February 13, 2012

collecting 101: finding your obsession


if you want to start a collection, the first thing that you need to do is obviously find something to obsess over.  i'm using the word obsess for many reasons.  if you are going to find something to spend time and money on potentially for the rest of your life, you've got to want to see it more than once.  it can't be a one time deal or you would have wasted valuable time and funds.

i'm no expert but here are some ground rules when picking out the thing you want to collect:

- find something that intrigues you

you need something that is going to keep you excited.  something that appeals to you in various forms.  if you don't pick something that will intrigue you, you will get bored easy and collecting won't be any fun!  and i think that's probably the whole point to collecting, having fun and enjoying yourself!  i don't know why i ever started liking owls so much, but they just grew on me.  and once i realized i couldn't get enough of them that's when i started collecting!

- keep your budget in mind

i will caution you, collecting takes money, BUT the great thing is your budget can be as little or as much as you want it to be.  if you decide to collect things that are more rare and more valuable, you more than likely will spend a lot more money than what i've spent on my owl collection.  but that all boils down to how you manage your money.  if you pick a more expensive collectible then that just means maybe you have to save awhile before you buy.  owls are relatively inexpensive so more when i found one i went ahead and bought it  but if you want something more rare, GO FOR IT!!  be aware of what you want and how much you are willing to spend in order to get it, so there are no surprises later on down the road.

- find something that is meaningful to you

when i decided to collect owls, a partial collection just kind of fell into my lap.  my grandmother was cleaning out her basement and decided to give her collection of about 10 owls to me.  so in a way my grandmother and i found something we had in common, and now a piece of her is my collection.  i'm not saying that owls are some sort of symbolic turning point in my life or in and of themselves have some deep meaning to me.  but i was really glad when hunting for them started to bring my family together in a way.  i'll talk more about that later in another post.  but if you do find something that means something to you or that reminds you of past experiences that's always a good place to start looking for inspiration when it comes to finding something you would like to collect!! 

i hope this all made sense.  and like i said i'm no expert but in my experience these are some great things to keep in mind when trying to choose that special thing to collect!! :)

if you collect i would love to hear your thoughts & feelings, maybe even some pictures too!!! just link up in the comments section!

happy monday everyone!

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