My husband started his “quest” last weekend. That’s what he calls Christmas shopping for me. As he’s described it: “the gifts have to be unusual because you’re an unusual person.”
Hmm…
I think I’m a relatively easy person to give gifts to because I appreciate history and love little old things…Cracker Jack prizes, Heinz pickle pins, Oscar Meyer wiener whistles, bottle stoppers, and assorted bits like that. You just can’t go wrong with little things from yesteryear.
I’ve been a collector of small antiques and collectables since long before I met my husband. I had a great uncle Frank in California who owned an antique store that regularly supplied Hollywood movie sets. Every once in a while he’d come by something little he thought I’d like. I got my first oldies when I turned 5 — a wind-up tin duck from 1930 and a Civil War era hand-carved wood decoy with crazy offset hobnail eyes.
The little things Uncle Frank sent were often broken. That sounds strange to say…why would an uncle send a kid broken things? I always understood why because he and I were cut from the same cloth. Just because he couldn’t sell that Victorian bronze cherub broken off its inkwell base didn’t mean the artistry of the piece was any less. He sent it to me because he knew I’d see that too. And I did. That antiques lived their lives before they came into mine is one of the things I love best about them. You can almost feel the history on some pieces. My husband understands this about me too. Over the past 36 years he’s been my largest contributor to my collection of small things. I think of them as little bits of love. I offer proof:
On one quest, my husband found an antique rubber crow decoy for me. It sits atop my living room curtains. I couldn’t begin explain why, but I put little hats on it as whimsey strikes me. Upon determining my hat selection too small, my daughter made an assortment of styles for every season and then some. My favorite is the viking helmet. The crow is currently wearing a derby and a mustache.
lol Yeah I guess I am unusual. 😀
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I’ve been posting one vintage card each day and plan to keep it up from now until January.
I just love the spats the girls are wearing. 🙂
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Less than one week left!
100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’m posting a little something from my chosen topic of Words & Quotes of Love. There are 6 entries to come.
Here’s one for today:
“Familiarity creates a new language, an in-house language of intimacy that carries reference to the story the two lovers are weaving together and that cannot be readily understood by others.”
~ Alain De Botton
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Today is Genesis of a Story on my Exquisite Quills group blog ~ today meet author Jennifer Garcia as she shares a little about the spark that led her to write My Mr. Manny.
Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found there.
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/
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My blog presence is smaller this month because I’m taking a holiday break to see to gift making and cookie baking. Even though I’m not blogging much, you can still discover my books and a little bit about me. Just click on the Links tab above to see my book trailers and other blogs filled with snippets, insights, challenges, recipes, writer tips, chatty things, and more. My novels in ebook and paperback can be found wherever books are sold.
Get your FREE sampling of all seven here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971
>>Subscribe to this blog for all my news<<
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author Paris Brandon’s blog day.
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/
RB4U is participating in author Nikki Barrett’s READER APPRECIATION GIVEAWAY — Lots of prizes. Enter today!
https://www.facebook.com/NikkiLynnBarrettauthor/app_228910107186452
Yesterday was my blog day on Romance Books ‘4’ Us. Come see how much I love snow. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2013/12/timing-is-everything.html
And…our new contest has approximately 30 prizes for one winner, including a $75 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. I’m adding a free book from my backlist to the loot. Read the pages and find the dancing Santas!
http://www.romancebooks4us.com/
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Get your free Exquisite Quills Holiday Anthology Vol. 1 today!
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/374815
Author Kaye Spencer made us a little intro for youtube. Watch the new trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTph6-UV7mg&w=420&h=315
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calliopeswritingtablet.com 
Good Lord, that’s a lot of memorabilia, Rose! Even in all its chaotic look, it actually does have a measure of organization. Or maybe I’m blind. 😉
Ahh..you see that do you? Yes, each compartment has a theme. Some themes are known only to me.
Fun post. My daughter is an archaeologist and she loves collecting things – broken or not – it’s the beauty of times past that snag her attention.
Exactly! As a girl I used to imagine myself as an archaeologist. I’m too impatient. I’d want the full King Tut right now instead of a slow exploration of the site.
Okay, that collecting thing? You are worse than I am. LOL I have spindles, shuttles, and shoe lasts in every size! I’m also in to cow bells. My daughter found one for Xmas one year and bought it. Her boyfriend’s comment, “You can’t give your mother that for Christmas!”
I loved it!
LOL I would have loved that too. 🙂
Goodness, all I can think of is how much work it takes to dust on those shelves. lol
Had I been smarter when I began this project years ago, I might have put doors on the boxes when I made them. If I ever disassemble them, I’ll add doors. All in all it’s not too bad..a particle mask, a stiff paintbrush, a fan blowing out the window, and an allergy tablet for good measure.
LOL I have such horrible allergies to dust; I would be sneezing the whole time. A mask is a good idea.
What a lovely post, Rose. We sell stone and crystal animals, and at times they arrive broken in transport. We have a whole shelf of broken stone animals and love each and every one. My son calls it the wellness garden where they all recuperate. Your husband is special. Can’t wait to hear what he finds for you this year!
I can picture your little stone wellness garden where broken crystal animals are whole in their dreams. 🙂
I love that you and your uncle connected that way. It’s wonderful as well that your hubby gets and supports it!
My Great-Uncle Frank didn’t have kids of his own so I’m sure our connection was as important to him as it was to me. He was one classy old guy. I miss him.
Yes, my husband enjoys his quest. One year he gave me a dried coconut in the husk and a gigantic blown glass Japanese fishing float. lol I never know what he’ll come up with.
I’m lucky for both men in my life. 🙂
What a beautiful post and picture, Rose! Love all those little items.
Oh my gosh! So I’m not the only person I know who has displays of ‘dust collectors’. lol I have old kitchen ‘stuff” that is mostly handed down from both sides of my family. Things like a bread toaster that sets on a stove burner, hand-crank meat grinder, egg scale, potato masher…that sort of thing. But my main collecting obsession is rocks, particularly petrified wood.
We collect rocks too — big ones. I have a mini Stonehenge growing in my yard that you can see from google earth.
(if this eventually posts twice, I’m sorry—had a posting glitch. lol) I have kitchen ‘things’ such as a toaster that sets on a stove burner, hand-crank meat grinder, old Denver pie pans, that sort of thing. What I really like to collect is unusual rocks and especially petrified wood.
You have a nice collection too. A Denver Pie pan! I have an old tin one that says Frisbie. Now there’s an idea in the making.