Floods and Family

Hey guys! I haven't been around much lately - did you notice? haha Things have been kind of busy this month so I haven't had much time for blogging. So, the snow has melted and a few weekends ago, the great Monsoon season started. It was a lot of fun. NOT! Once again, our basement flooded. You know, I'm not sure why we don't just go ahead & fill it up with water and have our own little indoor swimming pool. lol But seriously, this is what the backyard looked like on Saturday, 13 March. Will didn't get home from that week long overseas trip until 5:00 that morning and then we slept for a few hours and woke up to this:



So, we had the pleasure of spending the entire day cleaning out the basement and trying to get the water out. The ground was just so soggy from all of the snow melting that water started seeping up through these hairline cracks in the basement floor. I hate our house. HATE IT. It's a piece of poo. I wish we had known there would be all of these issues because there's no way in hell we'd have bought it. Obviously. I don't know if I'm more pissed that the home inspector didn't see any of these things when he did his inspection or that the person that sold us this house did such a shoddy job with his "repairs". Either way, I just want to sell this dump & get the heck away from this money pit.

The only good thing that came out of the flooded basement was the forced spring cleaning! I took a truck load of stuff to the thrift store to donate. That felt great!!

Last weekend, Will's aunt and uncle came into town & stayed with us for a few days. His aunt wanted to go to a concert so we went & it wasn't really my style but it was nice to get out of the house. As you can see in the photos below, I was feeling pretty good by the time the concert started!



I promise Will wasn't nearly as intoxicated as he looks in this picture. He just doesn't take very good pictures - he always looks drunk!! I, on the other hand, was as intoxicated as it appears. Hey, I had to do what I had to do to get through that concert. Don't judge me!!



Will had to fly again on Friday so I had to entertain his aunt and uncle - we had lunch together and then did a little shopping at the Home Depot to finish buying supplies to finish off the deck. I took them to my favorite local restaurant for dinner that night and had a deelish meal of crab legs.



Will and his uncle worked all day Saturday on the deck and then we all went out dancing on Saturday night. It was on Sunday morning that I started to realize that I'm not as young as I used to be. I felt like crap all day Sunday - too much beer on Saturday night, I guess. Considering I go out *maybe* 3 times a year, I guess my once-in-a-while night of imbibing too much is okay. Thank goodness I didn't have to really function on Sunday though. lol

And while we're talking about families, I'm heading to SC this weekend to see MY family!! Yaaay! I'm so excited. I haven't seen them since last September, which may not seem like too long ago, but we usually see each other every couple of months. This is probably the longest I've gone without seeing them since I moved to MD back in 2006. Will and I have been trying to figure out a time when we could go down there but his schedule at work has been insane since December. He told me on Monday afternoon that he was finally able to take some leave for next week so we're off to SC on Saturday.

I cannot wait - I'm definitely going to take a day trip to Charleston since we haven't been back there since 2007, and I want to go to Myrtle Beach too. I haven't been there since 2004 which is crazy to me seeing how I grew up only 60 miles away from there. I probably won't even recognize the place.

My favorite steeple in Charleston:



My favorite Charleston picture ever - us on our wedding day sitting on a limb of a several hundred year old oak tree. Awww!



So, we're heading to SC in a few days but in May we're going to Tennessee!! Will and myself, the two doggies and my mom & dad are renting a cabin somewhere in eastern TN. It's a little getaway for my 30th birthday. Will is probably going to be working on my actual birthday so we're going a few weeks early and we're spending a week there. Aside from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the mountains of Tennessee & NC are probably my favorite place on earth. I just love it there. Marty likes it there too. This was in 2004 when my mom & I went for a few days. Well, Marty went too! This was before we had Scarlett. Anyhow, Marty so enjoyed riding in my Mustang. He was such a good boy and look at how handsome he is!



That picture just cracks me up every time I see it! I miss my Mustang too. It would've been great to have convertible this past weekend when it was 75 degrees outside.

Anyhoo, I need to finish packaging up an order & printing postage so I can drop it off at the Post Office. Then I get to come home and start packing for my trip to SC! I hope you all are doing well - I haven't had time to stop by any of my favorite blogs lately but I will try to do that later today!!

Fleas, Spring & Productivity

Hello my favorite vintage people. How was your weekend? Mine was fab-u-lous! Friday, my sweet husband told me that since the weather was going to be so nice on Saturday, he wanted us to get out of the house & do something! Now, you guys don't really know Will, but let me assure you that he is quite possibly the biggest homebody ever. I mean he seems perfectly content to stay at home all.the.time, which came as quite the shock shortly after we were married because he wasn't like that at all when we were dating. I digress....

Anyhow, Will asked me on Friday if there was anything I wanted to do on Saturday and I mentioned to him that I'd LOVE to go to the DC Big Flea, if I was feeling better. That stupid cold/sinus thing knocked me flat on my youknowwhat last week. Luckily, I felt a bit better Saturday morning and we made the very long drive over to Chantilly, VA to the Big Flea.



Lemme just say that I was completely overwhelmed by all of the vintage goodness inside those two buildings. I'm one of those people that has to look at everything before I will buy anything, which doesn't bode well for this sort of place. lol Aside from the fact that someone else may snatch up whatever it is that I didn't buy right away, the place is so freakin huge that simply remembering where I saw something that I might be interested in buying is not very likely. Did I mention it was two huge buildings?

It took us 3 hours just to walk through the first building. Then we spent another 3 in the second building. Crazy. I was still not feeling 100% so by hour 5 I was just ready to go home. It's that point in my sickness where I have that annoying tickle in my throat that starts me on a coughing frenzy that lasts for 10 minutes unless I have something to drink. Ugh. Annoying. And that's what happened for the entire 6 hours we were at the Big Flea so yeah, that kind of sucked!

