SquawkRadio Comments

Oddly enough , I seem to have begun a chicken collection.

I have speckled chickens, stuffed chickens, plastic chickens, <b.crotcheted</b> chickens, ceramic chickens. They aren’t kept to one room, either. WE have free range chickens in thsi house.

I collect books and dragon statues/figureines. 

As a child I collected horse statues and the Madame Alexander dolls. I still have a couple of each of these left.  Most of the dolls I sold on E-bay though and I haven’t gotten around to listing the last two.

Well, in addition to books (especially those written by the Squawkers), I also collect Barbie Dolls, although I only have around 60--the number has only been limited by my funds.  I have a collection of Olympic collecters pins for 10 different Olympics, and I went through a stage where I collected anything cow related (including the real thing).

Right now the collection I’m working on is my collection of autographed books.  Working at a college helps in this area because of all the writers and poets who come to do readings, although I would certainly love to have an autographed book from all the Squawkers (hint, hint).

I can’t think of anything I collect because last night, I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK! Of course, I collect books (anybody who’s seen my library knows that), but I consider that completely normal and I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK! I have Barbies, too, but they’re the ones I played with when I was a kid, so that’s a sentimental attachment so that doesn’t count especially since I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK! I do like to collect friends, and I’ll probably be calling them today, because I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK!

Did I mention I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK?

Free range chickens, Connie?

WAHOO Christina! Congrats on finishing another book! (and thanks for giving me enough advance warning to start saving my pennies LOL)

I’m an inadvertent collector. I love elephants. The real things, that is - and I always go gaga over the elephants when we visit the zoo or go to the circus. Somehow, the fact that I like real elephants has translated into an “Andi would love an elephant figuring for Christmas/her birthday/tuesday afternoon” and almost everyone I know has bought me an elephant figurine at some point, so I now have tons of them.

And I love them.

To me, each one has a memory. There’s the hand carved wooden one from Africa from my MIL, the one the family gave me when I finished working as their nanny, the one my baby sister bought me with her very own money when she was 5, the one my best friend had commissioned for me out of crystal when I turned 35… each one makes me smile. So while I don’t buy them for myself (well, except for the carved elephant book ends, but those were an exception LOL), I have become a collector.

In order to have a remembrance of a place visited, I get a ceramic thimble.  I have about 50 and I keep them in a beautiful wooden shadow box on the wall. I haven’t been 50 places, well-meaning family and friends have resorted to getting them for me. 

So I have one from Lourdes, Paris, Rome, London, and Sydney.  I guess that means I have to go visit those places since I have the souvenir.

I’m sorry Christina, did you say you finished your book???

Christina,

I just finished reading Tongue in Chic (which I loved)—Connie, she’s got jokes about free range chickens in there!!!!

She luves us.

Eloisa

I have a collection of indian dolls.  Actually, my sister and I have joined in our quest.  We have them from American Girl, Precious Moments, Mattel India, Mattel USA, and Mattel Phillipines.  They are such beautiful dolls and richly dressed.  I’ve decorated my girls’ room with them.  Every year we troll Toys R Us to see if any new ones have been put out.  Some of the more rare ones sell for ridiculous prices on Ebay.  Personally, I would never THINK of selling them!
And lets not get into the romance novel collection........or the Johnny Depp movie collection.....

I don’t collect things but people seem to think that I should and give me collectables as gifts and tell me that I should start collecting.  No, I should not start collecting things.  I live in a teeny tiny house that has collected three kids, a dog and all their stuff!  I don’t have anywhere to put anything else.

Santa
Whose tons of books don’t count!

*groan* That is the sound of my house groaning under the weight of all the crap we collect. I don’t use the word collect so much as accumulate. lol.

I’ve got M&M characters. They are SO cute. I also have books and cookbooks.

My dh has diecast cars and old telephones.

The teen ager has video games, books and tons of action figures.

For us I think the accumulation comes from us moving around a lot and everytime we moved we had to get rid of most of our stuff. Kind of like how children from the depression have 500 cans of creamed corn. Does that make sense?

I will give myself a pat on the back though. I’ve been getting rid of loads of my stuff. YAY.

