Wednesday, December 10, 2008

What to do with all that stuff....Or at least a part

Moving was like going shopping, but for my own things. For years we'd lived in either small condos or houses, which made it difficult to even unpack half of our stuff. Knowing that we'd never afford buying all those items back, we decided to suck it up and just have a bedroom "of stuff" and a garage that was well-packed to the gills. Once I had a chance (and there's still about 5 or 6 bins to tackle) the majority of the items, I realized there were still some things, despite being able to unpack, that I still didn't know what to do with. Translation == mentos from past trips: (maps, ticket stubs, coins, etc), pictures (which I plan to pull into an album), my grade school report cards -- including kindergarten (OK - yes admittedly I need to get rid of these), newsclippings (including the "newspaper" my 7th grade class put together where I had a review of the British comedy "The Young Ones" and of the band "The Cure"), and even the bracelet I had as a newborn baby.

NM -- this is for you.....I figured out what to do with the maps--especially the really colorful ones. They look great in a frame. E and I were down at IKEA this past weekend and I bought several inexpensive (because we don't say "cheap" in my house anymore...) frames. I took out the metro map I have of Paris, which is especially colorful. What made it even less painful in cutting it up was the fact it was a freebie from the dept. store Samaritaine. They try and convince you to go to their store and ride to the top of the building for the "free view." Looks like the place has been closed since 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Samaritaine.





I cut up the map and framed it. Voila -- bright new "art" for the cost of the frame.

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