..."I need more Haeger."...

DH:"... and by this (pause) you would mean... (very confused look)...???"

This was the conversation that resulted last night at our house after I FINALLY finished hanging the first of what I think will be several plate racks to display portions of our Royal Haeger Ashtrays (different racks for different glazes)!

( After consistantly seeing the metal plate racks all Spring at Sales, I got the brainstorm that they would be a fun way to do groupings of our ever-impossible to display Haeger ashtrays!)

My first attempt last night was to incorporate some of my favorite atomic shaped Mandarin Orange glaze on a 4-plate rack. THAT is when I came to a disturbing realization... As you can see from the photo ~ ONE doesn't belong (one is 'orange')! I ONLY have THREE Mandarin Orange glaze Atomic shaped Royal Haeger ashtrays... (for anyone who possibly cares- 'Mandarin' is 'orange' with a red spatter treatment over it... 1967-68, and one of my fav's!).

"I NEED MORE HAEGER."

...Dear 17 yr. old S-...

('77 Chevy Malibu was this 17 yr. old trusty means of transport!!)

Dear 17 year old S-

PLEASE don't fret so about that horrendous Mauve Atrocity of a Gown that your Mother has picked out for you for your Senior Ball on May 15, 1985. You will NEVER have to wear it!! (and that night will be one that you will remember for the rest of your life - fondly!)

Love, 42 year old S-

It seems that 'letters to a younger self' are a recent rage on blogs - HULA SEVENTY (scroll down to JUNE 27 post) and FABOOLOSITY are just a couple that I can think of off the top of my head that have touched on the subject lately, though, I KNOW I have seen a bunch more! This is a concept that Richard Bach actually explored many, many moons ago when he first wrote about trying to leave 'signs' to his 'younger self'. Something, that I've always found very intriguing.

I've been thinking about what I would want to say to a 17 yr old me, but I really wouldn't want to change anything major! All the struggle - the heart break, the failed/retaken college calculus & fortran classes, the rejected job resumes... these have all ultimately made me who I am today - and I have to admit that I am at a pretty darn happy & content place in my life right now 8-)!

Then, the other night I was cleaning out an old trunk of TRUE JUNK, and I came across an unopened package... THE 'Mauve Atrocity'! Picture it folks... The Year: 1985... Full Length... Ruffles... The Works. Oh yeh. GAG. Dress shopping with Mom... Only girl after three boys... had never been to a dance.... now I am going to THE Senior Ball.... NOT my kind of thing at all - but Mom had been dreaming of this forEVER!... I couldn't even begin to tell you how many shops we went to... Mom & I have completely different taste in EVERYTHING!... add to this that it had to be a tall size... I finally gave in on a 'Mom's choice' just to be DONE with it... the shoppe had a new one mailed to us as the 'floor model' had stains... it arrived... two weeks before the Ball boyfriend of 9mo breaks it off with me... no Ball for S-... dress has remained unopened in package for 25 years! I'm thinking Halloween costume one of these years!!

Oh well, my youngest older brother (#3, 6yrs older) took pity. He and his fiance' took me for a night of serious partying (the likes of which this 16 yr old will never forget!!) in Rochester. The Lilac Festival was going on... Let's just leave it at... it was out of control! As for the date that dumped me... we are still friends, and he still feels WAY horrible about the whole thing. Do I have any regrets - NOT a ONE! Mom got to do her 'dress shopping thing'. (which I circumvented when it came time for my wedding by wearing her 50yr old wedding gown!! I WAS NOT going through the Dress Thing EVER AGAIN!!) and I didn't have to wear the Mauve Atrocity- so all's well that ends well!

I do wish I could find signs from the 80 yr old me...

...maybe, just maybe, nope!....

I keep thinking that if I just stick with it...
That I AM going to get it figured out!
That I WILL get it down to a science!

... but each year this 50 mile GARAGE SALE is just plain Frustrating !

(and at the end of the day, I tell myself 'I'm just NOT going to bother another year', but of course I ALWAYS do!!)

We were out of the house at 6:44 am (we live about 30 minutes from either end of the Route, and HAD to allow time for a QUICK diner B-fast!!)... I like stopping in towns so that we can do more walking without the constant parking and reparking. In the first town, after breakfast, we stopped at a 'HUGE' church yard sale and I scored a VERA scarf (2010 #21), ECHO scarf and a pair of screw back earring that match a sweater clip I bought last week - all for a $1 .

Many... many... many... many... many... many.. many... many... (getting the idea that it was a pretty BLAH day of saling??) stops later in another small town (?) I did stumble upon a lady with a case of jewelry, and after MUCH digging and untangling I managed to pull out a few fun pieces - don't know that they were really $1 ea. worth of 'fun', but at this point, they came home with me - and I was happy with the sweater clip (2010 #14).


