2010, Blue Velvet, and Friendships
Posted by Monica Stanton on January 10, 2010
Happy New Year! It’s a great time for new hope and new dreams. Out with the old, in with the new!
Personally, I started out the new year feeling ready to tackle anything. Having spent most of the holidays away from home, I decided make a turkey dinner for my family of four with all the fixin’s on January 1st.
Our family tradition each Christmas season is to watch the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” with James Stewart (makes me teary each time). We’d been so busy we hadn’t done it, and the first night of the year was a great night to do it. With all the hustle and bustle behind us, we would have a quiet night at home. I had been defrosting a half turkey in the frig the day prior, and all was a “go.”
A dear friend called me that morning and asked if I and my son were available for a day trip to the beautiful Santa Ynez valley with her five sons. We decided to invite her and her six children, ages 4 – 17, to join us for dinner. She was happy to accept, as her husband was out of state working, and we could celebrate the new year together.
I hung up the phone, pulled out the half turkey that had been defrosting since the day before, and quickly realized we would NEED MORE TURKEY!
I called the health food store, and the only organic whole turkeys they had were frozen. They said they could start dripping cold water on it. The butcher told me this is the fastest way to defrost a frozen turkey while it’s still wrapped up, faster than any other method. “Sure,thanks,” I said, “that would be great! I’ll be right over to pick it up.”
Eleven seats were set at the expanded dinner table, cranberry sauce made on the stove, giblet broth made for the organic stuffing. As I continued to check on the turkey, I realized that perhaps I should have continued the “cold water” trick for defrosting rather than unwrapping it too soon. It wasn’t defrosting as quickly as I anticipated, and it was getting late.
Well, the turkey took an extra 45 minutes to cook (should have kept it under the dripping water longer!), and my gracious friend eased my embarrassment by happily suggesting to have the first course of salad, start the movie while the turkey cooked longer, and then break for dinner.
It was a great night. The boys had a fun laser tag time in the dark backyard, the patio Christmas lights and campfire, with two teen daughters and the little boys enjoying themselves, were beautiful. Dinner was delicious and we ended the movie sprawled about with blankets and pillows.
As the joyful, warmly bundled people on the screen finished singing “Auld Lang Syne” to their friend in need, George Bailey, I watched tearfully and savored the last few moments of a warm, angelic sleeping young boy on my lap. My youngest is 13 years old, so this was a special treat. My dear friend looked at me and thanked me for a lovely evening, and proceeded to get up with her sleeping angel when… “Huh…? Why am I wet?” she asks me. Then slowly, there was the realization that I, too, was wet, and our angelic sleeper had shared his warmth with us in a more literal way. My two down sofa cushions with blue velvet covers were soaked in angel urine!
We were all so tired, and all my friend could do was laugh nervously, apologize, and offer to take them to the cleaners. All I could do was think of how in the world I was going to solve this problem without the traditional chemical warfare. I didn’t know if professional cleaners could be trusted to do things naturally. I wish I had been more gracious in assuring my guest it would be okay, but I was also tired, and all I thought about was my friend should get her young children to bed, and boy, have I got a challenge ahead of me.
After our goody-byes, I wearily got online to look for solutions to cleaning the velvet cushion covers safely and naturally (ours is a beautiful deep blue). Years ago we ruined my daughter’s beautiful velvet dress, and I could not afford to ruin my couch. “Velvet is delicate and can fade and shrink if washed in liquid – must be cleaned professionally,” was the online consensus.
First thing next morning I looked for a “green” professional cleaner. I found one that answered their phone and appeared to answer my questions regarding petroleum chemicals, toxicity, and health needs satisfactorily. “One week,” I was told. They would be ready by January 8th, late afternoon – I needed them by the next morning 10 a.m.
Next: tackle the cushions. One was really drenched and smelled terribly. Well, my dear friend called that morning after and, after a night’s sleep, had recalled her experience with urine on mattresses. She told me to spray the cushions with water and bury them in salt for 48 hours, which would draw out all the moisture.
So I went to a warehouse store and bought a 25 lb bag of salt. It may sound simple, but finding the right container and having enough salt to “bury” two sofa cushion corners is challenging. After attempting various approaches, quibbling and failing, my husband and I just covered the corners with a thick “crust” of the salt, and hoped for the best.
I waited two days, brushed off the salt, and then applied the same treatment with baking soda to further remove any trace of odor – per my friend’s experienced advice. After three more days of waiting, I took my Kirby vacuum cleaner and gave them a super vacuuming using the main vacuum head and brush, not a hose extension. I was pleased, and got an upper body workout at the same time (heavy vacuum cleaner, but my old faithful did the trick!) No odor! I can do this!
January 8th. I went to the “green” cleaners to pick up the covers. I almost walk out the door, but decide to inspect them first. One still smells like urine. An “expert” comes out from the back room, confirms the problem, and tells me it is best to treat urine with liquid cleaning. “Why didn’t you advise me of this when I dropped the covers off?” I ask. “Well, liquid cleaning might fade or shrink velvet,” is the reply.
