In a 440 square-foot shop in Seattle, Melinda and Louis Whisler practice the dying art of custom shoemaking. Customers with foot problems and special requests come to them for shoes made to order. Then there are the customers who are just willing to pay the premium to have their feet shod in custom footwear. The Whislers do it all by hand, with the help of an Italian sewing machine and other tools of the trade. Prices start at $345 and go way up from there.

Want a green thumb? You can hire one in the form of a gardening coach.

With the Atlantic Monthly opening up its archives to all readers, I immediately went to over to catch up with food writer Corby Kummer. Very recently, he discovered that former Coffee Connection owner George Howell, who sold the chain to Starbucks in 1994, is no longer bound by a non-compete agreement and has opened up Terroir Coffee.

Blue nail polish is back in style, which means that my 3 bottle investment 10 years ago is paying off again.

Coming to a theater near me, Shrek the Musical will have its “out of town tryout” in Seattle at the end of this summer before opening on Broadway. Disney has been opening Broadway musicals from its movie archives at a rapid clip and this is Dreamworks’ first foray into the field. Director Sam Mendes pitched the idea in 2003 and is a consultant to the production which is actually being directed by Jason Moore of “Avenue Q.” Thus, the question of course is: will there be puppets? This 2006 article on Moore says Shrek will be “with puppets of course.” But, it’s sure to be more family-friendly than the raunchy “Avenue Q.”

Parents can view their childrens’ WASL test booklets and this AP writer decided to do so. The Washington Assessment of Student Learning is a standardized assessment test given to Washington State public school students in grades 3-8 and 10. Very few parents take the state up on the opportunity to see their child’s tests. In 2007 only 746 out of 1.5 million WASL test booklets were shown to parents. This parent found one scoring error, though that wasn’t her purpose in taking a look at the test. She learned more about how the test is structured and the kind of mistakes her daughter was making. The article’s sidebar has instructions on how to request to see your child’s test.

When pet owners go on vacation they can hire a pet sitter. Dairy farmers have a tougher time when they have to be away from their herd, but where there’s a need there’s a business model. Brian Herr is a professional relief milker in Wisconsin, hired to tend to dairy farms when the owners are on holiday or at conventions. Milking is of course only part of the duties. Herr feeds the cows, makes sure they are healthy, and performs other chores around the farm. Sometimes he’ll stay at the farm, but more often he commutes. Regular customers plan vacations around his availability.

Many of us have forgotten things on public transportation. Some people leave behind important items like eyeglasses and irreplaceable documents. In Seattle, in 2007, 863 people left their bicycles on the bus. That’s over 2 people a day leaving behind a pretty significant object! This has been going on since bike racks were added to the Metro buses in 1994, Metro didn’t have enough room in their lost & found so nowadays the bikes, tagged with date and bus number, are kept in a commuter bike storage location waiting to be reunited with owners. Unclaimed bicycles are given to charity.

There are now actual details, not rumors, from Jerry Traunfeld (previously chef at the Herbfarm) on his new restaurant: an undisclosed North Capitol Hill location, 100 seats opening late summer if all goes well, and a dinner concept (based on the Indian thali) where each diner is presented with a large platter of 10-11 small dishes for ~$30. And it will be called Poppy, after his mom (awwww). Back to the rumor mill, the grapevine is placing Poppy’s at the closed Jade Pagoda on Broadway.

Home decor magazines (“shelter” mags) are shutting down and evolving with the changes in homeowner fortunes, do-it-yourself initiatives, and sustainable living. House & Garden has shuttered after 106 years (with a 3 year break in the mid ’90s). Dwell has been overhauled with soy-based inks and recycled-content paper and matching sustainable content inside. Old standby Better Homes and Gardens also redesigned with an emphasis on do-it-yourself project details and energy saving tips. Meanwhile, the queen of them all, Architectural Digest is chugging along dandily, serving and revealing the homes of the affluent.