Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Thirteen Things I Found in my Attic

Well, I said that I would clean out the attic and, in keeping with my good intentions, I've tried. Every day, I bring down a box and sort through it, or I go up to the attic early, before the heat climbs that high, and I shuffle boxes around, putting each in a spot that fits it better than the spot it sat in before. The stuff I keep running into is fascinating...and I don't have time to find another Thursday Thirteen, so here you are:

1. The first item is a trunk--an old army trunk actually that once held tools in the garage. It was hopelessly cracked and seemed destined for the garbage, but my little daughter once needed it for keeping dolls and toys. So we painted. We used several layers of fabric paint and filled all the cracks with gold glitter paint. It was as good as new, and you couldn't even tell. That was fourteen years ago. To this day it is full of treasures...who knows. Claye likes a good lock on her stuff.


2. Ah, but don't they look hopeful. My ice skates. I can't believe that it has been ten years since I lived in Gunnison, Colorado. I loved ice skating at the park in the winter, but I couldn't use the real leather skates. My ankles were fine in these. In Oklahoma there is seldom weather cold enough to use them. Sigh.











3. Now this seems a little funny to me.
Where are Elijah's musical instruments?
Behind the couches in the front room. Where is the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu equipment? Where are the boxing gloves? In a box in his bedroom. The computer games? Out on the bed, probably. The Basketball? In the attic. Did I ever tell you that we don't quite fit the mold? Well, watching a game on TV is sooo dreary.


4. Every year at Christmas time,
Turtle buys another moose. Every year I ask him not to because, honestly, how many moose does a family need? Besides, what do moose have to do with the Nativity? Did the Magi ride moose? The shepherds bring moose furs? Nooo, but every year another moose appears in the front room beside the tree. It's his little joke. We have boxes full...as you can see.



5. This--yes you are seeing right--is a log.
No. It isn't a yule log; it's Bois D'arc wood. And apparently it needs to cure in a hot, dry place. Every young man feels more manly if he has a log curing so that he can make his own bow and arrows. This wood is so heavy I can't move it. Turtle and Elijah felled the tree after getting permission from a local farmer. It is nearly impossible to chop or saw because it is so heavy. If I dare complain about it, they remind me what fantastic wood it is. Not everyone has such a treasure. Now the flowers...I don't know how they got there, but they add a little something that was missing from the manly presence of the log.


6. A foam sculpture. um huh. It's an eyeball. Claye had to pick some kind of shape for the first sketch in her first sculpture class. She chose an eyeball and lived to regret it, as every project they did that semester had to be based on their original choice. If it's any consolation, the pupil actually moves around.



7. This little wedge-shaped suitcase is full of costumes.
Yes. We were a "dress up" family. All those "special dress-up-in-honor-
of-homecoming days" at school were a treat. Someday I'll have to do a TThirteen just on that. The hat is a Peruvian hat once worn by Elijah as part of a fourth grade slide show project to illustrate his report over Secret of the Andes.


8. My favorite painting.
I bought it at a garage sale some years ago and hung it in our old house. The mist and the moon just seem peaceful to me. Somehow it didn't fit this house, but I had great plans for it...then it was temporarily stored and the canvas got warped by another frame that fell against it. Now it graces the attic, and probably gets quite appreciated there....hmm, if I could straighten the dent, maybe I could take it to school. Students need to sit in the presence of fine art...calming fine art.


9. A bear.
Well. Everybody needs at least one bear in the attic. Save them for grandchildren, I say. You can't throw away a little bear, particularly one this cute.







10. This horse I bought for Babystepper's children,
Zaya and Mim. Well. They are growing up...but I wonder if other little grandchildren might like it some day. It doesn't mind the attic, so I let it stay.


11. This is a "Moises",

a baby basket brought back from El Salvador by my sister, so that my babies could use it as a bed. She couldn't put it in the baggage compartment of the plane and had to carry it all the way. We made a tight-fitting foam mattress and my mother even made a little bumper pad. Claye slept in it for six weeks; Elijah was almost too big for it at birth, but he lasted a week or two. Then I passed it down to four little nieces and nephews, two grandbabies, and a few dolls. Still looks pretty good for all that wear. So how could I possibly get rid of it? You try.



