My Vintage Whimsy

11 Months til Christmas! Are you prepared??

2012-01-25T07:54:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-02T11:58:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-29T12:36:00.001-05:00

Vintage Aqua Sheet, a photo by myvintagewhimsy on Flickr.

Vintage Sheet. For sale on Etsy!!

Vintage Santa Blow Mold Empire 1968

2011-11-29T12:21:00.001-05:00

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

Five Weeks

2011-11-16T10:42:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-03T11:30:00.003-04:00

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

2011-10-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

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?!

Nine Weeks til Christmas

2011-10-19T09:15:00.000-04:00

Have you started shopping yet? Aside from scanning in 100s of vintage Christmas cards, I'm not even thinking about Christmas yet. I'm enjoying the pretty fall colors on the trees, the nice crisp mornings, the rainy weather, the early nights.

The Baltimore Big Flea is this weekend and I am hoping to find lots of vintage Christmas goodies for my shop. And once Halloween is over, hopefully the thrifts will start putting out more Christmas items. I'm ready to get my paws on some vintage Shiny Brites but for now, I will go get another cup of pumpkin spice coffee and enjoy the bright yellow tree outside my living room window!!

Stock up and Save!!

2011-10-06T17:09:00.000-04:00

Just in time for the holiday weekend, I am having a sale on all sheets and pillowcases in my shop. My shelves are overflowing with vintage sheets so from now through Sunday, 9 October, all the sheets and pillowcases (bundles included) are 20% off!! Click the sheet below to go to my Etsy shop.

Twelve Weeks til Christmas

2011-09-30T10:49:00.000-04:00

Are you prepared? I'm not. Not even close. I have no idea if we're going to exchange gifts. I'm thinking not but I hope we do because I am going to be awfully sad if we don't have at least some gifts under the tree.

I finally bought a new all-in-one printer the other day. I have been meaning to get one for a while but kept putting it off but the other day, I walked right into Office Depot, determined to not leave until I had a printer in my cart. I ended up buying a Kodak, which wasn't my first choice, but they no longer carried the Brother one that I really wanted. I had one hell of a time installing this printer and ended up having to redo the entire wireless network at my house!! I was so frustrated, I swear I was on the verge of tears! I did eventually get it all worked out and I'm happy to say that I can now print invoices and postage, pictures, well, everything really, all from the comfort of my sofa! Wireless printers are the best invention ever!

 This morning, I took a few minutes to scan in some of the antique Christmas postcards I bought last fall at the Baltimore Big Flea. I fell in love with all of the gorgeous graphics, the pretty pastel colors and most of all, the sweet letters written on the reverse of the cards. Most of the paper is still in pristine condition for being 112 years old but I wanted the ability to print the cards onto cardstock to use in crafting. I would feel so guilty if I cut up the original ones. 

So, the weather is finally cooling off again and I am so excited that it's going to be a crisp weekend. I think we're going to have scattered showers tomorrow and the highs are only supposed to be in the upper 50s and I am just so thrilled that it's this time of the year. The honey has drill this weekend so I get to fill my time with all sorts of fun things, like scanning in 100s of vintage cards. 

I saw on the weather channel that they are forecasting SNOW over in the mountains of WV tomorrow through Sunday. How crazy is that? The leaves haven't really even started to change yet and they're going to have snow showers? I think it would look crazy weird to have green leaves and snow! I'll admit that I'm slightly jealous that they'll be seeing flakes. 

I was lucky enough to find quite a few vintage sheets while I was out thrifting yesterday so today I get to iron and photograph those and get them listed on my new vintage sheets blog and also on Etsy and Flickr. I have two sheets that I've sold before to several people that have in turn used them as backdrops for photo booths. Isn't that a great idea?? And I've sold a ton of sheets to a fabulous dress designer in NYC that makes the most beautiful bridesmaids gowns out of them. I love knowing my vintage finds are being reused by people that love them as much as I do. 

Okay, well, the coffee is gone from my cup so I guess that's my clue that it's time to get busy ironing. Have a fabulous Friday and a great weekend too, friends!

In the Kitchen -- Apple Cake

2011-09-27T12:39:00.004-04:00

Mother Nature was such a tease last week, with her cooler temps and pleasant days. I was longing for fall recipes and found one online for an apple cake. The pictures didn't look very appealing but the recipe promised that it was only 100-something calories per serving so I figured I'd give it a try. It's baking in the oven right now and I hope it turns out super delicious. Would it be wrong to have apple cake and apple cider for lunch? Ha!

