Oodles and oodles

Things I don't collect: scissors

 

This is not a collection. Like the thimbles, the scissors represent an accumulation. All of these were acquired in the last six months or so, and all from the same little place, the curious junk shop.

 

Isn't it amazing how you can never find a pair of scissors when you need them? You'd think in this house that would not be a problem, but it is.

 
 
Stork embroidery scissors are a classic.

 

Although if you look closely at the handles on these - look at the handle at the left - you can see a variation on the stork theme, with its long neck and beak curving around.

 
 
Such delicate little details.

 

I was thinking these were my favorites, because I like the pewter-colored finish, and now I'm seeing how much they look like the variation-on-the-stork theme scissors. I'll have to get out the originals and compare. That's about as complex a task as my brain can handle. Yesterday I meant to tell my husband that I had stopped taking codeine, but I said cocaine. I guess this is why we should not use narcotics unless we have to. Thank you for all of your good wishes, by the way.

 

I think I've used up my allotment of words for the day. I'm off to find some kind of mindless entertainment. On Sunday I watched snowmobile racing, so my standards are pretty low.




  
  
 
  
   
 

Things I don't collect, and there are a lot of them

 

Marbles! I don't collect marbles! That was the answer to the question in my last post, and honestly, I don't think I've ever enjoyed comments more. First of all, nobody guessed marbles, and so I won't be sending them off to anybody. Sorry. But really, all of you had such good and interesting ideas. Things that I don't collect but that seemed like they'd be nice, like napkin girls and pie birds and curtain tiebacks. Things that I don't collect and don't really want to, like bells. Bells have always struck me as kind of a weird thing to collect, but really no weirder than anything else, when you think about it. Things that I never even considered could be collected, like vases shaped like open books. Now that is a specific collection!

 
 
I kept these only because they're a perfect Jadeite color. There's very little chance I'll collect marbles. I can't tell one kind from another, or whether they're old or new. I also was not very good at marbles growing up and never quite understood the point of it. Some old-fashioned amusements went out of style because they just weren't enough fun. That, in my opinion, is what happened with marbles. Maybe I'd feel differently if I'd been any good at them.

Several people wondered whether I collect thimbles.

 

I do not. But I have been cleaning and sorting like crazy lately, and would you believe how many thimbles I came across, here and there? This is not a collection. It's an accumulation. I don't understand thimble collecting either. Part of the problem is that I don't know my metals. Some thimbles are sterling, and that's a good thing, but I have no idea how I'd tell. And the ones that aren't silver-colored? Are they brass? The only one I'm sure about is the pink one, because it's plastic.

 

Here are the dog with toothache salt and pepper shakers I mentioned previously. As a child I found them perplexing and a little bit frightening. I did not think they looked so much like dogs as they did some kind of weird lions or monkeys. Like flying monkeys. Like the ones in "The Wizard of Oz." Now I'm going to have bad dreams.

Hey, I'm going to be away from the computer a lot the next couple of weeks. You may not even notice, however, because I have been squirreling away photos and posts and if all goes as planned, they'll appear as if by magic. I have a cleaned-up sewing notions collection to show you, and a couple of other non-collections, and another ugly chair makeover, and Valentines decorations. I might not be so great at answering e-mails and blog visiting, though, but I'll catch up. And I really do want to say hello to a lot of people who left comments on the last post who I hadn't heard from before - thanks!
 
 
 

Things I don't collect: Egg timers

 
  
Some of my so-called blog friends insinuated in their comments on my last post that it certainly appeared to them as if I did have a salt-and-pepper shaker collection. Well, I don't, and I have addresses for some of you, and if a set of salt and pepper shakers shows up on your doorstep without explanation some night, you'll have only yourselves to blame. With that said, here's something else I don't collect: egg timers.

 

I have only one of these, and even though the base is very chipped up, I like the broom.

 

And that sweet face.
 
She lives in a drawer with the watering can salt and pepper shakers, and one can only wonder if they whisper to each other about whether they've done something wrong and how come they don't get to live in the sunshine with the Jadeite. Well, it's because I collect Jadeite. And I don't collect egg timers or salt and pepper shakers. Life is difficult and unfair sometimes.

