All posts tagged: Collections

Old photos and why I think they are fabulous.

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I started collecting old photos one at a time, carefully selecting each one.  As I have carried on gathering other people’s family photos, my greatest finds are a box or an envelope full  of photos to explore.  An ancient album from the turn of the century to marvel at the fashions and cars of the time is a happy few minutes of browsing for me. I just love to look at the characters in the photos and where the photos were taken, some photos I have are from the St Louis area and it is cool to see landmarks then and now. This group is so full of characters, I wonder who or what they are all looking at. I feel like this picture is a novel waiting to be written. “Don and me” written in biro on the front of the photo. I want those silver sandals! I love the photos with the cars of the time and the way people took the photos to highlight the vehicles. Two meals at the same table …

My Collections – mini collection in a tin.

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This vintage chocolate tin has accumulated stuff I have collected and once it was full, I left it full of treasure. When I was a kid I used to collect cool things in a wooden box and I loved to look through it.  This reminds me of that as I don’t take anything out or add anything but I do like to look through the tin every so often. There is a pile of postcards ranging from 1912 to the 1970’s, some blank rectangles of cardstock, crystal glass necklaces, a selection of spelling flashcards, a beautiful pink decanter or bottle stop, a heap of old cotton reels, a ball of pink nylon and a pack of playing cards. These are the snapshots of Llangollen which is a town in Wales where I used to go on holiday with my family as a kid. I think these photos would be from the 1920’s or 30’s as they were taken on the No. 2 Brownie camera.  I love old photos and these are some of the first …

My collections. Cigarette and tea cards.

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When I was a teenager my grandma gave me a ‘British Home Stores’ (now closed down all stores, but I think they are still online) plastic bag full of small cards saved from cigarette packets and tea boxes over the years. The cards were given away in cigarette packets, tobacco tins and boxes of tea. My grandma kept all of the cards she collected and I am pleased she did because I am the happy owner of our collection now. Because  I was a cool teen, I put them under my bed where they stayed for many years maybe until I left home to go to college.  I fished them out, sorted them into collections and stored them in vintage wooden boxes left to me by my other grandma and great gran. When I was a poor student I took them to be evaluated and maybe sell them, the dealer offered me five pounds and thankfully I wasn’t that desperate to sell them, so I didn’t. I am so pleased I didn’t part with them …

My Collections. Found Marbles.

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I don’t always consciously ‘collect’ things, but when I watched Courtney Cerruti on Creative Bug talking about collections and how we are drawn to things over and over, I quickly realized that I have amassed a collection or three over the years. When I am at the thrift shop or an estate sale or antique shop, I do have things I look for. Like old buttons, ledgers – the more handwriting the better, postcards – again, the more writing the better, photographs, books, flash cards and old haberdashery. The thing I do conciously collect is marbles, but not just any marbles, I don’t look for marbles at any of the above locations and I am not interested in new marbles. All of my precious marbles are from the local creek and the woods and all of which I have found with my 12 year old son. We find them on the creek bed and in the mud and we love to dig them out!  Some are in half, some are chipped and some are sand …