my middle daughter is a collector.
she collects E v E r Y t H i N g !
because she collects everything we are continually trying to find a place for her to keep her new treasure or collection. she has special little places all over the house. she tried making a new 'special place' next to my side of the bed, right where i step out. um. no thank you. she tried making a different 'special place' at the presser foot of the sewing machine. yeah....no. then she tried setting up shop next to my husbands side of the bed while he was traveling, good thing i had his back and moved her on with a, "you have the special place in the bathroom, the pink room, the little dresser by your side of the bed, your cubbie on the white shelf, perhaps you could organize one of those special places to make room for your new crap, er, i mean, treasure?" and off she went making room, somewhere, or as i discovered most recently she didn't make room and her "treasures" were just over flowing into each particular room. yesterday during some spring cleaning and preparing for a visit from friends i was getting frustrated wondering and saying, "what could we do to help the girls from getting their things strewed around the house, their room, everywhere!?" when my husband so plainly stated that their things are organized in their own way, it's just their way, not mine. yep. it's true. if "it's" on it's shelf, in it's drawer, placed in it's "special place" then i need not get so frustrated. [easier said than done] then as i was going to bed i picked up a fantastic book we got for the girls a week or so ago. how to be an explorer of the world portable art[scratch that] life museum by keri smith. if you haven't seen it i highly recommend it. it is truly fantastic with experiments on seeing, really seeing and exploring the world around you. it has about 50+ explorations from people watching to documenting smells with tips along the way. this is what i read:

" there is no 'correct' way of understanding anything.
(even though the world wants us to believe this, it's not true.)

the indo-european root of the word "art" is "to arrange" or "fit together" (join). in this light, art can be pared down to its most simplistic form. we begin by collecting, then playing with the materials or objects, organizing them in a variety of ways, making new combinations, trying things, then observing the arrangements we have made." {page fifteen}

"collect items you fancy and that for different reasons attract your attention. remember also to collect and study things that seem for the moment to be meaningless or irrelevant. the twists and turns of the creative process lead you back to an important encounter that at first seemed quite neutral or even something that made you feel repelled or exasperated." maja ratkje {page seventeen}

as a life learning momma,
i was put in my place in the best way possible.