Okay, so we’re back to “The covers still smell like urine.” “What do you suggest?” I ask them, as I so want my “green” cleaners to have a proven and safe cleaning solution. “Well, we have this deodorizing spray that works very well, and it will dry by the time you get home.” “Is it natural?” I ask. “Yes, it’s really good,” I am assured more than once. I again explain that we have health concerns and fumes and chemicals are not something we can tolerate in my home. “It is very good and will be dry by the time you get home,” he assures me.
So I decide to have them spray both, so they look the same. They return from the back room with the sprayed covers, and to my dismay, they are soaked and have this overpowering perfume. “They just don’t get it,” I think to myself. “This world is so steeped in chemicals, they just don’t get it.” Did you know that an article in Popular Science last fall stated that your chance of inhaling a gas released inside the home is 1,000 times greater than if it were released outdoors? And these chemicals can be a threat to your wellness. Phthalates, for example, are used often with synthetic fragrances and are big health hazard.
Gingerly carrying the wet items to the car, I lay plastic in the back of my van, open all the windows so the smell doesn’t permeate my car upholstery, and drive home wondering why I trusted in these people. I place the covers outside on patio chairs, as they are not yet dry, and the odor is overpoweringly toxic it gives me a headache.
My friend calls, and when I tell her about this final hurdle which seems to have destroyed all prior attempts to keeping this cleaning job natural and healthy, she says, “Oh no! That stuff just sticks to your furniture. It’s disgusting, and won’t come off. Cover it with baking soda overnight and vacuum it in the morning.”
Well, my wonderful husband had just finished making us a nice steak dinner (organic, grass-fed, yes we love our beef once a week), and our hungry family was settling in to have dinner and a movie together. I just spent $32 at the cleaners, a week of disarray on my couch, and my covers still smell like urine. I have to go to the warehouse store and get more baking soda now, not later, because I have business guests arriving in the morning! Okay. I can do this and still keep a positive attitude. Remember, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
My headache returns just from carrying the covers to the garage. I left the smell of a warm dinner and got in my car, managing to get only a little – not a lot – grumpy. I drove to the store, got 12 lbs. of baking soda, prepared a table in the garage, covered all cover panels with baking soda (can I buy stock for Arm and Hammer?) and postponed the family movie. It still meant I was up until 1:30 a.m. prepping for our brunch and business meeting just a few hours later. If my cushions are covered by a blanket, so what? My guests will understand.
Well, today is January 9th. My hubby left early in the morning for the bakery and brunch last minute items. I get up at 8:00 a.m. and dust off the covers as best I can, pull out my 13 year old Kirby vacuum cleaner and go over each cover. Then I cover the cushions with them and vacuum some more. The baking soda mess is still in the garage……tomorrow. I sweep and mop the living room floor from the mess. Cushion are back on the couch by 9:15 a.m. All the while I wonder if I can get my $32 back…
Our guests arrive and my dear friend is among them. She sits on the couch. “I don’t smell a thing, Monica!” YES!
We have a great brunch meeting, and I’m tired and content. After they leave, I jump into bed and take a lovely two hour nap. I mean, Lusciously Lovely….
As I blog, my darling daughter has prepared a spaghetti dinner with salad, the table is set, the movie is ready to go, and I’m hungry. As I digest my delicious meal I happily recline onto the “clean” cushions to finish the night’s entertainment. As the aliens discuss peace treaties on screen…could it be?…Yes, I’m lying in a clowd of perfume, that headache-producing synthetic fragrance… the cushion covers need to come off again for a longer baking soda bath… I can do this…
If I could re-do my New Year Day dinner, would I change a thing? Well, maybe the turkey thawing part and the cleaners. But I now have this memory that will bond our friendship even deeper, and we will be able to laugh about it for years. Plus a sense of accomplishment that I’d cleaned the cushions back to a natural and safe, comfy clean.
The little sleeping angel owed me one anyway. Just a few nights prior I’d come over to his home for a similar dinner/movie night. When the boys answered the door, I gleefully said, “Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!” and proceeded to tell them I had a bag of gifts and fireworks. Well, I was only kidding, but this precious little boy had run into the kitchen, and I overheard his small voice tell his mama that we were going to have fireworks. I felt terrible! So it was payback time.
Not only that, but as I was helping wash the dishes at my friends’ home that night, I’d chipped her beautiful turkey salad bowl. She graciously told me her bowl looked more antique-y. And she was infinitely gracious when the turkey wasn’t cooked on time. Now you see why I wanted to clean the cushions myself rather than have her take care of them.
I’ll let you know how the cushions come out. In the meantime, keep working through those hard, awkward moments with your friends and family, as that’s what brings deeper relationships and joy into your life later on. As my friend once told me with the words embroidered onto a pillow, “A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself.”
Happy New Year, and God Bless You!
