Do you collect anything?

My mother used to collect commemorative spoons, ceramic donkey vases and Wedgewood blue Jasperware. My father used to collect matchbox cars. When I was at school there was always some collecting fad going on. We would trade cards/bottletops/figurines/stamps on the playground.

I have family members who collect egg cups, Wade figurines, and frog-related items. I have accidentally started collecting black and white cat themed things.

Because I have moved around so much during my life, and because I have to travel two days by plane to visit my family, my collections tend to be small-sized items. My family gifts them to me, and I hunt for missing items from the collection during my travels.

The three things I collect are charms (Nomination, or regular charms), wooden matchbox puzzles, and clay animals.

Below are a few of my little clay figurines. I have almost 100 of these – everything from farmyard animals to mythical creatures to (yep!) black and white cats. The woman who made these was banned from the local fleamarket for selling naked Santas…

And these are what the matchbox puzzles look like. They fit into a regular matchbox. I have about 50 of these – everything from The Big Five to different nativity scenes.

My nomination bracelets have charms given to me over the years. I have four completed bracelets and two more that are in progress.

I would have said that before, I was a Filofax collector. But nowadays I am whittling my collection down to a few favourites because I don’t swap around covers anymore. It seems a pity to have such a large collection and only use two or three of them.

Do you collect anything?