Great spring projects for all you needle and doll enthusiasts!

For more information, reviews, and chances to win giveaway copies, check out the Blog Tour Schedule. If you purchase the book at Salley’s Etsy Shop, you will get a signed copy along with a few extras (poster, notecard + envelope, faux flowers for 2 fairies).

 

Here’s the book trailer:

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7-8. A Fine Dessert and P. Zonka Lays An Egg Giveaway Winners!

*rubs hands together*

Hooray, hooray, it’s finally time to announce the winners of these exceptionally fine picture books!

We are ecstatic (and frankly relieved) that the posh, debonair, erudite and ever-reliable Monsieur Random Integer Generator has come through for us yet again. I don’t mind telling you it was a close call this time around, as he had to be lured from Highclere Castle, where he was chatting up the beautiful Countess of Carnarvon, taking tea and making plans for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. When we mentioned homemade blackberry fool and one-of-a-kind pysanka, he quickly flew the British coop to check out the comely hens and roosters who’d entered the drawings here.

Time-traveling through four centuries in an eggstraordinary Voronin suit, M. Generator licked his way through a heavenly cloud of freshly whipped blackberry fool before reciting prospective “P” names in his sexy, sonorous voice. (This almost proved catastrophic, as hundreds of chickens from a 5-mile radius tried to peck their way into the Alphabet Soup kitchen.)

After bribing him with 45 recipes of kulich and 329 batches of raspberry, strawberry, and blueberry fool, he heaved a great sigh that he could not award every hot chick beautiful entrant a prize, and after much torturous deliberation, finally selected two winners.

 

For A FINE DESSERT, the winner is:

Rosi Hollinbeck!

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For P. ZONKA LAYS AN EGG, the winner is:

Bridget R. Wilson!

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CONGRATULATIONS ROSI AND BRIDGET!!!

Please send your snail mail addresses to: readermail (at) jamakimrattigan (dot) com so we can dispatch your books lickety split!

Thanks to everyone for playing. It was especially fun reading your “P” name suggestions. We saw the likes of Poulina, Paula, Printemps, Paisley, Pansy, Ptakh (Ukrainian for bird), Penelope, Plucky, Pandora, Poppi, Periwinkle, Petunia, Pamela and Penny. 🙂

*BTW, after reading Penny Klostermann’s impassioned, brown-nosy comment, M. Generator now wishes to rendezvous with her (watch out!). I’m now thinking of finding another means of selecting giveaway winners as M. Generator has a tendency to fall in love with all the entrants, which makes an objective selection increasingly difficult (we would miss his mustache and monocle, though). Happy Belated Birthday, Penny!

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And finally,

9. Something was missing Sunday night, did you notice?! No Downton Abbey (waaaa!). 😦 I can feel the withdrawal symptoms intensifying even as we speak. Just in case you need a teensy DA fix to get you through the week, here are both parts of the charity Text Santa sketch they did over the holidays with guest star George Clooney. It’s hilarious and bears repeating. Encore, encore!

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Okey dokey, pip pip!

Have a good week!

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Copyright © 2015 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.