Reasons Why

 When we moved into our house, we had to go through a ton of his parent's stuff. They were both collectors so there were a ton of figurines, collector's plates, rocks and minerals, and glass and crystal containers. On top of that his mother was very good at documenting their lives through so there are at least 30 photo albums along with countless framed photos, random cocktail napkins and matchbooks, and greeting cards. The stuff was awesome, but at the same time overwhelming to sort through. A lot of cards didn't have a year or even who they were to. And there was a ton of regular schoolwork from Chris and his three brothers. Like I mean worksheets and busy work stuff, not just school projects and papers. So a lot of stuff ended up getting thrown away because Chris isn't sentimental about those kinds of things. And a lot. We also sold a lot of stuff at a yard sale and on ebay.

But it made me really really sad  because they collected this stuff for a reason and we didn't really know why. I didn't know if a vase was a family heirloom or something that she just picked up at Macy's because she liked it.

Chris and I are collectors too, and we both have weird stuff that we've kept because there's a story behind it. I don't know if we will end up having kids, but I some day someone will need to go through our stuff, and I want them to know why I kept something. 

This year I am going to make an effort to catalogue some of these things. Some things won't have a story because I pick stuff up all the time just because I like it. But I hope a lot of things do have a story even if I've forgotten it.

For January 1st, the first thing I photographed was this crewel flower that my grandmother made. I think I can remember them hanging up, but I'm not sure if I'm creating a memory from photos. I have a few different variations, but I really like this one. I wish I would have discovered needlework earlier. She tried to teach me cross stitch when I was maybe 12 years old, but I didn't get into it. I got to show her a couple little things I did before she died, and I think she liked that I was doing that. She sewed my entire life for as long as she could. So I guess I always do this stuff and hope she'd think it was cool.