The Christmas Season has come to a close.

 

SWEATER CLIP 2012 #37 (Xmas)
...My side of the family (Parents, siblings, nieces/nephews...) had their 'Holiday' yesterday, on a day that we could all get together, relax & enjoy.  ALL that prep, we may as well draaaggg things out, right? Okay, enough!

VERA 2012 #23 .25¢
So, goodbye 2012. We have ridden a rollercoaster together. Personally it has not been a year to go down in the history books - neither positive nor negative.  Much sadness and pain around me.  I didn't find myself directly jumping into the 27 Random Acts of Kindness, but I did find that I have been taking things a little bit slower lately. Appreciating what I have and the people in my life a little bit more. Hugging a  little more freely, smiling (and crying...) a lot more often.  I gave a plates of cookies to say 'Thank You' to the girls at the Post Office Counter, The Dr. Office Receptionist (the one who called with the VERA package!!), My Pharmacist at the little local drugstore who goes out of his way for me every month (he came out from behind the counter and gave me a big hug!).  I think EVERYONE has been impacted as to just.how.fragile this life of our is. 

VERA 2012 #22 .25¢

 Bring it on 2013, The year of 'EMERALD' (or so PANTONE says.)  I'm not sure that I'm really jumping on that 'bandwagon', but I guess nobody asked MY opinion!

  Every year I have goals for myself.  In 2012, I turned 45, it was a TOUGH one.  I keep thinking... hoping... planning... dreaming... that I am going to find FOCUS!  I think that age has made me wise.  This new found wisdom has enlightened me to the fact that I am ALWAYS going to be scattered!  I am more than likely NEVER going to have direction in my life.  This blog is never going to be anything other than what it was created as - a dumping grounds for whatever happens to possess me at the moment!
  

ROYAL HAEGER by ROYAL HICKMAN 2012 # 8 (XMAS from J)
GREEN BRIAR glaze 1946 - 1950's

I have toyed around with different ideas for this blog from time to time.  I look at other blogs - they have massive FOLLOWERS, and I ask myself 'Why do you only have 59?'. It's because they have FOCUS to a particular NICHE!!   then I ask myself, do I want to get tied down to a particular 'focus'? What is the purpose of svelteSTUFF - 'you'? or 'others'? 'Why do you even have 59 FOLLOWERS?? WHAT do they possibly find interesting in your jibber jabber?' .

ROYAL HAEGER vase 2012 #9 (Xmas from J)
AQUA CRYSTAL glaze 1967-68

 This topic often comes up when I get a request from a retailer to purchase advertising space on my blog.  J (and others) think that I am CRAZY refuse.  Maybe I am.  This blog is for me.  It is not a job.  Just something I still enjoy and don't want to feel 'obligated' to. 

ROYAL HAEGER vase 2012 #10 (Xmas from J)
BLUE LAVA glaze 1979-80

 I guess the same goes for my 'saleing'...  I was 'chatting' via text with this sweet lady that owns Dazzled By Vintage  Etsy shop.  She had given me the 'heads-up' on a sweater-clip lot that was selling on Ebay.  We started talking about 'buying for resale'.  I realized that J&I still don't 'really' go out buying just.for.resale.  Saleing is therapy for me, and it is still the love of the journey that fuels this junking passion!   If in our travels we stumble upon 'treasures to good to pass up' we will buy them, and then if there is no way to possibly work them into our limited space, we 'release' them.
As a general rule:  We sell because we buy.  We don't buy to sell.

Just something I still enjoy and don't want to feel 'obligated' to.

 

So, in conclusion, for 2013... What you see is what you get... 

cause it's...about me

and who I am
... about loving and living...

 

Here are some parting shots of Tweed.

TWEED 2012



TWEED 2012

TWEED 2012

TWEED saying 'FAREWELL' amidst his namesake GOLD~TWEED~GLAZE Haeger Pottery 8-)
HAPPY 2013!!

...the old 'baking' excuse!

