A blog can function as a virtual record of daily life, at least if you’ve blogged for 5½ years like I have. Many is the time that Don or I will question when something happened and I’ll say “I’ll check the blog!”
So, an interesting thing happened while I was in Hartford. I was doing some work on the blog; checking old posts, editing a bit, that sort of thing, when I saw something amiss.
I collect egg cups, as you all know by now, and I often highlight them around Easter. I came across the most recent photo of them on a shelf and something looked off. I had a feeling that one of them was missing. I wasn’t sure which one was missing, so I went back in time via my blog posts to the previous Easter.
Aha.
The photo on the left is from last spring. The one on the right is from the year before. The pink arrow is pointing to the egg cup that was missing: a hard-to-find Little Boy Wearing a Cowboy Hat egg cup made in Japan more than a few decades ago.
I racked my brain. Had I seen it lately? No. Where had it gone? I had no idea.
This is not an easy egg cup to replace – this sort of figural egg cup is getting harder and harder to find. How could it have suddenly disappeared? I regret to say that for a second or two, I wondered if someone had absconded with it. But then I regained my senses. I mean, why would anyone take a little egg cup? Ridiculous.
I called Don and asked him to look around the floor in the guest room, where we had previously hung these shelves before we moved them to our bedroom. He couldn’t find anything. Since I was away from home there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it.
But it bugged me.
I had planned to look for the egg cup when I got back home, but Scout got sick and I forgot all about it. Cut to a few days ago. I went upstairs to look at the shelves. No cowboy. I went into the guest room and looked everywhere. Nothing. When I ‘lose’ something, I often say to myself “Nothing is ever lost” and I wait for some sort of clue to emerge from the recesses of my mind.
Wait a minute. I suddenly remembered hitting my head on the underside of that bottom shelf, which resulted in several egg cups crashing to the floor. One of them broke and I had to glue it together. At the time, I gathered all of them up and put them back on the shelves. Was that the clue? Could the egg cup have gone missing then?
And, as if guided by the Lost Item Guardian Angel, my eyes went to the bed – the end of the bed, which is a foot or two away from the shelves. I got on my knees, lifted the dust ruffle….and there it was. Just under the bed – a few inches under it. Nestled against a storage box. The Little Boy Wearing a Cowboy Hat had been sleeping. For several months.
He’d been there all the time.
Here he is. Did you have a nice nap?
Thank you dear blog. You alerted me to the fact that one of my egg cups had gone missing. I put out an APB and he was rescued. Now he’s back on the shelf where he belongs.
On another note: my friend Dawn recently posted a photo of a Stick Bug, or a Walking Stick Bug. I hadn’t seen one in years. Look what I found in the garden the other day:
I made Don go get my camera so I could keep track of where he was in the meantime. Every time I got close with my camera, he would freeze. He knew we were there. The moment I moved away, he would continue climbing up that zinnia. I got several shots of him, then my attention was diverted by a bumble bee flying into a morning glory blossom. When I looked back, he was gone.
By the way, I’ve spoken to you all about Dawn before. She designed the watermarks you see here, as well as my signature. She offers her design services to bloggers and her prices are very, very reasonable. If you need something for your blog, I urge you to contact her. She is incredibly professional and her work is lovely. She is a busy wife and mother, devoted to her family and, boy, is she talented! I recommend her highly. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Dawn over the past few months and she is the best.
Happy Thursday.
I hate to search for missing items! Reminds me of my law office years of looking for missing FILES! How could a huge brown legal portfolio file go missing?? But they did on a regular basis! My husband and I save change all year for extra Christmas money. We counted it up a few weeks ago and had a couple hundred dollars which was in a plastic bag. I am sure he put it somewhere safe but can we find it now??? No. Not anywhere in this little house! He will continue looking. Glad you found your sweet little cowboy!
Yikes! A couple hundred dollars! Start saying, “nothing is ever lost!”
Thank-You Claudia! for the last few minutes I’ve been transported to last Spring,and your beautiful egg cup collection. And looking forward to a beautiful Spring ,and summer lay out ahead of us like a long, lazy, dream! And of Course my girl, Melanie was still here! Thank-You I look forward to this blog every morning.
– Judy A-
Thinking of you, dear Judy. xoxo
Hi Claudia. I have always admired your collection, and am so glad you found your errant wanderer. Just wanted to mention, it isn’t a boy in a cowboy hat, but a Regency gentleman from England in the 1810-1820s in a curled brim top hat…a favorite theme for the eggcups.
Ruth
Gosh, I’ve seen it described as a boy with a cowboy hat in a few reference books. I might just keep calling it that! Thanks, Ruth, for the information. Now I know what it really is!
So glad you found your little cowboy. See, blogs are good for more than reading, right?
That walkingstick is amazing. Those things always scared me to death when I was little. Don’t know why.
Have a great day.
Judy
They are a little odd looking, Judy. But I like them.
