Added to the Stash

I love flannel sheets. I use them all year. You'd be amazed at how cool you feel in the summer when lying on a cotton flannel sheet. And what could be better on icy winter nights than a couple of blankets, flannel sheets and a purring cat?

Sheets wear out. It's usually the bottom sheet that goes first. I've had the top sheet to a couple sets of flannel sheets that haven't been a pair in years. It's impossible to find just the bottom fitted sheet. Regular cotton sheets come in mix and match but flannel? Nope. It's all or nothing.

Flannel costs more, too. The same sheet set can be a third more for flannel than for regular cotton. I subscribe to Woot.com. This web site offers a daily deal and then other ancillary deals. I got my digital camera there. I was poking around in the site last month and they had flannel sheet sets for $20. Twenty dollars. At the time, I couldn't find any that I liked for less than $30. So I got a set. I always wash sheets before using them and, over the weekend, it was time to fold the new set and add it to the shelves.

The leopard print is the new set. It feels really luxurious as I fold the sheets. But what to do with the two top sheets I have. They are in exceptionally good condition. Just giving them away seems wasteful. If I had small children, we could make a fort out of them and the dining room chairs. That was so much fun when I was little. Yes, it took up the living room because you have to leave it up once you've crafted it, but I have great memories of sitting in the fort reading stories to the dog we had at the time. (Don't be surprised about the dog. We had dogs and cats on the farm when I was growing up. I like dogs, as long as they belong to someone else.)

Since I have no young people visiting, I couldn't think of a reason to hang onto these. Then it hit me. Remember my receiving a couple boxes of fabric from my mom last year? Inside one of those boxes was the quilt pieces my Great Aunt Tillie had started but never finished.

To honor her, my grandmother and aunt Irene, I vowed to finish this quilt. It's a project for next year, to be sure, as I'm in the middle of another project I'm having great fun doing. I don't know what color of fabric I'll use to stitch the hexagons together but I know what I'll use for backing material, one or both of these sheets. In fact, given the size of the sheet, it will be a good marker for how much fabric to buy to complete the quilt.

Seems fitting. A quilt was usually made of the leftovers. Viola. I am ready. So, I tossed these into a box in the closet to sit and wait for their reuse.

Beverage:  LaCroiz Berry Sparkling Water

Deb

But it's June 30th!

Why the heck am I wearing a sweater at the end of June? It is 66 degrees outside. The sky is gray with no sign of any rays of sunlight. There are rumors of rain later. And the air conditioning is on in the office.

I think I've mentioned that my boss detests hot weather. He is happiest when the weather is like it is today, in the mid to upper 60's with the nights in the 50's. I just got over my allergies and that annoying cold. I have to sit on my hands occasionally to warm them up. YES! I'm all out of hot tea but I have water in the microwave for more.

So, inevitably, the conversation will turn to "where's this global warming we've heard about"? It is tempting when your lips are turning blue at the end of June, when the HIGH temperature is "supposed" to be in the mid-80's, to question whether the scientists garnering headlines for predicting the melting of the ice caps really are right. Am I going to need the heat tonight just to remove the damp chill from the air? I can't ever remember having the heat on at the end of June. When Carole graduated from high school at the beginning of June in 2001, it was like this. Her college graduation in mid-June 2005 was hot and humid. It is supposed to be gorgeous over the 4th, but 66 on June 30th? When was Hudson Bay, Canada moved south?

If you're of a "certain" age, you grew up with the headlines from the National Enquirer screaming "New Evidence Shows Russian Weather Machine". The Cold War was still in effect and any weather anomaly was quickly attributed to this mystifying machine that the Russian had supposedly built and were aiming at the heavens. What we take for granted now, such as Dopplar Radar, hadn't been invented yet so my grandfather was dead serious when he said, as we sat in the shed watching baseball size hail fall one July afternoon, "Them damn Russians are at it again."

Yes, I believe in global warming as I hold my numb fingers over the steam from the tea. I believe we have changed and continue to change the climate. It doesn't mean that suddenly all my summers in Chicago will be above 88 degrees. It means that there will be cold days when, historically, there shouldn't be. All I can say is thank goodness for flannel sheets.

Beverage: HOT Prince of Wales tea

Deb