Stuff I like Collecting
Welcome to Saturday Night of Amy's Wine Buzz theatre. Strap in for verbal diarrhea.
While I am waiting for the chicken in the oven to roast enough that I can add the potato wedges, I'm sitting here, laptop on lap, wine glass empty and iTunes playing 1 40's music station, it occurred to me just how much crap I collect. I can't help it. I'm a highly organised packrat.
Thing is, I don't collect anything ENOUGH to be obsessive about it. The sort of collector that MUST have EVERYTHING of a certain type/colour/year etc. I just... gather stuff I like.
Long-time obsessions:
Sketchbooks (well, obviously) - I REALLY need to stop buying new ones when I have at least THREE still uncompleted.
DVDs - natural offshoot of videotapes. I stopped cheaply taping stuff off TV LONG ago(although I still have most of Nikki's MST3K vids, yay), but I'm still a sucker for a god DVD sale. I'm not a huge movie person, but I'll take anything animated if it's cheap enough. I got Watership Down for a steal a couple of weeks ago :) I'd always loved that movie as a kid, but I'd forgotten how creepy some bits are, like Cowslip's warren.
Books: Holy crap, I love books. Not much fiction, though. NOT a big fiction reader, despite my parents' best efforts (both are big fiction readers). I like reference books and reading about real things. And comic strips, of course. From Krazy Kat and Little Nemo to the Flight series, I love 'em.
Recent obsessions:
Sock Yarn: It's called a stash, and every self-respecting knitter has one. In some circles, having so much yarn you're storing it in the sleeves of hanging clothes and willing it to your descendents is a badge of honour. To others, like me, it's a sign you need help. But it's so damn pretty.
Reader's Digest LP collections: Nothing later than mid-70's. They're DIRT cheap and there's a lot of good music on there if you're odd enough to still have a turntable and the time to rip them all to mp3. Not that I would know anything about that.
Vintage ephemera: Show me an old magazine, and I'm happy for hours. Vintage popular culture (anything 1975 or earlier. 80's is my childhood and therefore NOT OLD, DAMN YOU!) fascinates me no end and I love it all. I love the mid-century design aesthetic, like many artists. That doesn't mean I'd actually want to LIVE in that time. Denigration of women, racial inequality and stultifyingly boring infant suburbia? No thanks.
Rings: On my left pinkie, at this moment, I am wearing a plastic Cinderella ring I got as a 3-pack at Michael's for a dollar. I am 35 years old and like Disney Princesses and I am not ashamed of that fact. I am also a quirky artsy person and can get away with wearing a piece of plastic children's jewelry.
Stuff I collected as a kid:
Coins & Stamps: Who didn't at one point or another?
Music taped off the radio: Hey, some of us had bugger-all for allowance, shut up.
Budgies: Unfortunately, JUST as I'd got one nice and tame, I'd lose it because my punk-ass sister couldn't shut a damn screen door. Ah well. They escaped into native habitat, so there's always that consolation.
While I am waiting for the chicken in the oven to roast enough that I can add the potato wedges, I'm sitting here, laptop on lap, wine glass empty and iTunes playing 1 40's music station, it occurred to me just how much crap I collect. I can't help it. I'm a highly organised packrat.
Thing is, I don't collect anything ENOUGH to be obsessive about it. The sort of collector that MUST have EVERYTHING of a certain type/colour/year etc. I just... gather stuff I like.
Long-time obsessions:
Sketchbooks (well, obviously) - I REALLY need to stop buying new ones when I have at least THREE still uncompleted.
DVDs - natural offshoot of videotapes. I stopped cheaply taping stuff off TV LONG ago(although I still have most of Nikki's MST3K vids, yay), but I'm still a sucker for a god DVD sale. I'm not a huge movie person, but I'll take anything animated if it's cheap enough. I got Watership Down for a steal a couple of weeks ago :) I'd always loved that movie as a kid, but I'd forgotten how creepy some bits are, like Cowslip's warren.
Books: Holy crap, I love books. Not much fiction, though. NOT a big fiction reader, despite my parents' best efforts (both are big fiction readers). I like reference books and reading about real things. And comic strips, of course. From Krazy Kat and Little Nemo to the Flight series, I love 'em.
Recent obsessions:
Sock Yarn: It's called a stash, and every self-respecting knitter has one. In some circles, having so much yarn you're storing it in the sleeves of hanging clothes and willing it to your descendents is a badge of honour. To others, like me, it's a sign you need help. But it's so damn pretty.
Reader's Digest LP collections: Nothing later than mid-70's. They're DIRT cheap and there's a lot of good music on there if you're odd enough to still have a turntable and the time to rip them all to mp3. Not that I would know anything about that.
Vintage ephemera: Show me an old magazine, and I'm happy for hours. Vintage popular culture (anything 1975 or earlier. 80's is my childhood and therefore NOT OLD, DAMN YOU!) fascinates me no end and I love it all. I love the mid-century design aesthetic, like many artists. That doesn't mean I'd actually want to LIVE in that time. Denigration of women, racial inequality and stultifyingly boring infant suburbia? No thanks.
Rings: On my left pinkie, at this moment, I am wearing a plastic Cinderella ring I got as a 3-pack at Michael's for a dollar. I am 35 years old and like Disney Princesses and I am not ashamed of that fact. I am also a quirky artsy person and can get away with wearing a piece of plastic children's jewelry.
Stuff I collected as a kid:
Coins & Stamps: Who didn't at one point or another?
Music taped off the radio: Hey, some of us had bugger-all for allowance, shut up.
Budgies: Unfortunately, JUST as I'd got one nice and tame, I'd lose it because my punk-ass sister couldn't shut a damn screen door. Ah well. They escaped into native habitat, so there's always that consolation.