A phone call made the day for Janet Steury of St. Joseph. She had just returned home from a memorial service and could use some good news. The caller on the other line would give it to her.

"Oh my gosh," she gushed. "I'm so excited. I love it. Bless your heart."

A package was on its way to her house, she learned. It was a coveted camel-painted rock that she had had her eye on for years to add to her camel collection, and now someone was going to give it to her. The camel collection is actually one of a collection of collections, ranging from KU memorabilia to Al Kost watercolors that she's accumulated for more than 40 years. They are displayed on tall, spacious plain walls throughout her house, meticulously grouped by category and arranged for viewing in display cases, bookcases and on the walls.

"I've been accused of being a museum," she laughs.

She got started collecting because her mother, now deceased, loved the hobby and collected "everything you could put two hands on," Ms. Steury says.

"She sort of roped me in on the process, which was wonderful," she says. "We were always on the lookout, and we would find all kinds of things."

One her favorite collectibles has been Vaseline glass - glassware with a transparent yellow-green hue that turns bright green under ultraviolet light (black light).

"You have to be careful because there are different colors and kinds of things people call Vaseline," she says, demonstrating how a small black light adds a green glow to her Vaseline glass fish.

It's been fun learning about her collection, she says, from belonging to Vaseline Glass Collectors, Inc., which hosts annual conventions and mails her a fluorescent paper newsletter called The Glowing Report. But as much as she enjoys all of her collections, she admits what she likes most is actually the hunt - especially with fellow collectors such as her sister-in-law, Jan.

"Janet and I have such a good time when we go. We get the giggles like teenagers sometimes," says Jan Hale, an antique collector who lives in Springfield, Mo. "We'll go to the craziest flea markets around that have a little bit of anything and everything to the very expensive antique shops. We just have a good time with each other."

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson may be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com