Along with heated seats and mirrors, my Audi has a heated steering wheel option that I love. Both the seats and steering wheel heat almost instantaneously. Although it's not as cold here in the PNW as some places, I love having a warm steering wheel most days/mornings of the year. I also wanted a back up camera, as I'm always delivering and picking up my grandson from school and those little ones can be hard to see walking behind the car. One feature I hate about this car, though, is they placed the bright headlight indicator on the lower left side of the instrument panel and, even though I'm not particularly short, I cannot see it without raising myself up to peer over the steering wheel. Not the wheel, but the center spoke/bar of the wheel; it hides the indicator. My good fried with a newer Volvo SUV says the same is true in her car...she can't see the indicator without lifting herself up to see over the wheel spoke. It also has the radio controls on the center console, so if you bump it or set your purse on the digital station settings, it whacks everything up and you lose all your presets. It's obvious that men engineer all these vehicles as the features are often not female user friendly.

We raised our boys near Kalamazoo and lived there almost 30 years. I'm still part owner of a cottage on Gull Lake and will be going back this summer. Love it except for the humidity.. As a 2nd grade teacher, use of the hand to explain geography was very common. I don't think anyone has mentioned Sleeping Bear Dunes or the wineries and small towns of the Leelanou Peninsula with their small towns. There's great local fish and yummy pies, but I can't remember the name of the place. Sorry.

I save all plastic bags and give them to my sister to crochet mats for the homeless. She can use any that's he can cut loops out of including toilet paper ones if you open the ends instead of tearing down the side. I takes 5 or 600 bags to make one mat. she can also use dry cleaning bags, .like I said it would be any cylindrical bags. The mats are 6 ft long and 2 1/2 feet wide and have a carrying handle and loops to hold them together when they carry them. I save bread bags. I use those for all kinds of things. I guess o got that from my DM. I have just started using worn out socks for rags. My DH goes through socks fast. I use single slippers for on my Swiffer. I saved the bottom part of my old litter box and cleaned it up really good and use that for soaking clothes in OXy CLean. I also save twisty ties. I have some of those nut jars too. Mine had fruit in them at the restaurants I cooked at. Here is the big one. I save almost all of the glass jars that I get. I use them for canning. If they have the rubber inside of the lid they work. I like the small ones, so if I want to give something to somebody They don't have to return the jar. I always make pickled beets and give some away. I boil the lids just like I would Kerr or Ball lids and fill the jars and screw them on tight. I had one jar that wouldn't work once because the lid wouldn't tighten. It just kept turning. I just made sure I used that one first. then I threw it away. I also put other things in them

I assume you have the sofa that was upholstered with the 18 yards. If so, how long have you had it? If it is new, I would spray it with Scotchgard to protect it. If it is not completely clean, then this might not help so much. Here is some good information on caring for velvet. Personally, I have avoided velvet upholstery, although I do have velvet drapes and pillows. Velvet that is 79% poly 21% viscose should resist color change or fading - the viscose could fade if exposed to sunlight. Part of that depends on what color it is, as some colors fade more easily than others. Polyester is generally fiber dyed (if the fabric is a solid color), and this type of dyeing is very stable. The problem with polyester (especially velvet or chenille) when used for upholstery is that it can create static cling, depending on what you are wearing when you sit on it and what the soles of your shoes are. I'm not sure you need the extra 10 yards, unless you want to make matching pillows and/or covers for the arms and/or back of the sofa. I generally do put covers on the arms of my sofas, as they tend to get dirty more than other areas of the sofa. It is good to vacuum velvet upholstery regularly, using the brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner - or you can use a small hand-held vacuum.