Some collections are pure accidents. The intent is pure function and usefulness. Then one day you look in your cabinet and there sits a collection. You still use each and every one of them; that’s why it was never before considered a collection. Here is my collection as it stands today. I’ll only show one of each, most of the ones we bought were in pairs so Wifey and I would have our own.
I’m not going to include the many cups and saucers purchased or handed down from family, included in dish sets. They are only used for special occasions and too delicate to use every day, and they are really too small for regular use. I also have travel mugs with company advertising which are seldom used and not in the collection yet.
Packer fans, with green and gold blood, but no face paint
The cups have special meaning in many cases; special places we visited, past employers, sports teams we follow and an occasional gift from friends, gathered from many places over the years and traveling around the country, buying antiques for our other collections, decorating our home or purchased for resale.
Company cups often wound up at home in multiples, carried in the car cup holder and left at home. They were normally passed out to customers as a thank you for an order. Many examples are no longer with the collection through breakage. That’s the price you pay for using parts of a collection for their intended purpose and not just having them sit on a shelf, or worse yet, stored were they are never seen and never used.
Reindeer coffee cups
The collection of reindeer cups are special: part of our extensive holiday season decorations and only used once a year. They’re ready for return to storage and an exception to the display rule, as are other seasonal changes in our decorating scheme. And my readers know that we feature our collections throughout the house and put my ice buckets, kitchen gadgets and record collection to good use.
