Ampersand on front, “I like and better” on the back (from a commercial) and Mike and Ike candy.
When I bought the Robert Jr. Whitall picture of Buddy Guy this summer I thought it would go in the living room but it turned out to belong in the bedroom.
My niece honeymooned in Key West and returned with Hemingway cat gifts. The cat ornament on the wall was made by the artist who reconstructed the cat sculpture Picasso made for Hemingway after it was stolen and damaged.
We took the Christmas decorations down today and found places for our Christmas gifts.
A new glass sun from my husband’s brother and his wife is on display on the top of the china cabinet. They bought it on vacation near Portland.
We drove to Chicago for Christmas and since driving to Chicago means driving through Cleveland, I insisted we stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The whole museum of course is full of collected items but one of the most interesting parts was a special exhibit: “Collecting the Counterculture: Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Jr.”. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Santo Domingo (1958-2009) was a Colombian businessman who devoted himself to amassing one of the world’s largest private collections exploring man’s relationship with sex, drugs, the occult, social taboos, popular culture and rock and roll. Or as the Harvard website (which inherited his massive book collection) puts it “In very basic terms, his collecting centered on sex, drugs, and rock and roll.”
Santo Domingo kept his collection of over 200,000 books and other items (including the world’s largest collection of opium pipes) in an inconspicuous warehouse in Geneva, Switzerland. A placard at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibit states that he was more interested in the quest than the object and that has gotten me thinking about the importance of the quest.
I realized quite early on, after my initial excitement at the availability of so much stuff, that it is not near as fun for me to be able to instantly buy things on the internet than to find them while poking through stores on vacation. There is another aspect to this much easier quest – an antique dealer told me that some things especially old watches have lost value since they became more available on the internet – people realized they weren’t quite as rare as previously thought. Of course, if something is hard to find even on the internet that makes the quest even more exciting!
I was so pleased when my younger daughter located and purchased a copy of my missing Nero Wolfe book because sometimes it is not about the quest – it is about completing the collection! Thanks, Molly.
The Baby Group Moms made cupcake ornaments this year. Like so many traditions, the tradition of Moms making ornaments at my annual Christmas get together happened once by chance and turned into an expected event.
Several years ago when the Moms arrived, I had neglected to put away the materials for the peanut elf ornaments I was making that year. “Oooo”, someone exclaimed, “We want to make those!” And so they did. The next year when I invited them several asked,”What will we be making this year?” And a tradition was born!
This time of year I head out to craft fairs and open studios with the best intentions – to find Christmas presents for those on my list. Somehow though I always find more for me. This weekend it was my Fall tree that profited from my shopping trips. I came home from the Parlor Room Makers Market with a knitted acorn from Sweet Bauer Knits.
The next day I went to a craft fair at a local high school and couldn’t resist an owl from Hoot Owl Designs.
Daughter: Look, I want to buy that mug.
Mom: You already have lots of mugs.
Daughter in that “Oh Mom” voice: Of course I have a lot – I have a mug collection!
Making little paper ornament treats for my friends and coworkers has been one of my Halloween traditions for the past ten years. I find an image I like and (sometimes after a little engineering) copy it on card stock. Then I find an appropriate candy to add. This year I used two gravestone images and paired them with Peep ghosts. Another year when I was using a Day of the Dead image, I was thrilled to find some skull candies from Germany.
This year since I already know what I am making for my Valentine ornament, I was lucky to find the appropriate individually wrapped candy at the after Halloween sale – so stay tuned!
When the Saints Come Marching In
My niece Emily sent me this link to an article on collecting the other day. Allan Gurganus begins by stating “Collections collect collectors. It doesn’t work the other way around. A certain object misses its own kind and communicates that to some person who surrounds it with rhyming items; these become at first a quorum, then a selective, addictive madness.” But not just a madness – collecting is the secret to happiness according to another collector he meets. One of my favorite parts of the article comes at the beginning when he is describing his first collection – leather marble bags. After being invited to a display of his top 10 his father asks, sounding concerned, “How many do you think you’ll finally need, son?” Gurganus concludes that his family just doesn’t get it.
Gurganus collects theories about collecting too (of course he does), I like his conclusion that his collections are what he has instead of an “invisible God or too many cats”. He writes, “A collection can warm up history. It can console you, a form of rosary-bead love. My diverse holdings signal to me that I am finally home…They help me gather myself.” Amen!
Collections and Other Stuff I Like 