These Are A Few of My Favourite Things...

In the last days of this overbearing love-fest, I realized I'd completely neglected a facet: superficial love!  Not fake love, I mean the love of objects.  Materialism, if you will.  I'm not against it by any means, as long as we acknowledge it and understand that loving things doesn't take the place of loving someone and sharing love.

That said, I thought I'd go around my house and take pictures of things that I love.  You know when you leave your house for awhile (vacation, college, moving out, etc.), and you realize there are items that make your house a home (whatup Dionne Warwick and Luther Vandross!)?  These are some of those items to me; the ones that I can take with me to have a piece of where I belong, or the ones where I can walk into my house, see them, and know that's where I belong.

My DVD collection!  Sorry it's messy and some are missing and things aren't in the correct order--I haven't re-organized it since Christmas, and that means an additional 20+ DVDs have to get shoved in there somewhere.  I'm not a big movie person (despite how it seems), but I love seeing a collection of movies I love and enjoy and know I can pop one in and immediately lose myself in that world.

One of the more random objects in my house: a diskette clock!  We've had it for as long as I can remember, and even though it's not even set on the correct time (I don't know why no one moves it), it's one of those objects that has to be somewhere or it's not complete.

People have called my house "The Museum" because we have a lot of random souvenirs hung around everywhere.  I love all of them, but these stand out to me the most.  My family collects Souvenir Spoons and Shot Glasses, which we display a small selection of in the Italian curio cabinet.  You can also see some of the castanets we bought while in Spain.  The Venetian masks are by far some of my favourite, as I have a small personal collection as well (not pictured, though).  I wanted to have a larger collection, but they're expensive and difficult to ship.  The knotboard (bottom left) is from Spain, something my dad picked up while on a business trip there.  It's a fascinating piece, and even though we've had it for upwards of 15 years, I can still look at it and see new knots I'd never noticed.  The last one are two fans we got while in the Philippines.  They're beautiful and delicate and a nice reminder of the heritage.

These are a bit indulgent, I'll admit to that.  The left is an Asian-art inspired vase I made in 11th grade Advanced Ceramics.  It's a lot bigger than it seems (accidentally the largest panel-built vase made in the history of the ceramics class.  I didn't mean to!), but it's oddly familiar to me.  It just seems to fit in my house, even though there's almost nothing else asian-inspired (aside from the Philippine fans).  The other object is something I love dearly and am very proud to be able to display in the house.  I had to blur most of it since it is a personal item, but it's my dad's Shadowbox, given to him when he retired from the Navy.  The middle has his history of locations and military bases he was stationed in; the left are pins of merit; and the right are his medals and bars and rankings.

All of these (except military ribbon keychain) were gifts to me, and I love them so, so much.  The big A keychain and the Eiffel Tower keychain where given to me by one of my best friends Jenise, and if you can see the oversized ring-keyring (how's that for confusing?) that's holding them all together, that was given to me by my roommate/closest friend Emily.  I love these keychains because they're very defining of who I am.  The slinky was given to me by a friend from my dorm days.  It's an adorable story as to why, but I'll share that at a later date--just know it was meaningful.  And yes, you're seeing the middle correctly: it's a purse modeled after the old-style Composition books!  My brother and his girlfriend gave it to me as a grad gift, and it's so fucking perfect I pretty much die every time I get to use it. 

I'm a nerd, I know, but I can't help it.  Like many others, I find that I have a slight obsession with Post-Its and Sharpies.  I dunno what it is, other than the fact they're colourful and amazing and so practical and useful it's ridiculous.  Ok, maybe having so many isn't necessarily the most economical, but I swear I use all of it!  These are the spares I have in the drawers, there are a bunch more scattered throughout my room.  The organized me (which, face it, is pretty much all of me) falls in love with these.

I know I'm 22-years-old, and I'm "too old for stuffed animals."  But these two are special.  I've had Wheezy the Penguin for a bit, as it was a birthday gift from my brother last year.  If you recognize his name, it's because he's from Toy Story 2!  The Toy Story movies are my absolute favorites (Toy Story 3 out June 18!  I'M SO EXCITED).  He even wheezes when you squeeze him!  Whenever I was upset, my roommate would squeeze him and make him squeak because she knew it would cheer me up.  The other is my most special stuffed animal, and I can't bear (unintentional pun!) to let her go.  Her name is Snowball, and I got her while visiting England when I was younger (probably 7).  I don't know why I became so attached to her, but she's soft and squishy (nowadays her padding has moved and bunched a bit, but she's no less lovable) and I bring her everywhere.  Snowball has been with me in my three ER trips, on the couch recovering from oral surgery, waiting rooms of hospitals as I wait for family/friends, camping, all my Girl Scout trips, through all of college...everywhere.  She even got me an A on one of my journalism papers (a story for another time).

And lastly, my necklace.  I have to wear a necklace or else I feel unbalanced, and 99.8% of the time it will be this one (the other .2% is when I go to bars/clubs because I don't want to risk losing it.  Plus, somehow I don't think wearing a cross will attract the boyz).  Originally two separate necklaces, my mom gave me the heart necklace when I was 18 and my dad gave me the cross necklace when I was 16.  When the chain on one of them broke, it seemed obvious to combine them.  They both put a lot of thought into these, despite how simple they are.  I find a lot of symbolic meaning in them from my parents, and I like knowing I carry something of them with me everywhere.

What are some of your favorite items?