COLLECTION #21: Beatrix Potter

I've always loved Beatrix Potter.... some of my earliest memories were of hearing The Tales of Peter Rabbit... just hearing the names Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail take me back to a more innocent time.

I have a few Beatrix Potter books and items... I have two small rectangular tins that I've had for years, but when I went to photography my collection, I couldn't find them anywhere. I guess that's part of the joy of collecting: keeping track of your collections!

I bought the lovely book about Beatrix Potter's life and art back in the late '70s. It's a very important part of my library.

I bought the French edition of Jeremy Fisher in 1965 when I was studying French in junior high. My mom brought the German version of Samuel Whiskers when she was in Europe in the  early '80s, probably the same trip she bought me the Dutch clock.

 The best part of Beatrix Potter's work is her enchanting illustrations. She meticulously studied nature her entire life, sketching from real life the flora and fauna of her English farm and home.

COLLECTION #20: Delft Pottery

A few humble pieces of Delft blue pottery- like many of my collections, these just sort of dropped into my lap from various sources. Although I love blue & white pottery, I haven't really tried to collect the lovely pottery from the Netherlands. I bought some of the smaller pieces years ago in Solvang, California, the cute Danish village north of Santa Barbara. The large clock was given to my by my Mom, she bought it back for me from Europe in the early '80s.



I just had to include Muffy Vanderbear- dressed in her Dutch finery. I keep her in my china cabinet with all the rest of my blue and white dishes, and she looks so cute, I thought she belonged in this collection.

COLLECTION #19: Saturday Evening Post

I have a couple of stacks of vintage magazines in my collections- they range from the early 1900s to the 1970s. I'm not really a magazine collector per se, but I do love having them in my files... they are such a fabulous glimpse of popular culture of the day, advertisements (my favorite sections!), amazing graphic design, fonts, and illustration- not to mention articles, stories, and photographs. Just a treasure trove of the past!


The Saturday Evening Post was such a treasured US weekly publication... I won't go into the history here, you can read about it on their official website, here. However, fair warning, the current Saturday Evening Post is not the same publication it was 'back in the day'. It has a different owner, and different priorities, but the history of the magazine is rich and fun.

Most of you know that the illustrator Norman Rockwell really personified the style of art that graced the covers of the Post for many, many years. His eye for storytelling, his amazing painting skill, and the sheer personality of his work, inspired many other illustrators of the day. Their covers often show the same quirky sense of humor and sensitivity as Mr. Rockwell. Where Norman Rockwell's art often portrayed old-fashioned values and stories, other illustrators showed a more modern view of life. Together they wove a view of the United States mid-century as a combination of tradition and progression.

My Saturday Evening Posts are all from the late 50s, early 60s. An innocent time, peak baby-boomer years, between WWII and the assassination of President Kennedy. I'd love to go back in time to that era!

And just look at the great cover art below! That modern house with the amazing finned car, and the absolute perfect touch: a whimsical, modern jack-o-lantern banner hanging over the carport. The kids and dogs, of course, add the perfect touch. (Click on any of the images for a closer view)

COLLECTION #18: Building Toys

Welcome to Toy Tuesday! Today my collection is building toys, specifically toys sold in lovely cardboard tubes. Tinker Toys, which were invented in 1914, began selling their wonderful building sets in cardboard tubes from the very beginning, and imitators followed suit. Inexpensive, compact and sturdy, these tubes could be easily stored and carried around, unlike awkward boxes. Even today, Hasbro's Tinker Toys are sold in the same colorful cylindrical containers.

Although their contents are meager, I have a few of these building toys in their 'cans'. I love the graphics, and the way they look on my toy shelf, towering over their neighbor toys.

Notice, the Pixie Build-A-Toy at the left was made by the Steven Mfg. Co, the came company that made most of my kaleidoscopes! They were a fun company, and I love the whimsical artwork they used on all of their products.

More important than the containers, were the toys themselves, which provided hours and hours of creative building fun. I wonder how many architects and industrial designers got their start making structures with Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs? It makes me want to build something!

