Hopeful Homemaker

Vintage Tablecloth: Pink Roses

February 4, 2010 jennifer Linens

Today’s tablecloth is truly lovely in every way. Yes, it’s completely pink, and I love it.

The roses go in one wide border around the entire cloth. It measures 68 by 51 inches.

It has a small tag on it, which reads California Hand Prints, which I’m thinking might mean that it was hand printed when it was made. The cloth has a few stains on it but it is just so lovely, and such a yummy shade of pink.

One of my favorite details about it is the white pattern that goes around the outer edge of the roses. Very subtle, but adds a lot of beauty in my opinion. When I purchased this tablecloth online years ago, I didn’t realize it had this white pattern until I received it. I was so pleased!

When I walk into a room where I’m using this tablecloth, it’s always the first thing I see. It’s the perfect touch of happiness on a winter’s day.

3 comments Linens, pink, vintage

Monday Morning Messes

February 1, 2010 jennifer Musings on Life and Beauty

Does your house look like this on Monday mornings?

Sometimes I’m amazed at how much recovery my house needs after the weekend. But then, sometimes it needs it every 2 hours. Toys, shoes, socks, games, castoff items from school backpacks…

Whenever my house looks like this, I try to remember a quote I read as a new mom many years ago. It’s lengthy, but worth reading. Let me share:

“Trying to look at clutter with more spiritual eyes taught me two things. First, I tried to understand the nature of clutter itself — what does clutter represent? What things do we regard as clutter? Toys played with and not put away, dirty dishes to be washed, coats not hung up, books read and not put away. Toys, dishes, clothes, books; children, food, warmth, intelligence. Clutter is a by-product of life being lived. Clutter is a mirror reflecting some of our sweetest blessings. Go ahead — look at this mess. Look at this beautiful, wonderful mess. Thank you, Lord. Now let’s tidy up.

“The second thing I learned about clutter is what it is not. Unlike the spiritual qualities of purity, order, and beauty, clutter is temporal. The word temporal is closely related to another word: temporary. Clutter and dirt are temporary. Order, purity, and beauty are permanent. Always there. Always to be found. Sometimes quite buried but there nonetheless. Pick up and wash, and there they are. They were there all along. As spiritual principles, order, purity, and beauty are not only true, but they are also attributes of God himself and of the god-nature within us. As we pick up the clutter, wipe away the dirt, and beautify our homes, we are allowing those attributes freer expression. When we clean, order, and beautify our homes, we bless our homes, and our work becomes a holy work, a work that can feed our spirits and sustain our souls.”

– Joan B. MacDonald, from The Holiness of Everyday Life, Deseret Book Company, 1995, p.20-21 My wish for you this morning and every morning: May your spirit be fed as you take care of the evidence of your greatest blessings: family.

Have a great day!

Jennifer

3 comments parenting

One Step Report #4

January 31, 2010 jennifer One Step

Well, this week yielded 57 steps, for a total of 194 steps this month! Wow. I feel grateful to my Heavenly Father for helping me find so many positive things in my month. I am grateful for a baby that seems to be back on her normal sleeping schedule, which is a very good thing for all of us. I’m also mourning (yes, a bit of melodrama here) the loss of my kindergarten carpool this week. I drive every day from now on. The mother of the boy we carpool with has a new job and can no longer help drive, so I’m going to give her son a ride home for the rest of the year. I’m happy to be of service; unhappy to have to load everyone up every single day. This is my second straight year of kindergarten, and that mid-day pickup is a killer. Oh well.

A few highlights of the week:

Finishing my valentine ribbon pillow . It was fun and I’m pleased that I completed it on time.

Today I taught a workshop to a group of people in my Stake on the subject of food storage. This is my other project, which I haven’t touched since the baby was born. It went really well and I feel pleased with the results. I’m also planning to jump back into working on the 10×10 blog . I’ve got a lot of recipes to add.

Tonight we measured our kids on the board we use to mark and date everyone’s height periodically. Now I have proof that I am still taller than my oldest son! It’s always so much fun to see how much they’ve grown, and to me it’s another small piece of our family history. The experience somehow turned into a contest to find a way to be taller than me, and so we ended up standing in a big circle and all jumping as high as we could at the same time, over and over again. So silly, but fun and funny too. Thank goodness I can jump higher than my 12 year old! I’m pretty sure that in the next year I’ll have to acknowledge him as being taller than I am, so I’m enjoying my small advantage while I can (and wondering what it will be like to look UP at one of my KIDS… that seems so strange).

I spent a bit of time getting started on organizing our basement. So far to go, but a start is a start.

I switched a couple of things around in my living room (things only I would probably notice) but they make a big difference in my opinion and I’m pleased. I may post more on this later.

This week I started photographing my collection of vintage linens with the intent to have a fun little catalog of all of them. I’ve wanted to record them for a long time, and this seems like the perfect way to do it (and a chance to learn how to take better pictures). The first two are here and here .

Well, that’s about it. I felt rather grumpy this week, which isn’t good. Most of the time I was able to swallow it, but a couple of times I was a real grouch, and I’ve apologized to my family for it. For some reason I felt like the month was ending, and I had somehow fallen short. I look at my list, though, and realize how foolish it was. I planned for 31 steps, and took 194. That is something to celebrate.

Have a great week!