Happy Hands at Home

Long ago, I sewed all my daughters' clothes, 
and pretty much all of my own.
My Mom had sewn ours, and her own, so I followed her example.

Image: Karen, of The Graphics Fairy

And then I discovered that if you give merchants foldy green paper,

they give you fabric that is already sewn into garments.

Son of a gun.  Who knew?

But a few years ago, I bought a killer sewing machine.

A Babylock Symphony.

And my daughter Anne has used it more than I have.

Bad Cass.  Bad, bad Cass.

After romping through the fabric shops of New York's

Garment District with Anne, weekend-before-last, I was inspired.

Time to fire up the needles and threads, and go all creative again.

But since I'm too lazy to romp back into NYC again,

I hit up Fabric Warehouse in Rahway, New Jersey.

Holy monkeys, what a lotta stuff.

Most of the offerings are home dec fabrics, but there is

a goodly section of fashion remnants -- suitings, challis, knits ....

The suitings called my name, plus they are crazy cheap inexpensive.

Here, in my car, a quick (and bad) phone shot of my treasures.

L to R, a black and cream speckly tweed, a multi-color loose weave,

and a brown and black tweedy fabric (my favorite among them).

I'm feeling the cold weather looming.

I'll have to test the fabrics to determine fiber content.

Could be just about anything ... but I bought stuff for 3 jackets

for 27 bucks.

Sweet.
As long as the faric doesn't melt in the rain.

Now, let's see if I get these sewn.  I'm still promising to finish up

some simple draperies for That Old House ... so what I need to do is
get over my lingering fear of my fancy sewing machine,

and put my foot to the pedal and go.

The sun just came out.  Good omen! -- Cass

Visit Linda at Coastal Charm for Show and Share!  -- Click here!

Blues, On A Chilly Monday

Blue Monday.
I'm sharing a little mosaic I did a couple of years ago,
of some of my blue-and-white china.

Who doesn't love blue-and-white china?

Hmmm... rather odd, don't you think, that a color,

blue,

that we identify with sadness or feeling a bit gloomy,

should be one of our favorite colors?

I actually did have a few blue moments today;

Hallowe'en does that to me.

Paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud.

Since making this mosiac, I may have gotten more blue & white china.

Maybe.  It's just possible.  -- Cass

Feeling Mosaic-y?  

Join Judith at Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday.  Click here!

Dear Craigslist: You're (Almost) Fired!

Last weekend, I inflicted a batch of Craigslist
coffee tables upon you, that might or might not
be right for our coffee-table-deprived study.

Oh poor, poor That Old House.  There is no coffee table in its study!

Craigslist pretty much always comes through for us.

But ... not yet.  And I've checked every day.  

I know, such a chore.

A new old coffee table, big and feet friendly,
will be put into harness in this room, currently coffee-table-less:

For the ebay bargain of the decade, this table, click here.

So, time for the next batch of likely suspects.
Do any strike your fancy?

This one, by Councill Craftsman, is high-end, and has storage,
and loads of park-your-wineglass space.

And a glass topper.   A little stodgy, maybe.

Don't know the origins of this rather Plain Jane fella, but it's got nice curves.

Hmm ... those lower shelves?  Dust catchers.  I know myself....

Should we try going edgy and industrial?
A wood pallet on rusty iron legs.

Interesting, if probably a passing fad, and no worries about rings from wet glasses.

Also, a great reminder to get a tetanus booster.

This dainty number intrigues me.  Large, wide pine plank top, with nicely shaped spindly legs.

But the back legs don't have feet.  Really.  Clearly a cobbled-together piece,

but I kind of like it.  The legs would get new paint.  I like that it is not much of a presence.
There's already a lot of stuff in that room.

This one is ... interesting.  Nice big squarish top, sturdy, all that metal scrollwork...

... and then it hits me: I have two long-haired dogs.  Metal scrollwork and fuzzy dogs?

No.  I can't imagine how hard it is to clean the bottom of this thing - all 4 sides are covered in grille!

Yeah. These guys could lay down some serious fuzz on those metal swirls.

Dylan DiPoochy, left, and Gilda Von Tease.

So, I guess I can't help myself.

More metal scrollwork, but the ends of this table are open.

Easier to get that vacuum hose inside, to suck up dust and fuzz-wuzzies.

