My Mom made this quilt in the late 70’s. She gave it to me when I moved to NYC (on my birthday!) in 1990.

It is comprised of clothes that my entire family wore in the late 60’s and 1970’s. For real. Come on, check out some of those awesome patterns! See the pieces with the little green frogs? From a set of 3 sundresses that my Mom made. Yes, she dressed us up in matching outfits - often.

Mom isn’t a quilter, this was her first effort. There’s no fusible on the back of the fabric and it’s starting to (literally) fall apart in many sections.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Take off the backing (it’s attached to an old store bought quilt and a flannel sheet) and adhere patches to the back of the truly ripped pieces. Make them look ‘whole’ as much as possible. Attach fusible to the back of the entire thing (anyone want to suggest a weight?). Attach a soft cotton (solid) fabric to the back. Sew a grid to truly attach back  & front. Trim. HAND WASH. Wall Hanging?

Anyone? Silver is waiting to hear from you. Maybe I should hand this over to a pro?

It’s Horsey! Maybe you remember Horsey from this post or this post?

If you look close you’ll see Super Gay Andy out there too. He and Horsey hang out a lot.

Here’s a closer shot of SGA…

Wow, Horsey has gotten a tad…chubby. How many apples a day does my Mom toss at him?

I kid. I kid. I don’t know enough about horses to say what kind he is, but he’s super stocky. Almost Clydesdale-ish.

I love having a horse in my backyard - especially when I don’t have to take care of him!

Twice this week I’ve found myself in a Belgian restaurant.

Only once did it end with a waffle. I must try harder.

I did attempt to apply fake eyelashes for Halloween. It didn’t go so well, only the middle part adhere’d. Still, I had a giggle…even though I look surly (as usual) in this picture. Also, kinda looks like I have a lazy eye. I don’t! LOL

This morning (Sunday) we went to a diner bright and early. We saw all sorts of goblins making their way home. Gosh I love to watch the ole *walk of shame*. Our seat by the window gave us a great view of the mix of one-night-stands and people gearing up to head to the city for the marathon. Sure hope that the Flashdance chick was able to score a cab! After the diner I made the Fiance take me on a walk around Queens. Queens gets a bit of a bad rap, but it’s really quite beautiful (well, some parts…).

Today was a lazy day. A little sewing (holiday gifts) and playing with the kitties. By the way, do you think Tucker has been hittin’ the Nyquil?

I really don’t know how Penny puts up with him. She’s so calm and normal and he’s so…whack-a-doodle.

I assembled (by that I mean I ironed on a patch!) an apron for a friend. He and I have been working on a cookbook together and I made this for him. I wrapped up his copy of the Publishing contract in the apron and tied a big bow around it. Hope it makes him squeal!

Tonight we continued the lazy-theme. We invited our friend Colleen over and explicitly told her that leftovers were on the menu and we were wearing sweatpants. She showed up in sweats too and we sat around carb-loading. Super fun!

Nasty rumor floating around that tomorrow is Monday. Don’t fall for it!

I arrived home from Minneapolis quite late on Thursday evening so Friday was a bit of a fog for me. The good news is that I will not have to step foot on another plane for several weeks! Yay! While I was in Minneapolis I had time to run into 2 GoodWill stores. OMG. Thrift shopping in Minneapolis is awesome. I wish I had more time! I found lots of goodies in the first store including this old Syroco-style shelving unit ($5!) that I hand carried onto the plane. It’s carry on, right? Tucker approves of it. He’s suggested we paint it black and add some snappy craft paper to the interior. I’ll take his recommendation under advisement.

I also wandered into a store called Second Debut which is a high-end boutique style GoodWill. Really, it’s a GoodWill, I even asked! Everything in this store was awesome. The prices are much higher than a regular GoodWill but worth it, the items were top-notch. I regret not buying the set of framed horse prints ($40 each). If you’re ever in the Minneapololis/St. Paul area, Second Debut is totally worth checking out.

The contest to win the Itouch Ipod courtesy of the folks at Dupont goes to…

Wait!

First let me tell you that all the stories were awesome. I laughed, I cried, I commiserated. Some folks had truly staggering circumstances and for getting through those situations they deserve so much more than an ipod.

When all was said and done, the post that spoke to me (and Tucker Kitten) the most was this one:

“I was lucky enough to inherit the kitchen cabinets from my grandmother’s house. They’re not fancy, and may be a little country, but they are solid wood, actually solid pieces- 8, 9, 10 foot long spans of cabinetry- built back when every kitchen was a custom kitchen by default. This saves me from buying cabinets of a lesser quality just to stay in budget with my home renovation, and I get the joy of being creative, reusing the cabinets, adding molding, sanding, painting… They are worth the extra time to me, both in cost efficiency and to be able to say that I cook in the same kitchen my grandmother did. She may not be here with me to tell me the secrets of making her homemade chicken and dumplings, but I can preserve her memory, her kitchen, and maybe even her recipes, with a little sweat and a lot of love.”

