..."I AM NOT A CONSECUTIVE WRITER."

I'm back!

"MAYBE CHRISTMAS, THE GRINCH THOUGHT, DOESN'T COME FROM A STORE."

Life at the 'LastChance Ranch' has been running Full Steam Ahead!!

...now it is time to take a ((deep breath)),

HOW DID IT GET SO LATE SO SOON?

IT'S NIGHT BEFORE ITS AFTERNOON.

DECEMBER IS HERE BEFORE ITS JUNE.

MY GOODNESS HOWTHE TIME HAS FLEWN.

HOW DID IT GET SO LATE SO SOON

and enjoy the Season!

 "FROM THERE TO HERE, AND HERE TO THERE,

FUNNY THINGS ARE EVERYWHERE."

 Shows to see...

"TODAY WAS GOOD.

TODAY WAS FUN.

TOMORROW IS ANOTHER ONE."

Friends near and far to catch-up with...

(including ALL of my 'blog-land' Buddies!!)

"STEP WITH CARE AND GREAT TACT,

AND REMEMBER THAT LIFE'S A GREAT BALANCING ACT."

Decorating to be done...

"DON'T CRY BECAUSE IT'S OVER.

SMILE BECAUSE IT HAPPENED."

 Memories to love...

"Bell-tree" ('...everytime a bell rings...')

honoring J's Mom, who left us a few days before Thanksgiving; and others who will be missed throughout the holidays... 

 

 "I LIKE NONSENSE;

IT WAKES UP THE BRAIN CELL."

New 'toys' to play with...

We acquired this 'short' Concrete Bird Bath in Mid-November, and I KNEW it had to be part of our Holiday Displays... seems only appropriate it should hold a 'BIRD tree'!!

"YOU'RE IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE

FOR THE SHAPE YOU ARE IN."

Dress-Up to play...

Sesame Shimmer was Happy to model the Courtly check Apron/Chef hat that we found this Summer, as long as it included her 'Festive Beverage' - garnished by TWEED!!

"ADULTS ARE OBSOLETE CHILDREN."

Traditions to be carried on...

(Annual Cookie-Baking just came to a close - GREAT time with my College Besties!! ~ and their kiddos!)

 

 "YOU HAVE BRAINS IN YOUR HEAD.

YOU CAN STEER YOURSELF IN ANY DIRECTION YOU CHOOSE."

and a time for reflection...

"UNLESS SOMEONE LIKE YOU CARES A WHOLE AWFUL LOT

NOTHING  IS GOING TO GET BETTER.

IT'S NOT."

*Dr. Seuss said it best, and all of the quotes are his!

...FANCY!??

Just back from a brief  'holiday' with 'The Girls (+1 hubbie)'.

Beautiful... Relaxing...Layed Back...

EVERYTHING a 'Vacation' (as opposed to a 'Trip') should be!  I even sunburned my wrist, as I wasn't wearing my wristwatch.

Needless to say, females 're-kindling' (while '+1' fished...) led to some interesting conversations (okay, maybe a 'bit' of alcohol was involved...).  After talking with some other 'native-vacationers', one member our group described the acquaintances as 'FANCY!'.  This led to in indepth conversation as to what she meant.  We all started inputting our own definitions of 'FANCY'.  What is YOUR definition of 'FANCY'???????

So, now I'm home and unpacked...
NO, this isn't the luggage I packed to go,

...this is EXTRA CARGO I picked up as we were ending our vacation.

All packed and leaving the lake, on our way out of town at 11am, we caught glimpse of a Church setting up a yard sale - WOO-HOO!!  The PERFECT ending to a PERFECT week!!

I think it is a Really good thing that we were on a bit of a time-crunch, as well as space in the CAR being limited!! 



I think I managed to make our stop worth-while (wink!wink!)! A couple of retro 1/2 Aprons, Adelaide Hunter Hoodless Souvenir dishtowel, vintage Dr. bag, Rope fish boat-bumper, Wolf Sculpture Owl, Alexandria Bay Souvenir plate, Austin Prod. chalk sculpture, Blue Mountain Pottery Mug, France Fridge Beverage glass Jar, Tupperware burger, Rubens pitcher, 3metalFrog business card holder (?), WearEver Aluminum Teapot, Mardi Gras mask, 2 'Terms of..' towels (golf & fishing), and a whole bag of Canadian vintage recipe books/manuals/advertising!!  Nothing was priced individually, they just looked at the pile and quoted a price.  These items averaged out to .40¢ each!!

**I Forgot to mention those incredible 'child' skis that I saved in-the-nick-of-time, as they were being tossed into a truck ~ enroute to The Dump!?!

We've been having a ball going through and researching all of these CANADIAN finds!!

Now...

 back home...

trying to play 'catch-up'!

