Sometimes I make the grocery list and WH goes to the store. Last week, I had “Frozen Chicken Br**sts” on the list. (Ok – I don’t want to bring weirdos to the blog by typing out that word. But you know what I mean.) He read through the list and said, “Don’t we have chicken in the freezer?” and I said, “No, I don’t think so.” Since he was the instigator of the Freezer Intervention, he knows that one of my bad habits is to, um ….. buy food without making sure there is none already in the freezer. So last week, after questioning me, he said, “Are you sure there’s no chicken in there? Just check.” My response was to roll my eyes and yank open the freezer door. I was greeted by a large bag of frozen chicken br**sts. Dang. Busted.
I have other bad habits. Another one that is particularly prevalent this time of year is notebooks and journals. I don’t know why, but I can wander the aisles at an office supply store and Target, for a long time, finding notebooks and journals that I need. I don’t fill them all. I don’t keep a detailed journal day by day. I have way more than I could ever use. But still, I find cute ones that I feel a need to buy. Big ones, small ones, short ones, tall ones. I think it’s my desire to be organized. (“Oh, I can keep track of _________ in this one!” Seriously. I always have good ideas for them when I’m buying them.) Back-to- school time is the worst (have you SEEN some of the cute notebooks out there right now?) I find it just best not to even walk into the store.
My desk. It’s usually overrun with a few piles and stacks of papers. Things that need to be paid or filed or checked or sorted. This habit also spills over to the computer cabinet. Do you know how annoying it is to try to use the desk or computer, while dodging stacks of papers? (Well yes, I’ll bet some of you do.) I love it when my desk and computer area are clean. That’s what I spent time on this weekend and I’m keeping it this way. Every time I walk in here, it makes me smile. (Ask me in two weeks.)
Yarn. I love to buy yarn. I love having a big collection of skeins to choose from and to admire in the baskets. I have finally decided to stop feeling bad about that and to call myself a Yarn Collector. I figure that I don’t spend a lot of money on extra vices in life (ok, besides the chicken br**sts and a bunch of cute notebooks) and it’s ok to have a good collection of yarn. I’m going to stop calling it a “bad habit of buying more yarn than I could possibly knit up in a lifetime” and start referring to it as my “yarn collection that makes me happy”. As long as I have baskets of yarn, piles of notebooks, and chicken in the freezer, life is good.
Sheri ofcoursetherearemorebadhabitsbutIwillstopherefortoday
doanyofyouhaveabadhabityou’dliketosharetomakemefeelbetteraboutmine??
I’m a clutterer, and I loathe house-cleaning. Not a good combination! And I’m a procrastinator. Again, not a good conbination with the cleaning.
I can get a little pouty too…is that a bad habit! :-)))
I have a beautiful “collection” of sock yarns that I have acquired from you (enabler that you are with those silly “sneak-ups”) and also have a large collection of piles and piles of papers on my desk. There are bills and patterns and notebooks and scratch pads and post-it notes (got to love those post-it notes!!!) and stitch markers and books and ball bands and filing…lots and lots of piles! I collect knitting books and magazines and patterns, too! Nice to know I’m not alone!
Do you like agenda/organizer, too? Or calendars? Yeah, I love those a lot.
I like that you collect yarn. Plus, you have such decorative ways of displaying the stash, that you should really consider it “decorating” yarn. You know?
I have a lip balm habit. There are too many flavours to try! And then there’s the casualties that go through the wash, the reserve lip balms, the ones for jeans and the ones in each jacket, one for the work bag, one for the handbag…
I think that we are more alike than you know 🙂 My collections/bad habits closely resemble yours!
I love magazines.
And pens. I love pens!!! And this is a bad time of year for that also! They are everywhere! Different colors and styles, all of which I “need”! I loved the beginning of the school year when we got to get new school stuff! I had fun shopping for the few things my Boys needed to start pre-school.
And yarn.
The yarn collector thing is totally healthy, and I have to agree that sometimes just the purchase is enough to satisfy the knitting urge, and just think about how convenient it is to be able to “shop” for yarn right in your own collection. Well, you have a yarn shop… but you know what I mean.
There is nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.
One of my bad habits – I dont’ have a washer/dryer in my apartment so I buy new sheets, towels etc to put off dragging my laundry to the corner. Also, the time it takes to get a good quarter collection going is daunting.