COLLECTION #17: Autoharps

Technically, they are 'chorded zithers'. Autoharp is the registered name owned by the Oscar Schmidt Co. My collection stems from my love of autoharps, and my own playing. Half my collection is playable, and half is decorative. (Including my original autoharp, purchased for $5 in 1969, which started me on my musical autoharp journey- although it still looks cute with the little hippie artwork I added, it's no longer playable).

All of my 'harps are Oscar Schmidt, including that large one in the back which is actually a cross between an autoharp and a mandolin. (And is coincidentally called a "Mandolin Harp") But since it has push buttons, I consider it an autoharp. The oldest one is from the 1890s (the little black one on the top left), and the newest one is the Wildwood Flower diatonic- middle left, which was built in the early 1990s. The autoharp of my heart is the center left, next to the Wildwood Flower. It's a 12-chord diatonic (adapted) built in 1983. Bruce gave it to me for Christmas that year, and it's been my 'baby' all this time. The 21-chord chromatic 'harp in the center is a nice instrument, and very pretty. But like most 21 chord instruments, it doesn't have the rich tone of the more melodic diatonic instruments.

Perhaps you learned to play the autoharp in elementary school like I did... or perhaps you have never heard one played. As soon as I figure out how to add a sound file here, I'll link a clip of me & my band playing a nice folky tune, featuring the autoharp. (help, anyone?)

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Sea Glass

Finding new collector's blogs is like finding a needle in a needlestack... it's not that they are particularly hard to find like a needle in a haystack, it's that there are so many different types of collectors, blogs, and collections, it's hard to 'pinpoint' just the right one! (I'm 'sew' clever, aren't I?) But I digress.

I discovered this enchanting blog of Christina Friedrichsen of Ontario, Canada, who collects sea glass on Lake Erie. She's also a poet and photographer, and she turns her lovely finds into exquisite jewelry which she sells in her Etsy shop. The words below are hers, about why she collects sea glass:

Do you collect sea glass? Then you’ve witnessed that strange look in someone’s eyes that combines both bewilderment and boredom. Bewilderment because they can’t quite figure out why you are obsessed over bits of broken glass; and boredom because bits of broken glass are about as compelling to them as an electric garage door manual.

I do believe there are people in my extended family who have given me this look. (I won’t name any names.) For these folks, I limit my sea glass discussions to mere sentence fragments.

But maybe I am taking the wrong approach. Can they be enlightened? After all, sea glass has all the elements of a compelling collectible.

• Sea glass is mysterious. Was it from a shipwreck? Or maybe a poison bottle?
• Sea glass is beautiful. People rappel off of cliffs and kayak in dangerous waters in search of rare colors.
• Sea glass is historical. Some pieces are hundreds of years old!
• Sea glass is free – unlike many collectibles which can cost oodles of money.
• Sea glass is full of surprises. You never know what will end up in your bucket!

Thankfully, the people I spend most of my time with (my husband and two girls) are in just as deep as I am, so there’s no need for a lecture. There’s no need to explain to them why housework, homework and other obligations must take a back seat to hitting the beach. There’s no need to explain to them why the kitchen table is covered in a rainbow of wet glass instead of dinner.

There’s no need to help them understand why I can hear the Divine Spirit, or Source a lot more clearly in the sound of the waves, then inside four walls.

As architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said: “I put a capital “N” on nature and call it my church.”

I love a church where I can wear rubber boots and smell the wind.

COLLECTION #16: Rhode Island Postcards

Our family lived in Rhode Island for 4 years in the late 80s when I was working for Hasbro. Somehow I managed to accumulate a small group of Rhode Island postcards, most from Southern Rhode Island, near where we lived. (Click on any of these images for a closer view).

Rhode Island has beautiful scenery and fabulous architecture- especially the wonderful mansions, hotels and other old landmarks of Newport and Narragansett. Our home was just a few miles from Narragansett, so we often rode our bikes, or drove around, just taking in the historical atmosphere. It was like we were stepping into the past.