Comments for On the dynamics of collecting

On the dynamics of collecting

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:22:21 -0600

Or how $100 turns into $4,000, which is still better than $20,000.... So, being the Good Husband, there I am a couple of months ago, standing in Hancock Fabrics looking Not Bored while SWWBO does whatever it is she was doing. Then she sees it.The table.On sale.Only $100 for a hobby table. Be still my beating heart.I see her drooling and say, "Oh, g'wan, ya know ya want to." Trust me, I know what I'm doing here.And she does. Get it.After I load it into the vehicle and we're motoring away, I look at her and say, "Yanno, I'm going...

Comment from Justthisguy on 2010-03-22

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:35:31 -0600

Olga, over at the HMS Hood Association site, there is a cross-stitch portrait of the ship in dozens of shades of gray. Something like 96,000 stitches in the thing. When it comes to laser-like autistic singleminded unswerving focus, I'm just a silly normal person compared to the gal who did that.

Comment from prestonious on 2010-03-22

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:00:03 -0600

Well done both of you. Now a nice handsfree intercomm?

Comment from Baroness Ophelia Kensington-Gore on 2010-03-22

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:32:49 -0600

why do we have a double tap here?? I only clicked once??

Comment from olga on 2010-03-22

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:45:49 -0600

Love the shed and I want one :o) Although what I would be doing with it I do not know as I can't sew, well, I can if my life depends on it but so far I have managed to stay away from the edge :o) May be embroidery?? I love embroidery :o) Hmm, just realized that my condo assoc would have a wapor fit if I put this nice shed in a guest parking spot :o)

Comment from Phalanx08 on 2010-03-22

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:41:05 -0600

Hello Sir!
I just found this fun blog after seeing a link on Mr. Lex's totally cool site. Now I have another place to read. D@mn you! XD

That shed looks mighty handy.

thanks,

Phalanx08

Comment from Cricket on 2010-03-22

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:19:46 -0600

Well, I had to feed my habit. Wal-Mart here still carries cotton duck canvas, super muslin and some other decent quality fabrics. I bought a bolt of the 108" wide muslin, as well as a bolt of the super muslin and canvas. If I could locate a source of the denim that Levis are made of, I would get a couple of bolts of that as well.

Berkeley, eh? Doesn't surprise me.

JTG, I have two Singer Featherweights that still sew like they were newly made. They are my fall-back machines. I sew on them as much as I sew on my Elna Diva 9000. It was the last model of machine made in Switzerland before Janome bought them out and moved everything to Brazil. That machine is 17 years old. In electronics life, it is a dinosaur compared to the electronic machines now. The Engineer bought me a treadle. I have access to someone who restores them (they are across the country) and will prolly do that as my graduation gift.

I can see a treadle sewing machine in SWWBO's cabin. Janome still makes them, but they are more modern and build for the Amish and off the grid people. I have read mixed reviews of them, so I am seeing if the company will take those to heart and improve the product.

Comment from Justthisguy on 2010-03-22

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:54:26 -0600

P.s. Not to put too fine a point on it, I would describe an awful lot of the gals I meet these days as, well, bimbos. (Not to be confused with sluts; I can get along with an intelligent amiable slut, but bimbos are just too dumb for me.)

Comment from Justthisguy on 2010-03-22

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:32:14 -0600

Cricket, I miss the old, and old-fashioned women, like my Mom, who practiced the traditional skills. Before I lost damn near everything I owned in the inheritance holocaust, I used to own a sewing machine which my Mom inherited from her Mom, as well as all of my Mom's typewriters.

This may be a partial explanation of why I don't even want to try to chat up latter-day wimmenz; compared to my Mom and women of her generation, they seem sadly deficient.

Comment from SFC D on 2010-03-21

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:16:33 -0600

I guess I'm doing it wrong. I had to buy MRS D her own Jeep in order to enable my own Jeep habit. Coulda bought 3 vintage Willy's for the price of hers. Damn.

Comment from Eric Wilner on 2010-03-21

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:06:31 -0600

Around Silicon Valley, proper fabric stores pretty much disappeared during the 90s, replaced by "fabric & crafts" places featuring lots of "glue it together and paint it" stuff. For decent cotton or linen fabrics, I'd have to go all the way to Berkeley.
With the latest wave of immigrants in the mid-2000s, various little fabric stores sprang up to cater to people who came from places where sewing is still practiced.
It's been a few years since I made any custom garments for myself; there's always other stuff to do, and the sewing table keeps getting covered with paperwork, birds, and other household clutter. The cloak I made back in the late 90s still keeps the rain off... and still draws comments.
Interestingly, the main population of non-elderly, non-recent-immigrant people who sew seems to be science-fiction fans, many of whom are into costuming and thus sewing and leatherwork.

