The Creative Clutter Collectors Contest

FINALLY! Presenting the Creative Clutter Collectors Contest results! I took the liberty of adding at least one award, and dropped a few awards that didn't fit any of the collections. I really enjoyed looking at the beautiful pictures and hope you do too. Thanks to all who submitted photos!

Brenda wins the "MOST UNUSUAL" award for her collection of African art and artifacts. Brenda is mom to two children who don't look like her - she is caucasian and she fostered and then adopted a black baby boy and then a baby girl, both of whom were born to mothers who were on drugs. Brenda's husband walked out when their son was 7 and Brenda has been raising the two children alone, including homeschooling them! Both children are teenagers now. Check out Brenda's blog to read more about her experience: brenda-bramblerose.blogspot.com. She also has written a book: "Confessions of a Single Parent Homeschooler." Brenda started this collection for her children:

Brenda also collects shoes. Maxie Cat is guarding this cute and original little collection. I especially like the baby shoe with flowers on it.

Brenda has been collecting animal pins since high school (and that was a while ago - she's my age!) - cats and dogs, bugs and butterflies, a snail, an owl, some birds, and lots more!

Coca Cola memorabilia is another of Brenda's favorites:

The "MOST COLORFUL" award goes to Casey, who collects key chains! She has a kazillion from all over the place, in all kinds of shapes (look for the eyeball in the pile on the left!). Casey just got back from a trip west and north where she picked up several more for her collection.

Melissa wins the "MOST REFLECTIVE OF ITS OWNER" award! Anyone who knows Melissa knows how she loves coffee!

She's a Starbucks aficionado (and former employee)!

Melissa doesn't like clutter, and loves getting rid of stuff. Some of these collections snuck up on her unawares, like the giraffes (how she didn't hear them coming, I'll never know).

This was a gift from a friend in Ethiopia:

This is a hand-carved candle:

Her 9-year old son gave her this cuddly giraffe for Christmas:

This is her first giraffe, purchased on a trip with her dad and son, and is very special to her.

A well-meaning relative went overboard one holiday season, and bought Melissa a lot of giraffe stuff. She says her OCD kicks in when too many things accumulate, so this was the only gift she kept. She knew she had to keep at least one (shhh...don't tell anyone!).

Melissa doesn't have a picture of her smallest giraffe. It is hand-carved and fits in the palm of her hand. She can't find it, but believes either her cat or rabbit knows exactly where it is.

She has also started collecting cats...

and stars.

Melissa's son loves Garfield! He wins the "MOST LIKELY TO CAUSE A LASAGNA CRAVING" award for his Garfield collection:

Since this is MY contest, I get to make the rules and I'm allowing family members (gasp!) take part, AND to win awards! So the "LEAST LIKELY TO BE STOLEN" award goes to dear Little Bubba for her large collection of mismatched socks:

She set her own little trend (which strangely never gained momentum around here) of wearing mismatched socks, and now that's all she has! Well, almost. She was surprised and concerned to find THREE (count em, 3) pairs of MATCHING socks mixed in with the rest.

She does collect a few other things, too - journals, fourteen in all (one failed to be included in the pic. Two are full, one is partially full, and one is partially full of songs, etc. The rest are blank slates.

For some reason, Little Bubba has an inordinate number of empty picture frames. These were in her room, plus she has several more at work. They just stay empty! This is the same girl whose camera has about 1,000 pictures on it at any given time.

She also collects ticket stubs. These on her bulletin board (handmade by her and momma) range from 1999 to last weekend.

And Little Bubba submitted one photo on behalf of her daddy, who collects ties, mainly because he can't EVER let go of any. He has well over 50 ties hanging here on an 8" pole that sticks out from the closet door. Once I pulled the oldest and blandest of his ties and donated them to the thrift store on the one day that week that he happened to go there. Saw his ties hanging up for sale, and by the end of the day I had purchased them all back. So I learned my lesson - don't mess with the ties!

"MOST FRAGILE" award goes to my Mommy, for her lovely suncatchers. Second and third place would be her baby planters and her plate collections. She has always had a lot of breakables displayed around the house, which wasn't very compatible with a son-in-law who thought throw pillows were called that for a reason!

I love her collection of baby planters, especially the cradles.

Chicks and eggs and farm animals adorn her kitchen window in the spring.

She loves birds, both real and fake. She has several bird feeders hanging just outside her windows. One night last month she heard a rustling noise, around 3 in the morning, and looked out her bedroom window (the one in the first picture, with BLACKIE the cat) to see a BIG BLACK BEAR fiddling with a bird feeder and then loping off. She lives in SUBURBIA! Nowhere near any forests or rural areas. Good thing this didn't happen to me - I would probably have been very tempted to run out with a camera and chase him down for blogging purposes.