Wednesday, January 27, 2016

St Martin de Tours Religious Medal: The Destiny of Things, Story 334

St Martin de Tours Religious Medal:  The Destiny of Things, Story 334

I never knew the stories behind my Saint medal collection until I started listing them.

Saint Martin of Tours religious medal, available here
photo via Hoarder Rehab

Today I have two stories to tell.  One from a kind Etsy buyer who left her story and the one about Martin de Tours.

Here is the email story:

Hello, 

You asked about the purpose of the purchase. Someone did something very very nice for me & they are a mounted policeman. I wanted to get something for him that would help protect him in his job as a horseback rider. He's also ex military. I'd love to know more about your story!

Here is what I wrote back:
Hi!

Thank you so much for your order and story! That is such a cool kind and thoughtful story! So cool you know a mounted policeman!

As a recovering hoarder, my story is that I used to hoard religious items, mainly medals for my repetition art (which is way out of control!) and had no idea about the story of each Saint until I started listing them as I try and let go of my hoard!

Thanks for your story, when I write about it on my blog I'll leave you anonymous and I never know what more insight I'll get from your story until I start writing the post, so I look forward to it. Plus I think this is my first Martin de Tours story.

I can't thank you enough for your story!
Kennedy

PS. Your order was shipped out today with tracking

Saint Martin de Tours religious medal, available here
photo via Hoarder Rehab

Of course, I was so curious about what the very very nice thing was from a mounted policeman and I was so tempted to ask her if the kindness was him cutting his coat in half to share with her, but I chickened out!

Here is what I find interesting about Martin de Tours:

1.  As it shows on the medal, St Martin is giving half his cloak to a beggar by cutting it in half with his sword. His cloak is a legendary relic worn by centuries of kings into battle.

2.  He was a Christian when it was a minority faith at the age of 10, in 316 AD. Christianity had been made a legal religion in 313 AD.

3.  May have been one of the first noted conscientious objectors and his famous cloak may have been the beginnings of chaplains in the battlefields.

4.  Martin didn't remain a soldier long due to his faith, which he determined prohibited him from fighting, saying, "I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight." He was charged with cowardice and jailed, but in response to the charge, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front of the troops. His superiors planned to take him up on the offer, but before they could, the invaders sued for peace, the battle never occurred, and Martin was released from military service. Many years later he became a bishop in France.

5.  He is the patron Saint to soldiers and beggars because his cloak has become a relic and he is known for cutting it in half without worry to share it with a beggar during a snowstorm to keep him from freezing from the cold.

That night, Martin dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak he had given away. He heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptized; he has clad me." (Sulpicius, ch 2). In another version, when Martin woke, he found his cloak restored to wholeness. The dream confirmed Martin in his piety, and he was baptized at the age of 18.

The part kept by himself became the famous relic preserved in the oratory of the Merovingian kings of the Franks at the Marmoutier Abbey near Tours. During the Middle Ages, the supposed relic of St. Martin’s miraculous cloak, (cappa Sancti Martini) was carried by the king even into battle, and used as a holy relic upon which oaths were sworn. The cloak is first attested in the royal treasury in 679, when it was conserved at the palatium of Luzarches, a royal villa that was later ceded to the monks of Saint-Denis by Charlemagne, in 798/99.

The priest who cared for the cloak in its reliquary was called a cappellanu, and ultimately all priests who served the military were called cappellani. The French translation is chapelains, from which the English word chaplain is derived. One of the many services a chaplain can provide is spiritual and pastoral support for military service personnel by performing religious services at sea or in the battlefield.

 Head reliquary of St. Martin. Gilt silver and copper, basse-taille enamel over silver (restored in the 20th century), made in Avignon (?), late 14th century. From the church of Soudeilles (Corrèze, France)
photo and information from wikipedia


Another story I found interesting about him!

1. Not only didn't Martin want to be a soldier, but he didn't want to be a bishop either!

2. The goose became a symbol of St Martin of Tours because of a another legend that when trying to avoid being ordained bishop he had hidden in a goose pen, where he was betrayed by the cackling of the geese.

