Dishes For My Hopechest!

Good grief! I wish I could think of a different way to begin a post than "Hey Guys!" But, that seems impossible. I'll try though....hmmmmm....

G'day Mates! (uh-uh.)

Salutations! (whatever.)

Anyway, this is Rachel, and I was just getting on here to write about how much I love thrift stores! The Lord blessed us extravagantly at the thrift-stores yesterday! At Salvation Army, Wednesdays are half-price day! Yay! We escaped from school-work to go to The Beach and shop! :) Anyway, among alot of clothes, I got a set of dishes for my hopechest! They are so sweet and pretty and just fit my vision for my future home so well! I want to decorate simply and with old-fashioned taste- lots of sunlight, flowers, and cool, calm colors... sort of the Tasha Tudor, New-England, country-Victorian feel. You know? Anyway, for only 30 dollars I got 7 bowls, 7 dessert plates, 7 dinner plates, a large platter, and a cream pitcher. Here are a couple of pictures!

These are a couple of the dishes! Aren't they sweet?

This is detail of the pattern on a plate! I just love them!

Now the only things I must gather to make it perfect are a blue and a green tablecloth! :) I can just imagine eating dinner with my family and washing up the dishes afterwards and thinking back to the day when I, as a 17 year old young lady had packed them away with so many glad hopes....!!! It is a very cozy thought! :) -Rachel

When Once I Catch The All-Illusive "Someday"

I thought that I (Rachel) would do a post about something that is not about our daily life. So, to entertain you, I thought that I'd tell you some of the traditions I am going to start, or continue with my family, once I am married. (Of course, if my husband agrees! :)

Name each and every house I live in- There is something so very quaint in naming houses! Who can resist being intrigued by the name "Gusty Gables" or "Brookdale" or "Allencroft"? So, each house I live in will have a name, and I shall refer to it by that name when speaking of home. We have not yet named our land or house. But I am determined to do it with my own someday. Old-fashioned? Yes. But I am an old-fashioned person!

Make sugar cookies for each season- Mama has instilled in us a great love for the many times we have made fall, spring, summer, or Christmas sugar cookies. We have so many cookie-cutters in every imaginable shape!

Read to my children- I greatly look forward to reading real books to my children! I can just imagine us all sitting by the fireside, several rosy children at my feet and a deliciously fat baby in my lap as I read them "The Little Princess" or "The Hobbit" or tell them a story I have made up! I am convinced that children will learn to listen to and enjoy whatever you read to them, as long as it is made interesting by changing your voice for each character, etc. I read Gracie (3 years old) chapter books all the time!

Sing all the time- This shouldn't be hard. I always do it naturally, but I want to teach my children to do it also!

Have frequent tea-times, and always have something in the pantry to have with the tea!- This shouldn't be hard either! I have lots of china I have collected!

Taking walks, and having picnics spontaneously- Is it really that stressful and difficult to throw the lunch in a basket and run out into the sunshine? I think not!

So anyway! These are just ideas I have had over the last year or two! Hope somebody enjoys reading about them! -Rachel

Sarah's Hopechest

Hey Everyone! I know I haven't posted in awhile, but to answer Matthew and Oliver's comments, we did state that we'd leave the last post up through Saturday, and Oliver, since there are 2 of us, it's logical that we'd post twice as quickly as most people. Well, this is about my hopechest so I shall begin.

In our family, the girls get hopechests when they turn 13, so I've only had mine for 2 years, and don't have as much stuff collected and made as Rachel.

Here's my Stereoctograph and slides, which I'll explain below.

This is a sampling of my book collection. Among them are

"Letters to Children From Beatrix Potter", "Nurse Matilda"

and a hard-cover volume of the Narnia series.

And this is my antique collection. I got the stereoctograph from "the laundry fairy":)

The books from left to right are "Bowser the Hound", "Jo's Boys", a better condition copy of "Bowser the Hound" (this book is one that my mom used to read to me when I was little), and "Eight Cousins".

So these are my dishes I have. 2 stainless steel bowls, mini bear pans, cup and tsp. measures, themed cookie cutters, a glass pumpkin jar, 4 painted china plates, a china set of salt and pepper shakers, 2 of my 6 crystal plates, etc....