There are a few stops along the Route that seem to NEVER fail, and I make a point of stopping at. One house in particular. It sits alone. LOVELY, shaded gardens. Has an 'actual' Garage out back with stuff in it for sale (what a novel concept for a 'Garage Sale'!). They are just home owners, who purge 'junk' (albeit 'cool' junk) every year! The highlights of their sale this year were TONS of Off-beat clothes (not my size...), $1.50 pots of Butterfly Bushes (I bought 2!), funky jewelry (which I forgot to photo!), and hankies/scarves 10¢ea! They had T.O.N.S of other stuff, but those were the main things that took my eye..

Look at this VERA scarf (2010 #22) I found there - have you ever seen anything like it???


I also picked up this Micro-mosaic cross for $1. to join this pin that I found last week for .10¢

Thee B.E.S.T. find of the day?

Royal Haeger cigarette box.

$5.

(2010 #19)

DH found it actually. His one and ONLY purchase of the entire day. Yes, he was quite proud of himself!!

We didn't do the FULL 50 miles - only 45 miles. We got home at 4:18 pm absolutely BEAT!! It was one LONG DAY!! I don't like ((RUSHING)) when I'm saling (which is what you have to do if you are going to get all 50 miles in and get to the GOOD stuff before other people!!). Why do these people start closing up their sales at noon?? Good Grief Folks!!!! Just how much can I rush through in 4 hours??? (3hrs when some of you don't even open up until 9am!) ARGH!

I guess it was a Good day. We did end up with a Tri-fecta, and we had a lot of fun together. I got to go to a place I had never eaten for lunch, and looking back and I come home with some good STUFF!

Now, after a day of COMPLETE PLAY, the zucchini from the garden would like to be made into something yummy and the herbs that I have had drying would like to be bottled, so time to be productive!

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!

...Nine!...

A record setting NINE blossoms last night on our ANGEL's TRUMPET (Datura)!

...missing photos...

These are the missing photos from yesterday's post of the Mill that we visited.

It was a Gorgeous morning!!
Why is it that DH's photos are ultimately better than mine?!!?
...he even does better with the camera on his phone, than I can do with my digital!!
Oh well....
Have a GREAT MONDAY!!

Friday morning I usually have my best saling...
NOT SO this week! ...or many weeks lately!! This sweet little candle climbing duo at a whopping .50¢ is ALL that I netted after E.I.G.H.T. yard/garage sales!! People are always amazed at all of the GREAT finds we come away with from sales ~ I guess that is because we tend to try to forget all of 'the frogs we have kissed' along the way!!!

That's okay. I had a 'Curbstone Festival' to attend! (glorified sidewalk sale in a quaint neighboring town on a beautiful lake!) I usually get a good head-start on my Christmas Shopping at their quality clothing stores, interesting housewares shoppes and abundant Christmas boutiques, but this year... on a gorgeous Friday... I bought... A BOTTLE OF WATER (yeh, all that shopping made me thirsty.)

So, I stopped into a little basement thrift to cool down and revive for a few minutes before venturing on. What did I lay my eyes upon?

Can you read that signature?

I have NEVER seen an enamel pot so freakin' adorable before!! It is a smaller size, in absolutely pristine condition... FIRST purchase of the day 8-). Feeling better, I headed back out. To continue shopping... Again, NOTHING, until I came to a fun corner shop with vintage jewelry...

2010 #12 & #13

Okay. Time to call it quits for Friday!

Saturday had me up Brite & Early to head to a massive Church Rummage Sale, which never disappoints - if not for 'stuff', for 'people watching' !! This year was no exception. This is one event that DH even attends with me (bribed with breakfast - Of Course!).

This is what $5 and some change netted us... (3) vintage TV trays; Caption stickers; Orange LeCreuset Pitcher; (2) self-watering Plant thingies; large bag of Italian flag toothpicks for crafting; (3) Yankee Candles; (2) batterie op votives; Rainforest Hawaii mug; new sheets felt; misc. cookie cutters; AND...

...this box of glass ornaments - three of them are brand new, but that's okay, because that little vintage West Germany Figural Clown more than makes up for the $1 I spent on the box!! How can all you CLOWN HATERS out there not like something as sweet as that???!?!!

After I had my 'stuff-fix', I gave DH the options from my previous post or to put it in his terms 'So my options are either "A". go buy expensive pottery that looks like it's been painted by a 3 year old or "B". go to an all you can eat pancake breakfast and then go explore an old stone mill?'.