Apple Cake

2 cups of apples, chopped up

.5 cup raw sugar (or, in my case, light brown sugar since I didn't have raw)

1 cup of whole wheat flour

.75 teaspoon baking soda

.5 teaspoon salt

1.5 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg (or 3 tbsp egg whites)

.5 cups applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla

Raisins and walnuts (optional)

Gather all your ingredients - Preheat your oven to 375.

Chop up your apples. I had 4 small apples but only needed 2. In hindsight, I should have chopped these smaller.

Put apples in bowl, add sugar. Step back and admire how fantabulous your vintage Pyrex Butterprint bowls are.

In separate bowl, put in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix together. Forget to take a picture of that step so make up for it by taking a picture of your apple themed apron. Coincidence?

Then, in yet another bowl, mix up your egg whites with the vanilla and apple sauce. Once that is combined, mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Your batter will probably look a little dry.

Add in the apple/sugar mixture. Realize that this cake would be a lot better with a handful of raisins and chopped walnuts. Throw those in too.

Spray your 9" square pan with nonstick spray and scoop in the batter. Smooth out the top.

Pop the pan in the 375 degree oven for 30-35 minutes. My oven cooks both hot and quick so I am going to test it at 30 minutes.

Admire your caaaa-ute plastic canisters you bought at the thrift store for a song.

Thirty minutes later, check your cake. Mine was cooked perfectly. Decide that the cake is mostly healthy and suitable for lunch. Slice into that bad boy, put cake on vintage melmac pink plate, pour apple cider into cute pink cup from Ikea and enjoy the tastes of autumn.

My Marty -- he's Famous!

2011-09-22T19:01:00.001-04:00

My boy dog, Marty, is being featured on Pawesome.net!! Check him out:

Marty on Pawsome!!

Monday Morning Musings

2011-09-19T08:15:00.001-04:00

Hola, vintage peeps. It's Monday, again. Where'd the weekend go? I would love a do-over since it seems as though the weekend went by in such a blur! And it's not like I was actually busy doing anything exciting or fun or whatever. Nope -- it was a lazy weekend, full of naps and football and chicken wings.

Today is 25% off day at the Value Village(s) which means I must head out soon to do some junking. I need to resupply my vintage linens and hopefully find some kitschy Christmas decorations too. Then, after I finish at the VV's, I have to head to another thrift store which has 33% off and 50% off today. Whee!! That's my favorite thrift store but their offerings have been kind of slim lately.

Also, I have to do the grocery shopping today since I was too lazy to do it yesterday. Well, that's not entirely true. I managed to get dressed and leave the house by 5:45 last night but it was too late to really shop and some of the stores I needed to visit close at 6:00 on Sunday. So, today, I get to play catch-up on all of the errands that were neglected over the weekend.

I like to get the majority of the errands done on Monday anyway so that I can stay home the rest of the week and do domesticated things, like ironing linens. And vacuuming. Because I am addicted to my Dyson vacuum. I heart it. So, that's the plan for today: commissary, pet food, thrifting. What's on your agenda for today?

(these pictures obviously have very little to do with the post, aside from them being vintage linens. I just hate posts that don't have pictures so I'm throwing these in for good measure!)

Vintage Children Books

2011-09-13T11:09:00.000-04:00

I've come to the realization recently that I have started a new 'collection'. This time, it's vintage children's books. I didn't mean to start collecting these things. In fact, I bought these to resale in my Etsy shop but I can't seem to part with very many of them.

This past Friday, my friend from Etsy and I went on what we like to call "Friday Funday" wherein we get in her car and then shop til we drop at thrift stores. One Goodwill we went in had *the* best vintage children's books.

The graphics in these books are fantastic. They would be perfect for cutting and crafting, or cutting and framing, yet I cannot bring myself to do such a thing.

I am going to force myself to list some of these books because I do not have the space to continue to hoard them. I will read through them, enjoy the sweet pictures and then let them go on to a new home.

Ten Years

2011-09-11T08:28:00.000-04:00

It's so hard to fathom that 10 whole years have passed since that fateful day that changed our country forever. I remember it like it was yesterday:

I was at work, in SC, going about my normal daily routine of invoicing, time sheets, checking email. Nothing different from any other day aside from the fact that my then-boyfriend had just moved to SC from New Hampshire two days prior.

