Photographs and Memories

Today I was going to pull out a box of crochet toys I made for my daughter when she was little and photograph them. I wanted to write a post about how I started my love affair with making whimsical things. I had it all planned out, and went digging all through the garage looking for said box of nostalgia. To my horror and dismay I couldn’t find it!

A bit of back story before today’s tale of woe is in order. My daughter held on to these toys up until she was a teenager. Then it gets fuzzy as to what happened to said items (and there is some debate about it between us). At some point, her Barbies and all the doll furniture and doll clothes I crocheted went into a box. She claims I took them from her in order to protect them. It could have gone down that way. Then she went to college and eventually moved out. I’m not sure when it happened but I’m pretty sure I asked her to take them or I was going to get rid of them. Here’s where it gets fuzzier.

I asked her about them a few years ago. Something along the lines of “Do you know what happened to your old crochet toys I made you? Did you take them?”

“Noooo,” she said. “I didn’t and they’re probably still in the garage.”

I looked in there where I remembered them being for a long time and saw a box. I felt secure knowing they were there for me to pull out some day. Well, today was that day but instead of finding Barbie couches and Barbie clothes and a Barbie bed, I found a box of DVD cases that belonged to her. Ahh, dismay.

I texted her immediately, not accusingly at all, and suggested she took them after all and lost them in a move. She countered, nay insisted, I kept them and probably gave them away. Moms are always right so I choose to believe she lost them but I suppose it’s possible her version is correct. Needless to say, prior to today, I thought I had that box of memories sitting in the garage. So instead of a photo shoot today, I went on a hunt for old photographs hoping I had shot some of them back then. No luck. But I did stumble upon a picture of a crocheted Christmas tree I made for her back then. It’s a terrible picture and doesn’t paint that little tree in the best light (I remember it looking much nicer 🙂 but it’s something. I don’t know what possessed me to make it. It was probably meant to go with her doll furniture but there it is.

That looks like a Styrofoam star at the top attached with duct tape. I was fancy 🙂

All this got me thinking of all the crocheted things I never photographed and wished that I did. Both my daughter and my hubby are always nagging me (with love in their hearts of course) to take pictures of everything I make. So I thank them for it because there are so many of my crochet projects that are out in the world now that I actually have pictures of. But sadly, there are far too many that are gone and I don’t even remember making anymore. Or those that I do remember but I don’t have a record of it except for my memory and I think I’ve established that’s not so great. So the moral of this story for me and hopefully for others out there like me, chronicle everything you make and take more pictures!