Auto Parts Runway

Just thinking about a rubber dress makes me sweat, and the designers on Project Runway tonight were really sweatin' it when they were challenged to make garments from Saturn auto parts. All I could think of was to use upholstery fabric, but these smarties used everything! Leanne won the challenge with this amazing rubber dress. I loved how she took seat belts and cut them in zigzags and frayed them to make the sexy fringe around the bustier.

Suede shined with the crazy creative use of rubber mats for the fitted top, and then used the shiny material for a fringed skirt. I'll bet his fingers were wrecked from pushing a needle through that!

I fell in love with Kenley's flirty peplum made with filters. She's always the girly girl, and her style always makes a statement.

Scott's favorite was Korto's classy coat, designed with seated belts woven into an unbelievable tailored garment that the judges fell in love with. I'll bet it weighed 15 lbs. and the model couldn't mover her arms, but who cares? It's fashion, baybeeee....

Quilts, Friends, & Bloody Marys

Quilts, Friends, and Bloody Marys?
Yes, you read it right. The 2008 American Quilter's Society Quilt Expo was in Nashville this week at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center. Teresa and I took off on Friday afternoon and headed up the highway to see what all the excitement was about.

We were one of the show sponsors with our EZ Quilt Tools by Wrights, and our buddies, Mimi Shimp, Darlene Zimmerman, and Michele Muska worked their little bunnies off at the show. Scott and I hosted a little cocktail party at our house for the girls, because they deserved it after all that hard work. The Bloody Marys were terrific, as Scott served us as our bar tender and made sure that Darlene's drink was a virgin.
*giggle*
We laughed and talked about Darlene signing dozens of autographs, and of course we oohed and ahhed over all of the gorgeous quilts we saw.

I just laughed out loud when I saw this sassy quilt with the high heel shoes. It says, "If the shoe fits, buy it in every color."

This one cracked me up! Check out the iron lady with scissor hands and rotary cutters for hair. Preeeety creative, I have to say.

And this one with the laundry was a hoot! The clothesline is an actual cord, sewn to the quilt. The quilts were all incredible, and there just wasn't enough time to really absorb every quilt. Plus, there was shopping to do! Teresa and I snagged some nice Christmas gifts and loved browsing through all of the fabulous fabrics.

Of course, there's always a rogue bunch of musicians pickin' and grinnin' at the local hangs, and these guys were at the most popular place in the county for barbecue, at Martin's Bar-B-Que.

You won't believe it unless you see it,

but this place is half barbecue joint and half auto repair!

And then there's the gang that hangs out in Nashville, and Chant found out that if she put her head under a hanging lamp, it looked like a hat! This was at the Spaghetti Factory in downtown Nashville with a bunch of peeps from the office.

Howard is looking good, and sporting a happy smile.


I must have had shaky hands when I took this pic of Robyn under the lamp shade. Sorry Robyn!

Okay, I couldn't help it, I had to do the lampshade trick too.
There's nothing like have fun friends in Nashville!

Good Queen Fun!

It was good Queen fun tonight on Project Runway! The queens were clothed in everything from lettuce green to hot pink and radiant red costumes that would catch anyone's hair on fire!


I had a hard time picking out my fave outfit, but I have to say I liked the huge red costume with the removable skirt.

The perky pink sailor jumpsuit was outrageous, with the big belt hiding the candy, but revealing the Ann Margaret personality that sailed down the runway.

But, really, my vote was for the Marilyn va-va-voom with the sparkle farkle and feather boas. Yes! It was too much fun tonight, and it was a blast to see Chris back to strut his stuff as he gave the designers a nudge to strut their desigh-ner muscles.

Woohoo! Project Runway is a hoot! And I'm a fan.

Repurposed Egg Cartons

I've always been fascinated with crafts from repurposed objects. I went nuts when I saw this fairy chain of lights made from recycled egg cartons on Typepad. I've made some pretty neat things from toss aways, but this one is so cool! I like how they punched holes around the edges for a little extra design pizazz.