Also, the boyfriend and I tend to get a lot of take out, and no dishwasher in the apartment either (well, no mechanical dishwasher) leads to a lot of plastic containers. Although I still don’t know if it is a bad habit to throw them away (hence bad for the environment) or keep them (the plastic container collection is already immense.)
Pens.
And bags.
And Yarn, of course. (goes without saying)
I do know the lure of notebooks and paper.
And knitting needles — you know, there’s times you need bamboo and times you need Addi Turbos and times the Denises would come in real handy, and then the pointy slipperiness of the KnitPicks, and hardwood needles have their place too, and Addi Laces are great for lace and different lengths and circulars versus straights and DPNs and….
Before I met yarn, there was and again is fabric. Ahem..hubby says the storage area of the house is 3/4’ths mine….it’s the colors…I love color! Hard to resist colors!!!!!!
Oh, another bad habit, is putting things in a “safe” place…and never finding them when you need them!!
Dang right, Sheri! Yarn collector it is, and that’s what makes us happy!
Some people collect dolls, or Mickey Mouse stuff, or spoons, or beer steins. None of which will ever get used up. Nothing wrong with collecting yarn. But I’m still going to try to use more of my collection and slant the habit just a bit into collecting socks and sweaters!
I won’t call them “bad” habits. Don’t want them developing a complex or anything. I’ll simply acknowledge them as repetitive occurrences at various times in my life :-): the buying of shoes, handbags, sweaters, sock yarn, bags of yarn, and kettle-dyed yarn.
I love back to school shopping. I hate it that so many of the teachers want the plain vanilla notebooks and folders for the kids here. My DD1 shares the love of the school/office supply aisle too. And I have a pen obsession, I think it is just part of being a nurse, we all seem to share that vice. DH is always telling me he took a handful of pens out my purse or the van to make room for more.
I have to say, yarn collection sounds much better than calling it a bad habit. One can never have too much yarn and it displays so well.
I collect Grumpy from the 7 dwarfs. I have about 30 sets of nightclothes in Grumpy which more than I can probably wear in a lifetime but I keep buying them. I also have snow globes, etc of grumpy or the dwarfs.
Luckily I fairly organized but I do buy yarn, yarn and more yarn.
I have 4 cats. And sock yarn. Oh my gosh, the sock yarn. Mr. Fixit saw *just* the yarn in the Loopy Groupie tote and said, “wow, that is a lot of yarn”. I fell down laughing.
I second you on the notebooks. I also have this weird thing with buying school supplies every year – pens, notebooks, a calendar or two, and I usually get crayons and some coloring books for fun!!
I am a yarn collector, and bead collector, and scrapbooking supplies collector and fabric collector…
My repetitive occurrences definitely start with yarn–not only is it a collection, but I enjoy displaying the most beautiful examples.
The one I have had as long as yarn is somewhat embarrassing. I keep buying nail polish. I very rarely use the same color more than twice. I have done this since I stopped biting my nails in 9th grade and went straight to rainbow-colored talons. (At the moment, I am trying to be trendy and have them short, and they are a demure pink.) I give a lot of nail polish to deserving teen girls.
I am pretty bad about shoes. I rationalize them like the knitting needle collector above does (um, and I have a lot of needles too). I don’t own just one black pair, nay, you need black cowboy boots, black dress boots, black snow boots (in Austin? Why?), black shortie boots, black pumps, black flats (patent AND velvet), black dress sandals, black work sandals, black comfort sandals, and of course black clogs that look good with one’s hand-knit socks. And that is just black!
Aw heck, I’m human!
Sock yarn
Worsted yarn for pretty sweaters
Bags/purses/totes
lipstick
little notebooks
And, the holy grail, the perfect pair of pants
Umm..yeah. There’s the yarn thing. But my other “bad” habit is buying books. I will probably never read them all, and sometimes after I’ve had a book for a while I think, “Now why did I ever buy this book?” Luckily, there are friends and the library:)
Oh – handbags, purses and project bags. A gal can never have too many of any of those!
And I used to be terrible about knitting needles, too. I’m getting a little better, but just this weekend I was looking for needles and realized I have a bazillion #7’s & #8’s. Sheesh.
