collections

medical stuff

pocket watches

doll dressers

old toys

numbers and letters

hands

i have always been a collector.  when i was small, i collected live pet mice, dead butterflies, plastic breyer horses, and seashells. the collections were just part of who i was, and i took joy from finding a new specimen to add to my cache.  none of my early collections have made it this far into my life.  the pet mice (they bred fast, and i had over 50 in my parent's basement) met their maker when one night i left the top off their cage.  my very happy cat had the feast of a lifetime.  ugh.  the butterflies went next door to my friend timmy.  shells...i think my mom probably got rid of them secretly over time.  they just disappeared.  breyer horses?  my niece ended up with them.  by the time they resurfaced, 30 years of girl play had stripped them of most of their ears and small appendages. goodwill was the final recipient.  

 i still collect today.  i like old things, things with wear and tear.  i often wonder what makes us collect, and why we are drawn to those things in our collections.  my gatherings of items changes a lot.  i go through periods of passing on my things, and replacing them with other ones.  sometimes i think i have to be crazy to keep all of this stuff, and do a major clean out.  often, i wonder if the collecting thing is a outward sign of a mental issue deep within me!!  i do know that finding and saving things is definitely something that makes me feel happy.  the good news is that most of my things cost little.  i am the consummate bargain shopper.

every once in a while, i like to donate a really great former collection item to goodwill.  i think about how happy i am when i find a great thing in the heap of donations at the thrift store.  and i somehow get a dose of glee thinking about the person who finds my former treasure.  it's a kind of payback to the universe.

anyway, the pictures above document some of my current collections.  i won't go into long reasons why these things resonate with me, because sometimes i just don't know.  but here they are for you to consider.