Contents Gift Guide 3 $35 and under Entertaining Others Beauty Biz Home on the Range The Thrifty Apocalypse Read It and Reap Eat Me! Hearts and Crafts Space Savers Kid Stuff Connect the Dots, Loops, Jams and Riffs Cuisine Art Gadgetry Gift Guide 2 clothing guide Scene Stealers It Girls 4th-Grade Somethings Little Women Action Jacksons Shredding Bettys Boys to Men Edge of 17 Dads Who Dig Hip Mamas Gift Guide 1 $35 and up Fun and Games Literary License Windows Shopping Kitchen Aid Get Out Gremlin-Free Gizmos Discmen Skintillating Eat, Drink and Be Merry Gifts That Keep On Giving Child's Play Well-Furnished Gimcracks and Geegaws

Give A Little Bit Plump economy notwithstanding, most of us do not have day-trader-size money rolls to blow on presents. Instead, we must rely on our deepest resource: ingenuity. But who has time to create and be thrifty during the holidays? This sort of pressure leads to rash purchases of gifty gifts--bloated Northwest food baskets, chi-chi soap, mink earmuffs. We've got some ideas to help you avoid becoming such a sucker--and leave you with enough coin to party like it's 1999. Impress haughty artistes, not with a gouging gallery painting, but with $3.49 jumbo cans of Campbell's soup. Bypass Vicki's $50 velvet knickers for some Lucky Devils' Liquid Latex ($16.99) to show your lover how much you dig peeling her like a grape. Seek out a restaurant supply store for a $15 wok and the noodling recip will never be the wiser. And for your neurotic pals, there's Erwin S. Strauss' guide, How to Start Your Own Country (only $12.95!). Still not finding any copacetic choices? Then look inward for inspiration; read how imposed gift-making brought one strung-out shopper back to his senses. Finally, travel beyond malls and boutiques for truly original works made by artisans. Although the words "holiday bazaar" instill fearsome images of nubby afghans, gilded pinecone wreaths and jawbreaking peanut brittle in the minds of the sane, we recommend the following two: * If you've been to one of Kara Larson's dress sales before, you know the frocks go fast. Her pretty, fluid Kara-line designs are sold locally at Mimi & Lena and Matisse, but you can get 'em at a deep discount ($40-$75) at this bazaar. Larson has corralled a handful of girlfriends to participate too. Sarah Minnick's '20s-inspired Bess Dress gowns, men's fashions from San Francisco's Manifesto line, flapper-style necklaces by Amy Farris and Kathleen Tesnakis' Ekologic hats are among the goodies for sale. Kara-line showroom, 532 SE Belmont St., No. 206, 235-2035. 4-9 pm Friday, Dec. 10; 10 am-4 pm Saturday, Dec. 11. * The fourth-annual Holiday Bobble displays the wares of many local artists, such as jewelry by Tad Chi, recycled and reassembled furniture from Salvage Works, bags, boxes and more. Snake & Weasel, 1720 SE 12th Ave., 232-8338. 11 am-7 pm Friday, 10 am-7 pm Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 10-12. Editor Christina Melander Design Director Katherine Topaz Art Director Mariane Zenker Cover Photography Michael Parrish Inside Photography Anne Reeser Design Anabel Ramirez Anne Reeser Jesse Woodruff   Copy Chief Becky Ohlsen Copy Editors Matt Buckingham Ian Gillingham Contributors Caryn B. Brooks Liz Brown Naomi Gollogly Zach Dundas Nigel Jaquiss Trevor Kearney Brian Libby Michaela Lowthian Mac Montandon Deborah Rossiter Susan Wickstrom