Dust.  I seem to collect oodles of that.  Books. I collect those by the ton, because when I retire I want to open a used book store.  And I collect lambs - mostly the beanie baby kind because they’re small.  With a last name of Wooley, lambs just seem to be the thing for me.

damn it! I have TiC, but I can’t read it until I’m done with my book! don’t tease, Eloisa!

the last book I read was Natural Born Charmer (I cheated). I loved it!

did you guys know Susan Elizabeth Phillips is coming to blog tomorrow???

I used to collect Coca Cola stuff… It started because I only drank Coke, and it was a joke in the family… Then I loved the penguin and polar bear ads they ran, and it mushroomed…
My husband started collecting bells and spoons for our daughters since he flies around the country every week… He also takes the camcorder and makes “Daddy Cam” movies so the girls get to see where daddy spent his week at....
I used to collect Disney Memorbilia, but that was primarily due to working there in college…

I used to collect so much stuff.  Anything having to do with, the Beatles, Winnie the Pooh, Star Trek and Elton John.  It was a bit like an addiction and Ebay was my pusher! lol

I recently made a big move down the west coast and decided that I had way too much stuff. I got rid of so much stuff it was scary! I only kept the things that were really important to me. Purging half your life takes a lot of strength. It is worth it, especially when the moving company is paying you by the pound!

Like Prudence, I collect ceramic thimbles.  When I travel, I pick up a thimble wherever I am (and a keychain for my daughter’s collection).  I used to belong to a thimble club and have thimbles from all over the world, but the ones I’ve actually picked up in my travels are the special ones for me.

I also have a small collection of Royal Albert Old Country Roses bone china pieces.

My husband’s late mother was a royalist, so I have her royal memorabilia, including Wedgewood plates of the royal family.

And, of course, I collect Squawker books!

Christina - Yippee that you finished your book!  I’m halfway through TIC and love it.  I should have gotten a bunch of errands done since I’m off today, but Devlin and Meadow keep calling me..............

Yep I am a collector and it wasn’t my fault!  Just before my youngest daughter got married, I bought her a ceramic cathedral that was made by Dept. 56.  While shopping for her, I spied North Pole Village by D56 and said ‘how cute’.  So, my DH and daughters decided I needed the first three buildings...long story short, I have been collecting over 20 years now the NPV.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!!!  I also collect books (like who doesn’t on this site?).  When we hit the lottery, we will build on/up/buy another house for my collectibles.  How appropriate my word being ‘move55’!!    I know I have more than 55 pieces!

I don’t collect anything in particular though I do have some collectibles.  I have some Boyds Bears figurines and some cats.  I do own Humphrey Beargart, Lauren Bearcall, Scarlett O’Beara, and Rhett Beartler, but they were a High School thing. 

I do seem to pick up refrigerator magnets when I travel.  It is a small cheap souvenir that actually has a use.  My husband does the same thing with ball caps.

I have a friend who has about 1000 Cherished Teddy figurines.  Of course I thought that was absolutely ridiculous and a waste of money.  Two-thirds of them are in the boxes in storage because there is no room to display them all.  But then I thought the only difference between her and me is the quantity - and they gave her so much pleasure especially when she was going through a very difficult time. 

Why is it that someone else’s obsession is silly and ours is not?  It reminds me of George Carlin’s “stuff” routine.  “Why is their stuff s*%t and our s*%t stuff?”

All I know for sure is that no one better make fun of my Dad’s 100+ shot glass collection  

I collect pottery pitchers and creamers.  My collection started because my husband bought me a really pretty pitcher from a pottery in North Carolina on our honeymoon.  And books....lots and lots of books…

I own a Lady Diana-Prince Charles engagement commemorative coin, but someone gave it to me.  Honest.

Yippee, Christina!  That means more for us to read!

I don’t collect anything, in part because it makes me insane not to have complete sets of things.  I get no joy from completing a collection.  I get stress.

I don’t count books as a collection because I read them and re-read them.  Collectibles generally get looked at, rather than used, right?

Congratulations, Christina, on finishing your book.  YEAH YOU.  We’re ready to cheer Connie and Eloisa when they finish their current projects too (since you’ve both mentioned working and not getting to do fun things while you try to get done).

TIC was great!  I re-read TIHH right before I read TIC just to get in the groove.  Sigh.  Where’s my big hunky billionaire?

Lynn - working for a living, not for fulfillment, instead

Christina, I don’t think I quite caught what you said yesterday on the chat. Did you finished a book, or just started one?

