Better late than never, right? These are from Friday Five...

1. What is your most prized material possession?
I guess that would have to be my house. I am extremely proud to be a homeowner at the age of not-quite-25 and I put a lot of time and effort into taking care of it. I enjoy the work too. I know that there are many people who work their whole lives trying to get to where I am now and I try not to forget that.

2. What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest?
Since I was about 10, I have had a black t-shirt with a silkscreened image of two dalmations with red bows and heart-shaped spots. I distinctly remember the day that my father bought it for me. I agonized over which color and which picture and what size. I remember finally deciding to get an extra large so that I could bunch it up and clip it at my hip. It must have reached down to my knees when we got it, because it is still long enough to wear as a dress. I have worn it and washed it so often that it is a faded grey and the dalmations are nearly gone. Just this past year it has started to get little holes where there just isn't enough fabric to hold it together anymore. I still wear it to bed. I am going to be sad when it finally disintegrates. I have a feeling that it will get a prized spot in a memory box, rather than being tossed into the ragbag.

3. Are you a packrat?
Um. I am going to save a shirt when it can't be worn because of it's sentimental value. That would be a big, fat YES! I save everything. I always have. One year in highschool, I was in a play. In one of the scenes someone dropped a peice of pottery and it broke. I enjoyed the play so much that I saved a peice from every single pot that got broken - even in rehearsal. Probably about 10 in all. I have spent my entire life collecting junk because it triggers some kind of memory. I have disposed of large amounts of said junk at 2 key points in my life. I trimmed down the flotsom of my youth when I moved to college. (Actually, I didn't so much trim it down as I just left it behind. Sorry, mom!) and I did a thorough dusting of the memory shelves when I moved to California. That was easier because there were lots of memories I didn't want to bring with me. It just gave me more room to start collecting again. It's all junk and it is all important in some way.

4. Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum?
If I were rich, I would have a huge house with many rooms, each dedicated to some aspect of my life - a sewing room, an exercise room, a book room, an arts and crafts room - so that I could leave the materials needed for each activity out and still not have a mess. And I would have a maid to keep all those rooms dusted and vacuumed. I like to have organized clutter. What I have is more like disorganized tidiness. There IS a difference, you know.

5. Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there?
My guest bedroom is where I put all my hippy stuff. It has tie-dyed pillows, a picture of a unicorn and some 60's themed black velvet posters that I colored myself. My guest bathroom is done in the K-Mart (or is it Target) Celestial theme, focusing largely on the sun/moon motif and accented with anything with a sun on it that I can get my hands on. These are the only two rooms I have that are themed in any way. The rest of the house is a mish-mash of all the junk that I have collected over the years. My ecclectic collection of knick-knacks is held in check only by my husband's sparce, monastic approach to decorating. We balance each other out nicely and it is quite comfy, even if I do say so myself.