Gabrielle Blair Profile picture
Feb 3 22 tweets 8 min read
I want to show you something I found in this house. It was built in the 1400s. It's in Normandy, France, and my family calls it the Small House. It's basically a ruin. No electricity. No plumbing. But we are slowly bringing it back to life. Here's what I found...
We were clearing out the attic loft, and a dusty pile of burlap and canvas caught my eye.
I turned the top piece on the pile over, and I noticed a hint of blue.
The form of the canvas started shaping up and I was like: Hold on. Is this a traditional "French blues" worker jacket?
And then I saw the incredibly cool Le Mont St. Michel tag on the inside pocket.
I mean… holy cow this thing is so fabulous.
The jacket was incredibly gross and dirty — the dirt so thick you couldn’t even tell what color it really is. But I thought I might be able to salvage it.
Here it is in a pile on the floor of the laundry room. This image is showing you the interior of the jacket, which looks much more blue than the outside.
Something cool: These jackets have been made since 1913, and they’re still being made today — with the same tags! Here’s a link to the Mont St. Michel shop: lemontsaintmichel.fr/en
I rinsed the top layer of dirt off the jacket. The water was filthy and I emptied the sink multiple times. Then I soaked the jacket with a very mild detergent. I left it for a few hours.
Then I put it in the wash with some old dark towels. I chose a long wash cycle for heavily soiled items.
Here it is drying on the hanging rack.
These jackets are made from 100% cotton moleskin. When the jacket was new, it was this color — a dark indigo blue.
Now it’s faded to a lovely ombré denim.
You can tell it’s been mended many times over the years. When this dark patch was made, I’ll bet the jacket was much darker, and this thread likely blended in.
Here’s a little video tour of the old patches, the holes that need mending, the mismatched buttons — 2 are missing, and every single one is different! And you can see the interior color which is much less faded (the tag is on the interior pocket).
I gathered my mending supplies. And found buttons that are the correct size.
I mended 3 holes, a 6-inch rip on one sleeve, and I sewed on 2 buttons.
I chose a thread that is close to the current faded color, instead of the original dark blue.
Hello Fabulous Jacket.
Still going strong! This jacket will get a ton of wear and enjoy a second life for years to come. We’re a family of 8, and it seems to fit everybody in our family!
I’ll bet this jacket belonged to the blacksmith who worked at the Small House when it was previously a forge. I think this is my favorite thing we’ve found in the house so far. I love it so much!

/end of story

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More from @designmom

Jan 21
When I think about the military (obscene budgets, drones killing civilians, not caring for vets, etc.), I get super pissed off. So I tried to reframe. We’ve already paid for their budget, we're not getting that money back. What’s something good we could ask them to do. Like this:
Americans: We urgently need to get the WHOLE WORLD vaccinated before the next variant. Until the world is vaxxed, we won’t be safe.

US Military: Pick us! We're crappy at lots of stuff, but would be great in this case. We’re designed and organized for huge campaigns like this.
Americans: Hmmm. This doesn’t seem like your area of expertise.

US Military: Not true! Our entire purpose for existing is to keep the country safe — from ANY threat. Covid is the current most dangerous threat. So this is 100% our area of expertise. Put us to work. Use us.
Read 23 tweets
Dec 4, 2021
I've been learning a ton from #adopteetwitter #adopteevoices. Something I keep thinking about:

1) In some adoption cases (not sure how many), a mother relinquishes her baby for adoption because of economics; she can't afford to raise the baby.

time.com/6051811/privat…
2) In the U.S., adoption via private agencies costs $60,000-$70,000.

Source:
americanadoptions.com/adopt/average-…
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mariedolfi.com/adoption-resou…
Read 6 tweets
Oct 15, 2021
A few years ago my husband @benblair and my brother @floodstreet set out to create the most affordable, accredited, U.S.-based online university, and make it available to students all over the world. And they've succeeded. It's called Newlane University.

newlaneuniversity.com
Each @NewlaneU degree is $1500, paid at $40/month. If you want to earn an Associates Degree & Bachelors Degree, that’s $3000 total. If you already have an Associates Degree, and want to earn a Bachelors Degree, it would be $1500. (The cheapest degree I've seen elsewhere is $5k.)
When you sign up, there's a one-time $249 registration fee. Try the program for 30 days and if it's not a good fit, no worries, they'll refund the fee. And you can pause the $40/mo at any time — like if there's a family matter that prevents you from studying for a few months.
Read 14 tweets
Oct 6, 2021
Finally read the kidney donation story. I know you've been waiting breathlessly for my thoughts. Here they are:
- If you didn't read till the end, you don't know the story. The writer of the article saved major facts for the end, and they very much affected the story.
- There was straight up plagiarism. The author knew she was doing it, openly acknowledged it to others, was (a little) worried about it, and did it anyway. She later altered the plagiarism, hoping to avoid trouble. But alas, trouble was not avoided.
- The comments on the actual story, and the comments on Twitter are basically opposites. Again, if you haven't read the whole story, you're getting a warped view of what happened.
Read 7 tweets
Sep 3, 2021
Hey fellow #LDS #Mormons, I know this stresses some of you out, but the Church stance is pro-legal abortion. If we want abortions available for incest, rape, or health of the mother, that requires legal abortion. If you agree with the Church, you are also pro-legal abortion.
This may stress you out further, but we could also accurately say the Church is pro-choice — we want those who we think "qualify" for an abortion to be able to choose one if they want. That's pro-choice.
If the Church stance changes, and all abortions are forbidden no matter what — even for cases like: the pregnancy is killing the mother, the fetus has died in utero, or an 11 yr old child was raped and impregnated by her father — then that would be an anti-abortion stance.
Read 37 tweets
Jun 23, 2021
Critical Race Theory is the current time-waster/energy-suck of Republicans. It’s a nonexistent “problem” that they force to the front of all conversations. Then they try and “solve” the problem with unnecessary and unhelpful legislation.

1/x
This is what this time-wasting strategy would look like when applied to a hospital. Imagine an operating room where a patient is waiting for a kidney transplant. There are two doctors:

2/x
Dr 1: Shall we begin the kidney transplant?

Dr 2: It’s not the right time to talk about kidney transplants. I’m starting to suspect you are trying to ignore the ping-pong problem?

Dr 1: What? What are you talking about? What is a “ping-pong problem”?

3/x
Read 18 tweets

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