You know about etsy, right? The amazing site that lets artists create and sell unique and kickass things that make your friends say "Oh my god, where did you get that?" Which, as we have discussed, means you win. And winning is very important.

A recent featured buyer article on etsy gives you another way to win:

Never before has there been such an open forum for communicating your needs as a consumer of clothing.  Etsy allows you to converse with sellers directly, asking them for a garment to be made in your size, or just to double-check the size of something vintage or one of a kind. As long as body measurements are taken properly, buyers can request custom versions of the adorable items they find on Etsy.

Don't be shy. Sellers love to make more sales and get positive feedback. Why hold back? There are plenty of designers on Etsy just itching to create something for you. This "custom" relationship is your key to finding pieces that cinch you in at the waist, give you a pop of color, and allow you to finally be who you are. Don't be afraid to ask for longer hem lengths, shorter sleeves, or whatever it takes to fit your body.

Take control of your fashion! Ask for what you want! Maybe even start a revolution. Even better: How you look so very good while you're doing it.

I've always preferred baking to cooking, probably because I am far, far better at it. I can follow directions, can measure, and can stir. I can even fold! And it results in a damn fine chocolate cake, a reasonable pie, some lovely muffins. Brownies, they elude me (but I like the ones from a mix better, anyway. I have no explanation for that). Preheat an oven, shove in a baking pan, and wait for science to make me some cookies. Baking is all about directions, chemistry and patience. Those are things I am reasonably skilled at.

I'd like to bake more. It is meditative, it results in my favorite kind of deliciousness, and it is so lovely to succeed at something. And it occurred to me, today, when I was thinking about how I'd blow up the kitchen for dinner, that maybe I could combine something I was okay at with something I fail at, and in that way, achieve some kind of edible mediocrity! A baking component would at least give my chance at not failing utterly a boost up, right? So, what do we bake for dinner? On my list, so far I've got, uh, chicken pot pie. Am I missing anything? Besides Shake n' Bake, I mean.

Photo via Splash

Oh Emma. You're the clever and sensible elder Dashwood, the brash Beatrice, the perfect and completely appropriate head housekeeper. You're the one who always ends up in movies next to impossibly gorgeous British men. You've chewed on the lips of Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Hugh Laurie and Kenneth Branagh. If you've kissed Colin Firth at some point, you will have basically made out with every English guy I've EVER wanted to kiss. Snogging aside, I have to say that I'm even a bit jealous of Will Ferrell, that you were the narrator for his life. Screw Morgan Freeman, I kind of want you to narrate MY life, Emma Thompson.

And one of the most beautiful things about you is that you have the courage to be ugly. Not only did you throw on a fat suit for Love Actually and wear giant Coke-bottle glasses in the Potter series, but you absolutely made yourself unrecognizable in Nanny McPhee (with Colin Firth...seriously, did you make out with him? I have to know!). And I love that.

One of the casualties in the anti-carb gestalt is the poor, beleaguered whole grain. Having been a child of hippies, who grew up having to eat chewy breads full of seeds and twigs and rocks and maybe a small log cabin, I avoided whole-grained anything for a long time and stuck with carbs that were usually as white as the driven snow. However, I've come to appreciate dense fibery breads, chewy brown rice, and steel-cut oatmeals that stay in my gut all morning so that I'm not scrambling for a Little Debbie Nutty Bar by 9:30 a.m. With more science types declaring that whole grains are good for you, we now see that phrase on just about everything, even Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal and Wonder Bread! It doesn't seem possible, and when I check the nutritional information and see that there's less than 1 gram of fiber per serving, I laugh and laugh and laugh. Silly consumer package goods industry. They really think we're stupid or something.

Whole grain stuff is so easy to insert into your diet and even if you don't want to do it for the intangible reasons like reducing chance of diabetes or cancer, just concentrate on the fact that you'll be a much happier pooping machine! You will poop like a champ! I know that it's not a compelling reason but there it is.

Some toasted bulgur bread or a bowl of shredded wheat to start your day, a little barley soup here, a little popcorn there, and you've got your whole grain servings out of the way. To inspire you, here's a quick recipe round up to infuse a little whole-grain goodness:

This week, we've been talking about Skinny Bitch and Skinny Bitch in the Kitch over here. We've had some great comments, some excellent points, and interesting perspectives on the authors' approach to vegan evangelism (veganelism?). Some excerpts, below:

Harry said:

Most women, I hope, aren't looking to sacrifice happiness to be skinny and hot...I'm at the best weight in my life and the only way I think I could personally get to this point was by being happy, chilling out with the diet stick I had shoved up my ass for so many years and enjoying that beer.

Meaghan said:

Don't read a book titled Skinny Bitch and expect to hear self-esteem boosting comments about embracing your chubby body, lumpy butt and all...their attitude is what makes the books so fun and as great of sellers as they have been.

