To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?


I am currently reading "The Quilter's Legacy" by Jennifer Chiaverini.

I recently finished reading "French Women Don't Get Facelifts".

I am not sure what I will read next but the next three in my queue are "The Master Quilter" by Jennifer Chiaverini, "The Mystery at Lilac Inn" -- the fourth in the Nancy Drew series and then "The Screwtape Letters".  There is a Bible class at church that is reading "The Screwtape Letters" and while I can't attend the class I would like to read along with them.  "Past Imperfect" by Julian Fellows might rise to the top of the list, however.  We will see.  I wish I could read more than one book at a time!

Thread -- Yes, It Does Make A Difference


I did a bit of online shopping the other day -- a movie and some thread.  I know, I live walking distance from Joann Fabrics but I was introduced to a thread that I wanted to try for English Paper Piecing.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was giving EPP a try and had been surfing the net looking at blogs about the technique.  I ran across Flossie Teacakes which is a wonderful blog about EPP.  The entry that I happened on was about thread.  Florence (aka Flossie) was recommending a particular thread that, quite honestly, I had never seen before so, since I was shopping online anyway, I thought I would give it a go.

So, day before yesterday this big box came--

It was filled with this --

There was nothing in the paper so I looked in the box and there was this --

Yes, one spool of thread in that great big box with all that packing material.  It made me smile-- I don't know why.  In retrospect, I wish I had ordered the larger spool because the difference in price wasn't all that great and I have a feeling this will be my go-to hand sewing thread from now on.

I purchased the thread in the silver shade as Flossie suggested the light grey would probably work well with most things and I think she is right.  The thing about EPP is that I don't like the idea of having to change color threads so much as I like doing the piecing in the evening in my comfy chair and I don't care to have to schlep all different colors of thread around with me so one would do nicely.

This morning I gave it a go.  I apologize for my not so stellar photos -- I tend to shake a bit and when trying to get up close -- well, it just doesn't work so well.  However, here are some of the photos.

This one is done with a regular sewing thread and a regular sharp needle.

back--duh

front--double duh

It is not too bad but the stitches are more visible than I would like.  The next two photos are done with the new thread and a regular needle.

The stitches are almost invisible.  Yes, it did make it better using lavender fabric-- I didn't really think of that when I decided to do a test run -- I will post more photos on different fabric -- but the point is the thread is so fine that I think it would do with almost any color.  I am thrilled.

The only thing that would make it even better, I think, is to use a finer needle, like a milliner's needle which I am off to procure!  I really enjoy EPP but I think with this thread and finer needles, it will be even better.  I will update.

Thank you Flossie!

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.  It is a weekly exercise where you post two lines from any page in your current read. 

Since my current read is in my room where my husband is snoozing, I will choose two sentences from a newly acquired book - Past Imperfect - by Julian Fellows.  I haven't begun this book as I have a hard time reading more than one book at a time but it won't be far down my tbr queue.

"London is a haunted city for me now and I am the ghost that haunts it.  As I go about my business, every street or square or avenue seems to whisper of an earlier, different era in my history."

These are the first two sentences of chapter 1, page 1.  It is definitely a leading couple of sentences, drawing you in because who wouldn't be curious to know why this is a haunted city for the character. 

I might have to move it up on my tbr list.

Today -- So Far


Today has been a truly odd day for me.  I have been down in the dumps for a couple of days -- don't know why -- perhaps the weather changing back to cold and dreary -- I don't know but I decided that I was not going to let today be a repeat of the last couple.

So I decided to get up and actually DO something.  Lately I have actually been DOING things more than usual for me.  I have a good amount of energy and am having trouble sitting still so it isn't so odd that I wanted to do something, it was WHAT I chose to do that made my husband frown and want to check my temperature.

What was it, you ask?  I wanted to go outside.  Now, anybody who knows me that I don't play well with the outdoors.  I am allergic to everything on the planet, I seem to be a snake magnet and I worry a lot about the little "gifts' in the yard left for me by some sort of animal.  That is what worries me -- we live in a very fenced, gated area and I don't have an animal so.....yes, I am afraid of raccoons. Anyway, I went outside and took a good look at the wretched garden.  Hopefully this latest cold snap will be the last and we will be able to do something about the garden.  However, even with everything pretty much dead, the mint wouldn't give up the ghost -- unfortunately.

The mint patch -- quite dead?

