Unfortunately . . . or fortunately, yes. My weakness this past year has been dinnerware. I have about 16 sets, although most are partial, thankfully. I walk by dish displays these days chanting my new mantra, "Don't look; don't look!", but they call my name anyway.
I collect Cottageware from the Forties & Fifties and really have quite a nice, well-rounded collection. I don't NEED but a few rare pieces. But every time I see any piece, I feel like they need ME. Now that's sad!
And, don't get me started on art. (sigh!)
Lynn

Pal: Yes. And All of the Time. And I rarely regret the purchase simply because it usually turns out to be "just right!" LOL! A Bastet!!! How wonderful -- surely it "called" to you ... Love them! :) Any chance of a photo????? Please?

Great topic! :)

Lynn: I was just thinking of placing my cottageware on ebay! :) And YES! I do think that some pieces simply seem to whimper: "Rescue me ..... take me home ....."

Jan at the well-collected Rosemary Cottage

Your posts are always mind-broadening. First it was palimpsest, now it is Bastet.

Bastet is the name commonly used by scholars today to refer to a feline goddess of Ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty. Her name is also spelled Bast, Ubasti and Baset.

I don't walk home with the last thing I need because I'm in need of many things. But the order of purchase is seldom in line with the order of need. My latest is three framed prints (not originals) from the work of 20th century caricaturist Ralph Sallon.

I don't regret anything yet, but tomorrow I am going antiquing and I know I shouldn't buy anything. Every square inch of my house is filled. But I would like a modern kind of portrait to go in my living room, real big but real cheap and real oil. The chances are probably slim to none since we are going to antique shops. But now I am told we may go to some junk shops, with great stuff.

I'm just going to look and have a nice lunch, hopefully.

It would be hard to pass up that going out of business shop Pal. But don't make yourself sick about spending money like I may do tomorrow. No, I am stronger than a piece of art and you are too, don't do it.

Sigh....
I try really hard...I am bursting at the seams. I knew I was doing well, sort of, when a friend said..."Linda, I didn't see you at the so-and-so sale yesterday...are you sick?"
My latest is sterling bangle bracelets @ the 1940's...cheap, don't take up much room and I can wear them all at once!
Yep...I likely would have had that kitty too.
Linda C

Bastet...? Love new words. I want pictures! :0) lol

I "was" collecting 18K jewelry at one time, but luckily for me the thrill of the hunt and winning the auction is as thrilling as actually owning the piece.

This orchid brooch, 14grams & solid 18k.....$64

Oh, you bought the piece already Pal. Well, don't cry over spilled milk I bet it will look lovely in your new place. Better than a new pair of gym shoes, think of it that way.

.....Jane

I have spent the past year or so consolidating two homes into one. It is really hard to believe that only ten years ago, I had sold almost everything. How did I get all this stuff??? For the first time in my life, I am experiencing the somehow disappointing ease of saying "no" to just about everything but groceries.

I suppose the only exception to that rule is plants. One more packet of seeds, one more pot of some perennial or another. Make sure you buy a house with a garden, Palimpsest!

We went thorough something of a financial meltdown back in 2005 and really haven't added much in the way of collectible items since then. When we started approaching our money in a totally different way, somehow the collections lost their importance. Even now that finances are good and solid, I think I've lost the taste for it.

I still have a collection of 1939 New York Worlds Fair items, but they sit snug in a bookcase and haven't been augmented in years. I also have about 20 Brush-McCoy New Art Vellum pots in green. I still watch for those on ebay and on the rare occasion one will come up that I don't already have, I will buy it. But that hasn't happened in two years, either.

It really helps that we are now in an MCM home rather than a 1920s home -- the antique stores don't beckon to us anymore like they used to. Also, I think I'm just in the simplification stage of my life rather than the acquisition stage.

I have acquired a lot of things through deaquisition, too, as my parents pare down. And I don't regret the purchases I make, because I am not impulsive, and its discretionary money, I am not ignoring a bill or anything. Its just that my priorities are not typical: I put a thumb through the top sheet making the bed the other day, and most people would put new sheets ahead of more bronze.

Here it is: the new Bastet, a traditional Egyptian Bastet, and various other Egyptian, Inuit, Phonecian stuff.

{{!gwi}}

Its kind of like what the guy at the party said about Holly Golightly: "she's a phony, but she's a Genuine phony."

