...grape crush

WHAT A WEEK!!

Traditions... like all good things... come with a LOT of hard work, but the payoffs are BIG!

Next week is our annual garage sale ~ Yes, the 'Catch-and-Release Program' set in motion once again. Tradition in that, my Mom and Dad always make the 100 mile journey to our house to join in on the 'fun'!! Each year, I think that I 'really' don't have the time or the energy to put into doing this a.g.a.i.n., but THEY really enjoy it, AND we always do it on the weekend of Dad's birthday, AND they are pushing eighty, AND hard telling how many more years THEY will be around and able to do to do this, so...

To add to it this year, Brother #2 and his wife have sold their Lake Camp ( I'm bummed... this is where we have always stayed for Warrensburg!!) and have a bunch of 'junk' they want to get rid of. Yes, this is the same brother that bestowed the Shiny Brites on me at Christmas from his inlaws (and who filled the infamous DUMPSTERS!!). When they heard of the garage sale... "Mind if we come out?" No that's fine. (We have one guest room, M/D will bring their RV... we can handle 6.)

Brother #2's daughter (niece #3) is away at college, and will be studying abroad from July - Dec. . When she heard of the 'happening'... Well, I want to go see everybody before I leave - 'Sure, come on out if you don't mind a couch!"

So, needless to say, this week hasn't been the usual garage sale prep week of 'just' sorting/cleaning/ pricing everything I can part with from the attic, basement and everything in between. It has ALSO been a week of cleaning up flower beds, getting the porch 'summer~guest ready', meal planning, grocery shopping, baking, cleaning the house top to bottom, laundering guest bedding/towels, etc.., etc...

OH, and there is a Holiday in here, isn't there?? The town in which I work is the 'Birthplace of Memorial Day', so there is much 'to-do', and it has been a FULL work week there as well. Oh yeh... must bake and prep for a picnic at inlaws on Sunday.

I didn't have the least bit of interest in saling on Friday morning - tired, too much to do, no time, other things on my mind... I had glimpsed at the ads quickly Thursday night... well, okay ~ just one looked intriguing.

That one was pretty good - scored a croquet set, not old for $1.50 and a pair of my beloved chalkware fish (oops, forgot to photo!) for .50¢!

Okay, my garage sale mojo was getting stoked... I pushed my luck on my way home and pulled over when I saw another sign by the road for a sale. It was an 'Antique Dealer' posing as a garage sale. ~Bought Nothing~ Proceeded toward home. Another sign pulled me in it's direction. WHAT POSESSED ME?? It was 'Scarey' folks!! Yes, that is with a capital 'S'. When I got there, I realized it was the sale that I had seen on Craigslist:

"saterday 8:00 intill 5:00 and sunday 8:00 intill 1:00" . Does that about sum it up folks?? ~Bought Nothing~ On the same road, there was one consolation sale where I did find a concrete stepping stone for the garden ($1.50). Oh this saling bit. Some days, you do have to kiss a lot of Frogs along the way!

Then when I got home I realized that the croquet set didn't have any wickets... ((sigh))... should I try to make some? or just use the mallets as fun stakes for holding up plants in the garden? ... and I'm sure the balls would make some kind of funky table-scape!!

No saling on Saturday! The day was spent sorting the attic, and hauling boxfuls down for release!

I had a couple of quick 'phone breaks' from my ATTIC DUTIES: ~ I got word that Niece #1 had heard of the 'Garage Sale Festivities', and her and her husband may stop out on Sat. - ... "Sure, two more for dinner would be Great!!". ~Talked to a bestest friend/crew member to let her know that my family was going to be in town if she wanted to stop over for dinner Sat. "That sounds like FUN!". What's the count up to now? Is anybody keeping track? TEN??

Basically the day was spent in the attic, or going up and downstairs, until I could take NO MORE!! Then we grabbed subs and made our getaway to a nearby town (home of MacKenzie-Childs) to see how the 'other-half' were spending the Holiday, have a picnic at the park and do a little seaglass picking 8-) !! As we were driving through town, and I was drooling over all of the H.U.G.E. 'camps' on the Lake and admiring their gorgeous lawns and gardens, I was amazed at all of them that appeared to be empty on a Holiday weekend. DH and I began speculating on this... I began daydreaming...

S: 'You know, if we had a place like one of these, everybody could come AND have their OWN room to stay in!!'

DH: "Yeh, but nobody comes to these places."

That made me think. I guess he's right. I'd rather have my Family & Friends, small house, silly traditions over a huge house on a lake any day.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVERYONE!!

'REBECCA OF THE GARDEN' has been freshly painted and planted with New Guinea Impatience 'GRAPE CRUSH' this year - just waiting for Company & Friends - Stop on by!! When 'the fountain' is ready, THAT is the official start of Summer at our Home!!!

...interesting.

