Perils of the Packrat

Mrs Grendel will be the first to admit she is a packrat. I usually take a little longer to make the same admission - but it is true.

Being a packrat is great - you can always find that whosiwidget to fix the whatsitzimmer or that old copy of your high school yearbook.

I've even got copies of my father's high school year book - and copies of my grandfather's Royal Geographic Society magazines from the 1930's.

Some things keep pretty well for a long period of time, others actually gain value, but most things just seem to slowly decay or get eaten by something - the slow biodegradation of history at work locally.

Mrs Grendel's packrat tendencies carry over to scrapbooking and from time to time she gets a scrapping 'thing' that is 'just too good to use on a layout'. It gets put aside, a valued scrapping treasure that she likes to admire and imagine a creative use for.

On occasion an opportunity to use the 'thing' on a layout presents itself and it gets brought out and placed for all time upon a page.

Except when it crumbles and falls right off.

Are scrapping things supposed to do that?

The items in question are rub-ons and Mrs Grendel has a collection of some really cool ones - to cool to use on photos of me, so they get saved for more important things, except that now in some cases they get saved too long.

I thought this was supposed to be an archival thing? what's with the crumbly bits? Ok, truth be told they seem to stay on once stuck on, but if you leave them too long in the packet then apparently all they are good for is looking at in the packet.

I recently placed a moratorium on buying more green coffee beans until I can roast up my current 40 kilos or so - I reckon Mrs Grendel needs to use all her stuff too!

Perhaps I can squeeze just a little movie screen into the room. . .