On September 6, I flew from Myrtle Beach to Boston to help him pack up his belongings and the next day, we started our drive from NH back to SC, stopping overnight outside of NYC to visit with his parents. After our overnight stop, we headed south and drove through the city. Little did we know that the city we loved would be forever changed.

The next week, that Tuesday morning, the boyfriend called me at work to alert me to what was going on. I sat at work, in shock, trying to find news on the internet. Ten years ago, the streaming media wasn't what it is today and all the usual sites were completely jammed.

I remember calling my mom at work, having her watching the tv in her office and we just couldn't wrap our heads around what was going on. I know I was scared and wanted to leave work, even though I was in a po-dunk town that had zero reasons to be attacked. I just wanted to be home, with my family and my boyfriend.

That night, like hundreds of millions of Americans, we were glued to the tv, where they showed the towers fall over and over. I don't think I slept much that night. I kept remembering Christmas of 2000 and how I'd spent the holidays in the city. I love New York -- so vibrant and different from my tiny little town in SC and it had been forever changed.

My family had made vacation plans months prior to September 11th for the following weekend and we were contemplating if we should still go to the mountains. We did keep our reservations but every time we'd turn on the tv, we were watching coverage of the recovery efforts in NYC. The whole vacation was kind of somber.

So, that's my memories of 9-11. I cannot believe it's been so long. Do I think our country is any safer today than it was then? I don't really know. Do I think another attack could happen? Yes. Do I spend my life worrying about an attack? Not at all. I'm vigilant but I will not live my life in fear and constant worry. Having spent 8 years of my life as a military wife or significant other, I've spent countless hours with that 'knot in the pit of the stomach' fear each time my husband had to fly into a war zone. I'm very aware of the fact that they could be called to action at any time and that's where my fear lies -- them being put in harms way, not over an attack on US soil.

I will watch some of the coverage today on CNN but I'll also do things that make me happy, like visiting some thrift stores and antique shops. I know that the people that perished 10 years ago would want the country to remember but to also get on with their lives and I will honor their memory by living a life without fear.

VTT- Vintage Christmas

2011-09-01T08:31:00.000-04:00

I'm participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by ColoradoLady. Please hop on over to her blog to see the other participants.

Did you know it's less than 17 weeks until Christmas? Well, it is!! These are some of the goodies I found at the estate sale the other week, some of which will make their way into my Etsy shop but most of them are keepers for my own collection!!

My finds included a tiny box of Shiny Brites

a perfectly pink Putz house (my first!)

a baggy full of bottle brush trees

some spun heads

A honeycomb Santa

There was a whole table full of the Putz houses but like a dummy, I'd only brought $20 with me and that wouldn't have been enough to buy all of my goodies so I just bought the pink house. I'm kicking myself for not getting the others. I'm also kicking myself for leaving behind the fabulous pieces of barkcloth that were there two days in a row.

And a couple of weekends ago, I went to a barn sale and picked up two more Gurley candles to add to my collection - a choir boy and a pink glittery tree. They had been sitting in the case at that barn sale for months so I finally rescued them.

Also at the barn sale, I found a couple of Whitman Christmas Carol books

and a promotional Esso Christmas Carol book from 1953.

The graphics on each are so stunning.

Later this week, I plan on tackling the daunting task of scanning in some of the hundreds of Christmas Cards from the brothel lady's suitcase. It's probably going to take me forever to get through them all but it's been almost a year and I promised myself when I bought that suitcase that I would actually USE the items inside so I better get started.

Thanks for visiting me today for Vintage Thingies Thursday. I hope you enjoyed show & tell for the week. Do you have your Christmas lists started yet? lol

Glitter War

2011-08-31T13:35:00.000-04:00

One of my good friends on Etsy, Flirtdeux, challenged a group of us regulars to try out her new creations - miniature houses, reminiscent of the old Putz houses that everyone loves so much. She graciously sent me and the other participants 3 stamped houses, which we had to cut out, assemble and then decorate, two of which were to be part of the Glitter War house decorating competition and one which was our 'practice house'.

My other Etsy friend, Fyrecreek, did a Halloween House the other night and posted pictures and it was so adorable, that I had to steal her idea and put my own spin on it. I painted the house a rusty orange color and then glittered it with orange glitter, the roof was painted purple and then flocked with matching purple flocking and then I decided that wasn't quite enough so I went back and put darker purple polka dots on top.

