Even though I'm not as active in the collecting world as I once was, I have decided to start a collector Instagram account, since Instagram is a much more lively world than blogging right now. But I love writing about my collections, and posting, and having an archive of my "stuff" which is not so easy on Instagram. So, for those of you who are interested, you can find me @stefcollectsstuff on Instagram. And I'll continue posting from time to time here on the Copycat Collector.

One of my composition Nancy Ann Storybook dolls

Status Update on the Copycat Collector!

It's been 2 1/2 years since I gave you an update on the State of the Collections, and since I want to keep this blog available for future possible contributions, I thought today might be a good time to share some thoughts, and my (our) current status.

My last update was in July, 2016, shortly after my husband Bruce and I relocated to Utah after I was downsized from my job in New York. We left our little one-bedroom apartment in New Jersey, moved temporarily into my brother's spacious home in Utah, and got all of our belongings out of storage, where they had been since we closed our California home in the winter of 2012-2013- not long after I completed my year of collection blogging here on the Copycat Collector.

Although we kept a lot of things, the majority of our furniture, collections, and junk were sold or liquidated.

Priorities change. Now, we are living in a small town home in a small town in Utah County, Utah, and this is probably where we will stay. The joy I used to get adding to my collections just isn't there anymore. The biggest reason, is that I don't have anywhere to put them. In California, we had a 3800 sf home, with tons of cupboards, closets, and shelves for display. Our house was full, but not junky. But if I had even a tenth of my old stuff out here, we would look like we needed to be evicted by the health department; and frankly, my darling husband wouldn't stand for it. As it is, when I do come home occasionally with something "new", he rolls his eyes. I get it.

Another reason, is that the things that used to light up my eyes, just don't any more. There isn't much that I want to buy. I spend far less time and money at antique malls and thrift stores as I used to. So, in a lot of ways, that's a win-win: more money for me to keep, and more treasures for others to find.

A few "new" additions to my collections: a few dolls online friends have sent me in the past few months since I started sharing my toy designs on Instagram- mixed in with some oldies!

Although the plan was always to sell my collection leftovers, in reality, I have hardly sold anything since that initial downsizing in 2012-13. Most of my unwanted stuff is stored in boxes waiting until I "get around to it".

But the good news, for collecting fans, is that I still have some things around me that bring me happiness that I can share. Most are still on display, while others are readily available in boxes in closets. Luckily for hubby, most of that junk is in my studio, which is packed pretty full.

My ephemera collection is still with me. It's small, lightweight, stores flat, and I keep it in a nice decorative box in my studio closet. I still have a lot of my vintage photo collection: same reason as the ephemera. You can see those here and here and here. (There are more, but you get the idea). I still have the majority of my children's vintage school books and readers. You can see some of them tucked into this shelf in my current studio below: (If you search for the term "school" in the search bar of this blog, you will find dozens of my various school book collections.

My studio is where much of what's left of my collections lie, including my vintage readers

I still have my green pottery, my Franciscanware, my Depression glass.  I kept most of my autoharps.  In boxes still lie my vast collection of children's and other old magazines.

As far as my toy collection, that's been mostly sold. I have some precious treasures remaining, but most of them had to go. It was just time.

A few of my vintage toys including dolls, typewriters, vintage hankies and some other treasures

The one collection that has in fact grown, is my cache of vintage Valentines. They are inexpensive, store flat, and look so adorable on display. Here are some of them out on my shelves at the moment:

This fun display includes a few of the new ones I got this year

So now, as I have been perusing my former life as a collector, I'd like to conclude with a couple of links that featured photos and details about my 2011-2012 collections. It actually makes me hyperventilate a little... wow, I sure did have a lot of stuff!
Here's the first part.
Here's the second part.
Feel free to browse through my year's worth of collections. I warn you: it will take awhile. If you're looking at this site on your desktop rather than the mobile view, you can see some of my highlight collections on the right side of this blog.

Now I've got that out of my system! Happy collecting!

Reunited, And It Feels so Good!

For those of you who are familiar with this blog, you know that I actively posted a different collection of mine every week day for a full year, from July 1, 2011-June 30, 2012. My intention was to occasionally add to the blog as I felt inspired, but just a few months after I posted my last collection, my husband and I moved from California to a small apartment in New Jersey. We either sold or put everything into storage. During the next three or so years, I posted maybe once a year or so, sharing a few collections that I managed to put together during our east coast sojourn.

We recently moved back west, and although we aren't in our California home, we are settled in a new place in Utah, and I've been reunited with most of my old collections.

It's been so fun to unwrap each treasure, and find a new "home" for so many dear old friends.  However, our lifestyle is changing. We no longer live in a large home with lots of storage, surface areas, and rooms. So, I've decided to keep those things that are most special to me, and sell the rest of my stuff. In the next few months we'll be putting up many books and other treasures up for sale or auction. If there's anything you are interested in, please email me (email is on the side of this blog) and I'll let you know if it's available.

Perhaps as I put things up for sale, I'll post them here, so watch this space. I'd love them to go to a good home.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos of a few of my favorite things that most likely will NOT be going up for sale, in their new home here in Utah.

Our dining room, with some of my green pottery, Franciscanware, and other pottery

In my studio, some of my kaleidoscopes and robots find a new home

Vintage school books and reference books

Collection #266: Vintage Easter Postcards

Although my collector's blog is on permanent hiatus, I do plan to stop by from time to time to share the random collection I manage to accumulate while we're living in our small apartment in New Jersey.

For those of you unfamiliar with my blog, I featured my vast collections each week day from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. On the weekends, I shared someone else's collections.  The plan was always to keep it going for a year, with the idea that I might return from time to time to add more things.  However, a few months after the blog ended, my husband Bruce and I moved to the East Coast of the US, leaving behind our big house, and moved into a small, one bedroom apartment. Of course, all of my 'treasures' couldn't join us. (Bruce was happy about that!) We had a large estate sale, and put the rest into storage.

One thing that there's always space for is ephemera... postcards, greeting cards, programs, brochures, letters, etc.

Today I'm going to share my collection of vintage Easter postcards with you!  Aren't they adorable? Most date from 1910-1920. You might notice that there aren't many Easter bunnies. I'm not sure why that is... but aren't the chicks, chickens and birds adorable? Lots of eggs too!

Collection #265: Dog Figurines

When I was a little girl, in the late 1950s, early '60s, I began to collect poodles of one kind or another. Poodles were all the rage, and they represented sophistication! Paris! Coolness and aloofness! I had all the kinds of poodles that a little girl might have, stuffed poodles, poodle knicknacks, poodle themed notebooks, etc. There was an adorable cafe in Pasadena where my Mom often took me for an after-shopping snack. It was called the French Villa, and it was chock-full of poodle themed 'stuff'. I drooled over all of the poodle toys and figurines every time we went there.

(Postcard from Cardcow.com)

My favorite poodle collectible, was a black 'spaghetti' poodle figurine, sitting in a gray fancy chair. Of course, I had never heard the term 'spaghetti' art figure, but I could easily imagine how they were made: covered with minute strands of clay, then glazed and fired. That figurine is long gone now, but occasionally I look for its twin online, thinking if the price is right, I'll buy it. I did find it once, on an auction site, but it was already sold, and I've been unable to find the exact same one again.

I have recently acquired a little collection of dog figurines here at our apartment in New Jersey. For those of you who haven't followed this blog, I kept a daily Monday-through-Friday blog for a year, featuring one of my collections every week day from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012.  On weekends, I featured other peoples' collections. It was fun, but shortly after the year ended, in September of 2012, we moved to New Jersey. All of my precious collections were either sold or put into storage. We now live in a small apartment, and in the 2 1/2 years that we've been here, I've managed to squirrel away a few little collections. It's hard to stop wanting to share them, so I've decided to reactivate this blog a little more often, to just tell you about a few of my things. I hope you'll stop by again!

This cute little French Bulldog caught my eye at an antique mall. He's a little banged up, but I love him!

This is my most precious dog figure. He belonged to my Mom, and when she passed away recently at age 102, I acquired it. She bought it when she had her first "real" job back in the early 1930s, and treasured it always. I plan on taking good care of him!

Not a dog, but this Siamese beauty also belonged to my Mom. She bought her in the mid-50s when we moved to South Pasadena, and went modern. Don't you love her?

COLLECTION #264: Souvenirs of Salt Lake City/ Temple Square

Hey! I'm back! I haven't posted a collection on my blog for over 18 months, and a lot has happened in that time. We moved from California to New Jersey in September of 2012, and either sold, or put into storage, my precious collections.

But out here in our small apartment in New Jersey, I have managed to keep a collection or two, and this is a favorite that never ended up on my blog. So I'll share it with you now.

I collect Salt Lake City/ Temple Square related souvenirs. Love them! Love the awesome images of the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple (I'm a Mormon myself),
the spires and shape are just so iconic. I have postcards from the late 1800s and early 1900s, plates from the early 20th century, and even an awesome leather photo album from around that same time.  I've never lived in Salt Lake City, but it's kind of a center point for our family. We have relatives living there and nearby, and our family settled in Utah in the mid-1800s as Mormon pioneers. So, it's very symbolic of family for me. I hope you enjoy my treasures!

Three souvenir plates, the large one in the back and the pink one are Staffordshire.

Love that bronze Temple.

Souvenir booklets

Souvenir postcards and folders. The card on the bottom right is from the late 1800s. The temple took 40 years to build- it was begun in 1853, and dedicated in 1893.

I love the souvenir book of Salt Lake- there's no publication date, but from the looks of the ads, photos and text, it appears to be from around 1910.

These are missionaries' 'calling cards'. Up until about the 1980s, missionaries gave out these small cards with a photo of their favorite temple, as calling cards. The one on the bottom is my Aunt Elinor, who served a mission to New England in 1940-42.

Gotta love the copper ash tray, with the temple prominently displayed on the upper right. 

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Best of the Copycat Collector

Well, this is it, folks, the last regular daily/ weekend collector feature for the Copycat Collector. I am officially pulling the plug on the blog as a daily entity. I started this blog exactly one year ago, and I was bound and determined that I could keep it up for at least a year. It's been a lot of work!  But that doesn't mean I'll be going away, just taking a breather, and posting whenever I feel like it, rather than every weekday and once a weekend.

To commemorate the end, I decided that since most of you really haven't gone through every single collection I have (Yawn),  I'm going to pick some of my favorite collections to share with you. Today I'm going to pick only five. That leaves it much more likely that I'll come back and pick five more, and so on.

These aren't necessarily the most popular of my collections. You can see those on the right side of the blog, and those entries are based on sheer numbers of views. These are things that I think are fun and interesting. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment, and perhaps tell me what you liked here on the Copycat Collector.

Five favorite collections in no particular order: (Click on the link provided, to read more).

Autoharps

Blue & White Plates

Toy Kaleidoscopes

Alice and Jerry Readers

Green Depression Glass

Until next time, I'll catch you later!