Not quite -- here is the new growth

I then walked around to the side of the house to find our crab apple tree sprouting all these lovely little leaves.

 

 

Such a shame because I know we will have one more freeze

I then came into the house and announced to the Hubs that I wanted to take a stroll.  That really blew him away.  We live in a very small housing development with only about 75 houses -- if that many -- I will have to count them.  There is a central gate that divides the neighborhood and we live at one end.  If you walk from our drive to the other end of the neighborhood and back it is approximately 1/2 mile.  I chose to walk to the gate because between the perusing of the back garden and the declaration that I would be taking a walk, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees and the wind picked up.  So, we made it to the gate and back again and that squelched my desire for a walk.  My husband is still scratching his head, however, over my desire to actually leave the confines of my house to commune with nature.

We then left the house to do a couple of errands.  We went to the bank and then to Half Price Books.

Half Price Books is my first line of defense when it comes to book buying.  I know I should be using the library but it is farther away and that requires me remembering that I need to return books.  My memory seems to be in a bit of a fragile state right now so I try not to stress it out more than necessary.  At any rate, I went in with a list and got most of what I went after but not all.  Here is my haul.

I also wanted a copy of "The Screwtape Letters" but they didn't have one so I will buy it for my Nook.  They did have a copy of "Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker" but it was only $5 less than retail and I think I would like it in paperback.

So, that has been my day, thus far.  Now, I am going to have lunch and read until it is time to pick up the Bean from school.  I wonder if, by then, I am going to need a coat?

Musing Mondays is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.  This morning's "musing" is a bit involved but here goes.

3 Books That Have Impacted You

The Good Master
The Kitchen House
A Woman of Substance

3 Books Currently on Your Wishlist

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker
The Screwtape Letters
The Great Gatsby (no, I didn't read it in high school much to everyone's shock)


3 Books You Have Purchased in the Last Six Months

French Women Don't Get Facelifts
The Christmas Candle
Nancy Drew, The Bungalow Mystery

3 Books You Can't Help But Recommend to Others

Folly Beach
A Woman of Substance
The Aunt Dimity Series

3 Books With Amazing Covers

Ok, this is my weakness because I tend to buy books by their covers so I don't know if this answer is going to reflect amazing covers or just covers that appeal to me.

I love the covers of the Jan Karon's Mitford Series as well as the Aunt Dimity Series.  The Elm Creek series has covers that appeal  to me as well although they are a bit whimiscal, like the other two.  Another author that has beautiful covers is Kate Morton. Yes, I know that is more than three.  Sorry.

Learning to Scan -- finally


A number of years ago we had a lovely photo scanner/printer.  Then we changed operating systems and my lovely photo scanner/printer no longer worked.  So, we went out and purchased a scanner/printer that would play nice with Linux and it is very nice but it won't print photos well.  That stands to reason since it isn't a photo printer -- duh, Melissa!

Ok, it has taken me all this time to figure out that it might not print out the photos but it most certainly will scan them in and very well, I might add.  I kept asking the Hubs to do something so that I could post old photos to my blog, Ancestry.com, and Facebook.  His answer was for him to photograph the photographs and then download them.  That works but it requires him to actually do it and therein lies the problem.

A couple of weeks ago I was whining discussing the issue with him and voila! he sat down and figured out how to use the scanning option of the machine.  Of course, we knew how to scan, we have been scanning documents for ages but not photos.  So, after about an hour he has figured out how to scan and crop and save in Shotwell.

The real challenge was teaching me how to do it.  So, armed with a yellow pad to write down the steps I was ready.  However, he really needs to get over his over reaction when I touch the mouse.  It really freaks him out because he says I just push buttons willy nilly when all I have done is put my hand on the mouse.  We aren't particularly compatible when it comes to computers. It is a good thing we met and married before home computers were available otherwise I have no idea what might have happened. Anyway, I digress.

So, after a bit of fiddling around I managed to scan in and tag a half dozen photos and think I can actually do it myself but we shall see.  I will try a few more this evening.

But, in honor of me mastering scanning (gag!) I would like to introduce my parents.  Aaron P. Boyett on the left and Alma Elizabeth Davis on the right.  Both were born in San Antonio, Texas in 1923.

Recipe Update


A couple of posts ago I discussed some recipes I was trying so I thought I would update.