(The envelope, please!)

The Oscar for Best Hilariously

Goofball Coffee Table, goes to this one:

Yes, chickens, it is made of two artifacts described in the listing as "Eskimo snowshoes."

The asking price is a thousand dollars, but it says offers are considered.

Gee, I hope I can resist ....

By the way, that nice burled wood coffee table from last Friday?

Gone.  Gone.  Gone.  Sigh.

When Craigslist tosses up A Good Thing, pounce. -- Cass

Linky Parties for Friday

It's Feathered Nest Friday at the French Country Cottage.  Click here!

Miss Mustard Seed is gathering Furniture Friday posts.  Click here!

My Romantic Home is home to Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

At The Charm of Home, it's Home Sweet Home Friday.  Click here!

Feeding A Fabric Addiction, Garment District Style

I have a few weaknesses.
(Stop laughing, Howard.)
Among them:  fresh blank notebooks, good pens, yarn,
china, books, other people's old furniture, and . . . fabric.
(I left out chocolate, and onion dip.
Umm... not together. Unless there are anchovies.)

Having a daughter whose livelihood involves fabric means that I sometimes get a fascinating glimpse into her world -- a world of narrow, packed fabric shops and specialty stores that feed the fashion and costume industry in New York City, and beyond.

Below, Anne, in her natural habitat, in a fabric shop on West 39th Street in Manhattan's Garment District.

Not all the shops are this overwhelming.  Some are more so.  And some are more spare.

Anne lives and works in Washington, DC, now.

A benighted city without a garment or fabric district.

(You have to watch where you walk; fabrics at your feet!)

Can you spot Anne?

(And more material overhead.)

(With walls and walls lined with bolts of endless color and texture.)

Good fabric stores are like crack to me; I want ALL the fabrics.

I want to bring them home with me and gaze upon them.  So much potential.

Anne is a theatrical costume designer, and after two post-grad-school years

of freelance designing in and around NYC,

recently accepted a full-time job as a costume designer and teacher in DC.

Currently designing and building costumes for a production of Moliere,

meaning 1660s clothing, she could not find all of the fabric she needed locally.

So Columbus Day weekend, she Amtrak'd it home to Jersey, and her familiar city fabric shops.

(Need buttons? Some shops have aisles and aisles of them.)

On hearing of her plans . . . "Please, may I come with you?"
And I did.  And it was glorious and such fun!
5 days later, I am still basking in the glow of whole blocks of specialty shops.

(Got trim?)

(Need a little bling?)

Anne found the specialty fabrics she wanted, as she knew she would.
New York City always comes through; you can find anything.

The little specialty shops have not changed much in generations.  The names of the owners have changed, but the shops are still catering to a niche clientele that knows what it wants.

You may be offered a better price to seal a deal,
it is wise to be an informed consumer,
and ... something that I find charming ...   receipts are still written out by hand.

Okay, once more . . . Where's Waldo?  Oops, I mean Annie!

And, no, we did not go to Mood.  

But W.38th, W.39th, W.40th Streets, and 7th Avenue?  Oh yeah.  Oh yeah ....

I even got a bag full of $1 and $3 necklaces at a place on 7th.  

Cheaper than Goodwill.  :-)

Bonus:  It was lovely having Anne back home for a few days.

And, she made gluten-free, grain-free pizza for dinner on Sunday.

Yum.  I do miss that child's cooking!

I hope your Thursday isn't as wet and blustery as ours!  -- Cass

And now, a Linky Party!

It's Treasure Hunt Thursday, at From My Front Porch To Yours.

Click here, my pretties!

Dear Craigslist: We Need A Coffee Table. Now.

Dear North Jersey Craigslist,
We need a coffee table in our Study.  Now.

Our study is our reading room, computer room, television room,
and often it's where we catch a light supper together.
It's full of stuff.  Good stuff, but stuff.  And it needs a sturdy coffee table!

Our last coffee table was a big big architect's chest,
early 20th century, that belongs to our daughter Anne.

The chest, at an estate sale in Philadelphia, a couple of years ago.
No one wanted it so Anne, who had helped out at the sale, got it. Free.

 It now lives happily in her apartment in Washington DC.

The coffee table before that was a Hooker.

(Yes, I know.  I laugh every time.)

