Sunday snippets + sometimes you have to beg...

I know that sounds weird. (or maybe not...) This afternoon I was walking up to catch the bus, and boy howdy was the Goodwill swamped with stuff. Not only was their driveway full, but about ten feet of sidewalk. As I was walking around the heap-'o-stuff I spied an interesting looking little chair, with a slightly corroded strap metal frame and bent-plywood seat and back. Looked kind of like a public school chair, and when I sat in it, it was Not Too Tall.

I am always looking for chairs that are not too tall, since I have really short legs. (Well, they do go all the way to the ground) I asked the attendant if I could just buy the chair and take it home..."Nope, got to wait for it to show up in the store" I know from sad experience that the things I see outside the Goodwill rarely show up inside, usually get put in the big blue truck to go Somewhere Else, probably to the Bins. I really wanted the chair, so I went inside to see if I could beg for it. After much abasement and excited explanation on my part of how very special this chair was to me, the manager agreed to go out back and price it for me.

He came back with the little chair, saying that since it wasn't in very good shape, it wouldn't have been good enough for the store anyway. I paid, and carried it off homeward. I noticed an interesting marker on the bottom of the backrest "Ironrite Health Chair". Being a curious soul, I looked it up and found confirmation once again that my eye is good. The chair, originally designed in 1938 as a companion to the Ironrite Ironer (a mangle for home users), is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Not a bad buy for $4.99.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been getting some nibbles about the classes I'll be teaching this Fall. Yay!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Talked with a really congenial woman this afternoon about sewing some skirts. She had lovely rayon fabric, and a really simple design she wanted copied, all well within my skills, but not quite in her budget at the moment it turned out (rayon needs to have finished seams, or it ravels unmercifully). If I had a serger, I'm pretty sure that I could speed up the whole process, as I believe that the seam finishing would happen at the same time as the sewing-of-the-seams. The thing is...I don't have a serger, and... I've never used one. I'm asking for information from anyone out there with serger experience, what do you like/dislike, favorite brands, advice for ignorant beginner...If anyone has a serger that they are not using, and would be willing to let me borrow for a while, I'd love to have a chance to try one out...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning bike ride, before it gets too hot, take the paper recycling away, and on to New Seasons for groceries. I'm gradually getting stronger, and eventually hope to ride further than a mile or two at a time. It'd be nice if there was a nearby hardware store, none on this side of I-5, sadly they're all miles away. There is a Lowes near the racetracks, but the route there isn't very bike friendly. I end up taking long bus rides to get to my favorite hardware stores, today I needed to get two different kinds of wall anchors, since I want to put up the third enamel shelf, and put up the big wooden shelf unit in the small bedroom, to hold more fabric in a visible way. If getting the enamels out and visible is so inspiring to me, getting the fabric out of the Rubbermaid boxes will be equally joyful...