I guess it's pretty obvious which we chose! (SORRY, no photos - I did take my camera, just forgot to put the batteries in it!!!! DH took some shots on his phone, so maybe another day I will show a picture of the mill!)

I'm glad we did.

It was a lovely day to be away from crowds and in a relaxed setting.

...and did I mention they had a flea-market?

VERA 2010 #19 & #20

Now, I'm off to list some goodies on e-bay. Shara has me inspired with some of her stories of great prosper of late, and my Eva Zeisel is doing quite nicely 8-)

...decisions~decisions...

First off is a given - a LARGE church rummage sale... don't usually get much, but a tradition of sorts....

but after that, do we head to this:
http://www.mackenzie-childs.com/Barnsale
(the crowds will be M.U.C.H. smaller today, than their 3 HOUR waiting line to get in on opening day - which I Refuse to do!!)

~or~

this:
http://newhopemills.com/pages.php?page_id=17
(a local Historic Mill that has moved production to a different facility and the original mill is only open 1 day a year for tours, which we have never done before. There is supposed to be a nearby flea market open too...)

What would you do ???

...THEY HAVE ARRIVED IN CNY...

Every checkout aisle at the local Wally-world is stocked with a box!!!

Life in Central New York is GOOD!

SHIFT / FREEDOM...

Another Saturday morning Church Rummage~Yard Sale find was this old Royal Quiet DeLuxe typewriter ($1.00).

It 'had' me from the first sighting of the SHIFT/FREEDOM keys...

When was the last time 10¢ made you this happy?...

DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN HALLOWEEN IN JULY?!

(a vintage halloween candy holder, found in the bottom of a box of misc. at a Church Yard sale - for a mere DIME!)

NOT TO FEAR!! That wasn't the 'ONLY' thing that came home in my 'treats' bag....

...FOUR for The 4th!...

Just returned from our annual FOUR state (NY...VT...NH...ME) journey to the coast...

For several days we stayed in the heart of NH. While DH photographed those silly cars going around and around in circles (aka NASCAR), I mapquested a garage sale route and set out on foot with my trusty plarn bag in tow to conquer the lovely town of Concord.

My top FOUR saling finds include a set of six stemmed depression cordial glasses, a hand-made beaded necklace (which came complete with the background story!! - all for .50¢), VERA scarf ($1., 2010 #18), HAEGER ($1., 2010 #18)

Anyone who is trying to cut back on their saling purchases should start walking to sales! It is a definite motivator when it comes to that final decision as to whether you should buy something or not!! - YOU HAVE TO CARRY IT all the way back to wherever you have walked from!!! On this particular Saturday morning, my furthest point was about 3mi. from our hotel room (+PLUS+ all the zig-zagging along the way to hit sales on miscellaneous side streets!!). It is an awesome way to see a city though!

The down side of walking, is that you REALLY have to M.O.V.E. it, to hit as many sales as you would like to before they start to close. I found that since it was such a hot day, a LOT of them had closed early and just put all of their stuff out by the curb with a big FREE sign on it... (hey, I had walked all this way, I wasn't going to be put off!) Top FOUR free finds... Woodpecker lawn/tree decoy, GEORGES BRIARD hot plate, 4 B/W cloth table runner, NIB Cookie Press w/Cookie Cookbook, bags & bags of STERLING and cool jewelry (okay, so maybe that's more than 'FOUR'...)

From NH it was off to the Maine coast.... ~sigh~ 8-)

(Sorry... no 'saling' or 'stuff' photos! Hope this will suffice...)

We were up at FOUR am with the Fishermen to walk on the beach, watch the sunrise and pick up sand dollars.

~~~HOME AGAIN... HOME AGAIN~~~

to many things making my 'happy list', but here are 'FOUR' (in no particular order!!)

Happy Mail awaiting me - THANKS Chris!

Sweater Clip 2010 #11

Putting the 'new' copper waterer in our garden and testing it. Yes, I did buy that at a sale in NH (so you KNOW how badly I wanted it if I was willing to carry it!!) The next time you need a good laugh - conjur the image of this 5' copper sprinkler with a 4' hose attached being carried down the city streets by a 'bag lady' on mission - what a site I must have been!!!!


Lettuce is full grown and YUMMY!! Squash is in blossom too!



The birds left some berries for me - OH, does it get much better?!

Holiday weekends in our area don't usually yield too many sales, but Friday morning I did spot a couple, and this is what FOUR quarters got me...

50's metal shelf, white HAEGER pot w/ sticker (.25¢, 2010 #19) and an atomic pottery ashtray.


HOPE EVERYONE FINDS A WAY TO CELEBRATE THIS FOURTH!