Hope Chest: Packed Up and Ready to Travel

Hi everyone. This has been an extra hard two weeks! I've been scouring closets and making a huge mess. I've been trying to gather up all of Miss Abigail's hope chest to take it to Arizona where Abigail and Jacob will live for the next couple of years. Abigail is getting married on Saturday! I can't wait. But it has been so emotional for me to see this project come to an end.

Actually, it may not end, haha. I am going to throw away all my kitchen towels and make new ones for myself. And new bath towels! And maybe a quilt for our bed. So there are still some posts planned for the future, but I'm not sure where I will go with the blog. We will have to see. I certainly have had a lot of thoughts about hope chests and am still excited to discuss the subject.

But...here is a picture of the pile of stuff. The actual hope chest is on the other side of the room, waiting to go into the back of the truck, but you can still see the auxiliary hope "chest of drawers." There is the stuff from her closet too and from under the bed, haha. She will have some sorting to do. What an exciting time - the culmination of an 18 year project!

Graduation - Associate Degree from Eastern Arizona College

Miss Abigail was born into a homeschooling family. Not all homeschoolers plan to go to college, but that was always the possible plan.  When you are a homeschool mom, you hope your children can get into college and manage to keep up. You hope that you could do at least an adequate job and I just crossed my fingers that it would be enough. My last little chick proved she could do it. That makes four out of four! Hooray! Abby had to work pretty hard to make up for my deficiencies and I am just as proud as I can be of her accomplishments. Now on to nursing school.

We observed her "virtual" commencement ceremony last night - her name was flashed on a screen! But here is a beautiful picture and I love that wide smile!

A Peek Inside - Beautiful Crocheted Tablecloth

This lovely hand-crocheted tablecloth is a gift for Miss Abigail from Jackie Mitchell, another older friend to Abby from our ladies club. Jackie was a close neighbor for many years before she moved to Oklahoma and this extraordinary gift came in the mail soon after she moved. Jackie wanted Abigail to have something from her in the hope chest. What a wonderful friend.

The tablecloth is large - about 60-inches, so it will work on a regular round dining table or as an accent topper on a smaller table. I love the ornamental pineapple motif - symbolic of hospitality!

Table Runner with Crocheted Trim

I finished this neutral colored table runner to use for simple everyday meals and it would look great under an easy buffet meal on the kitchen counter. I used my own pattern for the crocheted lace - here is the photo tutorial for the Scalloped Net Edging.

This runner also matches the Granny Round Soup Mats for a fun winter soup party.

Blue Denim Napkins

I love these napkins! DII French Stripe Chambray - set of six. I ordered them online and I'm very pleased that they match the blue and white tablecloth so well. Blue colors can be so variable and I was taking a chance on a match. They will also coordinate with a neutral tan table runner that I am still working on. I'm crocheting a lace trim on both ends, so that may take me another day or two to finish. I ordered these napkins from Zola.com and I am pretty happy with the quality. The weighty fabric has a generous hem and a mitered corner that will hold up well to fancy folds! I washed the napkins and there was very little dye run, so these are now ready for Miss Abigail to use everyday.

Blue Paisley Napkins

This morning I finished these six very simple blue and white paisley cloth napkins. The fabric matches the blue and white tablecloth and the set will look pretty with Miss Abigail's classic white Corel dishes. I just cut the fabric to size (18-inches square) and made a turned hem. The finished size is 15-inches square.

When Money is Scarce

When money is plenty this is a man's world. When money is scarce it is a woman's world. When all else seems to have failed, the woman's instinct comes in. She gets the job. That is the reason why, in spite of all that happens, we continue to have a world. - Ladies Home Journal, Oct 1932

I wonder if you agree with this quote. Of course things have changed enormously since 1932 and I am watching my children as they share responsibilities within their marriages. Each is a partner to the other and their individual contributions are enormous. I do think though that some women have an instinct when it comes to creating a home on a strict budget. It might have been learned however. I wonder if this instinct still survives.

Economists in the news are predicting a new, frugal future for many Americans. In 2008, during the last major recession, many Americans were fearful that economic conditions would linger and a wave of thriftiness made discount chain stores, thrift stores and dollar stores way more popular than they had been previously. This frugality has continued and, in recent years, there is a resurgence in learning homemaking skills including mending, of all things. Craft channels and cooking channels on YouTube flourish. Young women, particularly, have learned how to sew and embroider, cook and make their own cleaning products and entertain more at home.

Teaching Miss Abigail homemaking skills has been a big part of what I have called the "hidden hope chest." When I look at the list of skills I created many years ago (which you can see if you scroll down the sidebar) I'm pleased at how accomplished she has become in all of these topics. She is honestly an amazing young woman. Yes, I admit to being completely biased. We worked at this for so long and some skills have necessarily been put aside when she left home to focus on other priorities. But I can see that she continues to learn new things that will bless her family in the years to come. For instance, this semester she enrolled in both a musical conducting course and an emergency first aid course and was chatting to me recently about what she was learning. Sadly, she won't receive credit for the first aid course as the hands-on aspect could not continue when the classes shut down, but much of the knowledge is in her hands now. I'm grateful for that.

The current pandemic has already revealed both the weaknesses in our personal preparation for at home stability and the strength of our ability to be creative and frugal. Let's hope we all have the traditional instinct to create a comforting home in spite of loss and struggle.