my house: Collecting.

Tony's collection of cartoon figurines - what can I say?

I was never a collector of 'stuff'. Brownie badges wielded little charm, Just 17 magazines were girly and Brosette fans with their bottle tops for laces and all the other necessary bits were just daft. I was never much of a club member type and as a result I didn't really embrace the collector affliction. No stamps, only a few pongy rubbers and maybe a handful of scratch n' sniff stickers. They would all be thrown into one old Wall's Ice Cream tub and left to ferment and stagnate under my bed. Maybe I didn't really have the maturity to swear an allegiance to the collector club mentality. It was often a hobby that was shared with a girl friend and led you to the same shop week on week, emptying out your pocket money coins on the counter in exchange for what I saw as an unworthy bit of nonsense that didn't look any different to the other bit of unworthy nonsense bought the week before that and the week before that. So it came as a slight shock when I realised the other day there is a bit of 'collectorism' occuring under my own roof all these years later and I'm not referring to our eight year olds addiction to all things Pokemon.

I have managed to amass more than a few sewing stools(?!) and stone wall heads(??!!). I blame second-hand furniture shops, car boot sales and antique fairs because it is at all of these places where you find yourself wandering, as if around an art gallery, slightly aimlessly and without much intention. Drowning a little in the array of trinkets and oddities that you don't need but your senses respond to. However, these have become the purchases which add personality to our house and without them our home would be much like any other house. It is good to let your heart lead the way sometimes. Especially when it doesn't break the bank. So as I pass one of the many heads on my daily journeys through the house and reach out for a book, stinky sock or more wishfully a big fat glass of wine from the more interesting sidetables (sewing boxes), I take some pleasure from my little collections in a way I was never able to appreciate as a kid. I'm just a little nervous of the similarity in the words collection and addiction!

some of my heads;