Yard Sale Treasures

This weekend Chris and I are having our first ever yard sale. I’m so excited! I have been preparing for this since we bought our house last summer. I’ve been collecting random crap that we don’t use anymore in a corner of our basement and so today Beanie and I spent some time pulling all the junk out to organize and prepare. But as I was looking through the piles of junk, I thought about where all the junk came from.

Take this lamp, for example.

It was in my very first apartment. My friend, Sarah, and I decorated our living room in all things Parisian. And see that crystal hanging from it? Sarah’s lovely Aunt Karen gave that to me. Aunt Karen is one of the nicest people I’ve met in my entire life. Sarah and I used to go to her house for dinner every few weeks when we were in college. She would sit around with us and talk for hours while we would eat off of mismatched pieces of delicate China that she picked up from vintage shops. She said it was good feng shui to have crystals near lamps to reflect the positive energy. I don’t know much about positive energies, but the crystal was pretty. And I never took it off. I may sell it at the yard sale with the crystal still attached in honor of Aunt Karen.

And this suede purse?

It was one of the first gifts Chris gave me in high school. He was so proud of himself because I randomly pointed it out in passing during a trip to the mall one day and he remembered and went back and bought it for me for Christmas. I never had the heart to tell him that I didn’t really like the purse all that much once I had a chance to see it up close on Christmas morning. That would have broken his heart. So, instead I always told him that I didn’t carry it because I didn’t want to ruin the suede. To this day, Chris still thinks I love that purse. And now, I kind of do, actually, because it meant so much to Chris.

And then I came across this decorative mannequin.

This sat on my vanity when I lived at home in high school. I had this crazy idea that I wanted one of those vintage vanities from the 40s in my bedroom. You know, the kind that sit low to the ground and have huge mirrors? My mom found one in a thrift store and she refinished it for me herself. It was beautiful when she was done. And we bought this mannequin to sit on top of it along with a few antique perfume bottles that are long gone by now.

And then there is Lucy’s first dog collar.

And the prints Chris and I bought for our first little kitchen when we got married.

There is the bag I carried to class in college.

And the candlesticks Chris’ grandmother sent us for our first Christmas together because we didn’t have any Christmas decorations yet.

And don’t forget the heart-shaped muffin tin that I bought to make Chris Valentine’s Day blueberry muffins in. But I forgot to line them so the muffins came out in big chunks instead of heart shapes.

Looking through all these things that hold such wonderful memories for me, I can’t help but think about my beloved blog. Though we’re working to get everything back where it belongs, it is still so hard for me to get past it not being there – even for a few days. Even for one minute, really. All day long, lovely readers and good friends have said over and over again how sorry they were for this even temporary loss of all my personal memories.

But you know what? I don’t need that cupcake tin to remind me of that Valentine’s Day. I don’t need that manequin to remind me of my mom’s vanity. I don’t need that lamp to remind me of Aunt Karen. And just like all those things, I don’t need that blog to remind me of my wonderful memories over the past two years. Sure, those things are nice and having that blog would certainly be convenient, but in the grand scheme of things do I need these things to remember? Nope. And do I lose the power of my memories just because the written versions are gone – even if just temporarily? Nope.

Yard sales happen. Websites crash. And life goes on.

(Except, maybe not Chris’ life.)