I adore getting my hands dirty. Raking leaves, mulching, tying up plants and pruning. I feel the same indoors too. Doing laundry for example. Weird? A friend recently said, ” Happiness is hugging a big pile of clean laundry.” Go on, you know it, at least once you’ve stuck your nose in clean clothes and taken that big inhale. The inhale that gives you pause. Pause -a good thing and hard to come by.

                          Perfect

When I began the process that led to the creation of Paola pillows, I investigated many things- including printing, fabric and insert fills. Finally, we settled on an all cotton sateen cover, with fiber reactive printing and a feather/down fill-itself encased in cotton- the inserts are removable. For very specific reasons.

We don’t think twice about washing bedding, right? I’ve found out that people treat decorative pillows very differently- almost as throwaways. Oddly, many very expensive throw pillows can’t be washed. You can spot clean (well, that never works!) OR, you can dry clean. That smell isn’t even close to freshly laundered.

My pillow covers are permanently printed, removable and washable -so they will always give your nose that fresh clean smell. And by the way, we don’t apply soil resistant finishes to our pillows either. You can read about some of  those finishes that aren’t so great and why that might be: Two sisters on an eco-mission blog.

I enjoy all kinds of music. This week, people were rocked by the passing of both David Bowie and Alan Rickman. For myself, not so much. They had very full lives- more than most. Life is short. Those of us still caught up in the rat race had better warm up to the basics. ( I include myself) Get your hands dirty. Invest in some “slowdown activity” somewhere in your life. Working with my hands has that effect on me.  Pick something you can do with someone you care about. Like cooking or making music. Or listening to it with a friend. Lately I’ve been drawn more to country rock and duets. The personalities and their stories. Real life. In that vein, try this one on: This is Us, performed by Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) and Emmy Lou Harris live from 2008.

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