Red Rose tea figurines. and i’m SOOOOO not a collector (aside from my “yarn collection”– i like that), but i’m obsessed with the red rose tea figurines. i get so excited when i run out of tea and i hit a major depressive episode when i buy a new box and the figurine is one that i already have, which means another 100 cups to go until i get another chance.
Heh. I manage not to buy too much, but walking through the office supply area of Target or going to Staples makes my knees weak. I love being in the presence of all the pens in Target or Longs, even. I always have to make a trip to those aisles when I’m in one of those stores. Journals, oh! I have far too many of those even though plain notebooks from Staples make the best journals, well… I’m not exactly sure what makes the best journals but those notebooks are fantastic.
I haven’t a huge yarn collection yet though, I’m young and I finally rationalized to myself the buying of yarn on a case-by-case basis. Which means I need to knit faster so I can buy more. 😉
Pens. Oh man the pens. Hubby hates it but can’t complain since he’s a restaurant manager. He’s never without a pen to take to work.
I have tubs and tubs of sock yarn. It’s so bad that I have been threatened with an intervention if I buy any more (you know I will and find a new hiding place). Even my daughter who loves me thinks I have a pathological obsession with sock yarn. My husband made me round it all up and pack it in those plastic bags that vacuum seal. Then the bags go in big plastic storage boxes in the back of my closet. This keeps the yarn clean, moisture-free, and bug-free until I can get around to knitting it, but it also allowed hubby to actually see in one place just how much I have accumulated. Not good! My other bad habit is that I drink way too many frappucinos at Starbucks.
Ugh – my newest bad habit is Ravelry. It is a time sucker!
I wouldn’t call it a bad habit any more. Heck, I’ve recently embraced the “Yarn as Art” philosophy because it helps explain my devotion to hand-dyes… As for my desk – well there are two socks in progress (different yarns of course), a drop spindle, and lovely purple wool top hanging out next to the laptop and assorted technology. My husband just shakes his head (good thing, because his vice is hockey cards).
That frozen chicken story could’ve been my own. I’m TOTALLY guilty of doing the exact same thing. I get mad when he questions me about whether we have something in the freezer, but sure enough, when I go check to prove him wrong, there’s the frozen chicken staring me in that face that I swear was not there earlier.
But turn the situation around when he can’t find his car keys and claims to have “looked everywhere” and I’m able to locate them within seconds because he lacks the ability to lift/move things around to actually look for them … I guess we all have our bad habits, little or small 🙂
Ooooh, Habits other than sticks and string? How about not being able to go in bookstores or music stores. I need a second job just to support my hobbies. Thank God my mother remarried. Now I have a step-sister who owns a bookstore. There is no way this can get any better.
pens. bags. notebooks. yarn. and recently ravelry. 😉
I am a proud yarn collector too. People collect all kinds of wierd things so why not yarn? And although I live in a constant state of clutter (a certain amount of which is unavoidable with 5 boys), my yarn is very will cared for and organized… as any prized collection should be! 🙂
i’ve seen most of mine listed -I LOVE color, so lots of yarn – I do need to display it more, though so we can all enjoy the colors. And I love bags!. Big bags for library books and small bags for sock projects and medium bags for all kinds of things.
I have a huge collection of yarn of course and also cute notebooks. I love to buy pretty notebooks, binders and post it note (although I rarely use the post its). I can hardly walk past a display without picking something papery out that I want! The last thing that I have a “bad” habit of buying is books, especially knitting and other craft books. I just love looking at books and finding ideas in them. I could curl up all day with a stack near by:)
I have a book and yarn habit. I have a ridiculous fear that I will run out of books to read. I was an English and Economics major at Duke, and always had extra books at the ready. Even while reading literature for class, I’d have a contemporary fiction book going as relaxation. And heaven forbid if I forget to pack a second book in my tote…after all, I might finish this other book and have to spend a short while without something to read! I’m kind of the same way about yarns. So far my husband says he thinks it’s really nice that I have a something that I love to do that ends up with a beautiful finished product. I think that he might not be so magnanimous if he ever saw the whole stash! That’s the up-side of not having the craft room that I’d really love to have. My college guy will go back to school on Thursday and I will start to fill his dresser back up with my yarn…till next summer!
