What's the Biggest Thing You've Ever Lost?

[lynnewithane]

I have a very small room that houses my stamping supplies as well as some other crafty hobbies, so things get shoved into nooks and crannies.
I've recently been cleaning and purging (a couple of things) and rearranging. Today I sat down to make some cards, and I cannot find my magnetic big shot platform or the precision plate. Also, I have a second platform and plastic plates.
I can almost envision myself neatly sliding them somewhere, but I have looked high and low, and can't find them. (That's what happens when you re-organize.)

So, what's the biggest item you've ever lost/ misplaced?

[Dorie95]

I lose things of all sizes and shapes!!

I can't find a pad of grid paper and I need it! I saw it not too long ago but it has disappeared.

This morning I "lost" a birthday card that was ready to go (with $ in it) just needing to find an envelope and address it. It took me 2 hours to find it and it was there, sitting on my desk, mocking me. :rolleyes:

[buggainok]

When it comes to me losing stuff, the phrase Hiding in Plain Sight is my downfall! I look all over, inside drawers, between things, underneath things. And there it usually is, right in front of me!:mrgreen:

The funniest one I did involved our cars. We are both retired, and each have a car. My car was in the shop, so I was driving hubby's car. I turned the corner and saw our driveway was empty. My first thought was, now where did my husband go? His car was not in the driveway (because I was driving it.)

[gregzgurl]

My mind, most definitely... Second biggest - an entire wood-mounted alphabet stamp set (SU! Attitude Upper). Had to buy it again because I never did find it...

[muscrat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buggainok

When it comes to me losing stuff, the phrase Hiding in Plain Sight is my downfall! I look all over, inside drawers, between things, underneath things. And there it usually is, right in front of me!:mrgreen:

The funniest one I did involved our cars. We are both retired, and each have a car. My car was in the shop, so I was driving hubby's car. I turned the corner and saw our driveway was empty. My first thought was, now where did my husband go? His car was not in the driveway (because I was driving it.)

LOL! When I take my parents shopping or to appts. I usually use their van because its easier for them to get in and out. So when we are coming home we pass my house first and I see my car and think I have company! Then I realize its MY car!

[muscrat]

I can't remember anything big. Once lost some dies. I looked in the box they usually are in at least four times, then even called a crafting friend because I thought she might have put them in with her stuff when we were craft in that day. Nope, they were in their normal place. Don't know how or why I didn't see them.

[lynnewithane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregzgurl

My mind, most definitely... Second biggest - an entire wood-mounted alphabet stamp set (SU! Attitude Upper). Had to buy it again because I never did find it...

Nooooooo..........
That would make me think you took it somewhere.
I know my platform has to be somewhere in my house. Driving me crazy!

[lynnewithane]

I should have said stamping item, but losing a car is a good one. I do that car in the shop thing every time my car is in the shop.

[cardmaker2]

Lesson learned: never try to clean up or reorganize.. ;) I am actually a pretty organized person so reorganizing isn't usually too risky. However!

Last year I could not find an entire file, needed for income tax. I hunted and searched the same places 4 or 5 times. Turns out that the accountant had it, forgot to send it home with me the last time they had gone through the books. Much relieved that I wasn't completely losing my mind.

My mind... hold on... where is that now?? Some days I wonder.

[gregzgurl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lynnewithane

Nooooooo..........
That would make me think you took it somewhere.
I know my platform has to be somewhere in my house. Driving me crazy!

I think that I let my friend borrow it and we both forgot about it until I finally missed it, by which time she thought she'd always had it, and it wasn't worth it for me to cause a rift, so I just bought it again. I think that's what happened, but you can never quite be sure...

[muscrat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregzgurl

I think that I let my friend borrow it and we both forgot about it until I finally missed it, by which time she thought she'd always had it, and it wasn't worth it for me to cause a rift, so I just bought it again. I think that's what happened, but you can never quite be sure...

Which is exactly why I keep a sheet of paper and write down when I loan or borrow things and when they get returned! Not that I don't trust my friends with stuff, more that I need a reminder where things are!

[Allistamps123]

Two sets of nestabilities still in the original rectangle pkg. I had taken them to a card making fundraiser we had at work.

I was super, super careful with them as it took me along time two afford just those 2 sets!

I never found them after I brought them home. Well I wasn't sure if they ever came home but couldn't understand how I'd misplaced them when I'd been so mindful of them!

That was five or six years ago. I found them a few months ago in the closet in my stamp room in this small basket of random stuff. I couldn't believe it!

I don't have any other stamp stuff in there so can't fathom why I put them in that closet!

