...when passions meet in April SUNSHINE

 This is what I'm talking about...

The sun has been shining in CNY, and the days are warming a bit.  EVERYONE wants to be outside!  Garage/Yard Sales are still sparse, I spend my 'down' time snooping through dumpsters and Gardening! 

 This past week I had a MAJOR 'Dive' SCORE of SIX (6!) pots of Easter Mini-Daffodils.  While they are past their 'BEST BY:' for this year, the bulbs planted in our garden will flourish in the future!!

Since I had been 'bit' by the Spring Gardening Bug, I gathered up a batch of seed packets (flower, herb & veggie!) that I had rescued from a discarded display last Fall (2020).  I am still trying to decide what to do with the stack of New Gathering Buckets I recently dove.  Tall, Skinny, WaterTight...  Any Ideas?? 

I then ventured to our basement & garage to gather an array of 'Potting Vessels', which will later be divested around our gardens!  While doing this I came across a 20# bag of potting soil that I had forgotten about (or should I say a Large grey tote, holding the contents of a 20# bag of potting soil)...  Isn't it silly that a Bag of Dirt 'has' to be tossed if it gets a little slit in the bag??! 

~FOUR pots of Canna Lily bulbs.  As a general rule, I plant NO bulbs that require attention EVERY change of season (gladiolus, dahlias, etc...)!  However, every rule has it's exceptions!  My Father had an affinity for Canna Lilies.  He left a LARGE legacy of Canna Lily bulbs!  Several members of our family are now trying to learn the art of growing these fickle plants.  We've potted them - it's up to you now Dad!

~ My 'growing plants from seeds' ability isn't exactly stellar, but in the Spring it always 'Sparks JOY' (lol!!).  So, amongst the pots are 'CILANTRO', 'BASIL', 'ROSEMARY', 'CHILI PEPPERS" and 'PANSIES"

~AND~

The Easter Daffodils are all tucked in their new homes, trying to give us a little love by opening a fresh new blossom or two before they call it quits for 2021!

enJOY

& 

be well!

...one fire at a time

Do you ever feel like you are sooooo far behind.... On EVERYTHING???

We skipped 'the saling' this weekend, in favor of SPRING GARDENING!  

The Berry Beds were LONG OVERDUE!!

...One fire out.

Then there were those bookcases that I mentioned in a previous post ~ 

One down, One to go...

Painted, positioned and stocked!!

...another fire under control.

It hasn't been ALL PRODUCTIVITY for me though!

An old friend recently called, he had cleaned out his storage unit and come across 'some jewelry', his Mom used to 'sell' at a NYC flea market back in the Late 70's- early80's.  He knew I liked to craft with 'junk' - did I want any of it??

Silly Question.

There was well Over 250+ pieces!!

Most of it by 'Jeffrey Lawrence' for Lawrence-Bentley.

I've been trying to research a bit - not much luck...

It is sort of what I imagine Pier1 in India would stock!!

THAT'S IT for TODAY - hope to be back soon with something more interesting to show you!!

...DATURA!

GOOD MORNING TO A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE FINGERLAKES OF NEW YORK!!!

  Our Angel Trumpet (Datura) plant has FINALLY given us our first blossom of the season!

   Hope everyone has a GREAT DAY!!

...PIGS IN BLANKET!

IT'S SUMMER!

Stopped by one Garage Sale and one Estate Sale on Friday in honor of  'The Last Day of Spring'  (something wrong about saying "in honor of 'Summers Eve' " ?!!)
Had been wanting a lightweight, authentic Mexican blanket to use as a table cover on our Summer Porch - found TWO in beautiful condition!! ($2 ea)
Also found three Great OLD sets of metal stamping alphabets and numbers in sizes I don't currently have - The letters are HUGE!! ($10 for all) 

At the Estate Sale I just picked up a few 'useful bits' - a new in box mini blind (to replace an existing one in the house that has seen better days - not shown 'cause it's already installed!!), a couple of soldering irons (still looking for 'Mr. Right'), and 

a 'Brazilian Hammer'?!  Did you

Know that there was such a thing? 
'Famastil'.  Anybody ever heard of
them? 

Very nice tool - the balance, the 

texture of the handle...

Fri. night we had mentioned to a friend that we had used just about all of the Scapes from our garden already.  Upon returning home from saling on Saturday, we received a LARGE bag of freshly picked Scapes - OH.WHAT.A.TREAT!!
...We have been grilling them
...and I made a big batch of Scape Pesto



...and this morning I tried two different variations of pickling them!