Comment from Fishmugger on 2010-03-21

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:49:05 -0600

Maggie...sorry I had Presidential duties last night and missed your post.

I'm not Irish...so beer is a hobby. If I was...beer would be a vocation.

And Happy Birthday.

(Just in case you would ask...I had to attend the Fireman's Ball as President of my club and present donation. Firemen do like to drink...good thing I was sitting with the Police Chief)

Comment from Boquisucio on 2010-03-21

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:33:06 -0600

Splodey-Goat Shelter's in the front yard, I see. What Massa and Missa are going for is for a true Bailey. All we need to do is start working on a Motte.

Comment from Cricket on 2010-03-21

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:12:41 -0600

JST,
Going into a Hancock's or a JoAnn's these days is frought with peril. The staff are ignorant, rude and can't tell the difference between cotton and linen. Not only that, they can't cut something on the grain to save their lives. They have been 'trained' but they don't know anything. Hancock's and JoAnn's doesn't want to pay their informed female help anything. The older women who sew are either dying or quitting. If it weren't for women like Martha Pullen, who keep heirloom sewing and basic tailoring skills taught, I shudder to think of where we would be without those skills.

I learned the basics in jr. high. I do a LOT of sewing and mending because it is cost effective.
In fact, the Princess Kitty wore a dress that I made for her to church today. She got compliments on it, and a few 'I wish my mom could sew' comments. I knit for all the male members of my family. Most of what I knit, they absolutely love.

It doesn't surprise me about the bike clips. I have a few of them for my quilting. I actually have a Quilting Buddy now! She also crochets and sews. I am racing to set up my quilt so we can stitch while we chat or watch movies. She has one in a frame all the time; I have a frame and some tops...I might need the Engineer to rework the playhouse ...

hm.

Off to bug the Engineer...

Comment from Cricket on 2010-03-21

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:59:44 -0600

SWWBO's Shanty? Spinner's End? Top Spun?
I think if you insulate and drywall, you could use the electric heater just fine.

Comment from Beth Donovan on 2010-03-21

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:31:56 -0600

Yes, this is called a 'portable building'. It was built by Mennonites in the Springfield, MO area and then delivered on a very interesting kind of trailer. I took a video of the delivery, but it needs a lot of editing.

It's amazing how they can move something this heavy around so easily.

Comment from Maggie on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:28:50 -0600

John - I love it!

Fishboy - Drinking beer is a hobby?

Comment from The Thomas on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:05:07 -0600

So ... Since we see no assembly pictures, like the little storage shed in the city, this one must have been ready made and delivered off the back of a flat bed truck ... Or did I miss something?

Comment from Beth Donovan on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:41:43 -0600

Well, I love it. I have already spent about $500 on flooring and material to make a nice step up to the porch and a nifty little 12-volt power drill. I'm trying very hard to be frugal, but I need a floor and a step.

And, with the winter storm we had today, John discovered one place where the wind was blowing some snow into my studio, so we can seal that up quickly. He also found that the windows and door and roof were all quite tight. Good things to determine before I move any of my stuff in.

Oh, and Og - I've seen those little stoves you speak of. OMG - they cost over $1,000. No thanks.
I can run a heavy-duty extension cord to the studio and run one of those little oil-filled radiator heaters for years before spending $1,000 in electricity!!

Comment from Justthisguy on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:05:39 -0600

Cricket, I wish we still had a Hancock around here. The last time I went in there, looking for something with which to cover an airplane, I noticed that they sold bicyclists' trouser clips for rolling up quilts while sewing them. The hip bike shop no longer sold those, as they did not consider somebody would ride a bicycle in his ordinary clothes, just for transportation.

I bought a pair of them, but I had a coupla funny feelings while in there.

ff#1. The staff all looked at me funny, and I had trouble getting waited on, as in "what's an xy person doing in here?"

ff#2. All the staff were my Mom's age, or so. (She was dying of old age at the time.)

The place closed and was replaced by a consignment shop for used chick goods.

There used to be an embroidery-supply shop in the local mall, run by a gray-haired lady. She sold out too, and the place is now a sphincter (i.e. sports) bar.

