Has anyone asked what you’re doing? I read that during the pandemic, people are documenting their accomplishments on social media. Some are impressive- home improvement, organization, gourmet meals, stacks of books read,all sorts of things.
When someone asks me tomorrow what I did over the weekend, I’ll be able to proclaim this-
“I washed a stack of potholders today. And one dishcloth.”
You just never know when you’ll be glad you took the time to iron a stack of dinner napkins
I like to iron napkins and handkerchiefs. Don’t do it very often
but I remember my mother had a bottle of water to sprinkle the wrinkled cloths to get a nice smooth finish. Nothing like a freshly ironed pillowcase either.
The family came to Grandma’s house today.
The highlight of my summer!
And Anna likes to check things out around the place. We found a tarnished, dented silver rattle of her father’s from 1976. It was badly tarnished.
I asked her if she’d like to learn how to remove the tarnish, talked about oxidation, and how to polish silver. We found a few old baby cups that were up high on a kitchen shelf and seemed a bit fuzzy. We got a ramekin and she poured the baking soda in and then the littlest bit of water to make a nice paste. I found an old washcloth to rub the metal. We added an apron for her and she polished away.
I have lots more tarnished silver if she wants to dig in.
And here is what she said to me as she polished away…..
“Your dad would like that I am doing this.”
and I got a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes and thought, she is exactly right.
Anna at the sink with her father’s old rattle after she polished it! WIsh we had taken the BEFORE shot with the old iPhone first!
Baby cups on my mom’s old hammered aluminum tray, awaiting polishing.
Last week I emptied the dryer at my son and DIL’s. Thought I’d help out, fold a load.
When I cleaned out the lint trap, I found a tri-layered catch of fresh dryer lint. The striation helped out by the load of new white towels.
I put the dryer lint on the counter above the garbage and saw the face of a sock monkey.
“Erika”, I said, “let me save the dryer lint and show the kids in the morning, It’s striped and looks like a sock monkey.”
Hmmmm. I decided to take a pic on the phone instead and throw it in the trash cause I didn’t think she was seeing the face and she hadn’t been to the dryer lint art show at the Duds ‘N Suds Laundromat on Centre Ave here in Pittsburgh, a few years ago. I took some friends and it was a memorable and quirky event. The laundromat had that detergent, steamy scent. The people and scenes were all made from none other than DRYER LINT! You know how different loads offer different colors, frequently gray but sometimes a lovely hue, depending on the clothes or sheets.
My DIL had no idea there was a National Lint Project and that artist Cheryl Capezutti creates art from such a catch. You can go to her website and see her creations.
What I should have done is send the batch of lint to the artist Cheryl Capezutti and she could have created a winged creature or a tiny figure. She finds art in the everyday.
My lint screen here at home in Pittsburgh isn’t as interesting a shape, either. Erika’s is a half moon and mine is a flat, broad screen.
