Collections

Yes, collections, not Hoarders (although that is one of my favorite shows)!  My little house collection started when I did a crewel needlework picture of Charles Wysocki's Peppercricket Farms.  Shortly after that he came out with a collection of small house sculptures.  My mother-in-law delighted in giving me one every Christmas and I believe I have everyone that was was made.  They are extremely detailed and some are battery operated with lights.  I house them in my curio cabinet along with my collection of vintage cut glass from my and Rich's family and vintage Toby Jugs from my family. 

Another little house collection is Hallmark ornaments that I have been collecting for 25 years.  I have every one but sorry to say I never thought to save the boxes.  Not that I would ever sell them - they are very special to me.  Once again, my mother-in-law grasped onto the collection idea and bought one every year for me.  Since she is now gone so I have to remember to buy my own since the collection is still continuing.  A couple of years Hallmark released some bonus houses that we were not aware of.  I was able to find them on Ebay and paid dearly for them.

My next collection of little houses is an assortment of houses that Rich has bought for me.  Some are from his travels to England, Holland, Germany and Canada.  The smallest are houses that Dillards put out in the 1990's.  For the first three years they would offer one house every week for about 6 weeks.  Unbeknownst to me Rich would sneak to Dillards on Saturday mornings (along with lots of crazy women) and would buy one a week for me.  He did this for 2 or 3 years before he finally got tired of fighting the women.  I so treasure the thought that he would do that for me!!

The last collection of houses are Sheila's houses.  She creates wooden houses from real places.  I have some from Charleston, SC; Williamsburg, VA; Savannah, Georgia; Disney World, and Jennifer's grammar school in Bangor, Pa.  All places I have been to. 

I have also collected Santas's for a number of years.  Many were obtained at Michaels sample sales over the years that I worked for them.  The picture shows just a few.  The grandkids love looking at them every year.  I do have 2 from the 1950's that were given to me by my Aunt Betty.  One is a stuffed Coca Cola Santa with two left hands and the other is a metal bank.  Neeless to say the grandkids don't get to touch them!

In my bedroom I have a collection of original artowork of my beloved Deer Lake.  Deer Lake is a small private lake club in Boonton, NJ, a small town in northwest Jersey.  My grandparents joined when my mom was a teenager (she is now 90), I grew up there and my kids grew up there.  The 3 large pictures are original watercolors by Ruth Taaffe, a long-time member and good friend of my parents.  The four smaller pictures are pen and inks that my father did many years ago (he's been gone for 25 years).  He was a wonderful artist and very detail oriented.  Any of my Deer Lake readers will recognize these scenes.  It is a very special place and I love looking at these pictures every day

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Now is when you are are really going to laugh at me for the computer nerd that I am!  Have you ever gone onto Google's homepage only to find a different and strange logo?  Well I have and have been facinated by them.  Everytime I found one I would do a print screen and save it.  I know I didn't get them all but I have quite a few.  Goggle even has a website decitated to these logos - www.google.com/logos.  I wish I had thought to date each of them and name them with the occasion.  Maybe I am not that much a nerd after all!

I think my collecting days are over since I now need to think about purging.  I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I have enjoyed collecting these items.