Free-range chickens in TiC, Eloisa??? Hm. Ahem. (Page # please.)

I like to collect one-of-a-kind Christmas ornaments from the different places we travel to so that when we unwrap them to decorate the tree, we have dozens upon dozens of stories to tell.

And of course, books.

No one seems to have mentioned shoes, so I will. I have many pairs of black, one of every possible ocassion from now until I turn 80.

I don’t think of my books as collectibles; I consider them necessities. Collectibles are fun but not essential. I collect angels. I started when I was quite young and one of my great aunts gave me a porcelain angel. Like the rest of you, I cherish my collection because much of it was given to me by friends and family. Some that I am particularly fond of are a hand-hammered brass angel from the Greek countryside, a crystal angel from London, a porcelain angel from Prague, an angel made from my baby quilt, a little red-haired Irish angel my mother gave me, a ceramic angel my sister made me, and an angel with a broken wing my best friend gave me at the saddest time of my life. I could go on, but my point is that it is the memories and the connections that make them dear.

And. Avery, one of my nieces collects Cherished Teddies. One of the rules her young sons learned when they were very small was that Mommy’s teddies were strictly “look; don’t touch.” I am amazed that with two active boys in the house, not a one has been broken--not even during the toddler years.

I collect books and Disney stuff (old books, snowglobes, collector DVDS, etc, etc.). Most of my life I’ve been a collector of various things and so has most of my family. I like collecting things because it’s a thrill to see things I love around me. I’ve never gone to the extreme though. My step-grandmother has collected cardinals for as long as anyone remembers and she’s 91 now. Of course she collects other things but that is her one main collection and they are EVERYWHERE! It’s actually kind of scary!

I have a collection of Santas that I love to put out at Christmas--I try to get a new one every year.  I have a few fairies too, that I’ve started to collect--I love them.  And of course, like everyone else, you could say I collect books.

I’ve never heard of a Diana collection. Kind of er, strange. I do however, have a keychain collection. It’s a big huge jumble of keychains all connected together. Believe me, my nephew loves the keychain collection. :D

I collect music boxes, figurines, and teddy bears.

I adore many types of music and the music boxes combine that love with a beautiful visual item.  This collection is small and I haven’t added to it in years though.  I have to love the piece and the song.  Some pieces are very special though (like one that plays a song from my wedding and one that plays a song I sing to my girls).

I began collecting mother and child figurines.  Motherhood changed my life so dramatically.  I started with a piece buoght when my first baby was born—something I could pass to her when she has her first.  My second figurine came with my 2nd pregnancy, and it all grew from there.

The teddy bears happened because I never had a teddy bear when I was little.  So I guess I’m making up for it now (and this grows only through gifts).

I forgot about my antique cola bottle collection.  I haven’t added to it in so long, it slipped my mind.

I started looking around the house to see if I’m collecting anything.... I am.  Different kinds of hand lotion.  I have maybe 20 different bottles.

Or does that count as obsession and not collecting?? *g*
Eloisa

HI All

It’s so nice to be back! Congratulations Xtina - that’s great news.

Hmmm, collecting...well, apart from books (that’s a given) I seem to have started collecting one thing from each country I’ve visited. There is a small carpet (flying of course) from Turkey, a rice paper painting from China, an onyx chess set from Egypt, a llama rug from Mexico.

Oh, and when I was small I used to collect china ornaments - china animals to be precise. I haven’t bought one in years (OK, decades) but they are all still carefully packed away.

orannia

Great column, Eloisa!  I’m not sure where the impulse to collect things comes from, but I sure *wish* I knew so I could curtail it in myself! I’ve always been a collector (I think it started when I was a little kid with Bobby Sherman memorabilia), and I haven’t been able to break the habit.  Besides books & bookmarks, I collect lots of other stuff, including cat things, and memorabilia from favorite SF/F shows like “Star Trek,” “Buffy,” and “Angel.” Sigh… I’m hopeless…

Dh and I collected Beanie Babies and Buddies; we have many totes full.
I collect anything with roses, angels or rainbows-these symbolize my parents both now passed away.

Am I allowed to collect books? I seem to have inadvertently started collecting signed books...hm...just recently realized I’m going to HAVE to invest in a bookcase or ELSE! (be smothered by a falling wall of books, of course!)

