Between The Sheets

I'm a linen whore. There, I said it. I love linens such as bedding, towels, placemats, tablecloths that I'll never use, curtains, doilies, hankies, etc. When I go to Goodwill or a thrift store that's usually the first thing I look for.

I also love hotel sheets. I love their high thread count softness and the way they layer a comforter between 2 flat sheets. I don't know why that makes me happy but it does. I've tried that at my house but it doesn't work well since we can't use a down comforter because of my allergies and the down alternative ones just aren't the same. Besides, Jayson gets too hot during the night so I try to keep our bedding as light as possible since he has so much trouble sleeping. That might sound magnanimous but it's really not since I'm narcoleptic and can sleep in pretty much any environment. Except if my feet are too cold or too hot. That's the only thing I've found that will keep me awake at night. The rest of my body doesn't matter but my feet must be at the optimum temperature or sleep will never happen. Hence my unusually large collection of slipper socks in various weights and fabrics.

Another thing I love is sheet washing day. I don't love washing the sheets but I do love putting the beds back together. That might be weird if all of our beds had one set of sheets and a matching comforter, but none of our beds have that. I've finally collected enough thrift store bedding so that I can mix and match sheets and blankets and coverlets so that the beds never look the same way twice in a row. I love that.

Taylor's bed doesn't have very many options but it's her bed and her responsibility so I don't even count that one. The bed in the art room has limited options because it's the only other full size bed in the house besides Taylor's and I'm still collecting linens in the right size for it. My bed and the guest room bed have the most options because they're the same size so that's what I buy most often. And I finally found a set of sheets that I like that will fit the air bed, which is queen size, so that one will have options soon too! I love having options. And lots of linens.

Here's my bed this week. I don't have a lot of pillowcase options yet because we recently switched from king size pillows to regular ones. I don't use a comforter or blanket on top anymore because I'm going for that hotel sheet sandwich thing only with blankets in the middle instead of a comforter.

I also need more fitted sheet options for our bed. I have several but these chocolate brown ones are the only ones whose pockets are deep enough to keep the corner from popping out on Jayson's side which has nothing to do with the extra weight on that side of the bed. I'm sure. The top sheet is from a pretty pink and white striped set that my mother in law gave to us. Under that is a matelasse that has a grease stain on it from when we took it on a car trip and it got slammed in the door. Oh well. Then there's another sheet, a thermal blanket and the final sheet. Sometimes I'll add an extra sheet or two just because.

The guest bed also has assorted layers of sheets and blankets as well as the king size pillows that we don't use anymore. I have a thick set of sheets on there that I got at Overstock.com and usually save for the winter but I'm using them now since our last house guests nearly froze to death. I used to make fun of how my grandmother's house was so cold it felt like a morgue. Now that I understand middle age hormones, I live in the morgue too.

This pretty sheet is my most recent thrift store find. It's soft, it has a beautifully embroidered border and it was $3.

This is the bed in the art room which doesn't change much. I don't have enough sheets to make a sheet sandwich for it so it just has two blankets and one sheet for now and I feel kind of bad about that. The bed belonged to my paternal great grandmother, my maternal grandmother made the little dutch girl quilt and the toys are from my childhood. I need to add something of my mother's since that generation is missing then add something of Taylor's. That would be cool. My paternal grandmother made the rag doll whose name is Mary Jane. The pink elephant is Linda and she was my all time favorite toy. The pink possum is Penelope and I just rediscovered her when I cleaned out some boxes that were stashed in the attic.

Although I adore lots of nice soft sheets, they're not just for the bed. I'm still working on my rag rug which has sheets as well as other scrap fabrics. Plus I'm also collecting sheets to use to recover my sectional couch. That's an ambitious project for me so I will likely be talking about it for quite a while before I actually do it. Bed sheets may seem like an unusual fabric choice for that, but I have a plan :)

I'm also collecting sheets, and will need lots of them, to make some rag curtains similar to this:

{Via}

Mine will be more neutral colors with some vintage floral fabric and sheets thrown in as well as some strips of lace. And I will hang mine over a window like a curtain instead of in a doorway. So you see, I'm not buying excessive sheets just for the heck of it. In fact, I've got a long way to go and should probably quit wasting time and go get some more sheets right now.