My repair skills...

are nowhere near on par with those of my friends, Allen and Tom, but I did manage to clean up and replace the twill tape on this antique chalkboard today.  I have had this since I was a little girl - I was seven or eight.  We lived in Hyannisport, Massachusetts and one day my dad came home with a bunch of toys from a store his boss had bought out.  I suspect his employers were more interested in the building than the inventory so that's why all of their employees with kids got Christmas in July!  Anyhow, while I was thrilled with this chalkboard, I was even more enamored of the black baby doll I received.  She had a pink dress and pink booties and pink ruffled undies.  Imagine - a potty-trained baby!  I named her Ethel and took that doll everywhere, much to my mother's chagrin.  Now, years later, I cannot remember what became of Ethel, but I still have my chalkboard.  The top section once had a rolling paper primer with alphabets and animals on it, but my sister demolished it sometime in the seventies.  I replaced it with a primitive sampler I cross-stitched on some old linen years later - I think it looks like it belongs.  The frame is solid oak, so you should have seen me trying to drive upholstery tacks into the twill tape under the chalk ledge in the front.  It's slightly messy and there are two tacks in each piece of tape, but fortunately you can't see it.  I gave up on the tacks and tied the twill tape in the back.  At least it won't fall over anymore!  Now I just have to get some chalk so I can write a message on the board.  I haven't quite decided where to put this treasure yet - but it will probably end up in the living room.  It's like having an old friend come to stay.