Oh, wait. Blankets. I was going to write more about blankets.
This started around the time I went off to college. I had a work study job (hence, disposable income, although a paltry amount--$5.40 an hour doesn't add up quickly), and a bed to clothe, and no closet full of blankets and sheets with which to clothe it. I quickly discovered that I loved buying bed stuff--sheet sets, pillow cases, quilts, comforters, you name it. I started with two sets of ticking-striped cotton sheets, then added a flannel set for the winter. I found a sewing pattern for pillowcases and starting making my own. I spent a whole year quilting a homemade cover for my comforter. Cutting out all the pieces and sewing it together was a long and tedious process, but I loved my dorm bed that year. Coziest thing ever.
When I moved into my first apartment, I inherited my grandparents' old maple bed frame. Since it was a double bed, I had ("had") to find all new linens. I bought a new comforter and some fancy sheets (I remember discussing thread counts with my roommates). And kept going from there.
These days, I've got a spring quilt, a summer quilt, a fall/winter quilt, a yellow quilt for the couch, a wool blanket for the green reading chair, two duvet covers, a mountain of pillowcases, and almost half a dozen sheet sets. It's ridiculous, I know. But a warm bed is synonymous with home and comfort for me. I like nesting.
Unfortunately, our apartment is far too well-heated for such things. The radiators are irrepressible. I grew up in a house heated by wood stoves--a romantic, but relatively ineffective, method of heating, especially when your room is in the attic (as mine was) and the wood stove is on the ground floor (as ours was). So blankets were essential to winter comfort.
Luckily, with the New England chill right outside, we're still able to recreate the wood-heat experience occasionally by opening the windows at night to let the cool air spill in. Wasteful, I know, but we can't control the thermostat--it's set for the whole building. And it means I can pile the bed high with blankets, just as it should be.
________
In other news, for all you Jane Austen lovers out there (my sister and I actually call her J.A.): Did you know that PBS is playing adaptations of all her novels in January? At least, they are here in Boston. I saw an ad for the series today, accompanied by the Cowboy Junkies cover of Sweet Jane. Ha! A network after my own heart.