Did you grow up with a dinner called 'PIGS IN BLANKET'?
How was it prepared?
In our house, it was one of MY Fav's! A hot dog filled with cheese, with a crescent roll wrapped around it and baked - YUMMY! Now that is Comfort food!  I'll never forget my disappointment the first time a friend said that they were having P.I.B. for dinner and I got served some kind of Polish cabbage dish (which, as I have aged I have kinda learned to appreciate!)

I recently came upon this 1898 Methodist Church cookbook from a Coastal New England - kinda puts a whole new twist on Pigs in Blankets!!  I guess it just doesn't get much better than Oysters wrapped in Pork Fat on toast!?! 

...'DIRT TRUMPS SALING'

BEFORE:
The deep freeze caused HAVOC on the poor Herb Bed Wine Bottle border...

HAPPINESS! OH HAPPINESS!  Saturday was in the 60's and SUNNY.  Sunday was in the High 70's and SUNNY!

As much as I crave the first sales of the Season - after this LONG WINTER I have a N.E.E.D. to be in the SUN with my hands in the dirt even more!! 

AFTER:
The 'beds' still need some T.L.C., but the Borders are standing
Tall and Proud B-)

 Several gardens were cleaned of their Winter debris, and the HERB Garden wine bottle border was straightened, and pounded back in securely.

OH yes, this was a Good workout on those 'Bingo-Wings'!!

Okay... so maybe, Saturday afternoon,  we did make ourselves 'public presentable' long enough to briefly stop by this Estate Sale before it closed - just long enough to swoop in and pick up this immaculate blue Train Case with insert (are we starting to notice a sickness developing here??) and unscrew this Waxed Paper/Paper Towel/Alum Foil dispenser from the wall (coming soon to ETSY) !!

As daylight hours are getting longer, STUDIO TIME is getting shorting (YEH!!!), but there are still a couple of projects I have rambling around in the back of my head...

Like plans for this necklace that I picked up a couple of weeks ago at the Rummage sale...

and working on my soldering, which still needs LOTS of PRACTICE!!

Maybe learn how to combine the two?
I always have GREAT VISIONS that I dream up as I lie awake about 3:30am...

Now, I just have to learn how to get these ideas to fruition in a presentable form!!

Or else, just not let the rest of the world look to close B-) !!


HOPE EVERYONE IS HAVING A WONDERFUL WEEK!
BE WELL.

...BIG HAPPENINGS

Whether your SUMMER SOLSTICE was on June 20th or 21st this year, hope it was a Beauty !

 

 Now, to await the arrival of the SUPERMOON!!

(I DO enjoy the making of these arrangements soooo, WHY don't I do it more often??  It isn't like we lack for a variety of vases, or flowers - that's for sure!)

Here's to the 'Biggest, Brightest' weekend of the year...

...first signs of Spring ~ FINALLY!

This is what I have been waiting for, and dreaming of...

a 60deg + day!,

a 'REAL' garage sale!

(okay, so it was a privately run ESTATE SALE, but we won't split hairs)

Arrived rather late, because it was a couple of towns over, so we combined it with a couple of other errands.  All the better because they were still unearthing things and there wasn't any competition!!  Grabbed a LARGE box FULL of wood thread spools (170+) for a song (and had a bid on ebay within 2hrs of listing ~ YIPPEE!). 
Went to the basement to poke around - none of the owners had even been down there - and found a few spools of solder (to hopefully inspire me!!).

 In the kitchen I dug out a set of MY vintage 'go to' measuring spoons, which I ALWAYS pick up whenever I see them cheap (to upgrade my current 'dishwasher battered' sets).  However, I made the mistake of checking to see what they are currently selling for...  I guess I'll just keep using my tarnished ones for a bit if I can get THOSE $$ !

 

A lovingly hand-beaded pincushion that they practically paid me to take when they saw me appreciating the beadwork!

 

 I was !THRILLED! with this bag of Fake foodies. I am always finding the veggies and fruit, but this one had CHEESE and a croissant! *I have been looking for sites to buy fake cakes / pastries from to display on my 'PEDESTALS', but haven't found anything to my liking in my price range.  So the search has continued...  I thought the cheese/croissant would be good fill-ins for a bit.  J informed me 'They are The.Most.Disgusting.Things.EVER.'  ...I guess the search continues. 

