...NO Broken Hangers!

Does anybody else have the affliction from which I suffer, and I refer to as WCL (Wall Chalkware LOVE)??

I have done my best to contain this collection, and although it is not an 'active pursuit', I still seem to cross paths with them on a regular basis!

In my attempt to deter this 'guilty' little pleasure, I have tried to maintain strict 'rules'...

1. FISH / NAUTICAL related!
2. $1-2 PRICE POINT
3. 'HANGERS INTACT'

I have been known to break Rule#1 on occasion ~ if it's cute enough!

Besides, they are a FUN(!) border in our first floor half-bath - and a great center of conversation with newbies in our home (LOL). 

Use your imagination and picture the 'quizzical~shocked' look on faces as they exit our bathroom for the first time... usually after a couple of Adult Beverages!!!)

I try to abide pretty tightly to Rule#2, and that has become a major limitation in today's market!

  Have you seen the SOLD prices on Ebay lately?! 

How dare these quirky & tacky pieces of 'junk' come back into Vogue!! Maybe we should 'hop on the train' while the market is HOT?? (.not.)

Rule#3 was ALWAYS a 'deal breaker' for me...

Until recently! 

 While putting away the Holiday Decorations, I came across a forlorned Fishy that USED to live on our wall with her 'mate' - until the dreaded day her wire hanger Broke! 

For about 9months I have deliberated her fate - what to do?  After her recent re-discovery, I decided a verdict had to be rendered!  J did a little web-surfing and came across a 'life-changing' article on INHERITED VALUES:

 REPAIRING BROKEN OR MISSING HANGERS ON VINTAGE CHALKWARE PLAQUES OR PLASTER WALL ART.

DISCLAIMER:  I am trying this for the FIRST time, and cannot guarantee the longevity of the fix - but right about now, ANYTHING is worth a try!!

and so this 'affliction' persists...

and

What would any good collection of 

Tacky-MidCentury-Kitsch-Bathroom-Décor

be without some Acrylic-resin pieces??

BE WELL

& 

enjoy!

...Rock ~ Paper ~ Scissors!

Finally found my way back to my favorite thrifts...  dropped off a bag of clothes for donation, and came away with nothing 'blogworthy' ('cause this blog has Such.High.Standards - ya know ...ha!ha!).  The extent of my purchases were a few 'smalls' to add to my current delve into the realm of 'scrapbooking' (ie: decorative papers, stickers.  That's it.  The end.)

Do any of you scrapbook?

     I have always tried to be good and in January's cold, short days of the New Year, I would do the ENTIRE previous years' scrapbooking. 

     Well, about two years ago I was in some new phase where I thought it was futile, all of this scrapbooking.  J & I have no kids to pass these down to (not that they would want them anyway!!), the nieces and nephew sure aren't going to want them!  It's all just a BIG waste of time and space and $ that I could be doing something else with.  So I boycotted it. One small flaw to this plan (okay, maybe a couple)...

~I enjoy those few weeks of doing it.

~I enjoy looking back at the journeys these books hold .

~I REALLY don't have many $$ invested, as just about ALL of the components are thrifted (other than the photo's themselves, and a few times a year WalGreens Photo has some GOOD sales on prints!!).

~...and hey, who knows, maybe someday they will be found at a sale by some 'vintage-minded' person, who will adore them and think that they have just struck Gold for only a buck!!

     In my 'catch-up' mode (That has become 2015's mantra!), I find myself settling into a spare room upstairs for a l-o-n-g haul of Winter scrapbooking 2012-2013-2014!!  It is fun hauling out all of the neat tools-punches-cutters-papers-die cuts-stickers that I have amassed while saling and getting creative!!!

  This has been WAY TOO WORDY of a post, so I will show you our Upstairs Hall (the hallway that leads to the 'spare room turned Scrapbooking Hdq.!!) and our collection of 'chalkware' (maybe the Post Title should have been "Chalk ~ Paper ~ Scissors"?!)...

  I think that I have shown our chalkware fish on this blog before, but just in case you missed them, here they are again, in their Hallway Habitat! 

with a few mermaid mixed in!!
LOVE Mermaids in any Way - Shape or form!

Since we are talking 'chalkware', I Have to include a few pictures of our 'MISC' vintage 'Fun' chalkware that has found it's way into our home, and now forms a border around the TOP of one of our rooms.  This goes out to VINTAGE BIRD GIRL who recently posted a chalkware piece on her blog that I had never seen!

CATS and BIRDS and DANCING DUTCH...

more CATS and BIRD w/ a few KIDS and FRUIT!

