20 August 2006
Look what I found at Spitalfields today! (Not the yarn; that was just sitting on the messy table.) One of the shops in the market had about half a dozen Cram Cream things -- some of these mats in different patterns as well as a few shopping bags.
I guess this is meant to be a beach mat or a floor mat or something -- I can't be bothered to measure it, but it's fairly large. I'm not sure I'll have any use for it as it is, but I wonder about cutting it up. Has anybody tried to work with this sort of material -- woven plastic? It seems to be finished on the top, but I'm still afraid it would just fray into bits. Anyway, it's just a fun little thing -- I wasn't expecting to see Cram Cream designs at the market!
I got the latest (for the UK) issue of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion. Do you know which cities were featured in their shopping section? Minneapolis and St. Paul! Or as they say, Minneapolis-St.Paul. They even made a point about people saying Minneapolis-St.Paul as if it were one city, which has my brow furrowed a bit. The airport is called MSP, but I think people who live in one city or the other think of the two as separate. I do, anyway.
I found the section really interesting, though. I grew up in the metro area and have spent a certain amount of time in the cities as an adult, but I've never heard of the places they listed (except Ax-Man, which isn't so much my thing)! It will be very fun to poke around. As if the Paper Source alone wasn't enough. . .
I wouldn't really call them the same at all unless you are saying you are going to the cities, or telling someone from out of state that you are from the cities. Although I now live in St. Paul and there is a huge difference. I wouldn't tell anyone i was from Minnesapolis-St. Paul. They are two totally different places!
posted by lora at August 20, 2006 05:44 PM
Adoreable elephant! No idea what to do with the fabric, other than look at it admiringly!
posted by jen at August 20, 2006 05:57 PM
I've lived most of my life in or near Minneapolis. St. Paul is very different than Minneapolis. I've heard that St. Paulitans speak the same language and observe similar customs as Minneapolitins and on occasion the two cities cooperate on projects such as the Minnesota State fair, but the two are in no way identical twins. In fact, I think St. Paul was adopted by Minnesota from an immigrant Irish couple sometime in the early 1930s.
.d
posted by .d at August 20, 2006 06:32 PM
There's a shop on Columbia Road with a few Cram Cream things in it, and the pink shop on Broadway Market has a reasonable selection too.
posted by Claire at August 21, 2006 08:11 AM
Minneapolis-St. Paul....one city??
It is to laugh.
Love that pattern........I have kind of an apple thing going on in my kitchen.
posted by aunt mary at August 22, 2006 12:19 AM
If you wish to cut woven plastic, my suggestion is to cut it with a seam allowance. Before you make the cut; however, start by binding it with good packaging tape (a la seam binding) on both sides. If you don't construct it right away, add another layer of tape folded over the edge. Just my two cents-worth.
posted by cp at August 22, 2006 02:46 PM