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Monday, November 7, 2016

Ultimate odds and ends

This day is so beautiful. My mandevillas are still blooming full force, and it's November 7th!


I pulled into a friend's drive today, to exchange pleasantries. I took another picture of her privacy fence.


Emily moved out a couple of weeks ago. The 17 year and 11 month old exercised her teenage prerogative to live elsewhere when not in college. Not to worry, "elsewhere" is back at her mother's. 

Laura and I spent Sunday shopping for chairs and stuff to set up a sewing room.


Jan donated back the white tables; I found a real sewing machine on Craig's list, and Laura is happy with her real sewing machine, which simply means not old. When Jan finds the five inch squares, we'll be back in the charity quilt business.


This came with the ironing board. Laura found it amusing that anyone still irons shirts. I found it amusing that anyone did not know how to fold an ironed shirt. The other side should have included instructions on how to iron a shirt, to complete the irony, but the other side is blank.

39 comments:

  1. I still iron shirts. Ironing is not my favourite job, but I do it.
    I hope your garden continues to bloom.
    And that Emily thrives with her mother as she has done with you.

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  2. Not too many young people iron any more.

    My ironing board is permanently set up in the spare room though I am not compulsive about it.

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  3. LOL- I still iron shirts...and other things, too. I just love the looks of a freshly ironed piece of laundry. When my kids were little I even ironed their Tshirts---it's a sickness, I know. lol

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  4. Hari OM
    At school, we had 'domestic science'. It covered all the sewing basics, kitchen management and cooking, how to run a house... including how to iron every item you could name. To this day, I loathe ironing. Once you've been examined on starch and where to put it, you can start to get very creative in rebellion...

    I do iron. Loathingly.

    The energy in your home will be different now - but I sense in a very creative way! YAM xx

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    1. Did you starch socks and underwear?

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    2. hehehe - funny you should ask... No, the line was drawn at socks; but if underwear was of full cotton, then yes! Victorian standards in the 1960s countryside school.

      I have no idea if one can even purchase starch anymore. Have no intention of finding out!!! Yxx

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  5. Not to worry? I hope you're right, my friend. But I'm so glad you and Laura are getting going on the quilts again. Does Laura do any other sewing? Does she refashion clothing or am I remembering wrong?

    I ironed up until a year ago. Then I realized if I hung stuff from the dryer any little wrinkles would fall out after a day or so. Anything badly wrinkled still gets ironed - grudgingly. I don't have enough hours left in life to spend too much of it over an ironing board :)

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  6. P. S. The privacy fence is wonderful! fanciful, unique, colourful

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  7. I bet she'll miss you and Laura. I iron very little, tablecloths and pillowcases is about it.

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  8. My wife has informed me that no one irons anymore

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  9. This news came as a big shock. I can only hope that Emily retains enough of that foundation you built that she will continue to make you proud, As long as she stays in college, maybe she will stay grounded. Happy news about Laura and the sewing. I wonder what happened with Jan's long arm machine. Won't you be needing that?

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    1. Jan still long arm quilts, and posts about the quilts almost every day on Facebook. Find her: Ewetree Quilting, or just Ewetree.

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    2. And PS--leaving home in a huff is a time honored rite. She has a safe landing place.

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  10. My uncle actually has his own shop for sewing machines and vacuum cleaners. My dad (before he died) used to work there. I'm sure he'd know more than I would about being able to use one.

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  11. Not to worry as long as Emily is still going to college. She is isn't she? I remember coming back home after being away at college and thinking I shouldn't have to follow the same rules I did in high school.

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  12. Yes, she's still in college, and she still knows e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. So, she's in "put your money where your mouth is land" for a bit

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    1. They all do at some point, don't they. In fact, I think my grown children think they know more than I do, because things have changed, blah, blah, blah. They are preaching to the choir.

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  13. I am no good at sewing but I can iron with the best of them. Will Emily be okay? I know she learned a lot about living from you but she did come from a rough place.