I wish I could say I collect...that would assume a certain level of scholarship...but, alas, I accumulate. Our financial horrors of the last two years have put a stop to acquisition, and I, too, have reached the age of divestiture, but I still hang on to china, silver, books, prints and paintings, and the vestiges of the tools and supplies that furnished my design career. (I know...I no longer need a portable drafting board with a liner and Spiroll, pair of professional drafting lamps, a pad of vellum, three lead holders, and a couple of rolls of trace...but what if suddenly I needed to draft something???!!!)

I now understand the Depression era mentality of so many of my parents' generation, however. One good unexpected financial crisis, and suddenly it is easy to find oneself saying, "I better keep this, because there may never be any more..." I'm not in that pit, but I have peered into it, and I see where it can lead.

We went into a consignment store looking for a nightstand for the spare bedroom; we came out with a church pew. We did need seating, but a church pew probably shouldn't have been high on our list. We just couldn't resist it--beautiful celtic cross carvings on the ends. We probably should have saved the money, but we'd never find a pew like that again at the bargain price we paid, so I don't regret it at all.

I'm an i-banker's daughter. All treasure must include liquidity for me.

I hear too many horror stories about people who have gotten themselves into trouble financially or who don't have any means to weather an emergency bill. I just can't go there.

bronwynsmom - I was glad to read your response because as much as I would like to say I seem to collect collections I more probably accumulate "stuff."

For a while I was obsessed with figurines of all materials that had to do with reading and writing. Certainly no investment value there but I couldn't help being on Ebay all the time looking for them. I have recently found a few larger pieces in bronze though and I know if I found another one I could afford I would grab it ASAP.

I have a small love affair with carnival dogs and green bottles and cobalt blue glass and blue and white china. But the biggest collection in our house is books, over 10,000 right now, and when non-readers come into the house they are a bit gob-smacked by it all. They keep asking if we have read them all (yes) and will we read them again (yes) and do we buy more (yes) and then they just shake their heads.

I am trying to pare down the books if only because we really are at our limit, but it's hard.

Ok, but this thread is supposed to be about the psychology of collecting, as in, "do I buy something practical like new sheets, or something to add to a collection", both out of discretionary income.

I hope it doesn't turn into a thread about fiscal irresponsibility, like "I was greedy and invested all my money with too-good-to-be-real Bernie Madoff" or "I bought a house with 0% down and an interest only ARM mortgage and now I regret it."

Talking about choices with discretionary income.

Ah...I remember discretionary income.
Yes, I still can't pass up a perfect serving spoon with an old-fashioned hand engraved initial...anybody's initial!
And I am weak-kneed about damask napkins and white hand-towels with hand-embroidered monograms, too.
We went looking for a lamp once and came home with a dining room table. Same story about our library table...I was looking for a footstool.
I prefer to think of it as serendipity rather than impulsiveness...

I, too, sleep on patched sheets, because I would rather frame an image I've been saving rather than spend a zillion dollars to replace a perfectly serviceable, if mended, sheet.

I think you did well. And I completely understand buying a new bronze rather than new sheets. Bronze is forever!

Ah! Sheets happen to be one of my weakness/collections/stuff/things ..... LOL!

Choices: lilacs or bread? ((what is that exact quote?? hmmmmmm .... brain cramp .......))

The Bastet (and the rest of the collection) is marvellous -- so graceful and fluid in its shape and lines ....

Sheets you can always find (Martha Stewart's line of linens at K-Mart are just swell). But, Bastet the cat goddess for 60% off? How often is that going to happen?

Money well spent.

When I was in 4th grade I wanted to be an Egyptologist. I drew countless pictures of Bast, Anubis, Hoth, Thorus, the whole gaggle of gods & goddesses. Aren't they just the cat's meow?

Again, money well spent. Enjoy!

I don't think that I collect black and white and sepia pictures (both old and new) but somehow they just find me and stay.

And really - can a ton of photographs bought or received for the sole selfish reason of 'they just make me stop in my tracks and for a moment time stands still' be a collection? Just becuase my heart skips a beat, my palms start to sweat and a smile comes across my face when the right image strikes a chord w/ me? Is that a collection or just a bunch of stuff I acquire becuase it's not like I have gobs of other things en masse?

I've struggled w/ whether I can classiffy my obsession as a collection.

