I Collect: Emily

The Internet is a strange and amazing thing. If you can believe it, The Collect Collective isn't the only blog out there focused on collecting! I Love Collecting is Emily's project. She shares her flea market and garage sale finds, thrifting tips, display ideas and great photos. She has an eye for treasure, and an assemblage of collector friends who often make appearances showing off their own collections. 

My Name is: Emily

I collect: a lot of things but right now I'm mostly collecting pottery. McCoy, Shawnee, Haeger, etc... vases, planters, flower pots...

Its been going on for: a long time!

I look for additions to my collections at: flea markets, thrift shops, yard sales, antique shows, centers and shops

When I find one I feel: very happy!!

The star of my collection is: hmmm, i love all of my pieces but i guess it's a double handled HULL vase... pink and blue combination.

The oddest piece in my collection is: can't say that any of my pottery is odd although some of the shapes can be unusual...

 A way my collection has gotten me into a tight situation: finding spots to display it! It's not that I am running out of room, it's just that I like to keep my collections together so most of it is displayed in my sun room... there are almost 300 pieces in that room!

Some other things I like to collect are: restaurant china, vintage garden sprinklers, vintage kitchen stuff, vintage trophies, milk glass, bride and groom cake toppers, tin globes, black and white group photos, garden hoze nozzles, antique bill spikes, chalkware fruit, creamers, vintage christmas tree stands, rusty wire things like light bulb cages, lamp shade forms, some old garden stuff, vintage baskets from florists, souvenir plates, wire plant stands and flower pot holders, cocktail shakers and vintage barware, vintage oil paintings... portraits and still lifes... all of this stuff can be seen on my blog

My family and friends think my collection is: amazing, fun, beautiful, crazy

Thanks for sharing Emily!

I Collect: Suzanna

What a gal! Suzanna is an artist, and a mom, a wife, a Kansan (I had to look that up) and a collector! She sells her beautiful assemblage and collages here. And she also has an Etsy where she sells Instant Collections, supplies and collectibles. Suzanna blogs here at Sushipot about her adventures in art, collecting, food, mothering, life etc. 

 

My Name is: Suzanna Scott

I collect: aluminum coffeepots, clowns, old craft doll faces, antique books, religious kitsch, scissors, old buttons, tin tea sets, vintage children's books and ephemera. I'm sure I've forgotten something.

Its been going on for: a very long time!

I look for additions to my collections at: Everywhere: thrift shops, the roadside, flea markets, antique dives, the interwebs, garage sales, junk yards. You name it!

When I find one I feel: Elated and inspired.

 

The star of my collection is: My favorite's are the collection of clowns I inherited from my grandma when I was a teenager.

The oddest piece in my collection is: Hard to say…maybe the really big Humpty Dumpty doll face mask. It's a bit on the strange side.

 

A way my collection has gotten me into a tight situation: I've definitely put my bank account in a tight situation on occasion!

Some other things I like to collect are: little things, my daughters drawings and happy memories.

 

My family and friends think my collections are: a bit strange and hard to dust!

 Thanks for sharing Suzanna!

 

Unplanned Collection

A few times in life I've found myself the confused owner of collections I hadn't planned. For example; as a kid I once posed for my annual school photo in a tee shirt with an embroidered Betty Boop on the pocket. My family saw this and immediately decided that I was "into" Betty Boop. I simply wore the shirt because Betty was in fat pants with big hoop earrings and I thought it was funny. Suddenly I had Betty Boop purses, coffee mugs, and figurines.

 When I left Minnesota and moved to California, I really missed the intimate Christmases I had with my mom and dad. I love the holidays, and I especially love to decorate. My grandma Lola had painted a ceramic snowman, when my mom was a child. It's covered in glass glitter and plays "Frosty" when you turn the crank on it's butt. My mom mailed it to me so California Christmases would feel like home. I love the damn thing (even though it's cumbersome, breakable and I moved with it 4 times!) My roommate Alison, whom I lived with in California for 5 years, gave me a miniature toy box one year for Christmas. When you turn the crank it plays "Toyland", and some of the teeny toys inside spin around. The year after that she gave me a little match box that pushes out a small ice rink on one side. When it's wound up it also plays a Christmas song, and tiny ice skaters spin around!! Now I'm the proud owner of a Christmas music box collection. I always look for them when thrifting during the holidays.

 My newest unplanned collection happened last summer when I was at a flea market with my parents. I was pretty pregnant and hot and broke. I had enough money in my pocket to procure one treasure. I spotted it on the first table we went to. It was a 1930's wooden, red children's piano. It had one key that wouldn't play, but all 3 legs. The guy was selling it for $25 and I was in love. I followed my dad around the rest of the flea market-2 more hours in the hot sun. I wouldn't buy anything, because I couldn't find a thing I liked more than that piano. At the very end I drug my overheated pregnant booty back up the hill, to that first table. I talked the guy down to $20, and rode home happily with my new toy....each bump on the way making the keys tink. A few months later my dad appeared at my house with a bag and an big smile on his face. "For your collection!" He said. I looked in the shopping bag and it was another small piano. "I don't have a miniature piano collection." I told him. "You do now!" He said. The new piano plays a little jazzy number when you lift the top. Here is the old red one that started it all: