A Collection of Memories

I think it’s been quite some time since we’ve looked at one of my fun collections (other than the menacing hordes/hoards of fabric and patterns). This is a small collection, but each item has a special meaning for me.

This is the first piece, chronologically.

A penguin. His little button reads “another satisfied customer”

A coworker gave it to me back in 1983, as a sort of joke since I was not much of a sales person.

The little shop where we worked sold skimpy exercise wear and swimsuits, and ladies would ask us such time-honored, delicate questions as “does this [leotard/headband/spike heel/tube top/Brazilian swimsuit] make me look fat?”

From a sales perspective, the correct answer is always “no, it makes you look so svelte and sexy that you should buy five of those just so you will never be without one.”

From my perspective though, the answer was often something like, “you might actually prefer this full-coverage  [jumpsuit/hat/athletic shoe/tee shirt/maillot]. It’s so much more comfortable. Would you like to try it on?”

Let’s just say my approach did not always result in “another satisfied customer.”

Next, I have quite a few endangered animals in my house!

For a few years, various wildlife organizations were offering stuffed animals as incentives for donations or annual membership fees. (Better than tote bags.)

Manatees (the little one is a Beanie baby)



Sea turtle (endangered in more ways than one; my dog wants to eat it)

Next is one of the first gifts I ever received from the Piemaker, in the mid-90s. The very first gift was a package of smoked salmon, and no, I have not kept that one.

It’s an armadillo, as near as I can tell, all dressed up in a hat and bandanna. Piemaker brought it back as a souvenir from a trip to San Antonio back when we were still traveling a lot for business.

Here is a very sentimental piece.

It is a gigantic duck, in fact we call it the Duck. I can’t even remember anymore where the Duck came from, but it was a favorite snuggly pillow for our dog Skyeler, who is no longer with us.



Skyeler loved his Duck

Skyeler was a very excellent dog. He somehow recovered from a truly hellish early life and went on to have happy times with us.

Good dog

It was just so funny that he loved to sleep on the Duck, and now we keep it around to remind us of him.

I didn’t get into the Beanie Baby craze but people gave me some as gifts. My local friends think of me as the birds-and-bees lady so I get a lot of bird-themed things:

A robin, a cockatoo(?), and a blue jay.

Finally, the most recent addition: I fell for the bunny hype­­­­­ at Urban Threads' blog Stitch Punk.

I had to get a Stitch Bunny for the sewing room.

CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP

The fanged stitch bunny is actually the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog so I can be a stitch geek and a Python geek at the same time. (Run away! Run away!)

This particular Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog actually looks like a tailless bunny with gum disease, to be honest. Not too scary.

chomp chomp?

Maybe they are more ferocious in herds. 

Possible customer service scenario

There are lots of other stuffed animals around here. They seem to be stuck in corners of closets and on the ends of bookshelves and there are probably a few hiding in unexpected places too.

Do you have some favorite stuffed animals?

Katrina