Dust...:)
Really, I don't have any collections so to speak..
Dishes...

Well,where shall I begin ? My favorite collection is my quilts but I also collect dishes,tablecloths,silverware,chickens,antique hatpins,floral china teacups,coffee cups from different places we travel to,guitars,Native American items,animal s & p shakers,cardinal and chickadee items and most important..enough dust to cover them all .. lol! I change things out a lot,so some of my "stuff" is on display and some is packed up in the garage. Most of my girly-girl things I keep in my bedroom because I love a pretty bedroom :Susan

Kathleen, you darn well better say DISHES. LOL. You definitely have a collection of them, and accessories, for your tables. As for dust...we're all probably raising dust bunnies with our passion for Stuff.

Patty, a few weeks ago I mentioned I'd started a new album on Photobucket with my collections and decided to make it public. Of course its mostly my dog statues, horses, and bunnies. But also some bird figurines, and my favorite Christmas collections. I like too much stuff but I am in good company here, LOL.
Even if 'some' Dishnuts claim they don't have collections!

hugs, Karen

Funny you should ask today, Patty...I was just looking at two spatterware Christmas tree-shaped plates I picked up last year and thought, what a great thing to collect! I was wondering how I could display them standing up.

I also collect turkeys and pumpkins in all forms--paper, grapevine, ceramic, etc. I love red-white-and blue items even though I don't have blue in my house or white either, really. But for Independence Day, they're great. And, because my house is (or at least attempting to be) lodge style, I have a few, and always looking for more, paintings and decoupages on log slices--I have deer and forest scenes, a couple are souvenir items. AND, I've noticed that I have acquired several vegetable S&P's--chili peppers, corn, bell peppers...a new collection?

- Magpie

PS. I forgot my tree collection--bottlebrush, ceramic, glass, plaster, etc. Right now they are lined up in my entry windowsill, along with a few ceramic and resin bears.

Ok, I'm thinking already that you guys need to do photos of your collections too. I want to see all the neat stuff!

hugs, Karen

Dishes, dishes & dishes. Along with serving pieces. It started years ago with a rummage sale at a church. I bought a set of luncheon/cocktail set from the 60's, remember the kind with the little cup that set on top? Well I now could host a luncheon for 150 people, no problem. I have them in different colors and style. Now I mainly only buy the ones that are colored or truly unique. Also I love old glassware. Again, mostly stuff from the 60's, the old Anchor Hocking, but I have some things that are hard to find and worth a bit now. So when I found this forum, I knew I had found a group that could understand my "sickness". I was just in the basement yesterday putting away Christmas decor and said I need to thin out some things, but I know as soon as I do I will "need" it and regret getting rid of it. I do love my stuff. Is there a cure? How do you all decide when something has to go? Are we borderline hoarders? (that scares me sometimes LOL)

I don't think of myself as a collector, except for art, but after reading the responses here, I guess I am somewhat.
I have collections of:
* Art: I majored in art & design in college and love them both with a passion! I don't collect for an investment, and it doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to make me happy to look at. My art is displayed everywhere in our home . . . even in the bathrooms and laundry room!
* Cottageware pieces from England and Occupied Japan. I inherited a small collection from my grandmother. She kept it in our kitchen's bay window at our summerhouse when I was a kid. It brings back such happy memories and I've been able to add a number of special pieces to it over the years. I keep it displayed in a glass-fronted cab in my kitchen and use it often.
* Crosses: I have 60 now and each is very special to me. I'm pretty picky about the ones I buy these days. They have to be very unique. I have a nice display of some of them in our hall. The rest are throughout the house and gardens. DH says that it looks like we have a serious vampire problem in the district (LOL), but he enjoys them, too. My prize cross is actually one of my few crucifixes. It's French repousse, made for royalty or someone very high up in the Church (parts are covered in scarlet velvet) in the 1700's and it's exquisite
* Dishes . . . thanks to all the enablers here on this forum (LOL)!!!
* Newspapers from very significant dates/events
* Santos: I live in New Mexico and fell hard for these beautiful saint and angel statues when I moved here 27 yeas ago. I display them throughout our home.
* Bird statues, especially toucans. I don't collect any cute ones, just mainly realistic ones. I don't group them anywhere, although I do have a number of them in our master bathroom, which is done with a Coastal Mexican feel.
* Christmas books: mainly children's but I do have some others as well. I have several antique ones from the 1800's, "The Complete Works by Charles Dickens" from 1868 and another by Washington Irving (Old Christmas) that are especially nice. Eleven months of the year, they're stored in a trunk. During the Christmas Season, I display them in a bookcase in our dining room, with a few in our living room.
* I also have smallish collections of snow people and Santas, although I don't add to either any more. I ran out of storage room and enthusiasm with those. I display what I have mainly above the cabs in our laundry room at Christmastime.

So there it is . . . I guess I have a few collections, but still don't consider myself a real collector, because I'm not out there on the constant hunt for anything anymore. I've run out of room, so anything I buy/keep these days has to be VERY special and unique.
Lynn

ummmmmm how much time do you have?????
Well, I have red and white transferware, ironstone, silver (a motly crew)one particular glass dish pattern, great grand kids...oh, maybe you didn't mean antimate collections. Then there are some raccoons, pitchers(creamer sized), and the odd handpainted salt shaker (just how do you expect me to walk off and leave such a pretty item in an old grungy garage sale????) or the odd butter pat sitting over there by the shaker.....
Yeah, I'm a dishaholic, and need to find a 12 step program. What can I say????

