I was able to grab an hour and start joining the squares for the rag quilt, but first, they needed to be ironed. I use a simple spray bottle when I am ironing and I started thinking about my grandmother’s “sprinkler” (on left in photo).

Sprinkler

This bottle always sat on top of her refrigerator. It is one of those items no one else in the family regarded as having any value, so I was lucky enough to end up with it. My grandmother was born in 1910 and lived to be 98. She got married in the middle of the depression, and for 3 months, she and my grandfather lived in a tent next to an old chicken coop that he was making over into a tiny house for them to live in. He had lost his job, but she was working (progressive woman that she was), and left for work every day from that tent. This must have seemed luxurious after that:

002 Chicken Coop 1933

Like so many people who went through the depression, she was an expert at reusing things.  This sprinkler bottle is an example. But she also was not one to use a plain bottle when it could be made beautiful. Underneath that paint is a plain brown bottle, but you can only tell from removing the top and looking inside. Her home was filled with examples like this. and old chair that she painted with flowers and vines, a cute hanging vase next to the sink  to hold the twist ties she always saved, even her dustpan was painted. Her life was a constant reminder to me that just because something is utilitarian, it does not mean it can’t also provide some beauty in your life.

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