Rehabbing Baskets

The two baskets I thrifted last week look pretty clean (and I'm careful about checking out what I want before I buy), but I still like to give them a clean before I use them. Both are made of natural fibers (wood and rattan) so it's not a good idea to get them wet or immerse them in any manner.

First I spray a towel with Lysol cleaner and wipe them down inside and out to remove any dirt.

Although the baskets don't smell, I still spray them with disinfectant spray and let them sit out in the sun for a day or two. After that they should be fine to use. I might line them with fabric or just use as they are.

When you're thrifting baskets condition is everything. Along with how clean the basket looks check out how sturdy it is. You may find a few broken pieces (my rectangular basket had one small broken piece inside) but if they don't make the basket rickety you can trim any jagged ends with scissors (for thicker materials, tin snips work well.)

One thing all brick and mortar thrift stores seem to have is a ton of baskets, and I love them because they're cheap storage and project containers as well as nice gift holders. If you take them time to clean them up then they're just as handy as the much pricier ones at the craft stores.

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Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Store Closing Haul

The mega Books-A-Million store over in Sanford is closing, and offered an extra 20% off on their current stock -- all sales final -- so I went over to do some shopping. Safely but sadly there was no one in the store but me the entire time I was there. The Holly Jackson novel is for Katherine, the Halloween board book is for Oliver, and the copy of Garden Spells is to keep on hand because I give that book to everyone. The rest of the books are for me. I love Anne Cleeves, and the Galbraith novel sounded interesting (the first couple weren't, but I'm willing to take another chance.) The Escape Room is by a new-to-me author, plus it was cheap. The GreenCraft mag is just a guilty pleasure. Hopefully the smaller BAM nearer to me won't close. I don't buy many books from brick-and-mortar stores these days, but that's really the last one within reasonable driving distance.

Valerean

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