Books of course is a given.  I collect old cameras.  I don’t even know why but I love looking at them and taking them apart.  I even love to clean them.  It’s sort of odd considering I am not into photography.

I also collect Star Wars stuff.  I have my very own lightsaber and a few action figures.  I have a table in my room displaying all the Star Wars stuff.

My grandma started me on collecting Audrey Hepburn movies.  I love Audrey!  Also, my collection of Gerard Butler movies seems to be growing rapidly.

I am a big on knick-nacks.  Anything that catches my eye gets bought and put on display.

Books, music, and DVD’s, of course.  I was named after my great grandmother who collected elephants, but only those with their trunks up.  When she died I inherited her collection.  They remind me of her and of when I was little and she would tell me the story behind each one.

My Mom is a big collector of various things, mainly angels, clocks and chairs.  Though she has recently begun talking about thinning the collections some. 

Anyone have ideas as to the best way to do this?  I’ve never used ebay, would that be the best?

Once upon a time, I had a ton of random, knickknack junk...no rhyme, or reason...then I started reading, and collecting books.  I HAVE to own the book if I love it...(obsession of mine).  So, the books trumped the knickknacks and all the clutter that once surrounded me is gone on to be someone else’s treasure...except the books.  I’ll never part with them.

dirtgirl,
I think -ebay is the way to go, because you can connect with everyone in the world (practically!) who collects the things that you have decided to give up.  I love ebay.  Of course, so far I only buy (and buy), but I have a friend who sells and she describes it as really pretty easy.

Eloisa

This is really and intereresting thing to read! It seems if we put all our books together, we’d have a really teerific library!
-Is it a collection if you use them? I have loads of records (vinyl) and 45’s..I still listen to.
-Lots of antique sewing items, thimbles, scissors, pincusions..I use a lot of those too..
-the kids are doing the state-quarter thing, they each have a fold-out map that you put the state quarters into a little slot..kind of neat..

-yea! new book from Christina..who was #6 on our paperback best seller list in our local paper here for TIC!!

Great blog, Eloisa!

I am a collector of collections.  If I like it, I buy it.  I have gone through all kids of phases but when I change phases the old phase doesn’t get replaced, it just get absorbed by the new phase.  Does that make sense?!?    I’m convinced I have a ratpack gene in my dna somewhere!

I have bears, lighthouses, Eeyores, Patriotic pieces, Bell jars, dvds and of course, loads of books.  I, too am going to have to get a bookcase to store mine in if I don’t want to be buried under an avalanche of books soon. 

Congratulations on finishing your book, Christina.  That’s wonderful news.  I get to add another book to my collection!! 

--dorothy

oops....kids should have been KINDS!! 

--dorothy

Thanks for the advice Eloisa!  I’ll be sure to tell my Mom. 

Christina, congratulations on finishing your book.  I can’t wait to read it!

Keira, I FINISHED a book yesterday.

I STARTED a book today.

I don’t celebrate starting the same way I do finishing. I should, I suppose.

I agree about the books. If you’re reading them, they’re not a collection, they’re a necessity. A sanity saver.

I knew Susan Elizabeth Phillips is coming tomorrow. I can’t wait! Did you know she’s #3 on the New York Times?

While the finishing of the book deserves the pink bubbly, the start deserves a margarita or a sidecar or/and ...??

WOW! SEP’s visit has been a super secret. I’m so excited!

Verfication word = are29. Oh, yeah!!

Fascinating to read about everyone’s collections! My biggest collections are books - 11 bookcases and counting; fabric - equal to about 3 big Rubbermaid bins; and sewing supplies. Of course I have lots and lots of books on quilting.

I also collect Santas - like gannon, I try to add to it yearly, usually with something that is hand-crafted or extra special in some way. I have a bunch of Noah’s Ark things, although I’ve not added much to it in a while. I love antique linens and quilts, I have bought some old quilt tops on eBay that I need to quilt. And candles. Notepads. Ink pens. Drawings by my nieces.

My latest thing is technology. Besides my laptop, I have a digital recorder I just learned to use and voice-recognition software I haven’t learned to use yet. I have a DV-R I can’t get to record. And as a result of Christina’s influence, I just ordered an Alphasmart Neo with the free! $20 value! case! courtesy of a Writer magazine ad. I am guaranteed to have flashbacks to 1987.

Which reminds me, congrats, Christina, on finishing the book! And I’m excited that you’ve already started on a new one.

