Spring Cleaning on a very blustery day...

"Winnie the Pooh - A Very Blustery Day" by Peter Ellenshaw

The crazy weather continues here in the South - tornado warnings and 70-degree temps yesterday, heavy rains in the night and high winds dropping the mercury into the 40s today - and it is indeed a very blustery day! That makes it the perfect Saturday to stay indoors and really earnestly start Spring Cleaning. My bum leg is much better, and to keep it that way I'm taking breaks or doing some sit down projects -like pulling drawers out of dressers and cabinets and placing them on the bed to sort, weed out, and organize. It feels so good to start out with a total jumble and end up with something clean and orderly! Along the way I've uncovered several items I've been trying to find for ages, and have been diligent about putting in the Garage Sale box things that I no longer need to hang on to just in case when someone else might find them more useful and I can make a little "pin money" in the process.

OK, inquiring minds want to know - where in the world did the term Pin Money come from?! According to http://www.sacklunch.net Catharine Howard, wife of Henry VIII., introduced pins into England from France. As they were expensive at first, a separate sum for this luxury was granted to the ladies by their husbands. Hence the expression "pin-money." - learn something new every day, huh?!

However, after cleaning out my jewelry drawer I certainly have quite enough pins already. Costume jewelry is so much fun (and so much more affordable than the real thing) and thanks to my Mimi who believed no lady's ensemble was complete without hat (and often gloves), "ear screws", pins and bracelets I have lots of her jewelry to wear and enjoy today. Added to that are some pieces from my other grandmother, lots of my Mom's 50s and 60s baubles, and more I couldn't resist at department store or vintage store prices.

But I digress... break-time is over and it is time to get back to the task at hand. Now that the dresser drawers are tidy the next thing to tackle is the guest room (which currently looks more like a storage room!) So it's off to put more CDs on the stereo (going through my series of Celtic music at the moment) crank up the volume and clean, clean, clean!! Now where is that dust cloth??