I just love kitchen things! I am forbidden to go into Cornucopia. I went in for a $1.95 wooden toast tongs for daught (since she was using a metal knife to get her toast out of the toaster) & came out $300 later. But I bought a bunch of Christmas presents they were running a special on – unfortunately that didn’t save me when I explained it to my hunka hunka burning love. Now I have to be chaperoned – even the owner knows I’m not supposed to be in there. My son gave me 5 minutes 1 day & told me if I wasn’t out by then he was coming in to get me. He didn’t know the damage I can do in 5 minutes!!!!
I love the cute notebooks and journals too! I’m a college student (non-traditional, meaning I’m a little older than the rest of my classmates) and I try not to go overboard, but can’t help myself. This year I bought some cool notebooks which were double the price of the cheapie ones.
Books. Books on places I’ve been, places I want to go, knitting, biographies, books that were my parents, books everywhere! So much so that I’ve spent the last couple of days going through all of them. First, making a list of the ones I haven’t read yet and then trying to sort out the ones I truly want from the ones I can let go. I understand the clean desk /smile thing – sometimes organizing anything makes me feel better. Something orderly in an otherwise crazy world. And Starbucks – venti 2% lattes. I don’t think of either of them as bad habits – just things I really like.
I am a serious pack rat. I keep many, many things that mean things to me on a sentimental level…one item that comes to mind is cards. I haven’t thrown away cards since my high school graduation and that has been over 15 years ago!!
Otherwise, its books and yarn! My cousin (she’s a quilter, thus, has a huge fabric stash) and I are always telling each other that we could have worse habits and it makes us happy, so its completely justified…
We were just talking about that on Saturday, as we were in this Christmas decoration store (but it also has Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff) and she said to me in the Halloween section, “Who has room for all this stuff?!” Well, this lady next to us sheepishly said, “I do…” Apparently, she goes all out at Halloween and decorates her entire house.
So my point, a yarn collection? Yeah, I have one too and am proud of it!! : )
My habits resemble yours a lot! Particularly the freezer and food I don’t know we have. I have way too many books, too. I’m a librarian and bring home deleted books frequently, so they are beginning to add up way too much. I love your philosophy about being a yarn collector. My DH recently figured out how much I have and started to say “what, more yarn?” Now I can compete with his coin collection!! Mine isn’t nearly as expensive as his, either, and I have much more fun with it!;-)
I have a cute notebook addiction too. Last Spring my husband put me on a “notebook diet” after noticing the unusually large number of cute springtime notebooks that were lying around the house.
I’m sure he’d do the same with yarn if my stash wasn’t so stealthily hidden in our house. He thinks I have a small basket of cotton & wool next to my rocking chair… but he hasn’t seen the giant “sweater box” under the bed!
Yarn… is that a bad habit? And coveting every pattern in the universe. And an addiction to getting mail. And knitting. Don’t forget the knitting addiction.
I’m glad I’m not the only one with a notebook obsession . I’m like you: there are just so many cute ones out there and I must have them!!
When I was a kid, one of my favorite times of year was school shopping. Not for clothes, but for the brand new notebooks!
Oooh new notebooks. If you hold off for a few weeks, the kids will have gone back to school and the school supplies will be on clearance. Always a nice time to stock up. I’m even worse than you, with an addiction to Japanese stationary (the price is higher, stuff is cuter, and I have unfilled notebooks galore)
Bad habits: gadgets. And fixating on something, like an item of clothing, glasses, sunglasses, bags…. It just doesn’t go away until I either satisfy myself with the thing, or put money away to satisfy it, or manage to get obsessed by something else and totally forget. I always hope for the forget (as I am forgetful) since if I don’t remember, I don’t need it, right?
And gadgets? I love me some shiny electro-bling 😉 Don’t need gems. This girl, she need batteries and electric sockets. Shiny Shiny is my kind of blog. I’d spend way too much money on “stuff” if I wasn’t actively trying to focus more on people and using what I do have, rather than things and using up what i do have.
Whoo boy, have I got the bad habits. Procrastinating is a big one. But buying many cute notebooks? That is definitely another. 🙂
OH this is bad actually seeing what i collect in writing. I can’t pass by pens, all colors, types and sizes. This has gone over into pencils that look like pens. I also collect dog equipment and feed bowls for the livestock. The Farmers Coop loves me. LOL.
Then last but not least is yarn. Sock yarn is my favorite. I can never have enough and every time I want to start a new pair it seems i don’t have the right yarn so I have to buy more. I keep looking over my shoulders waiting for someone to grab me and start an intervention.
