11 Months til Christmas! Are you prepared??

Haha! Just kidding. Well, technically, it is only 11 months til Christmas but let's not dwell on that, okay? 


It is, however, only 29 days until I pack up my life and move to SC!! Yes, there is a definite move date and the only thing that would stop me would be a repeat of Snowmaggedon 2010. 


I am nervous and excited and anxious to get back to my hometown and get on with my life. I'm so sad that I'm having to leave my honey here in Maryland though but it is what it is and I have to do what is best for me. Hopefully in time, he'll find a job in SC and can join me. 


Those that live in the DC Metro area can attest to how wicked expensive it is here. I've talked about it ad nauseam for years but here's the major reason I can't wait to get back to SC:


Our rent on a 2 bedroom/1.5 bath apartment with a 'den' is $1465 a month. Now, this is a basic, run-of-the-mill apartment, circa 1970 that has had a few upgrades but nothing to make you think it's 'luxury' by any means. 


And, in SC, you can BUY A HOUSE for less than $75,000. In fact, my parents are being extremely generous and are looking to buy a house for me to live in and 'rent' from them. There aren't a lot of suitable rental homes in their town and the few that are available are either too expensive or won't allow pets. Speaking of pets, pet rent in this apartment is $600/year. That is RIDICULOUS!


One of the houses they are currently looking at to perhaps buy, the mortgage would be less than $200. Yes, TWO HUNDRED dollars. 


You know, for pretty much my entire life, I couldn't wait to get out of my hometown. I wanted to move north, to experience life in a bigger state and a bigger city. I was SO tired of the heat, the humidity, the small town that didn't have a Target. 


Well, thankfully, the town has a Target now, and lots of other necessary retail shops (plus a drive through Starbucks!) but now that I'm older, I completely understand why people never leave there and/or so many people MOVE there. Because it's AFFORDABLE!! 


Sure, it's hot as hell during 8 months of the year, but the fact is that people can afford to live there. You can make an average salary and have enough money to live in a house, take vacations, have a life. I can't do that here in MD. I am barely scraping by month to month here. Barely. If it weren't for the generosity of my parents and my Etsy gig, I would be flat broke and eating at the soup kitchen and living under a bridge!! 


So, within the next couple of days, I get to start boxing up  my life. A lot of my stuff is still in storage at my bff's garage but the things we've been living with for the last 9 months have to get packed away. I am stressing out over the details. Since the bf will continue to live in this apartment until his lease is up at the end of April, he'll need to acquire pretty much everything - dishes, furniture, etc. Everything in this apartment, minus a tv and a crockpot, belongs to me and they have to come to SC. 


Trying to nail down the logistics of all of this is proving to be a huge stress but I keep reminding myself that in 60 days, I'll be living somewhere that I can afford, surrounded by my family and finally moving forward in the life I wish to create. I'm so excited to have my very own house that I can decorate how I wish, with a backyard for the puppies, with family close by. Now, I just need to get through the next 30 days without freaking out every step of the way. 

Vintage Gurley Candles

I found a large glittery Gurley tree this week!!! My first Christmas Gurley of the season. I was so excited to get my paws on that little baggie of vintage goodness. 

It goes great with my other Gurley Christmas candles: 

And a few weeks ago, I had the extreme pleasure of finding an entire baggie of Gurley Thanksgiving candles. I have never ever found even one Thanksgiving Gurley's in all my years of thrifting so this thrilled me -- 3 turkeys and a pilgrim  boy & girl! So excited to add them to my collection. 

And last but not least, the giant jack o lantern I found the other year. I ::heart:: it so much! 

I still haven't decorated for Christmas -- probably won't. Don't feel like digging through my bff's garage for all of the stuff. 

And, I think after the first of the year, I'm moving home to SC. I haven't decided if it will be in January or in April when our lease is up. I am incredibly homesick and so tired of living up here away from  my parents and sister and niece. I will miss the thrifting opportunities here but it's so much more affordable to live there. I never in a billion years thought I'd *want* to move home but the fact is that I want to live somewhere that I can afford to maybe one day own a house, somewhere that's affordable enough that I can go on vacation a couple of times a year, somewhere that doesn't cost $1500/mo just for a stupid apartment with no yard and a lease that allows the landlord and maintenance 24/7 access to your house with no warning and no courteous call beforehand. 

