Free Box

"Can I really have this?", said my friend Kim, her eyes lighting up. "I've been looking for one of these!"

It was an old green ginger jar, an antique Kim said knowledgably. She'd seen one for fifteen dollars recently and had regretted not buying it.

I admitted I had no idea what it was, only that it had ended up in my flea market box somewhere along the way.

She asked me if I still wanted to give it away, knowing it had some value.

Oh yes. Happily.

I had brought a random Free Box up from the basement and placed it on the kitchen floor for my friend to go through. Out of it she chose:

A camera lens, a pomander, a gargoye for her garden, a baby shawl, a small blue and white cream and sugar set from Holland (I think it used to belong to my friend Pol), a set of Phonics flash cards, a brass bottle-opener shaped like a seahorse, and the ginger jar of course.

Some of the stuff from my flea market stuff feels just too nice to give away to the thrift store, without at least trying to inflict it (in a nice way)on my friends first. :)

3178 things begone!

Baskets and Magazines Galore

Ironically, a magazine called Real Simple , a household magazine whose ideals are simplicity and organization , were in a pile cluttering up my Library.

Yes, I'm starting to tackle that room. So far I've gotten rid of a pile of ten-year-old gardening magazines, some seed catalogues and most of the back issues of the Atlantic monthly . Some good articles in some of them, but very doubtful I'll plow my way through them again.

Also gone are a handful of paperbacks to the Friends of the Library book sale, and one book given to my mom, The Wicked Day (not pictured)which she would like to add to her book collection. If she discovers she has a copy already, she'll pass it on to the sale for me.

Now above are some baskets that were divvied up by a few crafting co-workers of mine, whereas the baskets below were utterly transformed in the preschool art class. Nicely took care of my Wednesday morning Art Project idea with the children.

Another 62 items banished. New total of 3218.