Friday, July 22, 2011

State Department Blog Round Up: Collections


Welcome to this week's State Department Blog Round Up!  (And just in time to save me from the horror that is bidding...  Wow is this painful!)

The OTP this week is collections.  What do you collect (intentionally or not), what do you wish you collected, and/or what do you wish you didn't collect?  I am using the theme quite liberally, as you'll see below. 

I'll start with my own post which started this entire theme.  It pretty much speaks for itself - I am bordering on having too many collections!

Crafty Foreign Service shows us one of her collections (lucky cats) and a gorgeous puppy but keeps her fabric/yarn collections to herself for fear of someone staging an intervention.  Amy, I think we all have that fear...

Raquel at 3rdculturechildren has a wonderful, more introspective approach to the collections she and her family have made during their time in Brazil.  Congrats on making it to the halfway point of your tour!

Small Bits reflects on her very special collections of friends and memories from her beloved border post.

The Dinoia Family is about to say goodbye to one of their collections- diapers!  LG is well on his way to full-time potty learner status!

Email from the Embassy learned that a collection of cars outside a house doesn't necessarily mean a party.

Where in the World are Luca and Juliana? collected the letter Y on their trip to the appropriately-named Yucatan.  

Adventures of a Misplaced Texan is collecting ideas of how to deal with winter  as she prepares for a more northerly border post.

Whale Ears & Wonderings collected both great memories with family and friends and a new collection of quilting materials while on R&R.

The new Virginia residents at The Perlman Update are close to making the collection complete - Matt is back from Iraq (!) and the new house is almost ready! 

Kerns'R'Us finally met the mysterious Bobby her son has been so obsessed with.  Chalk this up to a collection of stories to tell his prom date!

What Were We Thinking? is having a grand old time while her mother visits.  This week, her children learned a valuable lesson about lying to their father.  Another prom date collection story!

Just Us collected another trip to a special place: Galilee. 

Something Edited This Way Comes shares her photos of Milan circa 1901 and 2011 - very cool collection!

A Daring Adventure explores her new and unexpected name change and, rightly, has her very own meltdown cow.  Yet another in the collection of weird moments with State...

Life in the Land of the Long White Cloud writes a post including photos of (his lovingly collected and documented) traffic cones being used for their actual intended purpose.  I'm not sure he realized this?

Well, That Was Different is busy exploring her new neighborhood and collecting new memories and ideas of how to stay busy during her tour.  It looks absolutely lovely!  Are you paying attention Where in the World are Luca and Juliana?

From the Back of Beyond, while waiting for the arrival of the newest addition, is collecting both inspiring housewares and fun visitors

I Run, You Run has discovered something new, handy, and inexpensive to collect in Manila: frames!  Check out the blog for the exciting results. 

Spectrummy Mummy has collected a fun new place for her daughter to hang out... just in time to move to a country where said fun new place doesn't exist.  Sad!  


We have a collection of bloggers headed off to new posts.  Safe travels!

The Pulling Stakes family is off to Brazil and a whole new marketplace for adding to the shoe collection!  

B-Files has three weeks to go before leaving for Santo Domingo - how exciting!

Travel Orders is one week from Benin, along with their absolutely adorable new edition.

Digger at Life After Jerusalem is doing her final consultations before leaving for post, and discovering the wonders of SA-5 at the same time!

Diplomatic Mom collected a whole lot of frequent flyer miles on her way to post (and an exciting long weekend away).


I hope you'd enjoyed this collection of FS blogs.  Nobody is signed up yet to host next week's Round Up - check out A Daring Adventure to sign up.  It's easy!

Happy collecting!



16 comments:

Camille said...

I am mega impressed with this - I can't even imagine how much work you did to make this such an awesome round-up! :)

Sadie said...

Thanks Camille! But I promise it isn't all that much work - most of these are blogs I regularly read anyway, so throughout the week I'm hosting I just write notes to myself :-). It's fun to do, really!

Carla @ I Run, You Run said...

Aw, thanks! Sadly, to my husband's dismay, I collect a lot more than frames, but don't want the full craziness out yet (I have magnets, mugs, DVDs, knicknacks...)

eve said...

thanks for including me! I never understand how to find out about topics, etc- then if I happen to stumble upon one I'm generally stymied. Thanks for throwing me a link-bone regardless!

Anonymous said...

i agree with Camille - a lot of work! Many thanks for pulling it all together... Great reading for my weekend. Also, thank you for including my post. Cheers from Recife.

Connie said...

What a wonderful collection of collections! You are very creative! Thank you :)

Spectrummy Mummy said...

Wonderful Round-Up- thank you for collecting me along with everyone else!

Donna said...

Love it.

Melissa van Herksen said...

I love your blog...so helpful. I am American, but married to a Dutch Diplomat...so I can relate on so many levels. I have a blog too, but not as helpful and interesting as this. Kudos! www.vanherksen.com

Jen said...

Wow, great job and thank you for the mention! I must say, a collection I am not sad to see go ;-)

Lisa said...

Awesome roundup. Thanks for including us. I'm sure my husband will be thrilled. ;-)

Alex said...

Excellent job!

Jill said...

I love how you were able to weave everyone's week in review into your theme! :)

Juicy couture outlet said...

fantastic !

Becky said...

I'm a little late on this one but just wanted to add my thanks. What a fantastic job you did with this. So creative how you pulled it all together. Thanks for including me and for your wonderful comments on my blog. They meant a lot.

Lynne said...

That was a fabulous roundup ... if they are all this good I'll never dare to host one myself :)