The trim was painted black and then I used black embossing powder on top of it. The chimney was painted green and flocked in darker green.I cut out a couple of windows and used pieces of yellow acetate in the spots which will glow a nice golden color when lit up. I found itty bitty bats in my old scrapbooking supplies and stuck one in a window!! It's a work in progress but I think it's pretty cute so far!!

The houses are itty bitty - measuring about 2.5" tall and super fun to decorate!! I can't wait to get started on my Christmas houses - they are going to be pink and aqua and kitschy and perfect!! Next time, I'll remember to paint the underneath side of the roof so that you can't see the beige color from the paper. I didn't realize I'd forgotten to paint it until I took the pictures. Oops!!

Thrifty Tuesday

2011-08-30T14:23:00.000-04:00

The estate sale from the other week proved to be such a success. I found pretty sheets:

Fruity dish towels:

Two charming aprons:

Four Japanese Stacking Mugs:

And two sheets of super groovy gift wrap:

I also found a ton of great vintage Christmas stuff that will have its own post!!

Monday Morning Mooos

2011-08-29T08:22:00.000-04:00

Hola, friends. I'm happy to say that we made it through the storm with minimal damage and without any real loss of power. Unfortunately, many in the area weren't so lucky. The common area between our apartment building and the one behind us looks sort of like a war zone with tree pieces all over the place. There were several large trees down on the surrounding property when the honey and I ventured out yesterday morning. We went to my ex's house to check on things since he's out of town and as suspected, we found extensive damage to the willow tree that sits beside the deck and then of course, we found this when we went inside:

Yeah, that's water in the basement. Luckily for him, he removed all of his possessions from the house prior to the storm. Luckily for me, I don't live there anymore so I don't have to deal with the mess!! He did ask if I'd plug in the sump pump and drain the water but at that time, it was still raining outside and I told him no. I wasn't going to spend several hours down there draining water when it was still raining. Hopefully by now, some of it has receded.

So, after we left his house, we tried in vain to find a restaurant open for breakfast. The couple of places that were open were completely packed so we kept driving, ended up down in Annapolis, took a really long route back home, saw more storm clouds rolling in and then decided to give up on our quest to find food and came home. We both ended up taking naps right here in the living room, beside the pooches. When we awoke, the skies were bright blue, there was a gentle breeze blowing and you'd never have known we just went through a freaking tropical storm, mere hours before!!

I was going stir crazy from being in the house all weekend long and our recent lack of any sort of fun, seeing how the honey has been working 7 days a week for the entire month of August so I insisted we get out of the house and do something entertaining, which led us up to Timonium to the Maryland State Fair. It was a perfect afternoon, especially since we got in for free! I am cheap and I don't think this fair is all that good and I certainly wouldn't pay $8 to get in. Since it was free though, I figured why not.

Our first stop inside the entrance was the Cow Palace. There weren't as many animals as I was expecting. We saw this cow and her baby, Kendall. At first, they had their backs to us but when Momma Cow saw I was trying to take pics, she actually turned around and walked towards us. The baby was too freaking cute!!

Kendall Cow, 6 months old

The Alpacas were next to the cows. I love Alpacas!! Their cute little hair just cracks me up. Once, when the ex and I were over in West Virginia, we were driving back to his aunt's house where we were staying and as we turned into her long drive way, I noticed something at the top of the road, near her house. I thought it was a herd of deer but oh no, not quite. Seems the neighbors down the street forgot to lock up the barn and their entire group of Alpacas ventured out and ended up at the Aunt's house. So there we were, hooking up Alpaca's to leads and taking them back down the street. It was hilarious. I'd never walked an Alpaca before but I quickly fell in love, even though one of those suckers stepped right on my foot. Surprisingly, it wasn't that heavy!!

The Alpacas at the fair weren't very friendly though and seemed kind of mad that I was in their faces taking pictures. I guess they'd been dealing with crazy city folks all day though so it's understandable.

The honey and I didn't ride any rides, and after getting our fill of junk food, we took one last stroll through the Palace, where I promptly stepped in a fresh cow patty and then called it a night. Overall, I enjoyed seeing the animals but didn't feel it was worth the 40 minute drive to get to the fair. I probably won't go back since this was my second time going up there and I just don't think it's all that great.

