Brrrr

I thought of another reason why I'm not getting much sewing done. At least not upstairs in my sewing room. IT IS COLD UP THERE!

Somewhere in this house is a very small electric foot warmer that I remember using last year in my sewing room. It fits under a desk and blows warm air out and it does keep the lower legs warm. Not so great for the rest of the body and it is too small to heat the whole room. That's beside the point because right now I can't find it. (Where do things go in this very small house?)

I have heard that houses in the northern part of Japan have excellent insulation and with a small amount of heating the whole house stays warm. Not ours. I sometimes wonder if there is any insulation at all in our house but Tetsu says

"Well, what do you want to do? Knock a hole in the wall to see? That is sort of defeating the purpose."

He claims we have insulation but at the same time he complains that he can't sleep at night because of the cold.

Our living room, dining room, kitchen area is kept warm by a kerosene heater that does a fairly good job. All of us, animals and humans vie for the closest spot next to the heater in the mornings but it will heat up the downstairs (brace yourself for any trips to the bathroom though.) No heat upstairs at all except for the little one I can't find. None of us go upstairs much (oh, but Vel has his own electric cat heater that he sits on. He seems satisfied).

Today in the sewing room my fingers were freezing up and aching as I sewed and I could hardly grip the pieces of fabric. Going slightly numb? This is ridiculous. Go look for that little heater. But I haven't found it yet. What I did find were some hand warmers that leave your finger tips free but add a layer to the rest of the hand. Without these I might have to resort to sewing with gloves on!

So my problem is temporarily solved, at least until I finish the Jewel box quilt. Or I find the heater. Or spring arrives. Which do you think will come first?