i learn something new every day

this morning i was reading my Real Simple magazine and i learned something new. did you know that the little strawberry on the tomato pin cushion is filled with sand, which can be used to sharpen your needles and pins and will also help remove any rust on your little shiny things?

neither did i! what a tiny bit of information that is, but i know i'll never forget it. it made me think of my sewing kit. it's a small wooden sewing box that belonged to my grandmother. the box still has old fashioned wooden spools inside, some still bound with silk thread. i don't know how old it is, perhaps 80 years old? each time i take it down from the shelf, sit on my bed to repair something, i think of grandma memories as i sew. funny thing is, they are never about sewing. They’re usually how she taught me to play gin rummy for nickels and dimes. whenever i would walk to her apartment to visit we would always end up sipping coke and playing gin. at the end of the afternoon i would always leave with a little fistful of coins. it took me years to figure out that she let me win, which was her way of indulging me...letting me think i had outsmarted her of her coins that day. i guess she outsmarted me.