OK, I feel more "normal" now! LOL

Since apparently a collection is 3 or more items I have a lot but my most treasured "collection" in my house is my 3 cats! Inanimate collections are mostly from gifts, family, or "pre-owned" sources so I haven't spent a lot on most of them but have fun finding treasures. I think the only ones I've actually bought new are the Bing & Grondahl plates, art glass, roosters, and dish sets. A few things I bot wholesale when I had my store. Everything is stored accessibly and I do use them.

~all types of glass (handblown art glass, crystal, covered glass pedestal cake plates, glass apothecary jars, glass hurricanes/bowls, vases)
~silver holloware/flatware
~bone china teacups/saucers
~vintage doilies and linens
~recipe books especially vintage and fund raiser type
~Canadian and US made cast iron cookware and novelties
~vintage tin kitchen ware
~pottery cookie molds (mostly Brown Bag) and cookie stamps
~vintage bean pots
~roosters and a few chickens
~various decorative plates, dishes, platters, handthrown pottery
~glass fishing floats
~shells
~birdhouses
~candlesticks/holders of all types
~original oil paintings and watercolors
~urns
~mirrors

I have a few other collections that are packed away - one is antique hand tools from my GF which I would like to display eventually.

What I am most surprised at after seeing everyone's Christmas collections is that I have no Christmas collections at all and I wonder why I've never bot any? Whoops, ETA that I do have a lot of clear glass tree ornaments but that doesn't count, does it? ;-)

I only recently and inadvertently started collecting Thanksgiving things when I found 3 TG platters last year. I had always loved other people's lovely platters and only had the ones to my big set of dishes and never saw them in YS or thrift shops. Then last year when we were traveling I found 5 and another after we got home. I was in platter heaven!

Should mention that I also have quite a number of jack-o-lanterns, mostly terracotta, altho don't really think of them as a collection. Is that denial! haha

"I guess I have a few collections, but still don't consider myself a real collector"
Boy Lynn, you are seriously in denial. LOL. I think it was the 60 crosses that gave you away!

Ladies, ladies, get out your cameras and make a Photobucket album. I could spend hours, days, weeks, lost in Collectible Wonderland. YOU TOO, JIM. You don't have to photograph every single item, heaven knows I didn't do that either. Aren't you glad when you browsed my album that I didn't. LOL.
If not an album, at least some pictures here. P L E A S E
pretty please.

hugs, Karen

I used to collect things but I tire of things quickly, so I gave that up years ago.

Plus, when I would tire of them, it would just end up being clutter on shelves in the basement til I sold them at my garage sale.

I guess tablescape things is my newest collection & I even tire of some of them & sell them off to buy new.

Oh boy... I love...(& guess you call it "collecting"):

^BOOKS ... old books...children's books, coffee table books;

^PHOTOGRAPHY, old photos, various types of photos, stereograph cards & cameras;

^POTTERY...Rowe & art pcs from art shows & festivals; children planters;

^ART...old prints, RC Gorman decor ceramic tiles, anything that pertains to connecting with nature;

^SNOWMEN...especially glass & pottery...but all sorts;

^CHINA & GLASSWARE...I've become a dish addict! Have collected Jewel Tea "Autumn Leaf" pattern made by Hall for nearly 20 yrs. & Heisey "Lariat" pattern elegant glassware for many yrs...3 pcs were bought after my birth & given to me when I married...I have about 18 pcs. now;

^GONE WITH THE WIND memorabilia (sp?) ... I have plates & Hallmark ornaments, photos, books...anything pertaining to GWTW...I have dolls also but am not a doll person...they were given to me by family;

^OLD WOOD...I love building birdhouses with my DH...and garden junk!

Ok, I better quit! I sound like an addict! This thread has been fun to read! And I'll start a post with for "photos of collections" as Purplemoon requested. Jeanne S.

Since joining this forum, what I used to consider just going out and buying dishes because they were on sale/liked them/added an extra color/adding to existing set etc., etc., etc., *has* grown into a dishware extravaganza, with accessories for the table running a close second.

I 'collect' vintage white/cream dishes, and have several tureens, as well as keeping my eyes open for covered china vegetable bowls. To use w/my Royal Albert 'Country Roses', i've found a lot of extra vintage pieces that are white w/gold trim~this is my 'fancy' china that I only use at Easter and Christmas. Since the design is really busy, the white/gold tames it down, and is a lot cheaper than the RA serving pieces. The white/gold can also be used w/other dishes I have. ;o)

You've all seen the stuff I collect in previous pictures.

Roses--anything with roses, especially pretty rose plates. Karen fed this addiction by trusting me with some of her Mom's wonderful plates!
Snowmen--just love those happy faces! Almost too many to fit in my window ledge display now! Many were gifts from friends, many were TS finds.
Bunnies--DH sat and counted them one day, waaay too many! I keep most of them out year round, put some away during Christmas.
Cherubs--you will see those when I decorate for Valentine's Day. One stays out on bedroom tv cabinet, rest get packed away each year.
Dishes--these were mostly accumulated in the last two or three years since I came to this forum! Thanks all you enablers!
Pitchers--started looking for them for my DIL and ended up buying some for me too! Even bought a corner stand so I could display some of them instead of having them hidden in the cabinets!
Painting books and magazines--I've been collecting these since I started painting in the mid 80's and find it very difficult to part with any of them--never know when I might just need one of the patterns in them--NOT! I have more patterns now than I could ever use in this lifetime--but I still want more!
Christmas decorating books--have several of the Spirit of Christmas series, and some BHG Christmas from the Heart series, but I also have many other titles as well.
And last but not least!
ACORNS--just fell in love with them this year and started picking up pieces at TS and stores if they had an acorn on them. And thanks to sweet Betty, Karen, and Jaybird this newest collection grew by leaps and bounds!

Collecting is such fun, isn't it? 'o)

Luvs