introducing a few characters

My mind gets rather crowded sometimes. There's the inner child in all her ages (the 3-year-old adores pink glitter. The 16-yeaqr-old thinks grey is sooooo sophisticated. Sometimes I wear grey with pink glitter accessories.)
There the tapeworm that screams, "Starvation!!" at the sight of every cookie, biscuit or cupcake. The inner crone casts disparaging glances at young women in "skinny" jeans and cleavege-displaying t-shirts. ("Rome fell," she wants to scold, "and those proud tatas will fall too, Sweetie. Develop your MIND for god's sake!") The inner magpie wants to pick things up, and the Zen nun wants to let them go. Sometimes the nun goes through the house and clears out the pretty rocks, leaves, feathers, candy wrappers, bits of string and whatnots that the magpie has collected. The magpie doesn't care. She doesn't want to HAVE, only to pick up.

So the nun encourages me to sew like a pieceworker and whip out comforters to put that conglomeration of yardage to use.I get great joy from doing it, and all the parts of my mind are happy while it goes on. Then I go to the fabric store to buy some batting, and the magpie goes NUTS! Fat quarters are just like potato chips to her. They are irresistable, and she can never stop at just one. Of course you have to pass the racks and racks of fat quarters on the way to the batting and sometimes I try to scuttle by with my head averted, muttering, "Don't look. Don't look." Those are the days that the beads trip me up. I don't do beading. I buy beads, and don't use them. At least I use the fat quarters. It starts so innocently. My eye falls on a wonderful caramel-colored print. Right shade, right scale, right everything. It's the perfect piece to go with that brown and the terracotta chunks at home. And if I add this mossy green for accent . . . ooo, and look, a bundle of gold and mustard and yellow - why I can always use those colors. And they're on sale! I'll save enough on this bundle (of fabrics that I don't need and have no plan for) that I can buy this wonderful whimsical glittery pink stuff (the magpie and the 3-year-old often work hand in claw.)

So I fear entering the fabric stores. I could go to Goodwill and buy a nice used blanket for the thermal layer in a comforter, but everytime I go in there, the magpie picks up a new blazer or a cup and saucer or a new summer shirt. Where is that zen nun when I need her? Probably sitting cross-legged under a tree meditating on the color of the wind in Septober. Is there a 12 step program out there for magpies anonymous? I need some holp with this. You can't just go cold turkey on a magoie, even if you ARE feeling a little too chicken to look at the credit-card bill.