[grateful2bsaved]

Bugga, mine involved driving DH's car too! I went to Costco, had a huge, heavy cart full of stuff and went to where I thought I'd parked. No car. I swear I walked up and down that entire parking lot, pushing that heavy cart and sweating. I finally called DH, almost in tears.Just as he came on the phone I looked up, and there was his car, right where I knew I'd parked. It was awful

The largest stamping thing I lost was a wood mount stamp set. I looked high and low for it for hours. Days after I gave up on it, there it was, in plain sight. ...sigh...


I've also been on my phone, talking to DD, and looking around the house for my phone because I was ready to walk out the door. (Telling her I couldn't find my phone.) Grabbed my purse, and my phone wasn't where it normally is. Yep, felt pretty dumb that time.

[Takinmytyme]

I couldn't find my Stampin Up Jumbo wheel handle. I looked every where. I called my neighbor who was my SU Demo if I could borrow hers. Some how when I returned her wheels my handle got mixed in. Luckily my name was on it. If I hadn't called her who knows when she would have noticed. We both had a good laugh about it.

[buggainok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grateful2bsaved

Bugga, mine involved driving DH's car too! I went to Costco, had a huge, heavy cart full of stuff and went to where I thought I'd parked. No car. I swear I walked up and down that entire parking lot, pushing that heavy cart and sweating. I finally called DH, almost in tears.Just as he came on the phone I looked up, and there was his car, right where I knew I'd parked. It was awful

The largest stamping thing I lost was a wood mount stamp set. I looked high and low for it for hours. Days after I gave up on it, there it was, in plain sight. ...sigh...


I've also been on my phone, talking to DD, and looking around the house for my phone because I was ready to walk out the door. (Telling her I couldn't find my phone.) Grabbed my purse, and my phone wasn't where it normally is. Yep, felt pretty dumb that time.

I forgot about those times when the "lost" item is actually right in your hand while you're looking for it. I've done it, and yes it makes a person feel pretty dumb.

[StamperDea]

The biggest thing I wish I could lose is my butt. Everything else in my house if fair game for going AWOL, especially my mind. LOLDea

[Stampnnatter]

I've been known to mislay my 12x12 score board and my 12x12 rotary cutter. They hide out with their fellow accessories, usually in full view (as others have said). Guess that's a sign I have too much stuff.

[lindylou1220]

The biggest things in terms of dollars, not size, was one of the two party pop-up thinlits dies. It disappeared after a class and has yet to be seen again. Everyone had a chance to use it so I think what happened is that it stuck to someone's materials and got transported that way. The tape that Stampin' Up! uses to hold its dies to the cardboard is fierce. Of course, it was the die I liked best but several of my friends own it and have offered to let me use theirs.

I lose things on my table all the time. I look and look and usually they're hiding in plain sight.


The funniest loss was something my husband did a few weeks ago with his car keys. We were getting to leave and he stopped in the garage to adjust his shoes. Rather than lay his keys on the table, he put them in his mouth. It was so amusing to see him patting his pockets and looking on the table to try to find them.

[lutheran]

I am the Queen of I Can't Find. . . The biggest thing I ever lost was a crocodile punch thing, big, bulky, heavy, lost in a big mess for about a year. I also couldn't find a full set of SU! chalks, found after about two months, hiding in a stack of card stock a few inches from my work space. We all do it and it is so frustrating!
Mary Beth

[lynnewithane]

Another day of searching for my magnetic platform................

[southgirl]

Funny girls, you made me laugh. So glad I am not the only one that loses things.

My rule of thumb is to buy a new one and the old one will appear. Lost my heat gun. I looked all over my craft rooms. So I gave up and bought a new one (Heck, I had a coupon) and found the lost gun in the KITCHEN.

[bjeans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buggainok

I forgot about those times when the "lost" item is actually right in your hand while you're looking for it. I've done it, and yes it makes a person feel pretty dumb.

Like looking for my glasses when I'm wearing them. Frequently.

One of our cats hides in plain sight; I think he tutors my craft stuff how to do it.

[rockybeta]

These are so fun........and so memory envoking. I always have to put my glasses in the same spot in the kitchen, family room, office etc. because otherwise I can spend way too much time looking for them........it's the worst when one arm is tucked into the front of my shirt and they are just hanging there and then I find them because I passed a mirror. We had only one car for a couple years........it was a pick up truck......when we finally bought a second car I came out of a store and walked the parking lot several times looking for the pick up when I had driven the car.