Brownies -- the recipe I tried with three different chocolates was just too chewy -- in fact, it didn't taste done even though I cooked it longer than it called for.  So, I finally tried the one bowl recipe on the inside of the Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate Box and that is exactly what I was looking for.  After taste testing it was about as close to a box mix as I think I will get so it is going to be my go-to brownie recipe.

Cornbread -- I haven't made this recipe again but will this week.  I had tweaked the original recipe myself so I am going back to the original recipe only I am going to cut the sugar in half.  I will revisit when I have done that.

Squash Salad -- I recently read the book French Women Don't Get Facelifts and was surprised that there were some recipes included.  One caught my eye and I tried it yesterday.  It is a squash salad and it was surprisingly good -- I wasn't sure what to expect.  The ingredients are yellow squash, thinly sliced , zucchini sliced into thin ribbons and cherry tomatoes.  A light dressing of olive oil, sherry vinegar and lemon juice is added along with chopped fresh mint and feta cheese.  I had to change the recipe in a bit because I didn't have the correct ingredients.  I substituted lime juice for the lemon juice because I was out of lemon juice.  I also substituted white wine vinegar for the sherry vinegar and I had to chop up a tomato as I forgot to buy cherry tomatoes.  I don't think the tomatoes made a big difference but I am not sure about the lime juice and the different vinegar.  With all that changing, though, it was really good.  I had never thought about a squash salad but it will become part of my regular rotation.

For anybody who thinks I have taken all leave of my senses in my old age let me explain.  I am trying to get all the toxins and negative things out of my diet and my house so I have resorted to scratch cooking which is actually proving to be more fun that I thought it would be.  I am not a stranger to the concept but we have gotten to the point that we are either eating out or take-out or convenience foods and I am trying to change that.  I used to spend my time quilting or cross stitching or internet surfing -- now I find I am spending my time cooking.  I have been dabbling in the creation of a greener life and also becoming more minimalist in our lifestyle and I like the idea of buying raw ingredients and putting them together to actually make something rather than just opening a box or a can and worrying about the ingredients that I can't pronounce or what is lining the can.  After a weekend pantry overhaul, I am standing back looking at my lovely, retro glass jars full of flours, sugars and cornmeal -- my turntables with my baking supplies organized where I can actually find something and all my bottles there in one place -- and it is peaceful.  It is somehow relaxing and reassuring to know that I can actually create what I want from these simple ingredients and don't have to rely on a box of something that I might or might not have.  I know that sounds really crazy but it takes me back to what I consider a better time -- my youth -- when everybody lived this way.  It makes me happy.

So, now that I have found the perfect brownie recipe and the perfect cornbread recipe I am off to find the perfect biscuit recipe.  I grew up eating biscuits made from Pioneer Biscuit Mix -- local to San Antonio -- and it makes lovely biscuits.  My goal is to find a recipe to make equally as good biscuits as those from scratch.  I will review when I do.

Musing Mondays -- February 17, 2014


Musing Mondays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.  To participate you need to answer one of several questions.  Today I will be discussing what I am reading currently and my opinion of the book.

I am currently reading The Quilter's Legacy by Jennifer Chiaverini.  It is the fifth book in the Elm Creek Creek series.  While you wouldn't have to read these books in order, it is helpful because there is a serial aspect to them.

I have only just begun this book but I am totally into it.  Even though I am more than twenty years younger than the main character -- Sylvia Bergstrom -- I identify with her.  I don't think I am necessarily like her because, in the first book, she is quite gruff but I think I admire her.  In any event, for an octogenarian, she has serious spunk.

I especially love the setting of these books.  Elm Creek Manor is a place I could see myself visiting and probably never wanting to leave.  The thought of having inherited a mansion and then turning it into something like a quilt camp just sounds like a lot of fun. 

Then, there is the quilting.  When I began this series of books, I thought they would be heavy with all things quilting but they aren't.  There is just enough to get me over my "quilting block" and inspire me to get back into it.  I am the sort of person that has to be in the mood to do something and sometimes I need a little push.

The history aspect of these books is very appealing.  If you like history or do genealogy these books will appeal to you.  There is a little of all of it. These books also have a bit of mystery to them so if you like mysteries, there is some of that for you, as well.

All in all, I have enjoyed this series thus far and I am sure my current read will be no different. 

To Mix or Not To Mix -- that is the dilemma!


