For Kelley Gee, a collection begun in her teens has become a cherished family tradition and an eye-catching design element in her Rexburg, Idaho, home. Wherever she goes with her husband, David, and her kids, Alison, age 2, and Nicole, 13 months, she scoops up a sample of the soil or sand and brings it home as a souvenir of their trip. Each sample is displayed in its own glass bottle, labeled with its point of origin and grouped with the others in a hutch in the dining room, where they spark memories and invite conversation when guests arrive. From the red soil of Utah to Cancun's powdery white sand, the neatest thing about the collection, says Kelley, is the fact that no two samples are exactly the same.

At age 2, Alison is still more fascinated by the bottles than their contents, but this year her mom plans to enlist her aid in collecting the most important sample of all: soil from their own backyard. "Idaho dirt," says Kelley, "is beautiful -- the best in the country."

 
Project Pointers
• Transport sand and soil in zip-lock bags, and bring back more than you think you'll need. You can always toss the extra in the backyard, and you'll always have enough to fill your bottle, whatever its size, to the top.
• Display your collection in bottles of a variety of shapes and sizes. Buy them in clear glass, not tinted, so the true colors of your dirt can shine through.
• To identify the source of the soil or sand without blocking the view, place small white labels on the bottoms of the bottles. If you'd like a more visible label, tie on hanging tags from an office supply store.