Treasures

my friend's collection of beach finds

Do you collect stuff?

Our kitchen windowsill is lined with things we've found on our property: shapely sticks, pretty rocks, old pennies and other interesting artifacts of what and who used to be here.

My mother collected teapots of all sorts, and pretty china cups and saucers. She kept the cups and saucers in a cabinet but the teapots showed up in all sorts of surprising spots in her house.

My friend Paula collects Fiestaware pitchers. They have their own shelf, where they're lined up and ready for precision pouring. My sister-in-law Rebecca collects dishes, too, of all vintages. She mixes and matches for an artful table. Yesterday, Virginia posted a wonderful photo of her friend's collection of bells, beautifully posed in a glass-front cabinet.

When I was a kid I collected plastic horses. Later it was green glass. Now it's antique bottles. At the moment they're in a storage box, but I'll find a spot for them eventually. Or I'll collect something else.

John says he wants to collect vintage Hot Wheels, but I like to think he's kidding.

Theme Day: Glass

It's the first of the month, Theme Day for City Daily Photo bloggers around the world. This month's theme is "glass," so I'm trotting out my collection of vintage bottles.

I know. Just be glad the theme isn't Hot Wheels, or beer mugs.

I find bottles in vintage shops in the small towns of California. I suppose their suppliers find them in various places, like old mining camps that aren't yet old enough to be archaeological sites. That means the bottles have no provenance. They're early 20th century litter. I know bits about a few of them: the two small ink bottles in front are from 1890's northern California. One, that my sister found for me in Texas, has a note inside describing it as a handmade soda bottle made in Decatur, Illinois, also in the 1890's.

I have quite a variety, from medicine bottles to perfume bottles to liquor bottles. I even have one for some kind of magic "elixir." My favorites still have stuff in them - dirt, sand, whatever. It makes me feel linked to whoever used them last.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in today's theme.