Anyhow, it's Monday, the honey is back to work, I'm home and I have a to-do list a mile long. I've been neglecting my chores and I need to get caught up on those. I also have orders to package and mail today and tons of items that need to be photographed and then listed on Etsy. I think it's time to turn off the laptop, get a refill of coffee and get cracking on those!!

A Hurricane Party of Sorts

2011-08-27T12:13:00.000-04:00

So, like many people here in the Mid Atlantic, we're eagerly awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Irene. We've got batteries, flashlights, duct tape, plastic sheeting, gallons of water and enough junk food provisions to last at least 3 days. I grew up in SC and have weathered my share of tropical weather so this storm doesn't really worry me too much, aside from the prospect of going days without power (thus, no hot water!).

The balcony has been cleared of all possible projectiles, the car has been emptied of any valuables that would be ruined in case of a downed tree.

I ran out last night for last minute items and Wal-mart was wiped clean of all all soup, canned goods, water, chips, and oddly enough, bananas. We were wise enough to get our supplies on Thursday, but that wasn't without having to go to multiple stores. It took trips to 4 different stores to find gallons of water, 2 stores to find D cell batteries.

So, instead of hitting any estate sales this weekend, I'm hunkering down with the honey and the puppies and in the event that I do have to venture outside, I bought some black and white houndstooth wellies at Target the other day, so at least while I trudge through 6" of rain water, my feet will be dry!!

In lieu of an actual hurricane party, I invite you to celebrate Mother Nature with me by enjoying 20% off of all items in my shop my entering the coupon code "irene20" at check-out! There's the possibility that we may lose power for a while. In the event that we don't have electricity, shipping will resume as soon as the power returns.

Here's a picture of the outer bands on the storm rolling in:

VTT - Vintage Bath Towels

2011-08-18T08:19:00.000-04:00

Hola, vintage peeps. Today, I'm going to participate in Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by the lovely Colorado Lady. Please stop in and visit!!

Today, I'm showcasing my love affair with vintage towels. The patterns are so fab!

The colors are (mostly) delicious!

The quality is unlike anything you'll find today, as evidenced by the fact that these babies are still in great condition some 40 years later.

Towels I bought 3 years ago are not in this same condition. It's true when they say "they just don't make 'em like they used to". Sad, isn't it?

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my vintage towel collection. Find towels like this in my Etsy shop!

Destashing Again

2011-08-03T14:19:00.000-04:00

It's that time again - time to tidy up the linens, clean out the cutters and make room for a new batch of yummy goodies. For months (years?!) I've been meaning to take these bins of cutter sheets and make fat quarters and squares out of them. My space and time just doesn't permit such activities so I decided to put them into like-color bundles and list them on Etsy.

Green Gingham Sheets $25

The other week, my mom and dad came to MD to retrieve the rest of my stuff from my old house and take it to SC. While here, I let my mom rummage through the cutter boxes and pull out any sheets she loved.

Hot Pink Sheets $33.50

Mom pulled out lots of pretty coordinating sheets to start her sewing business with. Those sheets are going to make gorgeous aprons and other wearables!!

Olive Green Sheets $33.50

I'm so glad she took so many sheets off my hand the other week -- I cannot imagine how many I would have to list if they were all still here!! And despite my best (recent) efforts to only buy sheets that are in excellent condition, it never fails that after I get home from a day of thrifting and start sorting through all of the newly acquired linens, I run across a couple that have a small flaw here or there that I didn't notice while I was in the store. Now, instead of just throwing them into the cutter bins, I'll go ahead and match them up with other cutters in the same color family and list them for all of the quilters and crafty people to use!

Orange Butterflies and Stripes $33.50

All of these cutter bundles ship in a medium Flat Rate Priority Box, so that's perfect!! Normally, I can only fit one sheet into a Flat Rate Envelope, which mails for $5, so this is really saving a lot of money on shipping!! Perfect for building a stash, too!

Loving but Letting Go

2011-07-20T10:04:00.000-04:00

Summer is in full swing and I have been super busy getting somewhat settled into my new pad. Apartment life isn't so different from house life but it's taken some getting used to, for sure. Namely, the whole dog-walking thing. And although this apartment is smaller than my old house, it doesn't feel cramped and tiny like I thought it would. I am still attempting to unpack and organize my junk and with that comes the realization that I have to sell off some of my beloved treasures. Even though I don't feel cramped in here, I've realized that the space I do have needs to be organized and filled with things I love and can't live without. That brings me to this post - loving but letting go.

