Monthly Archives: November 2016

dear politicians: STOP CALLING

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See that telephone number? 

1-888-632-6548? 

They have tried to call my home 27  yes, TWENTY – SEVEN times today alone!

And that is after that number has been blocked for a while. They call and after one ring my phone delightfully drops blocked calls….yet they keep calling and calling and calling….

As Independents we get ALL the calls from ALL of the candidates.  We get all of the emails too.

But the calls? They have reached the point of hysteria. They are endless. They start early in the morning  and go way too far into the evening.

STOP!!!!!  Cell phones, home phones, all phones.

It’s invasive, intrusive, irritating. It’s harassment.

It makes you NOT want to vote, truthfully.

When I started this post, my count was 24 times today for this one robo call. It went up by three as I was writing the post.

This election has turned this country into a seething caldron of vitriol and robo- calls. I for one hate it.

Come Election Day anyone who tries to shove anything at me will have a rude awakening. I am done. I am tired of being polite to the invasion of the political body snatchers.

library crisis brewing in malvern???

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malvernlibrarypic002Library woes?

Truth or fiction?
A source told me tonight that John Nagel, East Whiteland’s Township Manager informed Christine Celona the library director at the Malvern Library that the library would no longer be receiving funding from East Whiteland? No reason was given for their decision to withdraw their support, is it because East Whiteland is in a deficit?
Supposedly this nice librarian is invited  to attend the township meeting scheduled for Wednesday, November 9th at 7PM? Maybe library lovers should also attend? I am getting the message that people should.
The pie diagram and flyer of where this library gets their monies from  is circulating some Malvern area neighborhoods and East Whiteland is 19% of their annual funding which is 100,000? Other municipalities like Willistown and East Goshen also contribute, and I do not know who else municipal-wise gives what. (It’s on the pie chart ew_flier-google-docs)
I am one of those people who grew up loving libraries and books. So I really would appreciate information on this. Truth and facts appreciated.
I am in uncharted waters here.
See below and please, by all means if you know what is going on, please speak up.

Postscript: See EW agenda – MORE new development and new development brings in ratables which is $ right ? Why can’t they ask a new development seeking approval to make a generous donation to say the fire companies and library as a condition of approval?

Someone said on Malvern Community Forum that EW is cutting funding to Malvern Fire Company too?

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christmas crisis averted

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I have this amazing Christmas tree skirt that I bought at a church fair easily 20 to 25 years ago. It is lined and hand needlepointed on cotton piqué with bright red trim. (see photo above.)  This Christmas tree skirt was vintage when I bought it.

So I have started thinking about Christmas and which Christmas tree skirt I was going to use on the tree this year – I have like four skirts I think at this point. I thought about this one in particular because I haven’t used it in a few Christmases now.

I got the skirt out of its storage container and noticed it had some dirty smudge marks on it and the white cotton background looked a little yellow with age.

So I thought I would soak it in Restoration,  which is a fabric restoring granular wash. I use it on all my vintage linens and even quilts. It is also septic safe. It lifts the yellowing right off the fabrics and gets out more stains than anything else I’ve ever used.  Literally restores the pieces I use it on.

So I soaked the Christmas tree skirt for the 6 to 8 hours and Restoration, and everything rinsed clear. I put it on a drying rack to dry and everything looked perfect.

I came back the next day to put it away figuring it had ample time to dry and yes it was dry but the dyes from the needlepoint yarn had run all over the white cotton! 

It looked like it was glowing the way the color had bled on the white. I was horrified!

So back into Restoration and water it went. I repeated the exact same process. The exact same thing happened again.

They say three times is the charm. Luckily for me it was. Once again on the third try, I put it in Restoration. Once again it rinsed clear after washing it in Restoration. 

Only this time I did things a little differently. I did another rinse/soak in white vinegar and water – something I remember from batik and tie-dye. Once again it rinsed clear. 

But I did not put it on the drying rack to dry. It took over an hour and a half but I ironed it dry between old bath towels on the ironing board.

The picture at the beginning of this post is what it looks like now after taking those extra steps. It’s a little damp still but I am hopeful that it will dry the right way this time and I won’t have the yarn dyes running all over the place.

I’m putting this into a post because it’s a cautionary tale of dealing with vintage linens. I’m pretty good about restoring them but this one really flummoxed me for a while.

The reason I like to hand wash a lot of my linens is the modern dry cleaning process will cause them to yellow sometimes. But I learned once again the valuable lesson that not everything can be hand washed with ease.

But I love this Christmas tree skirt so I’m glad I think I found a solution to my problem.

Thanks for stopping by!

election overload

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I love the one stop shopping on King Road: Test Prep, homemade political vitriol, and the campaign sign of a Democrat whose financial habits apparently rival Trump’s .

I can’t take it anymore. I don’t want to see one more sign from any candidate!

I don’t want one more Robo call!

Before I went out this morning to a doctor’s appointment there were four in a row both parties. My favorite of that bunch was the heavy breather from the National Rifle Association.  

Then when I came home after my doctor’s appointment I had missed five more Robo calls from imaginary made up numbers. One left a message wanting to speak to the man of the house that was the Republican National Committee. I’m sorry GOP but this little woman erased your message. (I figured since I wasn’t supposed to worry my pretty little head about it it was OK)

I can’t even listen to the radio because today one of Katie McGinty’s big donors must be paying for a lot of airtime. So today I get to hear how she was conceived of immaculate conception and her mother is the Virgin Mary.

