Boob-Ha-Ha

I know what you’re thinking. She makes jelly. She’s running this Boob-Ha-Ha thing. She occasionally writes on her own blog. Does Robin ever sleep?

No. I’ve decided I don’t need sleep. It’s for the weak who have nothing better to do. Granted, it’s easy to say that at midnight-thirty, after the two-hour nap I took this afternoon. A nap I took after baking a cake from scratch! With a three-year-old’s help!

Anyway, if I were home, I might be sleeping by now. Most likely I’d be reading. But I’m not home. I’m minding Beqi’s young one, who’s sleeping at the other end of the couch.

That’s right. I make jelly, organize auctions, blog, make cakes from scratch with the help of a three-year-old, naps, and I got Little Eddie, The Child Who Never Sleeps, to sleep.

I rule.

I need a blanket. Like the Ice Ice Baby Quilt.
(You know, I’m starting to feel like Elaine on Seinfeld when she wrote for that horrible catalog, trying to come up with clever ways to segue into merchandise descriptions. Sadly, I often feel like Elaine. Anyway.)

This comes from my pal Allison, proprietor of Squaresville. Since I love Allison’s storytelling skills (she’s also an English teacher), I’ll let her tell the tale behind this quilt:

The beauty of this quilt is its genesis. I had it
planned out on graph paper, but then El Ice Storm 06
hit, and I had to put it together at my MIL’s house.
So, I wasn’t able to lay the blocks out and rearrange
them if they clashed. It turned out fine, and has many
happy memories of rockin’ out in the MIL’s kitchen
with her and her Best Hits of the 70’s CD. “Summer
breeze, makes me feel fine, blowin’ through the
jasmine in my miiiiind…” Good times.

Thus the name “Ice Ice Baby”. It’s appropriate, since Wendy happens to be the only remaining Vanilla Ice fan in existance.

60″ wide and 84″ long-ish.It is a summer spread-no batting. The backing is
lightweight upholstery fabric.

Let’s start the bidding at $40.$101.

Allison’s also offering the chance for one lucky bidder to win a gift certificate of sorts to her Etsy store. The winner will get to choose either one pair of potholders or one oven mitt. Bidding on the Squaresville faux gift certificate starts at $15 $26.

Today’s the last day to submit crafts for the Boob-Ha-Ha auction, which begins on Monday! Monday! Monday!. You can follow that link and learn more about how the auction will work and who it benefits.

Anyway, here I sit, my first cup of coffee not even completely gulped, still half asleep, sneaking in an episode of “The Golden Girls” while the kiddo sleeps in, trying to squeeze in an auction listing before my day technically begins. And what a day it’s going to be! I’m going to be babysitting Beqi’s wee tot until the wee hours. That gives me a lot of hours in which to post all the great donated stuff. Believe me, I’m going to need those extra hours.

Speaking of golden girls, Granny Viv, the 81-year-old grandmother to both me and my 60-mile-walking cousin Wendy has joined the fray. Poor Granny Viv. If she knew some of the stuff Wendy and I did, she’d have a heart attack. When Granny Viv comes to visit, the first thing we do is hid the booze. Even her own children who are well past 50 years old will scurry like busted teens if there’s an alcoholic beverage in the house and someone says, “Granny Viv just pulled into the driveway!” Sometimes it’s funny just to see how fast they can still move.

Granny Viv’s very understanding, though. Wendy and I recently pondered the effect our possible new hairdos will have on our poor granny. Mind you, when I was little I thought Granny Viv was the most beautiful woman in the world because her auburn bouffant, on a good day with little wind, could reach heights nearing 18 inches. Still, we were concerned about how Wendy’s potential baldness (she’s shaving her head if she raises $5000 for the 3-Day), and my potential for a massive Viv-inspired hot pink bouffant (I’m dying it hot pink if this auction raises; I got Viv’s big hair gene, so this could be interesting.) might affect her. As Wendy put it, “We’re going to have such a pretty Thanksgiving while we’re growing out our hairdos! It’ll be the first holiday where Granny doesn’t take any pictures of us.” Granny’s quite the shutterbug and she’d just as soon drink a beer and smoke cigarettes as not immortalize every moment on flim (yes, film).

Granny has promised that no matter how ugly and mid-growth-pattern we are she will be taking just as many photos of us this Thanksgiving as ever. That’s because she’s awesome, and a lot more understanding than we give her credit for.

So much so that she’s contributed to our potential hair delinquency by offering Granny Viv’s Granny Quilt:

Granny Viv, despite her severe arthritis, still sews and makes tied quilts like this one. It’s filled fabric that, literally, is the fabric of my childhood. It’s all 1970s double-knit, and I recognize so many of the squares from the clothes she made for me, herself, everyone. While double-knit might not be the softest, most luxurious fabric in the world, quilts like this are softened with love.

Believe me, I’ve got a lot of fancy blankets, but when I want to be comforted, I reach for a quilt much like this one, whipped up by Granny Viv when I had a particularly bad case of the flu in 1994.

The quilt is about the size of a queen-size comforter, or a bedspread for a full-sized bed. The backing isn’t double-knit; it’s a super-soft white jersey knit. This is a heavy, warm quilt that can take a lot of cuddling. Bidding starts at $50 $251.