Oh, and I didn't know it until yesterday morning, but I was in Sue's booth twice! I didn't see her though so I wasn't sure it was even her booth but I saw the circus sign she blogged about here & it made me think of her & wonder if it was her booth. It was. I wish I had met her! Maybe next time though!!

The only things I purchased while at the big flea were 4 vintage cards from Patrice's adorable booth. I found the perfect card for my sister's birthday! I can't wait to send it to her. Patrice's booth was filled with tons of vintage linens & cards & all sorts of goodies.

I was hoping to go back to the Flea yesterday so I could do some more shopping but Will had to leave for a week long trip at 3:00 and I didn't have enough time to drive the 60+ miles to get to back to Chantilly. I'm definitely making plans to go again this summer though. Cannot wait!

And, last week while out picking up more cold medicine, I found this amazing magazine at Wal-Mart. I'd been looking for it & couldn't find it anywhere so when I saw 10 copies on the shelf at WM, I was quite tempted to buy them all! lol



I resisted that urge and only bought one copy and it was totally worth the $10 I paid for it! Love!!

So, today, I did something completely unusual for me - I stayed home. All. Day. No Value Village 25% off shopping. No errands. I just stayed home. And worked. And by work I mean sorting through a crapload of linens I've accumulated in the last 2 months & have neglected to list in the Etsy shop. Let's face it: February was a very gray, very cold month. It was impossible to get any decent pictures of the linens. So, I just kept accumulating stuff through the month and hoped that one day I'd have some decent sunlight in which to photograph my new goodies.

And that day was today. I woke up to the sun shining & birds chirping & knew what I had to do - I had to get busy playing catch up!! I'm sad to say that I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. But, there's always tomorrow. I'm home alone again this week so that means I'll have plenty of time to do work. And clean. And organize. It's time for Spring Cleaning, ya know. And lemme tell ya, I have plenty of cleaning and organizing to keep me busy for probably THREE weeks. Hahaha

It's going to be an extra early night tonight. I was up until 3:00 this morning emailing back and forth with Will as he flew across the ocean! I love technology!! I was so sad about him leaving yesterday (stupid hormones!) so it was great being able to email all night long. I'm so looking forward to his new job in May. I'm thankful for his gainful employment but this lifestyle is just so taxing on me. I've held up quite well for the last 7 years but I'm definitely ready for a change of pace, which will include having him home every day and not having to spend weeks at a time worrying about his safety! Yay!!

And with that, it's time for me to force myself to go to sleep! lol As I mentioned, I have a ton of stuff I need to get done tomorrow so I can't pull another all-nighter. I'm too old for that nonsense! Goodnight, friends!

Vintage Thingies Thursday - Books

Hey guys! I'm participating again in VTT. I know, two weeks in a row?? Shocking, isn't it?! I have been racking my brain this week trying to think of something to share that didn't require too much effort in the way of staging pictures or anything because I've been sick with a horrible cold & sinus infection and I just didn't have it in me to do anymore than the bare minimum. Luckily, this weeks pictures were easy enough to take, seeing how these books sit on the shelf behind my desk. All I had to do was turn around & snap a few pictures! Yay for simplicity!!



Anyhow, as previously stated, this week I'm sharing some of my favorite vintage books. I'm not sure how I decided that I needed to start collecting vintage Better Homes & Gardens books. I think it started out with wanting one of the old red & white checkered cookbooks and then just sort of escalated from there. Next was one of the gardening books, followed by a decorating book, a handyman book, a few more cookbooks. Soon, I had a collection!!



I think my favorite is the decorating book from 1961. A pink kitchen? LOVE!!



Pink bathrooms?? Really LOVE!!



I would LOVE to find a house with a pink bathroom. As a matter of fact, a few years ago when Will & I were looking for homes, the biggest thing on my wish list was a pink bathroom! Our realtor though I was insane when we'd find a house with vintage bathrooms and I'd squeal in delight! I mean pink bathrooms are my absolute fave, but I'd settle for a minty green or blue too.



I think when Will & I find our dream house & we stop moving all over the place, I'm going to insist on having a pink & aqua kitchen. And in my pink & aqua kitchen, I'll house all of my vintage cookbooks, like these fabulous Betty Crocker cookbooks.



This one is my favorite - the Cooky book. Cooky. LOL I remember buying this shortly after Will & I were married. My momma had come down to Charleston to spend the weekend with us & she & I went antiquing on Saturday. I actually paid $5.00 for this book, which is about $4.00 more than I'll pay for vintage cookbooks now. I was young & naive and just didn't know any better.



And while those cookies look delicious, there's a lot of nastiness in those old cookbooks. Take for example this most disgusting picture:



Yeah, I know what y'all are thinking. Y'all are thinking what the hell is that thing?!?! Well, that's what I was thinking when I first saw it. I dunno. Maybe you are thinking "wow, a party loaf. I haven't seen one of those since Jane's baby shower back in 1972.". Yeah, thankfully, I've never, ever seen one of those before and I hope I never do. So, while I enjoy collecting vintage cookbooks, I don't do a lot of actual cooking from them. Well, at least not party loaves!! Ewww!!

Here, for you all, a recipe for the Party Loaf. Three layers of disgusting fillings, *PLUS* a cream cheese frosting, all on white bread. GAG!



Thanks for visiting me for VTT. Stop in at Colorado Lady & see everyone else that's participating!