St. Martin's feast day falls in November, when geese are ready for killing. St Martin’s Day was an important medieval autumn feast, and the custom of eating goose spread all through Europe, which has evolved and is known today as "Advent."

It was primarily observed by the craftsmen and noblemen of the towns. In the peasant community, not everyone could afford to eat goose, so many ate duck or hen instead.  

 Saint Martin de Tours religious medal, available here
photo via Hoarder Rehab

Saying Goodbye:   I have many of these and they have since become one of our more popular religious medals.  I started collecting religious medals in the 80s, especially the same ones because I had planned on making repetition religious folk art with them.  I did make some religious folk art, but ended up using mostly milagros instead.

Garden cross to cure my brown thumb, available here
Love cross for my brother until he crossed paths with his true love, available here

What I Learned:

1.  I tend to buy way more art supplies than I use!  I do know that my art projects used to last about 2 years and then I'd move on to another one, but I haven't found any projects lately to keep my interest for two years, however, it hasn't stopped me from finding items I just have to have!

2.  I can safely say that over 1000 hoarded items have found new homes, thanks to Etsy!  and my hoard is a lot more manageable and organized.  Now I just need to find an art project to keep me creating, rather than buying.

3.  I've definitely learned more than I ever thought I would about all the religious medals I've collected over the decades and I never thought I'd be on the selling side of retail and am still learning so much with so much more to learn.  It's much easier being on the retail therapy side!  And not as easy finding alternatives to comfort buys, although I'm getting better at just window shopping!

 St Michael religious medal with Police Officer's Prayer, available here

Thank you Etsy buyer from Hoarder Rehab for taking the time to email and share your story, especially since I haven't received a religious medal story in such a long time! So good to get another one!
 
Also, it's reminded me that I art in the past has helped me from hoarding and I hope to find some art projects to rekindle a two year interest.
 
Thank you Etsy for the best Hoarder Rehab ever!  And these St Martin de Tours are one of most popular religious medals!  Thanks again!

Thank you readers from all over the world who continue to support my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things with your visits even though I've been napping the last couple of months during my blog time now that my insomnia is over!  

Here is another one of our most popular medals, St William, available here
photo via VintageToGoEasy


I am adding new items weekly to each shop until I have 800 of my dehoard listed that will be 200 items listed at each shop!  However, I still need to focus on my health, so I'm adding slowly, but surely.  
 
JUST 11 more items to list before I reach my goal!  Yippee!
 
Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed daily and/or weekly: HoarderRehab with 194 items, The Destiny of Things- 191 items, VintageToGoEasy - 202 items and now JunkDrawerAndMore - 202 items!    

Maybe you'll find something to adopt and share your story too!  Thanks for looking!
 
 Tomorrow is the last day to order (with USPS first class mail, 2-3 day Priority mail is available until February 1, 2016) Year of the Monkey drink and/or cake toppers for your Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, available here

Related Stories:

1.  My first story about religious medals and first order from The Destiny of Things! 
Mortician Religious Medals: The Destiny of Things, Story XXIII 
 
 
 
 
5.  St Christopher medal is with a student studying in Africa!  A Mighty Circular Destiny as Infinity Story:  The Destiny of Things XLIII  
 
 
If you love religious medals as much as I do, you might like this 18 medal necklace!
My most favorite rosary necklace from 1910! available here
 
 
 
 
 
11.  Made into earrings by a creative Etsy shop owner:  Pope Pius X Canonization Medals:  The Destiny of Things, Story LXXVII 
 
 
 This unique bracelet has even more with 20 medals! Available here
photo via VintageToGoEasy

Who's your favorite Saint or religious icon? Hmm.... mine might be Saint Jude Thaddeus of lost causes due to my hoarding, however I do like Our Lady of the Highway and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.  Our Lady of Guadalupe was one of the first icons that started my whole religious folk art collecting, besides milagros!

