Wine crates: They aren't just for breakfast anymore! :)

...Ha Ha

Do you ever get tired of stripping, sanding and painting?
And you have a piece of furniture staring you in the face,......
just begging you to do something "out of the box"?

I did.

This little white dresser was in great structural shape, but she definitely needed a face lift!
(And paint alone wasn't going make anyone give this girl a second look, she was pretty plain.)
After looking around in my stash o junk, I thought i might have the answer...

Wine crate panels!
They are graphic and charming and the pine is easy to cut.
I decided to attempt to make a wine crate "slip cover"!

I began covering all the edges in assorted pine trim pieces from the local lumberyard.
It was kind of fun actually...because I. LOVE. MY. NAILGUN!
Measure, cut, glue and nail....repeat as necessary.

Laying out the top, I tried to make it visually interesting
and showcase some fun graphics on the wine crate panels.
I added some trim to act like a frame and give it a nice finished edge.

Most of the drawers just got covered in plain pine wood.

Except the top drawer, i added a wine crate panel to her and some more detailed trim pieces.

Now on to the hardware.
It had to be kind of rustic like the pine crates, kind of masculine
...and yet I kind of wanted to use something unexpected.
Hmmm...how about leather straps!

See those colorful belts from the thrift store? Perfect!...Really!
I just cut away all of the colored belt material and attached the leather pieces.

I thought they were pretty darn cute...and fit the piece so well.
(forgive me for the poor quality photos)

A light stain rubbed over all toned down that new pine look.

Here she is in all of her new found rustic beauty.
Earthy and mellow, with just a hint of sweetness...just like I like my wine! HA

(She sold at JunkFest 2010...
but you never know she could have a sister showing up in 2011!)

Go drink some wine, people...there are naked dressers everywhere!!

Biracial blues.

I just read an interesting article over at "The Grio" from a writer named Jessy Schuster. It deals with her biracial heritage and what she perceives as the wrong way to approach the subject.

"My French accent has always been source of questions in Miami. Despite my 11 years of residency in the so called "melting pot" city, I have never spent one day in Miami without answering the "where are you from' question. It became my daily routine but as the years passed by I also realized that another question has been thrown at me even before I started talking.

'What are you?', or 'what is your ethnic background?' has become the new rite of passage for any social event I am attending. At the beginning, I was amused by the question as I felt empowered by a mission to educate people on mixed offspring, but the usual reaction I get when I explain that my father is French "from France, and not Haiti", and that "my mother is black from Guadeloupe, a French island in the Caribbean" is what started to really aggravate me.

Mixed children are born with no real same combination of genes and features. I have three sisters and we all display different skin tones, body type and facial features. United Colors of Benetton could have hired us for their international billboards ads. I would have been the light skin woman with kinky hair and a muscular body and prominent behind!

Everyone asked me the question, blacks, white, and Latinos among others, but there is a difference between white people and black people asking the question. The first group will have that surprised look as I announce the "French" part of my heritage, then a high pitch "really?" usually escapes their mouth as they start a cross examination with questions such as "not Haiti? Or a Brazilian background? Are you sure?"

The need to discern where the black features on my face or body come from is always stronger than just accepting my answer. I guess every French person should come dress with a beret and a baguette at hand while singing "La vie en rose" and having Pepé le Pew on a leash.

This is exactly what bothers me when the question comes from a white person. Most of the time, they look disappointed when I explain that I am a mixed child born from a black woman and a white man, as they were expecting a more exotic and interesting explanation.

When I usually return the favor, they often look surprised and simply answer " I'm from here" or "I'm from New York." I have yet encountered someone who would explain "My mother's family came from Poland, and my father's side fled England for a better life in the State, and that is why I am white with green eyes!" So if they don't feel obligated to give me their geological tree story when I ask them, why should I?" [Article]  

I think I see where you are coming from Jessy, but I never get questions about my Maroon and Jamaican heritage when people meet me, (except if I break out into deep patois) so I can't really relate.

Jessy's blog.

Summer Diary Day 73: Paper Mache Part 1

Dear summer diary,
I wanted to do a large paper mache project with the girls this summer. With only 25 days left until school, we better get our crafty bums paper mache-ing. We borrowed a book from the library for inspiration & have decided on a big dog. It'll be our family pet. We have designed the dog we want & gotten a list of supplies we need. Tomorrow we'll begin the foundation of the doggie.
♥
Nikki

Sunday Safari - House of Birds

 Joseph Cornell, Untitled (The Hotel Eden), 1945

Pascal Blanchet, thanks to The Casual Optimist

 Dolan Geiman

 Pablo Amargo

 Frank Chimero, Arkansas

 Geninne, Home is where the heart is

 Allegra Agliardi

 Mariachininha, Decorating the house

 Lisa Congdon

Irene Shoch, illustration for Mireille Mésange

 Robert Strobridge, illustration from The Sparrow finds a Home, 1967,

thanks to Stopping Off Place

Amy Ruppel, Vacation Home print at poster cabaret

Valerio Doval, Haunted Houses

Summer Diary Day 72: What's in your Purse?

