This morning, I’m still feeling like somebody hit me in the head with a 2×4. I will therefore today pilot my desk, catching up the banking and accounting, proofing The Gathering Edge, and pursuing the laundry.
As hard as it was getting (almost) everything shifted from the old house to the new, I’m very aware that that was the Easy Part. Wouldn’t do to run out of energy now.
In other news, and on the subject that what is old is new again. . .one of the things that I brought to the household when Steve and I decided to combine our resources was a Lane cedar chest. I can’t imagine that I actually bought my own cedar chest when I was in high school (there was a Big Promotional Push aimed at high school girls from the furniture store in town — all the girls of course had to start their Hope Chest in eleventh grade), so I’m going out on a limb and saying that I had the chest from my grandmother. It is, in any case, rather old, and scratched, from long and close association with cats.
For the last many years, the chest lived in our bedroom, holding blankets and comforters and the occasional wool sweater. However, the new bedroom is smaller than the old, and there’s no room for the cedar chest, which then fell back into my honor.
I put it under the side windows in my office, to the Vast Delight of Belle, promised to buy it a cushion, and that was the last I thought about it — until yesterday.
You see, for all of its many charms, my new office has no closet. And while a lot of what used to be in my old office’s closet have been usefully redistributed to other parts of the house (notably, the closet in the Tech Room), I still have some things with me that could benefit from being put in a closet. I was dithering over these things yesterday, and sat down on the cedar chest to mull over the situation, when it hit me. I slowly stood up and stared down at the cedar chest, realizing that what this was?
This was A Big, Empty Box. In fact, it is a place to put things that could benefit by being somewhere which is neither the floor nor the bookshelves.
Here’s a picture of my new closet:
Everybody stay dry.
Nice! I started making and collecting things for my hope chest back in 5th grade (a pair of embroidered pillow cases and embroidrred tea towels).
Ive never achieved ownership of an actual hope chest.
My bedroom is also too small for such an item.
You call that taking the day off? That’s still work (in my opinion).
By the time I was in college/grad school, the ‘hope chest’ became a girl’s First Apartment. At least the first one on her own, no roommates. Anyway, kudos on keeping your chest. I’ve got a few old footlockers from the days when my family was posted all over by the State Department. Those things hold just enough to still be somewhat easily carry-able. They’re pretty small, compared to your chest. I don’t think Belle would approve unless I stacked two under a window so she could see out.
All I ever got was a mini-hope chest. It did make a nice jewelry box and smelled nice.*lol*
I still have my mini-chest from Lane. It was my first jewelry box. Nice to know the company gave these to so many young women.
I have the cedar chest that belonged to my mother. Can’t say I’ve ever used it properly but every once in a while I’ll open it just to inhale. Best aroma ever!
My Mother has a cedar chest..I know it has been in the house as long as I been alive. She will be 97 in a couple weeks. This beautiful chest is not just lined with cedar but made from it entire. I think she had it from the 1940s when my folks set up housekeeping.
My Mother has a cedar chest..I know it has been in the house as long as I been alive. She will be 97 in a couple weeks. This beautiful chest is not just lined with cedar but made from it entire. I think she had it from the 1940s when my folks set up housekeeping.
Yes, the one I have is a cedar box. They don’t make ’em like that anymore…
That chest is so beautiful! It reminds me of my mother’s, which went to my older sister. Now, my mom never had any trouble getting things out of it, because it was in the back bedroom, and leaving things lying on it was no temptation. But such a thing in my office? “Never pile forever” is not where I’m strongest. Sooner or later, opening it would become a major undertaking. You have all my admiration.
That’s a beautiful cedar chest! I have one my mother had, that was in my bedroom. It’s in the other house (the house she lived in the last few years of her life, now our guest house and weekend house for our son’s visits.) And I have one made for me by friends of ours because I was going to be married and didn’t have one of my own. It’s got sweaters my mother knit me, that no longer fit. I keep hoping for a miraculous shrinking in me, so it’s still a hope chest.
I have my mother’s cedar chest. My paternal grandfather made it for her, a beautiful piece of furniture. It was made from local cedar that I believe was cut on the farm.
I also still have my little Lane chest that I use as a jewelry box.
I still have my small Lane cedar box which I think I received when I was a senior in high school (1967-68). I never had a cedar chest though but would love – and could use – one now.
Now all you have to do is convince Belle you occasionally need to get into the chest.