Anyway, it was a large, square chow table, made by Hooker Furniture,

and it cost me 99-cents on eBay.
It served us well, and just about the time we donated it to
Goodwill, it came roaring back into the pages of home dec magazines,
Who knew?

Before the Hooker, there was the Bootlegger.
A Craigslist find, this Art Deco table was sleek and held a really neat secret.


If you pushed in those end panels, they rotated, and
presto-chango!  You had a hidden bar, revealed.

How cool is that?
A bootlegger's dream coffee table.
Sleek and good looking, it was too small for the room.
I think this is at my sister's now.

However - to haul us back to the problem at hand - since the end of August, 
we have not had a coffee table in the Study.  We need one.
My feet are just hanging off the sofa, dangling.

O Great Craigslist Gods ... do your thang!

(A quick look at the North Jersey CL listings yielded these tables,
all cheap enough to make me happy.  Although nothing beats 99 cents. Except free.)

Slate tile top, metal frame.  Dated, but practical.  Good colors for our room.

The new table must be big.  No dainty tea tables need apply.
Big enough to accommodate all the glasses and plates of
the young'uns at parties and holidays, and our feet the rest of the time.

Glass or stone tops work nicely.  No coasters.

I don't mind painting to get the right color.
(The one, above, is crying out for paint to cover its
not-vintage-in-a-good-way 80s Miami Vice frosted color.
I can see it brick red.  Or black. Or almost anything!)

Some really nice burled wood in this table.
Very much like the old credenza our TV lives on, including the fluting.

Below, a glass and steel example from Pottery Barn.
I like the minimalist look; we've got so much stuff in the Study,
this could be a welcome break in all the pattern and color.
(And it's a great price, too!)

Hmm ... Not sure about wanting that lower level.  Dust.  Dog hair.  Dang!

So many tables!  And loads more,
especially when I expand my search to the rest of New Jersey,
or nearby Pennsylvania, or Westchester, or New York City . . . .

Whatcha think?
What would you choose? Any ideas?

What do you look for in a casual, family room coffee table?
Happy Friday, my dears -- Cass

Friday Link Parties!

It's Feathered Nest Friday at the French Country Cottage.  Click here!

Miss Mustard Seed is gathering Furniture Friday posts.  Click here!

My Romantic Home is home to Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

At The Charm of Home, it's Home Sweet Home Friday.  Click here!

And at Ivy and Elephants, I'm joining What's It Wednesday.  Click here!

Thank you, ladies, for hosting the blog parties.
I know it's time consuming, but ... thanks!

Goodbye, Chlorophyll, It's Been Good To Know Ya

Autumn has its charms:  apples, pumpkins, brilliant color, 
cool clear days, stupid-easy seasonal decorating
(just plop a pumpkin or a mum anywhere) . . . .

But I am not a total fan of watching Summer shrivel up.

Perhaps it makes me think of the skin on my neck, now that I'm past 60.

Oops.  Sorry about the trash can full of weeds.  Not a staged picture!

 Leaves are frisbee-ing themselves off the trees,
most flowering plants have retired for the year,

but our tomatoes are still grunting out babies, trying to outrun Jack Frost.

These guys are doing their best to beat the coming frost.

Yes, we added a mum and a pumpkin to the sunroom doorway.

The Rieger Begonia that was blooming so beautifully there

totally gave up the ghost -- folded like a cheap suit, the coward.

An occasional Knockout is still outing itself.

The Russian Sage is soldiering on.

The bees are all over it, bless their little pollen-spreading hearts.

But Fall is winning.

In the sunroom border, the portulaca is kaput.

Thank you, wax begonias, for hanging on.

I've never much liked you, but you are tough buggers.  Respect.

Hmmm... okay.  A fresh mum does bring new color to the fading garden, doesn't it?

Although a glance down, and the very dead cosmos stalks

make an interesting, Addams Family display.  :-P 
Yes, weeds everywhere.

(Bad back the past few weeks. No weeding.)

But Autumn brings many blessings, as I try and remind myself.

It is pretty.

It brings families together for Thanksgiving ....

And ... then ... there's Christmas.  :-)

Thanksgiving.

Don't panic, my friends,

but it's fewer than 50 days to Turkey Day!

And I am still working on making my TBDBT List.

(To Be Done By Thanksgiving List.  Always made.  Never finished.)

I wish you a happy Thursday.

-- Cass