I've been enjoying the comments and questions you've left so much that today I thought I'd respond in a question-and-answer format. There's a really good question at the end from one of you, so try not to get bored.
Q. Do you collect dog figurines?
Why, yes, I do. Actually nobody asked this question exactly, but it enables me to use a picture of my very specific figurine collection: white chalkware or plaster Scotty dogs. If I collected Scotty dogs in general, the collection would be too vast. Black Scotty dogs would be too easy. White chalkware Scotty dogs make it just challenging enough.
Q. How big is Polly? Is she armed?
Several of you asked about my guard cat's capabilities after seeing her on duty:
Well, it's kind of like the first Harry Potter book, in which you have to get past a series of obstacles to reach your goal. Before you ever got to Polly, you'd have to get through the entry that's clogged with my daughter's footwear. Then you'd probably be knocked over or deafened by Carson, who likes to greet people by barking and lunging. Once you realized Carson was only being affectionate, you would try to climb the stairs, accompanied by Polly's sister Patch, who would rub against your ankles and probably trip you. Assuming anyone could get this far, you'd need to slip past Polly, who specializes in jumping into people's laps and immobilizing them. If you try to move, she ever so gently extends her claws. And she's got double toes, so yeah, she's armed. And dangerous.
Q. Are you enjoying your break from the computer?
Not so much. Some things are best discussed after rather than before the fact, and a week ago I had a couple of surgical procedures. Medical stuff makes me squeamish, especially when it's performed on me. I'm doing great and count among my accomplishments of the past week getting through almost an entire day without a nap and making my own toast. Apparently my ability to concentrate was removed while I was under anesthesia, because I think this post has taken me about two hours to write. Thank heavens I took lots of pictures beforehand.
Q. What's a napkin girl?
The subject of napkin girls came up when one of you suggested that I did not collect them, and then another of you wanted to know what they were. (I apologize for the lack of links here, but I'm pretty sure that would take me another two hours.) Anyway, picture a ceramic figurine. From the front, it looks like a regular figurine, but the back is molded in a kind of U-shape so it can hold napkins. They can be cute, in kind of the same way that planters and head vases can be cute. Something I might want to collect some day are sprinkler bottles. They've got little sprinkler tops that people used when they ironed. I had one, but it wasn't all that cute, and I think I put it out at my yard sale. If I take up sprinkler-bottle collecting, I will want to be very specific about it. Maybe I'll collect only white Scotty dog sprinkler bottles.
Here's a closeup of one of the dogs in the previous picture. It's a souvenir from Auburn, N.Y., which is just down the road from me. Even though it was not a chalkware Scotty dog, I felt I should keep it, since it had a local connection. And then I kept the other Scotty dog that wasn't chalkware to kind of balance it out.
These are multicolored Scotty dog charms that I bought from Karla at Karla's Cottage. (There's a link in my blog roll, but everybody in the world knows Karla.) (I seriously need to update my blog roll. It's like a year out of date.) Even though I'm not a jewelry person at all, I like the idea of having a necklace or bracelet with little plastic game pieces. So far I have houses, your standard-issue game markers, and these. And some tiny cowboys, and a bunch of little milk bottles. And some cows and dinosaurs. Actually, I think I have more than enough for this project, now that I start thinking about it.
Q. What do you think is the best way for an undiscerning lover of vintage to collect?
This question comes from Ruthann, and I just love it. It's really fun to think about what we collect and why we collect it. I think it depends a lot on your particular circumstance. I like to collect holiday items - and mostly just Christmas and Halloween, and not so much any other holiday - because my house is small and it enables me to change things around. I like sewing items because I have happy memories of my mom and grandma and great-grandma sewing. Actually, pretty much anything I collect has something to do with a good memory. There's the school of thought that suggests you collect things that are actually useful, like kitchenware. I can go either way on this: I love kitchenware, but there's already so much stuff I have to have in my kitchen that I can't load it up too much more. (Hence, the dining room.)
Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this: If you were just starting out collecting, where would you begin? Oddly enough, one of the chalkware Scotty dogs was one of the very first things I bought at an antique store, and I have no idea why.