Four Rules of Stuff + a giveaway.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know I've been working on going through my stuff.  Just need a little order in my life, I guess.  On Saturday morning I devised Gina's Four Rules of Stuff:

1. Use your stuff.  Make what you have work.  Repeat after me:  Necessity is the mother of invention.

2. If you won't use it, give it to someone who will.

3. Don't buy more stuff until you've tamed what you have.  (This one seems to be the hardest for me and I am repeating it like a mantra.  Especially difficult at the Treadle Yard Goods sale this weekend. I was only there to get more thread to finish a current project, I swear.)

4. When you need/want something, you don't have to add it to your own ever-growing list of stuff to make.  You can actually buy it from someone else.  Can you believe this is a relatively new idea for me?  I'm very proud of figuring this out.  Which leads me to the giveaway:

Melissa from Two Little Tots has graciously offered to give a crayon roll to one lucky reader of my blog.   In keeping with rule number four, Melissa is making four hooded towels for me -- two for my own kids (who have loved theirs since birth, basically) and two for long-overdue baby gifts.  See, I don't have to make them myself!

Enter before Wednesday night, and I will post the winner on Thursday.  Answer this question in your comment:  Do you remember having any special little thing of your own when you were a wee one?  I remember the plaid taffeta skirt my mother made me for my birthday.  It had a ruffle on the bottom, very fancy.  I love knowing that when I was four, that's what made me really happy.

Comments

[shana]

A stuffed giraffe . . . it got ruined when the basement flooded or some such thing. There are quite a few pictures of me with it though.
Happy simplifying!
Shana

[Leora Henkin]

I had a tiny music box that we got at the airport in Switzerland. For some reason, it made me very happy!

Leora

[Sarah MacKenzie]

I had a gingham sundress that a friend of the family made me. I loved it and I still have the pattern 30ish years later and if I ever have a daughter will be making her one.

[chelsea]

A Laura Ashley pink and white dress that twirled. I LOVED that dress! And I love your blog.

[Catherie]

i had a peach fabric elephant that wore a really cute peach/white patterned dress... i called her "Ele-phont" (with a little french accent!)---- given to me by my mom's best friend. i just found your blog a few days ago and it is one of about 3-4 that i always hope has updated when i come to check Reader... LOVE it!!! i could SO relate to your handwriting "assignments" from too much chatter in grade school...really. lol...

[jen]

I have a doll house that my mom made me ... from scratch. It's incredible, and I can't wait to pass it on to my daughter one day.

[Angie]

Gina,

Since I am in the middle of Fall Cleaning, I love your 'rules'. I think I may have to post them on the wall while I'm working so I follow them!

Had a large green and yellow turtle. I've had him since I was 3. He was my present when my parents brought my younger sister home. He is in nearly every picture and I still have him today. He is pretty big so I wonder how I carried him around. He's stored away now but I glance at him every once in awhile. He will never make the #2 rule of yours. He's a keeper!

Angie

[Christy]

Hi, Gina! I've looked at these crayon roles on various etsy sites and love the idea!

When I was a child, my grandmother kept me after school. She'd given me a homemade doll one Christmas. For several years after that, she and I made clothes for it in her basement sewing room. We used scraps and leftovers from other projects, and my favorite part was digging through her button bucket to find the perfect button to "accessorize" the outfit.

That doll still sits on a shelf in my office. I love homemade things!

[Grace]

I had a special pink blanket, loved it so much that I even kept it till high school. But it dissapeared when I was in college somehow .. pretty sad. Still miss it occasionally ;-)

[Madelia]

My mom had sewed me an outfit (shorts & halter) it was summer light green. My mom was an excellent seamstress.

[Margaret]

A little yellow chick, a real one, that my father gave me one year on easter. It was the first thing I ever really felt responsible for, and it did make me feel very important, besides happy! !

[Katy B.]

I had this Magic Nursery Doll (remember those from the early nineties?) I got it for Christmas and I remember being so excited to see the gender by holding the 'birth certificate' under water. I took that doll ev-er-y where...I'm even holding her in the pictures from my older sister's HS graduation!

Those crayon rolls look adorable!

[Sasha Farina]

I'm a fairly new reader, and going through the same 'stuffs' as you! LOL :D had to teach myself new way of thinking.. that's the hardest.

ps : i don't remember things, but i remember only being able to sleep on my dad's back :D

[billie]

my baby book

[Cindy Trimble]

I had a doll called Thumbalina. You would pull the string on her back (yes, I know. THis REALLY dates me!) and she would kind of move around. I loved that baby!

[ashley]

I had this huge bean stuffed dog that I named "scooby"
(back when scooby doo had first come out)
I would put him by my bedroom door to protect me while I slept. Guess I had a lot of bad dreams...?
Either that or watched too many scary movies w/o my mom knowing..haha

[Joelle]

After our first trip to Disney World I pick the smallest little pooh bear stuffed animal. I carried him everywhere, so much so that he lost his little red shirts and an eyeball. I still have that bear today and my daughter Raine just loves to carry him around also. It's priceless that something that I loved so much is now loved just as much by my daughter.

[jessica crawford]

my favorite thing was my stuffed yellow dog named fluffy. he had a music box that i wore out over the years!