Dear summer diary,

After my bedroom decluttering earlier today, the girls both snatched up one of the many purses I was purging. We decided to look inside each other's purses to see what was in them. I always think it's rather adorable to see the things my kid's tote around. Hope it's amusing to you as well...

Pazely's Purse:
(Pazely said: "I have everything I need in here, except for mommy, daddy, Zoey, food & clothes.")

• 2 lipglosses

• 1 Rootbeer lipsmacker

• 1 pencil

• 1 pen

• ice cream eraser

• world map eraser

• mini notebook (with a sketch of our main street)

• light-up sock monkey snow globe

• cell phone (it's not working)

• nail clippers

• fool's gold

• animal stencil

• green strip of fabric that she sketched

• 3 old keys

• $20.13

• pink coin purse (she took it from me!)

• set of doggie trading cards

• lipstick case (which she also took from me!) filled with a penny, seashells, acorns & 2 straight pins

• purple fangs

• a red/yellow/green pin that says "Congo"

Zoey's Purse:

• glasses with case & cloth

• vanilla flavored chapstick

• 2 plastic balls

• 1 bouncy ball

• bird whistle

• mirrored compact

• bunny sticker

• green whistle with wrist strap

• 2 bolts & 2 plastic tube thingies (from an experiment at summer school)

• cross maze game

• nail clippers (what is it with these girls & the nail clippers?)

• 2 dress-up rings

• 1 felt butterfly pouch (that she made) filled with a "lucky leaf",  a tiny acorn & a note that I gave her when she was in a bad mood at me one day that read: "I love you. Be happy, OK? It's gonna be a good day!" I didn't realize it, but she keeps it & says she looks at it whenever she needs cheering up.

My purse:

• a tin of "Crafty Girl" mints
• iPhone charger
• checkbook
• my paycheck from last week
• glasses case (which houses my polaroid "macro" lens)
• 5 band-aids
• the car key---with its handmade keychain from July's Crafty Night
• my other set of keys
• 2 coupons for JoAnne's & one for Old Navy
• 3 hair bands
• 1 fancy hair bobby
• $4.33
• knitted coin purse (which did not hold any of that $4.33. haha!)
• 6 shades of lipgloss
• mini owlie journal
• Princess doodles book (from Tia for my flight home from Wa. in June)
• 1 pencil
• 8 inkpens (I'm a writer. Can you tell?? Hubby gets so frustrated because he can't ever find any pens around the house. Oops.)
• 1 knitting needle (YAY! I thought I lost it!)
• 2 pair of P.F. Chang's chopsticks (There's not a P.F. Chang's around here within a couple hundred miles--- at least. These were in my purse for some crafty project I was working on.)
• extra camera memory card
• biz card from a trophy shop
• a neon information card about some glass blowers we saw in Keystone, SD last week
• an unused $10 gift card from Bed, Bath & Beyond from a Christmases ago
• 2 driver's licenses (I lost one, got a new one sent, & then found the lost one)
• 2 debit cards
• Red Robin rewards card
• health insurance card for my girls

• my Media Pass for Nebraska school events
♥
Nikki

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 4: My closet

It's been 8 days since my last active "30 Bags in 30 Days" purge. And, though this project might have been intended to get completed 30 days in a row, I'm breaking the rules & spreading the 30 days out a bit. It's just been too busy around here to get it done every day.

 I was in a funk today. I decided to take advantage of that funk & attacked my bedroom closet. I found that being in a funk was rather helpful in letting me discard things that I otherwise might have been attached to. I decluttered to the tune of 2 trash bags full: 1/2 a bag of garbage & 1 1/2 bags of items to donate to our church garage sale.

The bags of items are already starting to pile up in the basement downstairs.
It's really rather inspiring.

♥

"What a Feeling!"

"A day after a crowd of violent youths roamed through Center City and randomly attacked two men, the city's top enforcement officials decried the assaults and business leaders called for a stepped-up police presence.

"We will not tolerate marauding, destructive youth terrorizing our city," said District Attorney Seth Williams. "We will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, and we are working with the police to find ways to prevent these occurrences."

Four people, including an 11-year-old boy, who took part in the attacks face charges with assault and conspiracy.

They were among a crowd of young people who swarmed the sidewalk at Juniper and Walnut streets about 9:15 p.m. Friday and pounced on a 33-year-old man, punching and kicking him. Police say the attack appeared to be random.
Moments later, at 15th and Sanson, a mob descended on a 59-year-old man and kicked, punched and beat him. This attack, too, was random, police said.
Both men were treated and released at Thomas Jefferson University Hopital.[sic]"[Source]

Flash mobs are nothing new. They have been as popular as cheese steaks here in Philly this year, but at some point we have to get on these [so called] parents a little bit.