This past weekend was "The Crews' " annual Cookie Baking!

Four Days of just hanging (with the excuse of baking) with three of the best friends a girl could possibly ask for!    What better present could you ever give to YOURSELF in the MIDDLE of the crazy HOLIDAY season than that?  ...and the cherry on top of it all?  The MANY 'taste-testers' that went out of their way to stop in and wish us MERRY CHRISTMAS with the excuse of getting COOKIES (some traveled close to 200 miles from the neighboring state of Ohio!!)

 ...and while I was away... 

 TWEED had a few friends in for a little party!  

Has anybody figured out how TWEED got his name?  I think  there may be a 'giveaway' for the first correct answer ;-) ! 

 One of my 'stocking-stuffers' to each of The Crew this year was a personalized Dominoe necklace that I've been working on for a while.  A 'memory~collage' of sorts on the front, and the dots on the back refer to their Power Name # ~ Soul # ~ Life Path # vibrations (Taken from Glynis McCants book on NUMEROLOGY).  I think that they turned out kinda cool, and it was a lot of fun.  I included a sheet that gave a description of each of the 'vibrations' - a 'Fortune Cookie' of sorts 8-).

I've been sporting my 'PINTEREST' inspired, MADE IN USA, 'Ode to the Broken Ornament' earrings...  loving them this Holiday Season!  

Now that Christmas is just one week away, the ETSY shop is closed & the Ebay auctions have all ended (no 'real' time left for shipping, so we've called it QUITS for this season!), baking is DONE, 'some' of the shopping is finished... time to ENJOY - HOPE YOU ARE DOING THE SAME!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!

... to StevesHouse we go.

As the 'foster' parent' of stuff, I tend to sometimes get attached.  I give it a good home while I have it, learn what I can about it's background, search it's soul, and it often leaves my care in better condition than it arrived.  Every once in a while I even get to learn the fate of my beloved 'stuff'.  True, this isn't always a good thing ~ but in the case of an adored ceramic tile, it is The.Most.Wonderful! report .

MARCH 2012 - svelteSTUFFj ETSY

  *Now, keep in mind, this tile was NO random sale pick-up.  When I first started working as an Interior Designer with a group of Arch/Engineers 25 years ago, one of my first jobs was to clean out & update their sample library.  I had found this tile in the depths - outdated and discontinued - to be tossed - or to be taken home, by ME, just waiting for that Perfect future project... I finally decided it was time to let it go free - so glad I did!

 

 

A couple of weeks ago we received a note from the girl who had purchased this tile from our ETSY shop.

 

Listing: www.etsy.com/listing/96488019/retro-6-square-japan-ceramic-tile-flower

Hi
I have finally completed (well, almost) the new home for this beautiful tile I purchased from you ...
And I must admit I am also shamelessly promoting this new endeavor I am embarking upon. I have started to sell my mosaics and I would like to invite you to visit my "show and tell" Facebook page (StevesHouse StevesHouse) where some of my completed wares are displayed. I am hoping to be able to post this piece in the next couple of days....  It explains my plans, my mission, as it were, and the reason for the name. I think it is for a good cause and I am hoping many other people agree. I am also planning on being able to open my etsy shop (StevesHousebyPaula) in a short while where many of my wares will be available for sale.

So thank you for the beautiful inspiration of this tile and if you have some free time, I hope you will visit StevesHouse by Paula

 

 

Paula does beautiful work!  If you have a spare moment in this busy Holiday Season, stop by and check out her work ~ and her Great cause.  Hope you are all having a GREAT WEEKEND 8-)

...Q-tip ABUSE!!

 I had been having a WONDERFUL week...

WED. NIGHT we went to see The T.S.O. ~ If that doesn't put you in the Holiday Spirit ~ I don't know what will!!

