...soul refreshed!

As was guessed, DH and I were finally able to take a two week road trip! What a roadtrip it was!! Departed from Upstate NY, travelled via the coast, to arrive at islands off the west coast of Southern Florida - 3200+ miles (round trip)!!

Inspired along the way by...

...Amazing works of the "Artist & writers' haven" island of Cedar Key (& Seafood to our hearts delight!!)...

(HAD to throw this picture in for Shara!!)

...Ocean, sand 'tween my toes, and shelling in Sanibel/Captiva Islands...
(I told DH if I could walk the beach every morning, with my coffee, while watching the sunrise and searching for shells it would seriously cut down on my 'saling'! ...He just laughed.)

...Animals of all shapes and sizes! Birds on the beach, 'gators, an armadillo, playing in the ocean with dolphins, conch...

and a mama black bear with her cub (partially up the back side of the tree - if you look close you can see an ear!!)

...Sensory overload hangin' w/ Mickey (aka: Mr. Mouse) for a couple of days in Orlando...

I came home full of ideas - one of which involves my latest obsession with soldering... with a PLETHORA of newfound shells to fuel my passion... Here is last nights attempt~

(Yes. I still need LOTS of practice at this soldering thing, but I AM enjoying the process... and can gradually see improvement!!)

Two weeks with no computer, no internet, no e-mail, no e-bay, no blogging. (We had the laptop with us, but we had no desire to logon!!) That in itself was liberating and refreshing! But it is good to be back!

(I would like to claim that there was no 'saling' either, but...We did 'stumble' upon two garage sales on Cedar Key which yielded this 18" tall retro-'80's teal Haeger figure, a Royal Haeger Vase and a collectible book on Rabbits! They were purchased early in the trip, so I was Very Happily surprise that they were still undamaged when we arrived home!)
Now we're back!

MOTIVATED and ready!!

...be gone

Easter is all packed up and stored away, the only thing left was to put a 'dreamy' image on the old blog...

...'cute' 'pastel' 'fluffy' 'pink' - NOT!

'Cute'.

'Pastel'.

'Fluffy'.

'Pink'.

None of these words would, or have ever, conjurred up an image of me in anyone's mind! (Okay, maybe my Mom daydreamed that her fourth child ~ the ONLY girl after three boys ~ would be a 'girly girl', but that was SHORT LIVED!!).

Maybe this also explains my lack of an 'EASTER' gene. Stuffed Bunnies, ceramic chicks and fuzzy ducks in pastel yellow, pink and blue just don't stir any creative inspiration in me, and marshmallow Peeps make me want to gag (though, they are FUN! to put in the microwave and watch explode!!).

This year I 'almost' broke out of the box and went with a vintage 'Lady Head Vase' inspired theme, or did a pseudo 'Infant of Prague' shrine.... but tradition reigned.

I do have two boxes of Easter decoration. One is mostly baskets and grass. The other is mostly fuzzy, fluffy, stuffed bunnies that DH bestows upon me every Easter (??? - skip the rabbits, just give me jelly beans and white chocolate!!). This is where being sentimental infuriates me! I should just 'ditch this crap'... but I can't because there are special memories attached, and once a year I feel the need to revisit them...

MY FIRST EASTER BUNNY (circa 1968)...

MY CHILDHOOD POWDER PUFF BUNNY (had to have 'powder' after my baths!!)...

'MY-STYLE' BLOWN EGGS...

Oh, I will be happy to pack this Lot back up and store it away in the attic for another year!!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

...Echo...Dream...Desire

The glint of hope for sales yesterday was almost squelched by snow showers and Wind!! 'Almost' is the key word. I did find one garage sale (brrr...), and a rummage sale - so that was Good, but pickings just weren't what I was hoping for.
These three bottles of perfume (.50¢ ea) and a few other little odds-n-ends were the total sum for the morning! I am one of those 'odd' people who doesn't have a 'signature' perfume. What I wear depends on the mood and the occassion. I love testing different scents. This is where partial Garage Sale bottles of perfume are perfect!! Don't get me wrong, they must pass the ((sniff)) test first!! Then, I can wear them once or twice, if I don't like them or get tired of them, they become part of the 'catch and release' program (ie: back into the garage sale market!!). Quite often they are $pricey$ bottles that are brand new (gift from a now 'ex'??)!

Today proved to be sunny and about 20° warmer, so I headed out to the herb bed...

The herb bed originally started as a couple of plants around a tree stump. Over the past 15+ years it has gradually grown, and grown. A couple of years ago I got the bright idea that it needed a 'proper' border. DH was really campaigning for a nice, neat formed concrete block border, but I had other ideas! WINE BOTTLES!! I did compromise though, and put a recessed flush row of bricks around the perimeter to make mowing easier. We live in an older, 'traditional' neighborhood - and my 80++yr old neighbors were rather confused by the whole concept... BUT, I like it... so that's all that matters!! The first summer all of the bottles had their original fun labels, but during the first winter those vanished and now when the sun hits them just right, they glow. The downfall is that EVERY Winter the freezing ground dislodges them and they are all askew in the Spring... So today I spent a couple of hours straightening and 'replanting' them in the ground with my handi rubber mallet! Now, I just need to finish getting the rest of those leaves out of there!! The shallots and the chives are shooting up!!

...the end 'may' be in sight!!

Okay, so suffering through this "end-o-winter saling drought", I have taken to watching for ANY signs of Spring! I have say though, waiting for the Lilacs to blossom is like watching paint dry (in my book anyways!!). The minute the green buds start to show, they get another coating of snow to stunt their growth. This morning I spotted this cute little red-headed woodpecker (bottom right) scouring the Lilacs - a nice diversion indeed!
THEN IT HAPPENED!!

I did a search on the computer of the local classifieds for this weekend, it came up with....

Found 2 ads in Garage Sales

I can't even remember when the last time was (October 2008??) that a search returned a result other than...

no Ads found

'2' is definitely a step in the right direction!!

Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that the prediction of snow for Saturday will be inaccurate!!