So as to not to get quagmired in a bidding war, Alexa alerts me with 1 minute to go on the auction and I start to log on and with 15 seconds to go I submit my bid if reasonable.
So like Miss Pavlichenko, I wait til the optimum time to take my best "shot"

i’ve won many bidding wars. too many. lol.

It's too bad, because like you I have collected some valuable and beautiful pieces

he’s family. and they r amazing objects.
i’m assuming they’d rather have these pieces than my artwork, tho…

Feel no guilt for your own little pleasures (see what I did there?).

When you have passed, $250 in your estate will not be missed by your children. They can put the whole collection up on eBay if they don't value the pieces for themselves.

Your most precious asset is the TIME you have on this spinning orb. Enjoy it!

as the part where i used to b a rich lady, and wouldnt have thought twice about it.
also the part where i have over $2k in vet bills this yr so far.

i miss my money. alas, the plague cost me a small fortune. not poor, but not able to just pull the trigger at will. life i better w a fat bank account, but doesnt mean a small 1 makes life suck.
i do enjoy my stuff.

I love miniature things, and if I had a place to put them (like a magnificent dollhouse) I'd come to your house and steal that piano.

It's a real problem--our kids don't want any of these treasures.

getting better and mostly resisting acquiring new stuff.
someone i know is selling off his ruth ford paintings, and i wish i cd snap them up. esp as- a. he needs the money and b. i know he’d give me as good a price as he cd.
fortunately, he’s asking prices designed to lift her value. i hope he succeeds, as i own a doz of them. her work is soooooo under valued, but she was so prolific. she sold them cheap in her lifetime, cuz she just wanted to paint, paint, paint, and travel and paint. and had plenty of money.

so checked her out just now. Wow--she did produce a lot of paintings. I think I prefer her watercolors to her oils, which would be good for me if I were a collector.

We have a lot of good pictures, including a couple by New Hope impressionists, but no wall space, or I might be bidding against you!

never met her, but she had a big influence on me. grew up hearing stories about her.
the house was built by her parents and she lived there til after her daughter was born cuz her hubs was in the army. then she built a landmark weird house that was like a beacon of a bigger world on the edge of my small town.
https://interactive.wttw.com/most-beautiful-places-in-chicago/dazzling-homes/sam-and-ruth-van-sickle-ford-house

i actually own 1 of her oils, but it’s my least fave work. a big still life that was restreched at some point, letting out 3 of the margins, but not the 4th. it’s just off. i shd take it to a restorer. it needs a cleaning anyway.
my friend has a lovely 1 tho. a small piece. a copper pot w a knife. nice dark and light

I am not collecting right now, but trying to downsize. I have a booth in a vintage mall and I hear people say they need to get rid of stuff. But once in awhile, someone says, we're just going to let the kids deal with it. If you will enjoy having the items, go for it. Nothing like a dedicated collector

but sometimes, ya just gotta grab the joy.

I googled Ms. Van Sickle Ford, hadn't heard of her. I saw the house she and her husband built. I've always gotten what I can afford, especially if it is original. We got a Willi Bauer landscape about 10 years ago. It's huge, and it fills one wall of my bedroom. I go to sleep looking at it and wake up to see it

she’s largely forgotten cuz she was just an epic bitch. and from her i learned bitches get shit done.
there’s a good book about her- https://www.amazon.com/-/zh_TW/Nancy-Smith-Hopp/dp/B007OY5BEK
got to know the author. sadly she passed last yr. according to her, i’m ruth’s foremost collector.
there was a show of her work a while back that i participated in. pics here-https://www.facebook.com/mo.cahill.3/posts/pfbid029NqAwq7wyzTnWPNnmDsRjAFCFi2FWLmsQKZLAY2kL6Hg3mjPiyW4pXXrr3hCabDal

super fun day.

With so many artists, craftsmen, all the designs, styles, media, it is hard to be dedicated to just one or 2 people.

a lot of the art i own is ppl i know. ppl i worked w. stuff i bought at silent auctions.
if i had broader tastes, i’d just get in trouble.