He might not have a real white horse - but he sure does make me giggle!

Why?

Well, at 2AM a young lad named Tucker found the container of mini  jingle bells, wrangled the container open and shot them from my office to the living room to the dining room to the bathroom, kitchen and all over the hallway. I found him sitting in a pile of bells with a look of glee plastered to his furry face.

Yep. At 2AM I was stepping on tiny metal pieces (and swearing, loudly) trying to collect them all.

Cease the noise!

Several times I thought I had gathered all the bells only to crawl into bed again and hear the “tink tink tink” of another wayward bell. Little bugger had hidden them everywhere.

So, umm, I may be a tad cranky today…

I had quite a bit of fun at the Salvation Army on Saturday morning. Vintage apron,  6 packages of (3 pkgs. are hand painted!) old ornaments, needlepoint kitty picture that looks Tucker-ish and a wedding favor from 1986. Those are some super old jordan almonds. Ick!

Why did I buy the wedding favor? It was comprised of 6 matching teeny-tiny demitasse spoons! So cute. Love demitasse spoons when drinking tea. These favors musta been hella expensive to make, hope Oscar and Antonientta are still rockin’ the love. Will wash up the needlepoint kitty and make something silly. Love the look on the kitty’s face. Priceless.

Also wandered into Marshall’s and found a disco ball. Now tell me, how are you gonna pass up a disco ball? Next to the ball, a set of mini disco ball ornaments. They had to come home with me. It’s time we got this party started! Umm. Yeah…

Last night I started punching & sewing gift tags with scrap fabric.

Of course my crack team of assistants was right there ready to help.

The little French flag was Penny’s idea.

What are you doing today? Penny and I are thinking about sitting on our butts and watching the world go by.

Remember all that trauma I went through when trying to select a counter top for the house? I may have blocked some of it out, but I know there were lots of tears and it took me a few years (yes, years) to finally settle on a counter top. Let’s face it, counter tops are a pricey investment and they really set the tone for the kitchen aka the heart of the home. Given the investment, your counter top selection may change your overall color scheme - right down to wall paint, flooring and accessories for many (many…) years. It’s a pricey puzzle that set my nerves on edge. I think the process stressed me out more than the time my boiler almost fell through the floor. No, really. I think I handled that better. It was so stressful that I should have gone to a professional kitchen designer like Susan Serra Associates. Susan is Awesome and based out of Long Island, New York. If you can’t handle it, call Susan. She’s a total pro.

Anyhoo, the folks at Dupont recently offered to send me an itouch to try out their new Corian & Zodiac counter top app (application). Oh man. This would have seriously cut down on my stress! Getting samples from the folks at the big box home improvement stores proved to be frustrating - with this app, they are right on my iphone/itouch and I can call their 800 # to order samples! Keep in mind that screen resolution is never 100% accurate, but this would have truly helped me narrow down the playing field.

Since playing with this application, I’ve fallen in love (big time) with Corian’s Jasmine. There’s a picture of Jasmine on the application where it’s rendered as open wall shelving. Holla! Love that idea. Love. Love. So French bistro.

Let’s face, I’d happily live my whole life in a French bistro. Which reminds me, I really need to try and bake some French bread using Julia’s recipe. Her trial & error process was discussed at length in the book My Life In France. Must get on that!

OK back to this application…here are the counter tops that I would like to go on a first date with.

Corian’s: Jasmine, Witch Hazel, Sandalwood, Stone Harbor (seems very similar to soapstone!) and for a bit of razzle-tazzle…the sparklee red from Zodiac’s line called Indus Red. I think Indus Red might be what they used in the bathrooms at the Wynn Casino Park Cafe.

I wish there was an easy way to print out large jpegs of the counter tops so that I could lay them down to get an even better/bigger visual. Maybe there is, but I haven’t figured it out yet. Hey, I’m not the sharpest tool…

You can get the FREE application for your iphone/itouch by CLICKING HERE.

So how do enter for a chance to win the awesome Itouch from the peeps at Dupont? Drop me a comment below and tell me about your biggest renovation challenge. Doesn’t need to be a novel (please…less than 500 words) just a couple lines about the biggest/worst/scariest renovation you have tackled in your house/apartment/office. I will consult with Tucker and we will select a winner. Entries must be submitted by 10/30/09 at 10AM.

We will announce the winner on Halloween!

US residents only please.

Extra love to those that twitter or blog about the contest with a link.

 

Good Luck!

*FTC compliance thingamabob: Yep, they gave me a free itouch w/ the application. Yep, they’re giving away another one on this here blogadoodle. Yep, I really do love the application. No, I don’t like celery or brussel sprouts.