The Collection
Foraging
- Falling Fruit
- Falling fruit is a free tool created by foragers for foragers.According to their about page it is:
"Falling Fruit is a celebration of the overlooked culinary bounty of our city streets. By quantifying this resource on an interactive map, we hope to facilitate intimate connections between people, food, and the natural organisms growing in our neighborhoods. Not just a free lunch! Foraging in the 21st century is an opportunity for urban exploration, to fight the scourge of stained sidewalks, and to reconnect with the botanical origins of food. Our edible map is not the first of its kind, but it aspires to be the world's most comprehensive. While our users contribute locations of their own, we comb the internet for pre-existing knowledge, seeking to unite the efforts of foragers, foresters, and freegans everywhere."
I love this website. My home city itself has listed massive numbers of edibles found throughout the city. I haven't used it much in practice, but it's so fun just to scroll through.
- Practical Self Reliance
- A whole section of Ashley's blog is dedicated to foraging, but there's also so much more than that. Lots of recipes and plenty of other articles on other homesteading topics. I'm not a homesteader myself, but I still enjoy reading them.
Gardening and Botany
- Dave's Garden Plant Files
- As described on the website: "PlantFiles is the most complete plant database online, with information for new and expert gardeners alike."
- Experimental Farm Network
- A Philadelphia, PA based organization dedicated to collaborative plant breeding without any genetic engineering. Some of their current projects include Sea Plantain Domestication Project and Maypop Passsionfruit Improvement Project.
- Cultivariable
- I haven't had a chance to explore this website and catalog extensively yet, but I am very interested. I found it while browsing the OSSI's database. Cultivariable appears to specialize in/breed potatoes, andean tubers, and other tubers.
- Open Source Seed Initiative
- From the the OSSI's about page: "The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) is dedicated to maintaining fair and open access to plant genetic resources worldwide in order to ensure the availability of germplasm to farmers, gardeners, breeders, and communities of this and future generations."
- Empress of Dirt
- A gardening blog by Melissa J. Will.
- Joe Gardener Show
- Joe Lampl's website, blog, and podcast.
- Victory Horticultural Library.
- A wonderfully interesting website. As it's owner, Mike Dunton, explains on the homepage, it is "intended as a tool to foster the sharing of information pertaining to historical horticulture and to promote the preservation of significant commercially released and family heirloom cultivars."
- Epic Gardening
- A website and blog dedicated to urban homesteading and gardening.
- Heritage Orchard Conference
- Fruit in Medival Europe
- by Marie Josèphe Moncorgé
- Growing Wild Roses
Seed Companies and Plant Nurseries
- Earthbeat Seeds
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- San Diego Seed Company
- Small, organic farm producing regionally adapted seeds.
- Turtle Tree Seed
- Hudson Valley Seed
- Heirloom and open pollinated seeds. Many of their seed packets have gorgeous, unique art om them.
- Totally Tomato
- Pinetree Seeds
- Vermont Bean and Seed Company
- Wood Prairie Family Farm
- Lots of potatoes.
- Maine Potato Lady
- Wild Garden Seed
- Restoration Seeds
- Nature and Nurture Seeds
- Quaill Seeds
- Uprising Seeds
- Kitchen Table Seed House
- Commonwealth Seed Growers
- Logee's Plants for Home and Garden
- Specializes in fruiting, rare, and tropical plants. As of 2024, I have no experience ordering from them.
- Raintree Nursery
- Experimental Farm Network Store
- Fedco Seeds
- Annie's Heirloom Seeds
- Johnny's Select Seeds
- Eloheh Seeds
- Territorial Seed Company
- Victory Seeds
- Rare Seeds (aka Baker Creek)
- Siskiyou Seeds
- Hudson Valley Seed Co
- Seeds from Italy
- The Roughwood Center for Heritage Seedways.
- The oldest private seed collection in Pennsylvania is maintained by the Roughwood Center. Heritage seeds are available on their website.
- True Love Seeds
- This farm grown seed company is based in Philadelphia, PA and maintains several vital seed collections including their African Diaspora collection and Seeds of the Levant (Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Greece, and more). Really fascinating company. A radio show is hosted on their website and seeds are also available for purchase.