These are my cookbooks, recipe boxes, potholders, and dishclothes.

I crocheted the dishclothes and all the potholders are homemade too.




This is my hopechest. Dad did all the intials on the top.

So there you go! I hope you enjoyed the pictures as many of ya'll have requested that we do more!

-Sarah

My Hopechest (Rachel)

What does the word "hopechest" put you in mind of? For me it conjures up images of pretty young women making and gathering things to put aside for their future home, weaving dreams into the pillowcases they are embroidering, whispering prayers with each stitch in the lovely quilt that they hope to someday keep their family warm with. It really is a chest filled with hopes. I find it interesting that it is called a "hope-chest". I do not know for certain if it will be God's will for me to get married, but I still hope to, and am working towards that goal. So, for awhile I have wanted to do a post about mine. Ever since seeing Meredith's post on hers. Now, since I am only 17 I don't have such a nice store put away, but I have a few things worth taking pictures of :)
Okay. My style is a bit interesting, because I can't exactly pinpoint it. I'd say it's a mixture of New England cottage style, Victorian Country, and English cottage. For example, I want to have old wood floors, quilts, antique-looking furniture, a cast iron stove, etc., but I'd love to have a dolled up Victorian parlor. Outside I'd like a big, wide, porch, a bloomy orchard, an herb garden, and a cottage garden. Whatever. I'm sure it will be lovely. :) So here we go with the pictures from my hopechest that our camera was very obedient in taking!






So this is a picture of an assortment of pans I have. A few mini bundt pans, a big bundt pan, and a couple little bear pans.




This is a really neat shortbread pan I got for my 13 birthday. You press the dough into the pan and then bake it. When it is finished you turn it out and the design is raised on the top! :)




This is an assortment of things for my kitchen: a set of iced tea glasses I bought this summer, two potholders that I made out of material someone gave me, a couple of china plates I got for my 13th birthday, some candymaking supplies, and a couple of stainless steel bowls.





These are some books I've collected and enjoyed. My favorite illustrators are Tasha Tudor and Beatrix Potter, and I also love Ernest H. Shepherd. (He did the Winnie the Pooh books)I have collected these in hopes to share them with my children some day!





Another passion of mine is antique books! Here are several I have collected. Sarah actually has made me envious by posessing a really old copy of Jo's Boys, and Eight Cousins by L.M. Alcott! I love old things!






Here are my aprons. I hope to collect more! An apron is a uniform for a mother! The pink and white one I was given for my 13th birthday, the blue plaid one I made by hand so I don't expect it to live through a single washing! :) My Grandmama gave me the white one for Christmas last year, and I made the green one out of material left over from an apron I made Katie for her birthday!





So this is my leaning tower of Pisa stack of dishcloths. Some I have crocheted, some others knit or crocheted for me. I have 21 I believe. Now, some girls try to get everything in their kitchen coordinated, but I just think that no one is going to be prowling around my sink trying to see if my dishcloths match my curtains! Then there are two hot pads that Maryanna made for me, two baby bibs I made, (they are only lacking velcro to make them finished!) a baby doll quilt I made, and a pillowcase I made. (Also out of hand-me-down material. I crocheted the lace for the edging).





The first of these is a really old hand-embroidered handkerchief. The woman who gave it to me said it was her great-grandmother's, and she is in her 50's so figure that out! Then the second was my Christmas gift from The King's Daughter. She tatted the lace to go around the edge! The third is a handtowel that I painstakingly embroidered all across the bottom. It was a thorn in my flesh for over a year, and I finally plucked up enough courage to finish it this spring. Needless to say it will see more service in being decorous than in being used!





And here are just a few of the many issues of "The Girls' Gazette" that we have published ;) since around 2004! I treasure these things and cannot wait to show them to my daughters!

There is a funny story about my initials that Dad carved on the top of my hopechest. Ask me sometime and I'll tell you about it! So that is the majority of what I have in there! There are some dolls, sketchbooks, old letters, journals, and a china cabinet full of china, along with various and sundry things like a poem I wrote for my husband to read on our wedding day, a dialog I made up for Sarah and I, my first jewelry box to give to my daughter, etc. Well, as you can see, there is still much to collect for my future home, but I love what I have so far!