A Collection Of Collections

As I work on my secret project that I can't show you yet, I thought I'd break from the craftiness and show off some of my collections.  I was reading some of my favorite blogs, and came across this post from the blog Dirty Martini Queen's Musings.  I enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of her collections so much that I decided to do a similar post. 

Recently I was reading a book in which one of the characters pretty much said that collections are for nerds.  Huh.  So thinking that something is so pretty, fun, or interesting that you want to acquire a bunch of them is geeky?  Oh well, then that makes me one because I have a few collections that I'm enthusiastic about.

My oldest collection is one of miniatures.  I started collecting these years ago, way back into my childhood. 

Some were gifts, some were picked up on vacation.  There are a lot of Red Rose Tea figurines and stuff I got at antique stores.

Yes, I even have the Crown Jewels.

As many of you know, I love beads.  I used to go to an antique market where one of the vendors sold the best vintage beads.  Really cheap.  I put together quite a collection of these and keep them in a beehive-style jar.

One of my collections that I should do more research on is my group of Homer Laughlin custard cups. 

Yes, it's a tiny collection, but these aren't easy to find.  I found most of these at antique stores, and a couple of them are from Ebay.  It's a pretty happy find to see one of these sitting on a shelf in a vintage shop!

Another collection that goes way back to childhood is my collection of tins.  These are also very useful for the crafter as they make great little storage containers for anything small.

This isn't even all of them!

And what about scissors?  I have heard of other stitchers collecting embroidery scissors and have managed to amass a few myself.  I know that some people think this is nuts, but you've got to admit that they are pretty.  And useful.

Did you notice the empty flower frog just waiting for more scissors?

So that is my collection of collections.  Thank you for not laughing at me.  Or maybe you did.  The funny thing is that I'm not really actively collecting any of these things anymore.  At some point, the collection becomes either complete or enough.  Oh, I suppose that if I spied a Homer Laughlin custard cup somewhere, I'd gladly bring it into the fold.  Or possibly an interesting pair of scissors.  There IS that empty flower frog.....

I also have a collection of cross stitch charts, but that's another story for another day.

Odds And Ends

This post may be a little picture-heavy, so hold on to your adorable knitted stocking hats.  I've taken quite a few photos of things I wanted to post about here, and I can't let them go to waste!

First of all, "Song Of The Seasons", the LHN mystery sampler, is finally completed.

That's big news, considering it's taken me a little while a really long time to complete the stitching.  Someone just posted a picture of their framed "Song Of The Seasons" on Facebook, and it was gorgeous!  I'll have to think about how I want to do that.

Here's something I've been wanting to show off but couldn't because it was a Christmas gift.

I stitched this for my son's girlfriend and used the finishing instructions "The Ornament Cording and Hanger 1" from the blog "Learn To Finish With The Twisted Stitcher".  The pattern is from the Just Cross Stitch 2008 Christmas ornament issue.  And yes, Stephanie loved it.

Our family gathered at Sheila's house for Christmas day.  It was a wonderful celebration, full of food and laughter.  I noticed that Sheila had hung up a Santa that I stitched for her probably about 10 years ago.  It's in the top ten of my favorite things I've ever stitched.

I don't have all of the info about this one at my fingertips, but I think it's called "All American Santa" and it's from a book of cross stitch Santas by (I think) Leisure Arts.

We have an antiques market close by that opens up one weekend per month.  It's fun to walk around a few times a year to see what they have.  I went to the one in December to see all of the vendors' Christmas gift ideas.  I was pretty restrained in my purchasing, only picking up a pair of these interesting scissors.  The brand name engraved on them is "Spear Brand".  I don't know how old they are, or if they're even old, but I like them.  After Mark gave them a good cleaning, they work great!

Let's move on to "Other People's Creations", where I show you the crafty endeavors of friends and acquaintances.  First up are the adorable little owl pendants that Sheila made for each girl who attended her daughters' birthday party.

What fifth grader would not be delighted with one of these?!  They're made from polymer clay and painted with acrylic paint.  Sweet little goodie-bag gifts! 

Our office Christmas party was a couple of weeks ago.  Almost everyone contributed to the food offerings and they were all delicious.  A particularly creative addition to our feast was the veggie Christmas tree made by one of our volunteers.

Cute and delicious all at the same time!

She used a styrofoam tree shaped form and LOTS of toothpicks to stick the veggies in.  Please note the jicama "candy canes" and star.  Totally crafty and unexpected!

And last but not least, Mark's gift to Stephanie.  He hasn't had a lot of time to spend in his woodworking shop lately, but he did make some time to create this wonderful little Christmas tree.

The tree's not crooked.  I am.

Forgive the lopsided picture-taking.  The tree was worked on the lathe and is made of pecan wood.  I especially like the little hammered wire star.  It was another successful gift!

And there you have my long-winded and photo-heavy post about all kinds of things.  As we head into a new year, what are your crafting and stitching resolutions?  One of mine is to finish what I've started and that means getting to work on those WIPs!  And that is exactly what I'm going to continue to do this afternoon.  So I'm signing off to get some stitches in!