A Journey's Trove

A life's collection of treasure (Bought, Made, Gifted and Inherited)

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My dad was very handy.  Made furniture, kachinas and canes. Here is a toothy aardvark cane head he carved.

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I lost a dear friend last year.  Found this while going through her things. Antler-flint-sinew knife

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Mom had many collections.  Another one was mice.  BUT, they couldn’t look like real mice haha Here is a little bone netsuke mouse she got as a gift.

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Family memento.  My dad picked this up some where during his travels.  Smooth ebony wood.  I always loved this thing.

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Family memento My mom collected crabs.  This is a brass ashtray she found some where

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Lost my dad recently. The family home is now empty and being prepped for sale :( This meant going through all the family items and taking memories home with me. This is a brass brazier my parents bought in Japan.  It as bas-reliefs of the Japanese astrological signs on the lid.  I remember dusting this thing every week. Some where along the line it lost a handle, but the memories are still there. Sorry for all the photos on this one.  Just wanted to get all the animals.

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More gifts from co-workers.  X-mas gifts for the season

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Gifts from co-workers. I collect salt & pepper shakers.  But I guess some people can’t tell the difference between boxes and shakers. Or, they were trying to incite a new collecting frenzy from me :)

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My dad collected bears.  Here is a carved wooden bear, not sure where he picked it up.

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Found this lovely while doing some cleaning. I had piled it full and missed it.  My parents bought this when we lived in Japan.  I remember dusting this thing weekly.  Lacquered tray with stylized fish

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Another dog, who had lived a good, long life, passed last month.  He was a big dog, and made it to 16 1/2!  Stroke finally took him. I took a day trip down to the statuary place outside of Hempstead, Tx to look for a memorial and found this.  It reminds me of my Cholla Teddy Bear - a sweet and beautiful soul.

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My sister got this for me one birthday.  It has 2 spinners and the whole thing rotates.  So no matter which direction the wind is coming from it spins.

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LOVE this guy!  He’s supposed to be “Wind”.

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I found this little darling at the local dump resale shop.  It’s an antique wheelbarrow. There is a small area in the front where it had rusted through, but I threw in a bag of dirt and no one can tell. Note:  the green leafy shrub next to it is a young bay tree.  Saw a full grown one at a local garden place and thought that was so cool, so I bought one.

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This is a HUGE Vietnamese pot.  It has to weigh over 200 pounds and is 4 feet tall.  It took 3 of us to wrestle it into this spot. I looked these up online when I bought it years ago and they were going for $600.  I looked it up the other day and they are now $1100. I found it out back at a statuary place and paid $40 for it!  There was a crack on one side (which they had repaired) but no one can see it with the way I have it displayed.

Love me a bargain!

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As I mentioned before, I was really broken up about having to put my dog Tuuli down suddenly (FYI, his name is Finnish for “wind”), so when I saw this windmill that same day while looking for a memento for his passing I brought it home and attached it to the porch railing.  Tuuli and I had an agreement, when he comes to visit it spins.

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Small concrete tree stump, to rest pots or whatever on