I love the Internet. I was doing a little googling the other day and came across this fabulous blog by fellow collector Stefanie. Having been inspired by Lisa Congdon's "Collection A Day," Stefanie decided to blog about collecting everyday for one year. Quite and ambitious feat.
I collect: Many, many things, but my
largest collection is vintage elementary school books from the
1930s-1960s. I also collect vintage toys.
Its
been going on for: I got my first school book in 1984, but I've really
been collecting them seriously for maybe 10-12 years. I have somewhere
around 500 school books. As far as my toys go, I've been a toy collector
for nearly 30 years. I am a toy designer by profession, so this sort of
goes with the territory.
I look for additions to my collections at:
Mostly antique malls/ flea markets. Although I've bought things on eBay
from time to time, it sort of feels like cheating to me. I prefer the
joy of the hunt!
The star of my collection is: My near-mint
set of Scott, Foresman Dick and Jane books from 1951 & 1956. (There
is actually one I don't have, but it's a 6th grade reader, which isn't
as desirable, so I haven't been in a huge hurry to finish the
collection)
The oddest piece in my
collection is: If you count all of my collections, I think I'd have to
either go with my 1867 wooden patent model of a steam valve, or perhaps
my diddley-bow... that's a little one-stringed musical instrument.
A way my collection has gotten me into a tight situation: I guess the
tightest situation my collections have gotten me into is my blog. A year
ago, I came across a fellow collector who posted one of her collections
every day for a year. Although it was a fun blog, and she had some cool
stuff, I thought my collections were more interesting, and I decided I
could do a similar blog. I decided to post one of my collections every
day, Monday through Friday, and then feature another collector each
weekend. I'll tell you, it's been a tough year. I've decided to suspend
my blog on June 30, when my blog reaches one year old. It's been really
stressful (but fun!) to document my various collections because I tend
to do it one day at a time instead of all at once. So, nearly every
morning, I'm setting up stuff, taking pictures, editing the photos, and
then putting together the blog entry. As the year
has progressed, I have created 'special days', like Toy Tuesday, and
School Book Friday, and I also added Orphan Wednesday, where I feature
my 'unique items' that don't fall into the 3 or more rule.
I'm really
glad I did it. It's given me a chance to document the extent of my
collections, photograph everything, share it with the world, and learn a
few things to boot. But doing a daily collector blog is not for the
faint of heart. I plan on putting everything into a book when I'm done. I
also am thinking seriously of thinning my collections out substantially
too. I'll definitely keep my books and musical instruments, but I'm
willing to part with many of my other collections.
Some other things that I like to collect are:
vintage toys and games, musical instruments (mostly stringed), ephemera,
books. You'll just have to look at my blog to see the different kinds
of things I collect!
My family and
friends think my collection is: My husband wishes I'd dust a bit more,
my kids roll their eyes (they are all grown, and none of them are
collectors), but my friends think it's awesome.
I've received a couple of honors for my collections: in 2000 I won
the Judges Trophy at the Ventura County Fair in California for the best
collection (school books). I was also featured in 2004 in Playthings
Magazine (a trade publication for the toy industry) as their collector
of the month, again, for my school books.
My collector blog: http://copycatcollector.
My creative blog: http://stefstyleblog.
My gallery on Collector's Weekly: http://www.
Thank you so much for sharing Stefanie!
Thanks so much for featuring me, Lea! I'm honored! (You did a great job picking some of my favorite photos, too!)
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