Pictures of life stuff

I've been playing with my camera and taking different kinds of pictures lately. First I realized that probably 95% of all my photos are of people, but when I go to flickr the photos I love are those of things and stuff and landscapes etc. I look at other peoples photographs and think "now why didn't I think of that" or "I could take that picture". The other thing I am finding out about myself is that I really like photographs of ordinary things like a cup of toothbrushes or a pair of shoes or a stack of books. And because I scrapbook, I am enjoying using these kinds of photos on my pages...they help to tell my story above just the people - and personally I like the added interest of photos of people mixed with photos of life stuff. I am also trying to learn my camera - most of what I do is in automatic mode, which works just fine but I'd like to know a bit more. I'm thinking I might love a macro lens, but I don't even know where to start...anyone have any suggestions? My father has been a good source of information for me (my love of photography and weather definitely comes from him), but he is in Roatan for the next few months so he is a bit, well, unreachable.