What Matters Most

#smilingontheinside – Saturday 12 July 2025

It was an absolutely stunning day first thing – beautiful blue sky to the west – which made it hard to comprehend the Orange Rain Warning forecast. I was very definitely #smilingontheinside when Alan said he’d join me for my morning walk today.

A total surprise was having to crawl under a fallen tree – completely uprooted in the overnight storms. This is the first time in all my walks where a tree has fallen across any path I’ve been walking. Other fallen trees have been in the distance, deeper into the park fields. Given I stick to formed tracks and pathways and don’t cross grassy fields, I don’t usually get up-close-and-personal with fallen trees.

Sadly, this tree had come to the end of its natural life, naturally. It looks like it lost its footing – you can see its toes!

Weekend Van Projects

Because of the weather warnings in place, we decided to spend this weekend working on the van, not in it.

The beds are non-standard size, which means the sheets are too big. Not only are they hard to make, if there’s one thing I really don’t like it’s saggy-baggy bottom sheets. The plan is to ‘tweak’ the sheets so they fit.

Which was one of those simple in theory, hard in reality things to do.

Trestle Table Set Up – Lounge Turned Into A Test Centre

We set up our 2.4m trestle table to lay the mattresses on to make it easier to work with and see what I was doing.

On the list of bed linen to resize:

• mattress protectors – too wide
• fitted bottom sheet – too wide
• flat top sheet – far too wide
• duvet cover – far too wide for the duvet inside

Mattress Protectors

I jigged the mattress protectors – pinning and stitching – so they’re not saggy-baggy and don’t scrunch up (technical bedding term!) under the bottom sheet.

Fitted Bottom Sheets

Sorting out the fitted sheets fit though… man! Simple but not easy!

The mattresses are shaped. The bottom corners are angled. Instead of being rectangular like a regular mattress, they have five sides. One side is very short. All of this is so the bedroom can fit snug into the ensuite.

[I say ensuite because our van is more of a two-berth, than three or four. Therefore – IMHO – the toilet and shower are more of an ensuite, than a bathroom].

Back to the fitted bottom sheets – I decided on two darts for the small edge. Alan held the sheet taut while I cut off the elastic. Then I cut apart the four corner seams of the commercially made fitted sheet and reformatted them for our van’s mattress.

One sheet took absolutely hours. And I have three more to do. Originally, I was just going to have one set of sheets for the van; laundering after each “away”. But I’ve since decided – because of the wet foul weather this week just gone – that having a spare set will enable the van to always be ready for an “away” at a moment’s notice.

Hopefully the second and subsequent sheets will be faster.

I’m particularly pleased with how I enclosed the raw seams. Not only do they look prettier – even though no one sees them – they add structural integrity and strength to those edge seams which are stressed when pulled down over the mattress during make-up.

Top Flat Sheet

The top sheet is also too wide, so it needs a strip cut off one edge. Otherwise it reaches almost to the floor. I haven’t yet worked out how this is going to work but I want to turn the top sheet into a semi-fitted sheet at the bottom.

Bed making in motorhomes is quite an art and a workout. The end result is they’re not made very well (IMHO). I noticed I was pulling the top sheet up (when I was in the bed) trying to make it flat and taut. Which pulled it out at the bottom.

I want to (somehow) turn the top sheet into a bit of a sock, so it stays tucked in at the bottom but is still free at the sides. I don’t want it to become a sleeping bag. I think a gusset is required. I just don’t know how that will work or look. Yet!

Breakfast

I don’t usually eat breakfast, but this morning, after our walk together, I decided to join Alan: toasted fruit loaf.

The Weather in My World on Saturday 12 July 2025

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Here’s to my morning walk with Alan…

Here’s to being able to sew…

Here’s to stitching – literally – more memories into the tapestry of my ordinary married life to make it extra-ordinary.

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Here’s to SmilingOnTheInside!