If you hadn't already guessed, this is the Tiny 1/2 bath on our 1st Floor!
It's always interesting to get 'newbies' reactions!!!

ELEPHANTS and LADYBUGS and CAMPBELLS KIDS and that loveable RAGGEDY pair!

Do you see that ORANGE fish with the RED lipstick in the lower left corner???

That, single, adorable fishy (without bubbles) is what started this whole mess!!

Stay warm friends!  Saling Season will be here before we know it ~ so get 'prepared'!!!!  ;-)

...let the Halloween festivities begin!

NO. I haven't started decorating for Halloween yet. Somebody else has started doing it for me! I'm not usually too big on spiders, but this guy has won our heart! This is the current view in our stair landing window. HE'S ON THE OUTSIDE!! The bottom portion of the window is covered with 'T.h.e. most perfect web', and inhabited by a spider far larger than I prefer. I have to admit, it is pretty impressive, and when DH showed him to me a few days ago, and suggested we let him reside until after the Holiday - I didn't even flinch.

Saturday's saling was a definite improvement over last weekends 'Kinky Witch' episode! It was an overcast, brisk 58° when I started out (but it did get up to 64° by noon)! MMMMM... Fall IS in the air!I hit an Estate sale and a few individual sales first, then tackled the 'Rt. 34B Sale'. The Estate sale was by far the most enjoyable, even though I didn't buy a thing!! While perusing a couple of old recipe boxes, I heard the woman running the sale talking in the next room... that voice... sounds familiar... YES! As I entered the next room to ask the price of the recipe boxes I encountered an old friend that I hadn't seen in a couple of years. She had finally sold her mother's house, would be closing on Tuesday, and was heading out West to Seattle on Thursday!! We chatted for probably a half an hour, then I wished her the best and headed on. Empty handed. ( when she saw me 'fondling' the recipe boxes, she quickly snatched them away and said they weren't for sale ... ) .

Nothing of major excitement at the next couple of sales... onto the 'Rt Sale'!

The first stop on 'The Rt.' was a good omen for the rest of the day... Lots of Stuff. Cheap. FUN people. What more can you ask for?? I got these four little glasses for $1 (even an 'Archie'!) and a great retro-moderne chrome birdcage stand (It's similiar to this, but chrome/black with more angles and details... I couldn't figure out a good way to photograph it, so use your imagination!!) for another $1.!!
...MUGS seemed to be 'my thing' for the day... A.C.C. (where we had our wedding reception!), Met Museum: Frank Lloyd Wright, Starbucks, Syracuse China Christmas...

...DANSK placemats NWT and a coupls of Bossons reference books (.25¢ ea.)! I'm not a big collector of Bossons, but curious of their history. I do have a hallway (adjacent to the 'Fish Hall'), that is in a nautical-of-sorts theme. Included on the walls are some 'Bosson-wannabes', and maybe 1 or 2 of the 'real' thing. I just adore these 'scruffy' Sea Men!

A couple of shots of a few of 'My Boys'!

Of course... would the day be complete without a VERA (Black Polka-Dots!!) and a sweater clip, or two?!!

...here fishy fishy fishy...

AGAIN... a Friday of lackluster saling. Time for another 'WOW! Somebody else thinks ___ is fun/cool?!!' Todays entry goes out to Mis Elaine and her Miss Priss Fish.I have a definite weakness for these chalkware, 50's-70's, TACKY, red-lipped fish!!Not to worry. They have NOT taken over the entire house... AND they are NOT visible to general visitors!! They are all confined to one of our upstairs hallways which leads to the ~where else~ Master Bath!
So Elaine, if Miss Priss ever comes on the market - let me know so that I can get the adoption papers in order!!

...it's all about...

As HORRIBLY selfish as this sounds, I had a WONDERFUL 'It's all about ME week'! (Bestowed upon me, since my birthday and Thanksgiving fell on the same day this year).

It started last Friday, and like the Energizer Bunny, it has kept going and going and going... The 'kick-off' was an AMAZING Birthday Boxful from Shara, who spoiled me rotten with ALL of my favorites, including a tacky chalkware fish for my collection, orange/purple & lime green deco's for my Xmas tree, the Seriously Retro dress (one of her finds that I had been lusting after!!), etc., etc, ... even a piece of Haeger!! Did I mention the 'calorie free' slice of cake she 'baked up' for me (first photo)!! Sunday was off 'to market'...

where the 'goodies' continued to abound!

