My Hoarder Life

 

I have always thought I could become a hoarder if I wasn't careful. Today I found out there is no doubt about it I am a hoarder.  We are going to paint the loft in the morning. I knew that after 25 years of home schooling that moving all of those books was going to be a chore. It was. I thought I would be brave and show you the huge and I mean huge mess I created. I am also the one that will clean it up. Okay here it goes.

First the empty loft.

Now the room we painted last weekend now filled with loft furniture and books. Lots and lots of books.

I should have planned better.

I had to stack books inside the bookcases.

Such a lovely problem to have, don't you think?

Ron had to lean way over to get this picture for me.

What makes me think I am a hoarder, is how I feel about these books. They have been my friends for most of my life. There are books that my Mom bought for me from school and the price 10 or 15 cents. Or some of them I read over and over to my babies and my toddlers and my teenagers. They are part of my education. Mine as well as the kids. Some of them are junk too, but they are still an acquaintance. As I was cleaning off bookcases. I found this old, old copy of Gone With The Wind. It has no cover any more. But inside are the pictures from the movie in 1940. It was a copy that you could buy at the theater in the snack bar area as a keepsake.

 My Grandpa had it in one of his old sheds and I used to go out there and stand and watch him when he made fishing lures out of lead.
 He had this tiny little stove and his pan that he would heat the lead to molten then he would pour it into molds. I would sit out there and we would talk and he had a box and on the top was this old book. I picked it up out of curiosity one day, and turned through it and there was pictures of Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and all the others. Since he never just gave anything a way, I had to make him a batch of cookies for it. I was only about 12 or 13, and hadn't really baked much besides canned biscuit pizzas and oatmeal scotchies.   He wanted chocolate chip. So I got my Mom's cookbook and made the best cookies ever. My brother's were so happy. I had learned to make cookies.

I took my cookies the next time we went over and he gave me the book. So today when I picked it up. I remembered how much I still love this book. How many memories are part of it.

I stood thinking as I looked at this mess I am going to have to go through again when I put them back.
I could sell them I suppose to Robin, my friend who has the used bookstore. Or I could just dust them and put them back. I have some books that are collectors editions. I also have some that were loved so much that the covers have been taped and retaped. I have my Dickens, a complete Grimm's Fairy-tails. I have a few sets of books that Grandpa found and yard sales on purpose and he would make his sales pitch for more cookies and being the good fisherman he was, I always took the bait. I remember the time he stood in his house straight and tall and quoted from memory "The Cremation of Sam Magee.

So goes the saga of my books. I really don't know what I will do. I have given the girls so many books now that they will need whole libraries to house what I have given them and it isn't even by half. It does feel nice though to go through them and to visit them and think about the things I have learned.
I just thought I would share with you my quandary. My great grandmother's read Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter she told me every year. One I still need to read. She loved her books as did my grandmother and my Mother. Now me. It makes me happy that now grand children come over and raid the bookcases. So hoarder that I am will be keeping my books, I just talked myself into it. I don't think it is that bad of a legacy to pass on, do you?

I managed to hook one rug this week. Now binding, will be another thing. I am too tired in the evening to have my hands busy.

Hooking is one thing and binding something else.

It is my pattern of Feed My Sheep. I planning on making this pattern into one I can sell in my Etsy Shop, so Ron drew this one out and we will see how brave I get about selling it as a pattern.

Just things that have been going on this week. I hope your June is as lovely as can be.
Thank you so much for stopping by,
~Kim~

“Like ghosts the children walked across the lawn on their bare feet. The moon was full. Above the damp grass hung a veil of mist, luminous with moonlight and spangled with fireflies. There was no wind, and the sound of the brook was very distinct, tinkling, splashing, running softly. It made Mona think of an ancient fountain, shaped like a shell, covered with moss, and set in a secluded garden. Something she half remembered, or imagined."
Elisabeth Enright---The Four-Story Mistake