21.7.08

If I were materialistic...

    My mother told me that, before we leave for Colorado at the end of this week, my room has to be completely spotless.  I'm not exactly an Adrian Monk but I like to think I can hold my own in the world of the neat and tidy.  My mother does not agree, though, so this past week has been a reenactment of The Scouring of the Shire.

    In going through my mass amounts of stuff I have acquired over the years without bothering to throw any of it away, I have found a plethora (tee hee) of cool things.  Since I'm trying to avoid the narrows of my room located in the closet (it takes more courage than I have to try to brave that mess) I think I'll list said cool things here.

10 - Nick Vujicic Wall Calendar
       Nick is a man who was born without arms or legs.  He has an amazing and inspiring life story you should check out...but I digress.  I got this calendar in the mail as a thank you for being part of his online group or something.  It has pictures (like this one) of him on tour around the world sharing his story and the Gospel of Christ in a way that only he can.  There is one picture of him in an airplane overhead compartment that I wish I could post here, but I can't find a copy of that online...

9 - My sister Fairies
      Every year, my family goes down to my grandmother's lake house in the Ozarks (of Missouri, in case you didn't know).  We stay there for a week in the spring usually, and while we're there, we try to visit this small, scenic town of Eureka Springs, where there are all these little shops (any man reading this just sighed and scrolled down, saying, "What is it with women and their 'Little Shops'?") filled with awesome stuff, like Moonglimmer and Delphina,
bought on two separate occasions, from two different Faerie Glen collections, but they look so much alike, I dubbed them related.  Sadly, one of Moonglimmer's wings broke off, but I'll glue that back together today.

8 - Crazy + creepy owl-shaped lantern
      When my grandmother moved out of her enormous, old house, the whole family made a summer of going through all the hoards of stuff she had there, deciding what to keep and where to keep it.  I was lucky enough to snag a few Boxer figurines, my uncle's old art project, and, among others, this tin lantern.  This was back when I was still going through my Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, magic and wonderment obsession, so this little number fit right into my style.  Several years later, I found it (in a similar room-cleaning period) and stuck some dried flowers in it's head, thus refitting it to my style.  Let this be a lesson to you: I may be a pack rat, but I have a talent for it.  Some might call it a spiritual gift...?

7 - A purple felt scarf with the phrases, "do you KICKAPOO?" and "Think before you Drink" on it
      The High School youth ministry at my church does a winter retreat every year called "Blast."  We go to Camp Wonderland and spend a weekend competing with other "house groups" (a.k.a. high schools) and worshiping God.  Two years in a row, my small group of about ten girls found ourselves in a wonderful little cabin called "Kickapoo."  Several hundred jokes ensued.  Camp Wonderland is a wonderful facility, maintained by the Salvation Army, complete with working bathrooms and good cafeteria food, but sadly, it's well water is not one of it's high spots.  My grandmother's (aforementioned) house in Barrington ran on well water, so I'm not a novice at the taste...but this was no well water I had ever experienced before.  It smelled like sulfur, thus earning itself the affectionate title, "egg water."  

6 - Dried flowers in ten IZZE bottles
      These exceptionally photogenic bottles make for great decorations, in many fashions.  Try it yourself!  I have dozens of these things filled with flowers all over my room.
      Most of them aren't really bubbley, but when I first started my collection, they all were.  Most of them came from Cost Plus World Market (my all-time favorite store), but some have deeper stories, like the trip I took down to China town in the city with my mom, and Buddha Tree lights from a shop in a town near Denver, CO, and plastic lobsters from my aunt in Rhode Island...

4 - Pirate Ship made out of cards
     My best friend and I have the hardest time finding gifts for each other because we know so much about the other person that there's a bottle neck of ideas...most of which don't really fall into an acceptable price range.  But one year, for my birthday, she came over, bringing with her a kit to make a ship, and we spent two hours putting it together.  One of the best birthdays I can remember to date.

3 - The complete, unabridged Shakespeare Collection
     I got this for Christmas one year from a friend who found it in a second-hand book store for ten dollars.  Considering the excellent condition it's in, and the prices similar pieces are going for, ten dollars was as close to the five finger discount as anyone was ever going to get.

2 - Silly Putty 
     a.k.a. God's gift to mankind as an apology for the rubik's cube
     Given to me by the above Shakespeare friend (who happens to be Jewish), this little guy has brought me hours of entertainment (total, not consecutive...I'm not that simple-minded).  Sadly, I have to turn him off when the above pirate ship friend comes over because her high-pitched laugh makes him go off every couple minutes...and though he is pretty awesome, he can get annoying.


So that's it.  Contents of a Dead Woman's Room.  Now I have to go slay the monster that is my closet.  What can I say?  It's a tornado's world; I'm just cleaning up after it.



<3 spadeALLcross

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