 I’ll give you the Cliff Notes version of what the truth is on Katie McGinty: she’s one of Fast Eddie’s girls from way back and she’s a political opportunist. So she might’ve been raised on wholesome family values, but Saint she ain’t. Much like Josh Shapiro, she hopes to ride Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit.

Every time I turn on the TV, Donald Trump has one of his children from one of his wives making a campaign stop somewhere.  Then there was the whole visual of him in a Wawa buying tastykakes. 

Every time I turn on the TV there are any number of attack ads from any number of candidates in three states.

I open my mailbox and it’s full glossy flyers I can’t return to sender. Both parties. Every day.

I am suffering from election sensory overload . 

At this point for the first time in my life during a presidential election, I feel like crawling into bed and pulling the quilt over my head until election day is over.  

All the freaking money these people are spending attacking each other could be put to better use. They might actually be able to help people in need.

derelict on 202

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thoughts on the future of development and chester county

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Random thought I had today…

There are so many people upset by pending development on properties including but not limited to Earles Lake (Newtown Twp Delaware County)  Crebilly (Westtown Township, Chester County), Woodlawn (Concord Twp Delaware County), and Don Guanella (Marple Twp. Delaware County). I applaud those amazing residents fighting the good fight in their respective communities!

But ask anyone in land protection about just how hard it is to turn things around once land is under agreement of sale with a developer. There is very little the township or land trust or individuals, or groups, or anyone can do at that point.

But…. if residents could take some of that good energy and fight to protect vulnerable parcels that are NOT yet under agreement of sale, then they might just make some progress and have a chance to save community open space, arable farmland, and viewsheds.

And as you ponder, please think outside the box when investigating property that’s vulnerable.

For example I am told, and many people are shocked to learn, that places like Tyler Arboretum (650 acres) and Newlin Grist Mill are not actually completely protected land and all or pieces of those properties could be sold if their boards decided they wanted to. (Or if they were desperate for money.)

This is often the challenge for public gardens and arboreta…An example would be a conservation easement  that was put on on the Schuylkill Center a few years ago, and if memory serves it took forever to negotiate but that board was concerned with their own history of selling off chunks of the property over the years when times were lean.

What got me to thinking about this is the upcoming Crebilly Planning Commission Meeting where Toll is presenting. Westtown Township Planning Commission that has been scheduled this first  public meeting with Toll Brothers is reportedly Wednesday, November 16th at 6:30 PM and will be held at Stetson Middle School. (It is not on the Westtown website yet so I do not know if it is set in stone or not.)

I received the following from concerned Chester County resident Mindy Rhodes the following:

It is imperative that the community attend this meeting. It is imperative that you speak at this meeting. Your testimonies need to be on record. It doesn’t matter what township you are from- please show up!

In this meeting, Toll will present their plans and there will be much time for public comments. I have not seen the plans, but my understanding is this:

Toll has submitted 3 different plans:


1) Code Compliant Plan (approx. 320 units)
2) Single Waiver Plan (approx. 320 units) *Toll is requesting a waiver for the standard 60′ requirement in between buildings to 30′ instead
3) Maximum Bonus Density (approx. 400 units) *Toll will need to make their case to the Township to justify this by means of ‘improvements’


Other details:
*Development will be closer to the center of Crebilly leaving ‘open space’ around the exterior
*1 access will be on 202 south of Westminster Church
*2 access roads on West Pleasant Grove Road to align with Dunvegan and Hidden Pond Way
*1 access on 926 near Bridalwood
*No plans to access South New Street

 

This is how far we are.  And Westtown will be limited on what they can do.  Why? Because at the end of the day, municipalities are indeed limited by the Commonwealth’s bible that defines planning and zoning – The MPC or Municipalities Planning Code of Pennsylvania.

I have been saying it for years: quite simply put the MPC needs an overhaul. We need to re-define suburbs and exurbs. We need to better define and set up protections for historic preservation and land preservation, and so much more. We need to stop the death march of development across Chester County and Pennsylvania.

People have been contacting state and federally elected officials about plans like what we are about to see formerly unfold for Crebilly. Those officials like to say “we are so sorry, we can’t get involved in local issues.”

The hell they can’t.  Maybe they can’t change zoning, but they sure as hell can use their political stature to bring opposing sides to the table to perhaps explore other ideas.  That is part of why we elect them.  And when it comes to State Representatives and State Senators, if they can’t adopt our issues as theirs, time to vote for someone else AND they are the ones who can get the Municipalities Planning Code overhauled and updated…it’s in their job description!

We have a major election day coming up one week from today.  Reach out to candidates and ask them what they have done for us lately.  Like with issues over DEVELOPMENT (or pipelines through Chester County). They all can’t be about campaign donations.

We also need to get out message out CLEARLY to the Chester County Planning Commission.  To me it would also help if the person who headed it up actually LIVED in Chester County. A pro-development leader from Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County is not appropriate because HE DOESN’T LIVE HERE. Landscapes3 needs to actually reflect US not what someone else thinks is us.

Also to be considered is better knowing our history.  I learned something new about Crebilly the other day:

historical

Look, we have to do better.  We have to figure it out together. After all, Chester County deserves better.

Thanks for stopping by.