THURSDAY, things went downhill in a hurry!  I made a quick stop by my fav. thrift on my way home from work...  The 'usuals' were doing their sorting of donations, just the other side of the dishware shelves. You know the 'usuals' - those sweet little old 'blue-haired, Q-tips' that a good gust of wind could blow away...  As I shopped, I overheard this conversation "Oh, these are Eddie Bauer, and they are BRAND NEW!, but they are SOOO Dated..., you know, out of style, do you think we should even bother to put them out?  People just. don't. wear. these things anymore!"  At this point, I HAD to peak through the shelves to see what they were discussing... solid colored TURTLENECKS!!!  UGH.  I looked down, it had been snowing when I got dressed, I was wearing my Lucky skinny jeans, tall black leather boots, a J.Jill bulky high neck sweater with a black TURTLENECK!!!!  I chat with these Q-tips fairly often, so I poked my head into the sorting area and told them:

 "Be nice about who you are calling 'out of style'!"

And their reply?

"Oh honey, that just means that you are mature enough to be secure in your personal style (wink)"
Talk about insult to injury - first the thrift Q-tips tell me I'm out of style, then they tell me I'm old - that just about killed any Holiday Buzz I had going!

Thank goodness the thrift did yield a couple of VERA for my pain and suffering...

VERA 2012 #20 (.25¢)

VERA 2012 #21 (.25¢)

 Now, back to DECORATING and all-things-HOLIDAY!

There is a sad little tree, that has been sitting on our back porch, waiting to have the misc. poop cleaned off of it, since we dug it out of the depths of a carriage house of an estate sale way back in OCTOBER!!  Guess the time is right? Hmmm... I think it has potential - TWEED looks quite content 8-).

...finally.

On the second day of December,

 the decorating F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. began!

Not a 'LOT' was accomplished, but slowly, it has begun! Our main 'double-wide' doorway between the livingroom and the computer room is now 'decked'... (with my precious breakables - high and out of harms way!!)

 As is one of the kitchen windows, with kitschy plastics (so as not to worry about breakage!!).

While I decorated, J 'played' with HIS stocking stuffers!!
  During our kitchen renovation, several years ago, we uncovered an old, unused chimney ~ that we decided to leave exposed... complete with u.g.l.y. old hole in side.  To date we have just had your basic 'winter scene' cover.  In J's stocking, My Parents' gave J some old metal signs that my Dad had cleaned out of his shop.  One of them was 'red' and just-the-right-size to screw over the ugly hole...  Soooooo that was J's project-o-the-day. Measuring, going in search of the correct size and type screws for the holes already in it, insulating, drilling, patching, cleaning ~ and I thought it was going to be so easy!

 But WELL worth it! Our kitchen colors are Red/White/Black - kinda perfect - huh?!

~AND~

We didn't teach Tweed any four-letter words today, since NO ornaments were broken!!

Twas a lovely start to decorating 8-)

,,,hangin' w/ the Haeger & the VERA

On the first day of Decemeber...

When everyone else is decorating for the holidays, what is svelteSTUFF doing?

From left to right: Stocking stuffer Haeger Vase (2012 #5), Birthday Haeger Green Agate Console Bowl (2012 #7) and Stocking stuffer Haeger floral bowl lime green (2012 #6)

 'Playing' with her latest Haeger and VERA acquisitions...

of course!

 I recently had a question from a reader regarding the age of one of her VERA scarves with a metal ladybug button/tag.   I have spent the last couple of evenings pouring through my reference materials and the internet...  I am stumped.  I have been able to find no other reference to these metal tags, though I can verify that they DO EXIST, as I have a couple of these in my personal collection.  Sorry Laurie B.!  Here are a
couple of photos of my latest VERASHEERS to compensate for my lack of an answer...

VERA2012#19 ~ BIRTHDAY

VERA 2012 #18 ~ STOCKING STUFFER

 OH! Before I forget....
The piece of Haeger that I picked up back in the middle of November, and I would only show you the 'back-side'....

HAEGER 2012#4

SOON, SOON, SOON.

Tweed promises.