I collect junk. However much I try to clean up, my house seem to fill up with junk again. 

Christina, I just finished Tongue in Chic. I LOVED it. I was laughing so hard at Meadow and Grace’s conversations. Loved it more than Trouble in High Heels and I just re-read that ( coz I couldn’t remember the elevator scene).
I won’t be forgetting the closet scene. whew!

Free range chicken ......

Eloisa--hand lotion is an obsession. A friend of mine has a smelly closet because she hits Sephora so much. Definitely obsession.

YAY! Christina for finishing your book. Now is that the 3rd Fortune Hunter or your new paranormal?

SEP is coming!?!?! WHOHOO. Can y’all believe not one store around me has NBC? Neither Wal-mart or Target has it. *pout*

I collect dust--I’m really successful at that.  I also collect “Scottish” things (still looking for a Highlander to round out the collection); Pirate things; books; and DVDs.  (I’ll buy the DVD so I don’t have to be responsible to return the movie.)

I also collect Mardi Gras beads.  No idea how I got them.  *coughs* (My word is Moral. Huh.)

I have to chime in as a non-collector.
I certainly love acummulating books, but I actually have the flip side of the collector gene.  I am not neat or organized, so I feel like collections would be just an extra headache. Plus with limited space in my apartment, I already feel like the walls are closing in when too much stuff starts to acummulate. I like to appreciate other people’s collections from afar.
My mother is even more anti-collector than I am.  She calls collectibles “dust-catchers.” Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Devlin and Meadow won.  I had to keep reading.  I love their banter.  I only got one thing done today (two if you count finishing TIC). 

Loved it Christina.  I thought TIHH would be hard to top, but you’ve done it.  Candle in the Window is still my all-time favorite. 

collections....well, I have books....an absolute necessity. they are pretty much divided as to authors...when I find an author that I like..try to get all of their backlist. So, I have several bookcases jam-packed with books.

Christina...enjoyed “Toungue in Chic” very much. Looking forward to reading that BOOK YOU JUST FINISHED>

Thank you all for the kind comments about TONGUE IN CHIC! I think there’s a lot to be said for doing it in the closet, hm? 

The book I just finished is the second paranormal TOUCH OF DARKNESS. I’m starting the third Fortune Hunter, and it’ll be out next February.

I love to collect but I think the ones that I do are very normal ones - books, of course, coffee cups/mugs and playing cards. They’re all functional things that get used.

Books of course! I also have a very small (2 items) collections of Claddaugh things. But, that brings my Irish/Scottish collection up to 4 things. I also collect cat figurines, my favorite being the Swarvski(sp) crystal kitty my husband bought me for my birthday 4 years ago.

Just like everyone else here I collect books ...too many books.
dirtgirl if you need help with ebay let me know… I sell some of my enormous book collection there all the time. 96 Nora Roberts books right now.
I still can’t help buying the odd book every now and then even though I have too many. Like I got the hardcover edition of SEP’s Hotshot today at Goodwill. I couldn’t help it.
Christina, congratulations on finishing!
Since I have been trying to write I can really appreciate the hard work that writers do.

Thank you cousin it for your kind offer.  I might have some questions for you, I’ll let you know.

I think we all have too many books!  I have big collections of those....including crazy ones, like all the Student Nurse books from the 60s.  I’m not even a nurse!

Eloisa

Books are a given right? When we built our house we asked the architect to design a library with room for some living space. But within our library I have a special collection of Jane Austen related books. I also collect rubberstamps. I have over a thousand (gasp!), but I live with the guilt by making cards with them instead of buying them.

I’m a collector--of sorts.  I start collecting something, get bored with it or it starts becoming fashionable to collect and I ditch it.

Years ago, I had this thing for frogs. I had frog figures, frog t-shirts, frog coffee cups...then everyone started collecting them and that was it for me.

But just last summer for my birthday, my sister sent me the cutest little bronze frog...he’s a desk toy. He sits there reminding me that beneath every frog is a prince.

Now, my obsession is sheep. I have a Neopet sheep, I have sheep Christmas ornaments, etc...and all because I’m a handspinner and knitter.  I even have sheep PJ’s! LOL!

But I never collect so much that it takes over my house or bankrupts me.  Usually, they’re gifts from loved ones. Each one is special and reminds me of the giver.