Rainy Day and Sheets

It's a dreary, rainy day in our part of Idaho today, but I had to get a couple of photos of the trees budding out. I think this means spring is right around the corner!

This is our apple tree. I sure hope we don't get any blight or worms on it this year. Being a "fruit grower" can certainly be frustrating!

This is our quaking aspen tree and my favorite tree in the world. I love to see it quake in a very gentle breeze.

This tree is a Navajo willow in our neighbor's yard and is only 6 years old. It grows faster and looks like it'd be hard to kill also. Several grow in our neighborhood because they're fast growing and we need shade here badly in the summer time.

Now, what do sheets have to do with this post? Well, I'm gonna tell ya, chicks.

On my granddaughter's Facebook page she talked about how I cleaned her stove top on the last visit and how she didn't even know the knobs came off for cleaning. Her mother—my daughter—was amazed at what she didn't know. That got on the subject of folding fitted sheets. Daughter said she was the best fitted sheet folder in the world. I said, "Au contraire, I am the best." So here I am to prove it to people on her Facebook page and I'll be directing them here to prove it. And yes, I do buy French sheets for our bed! I love soft linens to sleep on.

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And speaking of the French, I read an article recently that a mayor in France had a bust of Marianne in a traditional Phrygian cap removed because her breasts were too large. I take exception to that. As a well-endowed woman I believe I speak for many women when I say: at least ours are real. How could he be so judgmental about something like that? We who are born that way rarely ever flaunt our chests. I certainly don't! Ridiculous man.
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Curtains I Love for Pink Saturday 8/28/2010

Happy Pink Saturday! Please visit Beverly and the other participants by clicking on the logo below:



This past saturday I visited with Ineke at Ineke Original so pay her a visit. Delightful blogger.
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There is a celebration of life going on over at Kelee's blog for Colette who has survived cancer. It's a wonderful story of faith and life. But I also have a personal story to tell you.
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Hubs and I were married and started our family immediately. We had a daughter within 11 months and our son came along 11 1/2 months after her. When I started in labor with him I went in to the doctor at the military hospital in Oceanside, Calif. twice and got sent home. The 3rd time they knew I was in trouble. There were about 9 doctors in that examining room poking everywhere they could. Finally, they could see I was in trouble. They looked at my fingernails and knew I was dehydrated and then found out I had uremic poisoning and my kidneys were hurting pretty badly. (Later we found out I have medullary sponge kidney, which means I have stones TNTC (too numerous to count) and have passed 14 so far in my life.)

Anyway, they admitted me and I was pretty much out of it but Keith has born within a day and they whisked him out of there before I could hold him. I was alone and in very bad shape for about a week. Then on the 8th day I saw this bright light in my room. So bright I couldn't figure out how I could look at it because it was brighter than the sun. It was a sort of tunnel of light beckoning to me but I knew I was "not going", that I needed to be here. I later learned the doctors all told hubby to come and say goodbye to me for the last time because I was so sick I wasn't going to make it. Hubby told me he just sat in our home and cried and cried with our 11 month old daughter. But that day I knew I was going to get better. I tried calling the nurse because I wanted a drink. I was thirsty beyond belief because I was just getting IVs for all the time. Finally at the 9th day they let me walk down to see my son. He was in an incubator with no diaper because of all the antibiotics he and I were given, his diaper area was a mass of sores. When we took him home on the 11th day we couldn't put a diaper on him. Just let him lay on top of the cloth diaper.

Now, I wasn't religious at all at that time but something like that spiritual experience got me to believe in my heart that I'd live a long time. I really was looking beyond the veil that day into the next life. I absolutely know that now without any equivocation. Our son was just fine after that except for an episode of convulsions at about 2 than ended after a couple of months. He's perfectly normal now and a good son.

When he was attacked in April of 2009 we were devastated but we KNEW he would survive the beatings and trauma. I just never wondered about it because I believe God gave me the peace to know he would be fine. Prayer does work and also the father's blessings my husband—his father—gave him. He's pretty much healed from the beating they inflicted on him for trying to rescue that girl from them at the gas station. I trust God to take care of my kids and grandkids and me and hubs. Yep, prayer does work. We're a religious Christian family who attend church every sunday and try to live a holy life.
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I have a short story to tell about this fabric, so bear with me.

For one thing, they are sheets—Fieldcrest called Cassandra. I spotted them over 20 years ago in our local Macy's store in California. I loved the fabric and bought several sheets that day simply because of the fabric. (This is probably my all-time favorite fabric. When something grabs at your heart like this, you never want to see it disappear.) I wanted more, but when I went back another day there were no more sheets. BUT standing in line was a woman with some of those sheets in her arms, and I found out she was returning them! Oh be still my heart. I told her I wanted them. So the saleswoman took them, gave her credit and turned right around and sold them to me. I thought I was in heaven for sure that day. One moment sadness and the next moment extreme joy! But I later thought about having even more of them for a stash of fabric in the most beautiful print I'd ever seen. So I called around to other Macy's in our local area but no one had any.

