VTT: Scottish

Wow! My Vintage Whimsy's participating in VTT? I know it's a shock but please don't go giving yourself any heart palpitations or anything. It's the first time in months that I finally had a cohesive collection of junk nearby and so I decided to take pictures and share with you all. Today's 'collection' is on Scottish themed items. Now, being of Scotch-Irish decent (and by decent, I mean that someone about a gazillion years ago decided to leave the beautiful green hills of those two lovely countries and come to the deep South -- clearly they had mental issues but I digress) I do have a tendency to acquire things related to my ancestry. Am I one of those people that goes all crazy buying everything with my surname on it? No, of course not. For one, finding "Keith" items isn't as easy as you'd think. Not like "McLeod" or "Smith" or "Kennedy". So, I don't go crazy but I do like to hoard a few things. Perhaps hoard is the wrong word. Collect. Yeah, I have amassed a collection of things that remind me of Scotland. I only own one thing that reminds me of Ireland and it's a 4 leaf clover tattoo in an area of my body I'm not about to show a internet full of strangers. Trust me, you'll be thankful I'm not sharing that.

Anyway, without further adieu, here are my items for this week. Let's start off with this Bates bedspread. I found this thrifting the other week, felt it, realized how soft it was and put it in the cart. Only later did I realize it was a Bates. I love this thing and even though I bought it with the intention of selling, I can't bring myself to part with it. I think it will make a great picnic tablecloth this summer.

Isn't it lovely? It has a tiny hole which will perhaps one day be mended but I'm in no hurry. It's too damn cold for a picnic here in Maryland anyway. Did I mention its supposed to snow this weekend? Psssssssshhhhhhhhh.

Anyway, last fall when I happened upon that estate sale from which I bought an entire suitcase of ephemera from the brothel lady, this was one of the items in the lot. I haven't really read through this yet but I'm sure there's a recipe for shortbread and you all know I love some shortbread.

Speaking of estate sales, the one I went to last month of the lady that bred and showed Scottish Terriers, netted me an almost full box of these adorable napkins! I love them so much! They're for sale in my shop, which can me found here: MyVintageWhimsy. They're almost too cute to use.

Also at that sale, I found these two little salt and pepper shakers. I don't really collect salt and pepper shakers but these were too cute to pass up. They remind me of my dogs. Yes, I'm aware that my dogs aren't black and white. Or terriers. But the black doggy reminds me of Marty, and really, that's reason enough for me to buy these two!

I would love to show you the vintage Scotch grill I picked up last year at a thrift store but it's tucked away in the basement and I don't have the desire to go down there. There is a pile of laundry waiting for me in the washer and one ready to go in so as you can tell, I'm avoiding the basement at all costs. Too bad.

So, I hope you enjoyed my little Scottish themed collection. Thanks for stopping by & visiting with me (that's for the two people that still read my blog, btw). I am in dire straights as my mother is coming tomorrow and it looks as if a tornado swept through my house so I must end this delightful entry now!!

It's Wellie Season!!

Do I even own wellies? Nah. Do I need to go buy some? Definitely! You can tell that winter is over (and not just by looking at the calendar, which said the first day of spring was yesterday) but  by my basement, which is once again flooding on a regular basis. Fabulous!! Now, I am happy that I survived another crazy Maryland winter. This makes winter number five that I have been through. I remember the first winter when we moved here -- I was wearing thermal underwear in OCTOBER. Yes. Seriously. It wasn't unusually cold in October either, I just wasn't accustomed to temperatures in the 40s! I'm glad to say that my blood has thickened up quite nicely over the years and that this winter was mild in comparison to last year. In fact, I wore flip flops three times in the past week and it's been in the 50s or 60s.

So, spring is here and I'm so excited to see leaves on the trees and flowers blooming. We have like 3 daffodils in the flower beds that are just about to bloom and instead of leaving them out there to do their thing, as soon as those suckers open, I'm going out there with some shears and cutting them off to bring inside! The forsythia is blooming too and it's so gorgeous. I hate that the blooming period is so short lived though and then for the rest of the year, it just looks like a big ol tangled mess.

You know how I've been searching for a job for the last, oh, 11 months? Well, I've kind of given up. I have sent hundreds of resumes, filled out countless applications, had several interviews, tried to apply at retail jobs and nothing, NOTHING!!, has come of any of it. I've come to the sad realization that Maryland is just not going to work out. I am tired of spending God knows how much time searching for jobs in a place that's quite frankly too expensive to live in. I don't want to slave away for 40 hours a week at a job I hate just so I can barely afford to live here. I don't. That doesn't make any sense. I mean I like Maryland, for the most part, but I don't love it. And I don't want to spend the next 5 or 10 years of my life in a place that is just mediocre.

 So, having said that, I am thinking (seriously thinking) about moving to Pennsylvania this fall. I am on a time constraint insomuch as the ex is for certain moving in September to North Dakota. As you all know, our living situation has sucked because we're still forced to live in the same freaking house together because we bought when the market was high and were trying to wait until it recovered a bit before selling. Well, unfortunately for us, we won't have enough time to wait for that to happen since he has orders to get to ND and we are going to have to sell or rent by September. So, that's my timeline. I am hoping to spend the next few months saving money, destashing some goodies, researching the PA area even more and then hopefully, come July/August, I will be prepared to start applying for jobs there. In the event that I can't find suitable work, I will have enough saved to live for a while and I can still do my Etsy gig part time. I just really feel like I need to move somewhere that I love, that has a lot of opportunities to continue doing what I love. I have nothing to tie me down, except dogs (they love to travel!) so I might as well take advantage of this chance, right?!

 I am longing for the chance to live somewhere peaceful. Somewhere with a lot less traffic, a lot less houses, a lot less crime. I want to be able to see beautiful scenery without having to get in my car and drive an hour. I want to live somewhere that I don't hear the constant noise of trains, buses, fire trucks, airplanes. I want to hear the clip clop of horse hooves and be able to see rolling green hills and buy vegetables from a local market. I do think that the Amish area of PA will provide these things. And if by some chance, I end up hating it, I can always move again.

 I'm debating if I should keep this blog or not. I don't really post here much anymore. I don't really receive comments anymore. Maybe I'll think it over for another week or so and decide then. I find myself wasting a lot of time reading other blogs and commenting and I don't know that it's worth it to keep mine open. Hmm. Well, that's that. Time to go schlep to the basement and start laundry and package orders. In lieu of actual sunshine and flowers, I'm sharing some of the great vintage linens I've listed recently in my Etsy shop. These will have to work until the real things start blooming here!!