- Nomad Seed Project
- Richter's Seed Zoo
- The Roughwood Center for Heirtage Seedways
- Two Seeds in a Pod: Seeds from Turkey and More
- Sow True Seed
- Common Wealth Seed Growers
- Native Seeds
Genshin Impact
- Genshin Lore Board
- Genshin Story and Quest Order Guide
- - a super detailed spreadsheet made by kohitantan with recommednations on when to complete quests. It also includes info about relevant quest lore found elsewhere - for example if there is a book or artifact set description that would be useful to read first.
- Genshin Optimizer
- - Genshin Impact calculator that lets you input the characters, weapons, and artifacts on your account then helps you optimize the build based on parameters you set. Built by frzyc and maintained by a team.
Interesting Things
- #FanLIS Resource List
- An annotated bibliography of fandom studies and related academic works.
- archivists_assemble
- Resources for archiving fandom materials.
- The Poetic Edda
- Esoteric Archives
- Twilit Grotto: Archives of Western Esoterica
- BarbiePedia
- A Barbie encyclopedia.
- The Best Wide Toe Box Shoes That Aren't Barefoot
- Was the earliest documented account of tornado dynamics published by an Indian scientist in an Indian journal
- Stain Removal 101: A Busy Mom's Guide to Cleaning, Laundry, & Stains
- How to Sharpen Scissors Effectively
- 12 Genius Ways to Hide Every Wire in Your Home
- Donating Your Personal or Family Records to a Repository
- Cleaning Card System
- The Ren List: Find Renaissance Fairs and Other Fairs Near You
- TORNADO SCIENCE & SUPER COMPUTERS - Tornado Footage compared with Simulations
- A youtube video collaboration between stormchaser Pecos Hank and Dr. Leigh Orf where they compare Dr. Orf's tornado genesis computer models to footage and experiences Pecos Hank had in the field.
- Light Fixtures: The Ultimate Guide to Room Lighting Fixtures"
- The Forgotten Biological Terror of 9/11
- Tornadoes in Medieval Britain
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- by M. W. Rowe. It's kind of wild to imagine a tornado through the eyes of a community that had little understanding of wtf was happening. Even today, our understanding of tornadoes is considered limited. And yet, it feels almost impossible to imagine a world without doppler radar or any other ability to calcuate the weather.
- Medieval Recipes
- Medieval Food Glossary I love finding glossaries like this. They can be such a good jumping off point for figuring out what you didn't know you didn't know.
- Beds in late Medieval and Tudor Times
- #FanLIS Resource List
- Antique Pattern Library
- St. Thomas Guild: Medieval Woodworking, Furniture, and Other Crafts
- Fan Culture Preservation Project
- The Mister Roger's Neighboorhood Archive
- A map titled "Various Sirens in Pennsylvania".
- Tornado Archive
- Odin's Castle of Dreams and Legends: An Archive of History and Historical Resources
- Internet History Sourcebooks Project
- Created by Fordham. I find the title of this project a little bit confusing and I know as soon as I close the tab, I will immediatley forget that the website is not about the history of the internet. This project is more like a collection of bilbiographes separated by subject, era, region etc. For exameple the Ancient History Sourcebook.
Bookbinding
- Homemade Book Press
- by Angela Callanan.
Embroidery
- Opus Anglicanum
- A blog dediated to historical textiles, embroidery, spinning, etc.
- Sarah Spaceman
- A youtuber with a cosplay focused channel.
- Prop Agenda
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- Awebsite by Eric Hart about prop making. He also has a book.
- The Fullmetal Alchemist Military Uniform Breakdown
- CosplayTutorial.com's Tutorial List
- Fullmetal Alchemist Military Uniform Pattern Tutorial
- An older tutorial I initially found on a defunct cosplay.com forum then tracked down using the Wayback Machine.
- Cosplay Tutorials
- The tutorial section from and sewing is half the battle's website.
- Convention Packing Checklist
Wig Styling
- Cosplay Wig Styling for Beginners - Eda Clawthorne Wig Tutorial
- Wig styling video from Sarah Spaceman.
- I made this cheap wig indestructible
- Wig styling video from Sarah Spaceman.
- The Most Impossible Wig I’ve ever made
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- Sarah Spaceman's strawberry miku pigtail wig featuring wood jig. Not necessarily a step by step tutorial.
