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Thursday, September 1, 2011

Collections

I think the thing my life is missing is a collection. I've never collected anything just for its aesthetic value. I've often wanted to but my problem is that I can't settle on one thing to collect. I do love looking at other people's collections though and I'm pretty jealous of them as well. There are three things I like about people who collect things:

1. it gives me a way to define them.
2. they're easier to shop for.
3. they're decisive. I mean, once you settle on that thing you're collecting, it's "you," right? Whenever your friends see that item in a store, they'll think of you. You have to be pretty sure of yourself to make a decision on what you collect. No one wants to be known as the Frog Lady.

Over the years, a few things have stood out to me as things that would be nice to collect. Will you help me choose?

picture from this site

1. Colorful glass bottles. Aren't these beautiful? And sitting on a window ledge, they look so bright. My mom has a collection of smaller glass bottles and I've always liked them. But I kind of like the look of these tall ones a bit better.

idea and image from this site

 2. Artglass paperweights. Once again, colored glass has caught my eye. These are so cute, and so unique. And they look great grouped together on a shelf, piano, mantle, etc... What do you think?

picture from this site

3. Single color pottery. I once went to a home where the couple had a collection of green pottery on a mantle. It looked great! The only problem with this one is limiting myself to one color. I might feel too restricted. But I do like the look quite a bit.

picture from Jessica's blog

4. Alphabet (or one letter) wall. Two of my friends collect letters. My friend Beth collects A's because her last name starts with A. My friend Jessica collected all the letters in the alphabet and used them to decorate her nursery wall. I'm mad about the idea of collection letters. Only thing is, which should I do? The whole alphabet or choose a letter? The optimist in me tells me that my last name won't always be Downie, so collecting D's might be like throwing in the towel, if you catch my drift. What do you think?

Which is your favorite? Do you have any collections? How do you display them?

11 comments:

E McL said...

I have a friend that collects glass vases/ bottles. Totally timeless. Extremely fragile. Difficult to move. HOWEVER, I love the look, there's something serene about glass and the different look of the light through it. AND they double as vases.

I'm not much into dusting, and I don't have much space. I like marbles. The kids can't break them easily. The same joy of the bottles and paperweights. My collection includes marbles that were my grandfather's. Lovely childhood memories.

Katherine said...

I really like the look of the tall class bottles and the letters. Those would both be really fun to search for in stores and thrift shops and stuff. Especially the letters! You know what I collect(ed) - PEZ dispensers. I stopped buying them years ago, but still get them from time to time from people. I have well over 150, and they are carefully displayed in a Rubbermade container in Mom & Dad's basement...so I don't really know what I'll do with them in the long run! When I worked at Hallmark I bought some little Boyd's Bears collectables, and while they're really cute, they're too small and can make a space look cluttered. That's one of the things I like about the tall glass vases.

Also, you sort of already have one collection - books!!!

Elizabeth Downie said...

It's true, Katherine, I have a million books. BUT, I don't collect them for their aesthetic value, so I don't really count them as a collection.

Dr. J said...

I'm going to start collecting the ice cream cup/baseball helmets at major league ballparks.

I had thought about collecting chess sets, but one thing about collecting is that once it reaches a certain point, I just look like a hoarder/crazy person.

Furry Bottoms said...

I have a friend who made her blog header out of those kind of letters that can be collected. (happy-shock.com) She does a great job with decorating.

With you, however... I don't believe restricting yourself to ONE color will work. You seem to be colorful, and I think those letters and those tall bottles are perfect for you.

I, myself, am starting to collect apothecary-medicine-poison bottles. My restriction though is to that light green aqua blue color (think old mason jars)... and its not easy to find. I found ONE on amazon.com that fits my criteria...

Sarah said...

My favorite collection is rocks. Hear me out. You get one from every place you visit, maybe even record the place on the rock in some way. They are not fragile, can be kept outside in a decorative display (so no dusting!) and are easy (ie: cheap!!) souvenirs from any adventure you take!

Ashley said...

Fun idea! If it was me, I think I'd collect the single color pottery. Thanks for the ideas!

Mark said...

It's so obvious. You need to collect the capital letter I to get over your problems with it.

E McL said...

Brilliant Mark!

violet50 said...

I've loved colored glass since I was a kid and my aunt had colored vases on a shelf in front of her window so that the sun would come in and sent color shafts into the room. So I have colored vases in my window and elsewhere in the house. I also collect books - even ones I don't read - so that I have complete collections of authors' works.

karajean said...

I read this yesterday and then went to Hobby Lobby and there were letters everywhere. And for some strang reason I wanted to buy all of them. I really like the look of letters, especially the whole alphabet. I might have to steal this idea for my own house!