Ok, I am trying to regain my sanity straighten out and reorganize my pantry. I seem to have an abundance of outdated food and many duplicates of things that I don't need.  I know why.  It is a large pantry and very disorganized so when I can't find something I need I just go out and buy more and then shove it in the over stuffed pantry on top of the stuff I already have.  If they had a show for Pantry Hoarders I would be a great candidate for it.

Hubs and I have been looking at ways to reorganize and so we made several purchases.  Since I am trying to cook more from scratch and less from processed, boxed foods, I am looking for storage for more raw ingredients.  I had several of these jars in the past, gave them away and realized lately that they were really good so I have purchased more.

We have a reasonably large pantry with L-shaped shelves.  That is all fine and good except for those pesky corners which are very difficult to deal with because things get lost in them.  When you are shorter, like I seem to be getting, the third shelf up is just too high for me to get into the corner so we bought  three of these for two of the corners.

We bought two large ones -- one for bottles and one for baking supplies.  I seem to constantly lose that little tin of baking powder.  You can't imagine how much I was able to put on these whirly gigs and clear off much shelf space.  The smaller one we use for meds.  We don't have medicine cabinets in the bathrooms so we keep those things in the kitchen but want them up out of the way of curious children.  So, they have worked well so far.

 
 I have been paying close attention to our food and what is in it so I am making more of an attempt to cook from scratch.  My husband doesn't like my cooking -- much prefers restaurant fare -- so I thought he would really like home cooked meals from scratch.  Wrong! Again -- he prefers restaurant food.  I, on the other hand, am tiring of it.  As I find myself harkening back to a different time (makes my childhood sound eons past) I realize that I really like my cooking, such as it is.  I like easy, simple meals -- mostly cooked in an oven because the stove top and I don't seem to play nice together. ( A couple of months ago I actually started my first ever grease fire but that is another story.)  However, I don't like all the junk that is in most of our foods -- from the unrecognizable ingredients in boxed goods to the linings of the cans.  I mean, seriously, why do they have to screw up the green beans -- those cute little diagonally cut morsels we all put in green bean casseroles?  So, in an effort to find scratch recipes that will successfully replace the boxed varieties and get rid of the poisonous cans, I have been doing lots of research and lots of playing in the kitchen.  Fortunately, Hubs has been a willing taste tester although he doesn't like much of what I am doing but at least he is honest.

My first attempt was to make a hot cocoa mix that would rival Swiss Miss.  I found a recipe online that was DIVINE! It consisted of powdered milk, unsweetened cocoa, powdered sugar and white chocolate chips.  Basically you grind it all up together in the food processor and mix 1/3 of a cup of the mix to a mug of hot milk.  It was perfect and entirely too sweet.  I am making an effort to cut sugar out of my diet but I am realistic and know that is going to be difficult so I am going about it slowly.  If I am going to eat something sweet I want it to be worth it. Today I tried to make it one cup at a time, without the powdered sugar.  It was really good but it didn't mix up well so I am going to concoct my own recipe and try again.

Then, I tried to find a recipe for brownies that were as good as a boxed mix.  I googled "chewy brownie recipe" and picked from the numerous sites that came up.  They were chewy all right -- as in not done even though I cooked them longer than the recipe called for.  I will be revisiting that with a recipe I found from Rachel Ray's site.  It calls for three types of chocolate so we will see.  I will probably have to rely on somebody else's opinion of these because I am pretty sure there will be too much sugar for me.

Then, there was the cornbread.  I like my cornbread to be a bit cakey rather than crumbly and I found a recipe that I thought would work to replace my favorite Pioneer Corn Muffin mix.  I had read a couple of other recipes that called for brown sugar in them and so I thought I would divide the sugar using white sugar for half and brown for the other half.  The recipes said "it made the cornbread".  Well, not for me.  The bread rose up beautifully and had a lovely texture.  It was a little darker due to the brown sugar but it tasted really -- well -- brown sugary.  Too much molasses.  So, I will try it again without the brown sugar and I will probably swap the milk with buttermilk and cut the sugar in half.

Fortunately my regular white bread recipe has turned out to be a winner.  I did substitute butter for the shortening but that was the only change I made and it is the only bread we have had in the house for weeks.  It makes a lovely full loaf and it lasts for several days unlike the bread made in the bread machine.  I also used one of these pans for the last loaf I made and I loved the results although most breadmakers will tell you to just use a regular aluminum loaf pan.  I have been using that sort of pan and it turns out great but I ran across this pottery pan in the back of a bottom cabinet -- I forgot I had bought it -- and it was really good.

