Tag: collections

Vintage Friday

Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! On Fridays, I discuss the tactile stuff that is fun to eat or to drink or to smell, or to hear, or to read, or to wear, or to touch, or to play with! Lately I have been feeling really sentimental for the toys I played with when I was a little girl. I’ve even purchased a few things on eBay. I tell myself, “Won’t it be fun for my future grandchildren to play with the toys I used to play with?”, but I think it’s more than that – I think my inner child is reaching out. There is something comforting about remembering being a child, and being in the moment, not a care in the world, just using our imagination. Below are some of my favorite toys from childhood. What were your favorites?

Barbies, Dawn Dolls, Liddle Kiddles, Rosebud dolls, Sea Wees, Inchworm Riding Toy, paper dolls, Holly Hobbie dolls, Sunshine Family Dolls, Honeybunch Hill Kid dolls, Bionic Man and Woman dolls, Wonder Woman dolls, I Dream of Jeannie Playset, Wizard of Oz Dolls, Big Wheels, Baby Chrissy doll, Mrs. Beasley doll, Chinese jump rope.

As I started growing out of toys, my sister (who is five years younger than me) really got into Strawberry Shortcake dolls (she particularly loved Blueberry Muffin) and Cabbage Patch dolls and never one to sit quietly, she LOVED her Sit-N-Spin.

Anyway, take a trip down memory lane today, and look up some of your own favorite toys on the internet. This will make you feel that happy/sad syrupy feeling of nostalgia. It will bring all sorts of feelings up to the surface, but in a good way. It will make you feel like a kid again.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

823. What vegetable do you hate? (Don’t say “all of them” – just because I advised letting yourself be a kid again, doesn’t mean you get out of eating your vegetables!)

I Miss You

Hello my dear friends and readers! I miss you. I am in one of the most beautiful, peaceful places which I have ever been on this Earth. Particularly on this trip, I have come to realize that there is a lot of “stuff” in my life that I do not need, nor do I miss, but writing my blog and communing with my readers, definitely goes on to the column of things which I miss a lot about my daily routine at home. You, my treasured friends and readers, and my writing of Adulting – Second Half on a daily basis, are right up there, (along with our three precious fur babies), on the list of Things That I Most Miss About Home. I also forgot to bring perfume on this trip and I LOVE perfume. And I am currently writing this after a full day of hiking and touring and swimming and riding for hours in a stuffy van, and so honestly, right now, my perfume is number one on the list of Things That I Most Miss About Home. (Kidding!) You (and our puppies) are definitely what I miss the most, while I am away with my family on our vacation. But right now, perfume is a close, close second.

Despite reflecting on the fact, that there are so little material things that I really do need, to make me happy, and also, realizing that it is my life’s adventures, and the memories that come with these adventures which are truly my most cherished possessions, I still can’t help myself. I buy schlock. Above is one of the pieces of schlock that I just had to have as a souvenir from my current trip, because to me it represents our family – me and the five people whom I love more than life itself. I bought this trinket because it represents yet another amazing family adventure to me, and it will serve as a reminder of our shared laughs and our shared wonders and shared joys and even our shared sorrows. Mostly, it reminds me of our shared deep, unrelenting care and love. In short, this goofy souvenir makes my heart smile, and it will for years to come.

We have probably 1000s of pictures from this trip, we have shared family stories that come from this trip which will undoubtedly last in our family lore for years to come, but this silly little kitschy dust collector, will represent all of that for me, in just one glance. I must remember this the next time I rummage through an antique store, or an estate sale. A lot of the things that we have in our lives mean so much more than the inexpensive materials that make them, or their relatively insignificance in the way of daily practical usage. Symbols and signs represent the meaning which we find in life, in simple and yet in profound ways. Religious and spiritual places are full of symbols and signs. Is it possible that my silly, googly-eyed souvenir is sacred? It is to me.

Some day, perhaps when I am long gone, someone will pick up this funny little figurine and pitch it into the garbage or they will sell it for a dollar in a garage sale, and they won’t realize it’s true significance. They won’t realize all of the love and wonder and happiness and peacefulness that it holds. They won’t hear the heart beating in it. And that’s okay. It will transform into a new form of the energy that it forever holds. The souvenir’s form never really mattered anyway. The love and the memories that it represents will never, ever go away. And that’s what makes this little rock family, one of the most beautiful things that I have ever owned.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.