Up early to gather some RIPE berries before 'The Rains' that we are supposed to have for the next 4days!  Managed to get 6quarts - and did you know that if you stain your hands 'mulberry purple', that 'red raspberry' stains GLOW??

and then the rains set it.



PERFECT time to make a Mulberry Pie...
and dream of 
'FANCY dinners at The Lake'...

...and 'FANCY' sunrises...

...and my Favorite 'FANCY' turquoise Boathouse...

...and 'FANCY' sunsets.

6.9.8.0...

When last I blogged, I was preparing for a weekend away and had just uncovered a 'treasure box' of previous Xmas Saling finds, which I decided I would add to my Garlands before departing...

Well, you know the proverbial saying 'The straw that broke the Camels back'??

Yep.

An 8' garland of over 75 vintage GLASS ornies broke free on one end, came crashing down, swung across a nine foot opening, and crashed into the other door jam...

GOOD NEWS: The stock value of vintage ornaments has gone up - so keep up YOUR HOARDING!!

**I did luck out and 'only' 15 got broken...

The roadtrip was Wonderful.  Day trip to NYC was soggy and wet - but luckily NO PROTESTORS were seen anywhere (and we WALKED that City!! - Pedometer read 12.3 miles at the end of the day!)

Back home for 2 days to 'repack' bag and 'rehang' Xmas decorations...

Then off to the Annual COOKIE BAKING w/ the College Crew!

We had our 'stocking gift' exchange...

2014 HAEGER #6, 7, 8 & 9
The girls just.can't.resist buying HAEGER, though I've told them repeatedly 'NO!'...  the blue is a pretty sweet piece though ;-)

VERA 2014 #12
a NEW VERA (my first of the re-make's!)

My first day at Cookie Baking, J sent me a text

 'YOU GOT A PACKAGE'.

It was my Vintage Xmas Swap (sponsored by Shara of MONKEYBOX fame) from my Lovely swap partner T (who MUST start a Blog for her current Life Chapter!!)

Do you know what it is like to have to wait THREE.entire.days before you can even think about opening a Swap Package?!!?

It was WELL worth the wait!

T. went above and beyond the 'shoe box'...

Spoiling me rotten with lovely RHINESTONE and PEARL sweater clips

(2014 Sweater Clips #14 & #15)

...AND...

A beautiful SET of VERA napkins!
(2014 VERA #13)


...AND...
MORE goodness...

...AND...     More FUN!!

.

PHEW!  THANK. YOU. T!!!

(and I will try to do more research on YOUR Haeger - SOON!!)

So, after being AWOL for so long, it was decided some MALL Xmas shopping was in my cards. :-/

But, alas, I got SERIOUSLY sidetracked by a store closing in our local mall - and a Large amount of Store Fixtures were for sale (Yes, J & I are serious suckers for old store displays!)

OF COURSE, we ONLY came home with 'completely' NEEDED Stuff (ha,ha)..

Large (20"+) advertising numbers, and 'backdrop' photo screens (each is double sided, 9' x 4')

 ...'Time for school' (see Haeger photo)

...'Brick Wall'

...'Variegated Maroon'

... 'Beach'

OH, I can see some serious FUN photo booth shots at our next house party !!

(MORE sweet goodness from T)
Now, I must go add my latest 'green ornie' to our Dining Tree - if all goes well (keep your fingers crossed!) I will show some finished Xmas deco photos SOON!!
(...and I must 'find' Tweed, he has been missing in action...)

...Chances are

Sweater Clip #6

A STELLAR weekend here in Central NY!!

BEAUTIFUL crisp and sunny Fall weather...

GREAT friends...

and 

FUN 'chance' finds!!!

FRIDAY started with a sale at a local B&B (Bed & Breakfast) that was doing a HUGE Purge!! All at AWESOME PRICES!!

At the B&B I found a bag FULL of sealed boxes of Coffee Pods.  Now, I don't generally purchase 'edibles' from sales, but these were SEALED boxes and each of the 'pods' inside are individually packed in SEALED foil pouches!!  We didn't have a Pod Brewer at home (just a Kcup brewer), but this box also contained a next-to-new Melitta Brewer.  Sooo I just couldn't walk away from 176+ various flavored / strength coffee pods and Brewer.  Never tried one of these before, but for $10. I took a chance.  Ended up printing 'instructions' for it off the internet, and now I'm hooked! (and it all came in a MacKenzie Childs bag - BONUS!!)

This same sale had LARGE QUANTITIES of Scrapping / Card Making supplies !(?)  Paper Cutters, die cuts, stickers, scissors, books, mags, papers, + + !  I tried to behave and only bought a couple of small boxes of die cut letters (.10¢ ea), and a lighted paper cutter ($1.) and a gallon bag of GLITTER GLUE STICKS - at the time I had No Idea if they were dried out or not.  They were only a $1 for all ~ Worth the chance!!

