I'm a camera collector.

First things first: Yes, I know it's completely unsurprising to know that someone who enjoys photography would also enjoy collecting old cameras. I am one of those people, so I guess that makes me a cliché. But it's like any other hobby or passion, right? If I were a video game enthusiast (which I'm so not. sorry dear husband, for the tenth time, no I will NOT try out playing Star Wars with you), I would probably collect old Atari's and original Nintendo gaming systems. Agreed? Moving on.

So here is my very modest collection of various cameras. Super small. No need to call the folks at Hoarders: Buried Alive. Yet.

Minolta X-370 | Ricoh 500
  Minolta XG-1 | Canonet 28 | Kodak Motormatic 35

  Polaroid Land Super Colorpack | Polaroid Land Automatic 103
Fujifilm instax 210 | Polaroid Land Time-Zero OneStep | Kodak EK4

  Kodak VR35 | BG Helioflex 3000T
Canon T50 | Diana Mini | Time Magazine Camera

Not too shabby. I found a lot of these while flea marketing or thrifting, and some were given to me by my mother-in-law (she goes to auctions and flea markets like it's her job).

Obviously, I will always be on the lookout for new (old) cameras to acquire, cause the hunt is half the fun. And the other half? Using them! I won't lie, I haven't used them all. But I shoot with my Minolta X-370 and Diana Mini all the time, and I've taken tons of polaroids with my non-folding Land camera. The Ricoh and Kodak Motormatic even came with film inside, which I'm still (slowly) trying to finish.

this old house

I thought I'd share some snaps of my home that I took the other day. Neighbors have told me that when the previous tenant lived here, the front yard was so overgrown that it was almost impossible to see the house from the street. I've also heard that he had over 500 potted plants and was even growing grapes in the backyard! (I actually wouldn't mind if the grapes had stayed behind, but oh well) 

The kittah is spoiled as all heck here. A huge fenced-in yard to run around and stalk the local lizard population (if she brings one more cut-off lizard tail into the house, I'm gonna lose it), and as seen above, plenty of outdoor scratching posts. Living the life I tell you. If I believed in reincarnation, I would totally want to come back in my next life as a spoiled rotten house cat.

Reason #478 I love living in an old house? Mature fruit trees! And we've got four! This is the avocado tree on the side of our property. What a beautiful, glorious thing that is. The only downside is that we have to bust out our ladder to pick the avocados, because they're usually way up high. And see that twisty, Tim Burton-looking tree in the back right corner? That's our persimmon tree, even though it's not looking so pretty right now. When we moved in, it was bearing leaves and fruit, but I'm guessing it's out of season now? At least we had the chance to pick and taste them. I had to do a little research though, to find out that our persimmons are the astringent type, which means that they'll turn orange and look ripe long before they actually are. So I picked some off when they were still firm, and let them ripen on my kitchen counter until they were soft and squishy to the touch. Then they're ready to eat!

Other odd quirks of this house: Some of our windows have to be held up with bamboo sticks. Some people might find this annoying and inconvenient, but I don't really mind.

And glass door knobs! How awesome are these? We've got a few of these around the house, on my bedroom closet door, and in one of the bathrooms. They add a nice vintage touch, if I do say so myself.