Any non-crochet ideas?  Any other ideas on yarn to use?  What is "lustresheen"- who makes it?

lustresheen is made by red heart, and very easy to work with. as for the knitting, i only know how to crochet    but i suppose anything where you wrap the stitches around each other to "chain" them would give a similar effect. hth!

the second scarf looks like it's in double or triple crochet pattern, and just a very long, thin scarf. i am making a top out of something that looks almost identical- it's sport weight lustresheen in "mulberry" that i got at walmart. you'd have to "rough up" the fringe part when you made it to make the lustresheen look more raggedy, but i think it would be a very good match. hth!

maybe add a salad and some garlic bread into the mix?

those are fantastic! i'd love to start enamelling. is it hard to start up?

wow! it looks beautiful!

ooohhhh! she's so lovely!

great job! i sure wish i had one of those as a kid

i am fascianted by chocolate clay roses (just google chocolate clay). i had some as favors from a wedding years ago, and they were soooo good! it's basically a mix of melted chocolate and corn syrup, and you mold them into roses. they'd be great decorations- i'm sure everyone would be sooooo impressed. they'd look super on top of dark chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate icing and chocolate roses or butterscotch chip roses (in keeping with the clothing guidelines, of course  ) on top for decoration. what a fabulous idea for a party!

i love, love, love franknfurter. i so want a shirt with a stencil of him on it. i would put "i'm a sweet transvestite" on the back, personally. 

through experimentation, i started to have certain things on hand that i found just made curries taste better.

i started to freeze coconut milk/cream into ice cube containers so i could throw a few cubes into a curry, without having to open a whole can and then waste the leftovers. i do this with tomato sauce, too- a few cubes tossed in gives great flavor

i also saw this trick in taunton's fine cooking- this guy keeps cilantro on hand by washing a bunch and throwing it into the blender (or using a hand blender) with a bit of water to make a soupy paste. put it in a baggie, squeeze out the air then lie it flat to freeze in the freezer. when you need cilantro, just break off a chunk and throw it in.

i also saute cumin seeds in olive oil for a few minutes to flavor the curry. it tastes so much better than just adding powdered

i also like to add ginger, turmeric, a bit of paprika and some louisiana hot sauce. then sometimes i'll add a 1/4 cup or so of cream to give it more body. mine are never the same twice, but i usually stick to a few things and just use them in different proportions

hth!