Historical Costuming
- Morgan Donner's Sewing Party Update: the last time I tried to access this blog (June 2, 2024), I got an error page that said the account had been suspended. I haven't looked into how much of it survives on the Wayback Machine yet.
- La Cotte Simple
- The Dreamstress. A sewing and historical costuming blog.
- Dame Helen, a website dedicated to medieval costuming.
- Katafolk. A sewing and historical costuming blog.
- The Chesholme House
- Handcrafted History. This blog and website has been super helpful to me lately. There are many tutorials on various medieval styles.
- The Elizabethan Costuming Page
- A 12th Century Bilaut, Detailed information about drafting and making a 12th century bilaut by Maurguerie de Jauncourt.
- The Quick and Dirty Bilaut, a guide for making a bilaut by Donna Fede di Fiore.
- The Bilaut Revisted, an article discussing cutting layouts for the bilaut and a mantle on House Wild Rose by Michaela Burnham.
- 12th Century Clothing, research on and creation of bilauts and other 12th century garments hosted by the Barony of Madrone.
Cotehardie & Medieval Kirtle
34 Types of Seams from Sew Historically.
Clothing of the Ancient Celts, research by Cass McGann. Retrieved via the Wayback Machine.
The Moy Gown - An Irish Medieval Gown, research and information about the Moy Gown by Cass McGann. Retrieved via the Wayback Machine.
The 15th century. - Research on 15th century clothing and dress diaries. Emphasis on Burgundian dress.
Dame Helen's Library. Artcles on medieval clothing.
Hathaways of Haworth., a costuming and sewing blog with photo resources for cosutmers + cheats guides to making gowns of different eras.
Rosalie's Medieval Woman, a website by Rosalie Gilbert.
Fabric Shops
Shops I've Purhcased From
- Fabric Wholesale Direct
- - I like their extra wide nylon taffeta as well as cotton voile, shiny and matte miliskin, and power mesh
- - Cotton and poly/cotton broad cloth: not a fan when I bought some in 2020. The cotton broadcloth worked fine, but the texture wasn't my favorite and the lack of colors really hurts it. I didn't like the poly/cotton blend at all. It felt too plasticy. Note - it's been at least 4 years since I tried either, and I knew a lot less about fabric then. Maybe my opinion would change now.
- - Cotton gauze: I bought this gauze in 2020, I believe it was their older cotton gauze that they recently (sometime between 2022-2024) phased out. I did not like it. It wasn't soft at all.
- - Cotton canvas: it's great. Highly recommend.
- - I want to try their rayon challis,
bubble cotton gauze, cotton gauze, cotton velveteen, and poly wool dobby chiffon. I have samples of rayon challis, cotton gauze, and the poly wool dobby chiffon and love the texture of all 3. At least in swatch form.
- - Update: I ordered their double cotton gauze recently and was a bit disappointed but that's no fault of the fabric itself. It's not soft enough, at least upon first washing, for what I need it for. I think I'll have to stick to Joann's overprized double/bubble cotton gauze for now.
- - In the same order with the cotton gauze, I also bought some ITY knit to for making bralettes. Haven't sewn them up yet so not sure how it fares yet.
- Fabric Mart
- According to their website, Fabric Mart "Fabric Mart specializes in closeout fashion fabrics by the yard." I've bought from them several times and have never been disappointed. My go to place for silk, linen, and wool.
Shops I Haven't Personally Ordered From
- Big Z Fabrics - I've ordered swatches of the dull bridal satin and liked it.
- SY Fabrics
- Fabrics-Store - for linen
Secondhand Fabric, Notions, and Craft Supplies
- Creative Reuse Directory"
- Where to Find Secondhand, Deadstock, and Vintage Fabric Online
- 60+ Arts and Crafts Thrift Stores
- Swanson's Fabrics
- A Thrifty Notion
- Make and Mend
- Destashify
- Backroom Finds
- Youtuber who also sells vintage sewing patterns, fabrics, and notions.
Notions
- Bias Bespoke
- I'm interested in their interachangable eyelet setter
- Richard the Thread
- Wawak
First Aid etc
- The Complete Guide to First Aid Kits
- How to Make a First Aid Kit
- How to Build a Kit for Emergencies
- Emergency essentials: Putting together a survival kit