Weekly collectors collection

I've found a lot of great and fun (and interesting) blogs on collecting, and I thought instead of blogging about them individually every time they post something I like, I'd do a weekly update of my... I don't know, say top 5 blog posts of the week. So here they are:

1. Do What Now has a very funny picture of an old magazine ad, where the actors are... well, awful!




2. Ephemera interviews a futuristic advertisement collector, where he notes that research is your best friend when it comes to buying collectibles




3. Kitschy Kitschy Coo offers up 13 ways to know that you are obsessed with collecting




4. AKPhilately mentions that stamps in the late 1800s were given out to postal workers, so they knew what each stamp looked like (and from there work out the fakes from the real ones!)



5. About Postcards has a nice little intro to silhouette postcards; what they are, the history behind them, etc.

Some random ephemera

For those of you who like your paper, you've probably heard of the term ephemera. If not, it refers to a range of objects that are made using paper; like postcards, magazines, newspapers, etc. Well, I've been tripping over some great ephemera collectors sites lately, and I thought I should share them!

Suzy, you are bound to love Do What Now, which has a lot of humorous posts about fifties-type advertisements and magazines. There's also a lot of really gross meal ideas (check out the Kidneypalooza... ewwwwww!). Even if ephemera isn't your thing, this blog has some of the best satire on the subject of 50s ads I've ever read!

Next, you can't go past the aptly-titled Ephemera blog. This blog interviews all sorts of collectors, from the collector of old passports, to the guy who collects Tolkien ephemera. And it doesn't just cover paper objects, but collectors of all sorts. A must read for anyone interested in finding out what makes a collector tick!

And lastly we have Kitschy Kitschy Coo, a blog for all sorts of random kitschness and kitchy collectibles (is that a word?). Actually, I came across a really great post about collecting for the family. There's a whole list of fun ways to collect; I personally wouldn't mind collecting the cookie cutters! :)

(Mom, don't get any ideas from the list - I think we all collect enough without making it a family thing!)

Diamonds are a collector's best friend

Here's my origami for today: a star box!

And the news for today....

Who would have thought that taking a walk in a state park would be a collector's dream day? The Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas is apparently the best place to go diamond collecting - for all you mineral geeks out there, mom included - with visitors allowed to pick up AND KEEP any diamonds they find.

James said he'd take me one day ;)

The park comes to attention after a young girl found a 2.93 carat diamond at the end of a long diamond-hunting day with her family. Apparently there have already been 332 diamonds found this year alone (!!), with one appraised between $15 000 and $60 000. Wow! Now James really does have to take me :D

Read all about it here.

Uncle Bob and his stamps

My uncle is a stamp nut. He collects all sorts of stamps (I guess it is in the family), but he is a big fan of airmail and anything stamps that include planes. Whenever my uncle sees me, he finds a way of "setting a task" for me to do - and that's what he did a couple of weeks ago.

I know, I know. He's a bit weird; but harmless, and actually quite sweet! (You know I mean well Uncle Bob :) )

Anyway, the task this time was to go find out something about the history of the Scott Catalogue. For those who don't know, stamp collectors use the publication as the industry-standard price guide and catalogue of all the latest stamps. Uncle Bob always goes on about some stamp or other from it, and has a huge stack of them at his house.

So in trying to complete my "task" (he never uses a different word, it's always a task), I went hunting on the net to find the info. And it took me all of five seconds.

Don Schilling, who writes the Stamp Collecting Round-up blog, posted on the very topic just a few days ago. The blog looks like it's an excellent resource for stamp collectors, and I bet Uncle Bob visits it every day (I bet he's going to ask me where I found the information, and he's going to say 'Oh, that good ol' place!'). Anyway, according to the blog, the Scott Catalogue developed in 1867, after John Walter Scott began circulating a price list of his dealership's catalogue. Read the full post here.

So next time I see Uncle Bob, I can tell him all about the history of the catalogue - and hope that he gives up on giving me these little tasks! :)

By the way - today's origami is a box. For Uncle Bob's stamps!

State of the coin

Today I was standing in Central Park, waiting for Taki. I had my hand in my pocket, and I discovered a coin - ok, not that exciting. But I looked at the coin, and realized how different it was. Did you know that the US Mint has made special quarters, one for each state?

The NY quarter, which was produced in 2001, has the Statue of Liberty on it. I didn't even know they made these types of coins, I just figured one coin was the same everywhere. But apparently, they've been producing state quarters since 1999, and are going to finish making them next year. This year, the mint is releasing coins for: Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah.

So really, discovering a coin in your pocket can be really interesting. I'm going to keep my NY state quarter, maybe make a nice little origami frame for it. Maybe one day it'll be worth something. (You can find out more about the state coins here.)

First post!

Wow! My first blog! I'm so excited!

I know people have been blogging for a while now, but really, I've only just caught on. All my friends have been doing it, and they keep saying for me to get one... and now I have! (So there James :P)

Anyway, I thought I'd start by blogging a bit about my collection, since that's what my blog is going to be about. As mentioned in my profile, I collect paper and origami, but I also like collecting in general. There's something really exciting about going to a yard sale and seeing what you can find. This week I found a great little swap meet that sold all sorts of neat stuff. There was even some ephemera (I'm teaching myself all these new words; ephemera is all types of collectible papers), and I went home with a letter written in the 1840s! I'd post a pic, but I don't have access to a scanner at the moment.

But I do have a pic of some origami I made... hmm, no I don't. Still no scanner!

I'm not really that great at making origami, but my mom got me this Origami calendar, where you make a new one every day. I think it was from 2002, but hey, at least I'm still doing it :)

Actually, I wish I had been in New York this week - though I live in NY, I'm home visiting my folks - because I read on the Post that the American Museum of Natural History had a big sleepover. My kind of fun! The whole point was to get people to stay the night at the museum, and allow them to view displays at their leisure. Not only do you get to camp out 'under the whale', but you get origami classes, midnight fossil hunting, a look at the night sky through the planetarium, plus heaps more. *Sigh...*

The Post even lists a whole bunch of other museums which offer extra activites, which I think I'm going to have to check out at some point. I'd love the 'Roar 'n Snore' in Baltimore!