My Strange Laundry or: Why I Need to Spend More Time Dressing Better and Less Time Selling Fashion Stuff to Other People

First the title of this post: we love Netflix. So many fun movies that we missed somehow over the  years. "Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" is such a fabulous movie! I know how I missed it when it first came out. It was "commie pinko propaganda" so I obviously wouldn't have seen it then. And then later, the "riding the bomb" scene was played over and over and who needed to see the rest, right? Wrong. It's an awesome flick and totally worth seeing. Slim Pickens is an absolute delight in this film. (And Peter Sellers and Sterling Hayden too, of course.) And the movie spawned endless "double" titles.

Now to the main post. I call this shot "Keep the Sabbath Day Holy." I looked at this line of laundry and was deeply depressed. I really need to dress better. Jeans every day of the week and a nice suit and pantyhose on Sunday. This is no longer going to cut it.

I spend my days selling vintage patterns, scarves, purses and other groovy fashion stuff to folks all over the world. I spend the rest of my time writing a novel about a young lady who meets a 1950s seamstress. And yet, I obviously exhibit no fashion sense (except for Sunday). 

Here are my excuses. I write at home. I stay at home. I make one trip a day to the post office in Shavertown which is exactly one half mile away.  Sorry, those are paltry excuses.

It's true that my house is presently overrun with boxes of vintage patterns which I bought on Ebay and stacks of vintage fabrics and notions which I bought at an estate sale. So I will have to wear work clothes to get that in order. But I resolve to do better. More updates later.

NIB OOP OOAK and IKISSTBIKIA

Estate sales are becoming an obsession. This is how I find new stock for my Etsy shop. This is the most fabulous area. People here are frugal and tend to use things forever rather than throw out and buy new. Add this to the fact that the average population in the county is one of the oldest in the country and you get fabulous estate sales. On Friday, the sale was advertised as being almost entirely 1950s and 1960s stuff. No joke! The lady running the sale wasn't kidding. Although some of the stuff ran into the seventies.

What happens is this. I show up and look for sewing stuff first. Then if they haven't got patterns, fabric or notions, I branch out. At this one sale among other things I bought scarves, mens' ties from the 30s and 40s, a big bag of vintage gloves, another big bag of vintage hankies, two vintage outfits (I usually don't sell clothes but I really couldn't pass these up), and a box of vintage white thread spools on cardboard. I think my total bill was 63 dollars. I will make this all back, probably from the gloves alone. But the reason my bill was a little high was that I found:

New in the box. Homer Laughlin 1950s Atomic Age Dura-Print dishware. Four place settings at 5.00 a box. Not a common pattern so I can't identify it. It matches my 1950s Eames era furniture perfectly. And then at a sale the next day, I found the divided pink Melamine serving dish for .50. Doesn't match the dishes but I don't care. The bottom line: I'm keeping them.

So to explain my abbrevations for those who aren't up on the latest ones:
NIB-New in Box (think The Prospector in Toy Story 2)
OOP-Out of Print-a biggie when you're selling doll clothes patterns
OOAK-One of a kind. I usually don't sell those because I'm always selling something commercial. But I love that acronym.
IKISSTBIKIA-I know I should sell this but I'm keeping it anyway.

So my new dishware and my pink bowl are IKISSTBIKIA. And to make room in my cabinets I'll have to sell off some of my other china that I was tired of.  I'll use the pink bowl to display stuff to sell. But we had salad out of it last night too. Marinated green beans in one side and green salad in the other. Awesome!

Chihuly! Did I just sneeze?

True, his name sounds like you are sneezing (chuh-hoo-lee). But so do many Japanese cars (Diahatsu, Hyundai, etc.). But Dale Chihuly is one of my favorite artists. I realize that this puts me a little bit below the total snob level of those who groove on Jean-Michel Basquiat. But if you had to live locked up in a room for the rest of your life with a collection of either artist's work, which one would you choose?

Anyone whose work forms a big part of the decor at a casino in Las Vegas has an uphill road to climb to get total acceptance. And it might be a century or so before there is a general agreement on what the art critics think of his work. But I like it! It's gorgeous and innovative and it makes me dream.

The Corning Museum of Glass has a wonderful collection of modern art glass and they know not to bite the hand that feeds it. Chihuly's work is front and center with a big tower right by the reception desk. No flash is allowed so my pictures aren't the best but I think you'll get the idea here.

They also have some of his lesser known styles of work and a very historic work--a glass door which was one of his first.

My granddaughters will surely love his pink chandelier with putti (think cherub.)

And I think Chihuly's big orange vase with putti is also a winner.

I have a daughter who is a fiber artist. When I was younger, I think any artist who worked outside of the traditional mediums of painting and sculpture had to prove their art worthiness. But I think things are changing. No one questions that ceramics, quilts and yes, even baskets, can be fine art.

After a half-day in this museum, I felt uplifted. I can't wait to go back.

Hot, Hot, Hot New York

It was truly killer in New York the past few days. And I'm not talking about the wild goings-on in Manhattan. No, I'm actually describing the tranquil and beautiful Finger Lakes region which was suffering from a very intense heat wave. And, of course,we had an outdoor magazine assignment there.

And we are worn out. I arrived first and Michael followed later that day after a gruelling problem at work. The cast and crew of the Hill Cumorah Pageant are real troopers. They had lots of practice onstage in the very hot weather. We were very impressed with the whole show, especially since the cast arrived on the 2nd and by the 8th, they were able to do a final run-through with costumes. And we got to take lots of pictures of adorable children. It's a very historic site whether you are a Latter-day Saint or not. This is where Joseph Smith found the golden plates which he translated into the Book of Mormon.

We also visited the print shop where the Book of Mormon was first printed. They've done a nice job recreating the print shop. And they have some original paintings there that anyone who has read our church's magazines for any length of time will recognize.