The parent [or parents] of that eleven year old ought to have their parenting license taken away. They should also be fined and be made to pay for whatever damage their little domestic terrorist caused our fair city.

The po po has a task force; the DA's office has a task force; and merchants in our fair city are taking these incidents quite seriously. Everyone seems to be serious except the parents of these little monsters. Why? For the record, when you parents do get involved, the results are always good.

And let me get the racial angle out of the way with this issue right now, because I know that it will invariably come up: Yes, these little terrorist are usually young and black, and yes, they usually attack -mostly- white people going about their business.

But this is not because they are out looking for white people per se, this is because white people just so happen to be the ones frequenting the areas that are targeted. There is no plan for a secret racial takeover by way of out of control urban youths. Just bad parents who shouldn't be parents in the first place failing to control their damn kids. So relax my white friends, it's all good. Bad parenting is not limited to one particular race.

Finally, did the permed one sell out to Comcast?

"Al Sharpton is back under the mainstream microscope for a series of conflicting interests regarding his co-sign of the Comcast/NBC merger. The Daily Beast claims that Sharpton’s endorsement, which makes him the first “major” black leader to offer one, came with handsome payoffs both for Sharpton and his primary employer – Radio One.

“The Daily Beast has already reported that just months after Sharpton played a pivotal role in pushing the merger, he became a regular substitute host and appears now to be in line for a fulltime anchor post on Comcast’s MSNBC. As awkward as that coincidence is, how about a conflict of interest he did not disclose in his letters to the Federal Communications Commission – or his other pro-merger activities?” the Beast asks.

The site claims that Sharpton cheered on the merger when it had already paid dividends to Radio One and its affiliate TV One. After the merger, Radio One’s ownership of TV One rose to 50.8 percent, a conveniently timed stock transfer that Comcast admitted to facilitating. Radio One/TV One also became part of the basic cable package in Chicago and Miami after the deal, underlining the benefits that sprung from the companies close ties with each other.

“While Radio One is the largest single shareholder in TV One, Comcast has been its partner since TV One’s inception in 2004 and, until recently, held almost as much stock in the television network, 34 percent, as Radio One, 36.8 percent. In fact, Comcast’s role in the launch of this network, which targets a national black audience, was cited repeatedly by the company when questions were raised about its diversity track record during the yearlong debate about this merger,” the Beast reports.

So not only did Sharpton publically attach himself to a controversial cause that has already indirectly paid him for doing so, he virtually signed away the rights for the media giant to tokenize those African-American news mediums. He has been a much bigger asset politically than he has as a host for both his primary employer and his (possibly) future employer, Comcast/NBC. And this is the man who will soon become a trusted “journalist.”' [Source]

Say it ain't so, Reverend.










      





 

Quilt with Feet and Kids Without

Here's Argyle, Anyone? all finished.  I really like how this quilt turned out.  My long-armer used a variegated thread that seemed to include all of the colors in the quilt.

I'm thinking it would be interesting to make this pattern again, but asymmetric -- you know, with the center square not in the center?  I think that would be very interesting.

It's not a big quilt, just enough to pull up on a chilly evening.  Which we will have again.  Someday.

Sherry and her family went to visit Andrew and his family a couple of months ago and somebody snapped this photo and sent it to me.  It's great of Sam and Caroline and less so of Eli and Woofie.  It's hard, you know, to get that many folks to sit still and look at the camera.

Sherry pointed out recently, "Caroline sure lucked out in the hair department."  I agree.

Another Letter

Springfield City Councilor John Lysak

Good evening, Tom.

First, I would like to thank you for publishing my letter on your website. I know that you took a lot of heat for putting that out there, and I appreciate you giving me the chance to tell a small portion of my story.

Secondly, John is aware of the letter, and has responded to me, via a letter from his attorney Thomas Kenefick. The following is a quote from the letter:

"My client [John] has advised that your client has increased her virulent campaign against him in a number of ridiculous websites, viz, Tony Devine's Cosmos Report or Astronauts in Space. Apart from the bizarre nature of the website to which your client seems oddly attracted, she has made it her campaign to ventilate and/or publish my client's alleged abusive behavior towards her and the children (keeping in mind the parties have been separated for over a year) in the hope of causing him embarrassment and humiliation in the public sector. While I question the intellectual calculus of anyone who visits these blogs, nevertheless, it is embarrassing to my client not only because of its falsity but because of the continued vindictiveness and animus of your client towards mine which obviously must have an adverse impact on the children."

