Tiny Laundry tip - spinning bulky items in a top-loading washing machine...

 Late last year, I purchased a "Muddy Mat" bed for my dog. It is made from microfiber chenille fabric and when I wash the cover, it becomes very very heavy and nearly impossible to balance in my top-loading washing machine so that it can spin and not go "clunk...clunk...clunk..." I washed it last night and when I got up this morning, it was completely waterlogged and extremely heavy. What to do... what to do.... It suddently came to me! Here is a picture of the kind we have.  That is not my dog.

Most of you that have an automatic washing machine probably have a "front-loader" but I do not. Mine is a top-loading machine.  I took the soggy mass and carefully (as carefully as I could manage) draped it OVER the agitator in the middle of the machine. I closed the lid and set it to "drain and spin." It worked perfectly!

By the way, if you have been following me, you might wonder how I am doing. I am doing well. I miss my husband terribly, but I'm okay and looking forward, when it's my turn to go, to be with him again. God bless all of you!

My boy, "Loki."

 Now that I live alone, I have one dog, and two kitties. This one is called Loki. He is roughly 4 years old and came from a shelter. He's such a sweet boy, AND an excellent mouser

Tiny Tip - threading a sewing machine needle...

 

The older I get, the harder it is for me to see well enough to easily thread the needle on my sewing machine. I have found something that truly helps. I just take a tiny piece of white paper and hold it behind the eye of the needle and then it is MUCH easier to see.  

Re-post - Button Lamps in case your power goes out in the coming storm!

 

A Button Lamp

I just ran across this picture... and wondered if you have ever heard of a "button lamp." Many years ago, we got this idea from one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books called The Long Hard Winter. These are easy and fun to make and if you ever find yourself with no electricity, no candles... nothing to make light with, please remember this! All you need is a small glass dish or saucer, a button - not a plastic button, but one made of shell, glass or wood, a small square of cotton fabric, a piece of string and a match to light it with! The reason you don't use plastic is that if the flame contacts the button, you will have a cloud of toxic and not very nice smelling fumes coming off of it.

Cut your cotton fabric large enough to wrap tightly around the button and use the string or thread to tie it on, leaving the little pointy ends sticking up. Then, put some sort of oil or fat (Ma Ingalls used axle grease I think!) into your dish... don't use very much. You don't want to drown the flame. Put the wrapped button into the fat and get a little bit of it on the "wick" and then light it! This makes a very satisfactory light in an emergency.

One time, many years ago, the power went out. The children got busy making button lamps. We had several of them (more than we needed!) lit and happily giving light to our home, and then of course the power came back on! We were sincerely disappointed!