The biggest in terms of cost was a diamond ring........was at the lake with my kids and had used suntan oil and when we were in the water it slid right off. It was an heirloom from my grandmother. Luckily I knew right where it came off and there was no one else swimming in that spot so I called the local dive shop and hired a diver with an underwater metal detector to come out........he found it within ten minutes. Then spent twenty more looking for his van keys that had fallen out of the mesh bag he wore on his dive belt....! We stood by for moral support.

[BashfulStamper]

This is a great thread! It's so nice to know I'm in such good company. ;)

I lose stamps while I'm working on a project all the time. I'll finally give up, and finish the project with a different image... and THEN I find the missing stamp.

Right now, I'm missing an entire stamp set - the whole thing, nicely labeled, in an Avery-Elle-type plastic sleeve. And I really need it. I promised a friend I'd make a card for her this weekend, and this set is really perfect for it. Sigh.

What's sad is how often I lose things, when normally, I pride myself on being rather organized. Every item has a designated "home". I swear my crafty supplies are like the toys in Toy Story... they come to life and move around when I'm not looking.

[lynnewithane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockybeta

These are so fun........and so memory envoking. I always have to put my glasses in the same spot in the kitchen, family room, office etc. because otherwise I can spend way too much time looking for them........it's the worst when one arm is tucked into the front of my shirt and they are just hanging there and then I find them because I passed a mirror. We had only one car for a couple years........it was a pick up truck......when we finally bought a second car I came out of a store and walked the parking lot several times looking for the pick up when I had driven the car.

The biggest in terms of cost was a diamond ring........was at the lake with my kids and had used suntan oil and when we were in the water it slid right off. It was an heirloom from my grandmother. Luckily I knew right where it came off and there was no one else swimming in that spot so I called the local dive shop and hired a diver with an underwater metal detector to come out........he found it within ten minutes. Then spent twenty more looking for his van keys that had fallen out of the mesh bag he wore on his dive belt....! We stood by for moral support.

Now that's a great story!

[buggainok]

O.T. but since we'e gone far afield from lost stamping stuff, here's another good ring story.

Years ago, one evening before going to sleep, I decided to put on some hand lotion. I took off my wedding ring (which had a rather nice diamond in it) so I wouldn't get lotion all over it. I reached to put the ring on the night table, and missed, and it dropped between the night table and the bed. I thought, oh well, I'll find it in the morning, and went to sleep.


Next morning, I looked, and looked, and looked. No ring. I took the bed apart and looked, I moved furniture, I got under the bed and looked. No ring! I was pretty upset, as you can imagine. I kept looking, but it didn't turn up.


Several weeks later, a friend came by with a big smile on her face. She said, "I have a surprise for you", and handed me my ring! WHAT??


We were in the habit of trading paperback books back and forth. I had given her some books that were on my night table. Inside one of the books, she had found my ring, which had somehow jumped inside the book when I dropped it.

[Dorie95]

And yet another quick ring story:

Had a very pretty opal ring from DH, wore it to a Green Bay Packer game on a very cold day. Was a great game, cheered and clapped all through it and they won!

Got home and noticed my opal ring was gone. Moral of the story: Don't wear rings outside on cold days. Fingers usually get smaller when they're cold and rings just slip off and go flying never to be seen again. :eek::mad:

[gregzgurl]

My husband lost his wedding ring in the limo between the church and the hotel. Limo company found it and mailed it to us. He put his hand out his truck window a couple of weeks later to flick a cigarette - flicked the ring, as well! We just conceded defeat at that point and he's been ring-less now for 23 years...

[bjeans]

Ok, this wasn't me, but I was there. My husband and I went on a photography tour at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. It's affiliated with the San Diego Zoo. It was just my husband, me and a young couple, the husband a Marine stationed out there.

You're in the bed of a truck that has wood slats around it with big spaces between them. It was sundown, and the animals were all out, no cages, grazing, running, just beautiful. The driver brought bushels of apples so we could feed the rhinos. (You read that right.) He'd stop the truck and they'd walk over, and you'd lean out and put apples right in their slobbery mouths.

And with all that slobber? The young marine's wedding ring fell off into the dirt. Where the rhinos were. And was instantly buried, since the dirt was very fine - almost like sand.

So the driver told the marine not to take his eyes off the spot where it fell, circled around to put the truck between the rhinos and the ring spot, and had us all feed the rhinos as fast as we could so they wouldn't wander to the ring side of the truck. (They really like apples.) He then got OUT of the truck and dug around, and found the ring.

The young man was beyond embarassed; his face turned a terrific shade of red. We told him it woulld be a wonderful story they'd be telling their children and their children would tell their children.

