The ''someday'' project box

 

I have a variety of boxes with craft supplies, many of which contain unorganized objects that most people would throw away but that my synesthetic ADD brain always extrapolate into some genius usage. I can thank my collector's tendencies for my inexhaustible creativity. Those boxes (called the ''someday'' project boxes, or ''someday-I-will-find-use-for-this-junk'' boxes) that would be any minimalist's nightmare can be found in various locations in my home. Their eclectic index is pretty remarkable: buttons, ribbons, scotch-tape rolls, bottle nipples and other baby paraphernalia, shells, divorced earrings, old boarding passes, chopsticks, mint tin boxes, Montréal métro tickets from too long ago...

As soon as I moved in my home over 2.5 years ago, I started frantically looking for an accessory that would allow me to beautify it. Like some many items before it in my life, and without my permission, it had basically renamed itself (the dreadful) 404, or some equivalent of ''page not found''. I am referring to the wire plate hangers that I had bought a while ago while living in my first California home and which I had subsequently moved 3 times, if I hadn't lost them during those hectic transitions. I had found only one, because it was still attached to the plate that was decorating a wall in my former bathroom. Years and various trips to my favorite thrift store later, I had additional plates who were waiting to make me smile every time I would step into my kitchen. The yellow plate with blue flowers needed company.

I went through various cycles of futile ''now-I-think-I-know-it-is-in-this-or-that-box'' aha moments, so much so that looking at my stacks (the eviscerated boxes had turned into little mountains of material odds and ends in the majority of the rooms at The House of Enchantments) became aversive. As one can imagine, my procrastination became legendary.

But a few months ago, battling the gloomy winter made worse by the fact that we lived in a house colder than an igloo due to malfunctioning HVAC system, I decided to distract myself from my chronic misery and to go through the content of a box. What I had given up ever finding again was in one of those rectangular baskets where I put some magazines or frames waiting to find art, as my reward for defying my procrastination and lethargy. I felt as excited as an antique junkie discovering a time capsule or some ancestral treasure. I was enthusiastic showing Bibi what I intended to do with them (she had never seen such hangers before) and proceeded to gather the plates I wanted to display and install the adjustable hook. For a plate too small for this specific size of springs I had kept all these years, I even discovered smaller springs from disassembled pens (yes, can you believe it, I even keep that stuff) that I attached to the hooks that gripped the plate at the edges instead. 

So today, a memorable day (because it is the 5-year anniversary of my calm bravery as I expressed my need to walk away from an extremely depleting individual) and as I create positive memories (I swam 11 lapses in my very cold pool, my dad was celebrating a recent milestone birthday, while my middle son participated in a speech competition... so proud that he is developing such important skills !), I proudly share with you this beautiful row of flowery plates adding a feminine touch, or even soul, to the lines of my kitchen. And there were other hooks too later this evening, not just golden, but in the form of double blue checkmarks... (topic for another blog, or even maybe a book...). May you feel welcome as you enter this very sunny part of my home ! Happy spring !