One thing accomplished!

I finally accomplished something!  One thing!  But it's something!  I finished organizing all my and my mom's jewelry.  I now have a designated "jewelry closet."  And before any of you start plotting on finding my house and snatching up all of these fabulous jewels, I'll let you know that all of it is costume jewelry! 

The first picture is the only jewelry that isn't in the jewelry closet.  This is a drawer that my mom had painstakingly fitted with handmade little dividers for her earrings and pins.  Over the years, of course, the jewelry collection outgrew this drawer.  I decided to put mom's and gramdmother's vintage earrings in here.  My grandmother was quite the jewelry collector as well, apparently.

The second and third pictures are of the closet itself.  All necklaces are on hangers so that they won't tangle and are clearly visible.  The drawers and cases hold all the watches, earrings, pins, pendants, bracelets, and rings. 

Those eleven cases on the top are all earrings!  Well, one case holds daddy's cufflinks and tie bars.  The top case holds the pendants, pins, and miscellaneous jewelry that is so campy or out-of-date I would never consider wearing it.  The middle case has the watches, the rings, and other miscellaneous items, like shoe and scarf clips.  The bottom two cases hold bracelets!  I had so many, I had to divide them up:  vintage, chains, stretchy, cuffs, and link. 

Boy, it feels good to have at least one thing accomplished!  Only 9999 more to go!



I did the unthinkable tonight:  I took pictures of the things above and then threw them away!  They were on mom's vanity.  The first was a kitty that held perfume.  The perfume has long since dried up and, well, I just thought I could probably do without it.

The "flower pot" was a gift from me in 1971 or 1972.  If you can't tell, the centers of the flowers are lipsticks.  They are completely dried out and discolored, but mom hung on to it. 

I winced, but tried to remember that I need the memories, not the things themselves.  Sigh...no wonder people end up on Hoarders. 

Mom's ride

Before the good people from Dallas CAN Academy came and picked up mom's car, I needed to clean it out.  Have you ever noticed, that no matter how fastidious someone is, there are always personal effects in their car?  For most of us, our cars are our little "home away from home."  I know I spend a lot of time in my car, especially with Dallas traffic.

Mom spent less time than the average person in her car, and yet there were all kinds of things stowed in the trunk and the various pockets and glove compartment. 

I found the whisk broom (remember those?) that she kept to clean off my father's gravestone when she went to the cemetary to put out flowers.  There were also an assortment of maps--most years, if not decades, old.  I even found a travel guide put out for the Bicentennial (yes, we're talking 1976!).  She kept a change of clothes in the trunk too, just in case.  It was so like her to think about the "what-ifs."

The object that I found to be most revealing of her personality was the small notebook that she kept all of her "just in case" information.  Years ago, I gave her a small binder (like a personal organizer) and she filled it with the information she needed just in case something happened.  When she was younger, she carried it around in her purse.  As she got older, and she could no longer carry anything more than her billfold and cell phone, the notebook was relegated to her car.  She had a separate notebook with similar information in the house.  She was "old-school" and didn't have anything stored in a cell phone, like I do.  No, paper was good enough for her.

When the nice tow-truck driver from Dallas Can Academy came to pick up her car, all I could do was cry.  He probably thought I was some deranged lady, crying over a car, but he was nice enough to ask if I'd taken a picture of it.  I said that I had and he reminded me that it was going to a good cause.  I cried anyway.

I just received a piece of paper in the mail, saying that it had been sold at auction (that's how they handle all donations, and why they can take cars that are running or not).  They received $4300 for it!  My cousin's son was only $4000 off the mark!  I hope that someone loves the pimp mobile as much as mom did.

How much...?

Have you ever wondered how much grief one person can take in any given span of time?  No?  I'd never really thought about it either, until this year. 

For the third time this year, someone that I'm close to has died. 

At what point am I going to snap and just be a gibbering zombie in the corner? 

I hope I don't find out!