Makes me crazy when I misplace something and have to search for it…I just adore your sweet egg cup collection..Walking Sticks are so interesting aren’t they?
I think they’re really neat, Nancy! And I can’t remember I saw one before the other day. It’s been years.
I’m thrilled that you found your cowboy eggcup! And, without injury apparently? I’ve been searching for months for a small flowerpot…it’s important to me…it was a gift. I’ve checked every closet and cupboard. I even cleaned up my garden section of the garage….sounds much more impressive than it is. Where is it? I’m stymied! Almost wish I had a blog to refer to…almost! ;)
No injury. He fell onto the carpet and didn’t break!
I was thinking your egg cup was probably near your sewing machine holding pins or buttons. I go to an Asian grocery store and look on the clearance table and there are usually sake cups who have lost the rest of their set and run about $1 each. They are smaller than a tea cup. Just the right size for lots of things. I have these all over my house. They hold my daily vitamins on the kitchen table, pins and buttons by my sewing machine, rings by the sinks, small pebbles or sea glass (I have found on the beach) in the bathroom and bedroom. So that is where my head went. I loved your pictures of the stick bug. I have heard of them, and seen them in pictures, but I would love to see one in my garden. I am going to keep a closer eye out now. I wonder if I have just been walking past them all these years.
They blend in. Great camouflage!
That reminds me of the outdoor candle holder and stand that I could only find the stand part. For two years I hunted and finally found the holder. Then, I couldn’t find the stand. I’m not as tenacious as you and gave up.
Isn’t it frustrating?
“Nothing is ever lost” is very good. At our home, hubs always reminds me: “Its a closed system” meaning it is still here somewhere in this big box with a lid, aka as a house. Funny, the older I get, more and more things seem to be growing legs and refusing to remain where I know for certain I left them. Who writes these rules anyway?
I like that – “it’s a closed system” – perfect.
So glad you found the little egg cup! I love looking back at my blog as it often reminds me of things I have packed away and want to use again! Of course now I’m in a huge purging mode but that is a good thing I keep telling myself!
More power to you, Linda! I need to do some purging myself.
I’m so glad you found your little cowboy eggcup, I know how much all them mean to you and that is quite a collection. I laughed because I use my blog as a point of reference, too. We wanted to stay in the same rooms we had in the past at two separate inns and I was able to track that. And I know it’s weird, but I look back at the previous years holiday decorations to do the same or something differently.
I don’t know how you spotted that stick bug!! Amazing little critter!
XO,
Jane
Not weird at all to me, Jane. Makes perfect sense!
I’m glad you found the egg up. I hate when something goes missing – looking for a bag right now that I put down somewhere. With all my organization, you’d think something as simple as a bag would be easy to find.
Hmmmm. Maybe I should look under our bed!! Nope. Just checked. Not ever a dust bunny there ….
There are dust bunnies and egg cups under our bed, Chy!
Haha! That must be common because I do exactly the same thing; use the blog as my memory. I’ve been blogging since 2006, so I have amassed quite a collection of photographic evidence… er… documentation! Not all of it has made it to the blog, unfortunately, but I have it all on my computer. I use it all the time. Recipes, too.
I’m glad you found your missing egg cup!
~Angela~
Me too. And thank goodness for our blogs!
Claudia, I had to go back and look at my stick bug after seeing yours. Mine is green and brown and yours is brown. I know there are different varieties. If it has wings that means it is a female. Looks like we both had males. I am surprised yours moved quickly, mine remained on the screen all day and moved very slowly. They are wondrous insects. Thank you again for the mention, you are so sweet and I value our friendship:)
Yes, I think mine was a male. No wings that I could see. I really love them – amazing the camouflage they have! xo
I look forward to reading your blog every single day Claudia. I enjoy how you find interest and beauty in such a variety of things … and that you share it all with us. I haven’t seen, or even thought about, a stick bug in years! Always like seeing your egg cup collection, and I’m glad the tale had a happy ending :)
Yes, I’m glad too, Debbie. Isn’t that stick bug amazing?
Wow, I haven’t seen a stick bug in so long. Love that you were able to get some photos of this one. So happy you found your egg cup. I generally find if I sit down and really focus and think back I can figure out where something is. xo Laura
Drives me crazy when I can’t find something in my home and just “know” it’s around here somewhere. I do eventually find things. They’re not lost; they’re just temporarily misplaced. Love the pics of the walking stick bug. I’ve never seen one in “real life”!
I love egg cups but I only have one. A very plain, pretty dove gray fluted one that my niece gave me with a decorated Easter egg in it when she was five and in kindergarten. I still use it for various things, including eggs. Your collection is nice, Claudia – and how original! A great blog topic too – unless you’ve already done one that I missed… PS – have been meaning to ask. Scout is named after To Kill A Mockingbird. Does Riley’s naming have a story as well? Just wondering. Thanks and have a great Friday!
Glad all is well with in the world of egg cups..Must be stick bug season..I saw one yesterday..