I was one happy 'saler' , as I was momentarily blinded by the glare of the sun reflecting off of the stomach of this

METALLIC PURPLE BUDDAH

While regain your composure, I will give a slightly more detailed recap of our 'interesting' weekend adventures....

DH and I roadtripped to the NYS Catskill Mts. for the weekend to visit friends and attend niece #3's graduation. Sat. morning we met up with friends who took us on a saling adventure that we all agreed could only be summed up as 'interesting' (picture 4 'adults' - *one of which is carrying a purple Buddah* + 3 under eight and the havoc that can be raised on a beautiful Spring day!!!)... Some of my more 'palatable' finds include 2 VERA scarves (2010 #14 & #15), 1 ECHO scarf, 1916 Miami Beach Coconut Head souvenir ($1), 2 Chalkware Mask WallHangings (.50¢ea), Watercolor painting ($1.), and a set of Fiesta-Stone dishes....


Okay. Back to my shining, bald, Charmer. Oh, how I need to come up with a Buddah-Belly-Cam ~ a way to catch that initial look - that mixed look of Shock!-Horror!-Disbelief! that people have when they first lay eyes upon my Glowing-Guy. All eighteen inches of him only cost me $2 - the reactions have been priceless. THANK GOODNESS, as a seasoned saler I am thick skinned though!! I have taken abuse beyond belief - not only from the expected (family members, friends, etc...), but from little old ladies walking down the sidewalk making comments regarding my personal interactions with Big Buddah... "You gonna rub his belly?" and small children question my motives "Do you Really like Him?". Luckily DH was not quite such a hard-sell, armed with the ammunition that this could replace the concrete PINK CAT yard statue that recently was decapitated (beyond repair!!) while 'somebody' was mowing the lawn... . Actually, he said later, that he knew from the moment he saw it in the driveway (long before I ever saw it) that it would be going home with us. Now that I have gotten it home and cleaned up a bit, I realize that he is chalkware/plaster and He will deteriorate in one season if placed where I had originally planned (exposed to the elements)... so a Porch sitter He shall be - handy, so that I can rub his belly every time I walk by!

...the goat and the butterfly

Photo heavy post, so I'll try to keep the words minimal!!
Friday morning was sunny, but brisk.
First stop, first purchase (.25¢). It was going to be a good day! (VERA 2010 #10)

Later stop, $1. (2010 #8). I already have an identical set, except they are souvenirs for 'NORTH BAY' instead of 'WESTPORT' - anybody else out there ever come across any other examples of these??

At ONE stop I found this sweet Butterfly VERA (2010 #11) and...

this heavier weight 'shawl' VERA (2010 #12)!!

Saturday morning I only allowed myself one church rummage, then there was gardening to be done!!

...but that's okay, when you walk in and the first thing you lay your hands on is a pair of well-loved, yet pristine VERA pillowcases for $1. (2010 #13). SO soft, like your favorite old T-shirt, yet not a stain to be found anywhere!!

Just so that you don't think that I have COMPLETELY given up on buying anything else (though I have been trying to pull in the reigns tighter lately!), here are a 'few' of my other 'picks-of-the-week'...

ROYAL HAEGER mug .50¢ (okay, that's a 'given' - 2010 #17), Pottery Barn Mug .50¢, Goat Nodder .10¢, 'shroom flower frog .50¢

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The temps never got too warm on Sat., but the sun DID shine! DH and I have plans to turn a patch of grass between our garage and our berry bushes into a veggie garden this summer... First step - turning over the grass!

First step ACCOMPLISHED... or so our bodies are telling us this morning!!

NEXT STEP:

Grow babies, GROW...

For anyone that is sick of VERA, you may just want to quit reading this blog, because her presence isn't going away any time soon, and I won't apologize for it. When you find something/someone that inspires you ~ go with it!

As for the 'GOAT NODDER'... he looks older to me, but I really don't know. Mexican? Italian? Day of the Dead? Some kind of folklore? Cheap-o souvenir? He has stolen my heart, whatever his story!! If ANYBODY has any history/info I would love to know, so PLEASE - Spill the beans!!!! I will be forever greatful!

...just a reminder

" 'I DON'T BELIEVE ONLY THE WEALTHY DESERVE GOOD DESIGN'," " she disagreed with the notion that fine art should be confined to walls, mounted in gilded frames. Thus, she applied her patterns to humble everyday objects such as aprons and toaster cozies, pot holders, and dish towels. Vera also thought that any subject matter, no matter how quotidian, was fair game, from eyeglasses to musical instruments to chestnuts. In her eyes, even the most mundane imagery had decorative potential. She encouraged her followers to immerse themselves in art every minute of the day and to treat it without preciousness."

"A Pablo Picasso crayon on paper hung in her bathroom, perhaps as a reminder that great art should never be treated too seriously."

The more I read about this remarkable woman - Vera Neumann, the more I'm impressed by her! (These quotes were taken from the book VERA, THE ART AND LIFE OF AN ICON by Susan Seid)

...Mother's Day weekend Round-Up!