At any rate I am currently having a difficult time NOT buying a particular old farm photo from the late 1800's. It's on the wall for what I consider to be a hefty sum but to me the price and the acquisition would be worth it.

But funds are tight and I have a long list of things that I am budgeting for and this picture is a priority in my heart but not something that I can put into practical use. Although I think of it often. I can't go back to that antiques dive until that picture comes up on my list. I have my day to day things that the family needs and if there were a hair extra I'd by-pass something on the day-to-day list to buy that picture.

So psychologically speaking the desire to have it far outweighs my logical need to make sure I have my practical things so I have to avoid the picture (and dive) at all cost.

I have also let some things pass buy and never regretted it much either. I have a painting of a man wearing a maroon triangular cap (something between a skullcap and a do-rag) and a few years ago I found a beautiful 19c. painting of a boy smoking a cigarette (seemed to be thematic in the 19th c.) and he was wearing a purple cap just like the man I had. I bid and rebid and rebid on that one --and finally I just had to let it go, I could've paid for it, but it got to the point I didnt *want to. Knowing what and when to let go is also part of the process, hard as it may be.

I need to add one more thing about my own collecting, I hardly ever buy any piece new; almost all are found treasures from garage or tag sales, GW, etc. or acquired cheaply through online auctions. It makes me happy to know that what used to be someone else's trash is now my found treasure.
Lynn

Here you go, Teacats. One of my favorite quotes:

If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store
Two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.
- Musharish-Ud-Din Sadi

deeinohio - that quote says it all! Marvelous. I quess you could call it a collection at this point, mine are lenses for my camera. I'd rather buy a lens than a new set of sheets as well. And frames, a ton of frames. They are hard to pass up even at tag sales and flea markets. Now if I could just frame some prints I'd be all set.

Teacats and Dee, you're soulful women, indeed.

Ah yes!!!! Thanks Dee!!!

Hyacinths!!! Think of the fragile beauty, fragance, color -- and joy -- brought into a house! Yes I do have lots of faux silks here BUT a treat of real flowers (kept out of reach of cats! LOL!) is SO amazing!

And SG - Thanks -- that IS a truly wonderful thought!

For those folks who may be wondering about my sheets comment -- I usually buy sets from Overstock. Our last set -- bought a couple of years ago -- is 1,000 threads-per-inch and have been washed and used -- and now are at that "perfect" point for us. After a hot day here -- and a nice cooling shower -- those sheets feel silky-satiny soft, cool and comfy to slide into ....lovely!

I have a list of things I am looking for to go in the house so those items usually prevent me from buying the gorgeous not-on-the-list don't-have-a-use or place-for-it items.

I am not a collector but there are things I will always want more of so I definitely avoid the places that might tempt me.

Clothes, jewelry, shoes, handbags, pots and pans, dishes, plants and ceramic pottery tend to be the big items that I could add to.
But most things I am rather thoughtful about purchasing ...I like things to be well placed and not hodge podge.

My logic on collecting: You can patch a sheet but you just can't cast a bronze.

Good point, Cooperbailey!

I'd buy the bronze over the sheet any day, and have done the equivalent many times.

I bought my mission rocker 20 years ago when I was in grad school and the $60 I spent on it was a very big pinch. But it has rewarded me every single day since.

I don't know if I'm just lucky that I don't have expensive tastes or if I just don't have expensive tastes because I've never had much discretionary income, but the things I collect don't cost much, and the things I own that mean the most to me are pretty much "worthless" to the world.

I'd rather be a little cold and a little underfed in a beautiful home (and garden!) than warm and stuffed in a plain one.

Thanks, Stinky, for the kind words. I think everyone who posts or visits here lives that quote. We're all just trying to feed our souls and the souls of those we love by making beautiful homes. It brings to mind a phrase I read in a book of trite sayings many years ago, and which I repeat to myself often: You can have anything you want in life, but you can't have everything in life you want. It's a matter of how much sacrifice one is willing to make to achieve or attain something they desire. Palimpsest's original musing is a perfect example of the type of dilemma with which we all struggle. (At least those of us, like me, without a trust fund or unlimited discretionary income.)
Dee

tricia560,
I've done the same thing as you regarding coming home unexpectedly a church pew! We've had it for probably 10 years and I smile every time I see it. It's only about 6 feet long and the decoration on the ends of ours are called Borromean rings symbolizing the Trinity.