A Flashback To Childhood

While looking for something completely and totally different this week, I came across a box of toys and games from when I was little. I had just been talking to someone recently about how everything we loved as a kid is popular again, and this box confirmed my theory.


This is the very first sticker book I ever had. You can tell that I made it myself, and I even counted them all and have the number written on the back cover. I got them for accomplishments at my piano lessons and for finishing my chores. 


 I still collect stickers, but they're now in a big bag in the craft room and I claim it's in the name of my business. Mostly I just like stickers. Obviously I always have.


One of the thrills of my surprise box was one of my favorite beginner books. My grandparents gave it to me for my second birthday, and I still have it memorized. Books are very, very special to me, and finding the Little Golden Book version of it at a thrift store recently made me smile.


These books still have a place in my heart, though now I'm upcycling them into journals and gift books. I have more than 130 of them on the shelves in the craft room right now, and I have ideas for every one of them. More to come on that another day...


Many of the things I loved growing up are popular again, including My Little Ponies. In the box was a bag of all my ponies - many of them dressed - along with their combs, shoes, ribbons and other miscellaneous accessories. You can tell that they were played with because that's why I wanted them, not to set them aside pristine in the box for the future. 


Little things made me happy as a child, and they still do. I had tiny colored pencils and little books to tuck in my pocketbook for church. My original Little Pet Shop animals may not do exactly what they were designed to do 30 years ago (ouch), but they are still adorable and still have their homes and food bowls.


And my Miss Piggy paper doll still has all her wigs and outfits, which neatly fit into the steamer trunk envelope. I played with this so much that many of the tabs are gone and the clothes hang on her a little differently than they used to. I had so many stories of where she was going and what she was doing, and they were never the same. This is what toys were all about in the good old days - sparking your creativity and encouraging imagination.

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