...who is in Your cast of characters??

 I could stand it no longer! Thursday, on my way home from work, I only had a quick 15 minutes before the Thrift was going to close ~ but I HAD to make my Maiden 2013 Journey!! A quick once-around the shop and I thought my 'stuff mojo' had abandoned me, and then I saw HER in the corner!!  Hanging there, ever-so-demurely...  She may look familiar to those of you who have read my blog for a while - MISS PEABODY's long lost twin sister!!
  That.was.it.  That was my only purchase.  Yet, somehow that was fine, and finding her a second time, was almost as much fun as finding her the first time !  Strange, because NO house 'NEEDS' T.W.O. Miss Peabody's ! (If your house 'NEEDS' one, you can find 'the twin' in our ETSY shop - complete w/ resume'!).
  With this purchase I started taking note of our arsenal of 'Photo Props', and the Cast of Characters that reside in our house... ready at whim for photo shoots and seasonal vignettes!

MADAME' CHARDONAY: Basic White, tasteful, versatile.

SARA HEAD: the name 'Sara' came written on the bottom.

 SIMON HEAD: somebodie's 60's/70's clay art project - just too bizarre to leave behind, but he looks good in a hat! 'SIMON' written on the bottom.

The

MISS SKANNY: Beloved vintage dress form found for only a couple of dollars at a Skaneateles Methodist Church Rummage Sale - she is with us for life - she can wear anything!

and, last... but not least...

THE HAND (kinda like Rodin's 'THE THINKER')

Am I the only one who names my props / mannequins...  kind of gives them a life of their own?

I know, I know... 'I've got too much time on my hands!'

 

WHO IS IN YOUR CAST OF CHARACTERS??

...C'est la vie.

hello!!!!

svelteSTUFF LIVES!....

Though if Blogger had it's way, I would have NO PHOTOS!

I Will-NOT-be-BEAT!!

These photos are strictly for 'testing' and 'daydreaming' purposes.  January has consisted of nothing more exciting than Flu and migraine meds.  I haven't even crossed the threshold of a Thrift~Junk store...

Soon!

...C'est la vie.

2013

(no, we aren't on a warm beach... just snow-covered beaches for us.  Borrowed the  Photo 'cause I wished that I had thought of it!!)

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-).