My first 'grab' was this sad cat planter off the 'infamous quarter table'... Pathetic as it originally appeared, I knew what lye beneath...YES! a charming piece of ROYAL HAEGER!! (MUCH better without the 'paint job' - don't you think?!!) Other goodies included an aging Senorita (aren't we all?!), a Shawnee vase, a lipstick stand and a pair of JAPAN Toucans.

Wednesday at work I rec'd a gift of THREE hatpins for yet another of my collections! How many people can say that their boss has done that for them??.

In a continuation of showing you some of my collection displays, here are two (out of five) of my Hatpin holders...

So... the saling season may have ended, but the good stuff keeps a coming!! Hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday Prep / Celebrating!!.

...THE CAST OF CHARACTERS

ANOTHER confetti Bowl - still not the one I REALLY want, but I am getting closer!!

Bennington Trigger Mug - I LOVE BENNINGTON, and though this is not my pattern (I have green/black splatter), I couldn't leave it all lonely on the shelf!

Friday was an EBOR day, if ever there was one! A day of major Highs and major Lows.

I decided to spend the $$ on gas and go on an adventure. It was a sunny day, none too warm, but sun never the less - and an upscale area an hour away was having their town wide sales.

I left my house at 8am, but never got to 'the town' until 1pm !! I HAD to stop at the 'usual haunts' along the way, and numerous 'Yard Sale' signs blocked my path enroute!! That's okay because I wasn't on a schedule. I wasn't on a mission. It was a 'journey'!

At one of my 'usual haunts' I heard the (M)anager talking to an older gentleman about 'Wanda's death'. I had to be rude and ask her "Was Wanda the older, black woman who worked the register?" as I hadn't seen her there recently. I never knew her name, but that she LOVED HOT PEPPERS!! As does DH, and we have Jalapeno, and Habanero and half a dozen other kinds tucked into any free inch of garden that he can find - so I would take her in a basket of them at the end of Summer. This thrift is kind of out of the way, so I don't get there in the Winter,- and generally only a few times in the Summer. Last Summer she wasn't working the day I tried to drop off her Peppers. I didn't ask about her, because I didn't know her name. Here is the conversation that followed:

(M): "No, that's Trudi. Wanda was the VERY thin woman with the big hair. But Trudi Died too."

(S): "Oh, I'm sorry..."

(M): "Trudi died Dec. 8, 2006 and Wanda died last week..."

Isn't it amazing, 'The cast of characters' in our Daily lives? People who's names we don't even know - but have an impact on us? It kind of scares me how many people could just 'disappear' from my life, without me ever knowing what became of them, or maybe even realizing they were gone!! It is said that people enter and exit our lives for a reason...

The rest of the days was Ultra-Relaxing with FANTASTIC Finds...

A pair of TACKY FISH to add to my hall-wall collection!! YIPPEE, I hadn't found any of these in a long time (.75¢pr.)

Several vintage/retro tops & dresses (.25¢ each) , a box of vintage ornaments and an ORANGE ornament!! Do you have any idea how hard 'Orange' ornaments are to find?!! At Xmas, I have an aluminum tree on our Dining Rm table that I have been 'trying' to do in Dark Purple - Orange - Lime/Grinch Green. Not your typical Xmas palette, thus NOT easy to find ornaments!!

A few goodies for resale...

~AND~

The theme for the day seemed to be Seaside

Back in the 'Days of Yore' (late 80's / post college), one of 'the Crew' (L) moved to Maine. The rest of 'The Crew' would invade upon Maine for Memorial Day weekend. A 'Girls Weekend' of Sales, seaglass hunting, eating and drinking!!! This went on for about 10yrs., then (L) moved back to Central NY. We are GLAD to have her back, but boy do we crave Maine & The Coast on Memorial Day!! So I had to grab the Lobster S/P shakers, Maine/NY/Seaside vintage metal trays and the CapeCod cookbook (complete with Quahog recipes!).

Hope you all have a Wonderful Weekend!

...V-Day

More Sweet Inspiration...

(The baked goods have got to STOP if I'm actually going to fit into a bathing suit for a vacation that is only 2 weeks away!!!!)

Nothing new or interesting, so in honor of the Day I've dug into my photo archive- This is a wall from our pre-remodel kitchen (2005). 'Part' of my 100+ Red-Handle Utensil collection (one collection that was sacrificed for the sake of the 'NEW' Kitchen!). Where these once hung, there is now a door.

Some 'current' glimpses of our upstairs Hallway...

These Flirty cuties with the long eyelashes and bright red lips just scream VALENTINES DAY to me (1950's bathroom style Valentine's Day, that is!!). These are just a couple of my favorites that I thought I would show off today!!

Have a Wonderful Day !!