Then one day as Love Bunny and I were traveling over past Sacramento to someplace forgotten in my memory at this point in time, I decided to stop at Gottschalks north of Sacramento in Auburn. Just happened that they had more Cassandra sheets. I bought a couple of sheets there as I thought I'd probably have my "lifetime supply" at that point.

I made some pillows and curtains for our home in California. But when we got to Idaho I wanted some more curtains in our first Idaho home. We had 7 huge windows in our living room. They were about 6' high. That living room was about 20' x 26'. I loved it being so large. So I made 4 pairs to frame the banks of windows on each wall. One wall had 3 windows and the front wall had 4 windows with just a few inches in between the windows so I couldn't—and actually, didn't want to—frame each individual window. And because I had bought all those extra sheets I could do it.

So now how did these sheets look in the first Idaho house? Let me show you. But first be forewarned: these are NOT digital photos and I was absolutely the worst photographer there ever was with a regular old camera. This is not stated to get a 'oh, no, you weren't.' I take full responsibility for these pathetic photos, but they are all I have of this house. Betcha didn't know digital cameras didn't always exist, huh? And these are scans of bad photos to begin with so you see how horrid they are.

It was a wonderfully large room to decorate and as I look back I see how pathetic I was 20 years ago. I even covered a chair with the sheet I loved so much. The chair on the right by the window and the same one in the foreground is a Baker chair that has seen 3 different fabrics on its self. It is such an expensive and well made chair I've been able to do that. It pays to buy good furniture. Trust me on this.

I did these pillows in California and brought them with us to Idaho and just loved flopping them on this old sofa. That sofa today would be 38 years old. When we bought it, it was avocado striped green velvet. (See how we all make mistakes when we're young?!) It was then recovered in burgundy as seen here and everyone just loved it. I actually gave it away to a young couple and since I take excellent care of my stuff, it looked brand new when they got it. They were thrilled.

So why talk about them? Well, hubs was up in the attic again yesterday and found this box of 4 curtains left. I'm going to sell 2 of them, but I'm keeping one set of 2 for who-knows-where in the house. I just cannot see myself parting with this fabric. They are still as crisp as the day I bought them. I've never washed them, just threw them in the dryer to be dusted off when needed. They look and feel like new. I'm a bit sad selling even one pair but I know I'll never use 2 pairs in this house since it is our last house to occupy. You'll see them on eBay probably very soon. ;-)
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Cotton Sheets

I wrote this post when I was new to blogging so most people, if you're like me, never go back and read the older ones so I thought I'd post it again. It's still applicable and I thought certainly worthy of being repeated.
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Something I thought of today while toweling off from my shower is freshly scented towels. My granddaughter asked me a couple of years ago what kind of laundry detergent and fabric softener I used. I asked her why and she said, "Because your sheets and towels always smell so good." What a compliment!! She noticed!! And I did tell her. But I have always been sensitive to smells - in the good way, not the allergic way. I love lovely scents. I have so many perfumes I'd never have to purchase another bottle in my lifetime. But today my towel smelled of a new fragrance I bought recently. A perfume. I must have placed the towel to my neck when I had just sprayed it on. It smelled wonderful. So what I'm going to do is just very lightly spray a tiny fine mist from a favorite perfume onto my towels from time to time. It'll keep the linen closet smelling fragrant and being ever so lightly sprayed I'll smell that scent when I'm toweling off. My "scents" from perfumes are in my clothes so why not have them on my towels. Just light fragrances, nothing "overpowering" is good.
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That's the end of that post but I thought of something else. The same can be said for sheets also. Spray lightly.

I mostly buy 100% cotton sheets with a decent thread count - not 600 but maybe 300 for everyday unless I get a good deal on them somewhere.

I had a friend several years ago that started buying cotton sheets because I had told her how sensual they are to the body. She bought some and then washed them and called me to ask how I got the wrinkles out. I said I ironed the top sheet but the bottom one stretched out when put on the mattress. I thought she was going to faint! She said she didn't intend to iron sheets. So she threw them out! I about died because I would have taken them in a heart beat. Anyway, as I age I don't iron them anymore. I simply have come to love the wrinkles! See these that I just took out of the dryer and am folding. I think they're beautiful. But then I find beauty and joy in very simple things. ;-) I truly do!!!

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