You ever have one of those days?

Before I get to the point of this post, let me share some Cute-ness. She was quite happy this morning.  I thought this looked very "first day of school", even though I never had Guess as a kid.  It was probably partly because Guess jeans are not cut for a Pennsylvania Dutch body (at least not the female body) and because, in 1987, $60 was A LOT of money to spend on a pair of jeans. But on her, they look adorable. I told her I would be brave if she could be brave and we went to school.  And then I had to kiss her and tell her to have a good day, and I lost it. At least I got out to the car before I started sobbing, but I probably looked stupid, running out of the daycare.  If only she'd been asleep, it would have been OK.  She spent most of the morning asleep, she drank 9 oz of formula, and, when Left-brain went in to get her, she was in the jumpy chair, asleep.  Exercise wears her out.  Hopefully tomorrow will be easier.

I decided to clean up my side of the garage in order to distract myself, since I was watching TV, and a baby cried on TV and I got up because I thought it was my baby.  Left-brain took care of most of it, which makes sense because most of the mess is his stuff. But I seem to have developed amnesia because there was a HUGE tub of cross stitch magazines I was not aware existed.  And, yes, I uttered a curse word when I opened the lid. More out of shock than any other emotion.

There's a line in Sex and the City where Carrie states, and I am paraphrasing here, she has no savings because she prefers to keep her money where she can see it, and spent it on shoes. I know I have quoted this line before, usually jokingly, but seriously, in addition to the boxes upstairs, and the ones in the corner, and the tote bag of stitching magazines, and the half-full box I knew about, this one was there. Not only do I keep my money where I can see it in a bad investment, apparently I hide it from myself  and then deny to myself it exists. But, there it was. I decided to go through it, take out the ones I thought I might stitch from in the near future, and then consolidate boxes, to at least get an idea of the proper size of the collection. It really wasn't too bad. Most everything from that box and the one I knew was half full fit together in one box, I put the kits in the other box, and have the charts to go into binders or chart boxes.

One of the things I am grappling with, though, is the fact that so much of this has been in the garage, un-noticed, un-cared for, and unappreciated for a long time. At least two years, but there is a stack of magazine boxes in the corner that I haven't opened since I moved in. I know one of the basic things they tell you in organizing is that you should get rid of things if you haven't looked at them in this long. Does that apply to craft supplies?  As I was pushing the one now-full box of magazines back into position, I kind of wondered if I could use them all as the basis of a master's, since I have enough to qualify as an expert and, hey, it would be nice to be a "masters" stitcher, right?  A little stupid humor, forgive me. But, I know myself well enough to know that I would not be happy getting rid of them either.  This probably does mean I am a hoarder . . . doesn't it?  I joke about this, but part of me does wonder, how bad of a hoarder would I be if a professional actually looked at my stuff?  At least it's in boxes and not on the floor. I did tell Left-brain when we move, that big box is going to be a killer. He thinks I am fooling, I am not!

And the crazy thing, I STILL HAVE NOT FOUND the LK Flip-its I rebought in the fall of 2010 and lost. Not that I lack stitching projects, but where in the HECK did they go?  And why can't I find them? I'm a stitcher, not a squirrel, and these are charts, not acorns!  They didn't get buried. I remember them being in my old computer bag, but they are not there anymore.  This is the second time I bought them, second time I lost them. I have been through every box in the house and they are not there. Wierd wierd wierd.  I am going to rebuy them and stitch them one at a time, so that I don't lose so much.  Strange, hunh? 

I also found a box of books that had disappeared, among them Little Heathens, which I was reading when I first got together with Left-brain. It's a great book. I know, I don't often recommend books on this blog, for the reason that I know my opinion on books isn't well-schooled and not always in conjunction with the rest of the world, but I really do like this book and am going to re-read it now that I re-found it. I now have a good supply of books to get me through the fall, by shopping in my own garage. Didn't even need Goodwill for this!

If I could just find those Lizzie Kates . . .