Michael had to hurry back to work, but I got to play tourist and I'm so glad I did. We had been meaning to visit Corning and the Corning Museum of Glass there.

I liked the Heineman collection best. The museum was given a world class collection by a couple from Chicago and they even have photos of their apartment so that you can see how they displayed the art. I usually find modern art museums to be wearing  because so many of the pieces are drab, or dreary or depressing, or all of the above. And the naked subjects (not nudes which is a different thing altogether) are gallingly lifelike and generally out of shape. But modern glass artists, regardless of their message, seem to have the general idea that art should bring light into your soul. And the colors or complete lack thereof are stunning.

 Some of their historical glass can also knock your eyes out. This wall above was particularly impressive as so many of you have seen this Louis Comfort Tiffany panel. I didn't know how large it was though. It's probably ten feet tall at its tallest point. Came from a "castle" in New York.  You can only imagine how beautifully lit this museum is.

They also have a fabulous section on the science and physics of glass as well as demonstrations of glass blowing and other techniques. The science section had a big display about automated bottle making which is the subject of my Michael's patent.

Envy me

Tomorrow Michael and I are heading out to Palmyra, New York, to cover a church pageant for The Friend, our church's children's magazine. On the way we have to pass through Watkins Glen, drive the length of one of the finger lakes, Lake Seneca, and spend a couple of days talking with and taking pictures of cute kids in costumes. Oh darn! And we get to spend all that time together. You can start envying me now if you like.

This is a totally pitiful picture taken out of a car window in 2008, but you can still tell that Lake Seneca is amazing. It just goes on forever like a river and yet isn't one. The Finger Lakes were formed by glacial carving and Lake Seneca is almost 40 miles long and one of the deepest lakes in America. Watkins Glen is fabulous as well. You can walk through the glen and walk over and under waterfalls. And I thought it was just a race track! Pretty sure we won't have time to walk the trail this trip but can get a glimpse of it.

The Finger Lakes is a wine growing region which means that the countryside is covered with beautiful vineyards. I'll post better pictures after our trip.

Not really whining--just reliving some irritating moments

We should never whine. It's unattractive and nobody likes a whiner. However, if done in a humorous self-deprecating way, it can, on occasion, be humorous to laugh at the misfortunes of others. In the hopes some of this may be humorous, here are some of the irritations of the past few days.

The fridge stops working. We're not quite sure what happened and I'm still not sure it's back to normal, but the freezer compartment coils got all iced over and stopped cooling. Nice. Michael found a puddle of water in front of the fridge a couple of days ago. He goes to work but promises to come back as soon as he can. So next thing you know we're quickly running around taking frozen corned beef briskets and chicken breasts to a neighbor. Then he goes and gets me something we've been wanting anyway, a small chest freezer for the basement. I get to drive into Wilkes-Barre to the only place in the whole county which sells dry ice. I meet a very amusing guy there who is really chatty so it takes me a while to break away and get home to save the groceries. He was preparing for Black Friday, which, in the ice business, as you must certainly guess, is the Friday of Fourth of July weekend. Beer must be kept cold. So once I get home, Michael has already got the cute little freezer in the basement. We use the dry ice in the top part of the fridge until the bottom freezer part dries out. So far, the fridge is working again. But I don't quite trust it yet. And it blew almost a whole day which could have been spent doing something else. Kudos to Michael for figuring out what was probably wrong and for getting the fridge working again. Of course, he has lots and lots of experience with fridges, dry ice and such from work. Weirdest thing was that although most things did okay with the dry ice (the lettuce froze), the water in our filter pitcher tasted really weird. Must have been slightly carbonated by the sublimating CO2.  I threw that water out.


Second irritant. I almost never use my cell phone. So I have one of those pay as you go plans. I have to buy 100 dollars worth to get minutes that don't expire every three months. When you use your phone only once a month or so, it's very easy to let them expire. Trust me. But this time, I let a year's worth expire. I have no idea how much money I lost. I don't even want to think about it. But such is life. When I was renewing and asked the young lady why I didn't get a reminder email or call or something she said, "That would be the customer service department. I can't help you with that."  I'm thinking any time you're talking to a customer, it's customer service, but that's just me. I just let that one go. Even losing my minutes, it's still cheaper this way than any other kind of phone plan I could use for a very occasional use phone that must work all over the US.

The last example was user error. Mea culpa. But the next is one of the most bizarre things to happen to me in a long time. Ordinarily, I use a credit card to buy stuff, but yesterday I wrote a check at the grocery store and it was denied. At first, I was unbelieving. I knew how much money there should have been in that account and that we also have overdraft protection. Little did I know that the company that denies your check has nothing to do with your bank balance! Ha! Did you know that? I wish I had. Instead, I practically had a heart attack on the way home thinking up all sorts of dire scenarios including but not limited to ID theft. I hurriedly put all the frozen food away and checked my bank balance. All okay there. So after several phone calls, I finally found why they denied my check. It's because they had no history on my account, i.e., I don't write checks! In fact, I write plenty of checks to the electric company, mortgage company, etc. but that doesn't count evidently. You have to write a certain number of checks to merchants in order to be acceptable to Telecheck. I'm just so glad this wasn't something important. I just used my credit card instead and went home with my frozen food. When I finished my conversation with the Telecheck lady, she said, "The next time this happens, please call us from the store so we can work things out." I explained that there was no way I was going to stand there and let ice cream melt while we figured out what was wrong. I didn't add that I wouldn't take the time to do that in a store especially when it was the fault of their system which couldn't recognize a valid customer with more than sufficient funds to pay for an item.

The photo? Random. Except that I get to play "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the organ at church on Sunday. The Fourth of July doesn't fall on a Sunday very often.