So, I can't believe I am having all these culinary adventures in my old age but I am .  My three year old granddaughter wants to be a "cooker" and loves to get in the kitchen so I am having thoughts of trying to influence her to cook from scratch, something I could never achieve with her mother.  She already has a good sense of "good food" versus "bad food" so maybe with a little encouragement from me her interest in cooking will grow.  Of course, for that to happen, I have to work at it myself so maybe I will have some recipes to pass on to her when she gets that restaurant of her own she says she wants.  Or, maybe she will just be able to feed herself which is a good goal as well.

I Am Not Sure When it Happened .....

but, I have changed.

I am a child of the 50's -- you know, that perfect decade where all women vacuumed in high heels and pearls and children could run free without fear.

I am a teenager of the 60's -- you know, the perfect generation even with all the social discord and inequities and drugs but wonderful clothes and music which drove most of our parents to distraction and practically the poor house.

I was never a "flower child".  I was too busy being cute in preppy clothes and since I didn't seem to be able to grow long, gloriously straight hair it seemed pointless to try.  I did try being "mod" and would layer white eyeliner over blue eyeliner (thanks Maybelline!) and I tried my hand at asymmetrical hair cuts.

The 70's found me in the professional world which I didn't do very well, fashion wise, a wedding dress which I did quite well and for the rest of the decade I was in maternity or mommy clothes.

Everything after that was a blur.  I seemed to have completely lost my identity.  I can't remember what I did, other than Mommy things, or what I wore.

Now here I am -- 63 years old and suddenly discovering a "new" me.  I am a late bloomer -- now I am becoming a flower child -- environmentally that is -- not particularly politically -- I am too religious to think politically -- they don't seem to go together very well.  I digress.  I don't know what to do with this new found me.

I don't even know when it happened.  I could feel it coming on a few years ago when the news about plastics leaked (sorry for the pun) out. Then I started reading about the toxins in our everyday world -- things I had been exposed to all my life.  Then I thought about my children -- how much had I exposed them to toxic things never realizing.  The guilt was a little overwhelming.  I watched my parents pass away due to self inflicted diseases -- they were life-long smokers -- how could they do that, how could their addictions be more important than me -- how did their smoking affect me long term.  I started changing everything in our lives -- my husband's head was spinning.

 Then I got the diagnosis -- you know, the one everybody dreads.  You know, the one that seems to be more and more common and suddenly my interest in our environment -- generally and personally -- was tantamount. Nobody knows what happened with me.  I was asked if I smoked or lived in a smoking home -- well, yes, for twenty two years.  I got "the look", the nod and info duly noted.

So, since that little life altering event I have done a lot of major changes.  I have taken to buying more and more organic food.  I have just about completely cut sugar out of my diet and am eating more fruits and vegetables -- almost to the point of being vegetarian.  I have tossed all my cosmetics and skin care and have replaced these items with organic items -- most of which I can eat.

Good as skin moisturizer and to pop popcorn

good for facial masques and for burns

Good in granola and on your face

 

Ok -- don't eat this

 My household cleaning items consists of soap/water, baking soda and vinegar.  I make my own laundry soap and am planning to making my own dishwashing soap next week.   I am completely aware of everything I put on my body as well as in my body.  My husband isn't sure of all of this -- especially since I refuse to use his favorite Dawn dishwashing detergent  but I do allow it in the kitchen.

I have been doing all I can to increase my exercise without actually exercising, although some of that is going to start happening as well.  I bought a pedometer and now count my steps throughout my day.

If, late in the day, I don't feel as if I have walked enough, I have a "track" through my open concept house that I walk-- it is 100 steps around it so I just do several of those.  I was so stiff this morning that I did a few laps just to walk through the pain and loosen up -- it worked.

These are all things that have changed about me.  I have become more thoughtful about what I do and how I spend my time.  I have become acutely aware of what we, as humans, do to our environment and to ourselves and it is totally frightening.  I have, as a result, gone back to doing things like we used to do them when I was a child.  I wash more dishes by hand (little bit of exercise there), I bake our bread by a recipe that I mix with a spoon, not a bread machine--great upper body exercise.  I have regressed.  I have walked away from our modern, advanced life in many ways.  I watch less tv and read more books.  I have cut down on computer time and sleep more.