It was only lost for about 15 minutes, but it was a kind of hair raising 15 minutes. All of your ring stories reminded me of it.

[lynnewithane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buggainok

O.T. but since we'e gone far afield from lost stamping stuff, here's another good ring story.

Years ago, one evening before going to sleep, I decided to put on some hand lotion. I took off my wedding ring (which had a rather nice diamond in it) so I wouldn't get lotion all over it. I reached to put the ring on the night table, and missed, and it dropped between the night table and the bed. I thought, oh well, I'll find it in the morning, and went to sleep.


Next morning, I looked, and looked, and looked. No ring. I took the bed apart and looked, I moved furniture, I got under the bed and looked. No ring! I was pretty upset, as you can imagine. I kept looking, but it didn't turn up.


Several weeks later, a friend came by with a big smile on her face. She said, "I have a surprise for you", and handed me my ring! WHAT??


We were in the habit of trading paperback books back and forth. I had given her some books that were on my night table. Inside one of the books, she had found my ring, which had somehow jumped inside the book when I dropped it.

Oh my gosh. That is amazing!

[buggainok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lynnewithane

Oh my gosh. That is amazing!

Yes, I was very surprised and pleased to have my ring back. I had previously told my friend about losing the ring, so when she found it in one of the books, she knew just whose it was!

[SageBrush]

Thanks for the laughs! The largest crafty item I lost was two 8 x 10 pictures of my son from his first communion. They were in a flat, paper frame which I set up on the dresser in my craft room. I had intended to put them in his scrapbook. One day they just disappeared!

Fast forward twelve years to when remodeled our house. Moving furniture, I found the pictures! The had fallen off the back of the dresser and slid down between the back of the dresser and the paneling!

[lynnewithane]

Maybe I'll try that, Angie. I spent another unsuccessful day looking for my magnetic platform. It's time to trick it into thinking I don't want it.
Driving me crazy!

[harvestmoon]

O.P. Have you checked everything metal that the magnetic platform can be stuck to? Maybe you you should poke around with a big metal thing and it will just jump on it!

[smithr66]

I haven't seen my paper trimmer in months. Just ordered a new one, which means sometime between now and when the order shows up, I'll find the original.

I do this so often. Start to go somewhere with car keys in hand. Get distracted and then start searching my purse for my keys. I've even taken everything out piece by piece. It's happened so often, I now dont spend much time - I think, oh yeah - check your hands.

[smadson]

I spend 3/4 of my life looking for things, not just craft things. I have so enjoyed your stories! We should put it all together in a book!
Thanks for sharing.

[meisu4]

I lost a nice earring at the last SU! Convention; couldn't find it anywhere when I got home. I really liked those earrings and put them on my Amazon wish list for this past Christmas. My daughter bought them for me. I put them in my jewelry box and moved the single one to my junk container. That's where I found its mate. Now I have two identical pair...in case I lose another one.

[rockybeta]

I rather like harvestmoons idea to poke around with a big metal thing......!

[monalsw]

Oh, this thread is perfect timing! Yesterday, I was organizing my Prismacolor pencils, markers, etc, and decided to pull out the watercolor set that I bought years ago and hardly used. I couldn't find them, but I had 2 of them on my desk, so I knew they were somewhere in the house! I was up and down the steps several times, looking in drawers, cupboards, etc, even checking on-line for the price of a new set. After sitting for a few minutes, it hit me! I went right to my dining room table, pulled out the drawer underneath, and there they were, lol! Phew!

[TexasGrammy]

Oh myyyyyy ....

First ... Big Shot plates, platforms, etc. seem so easy to "disguise"

• when we are either moving too quickly to get on to the next step in our process
• when we believe that this new reorganization plan is the cat's meow,
• or even when we're just blindly laying something down when the phone rings & takes us off-task when we were actually ON-task before the phone call/text. (Ask me how I know .. ... )

Look 'between' the layers stacked in vicinity, even if its scrapbook papers instead of big shot accessories. Look along the "path" you took when going to another area of your crafty zone. Did you go to the kitchen to check on the meal you're cooking?

Second ... OMGosh ... Over the past 15 years? I've lost:

• at least 1 complete & brand new wood mount stamp set from a convention.
• the die for letter 's' from an alphabet set. It showed up months later on my studio sofa. really ... Never give up.
• metallic Krylon paint pen new in package ... If you see it, it's Copper.
• blank Copic color chart(s)
• Basic Black ink pad
• already confessed too much for one day.

May the stampy force be with you!