LUCK OF THE DRAW.

I'm a rug maker and I still have balls of wool that are waiting to be braided into rugs like this one. Not perfect, but usable. They are thick and hearty and colorful.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from a woman who said, "Are you Mary Matzek? You don't know me but I saw your name in Reminisce Magazine about three years ago. You were looking for a set of rug braiders and I have them. I've been holding onto these looking for that magazine I misplaced, and I finally found it. Do you still want them?"  Her name is Marci Van Riper from Pennsylvania. I told her I'd gotten several sets. I have two sizes, 2 inch and 1 inch. Her set was 1 and 1/2 inch. She was keen on me having them after holding them for me for three years, so I agreed I could make a nice thin rug from old curtains for my bathroom.  She is 87 years old and I readily understood the idea of re-using things, fabric scraps for quilts, old sweaters for hot pads and baby soakers, , old wool coats and pants-never tossing anything that is usable, like rug braiders.



This rug is thin and lies very flat, and it is very special to me. My mother made the center and the next two rows as a small bathoom rug from cottons. The light blue came from her first pair of "slacks" for which she got scolded from her father, because girls didn't wear pants in those days. Years later, I  put on the last row with a pair of maroon pants I loved because the material was stretchable and allowed me to reach the pedals of the plane I was flying. I hated to give them away when they no longer fit. At the time I didn't attach any significance to adding a row to a rug my mother made. After all, it's just an old bath mat. Now, I appreciate that connection. Slacks, that represented something to her and flight pants that meant something to me.



This is also a bathroom rug made from t-shirt strips, hooked through a mesh backing. Rug making is hardly done by hand anymore. I enjoyed making it and using it.

I wanted to pay for the cost of mailing the braiders but Marci would have none of that. She was adamant I not pay for the stamps since her brother had bought from their local post office, every Jenny stamp they had, 12 sheets of $2 stamps. The postal person, said, "you might as well have them all, here is a single left." Stamps then came in glassine bags that you couldn't see through. What he was hoping to snag was one that had been printed upside down. His investment paid off and that last single stamp is now worth $50,000.  He keeps it in a bank vault. She is still spending Jenny's that were correct. I found out she collects stamps and we talked for about 30 minutes. What a marvelous woman she is!
My computer was out and my neighbor, Brian came and fixed it this morning. He suggested I put into a pool for the California Lottery. Normally, I would have said no. But, after hearing about the Jenny, I handed him a ten. Fool, my brain said. Ah, what the heck, maybe my luck will hold.

A MAN AHEAD OF HIS TIME, FREDDY HEINEKEN

From my computer I got this story of a man ahead of his time.

Freddy Heineken, like Henry J Kaiser, was  ahead of his time. (Remember the Henry J?) Heineken decided to make a bottle for his beer that could be recycled into a brick. Notice the neck fits into a dimple in the bottom of the bottle, a perfect fit like a brick.

There were buildings made with Heineken beer bottles, but not the wave that Freddy envisioned.

Freddy thought a square bottle would be more desirable and easier to build with.

He also designed a cube, to help the building process by smoothing corners and giving some variance to length. But, in the end, people just didn't like square bottles. A round bottle fits the hand better. And, that is the end of the story. Don't I wish I had a couple of those bottles for my decorative bottle fence?
Henry J's failed to attract buyers and were sold off quickly. My father bought a second-hand one and we were teased by neighbor kids about our weird car, most likely imitating their parents talk at the dinner table.
Recycling has reached new heights and if Freddy is still around, I hope he knows he was a man ahead of his time.

I received an email about creative recycling and I could really put this to work in my yard.

I wouldn't mind an herb garden reachable from my kitchen window.

I've used plastic bottles for a number of projects, but these are better ideas than mine.

This is a great way to use an old shoe,  but I would worry about a predator bird getting to these vulnerable babies where I live.

I'd prefer to use old shoes for plants. I have several candidates in my garage.

With a long, squirrel proof wire, this would work very well, if hung far enough from the ground with no access from a table or other device.  I got my first crop of crab grass from the scattered seed on the ground. Now you can buy bird seed without noxious weed seed.

After yesterdays pouring rain and chill, we are expecting 86 degree weather today. We are in Allentown, PA. where Jim once lived many years ago. We'll go to a huge fine arts  museum so I can get my art fix.