Wendy said:

I know for a fact that a lot of what they say does work, and some of their points are valid. But all that bitchiness is not going to make your butt any less lumpy. That kind of eating doesn't make you any better than anyone else. Feeling good is its own reward, but the idea that the way your body looks is purely a product of some kind of extreme virtuousness is bullshit, and the Skinny Bitches are full of it.

Beth said:

I think the one thing they do talk about that is a good thing and that everyone should remember is that you shouldn't really trust the government agencies in charge of food, nutrition, drugs etc. There job isn't really to make sure what you eat is totally healthy and good for you, it's to make sure the things you eat won't kill you. There is a big grey area in between those two extremes and it's still your responsibility as an individual to make healthy choices for yourself, whether you're vegan, veggie, or omnivore.

sooz said:

I viewed Skinny Bitch as an attempt to introduce veganism to the type of people that read Cosmopolitan or People magazine...as a vegan for ethical (not necessarily health or environmental) reasons I appreciate any new or different voice that is trying to reach out to people and help them go vegan. Do I think these books are flawed? Sure. Then again, I didn't buy them because I wanted to learn how to become a "skinny bitch." I bought them because I'd already known that they were books about veganism and I wanted to see how they presented the material...I hope Skinny Bitch reaches a new audience, I hope the book succeeds in helping others go vegan.

Have you got anything to say?

Plus! Psst! Have you read Eat, Pray, Love? It seems like so many of you have. Have you been meaning to pick it up? Now would be a good time, because that's our selection for next week. We'll read our way up to Chapter 53, which is halfway through Pray and talk about it come Wednesday. Did Elizabeth Gilbert change your life? Some people say she might.

Kim's a week into the Self Challenge, bee stings are the new breast enhancements, hepatitis is the new cool Hollywood disease, and Stacy and Kim discuss why women like jerks. Photos via Splash.

Photo via Splash

One of the things we love about guys is that sometimes? They are just big goofballs and totally spaz out. Which begs the question, which one of these fine spazballs is probably going to embarrass you at your wedding? Which of these three is going to be making you laugh all night long because his O face looks so much like Grimace from the McDonald's commercials? And which one is going to have the funniest funeral evar?

• John Mayer
• Jimmy Kimmel
• Seth Rogen

No, the comments don't think it's funny when you fart and then hold them under the covers.

The gym is almost exactly a seven minute walk from my house. The gym has yoga and weight lifting classes every morning. It is an extremely true fact that I need to get out of the house during the day and talk to human beings, or I will go absolutely batshit, and I need to build some muscle, or my cat will start beating me up for kibble. These two facts mean that if I didn't go and take a yoga class yesterday morning, I would have proven once and for all that I really am kind of a dumbass.

Do you know, I lived in San Francisco for about seven years and I never managed to take a yoga class? Not once? Every single apartment I lived in, even the ones in the crappy neighborhoods, there was a yoga studio within walking distance. My last apartment, there were three. Every gym I belonged to had yoga classes, and every third person I knew loved the yoga, and the yoga loved them back. I knew all about the healthy benefits of yoga, spiritually and mentally and physically and how it cures cancer and is the secret to world peace. Which is exactly why I never took a class, because forget that noise. They will stop making American Gladiator in a peaceful world.

I've been concentrating on cutting down the amount of fake sugar I've been consuming ever since Cynthia convinced me to put some thought into which chemmies I'm ingesting and now my Diet Coke consumption is down to about one every other week, mostly ordered at restaurants out of habit. But holy crap, if the study about the rats and the yogurt didn't convince you to ditch the little blue packets, did you know that at one time, aspartame was classified by the government as an element of biological warfare?

Splenda monkey is entirely extracted from back!

You've got to love crazy old guys and Jack LaLanne with his juice de vivre seems a little crazier than most, but considering that he's 90 and can probably still bench press more than Justin Timberlake (or actually bench press Justin Timberlake himself), he's been saying this all along:

If man makes it, I don't eat it. Even these diet soft drinks. They're just something to sell. They've got artificial coloring and flavoring, man-made, right? Keep away from that! Drink water! I don't put anything artificial in my body. And I take 25 or 30 supplements every day, everything from (vitamin) A to Z(inc), but they're all from natural sources. Stick to Mother Nature.

Tim Gunn, I love you dearly, but my love still remembers your Gumby Legs comment from two seasons ago, and it seems the ephitet has cursed another model. Last year's darling of the runway, Ali Michael, decided that she was tired of starving herself and let her body coast up to its happy weight, which happened to be five pounds heavier. Ooops, suddenly it's Paris Fashion Week and guess who can't find work? The excuse: her legs are too fat. She managed to score one show, while models normally scurry from show to show in a single day. Check out the damage: 

Mr. Miyake deserves credit for hiring several models of color, but he seemed nonplussed when I asked him about weight. He chose models who are "just suitable for our clothes," he repeated several times. So we have bodies being formed to fit clothes, rather than clothes designed to fit bodies.

Oy vey, so much for the skinny model backlash. Even my girl crush Nina Garcia is fretting the problem. From same: