Janet, you just need to collect the "right" things. LOL! My dishes are out in the open in a corner cabinet - so I do have to take them out and wash them occasionally. The other things, pottery, ivory, and kachinas are behind glass so that they don't collect dust!!!

Gayle, I have new (10-year old) Fiesta dishes that I am very tired of. MIL got them for me and, being OCD, the not matching drives me crazy.

Remember to post pictures!

Sandy, you are tooooo funny! Yes, I will post pictures. I use my old Fiesta for special occasions and I LOVE that it doesn't match. You'd be out of control in my house. My kitchen table is an old antique table and I have 6 antique chairs and each one is different - no two are the same. I love it when a bunch of us sit around the table, none of the chairs match. We each have our favorite chair and we sit where our favorite chair is placed. Oh, you'd just DIE in my house!!!

Gayle, you'll appreciate this. Sometimes when I am totally scatter brained, I mix and match the Fiesta - the cobalt might have a green saucer, a yellow fork, a pink spoon, etc. It's a game I play when the g-daughters are setting the table. Nothing can be with it's matching set.

You two are a hoot. I think your kitchen table and chairs sounds great! Just like on Friends.

SANDY! When we use the Fiesta for a dinner - THAT'S the way we set it - nothing in a place setting can match!!!

OK, here's some pictures of my collections.

This is the corner cabinet in my kitchen. I rearrange the dishes from time to time, and right now, I realize that what I have standing up in the cabinet is mostly the Homer Laughlin pottery (maker of the colored Fiesta) that was used to put on decals. Most of these dishes I collect have Mexican decals. It's the cream colored dishes with the pictures. Most of the traditional colored Fiesta is laying down in the cabinet. But you will see it in the other pictures.

1. Corner cabinet with Fiesta/Homer Laughlin dishes
2. The plate rack (that my husband made for me) hanging on the wall.
3. My pornographic Homer Laughlin bowl (look closely) - I've never found another dish with this particular decal, although I have read about it in antique books.

Ok, here's my husband's kachina collection (yes, they are kinda scary looking!). They are hand carved out of cottonwood by different Hopi Indian artists. Each one has a different name and is symbolic of something or a ceremony.

1. (L to R) Morning Singer, Sunface, Eagle Dancer, Deer Dancer, Sunface
2. Deer Dancer, Sunface, Eagle Dancer
3. Morning Singer, Sunface

Last but not least, here is the New Mexico stone polished pottery that I collect and the walrus and mammoth ivory carvings that my husband and I collect. This is an older picture, we have several more pieces of ivory now.

In the ivory, (L to R) you can see a musk ox, whale pod, sea otter chasing a fish, and a mother/baby whale pair. Also, there is an Alaskan dog sled in the front and a little eskimo figure. The whale pod (there are 11 whales - some on the back you can't see) was carved out of walrus tusk - there are no separate pieces glued together, it is one piece of antler with everything carved from it.

OMG your collections are beautiful, i like the ivory the best i think. right now i am into collecting dogs (LOL), one of the draw backs of breeding there always seems to be 1 out of my breedings that we become attached to and cant seem to part with. i have 7 right at the moment 3 are from my breedings. I really need to find a new hobby.

Gayle, I love your collections and the way you have displayed them. I've been dusting a little this weekend, while I'm g-babysiting the 4 year old and 10 month old, and I've realized that I obviously collect pictures of my kids. I probably have around 80 pictures of kids around the house. That's just crazy!

LOL! I collect pictures of my kids/grandkids too - and I'm sure I have about that many also. But I only have limited space to display them, so I have them in a drawer and rotate them on display.

Lynne, I'd love to collect dogs too :) I've often wondered how breeders let all the puppies go. I remember in Janet's video, she called one of the pups something like, "My little man" - if I ever used "my" with a pup, I fear it would be all over and I'd never be able to let him/her go!!!

I have collected different things over the years. It used to be cat figurines, then miniatures, then shells, and I can't remember what else over the years. Lots!

Now, I don't want anything that collects dust - no more collecting. But, then who knows what I'll find around here.

I like everything in these two pictures!!! I would love to have the Fiesta dishes...do they still make them? I don't really care for the Indian figurines much and I watch to many Animal Planet documentaries to want to collect the ivory things although they are sooooo beautiful. Just amazing the detail.

I'm still with Judy though, other than the dishes, I don't think I want to collect anything. After having a big garage sale this past summer I still want to get rid of more stuff.