what do you collect?

"Look at this trove, treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?"
-- The Little Mermaid

i collect...

books. i love books. i adore good reads. i collect them. i like owning them. i check out book shops even in unlikely nooks and corners just to find the books i want to add to my collection. it's my dream to have my own library. i already have a mini one. i have 200+ books to date and i'm still keen on acquiring more.


piled up to the ceiling: how come there's no more space?
lest you think i only stack 'em up for mere display, let me say for the record that i do read them. see, i like reading. no, not like, love. i love reading. i can forego eating, drinking water, sleeping, and going to the cr when i'm soooo into finishing a good read. i can be so obsessive when it comes to reading and books. i sometimes think that it's not me who owns my books. it's probably the other way around -- my books own me.

i intend to add more comic books to my collection. i dig those works by filipino graphic book artists. i also want to own those pcij books, too... and more of calvin and hobbes!!!

movies.


they all come with stickers. they're not pirated.
postage stamps. during my elementary years, i was into philately -- collecting stamps. aside from reading, collecting stamps was my way of discovering and appreciating other countries.


i only managed to put a few of them in an album. most of them stamps i kept in envelopes and i still have to mount them. now, there's something for my to do list. i have to keep that in mind.

i re-discovered my old stamp collection two weeks ago while i was looking for my 'still-missing-in-action' unicorn cross-stitch pattern.

stationery. i've been collecting stationery since grade school. scented ones, colorful ones, simple ones, small ones, big ones, medium-sized ones, those with people and those without, nicely illustrated ones... i have them in various colors, shapes and sizes. i also have a collection of hotel stationery. i keep a lot of them in a stationery holder i designed myself. some of them i already transferred to a clear book for easy viewing.


some of the sheets in this collection are more than 15 years old
even back then, i knew i won't be writing on them. i only wanted to collect them... and the ones i have in duplicate, i'd be willing to trade with what other stationery collectors have in duplicate -- just like what we girls used to do in grade school.

key holders. i dig key holders but since i don't have many keys to call my own, i don't usually use most of them. i simply collect them. sometimes, i use them to adorn my bags... but most times, they're just hidden somewhere. i treasure them because a lot of them are gifts/pasalubong from my friends.


key holders minus the keys
when i left home for my graduate studies, my younger sisters didn't know what to do with the pile of key holders i left behind so they pushed pins on the wooden panel in the girls' room and displayed them there.

the ones that are still inside the packs are reserved for future cars, future houses, and future whatever. hehe.

stickers. a lot of the stickers in my collection date back to my elementary years and were given to me by my classmates and friends.


what will i do with them? just keep them.

trinkets. dangling earrings and hoop earrings. chokers. necklaces with weird-looking pendants. bracelets and bands. hair accessories. i have those.

the dangling and hoop earrings? i won't survive wearing them. i simply collect them. no, i'd like to think that i buy them para pang-asar, as one of my friends put it. i prefer wearing simple studs.

candy wrappers. back in college, one of my classmates kept lots of coins in his backpack's pocket. his bag was always heavy but it was never because of books. it was always because of his coins. as for me, i kept lots of candy wrappers in my backpack's pocket. they weren't heavy to carry around but they were really many. kanya-kanyang ka-weirdo-han.

...and you know what? it's been four years since i left college but the said candy wrappers have not found their way to any of the trash bins yet.

yes, the candy wrappers are still with me. no, not really. they're inside one of the bags i no longer use. i put them there because, while i no longer want to carry them around, i don't want to really part with them yet. memories, you know. i figure i'll make a throw pillow and stuff them candy wrappers in it.

aha, another addition to my to do list.

i also collect unused disposable table napkins from food shops and restos (i usually make my friends sign them -- the disposable table napkins, not the shops/restos), letters and greeting cards (even those from people i don't like), travel brochures (for scrapbooking purposes and future travels), quotes (why do you think i keep posting quotes?), travel tickets (for scrapbooking purposes, too), gift wrappers, art materials (i pile 'em up first before i put my heart into using them), souvenir shirts (wherever i go, i have to have a shirt from that place), movie/concert tickets (that is if they find their way back into my hands), coins, event IDs/name tags, and colorful socks.

i collect nothing and everything. teddy bears, too.