A collection is more than one!

I have to admit that I'm not proving to be a very efficient unpacker. Mostly because I keep stopping to look at things I unearth and read magazines or books I rediscover, and then I get distracted and forget what I was doing and start something else, heading off in a completely different direction on a new task. So nothing is getting finished and I seem to be creating more mess than anything else. This is of course causing no end of frustration to my husband, who would unpack and decorate in a day if he could.

I did have great joy yesterday when I opened a box full of old US decorating mags that I had been keeping. My husband's eyes lit up when he saw what he thought was finally a box full of something that could immediately be chucked out. But I grabbed them off him in great haste and declared defensively that I hadn't been keeping them for two years for him to throw them out now! Goodness me, does he not understand the concept of collections? Whether it is my blue and white china, my pewter, my silver, my shells, my decorating books or mags, my candlesticks, shoes, cushions, glass domes, vases, salad bowls, coral....yes, I have more than one of many things, and yes I need more than one. That's what a collection is darling - more than one! It's kind of the whole point!

So now I have found all my wonderful collections of lovely things, I am trying to find ways of displaying and styling them. It's hard doing this when you haven't really settled on placement of furniture etc, but it's the fun part and hard to resist.

So I've been trawling the internet, the blogosphere, my files and mags looking for inspiration and ideas. Here's the direction I hope to be heading....Sorry if you're not a fan of blue and white, but most of what I own turns out to be, well, blue and white - who knew!

Veranda

Veranda

via Coastal Style

 Traditional Home

via The Buzz Blog: Diane James Home

House Beautiful

Somerset Bay

Sara Gilbane

via VT Interiors

 Massuco Warner Miller

via Verandah House 

via Pink Pagoda

via Pink Pagoda

Karen Robertson Collection

House Beautiful

via VT Interiors

via Eddie Ross

Tobi Fairley

Lee Ann Thornton

Lee Ann Thornton

BHG

Traditional Home

Traditional Home

House Beautiful

Miles Redd via Veranda

via Verandah House

via The Enchanted Home

(photo by me of table top in living room)

I just took this photo to show you what I'm currently unpacking. This display is by no means complete or permanent, but it's a tiny corner of the house that I quickly put together to show some of my lovey things and it makes me smile. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

What do you collect? Do you have clever ways of displaying things? How to do you continue to grow your collection without drawing the attention of a disapproving husband?

a collection.......something that is collected;  a group of objects or anamount of material accumulated in one location, especially for some purpose or as a result of some process: 

(source dictionary.com)