Organic sweater?

Let me tell you a little secret: I spend a good chunk of time at the Goodwill in Queens becuase you can buy clothing by the pound. (I heard about it via this post.) Mostly I'm looking for items to make rag rugs out of or perhaps some really awesome puppet material (teal velour jump suit, anyone?). And it's way cheaper than paying for virgin material. The other day, I stumbled upon this awesome sweater:

But what caught my eye, was not the pattern, but the tag:

Anyone else see a conflicting pair of terms? Definitely made me laugh!

For the Love of Tools: Part 3

Are these getting old? These love of tool posts? I can stop. Really, I can. I swear. Just let me tell you about my scissors. Then I'll stop. Maybe. We'll see.

I hate tools that come in stupid packaging made just for such-and-such reason. For instance I came across a scissor the other day labeled "Just for embroidery!" and really they're just a pair of cheap children-sized scissors that have been re-packaged. Ugh.

Anyway, I didn't know what a cuticle scissor was until I did a project at Smart Design redesigning the Sally Hansen Beauty Tool's line. I don't use them for that purpose - all I saw was the gently curved blade and thought, "Holy crap those would be awesome for snipping a close thread!" Especially important when doing anything with weaving or knitting, since if you slip and errantly snip the wrong thread or yarn, your entire piece can unravel and come apart. Not that I know that from experience. No sir. Never done that before.

(It really stinks, just in case you don't know!)

Upholster 101: Memory Lane

The upholstery project I set out to complete has been a little slow going. Mostly it's because I can't figure out what material to reupholster the stackable foot rests with. But more on that another day. I figure it's better to take one thing at a time, so I set out to disassemble them to see what I was up against.

 Thankfully the staples used were super easy to get out, so taking them apart was the easy part. First the white pleather one, then the red one, then the brown one...

Oh, that dark brown cushion was an emotional one. It took me on a trip down memory lane. There were two holes in the plywood underneath each cushion and upon further notice...

What's this I see? A little treasure from the past! I recognized it immediately as a scratch and sniff sticker I had when I was super little. It was probably even a hand-me-down sticker from my sister dating it from.... well, let's just say a long time ago. 

I removed the cover and found the scratch-n-sniff mostly in-tacked along with a penny from 1964. Sweet!

The best part? IT STILL SMELLS LIKE CHOCOLATE WHEN IT'S SCRATCHED! Ah, memories. Although makes you wonder what they used on that sticker for it to smell 30 years later...

For the Love of Tools: Part 2

I know it seems a little ridiculous to talk about how great a ruler (straight edge, line gauge, etc) is, so I'll make this brief. I currently use this six inch ruler every day of my life thus it is quite important to me. You may be wondering how that's even possible. How do I have that much stuff to measure? Even now that I think about it, I have no idea. But I know that I use it all the time. Kinda how I used to use these really awesome calipers every day at my old job. But that's another post. 

So portable. So versatile (inches and mm! key!). And metric equivalents?!? Yes, please. 

Just try to ignore the fact that it has the initials FAG* on it.  


*It stands for Fischers Aktien-Gesellschaf, in case you were wondering, a bearing company originally founded in Germany. Yeah, get over it. How did I get it, you ask? Probably accidentally swiped it from my super-duper-jet-engine-making job. Whoops.

For the Love of Tools: Part 1

I've decided that I need to share with you all how much I love a good tool. (Insert joke here. Go ahead - once you're done laughing we can continue.) There is nothing like a well made tool that gets the job done. I am so convinced that there are cases where if you don't have the right tool, you shouldn't even bother tackling certain projects. This series will span a number of different tools and the reasons I love them. Ridiculous, I know, but it's one thing I am very passionate about.

When attempting to take apart my upholstery project, I came across a square screw head. It's been a while since I've seen one of these and started to fret that I wouldn't have a screw driver to deal with the situation. I even dreamt that I didn't have the right tool and none of my friends did either. And now you know that I have really boring dreams.

Enter: my handy-dandy Tim Allen Signature Tools screw driver set from the early 1990's, which I stole from my father. Yes, this screw driver was sold under the Tim 'The Tool Man' Taylor Home Improvement advertising scheme. What's even more baffling to me is that my dad would buy something labeled as such. (Perhaps my mom bought it??)

Why do I love this particular screw driver, even though I have one very similar to it and it has a ridiculous label that has (thankfully) almost rubbed off? Fourteen different screw heads of various sizes and shapes all neatly arranged in the handle of the screw driver. No fumbling for where you put the different interchangeable bits. It's sturdy, made of heavy plastic. It has saved my ass and solved many problems in the last 20 years or so and has possibly saved a relationship or two (assembling the IKEA couch with my honey). It has yet to save a life, but there is time Tim Allen screw driver. There is time.

Geek Chic