Cheerful red and white check has an old-fashioned charm that can brighten up your kitchen. A classic picnic pattern, red and white gingham brings a sense of casual playfulness to any gathering and has long been a favorite for tablecloths and napkins. Gingham also has a nice, simple graphic quality to it that, if used sparingly, has a crisp, somewhat modern feel. Here's a roundup of a few red gingham items for the kitchen and dining room. More

Sleeves. They are a problem in the winter. No matter how securely I think I've rolled them, the cuffs always seem to sneak down right when it's least convenient to push them back up again.

Bartenders back in the day had this problem solved. They wore sleeve garters to adjust the sleeve length on their one-size-fits-all dress shirts and to keep their cuffs out of the way while mixing drinks. These fabric-wrapped elastics are big enough to slip over your elbow while still snugly holding the shirt sleeve in place. Sounds perfect to me. More

If your holiday shopping list includes cooks, gardeners, lovers of food and handmade goods, vegans, or urban/backyard homesteaders, then you may want to check out the online handmade goods store, Buy Olympia. More

If you live in the Bay Area, then you are probably well aware that Chez Panisse is celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend. This past week has been a flurry of dinners, interviews, events and celebrations, including the unveiling of these limited edition t-shirts designed by David Byrne, Maria Kalman (shown above), Dave Eggers, Sofia Coppola and Queen Alice herself.

Which one would you choose?
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I teased my mother mercilessly for years about buying Ove Gloves and displaying them proudly from hooks in her kitchen. "They're great! So handy!" she claimed, while I snickered and grabbed a potholder. And then she gave me a pair for Christmas. More

We see quite a lot of pretty aprons these days. There's a cottage industry on Etsy and elsewhere, creating aprons that appeal to the Mad Men-inspired hostess. The cutest aprons I've seen lately come from an unlikely source: A perfume and fragrance company based in San Francisco. More

I am not really one for dressing up on Halloween. While I admire the creative ingenuity of others who come up with great costumes, I tend to go to parties as the invisible cook. ("What, you didn't see me there? Well, I was invisible...") But here's one small trinket that seems very in keeping with the spirit of Halloween and yet good for the rest of the year too. For those of you who like a little tomato with your garlic, or who are worried about the vampires this weekend, one silver clove of garlic for your neck. More

How do you make conversions in the kitchen? Cups to ounces, grams to pounds? Why not put it on your apron, just where you can see it? More

It's probably no secret by now that we're sort of nerds around these parts. We all have our different genres that we geek out over, but in my own personal household it usually comes down to 3 categories: comics, movies and designer toys. All of those are embodied in this weeks Comic Con in San Diego and there's a few ways to bring that spirit into your kitchen — even if it's a little silly! More

Do you forage for fallen fruit? Do you hunt out your local mulberry tree? Does canning take over your kitchen in the middle of the summer? If any of those are true, then one of these t-shirts might be your new summer uniform. More