House of Glass
When Amy over at Baby Baby Lemon suggested we do a blog hop of our collections, my first thought was that the only thing I’m collecting these days is dust bunnies. Seriously. I have quiet a variety under my couch and some of the specimens under my bed are practically antiques. They’re quite impressive.
Fortunately, I did plenty of collecting in my previous life. You know, the one where I actually read Country Living as a source of inspiration instead of laughing at the white-on-white color schemes and artistic arrangements of seashells left on coffee tables. HAHAHAHA Oh designers. Don’t you know my coffee table has been in the basement for a year? Where are the foam square play mats and bouncy chairs?
But thanks to baby gates and a certain little man’s shortness, I’ve managed to hold on to several groups of useless crap collections, even if I’m not actively adding to them. All of them are made of glass.
There are these:
Useless
These:
Currently Useless
These:
A tiny amount of a much larger useless collection
But I decided I should stick with something I collected deliberately, not accidentally. Something I really love and am always excited to add to. Something still totally, totally useless. And glass.
My chickens
I have no idea why I collect glass chickens. It started with a plastic rabbit, made in the same style, that I bought at Target to hold Easter candy. I think my mom mentioned Grandma used to have a glass chicken that looked like the rabbit, so when I saw one at a flea market I picked it up and put it in the china cabinet. Then I found another. And another. Then Mom gave me the ones from Grandma’s house. And then I was Someone Who Collected Glass Chickens and people started saying “oh I have one of those, do you want it?” I always kept my eyes open at garage sales and antique stores for interesting colors or sizes. I may have gone so far as to start cruising Ebay for more chickens – although I never actually bought any (the shipping was always outrageous – one of the benefits of collecting something so pointless and common is that they’re cheap).
Over the past few years, a few non-chickens have slipped into my collection…
Cock-a-doodle-doo Moo Quack Gobble Gobble
…But I try to keep the invaders to a minimum.
I don’t know what they’re for – eggs? chicken salad? candy? – or why they were once so popular but now end up going for $3 in crappy flea markets. But I do know one day my kids are going to be telling their kids that Grandma used to collect those funny glass chickens.
And then they can fight over who has to hold on to them.
Tags: blog hop, collections, flea market, garage sale, house, vintage
I particularly love the milk glass and chickens!
I have a white milk glass chicken bowl. I have no clue what it’s supposed to be used for either…it just sits on my dining table empty. I have rooster placemats though, so at least it fits ‘thematically’. I just thought that would be relevant to your interests.
I love the turkey. I think a glass chicken collection embodies whimsy with just a dash of the crazy.
My mom totally has a bunch of those dishes…though her thing is sheep.
I totally do the blog hop as soon as I can get some pics. Most of my collections are in storage, but I am pretty sure I have some around that aren’t stowed away.
Suzanne, you convinced me to join my first-ever blog hop! I have a Snoopy collection that won’t quit.
GAH!!! I collect glass chickens!!!!! I loooove them so much. My mom and grandma always laugh at me and pick them up for me when they see them, I dont know, I just love em.
I had no idea there was such a large glass chicken market but they really are gorgeous.
I like your chickens :) I also really love how you have your milk glass displayed on that high shelf-thingy…
I will have to join the blog hop tomorrow maybe. The only thing I can think of that I shamelessly collect is fabric, though. :D
OOoh, you need to come visit Fishs Eddy like whoa…sometime when Baby E is already sacked out from running in circles around Madison Square Park, or something….
My favorite part of this post is your labels on the pictures. “Useless.” Cracking me up. I love the milkglass on the shelves in the dining room. Useless? But, pretty!
Thanks for the heads up about the radiators/boilers slip-up. Oops! I was writing too fast and mixed them up. Good thing I listed them as radiators on Craigslist. That could have gotten confusing. =)
Aw: my grandma gave me a glass chicken. I’m not sure what happened to it and/or when I got rid of it.
Loving those glass chickens. Very cool collection. I love the white glass on your yellow walls!
Apparently, Amelia LOVES your glass chickens. We’ve been staring at the pictues for the last 15 minutes. Everytime I try to navigate away from the page, she wails for their return. I think I might have to print out a copy. :)
These glass chickens are awesome! Don’t quote me on this (I doubt there’s a glass chicken Wikipedia) but I THINK people used to use them to keep their eggs in on the counter, and they’re probably not so popular anymore b/c people keep eggs in the fridge since it’s not like the old days where you get your eggs super fresh.
I’m a little jellus of your milk glass vases. So pretty! The display is so lovely!
I used to collect a LOT of stuff, mostly comics and anime related (books, videos, toys/figures) but I don’t really collect anything any more. I accumulate books, but we divested our book holdings the move before last and got rid of about 1/3 of them, which means we still have more books than your average American. I’m really really tired of stuff that takes up space and collects dust. If we gut our apartment and build the built-ins that I want to build (with glass shelves and all) I might start collecting again. It’s a money sink, though.
We have a decent collection of board games and RPG books (pen and paper/table top and LARP both) and if we had money we’d totally expand on them. I have almost everything White Wolf has published before their relaunch, including a lot of the really terrible novels. And I’m sure NONE of your readers have ANY idea what I’m talking about. :)