Sylvia would look in my freezer and say "you better do something with all those berries. You have nowhere to put anything." And she would be right. Since we've downsized the freezer in the effort of doing a better job of inventory control there isn't much room. And she'd remind me how easy it is to make jam. Okay, so it's a little time consuming - but it is easy and the results can't be beat. Nothing in it but rain, sunshine, love and sugar. And what better gift than a little homemade love?
Sylvia always had a suggestion for quick and easy ways to take care of all the myriad little things around the home. "All you have to do is... " and truly, it would be a quick and easy idea - if you didn't already need more hours in the day. "A little silver polish would clean that right up." Generally it would be something that had fallen way to the bottom of my priority list, but should I ever have time to tackle that particular thing, it'd be the first thing I'd try. But now and then there'd be a real 'no-brainer', like using knee high stockings to catch the washer lint (cut in half that way you'd get four out of a pair) instead of spending more money on other things that do the same thing but don't last as long.
Mom had a creative streak and could wallpaper a bathroom with contact paper in an afternoon and you'd never guess it was contact paper. She could make a Barbie raincoat out of a shower cap (it survives still) or use a pill cup and a tiny perfume bottle to make lamp for a dollhouse. One year we gave her one for a gift, and she created a peg-and-groove hardwood floor in it with a ruler, a small nail head and hammer and a tin of shoe polish and a rag. Someday when Sister has a shop with walls and a door that dollhouse will be on display, along with the tiny things she made to go inside it. Of that, Sylvia would smile and say "Let's play!"
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