A collection of photos I almost tossed but when I really looked closely, I discovered so many things! None have been edited or enhanced and they probably should be.







A collection of photos I almost tossed but when I really looked closely, I discovered so many things! None have been edited or enhanced and they probably should be.



















I’m supposed to write about Tiny but I’m much better off showing you how Tiny figures into my life!
I am an addicted collector and I think I figured out very young that if I collected tiny things, I would have room for MORE of them than if I collected, oh, say CARS! I am also a Psychotherapist and I know a hobby like this, that originates in childhood and borders on obsession, has a lot more backstory to it than I can possibly fit into one Post. But think about words like scarcity, control, abuse and isolation.
AND, my collections were the one thing I never had to share, give up or pass on to my younger sisters.
It started with Cobalt glass. I wrote about that here:

Then I got hooked on glass animals and saved babysitting money to buy a new one every few months. My best finds were at the Hobby Shop or at the San Diego Zoo, where you could actually watch the glass artist make tiny lions, tigers or bears…oh my.

This is a truly tiny sample of my animals collection. Most of the other hundreds have been recently wrapped up and packed away due to our huge household downsizing project. My animals are mostly blown glass, bone china or carved marble.
Somewhere in my adolescence, I discovered little wooden trains. They are also packed away but I did find this one photo.

I think I have more trains than anything else but when we got our youngest cats, the trains had to be put away also…not that I minded them playing with the trains, but Lucy, the miracle kitten, had a little bit of the disease called Pica and would eat bits off the trains..wheels, smokestacks, etc. She has also eaten my camera strap, three times. Almost all the trains are wooden and very small but for my birthday one year my best friend found (and hand-painted for me) the world’s SMALLEST TRAIN!! It is metal. Here’s a photo.


I am going to stop pretty soon now, even though I could go on and on. See, I also collect shells, socks, fans, concert ticket stubs, photographs, vintage Christmas Cards, and some might even say BUGS, but if you have seen them here before, you know they are anything but TINY! I do have one more thing to show you though, mainly because it is my favorite Tiny Ensemble.


A beginning slide show because I have too many SHINE photos!!
Local
Local
Inside this relatively ordinary looking building in Seattle is a huge surprise, known only by a few Locals.
Oh, there are hints from the outside that there might just be some history here. Check out the rest of the building’s face.


But even these wild and clearly vintage signs don’t fully expose the secrets inside the building.
There is an amazing collection, a neon performance, hidden inside the wide open belly of the old building.
In a tiny space on the second floor, surrounded by this display, is where my “hair therapist” performs her magic on my aging, thinning, silver locks. I’ve followed Kelly for over 30 years to where ever she sets up shop, but this has to be my favorite location.



This is about as close as I ever get to a “selfie”!
(seriously, who first coined that word???)

Photographing my bugs as the late afternoon sun hits their terrarium.