And, what have I got for all of this?  Am I healthier? I would like to think so.  Am I more socially aware?  Oh yes.  Am I richer?  Monetarily -- in a way because doing things the way I am doing them is cheaper.  I am not buying expensive cosmetics and skin care or cleaning items.

The things, however, that I have gotten from all of this is doing things the "old" way keeps us moving.  Using non toxic products and a little elbow grease won't hurt us.  If using less toxic cosmetics mean we use less and look more like ourselves-- so be it.   I have learned that less is truly more.  By feeling like I am doing something positive for myself, my family and those around me I feel calm.  I am not obsessing over things anymore.  I am not anxiety ridden anymore.  I am not frightened anymore and I am able to "live and let live".  I don't worry one whit about what people think about me or what I do or how I think.  I am focused on "paying it forward".  I haven't figured out how to do that on a large scale and maybe that is because it isn't supposed to be done on a large scale -- maybe it is the little things that count.  I don't know but that is my goal -- to pay it forward.  It is my purpose in life now, aside from my family, to do what little good I can for others and trying to reduce my carbon footprint is one of those ways.

Yes, I think I have become a flower child.  I wonder if I should try, once again, to grow long, glorious hair?

2014 Goodreads Challenge


My third book for the 2014 Goodreads Challenge is French Women Don't Get Facelifts by Mireille Guiliano. Like Guiliano's other book French Women Don't Get Fat, the author has provided insight as to how French women stay vibrant and youthful throughout their lives.  Actually, the advice given in the book seems pretty universal, eat less, more veg and fruit, moderate exercise -- all good advice but the one difference is the author promotes more "natural" ageing and less intervention involving surgeries, drugs, injections, cosmetics, chemicals etc.  She discuses everything from style to supplements to food, even including some recipes -- one of which I intend to try this week.

It was a good book in that it gives women of "a certain age" license to be what we are and to be comfortable in our skin.  I enjoyed reading it.

The Humble Hanky


The weather in North Texas has been inexplicable this winter.  It has always been variable but it has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime this winter.  It was 70 on Saturday and freezing with ice and snow on Sunday.  I have been sick for over a week.  I thought it was seasonal allergies but I think I was wrong.  I believe I have either had an old fashioned cold or a sinus infection but whatever it is I feel bad enough to not want to leave the house but good enough to be bored out of my mind.  So, what is a sneezy, honking, coughing girl to do?  Well, I decided to sew.  And what did I decide to sew?  Hankies. 

The decision was fueled by a very raw, painful nose and by the plan to use up some fabric scraps that were big enough to do something with but not so big to constitute yardage.  Plus, I had a block of time that I could actually sit down and get involved in something but I didn't feel good enough to have to actually get involved in anything I had to THINK about.  So, being the person I am and always researching ways to be thrifty and green, I had been looking at making handkerchiefs and flannel cosmetic squares.  So, I fished around my fabric stash and found a bunch of flannel left over from making baby blankets, I cut it up, hemmed it down and this was my final product. 

9 flannel hankies

I then decided to take the scraps from making the hankies and make some cosmetic squares.  I don't wear a lot of makeup and all of it washes off with soap and water.  I also don't wear nail polish so I don't have to worry about removing that so these should work really nicely for applying the rosewater I use after I wash my face. 

cosmetic squares

I simply cut the leftover flannel into 2 inch squares, stacked two together and zigzagged around the edges. They are nice and soft and just the right size.

I was planning on using a lingerie bag to store the soiled items waiting for the laundry but I have decided to use a small, plastic trash can in the laundry room and just place the items in there.  It will be small so I can wash it out and spray it down from time to time.  Unless I am sick, which rarely happens, I don't use many tissues so I think this new hanky plan will work for me. I have been using them for a day now and I have to say I have kept up with the one I have in my hand/pocket quite well and am not having to go around and pick up stray tissues all over the floor.

I do have a lovely collection of vintage handkerchiefs that I pulled out before making these but somehow they just didn't look so comfy and besides, they are pretty and I didn't want to use them for actually blowing my nose.  Plus, I think my flannel ones are really absorbent and they feel really good.

So, that is what a half sick, bored person does on a ice and snow day in North Texas.  You might be asking yourself what will she do today?  Well, I am going to finish a set of placemats I started about four years ago and make some matching napkins for them.  I will post photos.

BTW -- in case you are wondering, yes, I did visit my little Dr. man and I did take an antibiotic and I now think the whole thing is breaking up and leaving me so hopefully I will be back to my old self completely in the next couple of days.