Show Us Your Life-Collections

Funny that after posting a verse about silence, I write two more posts!

Today over at Kelly's Korner, it's Show Us Your Life Friday. And it's all about collections. I've never been a big collector of anything. Nothing like the girl in my third grade class who had EVERY plastic charm they made for her charm necklace. Of course, she was quite the accessories girl at 9 years old. She made her own glitter bracelets.

Back when I was working at the church, Big Dan and I had the wonderful opportunity to lead a team each year to the Central Europe Missionary's Conference. While the moms and dads were having worship and bible study, we were hanging with their kids. It was amazing. I have a big soft spot for those missionary kids.

Since we traveled to the same spot each year, I decided I needed to be thoughtful in the purchase of souvenirs. You know how it is, you're there and it seems like a good idea, and then you get home and you think, "Why on earth did I buy this?" This is how I decided to start collecting tea sets. In the shopping district in Budapest there is an amazing pottery shop. It is where I bought my very first tea set.



Another year, I had the opportunity to travel to Germany with some friends who were considering a long term move there. They are now missionaries in Berlin. While there, we visited a thrift shop where I found an authentic Russian tea set for around $10!!



(I have a slight issue with brown/nature colors in case you haven't noticed!)

Big Dan and I love to travel. In fact, it is probably our favorite thing to do together. It's not exactly a cheap hobby. Maybe we need to try and make something like playing cards our favorite hobby. We've had the chance to see lots of places together and by far our favorite is the Dominican Republic. On our second trip there I finally found a tea pot.



These are just a few of the tea sets that sit atop my cabinets. My collecting has slowed down considerably since the kiddos came on the scene. I'm excited about future trips and future tea sets!

Big Dan and I also started collecting a Christmas ornament from every place we travel to. This has been so much fun. Every year, when we put up our tree we have such a great time reminiscing about all the fun times we've had together. My goal is to have a separate tree just for our travel ornaments. Given our history with Christmas trees, however, this might be a bit too ambitious!