12. Baby clothes.
I saved a few, in a few select boxes. Here's one from each of my children. They are safe in the big, plastic bins. Thank goodness. Because in one of the cardboard bins--full of winter clothes and thoughtlessly left open, I found little Mr. Thirteen.


13. He was in the barrel
that I cleaned out today, along with a sister or brother...no sign of the mother. She had shredded a winter sweater to make their nest. Notice that he's on the grass. This heartless landlady evicted the poor thing.
It's ironic that there are no mouse traps in my attic, but I think maybe one is in order.

For More Thursday Thirteen, Check Here

23 comments:

Carina said...

My little ones used that Moises, too.

Poor little mice. They probably thought they'd found heaven there in the attic. Now they really have gone to that big wedge of cheese in the sky.

SJ Reidhead said...

My mother's attic (we cleaned it out for their big move) included such things as a half dozen bed pans and a urinal or two!

They're going to come after you for evicting the babies! How could you!

LOL
The Pink Flamingo
http://thepinkflamingo.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/5/21/3704421.html

Michelle said...

Wow, Sounds like you found a lot of great thing. Cut little mouse. LOL!! Great TT!

Robin said...

What a sweet basket, and I love the moose too.

Susan Demeter said...

You've reminded me that I better get away from the computer and start my own Spring clean-up! Great list idea, and the pics to go with. Happy TT

pussreboots said...

I don't have an attic or many storage options in my home. Happy TT.

SandyCarlson said...

You're attic's better than mine! I enjoyed the images and narrative. God bless.

Unknown said...

Wow, you sure have some great treasures. Fun list. Happy T13!

Chelle Y. said...

How fun that must have been to find all those treasures!

Anonymous said...

#6, the pupil moving around does not make it better.

Interesting attic you've got there.

anthonynorth said...

A forage in an attic can be like entering a time capsule of memory.

Hootin Anni said...

#5....interesting! I wouldn't have that teddy bear in the attic tho. And that painting would be hanging on a wall at my house.

The mouse? Cute, but yucky.



Mine's shared...C U THERE!!

My Busy Life said...

I love that old Strawberry outfit, how adorable!! The baby mouse would have scared me, I don't like mice at all. My TT is up too.

marcia@joyismygoal said...

That was fun!!!We were a dress up family too that mouse is cute

Norma said...

You might want to have that painting restretched and appraised. A great list.

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2008/05/13-ways-to-burn-calories-if-youre.html

Tammy said...

Did everything go back into the attic? You found a lot of good stuff up there. Happy TT

Melanie said...

What a bunch of fun find! I especially like the log with the flowers draped over ;)

Our Happy Happenings
Livin' With Me

Anonymous said...

Some of those were hilarious! The eye, and then having to do everything else based on it? Too funny! Great list. I really enjoyed it. Happy TT!

Redheels said...

Oh the treasures one finds in the attic....:)) And parting with them is usually hard, but #13.... is a little scary for me especially a live one......

I enjoyed your attic post.

Allison said...

All those "special dress-up-in-honor-
of-homecoming days" at school were a treat.


Oh, this is a hoot. Because my mom's closet was just the perfect place to get stuff sometimes! I think I could do a TT on it too, if I thought long and hard about those days. There's nearly 6 years worth! And we'd have
Spirit Week both for Homecoming and I think in February. The best (which I'd put as #1) would be Old People Day. My mom had this really nice two or three piece dress suit like thing---I think almost like a Jackie O outfit---complete with matching pill box (?) hat...and the added thing to make it special---the day of the week it fell on just happened to coincide with the French club trip to a nearby city to watch a movie with all the surrounding schools! It was a hoot!

#13 (the worst) would be not the dressing up, but the spirit cheer we did my sophomore year...."We Are Sophomores" with the Tomahawk Chop! OMG it's embarrassing to even THINK about that now---a picture was taken of that and put in the yearbook, and everyone I talked to about it that year, when we got the yearbook, we all just about died!!!

aftergrace said...

Wow, you have quite the collection. Funny about the moose collection, my spouse is rather fond of them. Perhaps he and turtle need to talk.

Loving animals(Catherine) said...

Was that mouse dead or alive when you found it becasue if you killed it.................YOU ARE SOOOOO DEAD!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

i looked through my attic the other day and found loads of things that i'd thought i'd lost. How dare you evicted the poor little mouse i was only a baby