I have one of those GMs (Cobalt, vintage 2005) that had a recall notice recently, about the ignition key, that the engine might stop unexpectedly, which could cause major problems. Story was that it has caused some deaths. The news here was that one lost power steering (which is true - but I have strong arms) and power brakes ... which isn't precisely true. My can(1), with a standard transmission, often gets turned off when approaching stop lights that have just turned yellow, half a block away, or when going downhill, if I don't have another vehicle behind, ready to crawl up my tailpipe. I have two to three pushes on the power brakes before the residual power goes off and I have to push hard to get action. I received notice some time ago that I should have nothing hanging from the key, as that tended to initiate the trouble sooner. Haven't taken it in for replacement of the ignition switch, yet. Story was that the part 's cost was 57 cents. ole joyful 1. Keyboard trouble, again, it appears - that was supposed to be "car", darn it! o j

1. I would place the top of the zipper at the top of the neck where it would go if the zipper was the correct length, then place a bar tack across the zipper at the place where it should end in the pattern, to prevent the tag part from trying to disappear down into the seam allowance when fully opened. Tack the rest of the zipper tail down on the inside to keep it flat (or you could even cut it off, if your bar tack was good and strong). 2. The bias tape I'm assuming is to finish off the raw edge since the curve will be too tight to do a neat hem. You could either cut facings from fabric scraps or make your own bias tape. 3. The recommendation to baste down the seam allowances is to prevent the elastic from getting stuck in the dead end of the seam allowance as you are feeding it through. Trying to come up with a visual, imagine the two pieces of fabric sewn together with their seam allowances are a pair of magazines, opened out at the centres and laid cover to cover one on top of the other.Now you have to thread a piece of string between the two covers. Unless you are very careful your string could go between the pages of one magazine and get stuck at the staples. But if you glued all the edges of the pages together on each magazine before you laid them on top of each other then the string has only one place to go, between the covers :-) This is the equivalent of basting down the edges of the seam allowances in the section where the casing will be. Personally I might not hem, just turn under once to make the casing, especially as this doesn't have to be a first-rate, built to last outfit.

Something I learned here is that when you can't match the backsplash tile to the counter, match it to the cabinets. That doesn't mean it has to be boring. I'm assuming the stove is on the back wall, hidden from the main view, and since that's the typical focal point, you might want the tile to provide more interest than you usually see with elaborate cabinets. You have strong shapes in the cabinets and in the plank floor, so I think you just want a little touch of something special. I'd like a square tile at the counter and a subway above it. I love how this bottom row of squares is built out. The field tile is actually squares, which would be very traditional and give you a bit of relief from all the rectangles, but it could also be done with subways above. It would be pretty with all cream tiles too. I think squares at the counter need something to separate them from the subway field tile. They used multi-colored 1" mosaic here, with a very subtle touch of black. With mosaics, you can pop out tiles and sub in others to control the color. Because there's a lot of lighter colors, it doesn't look like a black racing stripe around the room. Often a pencil liner is used but I wouldn't recommend a solid black liner. This would be a pretty transition from your black counters to cream subways. The faded black tiles would pull in the gray floor too. This is gorgeous where they used long subways at the counter, a row of natural stone mini mosaic, and 2x6 subways above. You have to click on it to see the details. You can see that this is a busy kitchen but the layering of tiles doesn't make it too much. I hope you and your tiler knows not to tile your side splashes. I don't know what that counter piece is along the one wall. Maybe it's just resting there.

The one on the far left is marble? I think it might not be the best over a larger space with the different “pattern”from you granite. The others seem a bit stark to me. Your granite looks like what I have seen called river white granite. You might find inspiration pictures by searching into that. Also I'm not getting much of an idea about what your backsplash space looks like. It can make a difference how much backsplash you have as bigger tiles or patterns may not show to advantage if there isn’t much backsplash.