My FAVORITE purchase...  this itty-bitty (she's about the size of your thumb), forlorn, MERMAID! Complete with broken&repaired tail fin & chipped nose - she just stole my heart! 
 Why I have such a passion for vintage Mermaids lately? I.DON'T KNOW. 
Thank Goodness they are hard to find!
The lady holding the sale picked it up... laughed, and gave it to me for FREE - I guess that was nice of her, but rather rude to the mermaid!!

THEN home for a FULL AFTERNOON of Yardwork!  Oh when, but Spring does yardwork ever seem so good?! 8-)

...scapes!

Things have been 'a-bustle' around 'Chez-SVELTE' with graduation parties, the annual family garage sale and the MANY preparations for summer...  so needless to say, 'STUFFING-IT' has been a low priority item! 

I did get out to a few sales with my parents during their visit last weekend.  This sweet basket (with original contents!)followed us home.  It put me in a 'MARKET' frame of mind.

Was it any wonder that I HAD to do a 'U-turn' on my way to work yesterday when I spotted signs for my favorite Summertime Farmers Market?!

 

 Now, this is a small market, and they don't have anything amazing... it's open every Wednesday... in the town next to where I work.  Why do I like it? I'm not sure.  Yes, it has LOTS of Yummy Mennonite Baked goods, but that's not it.  I think that it is because of it's close proximity to the canal, and how relaxing and peaceful the park that it is held in is... (and the baked goods don't hurt!)

 While I was there perusing the stands, I noticed people scooping up bags of these 'curled greens'.  I went in for a closer look. GARLIC SCAPES. I had seen these before on the plants in my garden - but never 'FOR SALE'!?!!  I HAD to ask 'Why?' 'What for?'  The Gardener/Vendor was more than happy to go into detail about how to prepare, saute' in a stir fry w/ terriyaki or make into a pesto sauce...  Hmmmmm

So after work, off I went to our garden...

...and there are PLENTY more where these came from if we decide to try other recipes!!

...off to a GOOD start!

Some of the 'snow covered' flowers SURVIVED to THRIVE!!

THURSDAY was a WONDERFUL start to the weekend!!

Up early to gather a few bouquets, before hitting the first of T.W.O Rummage sales for the day!!  Both sales were B.E.A.T. ~ nothing even photo worthy~... but even that didn't dampen my spirits, 'cause...

When I got home 'The Big Brown Truck' pulled in behind me with a package of goodness that I had won from JUNQUE MAGNET !!  Now, how cool is that?!

 

 A while later, the man in blue came delivering to my door with another envelope of goodness from the FREEBIE auction site  LISTIA - my newfound love - oh, it's a bad, bad thing!

 I recently won an auction with all of my fav's... a couple of dress clips, a glove clip AND ((drum roll please...) a SWEATER CLIP - 2012 #4 ~~~~ F.R.E.E.~~~~~ !!!!!!

MAY ALL THE MAIL / MALE MEN IN YOUR LIFE BE GOOD TO YOU THIS WEEKEND!!

(Oh, and don't forget to be on the 'lookout' for the 'speshul' moon to be at it's MAXIMUS on Saturday!!)

...woriking my 'Bingo Wings' on the First Day-O-Spring!

I've shown this photo on my blog before, but I wanted to post it again - as this is where I spent my first day of SPRING working the old BINGO WINGS!!For those of you not familiar with the term 'BINGO WINGS', you can go to the URBAN DICTIONARY and look it up http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bingo+wing.

I personally was unfamiliar with it, until my dear niece made reference - being in my midforties, and ever self-concious about wearing sleeveless tops in public... just picturing those old ladies, waving their arms, yelling BINGO.... oh, I ((shudder))...

~~anyways~~

back to the photo

This photo is of our herb bed. Surrounding the herb bed is a border of wine bottles - don't ask. Just don't ask.

Every Spring they look like this from the past Winter's freezing and thawing of the ground. So, while the ground is still soggy, I go out with my rubber mallet, straighten them all back up, and pound them back in, nice-n-neat...but let me tell you...
Who needs a gym, when you have a yard and a garden??
(and that lounger calling my name is REALLY annoying on this 80deg day!!)


AND, in HAPPY news ~ I have my car home again!!!
which means...

VERA 2012 #6 .52¢

Sweater Clip 2012 #2

SWEET SPRING!!