I am praying that the honey can find a job there and will consider moving but if he chooses to stay in MD, I will understand. I just feel like I've given up so much over the years by being a military wife and having lived so far from my family and it's time to think about what will make ME happy. So much weighing on my mind but I think this is what I need to do. It doesn't have to be permanent but I've lived away from my hometown for over 8 years now, five of which I've been stuck here alone in MD so it's time to go home. 

Vintage Aqua Sheet

Vintage Aqua Sheet, a photo by myvintagewhimsy on Flickr.

Vintage Sheet. For sale on Etsy!!

Vintage Santa Blow Mold Empire 1968

Vintage Santa Blow Mold Empire 1968, a photo by myvintagewhimsy on Flickr.

Five Weeks

The holidays are quickly approaching and with less than 6 weeks until the big day, I am starting to think that I won't even get a tree put up this year. My holiday decorations are, for the most part, buried in my bff's garage 20 miles away. And when I say buried, I mean buried. As in those were the first boxes I put in there last spring because I thought 'oh, I'll have time to come here and sort this mess out over the summer' and well,that didn't happen. So, the likelihood of having a tree this year? Slim. lol

I've been busy busy busy sorting through vintage Christmas goodies here at my house though. I spent all day yesterday taking pics, editing, listing like crazy in my new kitschy Christmas shop on Etsy: Very Kitschy Christmas and also uploading pics to my new kitschy Christmas blog: Very Kitschy Christmas blog. 

If you have a second, please check the links out and tell me what you think! I decided to make new places for all the Christmas stuff so I could keep it separate from the rest of my vintage goodies!! 

 

Baby, It's Cold Outside

And apparently, it's cold inside too. My girl doggy, Scarlett, has been shaking and shivering for the last few weeks. She gets like this every fall and winter and is clearly, a cold-natured sort of pooch.

When we first moved to Maryland 5 years ago, I found a fabulous purple fleece coat for her at the BX on base and bought a green one for my boy pup. He has a lot more fur than Scarlett and doesn't seem to need his coat as often. Scarlett, however, tends to wear her coat from mid-October through early May, only taking it off to get it washed. 

The other day, I noticed that despite wearing her fleece coat, she was still cold to the touch and shivering. She has been lying around on the sofa, curled up in a tiny ball for days now. I guess it's too cold in the apartment but with electricity prices being what they are, I can't keep it too toasty in here. So, having covered her up and tucked her in with a blanket on numerous occasions in the last week, I knew I had to do something. And that something just happened to be these:

Puppy pajamas!! I saw these while walking through Target the other night and decided that for $8, it was worth a shot. They have legs and are more form fitting than the fleece coat so I thought they might do a better job of keeping her warm.

They seem to be working somewhat but her feet are still chilly so I am thinking of getting her leg warmers and/or slippers. Now, I know that sounds completely ridiculous but she's 11 and older and if she's cold, I want to do whatever I can to keep her warm and comfortable. Even if I look like a complete douche when I take her out for walks and she's wearing what is essentially a onsie for dogs. lol 

She and Marty both love wearing clothes so I am going to find him a pair of pajamas too!! Won't they be super cute wearing their Christmas pajamas on Christmas morning while opening their gifts? I think she's trying to tell me something in this picture. Whatta ya think? lol

Happy Halloween

Want to know what 34 feet of feathers and 104 yards of tulle look like? Well, I'll show you! Take a look at this:

 It took fooooooooorever to get those feather boas on the shirt. I decided Friday a week ago that I really wanted to dress up as a flamingo for Halloween this year. Flamingos are my favorite bird so what better reason did I need to dress as one? Well, how about this reason:

How hilarious is that gnome? LOL Once I decided to be a flamingo, I figured I could get the honey to be a garden gnome and together we could go as "Tacky Yard Ornaments". 

 
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures with my good camera so the only ones I have are these crappy quality cell phone pics. Well, the bf has one on his camera but I don't know if he has the cables to that camera and my card reader doesn't recognize his card so I can't get the picture off of it yet.

Anyway, we went to the club last night and everyone thought our costumes were adorable and original and the best there. We entered the costume contest but didn't hear them announce when it was time to line up so we missed out on winning. I know we would have -- look at us! 

I am trying to find an excuse to wear my costume again since it was such a pain to make. Am I *really* too old to go Trick or Treating?!