Friday, January 22, 2016

"I Gotta Glock in my Rari" Mini James Bond Guns: The Destiny of Things, Story 333

"I Gotta Glock in my Rari" Mini James Bond Guns:  The Destiny of Things, Story 333

Such a fun email story with our hottest seller!  Love the photo they sent with it!

10 Fetty Wap James Bond glock guns, available here

Here's the email:

Hello, 

Now that we have a break between the holidays, I had a free moment to myself. I hope you had a great Christmas and continue to have a happier new year! 

Okay so the story behind ordering the James Bond guns!!! Let's just say you made my life so much easier by having these available. So there is a song out called 679 by a rapper name Fetty Wap. Not sure if your familiar. However, in the song he says, "I gotta glock in my Rari" meaning he has his gun in his Ferrari. It's a really catchy tune and that lol saying is just everywhere. So we have a lot of young people in our family and we just sporadically say the verse.

So my sister and I wanted to give everyone a glock and a Ferrari as a joke of course we can't even afford 1 Ferrari let alone 10. I will tell u this much though, out of all the matchbox cars in the world and all the stores they are sold in. We could only find 1 toy Ferrari. I took for granted it would be an easy find and the guns would be the difficult task. But thanks to you, it was easy as pie. So thank you very much for helping us pull off out gag gift for our family. Here are the pictures.



 Love this photo!  Thank you!
10 Fetty Wap glock, no Rari, available here
photo via Etsy buy from JunkDrawerAndMore

What family fun!  Love their inside family joke saying!  This letter and photos made me crack up! 

What a thoughtful and funny stocking stuffer for the family.  Who would have thought finding a toy Ferrari would be so difficult?  Things like that happen to me a lot when I'm searching for a particular thing and then when I'm over it, I'll start finding what I was looking for all over the place!  I wonder if they have been finding toy Ferrari's wherever they go now!

 Love this top view too!  Thank you!
10 Fetty Wap glocks, no Rari, available here
photo via Etsy buy from JunkDrawerAndMore

Of course, I had to listen to 679 feat Remy Boyz, llsten to it here on Youtube, while writing this post and it reminded me of my inner city teaching days in Los Angeles and Long Beach.  My first non standard English vernacular, (teachers were not allowed to call it, ghetto slang!)  which I learned on my first day at school in Los Angeles was, "I gotta go use it."  I thought they meant the pencil sharpener!  To my surprise, it was the bathroom!

What's up was really popular back then, but it was soon shortened to wha-a, said in one syllable.  Other slang I remember was chale, simon, banking it, tight, sick, bad, orale and that's about it.

Fetty wap means big stash of money.  Learn something new everyday!

10 Fetty Wap glocks, no Rari, available here

Saying Goodbye:  I have my own stash of these and won't be parting with them.  I remember fighting over these with my brother from childhood and setting up little vignettes with my miniature dolls and his army men.  We had so much fun with these! 

I have my own set of each type of mini gun, included the rifles and ak's!  We should be getting more rifles and ak's, but they are very difficult to find!  Maybe once I give up, they'll start appearing everywhere!

Below is a photo of the ones I have stashed in sets for myself!

10 assorted mini gold guns, available here
 photo via JunkDrawerAndMore 

What I Learned:

1.  I just love to collect things from my childhood!  I'll have to explore that insight more deeply.  Unfortunately my Rosebud would not be "just" two things, but an entire hoard!  I'll have to learn to fill the void with other alternatives.  Which gives me some ideas!

2.  I love inside jokes and sayings.  My latest one is from the Travelodge motel glasses, "Sleepy bear is everywhere!"  Now that my insomnia is gone, I wonder how long I'll be hibernating. 

 Here are the glocks in silver, available here
photo via JunkDrawerAndMore 

Thank you Etsy buyer from JunkDrawerAndMore for taking the time after the busy holiday bustle to email and share your story and the song.  Your story was funny and I just love it when I get photos too!
 
Thank you Etsy for the best Hoarder Rehab ever!  And these glocks are one of our best sellers!  Thanks again!

Thank you readers from all over the world who continue to support my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things with your visits even though I've been napping the last couple of months during my blog time now that my insomnia is over!  
 
 Classic vintage pistols, available here
photo via VintageToGoEasy

I am adding new items weekly to each shop until I have 800 of my dehoard listed that will be 200 items listed at each shop!  However, I still need to focus on my health, so I'm adding slowly, but surely.  
 
Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed daily and/or weekly: HoarderRehab with 187 items, The Destiny of Things- 188 items, VintageToGoEasy - 200 items and now JunkDrawerAndMore - 194 items!    

Maybe you'll find something to adopt and share your story too!  Thanks for looking!
 
 Here is how my brother and I used to play with them!
10 Walking Dead Rick Grimes style guns, available here
 
Related Stories:
 
 
 
I think I'll watch Citizen Kaine again.  What's your Rosebud?

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Nesting Frog Cycle Toy Collector: The Destiny of Things, Story 332

Nesting Frog Cycle Toy Collector:  The Destiny of Things, Story 332

Just this morning, this little frog family came with a fun email story!

 Vintage frog cycle toy, available here

Here is the email:

Hi there!

Thank you again for the order. It's a pretty cute and unique toy. I also love that you included little surprises with it, and noticed how you nested the nesting toy with many little bags within. That was fun and did not go unappreciated.

I bought this particular item, not for myself but for a friend. She is a HUGE frog collector, and we are both fans and collectors of little figurines, trinkets, mystery boxes, blind grab bags, weird cutesy stuff, etc. So this was absolutely perfect. Her Birthday isn't until August but I figured I should swoop this up now before it's too late. Too many times I have come across something fantastic on Etsy and waited too long to purchase it, before it was gone forever.

I'm excited to give this to her. Even before I added this item to my cart, I imagined her opening it, and her first thought being, "cute frog figurine", but then me getting to tell her to "open it up!" and then ANOTHER smaller frog figurine inside?! but wait keep going!! She is going to love it. And out of all the frog stuff I and others have given her over the years I can pretty much bet this will be the best and most creative gift. And as much as I would love to keep the fortune teller miracle fish for myself (I've never seen these before!) I know that she will get a kick out of it more so.

So once again thank you for not just making this a purchase, but an experience... multiple experiences! I wish you well and keep up the fun!

Thank you
tHank you
thAnk you
thaNk you
thanK you
thank You
thank yOu
thank yoU
THANK YOU

 Vintage frog cycle toy, available here

And what perfect timing!  I really needed a huge pick me up today because I am under the weather with muscle aches and a headache and just feel like crawling back into bed and napping all day!  I was dragging myself around wondering if I'd blog post today when this email came for me!

I am so thankful when someone takes the time to let me know they noticed all the little things and it makes them happy too!  Who doesn't love such a nice surprise!

It's so fun to think about how this toy is going to be enjoyed by at least two more people.  From the third paragraph, I can't tell who is going to be happier, the giver or recipient!  I so wish I could be a fly on the wall this coming August!  And the bonus is as a recovering hoarder who has collected way too many things, I just love it when my stuff goes to a collector because I know it's going to savored forever!

Unfortunately, as a recovering hoarder, I am a HUGE collector of little figurines, trinkets, and weird cutesy stuff too, however I am not of fan of mystery boxes and blind grab bags.... I have to know what I'm getting because I've gotten too many dud mystery grab bags.  However, I did just buy some surprise balls, so I'll see.

Also as a recovering hoarder who loves and has to have lots of trinkets and weird cutesy stuff and one day hopes to organize it all to use in my mixed media art, I know how much it hurts when I don't buy something and it's gone forever!!!!!  It just happened to me yesterday and I've been trying to figure out why it makes me so FOMO crazed sad.  It used to be worse, so I'm hoping that "the fear of missing out" crazed sadness will become less and less now that I'm conscious of my hoarding ways and with time I won't even give the "lost buy" a second thought.  Immersion therapy works for me.

 Educational frog cycle toy, available here

Saying Goodbye:  I had so many of these and other frog stuff because it's a third grade standard to study the cycles of nature, one of them being the frog cycle, but that year my students insisted on studying dinosaurs!  That was when theme teaching was the rage.

Anyways, I have several of these saved for my art and there are only a few left, so I feel all right with letting these go, but I'll see what happens when the last one moves on.  I just love those wiggle eyes!

 Educational frog cycle toy, available here

What I Learned:

1.  I usually don't nap because of my insomnia, but my insomnia has disappeared and I can't keep my eyes open at the time I usually blog, so I guess I'm catching up on several decades of lost sleep.  I even tried to solve the problem by blogging two hours earlier, but I still fell asleep and still slept like a rock at night.  So I'm back logged with stories to post.

2.  Last winter holidays were less stressful for me, but I still ended up going on a retail therapy spree and bought lots of little trinkets, cutesy weird stuff and my other favorite paper.... religious paper, Dresdens, Victorian scraps and any other things that catches my fancy for my mixed media art.  I did better than the year before, but my minimalist organic house dream with a 2nd room for music and art is a work in progress.

At least when other stressful events happen during the year, I don't usually turn to instant hoard buying gratification anymore.  I know now that my stress starts with autumn holidays and then by Christmas it builds up until I turn to the easiest way for me to manage the anxiety!  Shop til I drop!  

Only time will tell what happens next year!

3.  I hope to focus more on my "me" this year, instead of my hoard.  It's been quite an interesting and fun Etsy adventure learning everything from computer skills, online retail business, USPS domestic and international shipping regulations, Etsy lingo and all the details that go with the Etsy world.  Thank you Etsy!

Frog pouch I never got to use for my theme teaching, available here
photo via VintageToGoEasy

Thank you Etsy buyer from JunkDrawerAndMore for taking the time to email and share your story and for letting me know you appreciate all the little things.  Your story brought me such insight today and reminders to focus on myself with less dehoarding and even less retail therapy. 
 
And thank you for the kindest compliment of how this was an experience and not just a purchase!  I've heard that before when someone said my packaging was like a little experience of performance art, but never really understood until now!  THANKS A MILLION!  So many insights today, thanks to you!
 
Thank you Etsy for the best Hoarder Rehab I could ever imagine!

Thank you readers from all over the world who continue to support my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things with your visits even though I've been napping the last couple of months!  I am so thankful my insomnia is over!  Knock on wood!

Magic Fortune Fish from my teaching days, available here
Magic was my theme to teach Science and Math

I am adding new items weekly to each shop until I have 800 of my dehoard listed that will be 200 items listed at each shop!  However, I still need to focus on my health, so I'm adding slowly, but surely.  
 
Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed daily and/or weekly: HoarderRehab with 192 items, The Destiny of Things- 187 items, VintageToGoEasy - 199 items and now JunkDrawerAndMore - 199 items!    

Maybe you'll find something to adopt and share your story too!  Thanks for looking!
 
 Mini preserved crab from my Ocean theme teaching days, available here
photo via JunkDrawerAndMore 
 
Related Stories:
 
 
 
 
 
6.  In case you want to know the science behind the magic of fortune fish, Teachable Moments with  Fortune Fish Tellers:  The Destiny of Things, Story 180

Learn Spanish while playing Loteria bingo, available here
Also from my Party Around the World theme teaching days, fun way to learn cultural greetings, etiquette, formal and informal, etc and still party!
photo via Hoarder Rehab

What are your New Year Resolutions for 2016?  I made my usual list.  It's never too late, besides Chinese New Year is still around the corner!

Monday, January 18, 2016

Montag Brothers Wooden Inlay Box: The Destiny of Things, Story 331

Montag Brothers Wooden Inlay Box:  The Destiny of Things, Story 331

I'm back with a story!

Southern Montag Brothers Inc wooden inlay decorative box
photo via VintageToGoEasy

An Etsy buyer was so happy to have this box to fill with greeting cards.  I can just imagine it full of last year's winter holiday cards and now with New Year's cards.  How fun!

Which reminds me....I had saved all my greeting cards, letters, birthday cards and souvenir postcards,  from childhood to beyond college.  I had also saved many letters and daily notes from students from my teaching career and during one of my purges I threw them all out.

I do regret throwing out that box and it was a godzillian times larger than the Montag box!  That year I threw out almost everything!  I had decided to keep 12 things.  I was soon to retire from teaching and was moving to a new home and thought the purge would help me start a new life.

It did!  I started a whole new life hoarding again!  My new collection of furniture began with Japanese tansus, but that's another story!

Southern Montag Brothers Inc box:  SOLD OUT
photo via VintageToGoEasy

Interestingly enough I did use it in the classroom to store emergency pencils, in case we were vandalized which happened almost every weekend and especially over a holiday weekend.  I kept all classroom essentials locked up in a filing cabinet with a second lock and long chain going through all the handles.

The interesting part is I just found out that the Southern Montag Brothers company are known for selling paper and school supplies!  Their logo was a Blue Horse.  I'm  not 100% sure, but I think it's the same company who made the box.  Anyone out there know for sure?  I do recognize their logo.

photo via google

Saying Goodbye:  I have quite the box collection and slowly but surely am letting them go one by one.  It's getting easier and less painless, but to relieve stress, however I still find myself buying stuff I really don't need or just want for some reason.  It does seem to take the edge off holiday anxiety or even works as a little pick me up.

I can say I did much better this year with holiday stress related retail therapy than I did last year!

Southern Montag Brothers Inc box:  SOLD OUT
photo via VintageToGoEasy
Here is a mini inlay tansu box with drawers, here

What I Learned:

1.  As a recovering hoarder, purging does not work for me!  Before hoarding became a household word I would purge about every 10 years and later end up with more than I had purged.  It took me awhile to see this pattern emerge.  The hardest part is finding alternatives to stress and  hoarding which I also call, easy retail therapy.

2.  Just the other day, someone emailed me and said the book by Marie Kondo helped them.  Many people have recommended the book by Marie Kondo, "The Life Changing Magic to Tidying Up."  So much so, I've almost bought it on line several times, but as a recovering hoarder, decided I should at least flip through the book or get it from the library before I add something else to my hoard of books.

A while back, I found it at a book store and did flip through it but it did not call out my name or keep my interest for more than five minutes, so I put it back.  I don't remember why, but since other people keep telling me about it, next time I'll try again.

3.  There are many things I've purged and now regret it.  As a matter of fact, there are more things I've missed from purging than I do from letting things go on my Etsy shops.  I'll have to ponder the "why" on that one another time.

4.  Below is a mini inlay tansu box which is a very tiny version of the tansus I now own from my purge 10 years ago when I kept only 12 things.  Imagine I have a tansu large enough to be a stairway that could lead to a small loft area.  It's like a huge storage stairway cupboard with cabinets and drawers.  My other tansus are smaller.  My favorite being a kimono tansu.

Mini wooden inlay tansu, available here
photo via Hoarder Rehab

Thank you Etsy buyer from VintageToGoEasy for taking the time to email and share your story and I am so happy to hear you love it as much as I do.  Your story brought me to mine and knowing what doesn't work for me brings me hope that I will one day find what will work for me!
 
Thank you Etsy for the best Hoarder Rehab I could ever imagine!

Thank you all readers from all over the world who continue to support my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things with your visits!

More classroom boxes from my teaching days, available here

I am adding new items weekly to each shop until I have 800 of my dehoard listed that will be 200 items listed at each shop!  However, I still need to focus on my health, so I'm adding slowly, but surely.  
 
Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed daily and/or weekly: HoarderRehab with 193 items, The Destiny of Things- 187 items, VintageToGoEasy - 197 items and now JunkDrawerAndMore - 199 items!    

Maybe you'll find something to adopt and share your story too!  Thanks for looking!
 
 Boxes I've been crafting as part of my alternatives to hoarding, available here
 
Related Stories:
 
 
 
 
 
5.  The First Sign That I Was a Hoarder! My Ever Expanding List of Collections!  Where I first realized that I do collect boxes and will even buy something just because I like the box!
 
Merry Belated Winter Holiday Cheer and Happy New Year!