Collecting Halloween.....

Collecting seems to be part of the human condition and I think my condition is quite serious!  I've been a Halloween collector for ever....not the vintage or antique type but just the "I like this" type!  I support many of my fellow artists with bits and pieces of their work.    My entire collection's worth probably wouldn't fill a tank of gas now days but the warm fuzzy feeling that I get every time I go through it or look at it has no price tag!  I'm picky, that's for sure!  Most of my collection has been given to me by family and friends which even increases the sentimental value of each piece.  One of my all time favorite pieces is an old "Ben Cooper" cat costume that I had as a kid, I love it.  I also scored a "Harry Potter Sorting Hat" puppet right after the first movie came out and wear it every Halloween!  The only piece of my work I have kept is my first "Marley the Ghost".   I fell in love   

with this guy after his creation and never parted with him.  I sell the pattern often.....funny thing about Ol' Marley, he has a round head...now, you are probably wondering why that is so funny...well Marley was created eight years ago long before the round headed dolls became so popular.  I remember sitting at my friend Stacey Meads' kitchen table drawing out the round headed doll pattern for her back then.  Who would have ever thought that "the round headed doll" would make such an explosion in the doll world!  Funny huh!  I also collect old Halloween books.....I have an almost complete collection of Edgar Allan Poe works/books dated 1864.  Not in the best of condition but mine nonetheless.  I love Halloween and have devoted a whole corner of my dining room to this collection!  It might take someone a while to go through each shelf because I would have to tell the stories that go with each piece!  So many memories, good ones, from my childhood until today!  Halloween will always be the holiday that holds the most magic for me and some of that magic is captured in every piece that sits in my Halloween corner!