Cleaning...Huh! What Is It Good For?

Well, not absolutely nothing.

Yesterday I was cleaning out two very large, deep drawers in our main bathroom. Among all the unmentionable stuff I found and threw out, I found two Bead & Button magazines from 2002 & 2003. 

Interesting fact #1. Bead & Button back then ran to 188 pages, including the cover.  The June 2010 issue that just arrived in my mailbox is 124.  Hmm. There doesn't seem to be a large difference in the number of projects, articles and features between the older and newer issues, but many of the advertisements are smaller. I think more ads include URLs for websites, and I think more companies do more marketing online.  

It may be the paper is thinner too.

Interesting fact #2. Old issue at 188 pages = $4.95. New issue at 124 pages = $5.95.

Interesting fact #3. On the cover of the June 2003 issue is a perfect project for the 18 strands of faceted tourmaline rondelles I just bought.  It's a project to mimic tourmalines with seed beads, but I can certainly use it with the real thing.

Interesting fact #4. It's been 7 years since I cleaned out those drawers. Ouch!  Perhaps the fact is not as interesting as it is disgusting. Oh well. 

Somewhat interesting fact #5. This is concrete proof I've been interested in beading at least since 2002. Not interested enough to subscribe to the magazine, which I just did last year. But interested enough to buy and keep a couple of copies.  So it's been percolating for a while. 

Now, this is proof positive that old articles can come in handy. But how to organize and keep all this info at hand for use as new beads come into the stash? I don't know. A massive pile o' paper isn't the way to do it, though. Thoughts are welcome.