I see a trend here. There are fewer and fewer handy capable women like Beth and my Mom, and more who just buy stuff, or worse, get guys to buy stuff for them without prudent good reason. The Shanty is a prudent good purchase, and mah kitteh an ah would move in instantaneously if we had one and a place to park it.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:01:06 -0600

I think "Tristram's Shanty" would be better, especially inasmuch as Tristram's narrative style matches mine.

Except he's funnier.

Comment from AFSister on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:49:12 -0600

I love it!

Comment from Justthisguy on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:43:44 -0600

Chief, that one is pretty bad, even for you. Ow.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:52:09 -0600

Argent - it has the unusual property of being true!

Comment from Argent on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:32:20 -0600

Very nice story John.

Comment from BillT on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:26:05 -0600

"Tristram Shanty"

Comment from Cricket on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:54:33 -0600

Heh. The Engineer and I refer to Home Depot and Lowe's as the 'round and round' stores. The sad part about it is in this county, there is not one fabric store that sells apparel fabric any more.
We have to go to Atlanta or Fayetteville to get fabric; JoAnn's or Hancock's.

Sigh.

I think a loom would be a great investment. Love the cabin. It has to have a name.

Comment from Justthisguy on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:21:21 -0600

P.J. O'Rourke: "A wise man marries his second wife first." But second wife third? Owhell, you did eventually get it right.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:16:25 -0600

Well, thanks for your concern Rod and Flea - but I'm just trying to help my brother's out.

But the truth is there's a fourth approach, too.

Just pick the right chick. But that's harder than the other three, as there are so many more variables.

Mind you, it took three tries...

Comment from Flea on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:05:44 -0600

Ouryay ategystray isay onay ethay ebway! Eshay ightmay eadray itay!

Comment from Rod Thorsen on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:51:46 -0600

Exellant stratagy there!! But, ahh, it usually only works if it's kept, like, you know, a *secret*.

Comment from RightGirl on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:45:15 -0600

Splodey indeed. I remember the itching...

I love that little house! I hope SWWBO enjoys setting it up.

RG

Comment from Fishmugger on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:15:07 -0600

John...make sure the deck thingy is sturdy so it can double as a dance floor and a space for the Jute Box. The wet bar can be right inside the door so you can run water...hence the name...and have the power for the beer keg and you can dispense drinks through the window. Put a couple of beer signs in the windows and a potted palm tree in the corner and...whalla...TikI Bar. No use wasting all that space for just one hobby.

Comment from BillT on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:11:19 -0600

Hah. You caved on the deck -- I caved on building the loft...

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:11:03 -0600

Well, it's already lofted at both ends and has that barn-shape interior.

The deck thing could happen though.

Comment from BillT on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:09:13 -0600

Ahhhhh. It forms an ell with the house? Okay, you'll need to make a covered breezeway, and the roof will be the perfect way to get the electrical wiring and cable for the TV in unobtrusively.

Now, as for the plumbing...

Comment from BillT on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:03:31 -0600

Lessee -- it needs a wraparound extended deck (enclosed, of course), and you're gonna have to lift the front part of the roof to extend the eaves so nobody goes all head-bumpy on the joists. And since you're gonna be extending part of the roof, you might as well raise that entire portion, so you can have a loft/storage space for more stuff. Naturally, you'll have to add skylights with extensible shades to allow light and warmth to enter during the winter, and create subtle lighting for the summer months.

And since you raised half the roof, you might as well do the other half while you're at it -- this will create an airy, expansive, cathedral ceiling that'll keep the fireplace from looking too intrusive. I *did* mention that the fireplace should be fieldstone with a firebrick hearth, right?

Go ahead and laugh.

When I was building my toolshed, those were KtLW's "suggestions". I finally had to tell her, "Look, it's a *shed* -- not a rental property!"

The scrup'ls love it when I stand my ground like that.

It means I get to share the couch with them...

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:52:01 -0600

Actually, Saker - that's the front yard. Forms an ell to the house, making a courtyardy thingy.

Comment from Saker on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:40:15 -0600

Awww, it's cute! Who says grownups can't have clubhouses in the backyard? I like it. :)

Comment from Neffi on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:20:25 -0600

Sneaky but fair... I'm off to the Tanner Gun Show in Denver, sniffing for bayonets. Fingers crossed for me, all...

Comment from og on 2010-03-20

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:19:18 -0600

That is teh hawtness. Now all it needs is a little Jotul woodstove.

http://www.jotul.com/en-us/wwwjotulus/Main-menu/Products/Wood/Wood-stoves/Jotul-F-602-CB/

This stove is the size of a range bag, will easily heat a building that size, is the bomb diggity shiznit for a spinning shed, and it's also a great place to boil your water for tea!