Tom, I'm telling you this because it was bloggers like you, Heather Brandon, and Bill Dusty that helped John's political career. He would be nowhere without the bloggers! When the mainstream media ignored our press releases, the bloggers were the only ones who would interview him and take his candidacy seriously. You (the bloggers and yourself) were the only ones to talk him up to the voters. I'm astounded that he would allow his attorney to say these things about people who were his friends. It was terribly unfair of John and his friends to criticize you. I imagine that one of those people was Peter Lyons, as he made nasty comments about me, and then also made nasty comments to my sister when she defended me.

Peter Lyons has to support John, because it was through his work on John's campaign that Peter became friends with Chris Asselin. Yes, John and Chris are good friends, and Peter currently works with Chris thanks to John's connection. In fact, my kids tell me how much they enjoy swimming in Chris's pool with the water slide. The very same pool that was partially funded by stolen monies from city residents. The whole thing is disgusting.

The rest of the letter is concerning John's wedding band. He gave it to my oldest daughter to wear on a necklace. She fell asleep on my bed while wearing it, and I asked her to take it off while she slept as I worried that she would choke on it (I do this myself). She has misplaced it. John's attorney is convinced that I stole it from her and pawned it for money. It's not true of course.

In another letter, John's attorney tries to say that I should lose custody because he believes that I'm practicing witchcraft, which is not condoned by John's conservative Pentacostal Christian faith.

This is just a sampling of what I've been through and am going through with this man. This is the sort of person who wants the voters in Ward 8 to trust him? If he will treat his wife, his children, and his friends in this manner, then there really is no one that he won't betray in his desire for political power. I hope that the voters in Ward 8 learn this before it is too late.

Sincerely,
Priscilla Lysak

My neighbor's mailbox.



Norwottock Trail party invitation.



Amherst bloglord Larry Kelley in Amherst Town Hall.



Out the window of the UMass library.



Waiting for the bus at UMass.



Shiny Happy People at the Amherst Survival Center.


By the Calvin Coolidge Bridge by Nathan Gregory.

Summer Diary Day 71: Penny Carnival

Dear summer diary,
Today the girls accompanied me to the Penny Carnival at our small town fair. I set up a photo booth & took polaroids while they ran around & played games. It was a hot afternoon, but a glad one.

Most of the props I have are the girls' dress up clothes. A few were purchased from the $1 store. I even made those ever-so-popular "moustaches on a stick". (There's even a pair of lips in there.) I also got the chance to borrow an amazing box of wigs for today's occasion. (*Thanks Oneva!!*) I need to get my own collection of wigs---they are SO MUCH FUN!!

My whole set up is not intimidating at all. I attached a vintage sheet to an expandable curtain "rod" & stretched it across two ladders. I had to tape it due to the wind. For fun, I draped a handmade bunting across the sheet.
It was a small event, so I didn't have very many photo booth takers. That's OK though. It was fun watching my girls bounce around & having a day of summer fun.
I didn't get a chance to play at all!! So, I'll have to pull out all the props & have some silly dress-up fun too...

P.S. Funnel Cake. Boo-yah.

♥

Nikki

Nnamdi is welcome but David Williams is not.

I am a little pumped right now folks; Nnamdi Asomugha just signed with my birds.

That's two high profile free agents we stole from "Zoo Yawk" in the last couple of years. Nice.

Now we have three shutdown corners, let's see how things work out from now on. Welcome to the neighborhood Nnamdi, I hear that you are not only a great player but that you are a great citizen as well. You will do just fine here.

Speaking of welcoming someone to the neighborhood, it looks like some of you Negroes aren't exactly welcome in certain neighborhoods down in Houston.

"A Houston man is alleging that once he moved into his upscale Houston neighborhood, the racism followed.

David Williams, a 24-year-old African American website owner originally from Boston, moved to the Houston neighborhood where homes are valued from $400,000 to $3 million earlier this year.

When he arrived, he said he noticed that people looked at him strangely, but didn’t think about racism too much until he and his friends were denied entrance to the subdivision.

The security guard went on to tell him that he received orders from the top to not let him and his friends in.

“Look, I’m not allowed to let you guys in. We personally don’t have a problem with you, but we’ll lose our jobs.” [Source]

Look Negro, how are those hard working folks supposed to know that you are a business owner from Boston and not some rapper from the Third Ward?
Times are hard out here, we can't have you Negroes driving down our property values.

Finally, isn't A-merry-ca a great country? Where else can you (allegedly) kill your daughter and ask for 1.5 million to talk about it?

Breaking News! The winguts finally got their debt ceiling bill passed.218 votes.
Good for you Mr. Tan Man. But please, let's not hear that it was a bipartisan bill.
I mean just ONE dumbocrat voting for it would have been nice.

So it's on to the Senate. Now let the fun begin.