Are you a collector? Does your heart go pitter patter at the sight of red transferware dishes or monogrammed silverplate or milk glass? In fact, my heart goes pitter patter at the sight of all of those things. :)
But I am also a cheap collector -- it's not just the thrill of the hunt, but also the idea of finding a bargain that appeals to me. And so, I also have to admit that some of the most fun I've ever had has been when I have been searching for shells or fossils or stones -- all free.
I found the fossils in the dish pictured above while on a class trip with my daughter when she was in junior high. We wore old sneakers and walked through a stream where glacial activity had deposited many treasures from thousands of years ago. The kids soon got bored, but I had a ball. :)
When our kids were small, we went on vacation in the Adirondacks, and stayed close to the site of a former garnet mine. I had a blast spending an afternoon seeking out stones with tiny bits of garnet (my birthstone, by the way) in them. :)
I think perhaps I inherited my love of "collecting on the cheap" from my father, who was famous in our family for coming home from the town dump with more things than he had brought there. He was a child of the Depression, when necessity made a virtue of collecting. How wonderful it is to find something useful or beautiful, for a pittance!
So here is my question for you: Are you a collector? What do you collect? What was your best "cheap collecting" moment? Give me your answers in the comments. :)