Treasures

We had such a nice day today with a wonderful message at church that really spoke to my heart. Since we had missed last Sunday, D gave us his ornament he made in Sunday School today. Please forgive all the blurry photos as my camera was not cooperating....but Grandma's like to see blurry grandsons too! :-) The photo is inside and he painted the reinderr on the outside. PRICELESS! Our kids have really awesome teachers.

Tonight we are going to watch One Night With The King on TBN. It was recently in the theaters and I didn't get to see it. It is the story of Queen Esther. It is based on the Bible story of course and also this book which I have not read, but may depending on how I like the movie. I'm looking forward to this. Two are asleep and one to go...it will be *almost* like a date! LOL

Yesterday I wrote about going through storage. I didn't mention that I sorted through lots of pillowcases and linens from my Grandmas Hopkins and Johnson. When I get my new camera this spring I want to photograph and document everything. We are not really in a situation where I want to use them in every day life, but I may in the future. My Grandma Hopkins was excellent with crochet. She crocheted in filet crochet, the spinstress above. You can see it is stained, it was on the back of a chair, used as an anti-maccassar...I couldn't find that in Wikipedia for you, but maccassar was a hair oil used in the 19th/early 20th centuries which left a stain. People made crocheted, sewn or other hand-crafted "doily-like" items to place where the head hit the chair, to protect the upholstery. It was much easier to replace an anti-maccassar than upholstery!

Anyway, it was used all my life and maybe my Mom will give some input as to how old it might be. It is very fine and evenly crocheted and I am not 100% certain Grandma crocheted it. If it was not her it was her mother. Grandma graphed out the pattern for me. It's in a huge format of graph paper and I need to get it down to size a bit. I want to share it with my friend Melissa and I want to make it for myself. But in the meantime, I would like to know what the best way to clean this is. I would like to clean it and then I was thinking of mounting it on a piece of burgandy velvet that is left over from Shelley's maid of honor dress (in my wedding) and frame it so that I can look at it all the time and it won't get further damaged. I am not sure how to do this either. I would love to have any suggestions if anyone has experience in preserving antique linens and handwork. This is a treasure I do not want to lose!

Happy New Year Everyone! See you in Blog Land in 2007!