Fresh Flannelette

I just love the smell of freshly-washed flannelette sheets that have been flapping about on a sunny washing line. They smell so good. For me, that cottony smell always reminds me of my Oma. When we used to sleep at her house as children, Oma would make up the trundle bed next to hers, with clean flannelette sheets so tight and smooth that when you slid between them you felt like you could hardly move. I loved it. We never bothered with top sheets at home, just a doona, so it was something special to have the bed made up all nice and neat at Oma's house. Fancy.

Speaking of flannelette, I thought I'd share a frugal homemaker's tip with you: if your old sheets are getting thin in the middle, snip them in half lengthwise and hem those raw-snipped edges. These will be your new outer length hems. Then sew the two original outer length hems together to form your new sheet centre seam. Good as new!

I wanted to share a few memories of us kids at Oma and Opa's house when we were little, especially for our family in Holland, who faithfully check my blog each day. (Sorry I've been slack!)

I used to love playing with her box of curlers.

Lunch was always an anticipated event with our favourites being "Oma's Soup", "Oma's Chicken" or Chinese takeaway. That's David and baby Ben down there.

And here we are in one of those dorky family photos everyone has, in front of the "bush house". Oma's house has hardly changed since then. I think you would remember that Oma and Opa built it themselves, bit by bit. They lived in a tent for the first year or so, then one room, then gradually the little house came together and it's still standing, solid as ever.

I'm having trouble with this post. Not sure what to write. There is so much I could say about Oma and Opa and all their stories, but I think I'll save that for another day. For now, I'll just be content to enjoy that flannelette smell!