 

I don't collect dresser sets, either, but I found this duo at the thrift store yesterday. Pretty, but so not my style, and certainly destined for Etsy.

 

I don't collect wedding cake toppers/bride and groom figurines either, but they were at the thrift store as well, and again destined for Etsy.

Anybody who guesses correctly what object will be featured next as something I don't collect will receive it/them in the mail. (But only if you really want it/them.) Go ahead, guess! It'll be fun to see what you come up with.

 
 

Things I don't collect, part one

 

It may not seem this way to you, but there's a lot of stuff I don't collect. Dolls. Clocks. Cameras. Guns. Fishing lures. Hess trucks. (Nothing is worse than being at an otherwise promising auction that has a pile of Hess trucks, which apparently must be auctioned off very slowly, one by one.) Anyway, I also don't collect salt and pepper shakers, so I thought I'd show you a few of them.

 

Salt and pepper shakers used to be quite the collectible. Especially tiny, useless ones like these tres elegant lamps, which are made of plastic. These show signs of light use, which means someone actually filled them with maybe a teaspoon of salt and pepper (they're tiny) and put them on the table, expecting them to be used. I would feel very silly shaking one of these over my vegetables.

 

These are cute, but again, awfully impractical. They might be Shawnee. Then again, maybe not. Here's a valuable auction lesson I learned from my friend Laurel: When an auctioneer holds up something, like a vase, and says, "Might be Roseville!" my friend Laurel mutters under her breath, "Might not be." It's just good to remember that the word "might" means almost nothing.

 

And these, which are just cheery. Alas, this is not the limit of my salt and pepper non-collection. I have some that belonged to my mom: a pair of saucy red tomatoes, and my Christmas geese, and a corn shock and pumpkin, and a very weird pair of dogs with toothaches. (They were too weird to photograph, but who knows? The day may come.) There's another pair, also from my mom, but I'm saving them for a Very Special Post in February. (In fact, I believe Mom purchased them on her honeymoon. When I pointed this out to her, she kind of shrugged and said "Whatever." She has a disturbingly large unsentimental streak for a mom.)

You may be asking yourself how all of these constitute a non-collection. Well, for one thing, I didn't set out to acquire them. They appeared, here and there, in the bottom of a box lot or on a tray of stuff at an auction. They were not deliberate purchases. Plus, I don't display them all together. They almost don't know each other exists, like distant cousins at a family reunion. If I displayed all of them together, people would get the idea that I collected them, and they would start giving them to me. And I might also get the idea that I collected them, and that is one thing I am trying mightily to avoid.
 

  

Inspecting gadgets

 

I love books, and I love kitchen gadgets, so a book on the subject of kitchen gadgets certainly would be one of my favorites. I'm showing a page from this book with one of my favorite cookie cutters, an elephant with a green knob. It will come in handy if I ever throw a circus-themed birthday party or a Republican Party fund-raiser, neither of which seems very likely.

 

I've owned this book for several years now, and I was pleased to see it is still available (here) for a very reasonable price. This book has it all:

 

lavishly illustrated chapters on important manufacturers, such as Tupperware;

 

sections on culturally significant objects;

 

and calendar illustrations, magazine covers and advertisements that show the full range of the human experience, from dismay ...

 
 
to excitement!

 
 
There's even crime.

 
 
And mystery. I found this gadget last summer and didn't know what it was. Turns out it's a rotary mincer, available in red or green, circa 1935. I may have mentioned this before, but it's hard to go wrong buying a guide for objects that you like, which in my case includes kitchen gadgets, Christmas ornaments and birds. (Real birds, not the collectible kind.) There's a certain satisfaction in being able to identify something accurately.

 
 
I thought the week between Christmas and New Year's might be a good time to get my Etsy shop restocked, and it was, except a lot of things sold right away. So now my inventory is somewhat depleted again, but that's a good problem to have. This spice rack is on its way to a new home.

 

Although the instant collection of syrup jars is still there.

 
 
And so is the mushroom mixing bowl. I love the mushroom mixing bowl, but I don't have a speck of orange in my house except at Halloween.
 
 

The plate rack has been sent off to its new owner, too. (Without the Jadeite. But you knew that.)

 

And these towels, and a few more, have headed off to Canada. So I think it's time for me to stop goofing around and get some more listings done.