My Mom and I have a tradition, I don't go 'all-out' on the gift thing for Mom's Day, but we do spend a Girls Day together (after all, I am the only girl after THREE boys!!). No set agenda. Wherever the wind may take us. Food of some sort is a MUST. Usually the Friday before Mother's Day (so that she is around for when my other siblings stop by on 'THE' day!!).

So, last Friday, I set off Bright and early at 6:15am ~yawn~ for my intended arrival of 8am for coffee.

I did have one giftie to deliver. A 'special order' plarn bag. Mom had specified the colors and size.... 'but use your best judgement'. This is what I had come up with. Of course it was loaded with goodies too 8-) !! (and yes, as a mother would, she loved it!!)


Enroute for my 8am arrival, I did have to make a quick stop. A town-wide clean-up yielded these four little curbside beauties that I just couldn't drive by!! They cleaned up quite nicely.


The 'garbage-picking' didn't put me behind schedule, Mom loved her plarn bag, we had time to stop to a couple of shoppes before I took her to her chiro. appointment, we stumbled upon a Rummage sale, we did lunch, hit a couple of garage sales (no major 'finds', but a LOT of fun!), and even though it was drizzling out we decided we could get a few minutes in at the beach... hoping the weather would improve, but it didn't - thus, the seaglass finds were slim.


As I was packing up to leave, Dad told me he had the 'Cookie Cart' finished, if I wanted to take it back with me...

Isn't it WONDERFUL?!! Okay, I better explain... For those of you who have read my blog for any length of time, you know about 'The Crew' (my girlfriends from college) that I get together with every year at Xmas time for our Massive cookie baking escapade... a 20+ year tradition. We have always joked that we need one of those racks like the bakeries have for drying/cooling our frosted cookies. One of my brother's recently acquired a 5' tall stainless steel one, my Dad made some welded adjustments to it so that it will hold a dozen of those green plastic trays, and VOILA'....!

Isn't she a beaut?!!

Saturday morning I woke up to drizzling rain... bummer... no sales.... BUT, there was one Church rummage sale having their bag sale - that would have to be my 'fix' for the day.

Usually nothing 'too' exciting at this rummage sale... fill a bag for $3. First room I went to was the White Elephant room - ho~hum... Then I spotted a little Haeger Vase (2010 #15), and with some digging I found a sweater clip (2010 #7) tangled in the bottom of some baskets?!! The sweater clip is cool - I don't know if you can see it, the ends are 1957 HELVETIA coins. Okay, at this point I'm game for a bag. No photo, but I also got a Pampered Chef baker, plain Xmas balls, vintage cocktail napkins, Delft ashtray, margarita glasses, jewelry box, plastic grapes & pears, etc... Then it was over to the clothes room...

Scarves? Where are the Scarves? No scarves?!! Bummer.

Oh well. A grey, dreary day... I'm game to poke through these massive piles of clothes for a while... Really NOT expecting much, I did find some good name brands - IZOD, new GUESS & American Eagle jeans, ColdWater Creek... nothing earth-shattering, but the brands that sell well her in CNY, that I can take to my consignment shop and do well with. So, I ended up buying two more bags of clothes. As an added bonus, when I got home and was sorting through the clothes more carefully I found (1)ten, (2)fives, and (4)ones in various pockets - GOTTA LOVE THAT!! They paid me to bring all of this STUFF home!!


Sunday.... this luscious Haeger (2010 #16) came into my possession....

I'm not a 'MOM', is it legal for me to get all of this good stuff on Mom's Day weekend????

...I woud have picked you a bouquet for MOM's DAY...

...but, Central NY has a nice white coating this morning, with the flurries still in the air!!I have to admit, the Wisteria looks kind of pretty edged in white...


The snow does make it REALLY hard to find the white Lilacs on this poor tree though!!!

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL DAY!

... do you know what today is???

HAPPY CINCO de MAYO!!!!

HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT ONE!

...Chocolate Chip Cookies?!

Do all Gecko's appreciate chocolate chip cookies as much as this little guy seemed to??

Sorry... just back from Vac Cay, and as a Northerner with little exposure to these critters, they have always fascinated me. While stalking one for a 'photo shoot' (yes, I was on my hands and knees under a table...) I caught it darting to a 'chocolate chip cookie crumb' which held it's attention for quite a while... Do they actually eat them????

So, anyways....

as WONDERFUL as vacation always is - having people cook and clean for you (do 'neat-freaks' who have immaculate houses appreciate 'housekeeping' as much as us 'slackers' do??), Sun! and Fun!...
It is also WONDERFUL to come back home.

Reconnect with loved ones, relax knowing what's within easy reach for dinner, and no stress of mapping out directions or worries about 'the rental car'... 8-)

(Had to include this shot I took of these FUN! chandeliers in a shop)

Now I must try to get over my Post-Partum-Lazy-River-Stress-Disorder.... maybe Thrift-Therapy will help... hmmm...