keep, sell, toss. move.

over the next few weeks i will have spent several afternoons cleaning out my room in preparation for my mid-to-late-summer move to lawrence, kansas. i am not quite finished-- each round through my books has yielded at least on garbage bag full of books to toss, and i haven't even started on clothes and shoes yet.

i did manage to start on the mysterious top shelves of my closet. this led to throwing out a box of old love letters + souvenirs from an alcoholic ex, photos of friends from high school with whom i had lost touch, and finding many toys to throw away or start an ebay account for.

then there were the toys i will be keeping.

i hate, and have pretty much always hated, winnie the pooh. i think, and have always thought, it was a ridiculous and embarrassing name, and i didn't really attach to any of the characters, story lines, or themes. i liked the pig thing. and the owl. but this has SERIOUS vintage appeal:

i think my godmother gave me that pillow, but i'm not sure. both of those things will be staying in my life. all of these will be staying in my life/coming with me to lawrence (maybe):

(vintage winnie the pooh, christmas lambchop puppet, glass-faced doll given to me by a greek babysitter before i was officially in school, some sort of rat-faced teddy bear, and BigGirlBaby, my first ever doll given to me by my mother's mother. at the time of this photo her clothes and hand-made quilt were in the wash).

this camera is a vintage kodak. it was purchased @ an estate sale when i was quite young, and i'm glad it survived being in my closet ever since. i will soon figure out how to clean it, and find film for it. and then take beautiful photos of loved ones.

all of this memory lane stuff reminded me that somewhere in the house were framed photos that were once in my nursery, then in my bedroom, then in my playroom. my mom turned up 3 of them, judd popped off the frame, and we found they were by bettie pease gutman, and we are going to collect a ton of them. they are amazing.

her copyright laws must be strict, cuz this is the best one i could get off the internet:

this is one that used to be in my room (i swear), but my mom claims she's never seen it before: