This is my mother’s penmanship certificate from 1925 when she was in high school. It measures 11×18 and is a beautiful work of art in itself.
‘for the attainment of excellence in Rapid Muscular Movement Business Writing…’
Years later in junior high I got a handwriting certificate. Much, much smaller, no art work, no seal, no frame, and only a stamped signature by the principal.
Relics from past 
https://citysonnet.wordpress.com/2019/03/01/march-photo-a-day-challenge-2/
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Tagged Martha's Vineyard, paper, photo a day challenge, Photographs, school
Before I started going through all of my papers, I never would have claimed to be a paper hoarder. I thought I was pretty good at throwing old junk mail out a couple times a week and filing things that are important…and forgetting that a lot of time I tend to shove paper in file just to get it out of my sight. Now that I’ve been through it, I have to admit that I had a problem.
Case in point:
Did I even know what I kept in this file? Not at all. It was just junk that had probably accumulated on my desk. I think I found one useful file in all of this. Same for my other three file boxes. I found some business receipts, some old W-2s, and other once useful documents, but mostly, I found junk. Wadded post-its, old syllabi, the orientation folder from when I worked at Target from approxiamately 5 minutes back in 2008… Readers, I found Japanese homework. I haven’t studied Japanese since 2005. I don’t even know how that got filed since I didn’t buy that folder until I started Tiny Dino Studios in 2011.
And my file folders weren’t even the worst part. Check out my craft drawer:
1. The drawers are just plain messy, but I’m not organizing yet, I’m still in the decluttering stage.
2. What even is that jumble? I don’t even know.
I think things like this are a symptom of not spending enough time in my studio. I give myself just long enough to complete my project, but not enough time for clean up, so when I go in to start something new, I just shove the leftover stuff from last time out of sight. Also, I don’t have a trash can in my studio. I really should remedy that.
I don’t have any pretty pictures to show you, because even though my files boxes are functional and I know where all my important stuff is, the rest of my studio is still a disaster. The files boxes and binders are waiting patiently on my desk for their turn to find a home.
What was important in this project was gather all of the paper into one place and sorting it one piece at a time. Like the books, it was a bigger job than I expected. It took me a few hours to find and rifle through all that. In the end, I threw away four bags of what was essentially trash that I had been carrying around for years, which was extremely satisfying.
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Tagged Around the House, decluttering, konmari, letting go, mari kondo, paper, tidy, tidying, tidying up