Winter is coming

I hate the fact that somehow summer passed me by. Here we are, counting down to winter again. Gah!

Last winter was hideous. Just hideous. This year I've decided to give up on the "dragging of furniture from one room to another" to deal with the switch from summer warmth to winter ice and then back again once spring comes. It's not like I have tons of company here that I need to be set up like a parlor with fancy furniture. Out goes one of the couches and in comes another twin bed, so each downstairs room has one.

Someone is one their way to look at the couch/chaise now. Nope--Update, it's sold! That was fast!

To take care of the cat fur before the chaise went to its new home, I used this handy Pledge Fabric Sweeper on the left in this photo:

They are pricey: over $20! But they can be emptied and they live forever as long as you don't sit on yours, so they are worth the money. I seem to recall I had a huge coupon for mine and purchased it back when they were first introduced. It's several years old and still going strong.

While moving furniture around, I discovered the cats had been at my thrift-store velvet chair! Ack! I had picked up what I thought was double-sided sticky tape strips at a conference, but they turned out to be Fresh Kitty plastic corner protectors (on the right in the photo above). They are barely visible, and I'll let you know if they work, since they also are an investment.

With the money from selling the chaise, I'll purchase another twin mattress (very carefully) on Craigslist. It won't be a good one, but whatever bed I'm not using will just be a pseudo-couch anyway.

I already picked up a second bed frame for $25 when Debra took me to visit Crooked River Co-op in Waverly, where we hope to one day have a booth (or booths) to raise money for rescue work.

The bed is a little chewed up around the edges because the actual head and foot boards are just press-board, but the room is so dim I can't even tell, now that it's set up. If I find I'm sleeping in one room more than the other, all I have to move is the good mattress from one bed to another, rather than swapping the couch and the bed back and forth.

While Debra was showing me all the wonderful antique and thrift stores in downtown Waverly, I checked off two things from my list of things I watch for.

I've been watching for this nut-grinder for over 30 years! It's just like the one my Mom has (or had--does she still have it?). Hers is a different green, but it is the niftiest little thing. When we were too little to actually bake, Mom would let us grind the nuts with this, since it was virtually impossible to hurt ourselves with it. I've been chopping nuts by hand all these years because everything else I've found has been too expensive or too ungainly. And this was only a buck! I hope seeing it makes my Mom and my sisters smile.

Now that cold weather is coming, I also drink more tea. My current teapot holds too much for just myself flying solo. If I make a half-pot it gets cold too fast. If I make a full pot I use two teabags, which is a waste. So I've been looking for a cheap but cute smaller pot. I certainly wasn't looking for cat-shaped one, but when Debra took me across the street to the The Red Door, there it was!

Rattling around thrift stores was merely secondary to the real purpose of visiting Waverly. First and foremost, to pick up my little Molly dog after I returned from work travel. Second (and cutest--sorry Molly!) to visit the new kittens and a rescued mom cat. More to come!