Action Figure Slow Down

I've curtailed my visits to estate sales, so many other things going on, and I'm sorry to say, I'm running out of room for my action figures.  But I have my camera's memory card hooked up the the laptop because I downloaded pictures of my grand neice's baby shower today so I figured I would see if there were any action figure pictures to post...

Let's take a looksy...

Not exactly an action figure...this is how the altar at our church was decorated for the month of the rosary..October?  I liked it.

After Christmas, we got new carpeting, moved around furniture and I took some time to reorganize my collection.  Here are some of my taller statues.  Most of these are from garage sales in my local area.  The candles are cool, they are battery operated and I can set them on/off, or put them on a timer to be on every day at the same 4 hour time period.  A very thoughtful gift from my sister.

I like to take picures of beautiful statuary where ever we go. This is a photo of Our Lady Queen of Angels taken at the church with the same name in Newport Beach.  We were there for a friends wedding.  He was one of our groomsmen when we got married.

Is it any coincidence that my favorite team is....

The Angels.  Love 'em.   They are currently in second place in their division but there is still plenty of time for them to get into the number one spot and stay there.  Here you see me with my better half, Gilbert.  We decided to go to this game at the last minute.  As we were waiting for the game to start they announce it was "Catholic Night".  A priest threw out the first pitch and a student from Our Lady of Fatima (Orange County) announced "Play ball!".

Our seats were awesome, very close to both the visitor and home bullpens.  We could see our pitcher, Ervin Santana and our cather, Hank Conger, warming up.  This is them heading out of the bullpen onto the field to start the game.

The Angels happened to win that night, after a very close game 4-3 over the Mariners.  I don't collect generic angel statues, though sometimes one will come with a lot of statues I buy on ebay.  I do have a St. Michael the Arc-Angel statue though.

Below are the busts of Jesus and Mary.  I found these two on ebay as a lot being sold on ebay.

I have seen these same busts several times and often in different colors, or with gold trim instead of the silver trim you see here.

A slow weekend...

There were no estate sales around this weekend, so just did a garage sale circuit.  I actually started at a local antique mall, where they had a sidewalk sale with various vendors coming in to sell.  All the prices were reasonable, but there was nothing that interested me.  I hit a few garage sales but did not really find anything to add to my collection. The only exception was a hand made rosary.  It was at the bottom of box of miscellaenous items, and it was tangled up with a slinky type toy.  At this same sale I found a ver old metal frame.  In the frame was a postcard with a pencil type sketch of a small town.  I asked how much for the two items and the lady at the sale said 'Oh!' and I thought maybe that she did not mean to sell the rosary.  But she said "I did not see this for a long time" and she looked at the frame.  I told her that she could keep it if she did not mean to put it out.  Her daughter scolded her for not going through the boxes better.  I offered again to let her keep it and she said "Yes, if you dont mind, I really like this technique of art".  Then the daughter said "You can just take the rosary, then."  Though I came out with the better end of the deal in my mind, I thought it was sad that she would rather keep an old postcard than a rosary.

Variety is the spice of life...

This is one of the display areas I have for my statues.  I bought this spice rack at a neighboorhood garage sale for only 50 cents.  I envisioned that it would be the perfect size for my smaller statues...

It is a hodgepodge of Sacred Heart of Jesus, various Our Ladies, nativty, Infant of Prague and Saints. 

Here we have from left to right, St. Martin de Porres, Sacred Heart of Jesus, 2 Infant of Prague, the profile of St. Joseph (I'm not sure how he got turned around), Our Lady of Carmel, a shepard (he's turned on purpose as he is looking at a nativity scene that I posed next to him) and another Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Gere we have Our Lady of Fatima (my children attended a school by this name for a time), three Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, St. Joseph and a smidge of St. Jude.

Here is St. Jude in his entirety, a generic statue of Mary, another Infant of Prague and a St. Joseph.

In this picture are three Sacred Hearts, two statues of St. Anthony and my on of my favorite Saints, Saint Therese of the Little Flower Jesus or St. Therese of Liseux.

Why this blog?

My first religious articles purchase at a yard sale in a nearby city. 

The cards I found behind the picture when taking a closer look at my find.

I have long enjoyed stopping at perusing any kind of garage/yard/estate sale.  People used to ask me "What do you look for?"  and I used to say "Nothing in particular".  Until one day, I was browsing at a yard sale and found some vintage saint medals and a picture frame with an old postcard of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  I bought the whole lot for no more than a dollar or two.  When I looked behind the picture of Mary, I was surprised to find old prayer cards and old funeral cards.  That is when I realized that there was really something that I wanted to look for...vintage Catholic articles.  

A cradle, still-praciticing, Catholic, I feel as if I am saving these items from uncertain fates.  I espeically like to collect statues, medals, holy cards and prayer books.  My collection has gotten to be a pretty good size.  When looking for a blog of anyone with a similar collection...I did not find much...perhaps I did not look hard enough.  At any rate, I wanted a place to share my treasures.  So I created this blog.

And now to answer how I came up with this name.  I have dozens and dozens of religious statues in my home.  My husband is quite the good sport about it.  He came to refer to my collection of statues as my 'action figures'.  And that is not so far from the truth.  These statues do spur me to action....to be a better person, to emulate the good example that these holy people have set.  And all in the name of giving glory to God.  I know there are people that think that we Catholics worship these statues.  But that is not the case.  Just as I have photos of my loved ones in my house, I have these statues of these holy people that lived before me.  They set an example of how to live a good Christian life.  They help me serve God better.  They are like friends of mine, that help me along the way.  Asking a saint for help, or asking them to intereced on my behalf to God is no different from asking a friend of mine for help, or asking a friend of mine to pray for me.

I am happy to give these items a place in my home.  I often use my prayer cards and books to pray, not just to ask for things, but also to thank God for things and to give God the praise he deserves.

So, here is another chapter in my life.  The chapter where I jump into the blogging world.  I have set this page up at the local library.  Soon I will go home and take pictures of my treasures and share them with you.

God bless you one and all.
Stella (Star)