But i love all my “collections.”
Well, procrastinating by blogreading and on-line window shopping at etsy and of course, The Loopy Ewe….that would be one of my bad habits. And I also love notebooks and journals and pretty handmade books. Also handmade paper and cool wrapping paper and ribbons. Sadly, the back-to-school list specifies the colors my daughter’s notebooks must be (one each red, yellow, green and blue, plus 2 of those boring black and white composition books, ugh!), so I can’t even indulge on her behalf. Maybe in middle school they won’t be so picky, but I expect by then, she’ll have definite opions of her own about what to get.
I clutter therefore I am. I’m also married to the Schmutz Meister, aka the man who cannot resist yard sales, thrift shops, etc. We own everything in multiples. We went away for the weekend, and he carried 4, count ‘m, 4 small flashlights in case we needed one to get to the bathroom, which was the room next to ours.
The good thing about it is that he can NEVER complain about my yarn collection!
Notebooks/Journals. I love to buy pretty journals too, but don’t want to ruin the pretty by writing in them! I am constantly on the prowl for a pen that would be good enough to write in the pretty journals, but never find just the right one. Clutter. I accumulate clutter on my kitchen counters and dining room table, and clear it off the night before the cleaning lady comes (I have no time to clean, I’m busy knitting!) by shoving it in the drawers of the china cabinet. These drawers are full of unorganized stuff instead of tablecloths, napkin rings or silverware, and when this reaches capacity, I’ll have to buy a matching sideboard (or clean out the china cabinet, but, again, I’m busy knitting! And that money could be better spent on more sock yarn.).
Yarn? Yarn. Yaaarrrnnn!I have so much sock yarn, one could measure it in miles and pounds. I’m talkin’ about a lot of miles and many pounds. And I quite righteously defend myself because sock yarn doesn’t count as stash. Also, and this is probably the worst, I am obsessive about having the sock yarn organized. It has it’s own cabinet, a built-in with glass doors next to the fireplace in the living room. This yarn must be in alphabetical order, by the first letter of the brand (Apple Laine to Zen String, and more than you would believe in between!). When friends come over to shop my stash, or just to fondle, as they will do, I have to straighten it out once they’re gone. Before I can knit or go to sleep or anything else.
Wow – are we related?!? I too have had husband interventions… especially about freezer meats – well, anything that goes in the freezer actually. I also seem to have an overwhelming urge to buy cans of condensed milk every time that I go shopping. At last count, we had 9 before husband put his foot down… (the truth? I have never made anything with condensed milk in the 6 years we have been together). I also over buy canned veggies, mushroom soup, and bouillon cubes. I think subconsiously I am stocking up in case of an emergency.
Of course, the yarn collection is overrunning the basement… but that’s a given right??
Can I be a copy cat and call myself a yarn collector too?? I have so much sock yarn there’s no way I’ll ever knit it all and yet I still buy it! But if I am a yarn collector…the pressure is off. I like that. I shall be a sock yarn collector!
Thanks!
Gina
Yarn collection, most definitely, is one of my bad habits. I know sock yarn isn’t supposed to count as stash, but when it outweighs (literally) the rest of your stash, I start to wonder. I’ve also discovered the wonders of Rowan yarn, and can’t seem to stop collecting that either. It has become a race to see which pile is bigger 😀 . I also love pens and tape flags. I have those little tape flags in all kinds of magazines and pattern books – my own personal “queue” that I will someday (I’m sure) transfer to ravelry. One I haven’t seen in the comments yet….I collect sugar and creamer sets …and I don’t even drink coffee, and tea rarely. My last bad habit, or at least the one I’ll admit to, is organization stores – I will buy any item there and then see how I can fit it in my house – which I think is the *opposite* of how those places are supposed to work
Hmmmm. Yarn Collector. It suddenly all makes sense.
I love organizing totes and baskets and bins and things. I think it helps me with my ultimate delusion that I am an organized person! It is just like the fact that I had 15+ skeins of sock yarn in my ‘collection’ before I ever knit a sock. It helped with my delusion that i was a sock knitter. Now, I am a sock knitter. Someday I will be an organized person. Only stands to reason….
Oh, and you kind of failed to mention the whole mug thing. Just saying.