Collecting

Recently I was thinking about collections.  There are the common collections - shot glasses, postcards, wine corks, stamps, etc.  Classic collections - baseball cards, blue and white china, amberware, figurines.  Then there are the cool and unusual collections - vintage cameras, memorabilia, classic guitars, etc.   I know someone who collects old photographs of cowboys and displays the best of them - how neat is that?

What do I collect?  I collect latte bowls from Anthropologie.

A few times a year they come out with a couple new colors and I can’t resist.  The bowls come in two sizes including cute mini latte bowls.  Some were gifts, others are moments of weakness.  Some of the colors are very similar - without a bright light it’s hard to tell the difference between the ochre and mustard, the watermelon and coral, raspberry and lilac.   Over the years more than one has broken, though I hope someday those colors will be recycled and return to the store shelves.

Recently I added chartreuse, holly and taupe to the collection from the new fall line.

Collecting bowls is both practical (they are fun to use) and impractical (who needs 30+ bowls?).  But I love the way they look displayed in stacks and I love the way they brighten up a table, so for as long as Anthropologie makes them, I’ll probably keep buying them.

What do you collect?

Update (9/21/2011): Collections must be in the air this week. Some fun articles on Apartment Therapy today on collections here, here, here, and here.