(I have a really bad case of the Fridays today, y’all).
What cheerful little items have you got there to play with or rest your eyes upon?
I have pictures of my kids and grandkid, of course. And a cat calendar, practically goes without saying.
Also:
A bookmark made from a Confederate bill
An elephant-shaped candle holder (full of paper clips)
A small figure of Bast that my daughter made for me on a 3D printer
A carved stone owl
A carved wooden cat, sleeping
A stuffed bumblebee that I use as a paperweight
None. I’m not a knick-knack person, and the thought of decorating a cube is completely depressing to me. It just makes me face the fact that I’m burning away most of my life in it instead of keeping that fact nicely stuffed down deep inside.
At appropriate times of year, I put seasonal, small stuffed toys up on the shelf above the desk–Rudolph around Christmas-time, pastel bunnies as Easter approaches, a sort of green-man harvest-festival figure (like a snowman, but with pumpkins/gourds) in the autumn. There’s nothing there at the moment, though.
I’ll see your dog and raise you two more, plus an African Grey Parrot.
On my desk I have dog treats, a fake fetus in an empty baby food jar filled with tinted alcohol, pictures of my kids, a menu from Kali’s Beach Bar on Friar’s Bay, a signed NFL football in a T, various old computer cables, and a change jar.
Rubber ducks. I’ve got about 20 of them, but everyone else in our office has them. I started out with three, and it just escalated.
A plastic skeleton of a crow. Because I couldn’t find one of a duck.
Tea making equipment. Cups, infusers, travel mugs.
Various gimme items from conferences: including a wind-up dancing robot; lots of stress relief squeeze items, most notably a brain from the Alzheimer’s Association (I can’t decide whether that’s extremely appropriate or extremely inappropriate).
A copy of the table of contents from Analog, January 2015.
Various magnets and other nicknacks from conferences.
Only 3 items - a photo of my daughter and son-in-law taken when they got married, the very first piece of pottery that I threw - it’s perfect for paper clips - and a coffee mug that a fellow MMPer gave me when he visited last year - it holds my pens and pencils since I don’t drink coffee.
Unless you count my little tool pouch and its contents - but that’s not so much personal as necessary for the job sometimes.
A rubber shark with bunny ears, my collection of Nolan Ryan promotional items, my army guy lamp, and my rules to Tres Hermanos Alou, a baseball trivia game originally based on the serial numbers of a dollar bill.https://flic.kr/p/249XDGj
Family photos
Lamp for extra light
Salt lamp for ambience (I know it doesn’t do anything, but it’s pretty)
Handmade ceramic pots for holding paperclips
About seven or eight knitted flowers/butterflies/leaves/ladybugs, in a corner with a stuffed toy uterus (shout out Spice Weasel!), and a jeweled tree.
Hand lotion
One of those sand thingies you flip upside down to watch the sand flow down
A woven basket to hold hard candies (except for Fridays, when it’s Chocolate Friday)
A wall calendar and a desk calendar
Magnets (when one of us goes on vacation we bring back souvenir magnets for the team)
Lysol Wipes
Tea and oatmeal for my breakfasts.
I’m not a regular poster in IMHO (or any fora for that matter), but this thread caught my eye. I hope i’m not intruding. I have an engine blade from a B-1 bomber made into a name placard, a coffee mug made from a discarded bleed air hose, several methods to make coffee, and the only golf trophy I’ve ever won. Randomly, there are joke/trivk golf balls around. Finally, I have my seashell collection from my time diving on Guam.
Oh, gee. I work from home. I have a dedicated office and it is choc-a-block with personal crap.
A toy bear. A Playmobil “fire guardian” with stag head dress. A Lego “worried hiker” figurine. A drill brace (long story; it has personal meaning). A twisted square-iron bracelet. A silver ring that looks like a bear claw. A Cernunnos amulet. A candle shaped like the Venus of Willendorf. A drop spindle. Reproduction 18th-century coins and bills. A stuffed dragon. A tiny pharmacy for my Calico Critters mice, with shelves and tiny jars full of dried flowers from my garden. Tons and tons of yarn. Beeswax “celebration” candles that are definitely for putting on birthday cakes not on pagan altars. A bowl of homemade potpourri. A patchwork quilt I made, slung over the back of my chair. Drawers full of love-you-mommy notes from my daughter. Every Schleich North American animal I can find. Every Folkmanis North American animal finger puppet I can find. Candle holders made of birch branches. A Moravian star lantern. Prints of Brueghel paintings.
Besides the work swag that technically belongs to me but isn’t personal, some items are out:
Calendar from church
Two art posters
printout of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
mini Zen garden from a co-worker
a couple of souvenirs from a co-worker
gum, lots and lots of gum
Sadly my infectious disease squeeze ball sprung a leak and had to be tossed. No pictures because I don’t have a family like that.
(Hidden in my cabinet are a full drugstore, snacks, napkins/wetnaps, etc., and a craft item to work on Friday noons when we have a craft group here.)
Picture of Mrs. Charming and Rested, mug with a 300SL coupe on it, small zen garden (from the Mrs.), stuffed panda bear (also from the Mrs.) abstract photo of my alma mater, photo of a noteworthy church with my old office in the background, small painting of my old neighborhood, and a small painting by the Mrs.
Shockingly, I don’t have a picture of my dog. I need to change that.
Almost none and they’re not really personal items. I have a Chicago Cubs note cube as well as a Chicago Cubs batting helmet that serves as a penholder and business card holder. Since my job is very feast or famine, I’ll usually have a book and a few crossword puzzles as well.
I really don’t like clutter. In fact, in my own apartment, I only have one photo and that’s of a recently deceased very close friend.
Not counting stuff I take home every night, I have a fan, my iPod dock, my water bottle, and a box of kleenex. If we include stuff that goes home that would add in an ipod & its case, and whatever book I’m reading that lunch hour.
If I had toys at work I’d never get anything done, and I’m a tactile enough person that I don’t bother with knicknacks I can’t pick up and play with (including things like photos).
We need some fresh posters around here.