(*Only two of the 50 in the bag were No Good!)

VERA Scarves - 2014 #5 ($1.25), #6 (.50¢)

SATURDAY had me on the road Bright & Early for a 1+hr. drive to meet up with some of my 'besties'.  Destination:  a small village on the shore of Lake Ontario for their annual 'Town Wide Garage Sale'.  More of a FALL FESTIVAL - with the historic museum ladies hosting a pie / chili concession, cub scouts cooking hot dogs, misc. sales with gourds, pumpkins, local grapes, fresh apples and just about every 'structure' having some kind of 'STUFF' for sale!...  ALL within a 'good healthy' walking perimeter!  It has become a yearly tradition w/ Me and My Girls!
I HOPE this past weekend was a sign of all the GOOD THINGS the season upon has to hold!!

...The Cavalier, Corks & Cinco de Mayo?

Still, 'a bit' tooo cool for any true saling in Central NY, or maybe MY saling mojo just hasn't arrive for 2014 YET!!

  For now, the date has been set and we are in PREP-MODE for our ANNUAL Family Garage sale, DEADLINE: May 30-31! I have set a goal for myself to clean out One box of 'stuff' a day between now and then...  That doesn't seem too tough!

I can't think of any better 'sale locals' that I have been to lately than this 'HOTEL CONTENTS' sale that we stumbled upon in Virginia Beach while we were on vacay recently! 

It was Monday afternoon, Last day of the sale, took us a while to figure out where to park, where the entrance was...

But, Oh baby, what a step back in time!

The people that have crossed these thresholds over the years...
If these walls could talk!!

Nothing left that we were interested in buying - old hotel room furniture (eek!)...  but just having the chance to walk through the marble foyer with the dual curving grand stair cases... several HUGE Ball rooms with their original chandeliers with walk out patios overlooking the ocean....  ((sigh))
~we bought nothing, though they were selling 12" square emblems from the original Cavalier wallpaper for $7 which did tempt me ;-) ~

(**FYI: We did inquire, it is NOT being torn down, but IS being turned into high end Condos.)

NO, This isn't Virginia Beach any more.

   It is our lovely FingerLakes....

Where I have been busy in the attic/studio with my latest 'party favors' for our 'Alumni Reunion' at the Wine & Herb Festival last Saturday...

...after the 7th Winery!!

Cork + SeaGlass + Wire Wrap = 8-)


and we can't forget...



HAPPY BELATED CINCO de MAYO!!!

...dog-day DayTrippin'

Started off the new week of the 'New Year' with a Girl's Day-Trippin' adventure!   (Picked a local town/city that we had been wanting to explore more 'in-depth'... and did it!)

good sign.  First 'Angel Trumpet' blossomed in our garden on the eve of our journey...

R (my comrade in travel) is stamper / cardmaker extraordinaire!  I got lots of inspiration from her patient explanations of techniques as we visited every little boutique and shop that piqued our interest! 

 

Fun Garden nooks!



Primitive Local Art!



A beautiful, eclectic day.
 

...and at the ripe old age of almost 46, it's nice to know that I can still have 'FIRSTS'  ;-)
YEP!
I got my first parking ticket.
 

 After that FULL day of inspiration (and a bit of purging, as I did sell some clothing to a second hand shop!!) I was ready to hit the 'attic studio' for some creative work...

NOT.TO.BE.

~apparently the planets aren't quite aligned-just yet~



Craziness with 'real-world-work' sent

 me to my favorite beach for solace,

where I ended up scoring some

 beautiful specimens!!

 

Another day I joined my Parents who are camping in our part of the state, for a day of 'flea marketing'!  Dad had brought me an old metal spool (from his shop at home) filled with some copper wire - he thought I might be able to use it in my jewelry endeavors.  While saling I also found a vintage cast iron based 'solder clamp' which had been on my 'wishlist' for quite a while ($2).  The box of solder and the spool of Brass wire were also flea market finds that set me back a whopping $1.50!
If you are wondering,
Yes.
That is an arm.
just. an. arm.

It was a present from my Brother, (that my parents had delivered to me from him). He knew I was looking for one...(photo prop!!).   Now, it just makes me smile because EVERYTIME I look at it I have an 80's flashback, as this song goes through my head
"Let's hear it for the boy
Let's give the boy a hand
Let's hear it for my baby
You know you gotta understand"
Can you name that Movie/Song??
(can you get it out of your head now?)

 

Planets MUST be aligned now... right?
  Not quite. 

Meeting up with A (part of the college crew) for a girls' this afternoon! 
Then maybe!
...or maybe not.