HOLIDAY DECORATION!

...one of 'those' days.

isn't it ironic...

450th post on my 45th.
THANK GOODNESS that shotglass is poised & ready!
(it's gonna be a tough one!!)

...wrap-up on 'THE' stockings!

Tweed, with his infamous love of 50's 'bling', has reminded me that I have yet to post on A.L.L. of the goodied that I got on BLACK FRIDAY!!

No, we didn't go anywhere near the malls, or retail in general!!  It was our annual stocking exchange. Just Mom, Dad, J & I.  The restrictions on our stockings are 'second-hand' or 'home-made', and none of my siblings have any kind of appreciation for Mom, Dad and mine's love of 'saling' ~ so this is just 'our' special exchange (J goes along with it good-naturedly).

M/D don't get out to many sales any more, but 'somehow' Mom still manages to come through on My stocking!!  Sooooo much goodness, I'm only going to show the SWEATER CLIPS today!
SIXTEEN!!!!!!

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THE COOL WAY THAT SHE BOXES THEM UP?!

SWEATER CLIPS 2012 #21 - #26
Sweet Rhinestone at the top.
Pendant in the middle is a NYC souvenir with the Statue of Liberty.

SWEATER CLIPS 2012 #27 - 30

There was another little bag with a note on the outside 'NEED HELP'.  Mom would find sweater clips that were less~than~perfect and pick them up, thinking I could use the parts to repair others.  How right she was!  From those 'parts', and other 'parts' I've picked up along the way I was able to complete these FIVE clips by replacing chains, adding beads, etc...

SWEATER CLIPS 2012 #31- 35 

For all you other sweater clip afficionados out there (ha, ha) - I have others of these in my collection, but have had no luck in researching.... WHY THE THIRD CLIP IN THE CENTER???


While visiting Mom & Dad, I was also given an early Birthday present... the PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE....

ISN'T IT         THE.MOST.GORGEOUS?!!



SWEATER CLIP 2012 #36 from Mom & Dad



...promise - last wreath!

 STEP 1 in HOLIDAY DECORATING.... complete and PICK-UP unfinished projects - thus goes this F.I.N.A.L. Fall/Holiday Wreath, completed This Morning ((YEH)).  I PROMISE this is THE.LAST.ONE. - NO MORE.!!!

Tweed was NOT permanently adhered to it! though he is kinda 'loving' it and has definitely given it his stamp of approval since he lived in close quarters with many of those vintage ornaments on the wreath for a VERY LONG time, it is kind of like a 'family reunion' for him ~ but he was spared the hot glue burns!

...TWEED.

IT's BEEN A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING SEASON,

BUT NOW IT'S TIME TO

"STEP-ASIDE-TURKEY"

"THERE IS AN ELF IN 'BAD GOLD LAME' IN THE HOUSE", ready to take CENTER STAGE FOR THE NEXT MONTH!

...less than a week away...

Just completed and delivered a 'Fall-Wine' wreath as a 'THANK~You' to one of my major BARTENDING contributors to my cork sweater clip display board. 

Does anybody else find that these darn things are addicting to make?

...and of course shopping for the 'materials' is half the fun!!

I was doing a Serious Happy Dance when I found this little number ... HAEGER 2012 #4 .50¢ - but what makes it SO special and unique is on the other side - and in keeping with The Month, I can't show you until 11-28!

I can show you the beach glass that J & I picked up this past weekend during the Indian Summer weather...

...and I can show you this Great copper/bronze pin that I picked up yesterday for .50¢



and look what else I found yesterday!!
Well, this is actually an 'AFTER' shot,
or a 'COMPLETED PROJECT' shot!
I found one of those clear, glass lamp bases that I have long been stalking... and I knew JUST what I wanted to do with it!!
COME VISIT! IT WILL BE RESIDING IN OUR GUEST ROOM!!



What I didn't realize is that one of these lamps can hold almost a lifetime of glass!!!  Good excuse to hit the beach!