Maine Winter, After-Christmas Sales, & Holt-Howard

My backyard after 4 days of snow. It looks so pristine and peaceful. Almost makes all the shoveling we did, worth it.



Well, I have already saved hundreds of dollars with my New Year's resolutions, albeit, not conscientiously or even voluntarily so...... It has snowed here in Maine, non-stop since New Year's eve. Hearing the sounds of sirens as emergency vehicles pass my house, have kept me off the road. I know, I had made a grand proclamation of my resolutions which included not making unnecessary purchases, and 75% sales at Michael's, A.C. Moore or the Christmas Tree Shop (although think of all the money I would be saving and not the actual spending part --- are you all following my line of reasoning) admittedly these purchases would count, nonetheless, as unnecessary. Remember, my goal, replace with vintage, thrift or homemade. I already own 12 trees, 1000's of ornaments, collections of nutcrackers, Santas, and Angels. Did I really need another purchase of anything "Made in China"? But gee whiz, it was 75% off, and I could take the items, and repurpose them into something so much better. Kind of like Sandra Lee of the food network turning store bought canned goods into her signature semi-homemade dishes. Did I mention that everything was 75% off, and dare I say, maybe even 90% off at some mall stores. Oh well. I was good. Hope that you are proud of me.

This evening, after shoveling for the second time today, I decided it was time to clean out my bag, a large canvas tote from L.L. Bean. For the past couple of weeks, all mail, receipts and other important papers have been tossed into this bag, for safe keeping during the holiday season. and more importantly, for keeping the kitchen table clean for company. I had tossed in a recent Home & Garden section of the Sunday paper to be read at a more leisurely time. There was a front page article about a florist from Maine being chosen as a White House Christmas Decorating volunteer. By the way, that is a new goal for me, as lofty and unattainable as it is, but one can dream. To help decorate the White House, how cool would that be! So I sit down with a cup of hot tea and start to read the article. I go to turn the page, and there are the words, in large type spread across the top of the page "Holt-Howard's playful designs warm the hearts of collectors" by Terry Kovel. Now this is so remarkable, because I had just posted that this was a new collectible for me. Prior to Vintage Christmas Monday, I had never heard of Holt-Howard. Several kind blogging friends gave me a lesson on these pieces. I am especially keen on finding their Pixies. I had even joked about the likelihood of my finding a Holt-Howard treasure at Goodwill. I think that may have the same prospect of me being chosen to volunteer at the White House. But one can always dream.

For those of you stopping by for Silver Sunday, please scroll down to the previous post.
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