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  14. Love the fence. Hope Emily is going to do well with her mother! I am fearful of my adult grandson exercising that privilege and wanting to move in with his mother!! Yikes!!

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  15. Emily so close to 18 years old has to start making her own decisions, as you know. Time will tell if it was the best decision for her. In the meantime, I hope if she realizes it wasn't, that she'll reach out to you and see what her alternatives might be. It is so hard when they want to fly out of the nest to let them do so and then wait and see what happens.

    Good for Laura with the sewing; what a fun adventure! I don't even own an iron :)

    betty

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  16. Emily is back with her mother? :(
    I'm the only one in my family who knows how to fold a shirt and even I don't do it; all shirts are on hangers in the wardrobes, unless they're in piles on floor-drobes! Depends on whose shirts they are.
    I love that privacy fence :D

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  17. your sewing room looks great .
    loved your blloms .
    wishing Emily best in future

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  18. Hoping for the best for Emily.

    I learned how to fold shirts when working in a laundry one summer when I was in high school. Hard, hot work, but I learned so many practical lessons.

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  19. I love having a dedicated space for my sewing too! It took too many years to find that space but now that I have it, it's never getting relinquished!
    I still have violets blooming! And we've had several hard frosts!!!!!

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  20. Emily has had a good grounding. Up to her to make the best use of it.
    Ironing? No.

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  21. I learned how to iron in high school maybe. our maid taught me as the only thing my mother was interested in was sleeping.

    Kind of shocking to hear about Emily. reading the comments I see she is still in school but will be residing at her mother's house on holidays and summers. did y'all have some sort of falling out? and back at her mother's? that surprises me. not surprised that she wants out of the nest though. I remember I couldn't wait to be out from under my parent's collective thumb. my own daughter moved out and into an apartment with two friends the day after she graduated from high school. she was back 9 months later though. doesn't look like Emily will have that option what with the new sewing room.

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    1. What goes around comes around. Her mother begged me to take Emily off her hands starting when Emily was five years old, but it didn't happen until she was 13, and for other reasons. A person who knows everything can be tough to deal with. I hope I taught Emily how to be fair and reasonable, but the persona she's built to present to the world may be severely buffeted. No one is entitled. End of story. Or, as I said to Emily and her mother, "Put your money where your mouth is." I've become very fond of that philosophy recently.

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  22. It's astonishing how many of us had to figure it out the hard way! It's a rule of life, methinks.

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  23. My hairdresser - in her mid twenties - is horrified that I still iron and she doesn't own an iron!

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  24. I hadn't realized that Emily was close enough to school to be a commuter student. You've done a great job of giving her a solid foundation; now it's time to see what she does with it.

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    1. She lives on campus. She doesn't drive, and it's a a good hour from her mother's house.

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  25. I'm surprised and concerned about Emily. I hope she continues college. I don't know how to iron, except in an emergency and then I can only kinda sorta iron.

    Love,
    Janie

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  26. What a wonderful fence ! Great sewing room for you and Laura. I hope Emily makes the right choices in her adult life.

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  27. I haven't ironed in years funny thing i did like ironing but when I was given things to reiron because the family hadn't hung them up or stored them I put my foot down and said you want it ironed you do it yourself.
    Merle............

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  28. Thank you, Joanne, for answering my question about the quilting. It's good to know that Jan's work continues. I make quilts; wish she was closer. Thanks, too, for clarifying what goes on with Emily. Living in a dorm is a good thing---at least for me it was. Maybe the college environment will keep her life on an even keel. You gave that girl many real life lessons. She may not value them now---even though she did make that little speech to you! She will always know you did your best for her. No matter where she goes.
    Thank you for being a conduit of many values I share with you. You are a plus in my life. Today ---especially today! ---I appreciate that. It seems that we are in the minority big time!

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  29. Strange. I have been folding shirts like that w/out a board. Maybe someday Jan will get to iron and shirt. Here is hoping Jan is learning much during her independence.

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  30. Sorry that Emily moved out, but glad that Laura is pleased with her sewing machine. The main thing is to be happy.

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