Years ago, when I first started this blog, I realized my love affair with vintage chenille bedspreads. Well, that's not entirely true. I'd suspected that I had a love affair with them a year prior, when I found the super fantackstic double peacock bedspread at the thrift store. But, after I started this blog, I kept finding all these great chenille bedspreads and of course I had to buy them. And I kept them around, folded on closet shelves, in storage bins, basically anywhere that I could find room. I loved looking at them -- the colors, the patterns -- all of the pretty designs. I even used a few of them on the bed, or as a bed skirt, or as a backdrop for photos. They've brought me a lot of joy in the years that I've had them but the time has come to send them to their new homes.

One day, when I'm old and have a huge mansion to fill with vintage junk, I'll buy more chenille bedspreads and hoard all of them. And when I die, someone will thank their lucky junking gods when my family has an estate sale and it's filled to the rafters with so much vintage junk that they can barely open the doors. In the meantime, I am still living in the apartment and can't keep everything. Or even most things. Downsizing is such a dirty word!!

I'm kind of sad about having to send these beauties on their way but I know there are a lot of other vintage lovers out there that will cherish these bedspreads. Or, cut them up and make new lovely things with them, so that helps to ease the pain of having to destash my goodies!! I have several more that I need to photograph and add soon! These fabulous spreads are in my Etsy shop.

Cha-cha-changes!

2011-05-16T08:46:00.001-04:00

Hello, friends! It's been a while, eh. Ha, who am I kidding -- it's always 'a while' nowadays! I have been so busy these last few weeks and finally have something substantial to write about. So, last time I posted, I was unsure of so many things -- where I'd be living, if I was staying here or moving to PA or to SC, what I was going to do. Talk about stress!! Well, I am happy to say that for now, I am staying in Maryland. In fact, my honey and I have recently moved in together and it has been so wonderful! 

Also, I've just returned from Maryland after 12 days of 'vacation'. Well, technically, only 5 of those days were vacation. I flew to Florida to go to Disney World with my mom, sister, her girlfriend and my super adorable 4 year old niece!! It was so much fun but omg it was HOT! I'm clearly not used to that kind of weather anymore. I went over to Cocoa Beach one afternoon and dipped my toes into the ocean, which was warm like bath water and it was almost enough to make me want to live somewhere that's got almost year-round beach weather. 

After the Disney part of the vacation, I rode back to SC with the family and spent a week there. It was a nice and relaxing few days. I did a lot of browsing at the local antique malls, went to t-ball practice, had lunch and dinner with some old friends and just generally relaxed!! It was so nice to not worry about moving or where I was going to live or even dealing with Etsy for a few days. 

Now I'm back in Maryland, thankfully, and need to finish moving my stuff, unpacking my luggage and about a gazillion boxes from the move, get settled in the new place. I started to move on a Thursday and then left for vacation the following Tuesday so as you might imagine, my house is in total disarray right now and it's driving me NUTS! My office is mostly put together so that helps but I still don't have internet at the new place so I have to keep coming back to my old house to do work which is very time consuming! 

So, we're renting an apartment, which as you might remember from my posts months ago, I was rather adamant that I didn't want to live in but as time grew nearer to the departure date of my ex-h, it became increasingly obvious that I would have to move into an apartment or either move back home. When faced with those two options, apartment living didn't seem so terrible. Plus, the apartment feels pretty spacious, even with my enormous stack of boxes and other miscellaneous crap that needs to be put away. It'll definitely work for the next 12 months and it allows us to save up money and either rent a house or eventually buy our own place. It's temporary and I know I can do anything for a year, as evidenced by the absolute HELL I've gone through the last 12 months. 

Speaking of the last year, although it's been the most stressful time of my life, it's also been the best year EVER. A year ago, I was freaking out about turning 30. I thought my life was over and I was damn near having a panic attack right up until my birthday!! I don't know why I was so upset -- maybe because I was turning a new decade and I was miserable and unhappy with my life. I felt like I'd wasted away and just become so unhappy with who I was. I knew I wanted more out of life -- I used to love going out dancing and I never did that anymore, I loved going sightseeing and I never did that anymore. I had completely morphed into this person I didn't even recognize and I hated myself for it. I was always so worried about my ex whoring around on me (and with good reason) and I was always the one compromising and trying to be a people pleaser and in the end, all it did was ruin my self esteem. It's been a year since I decided that I was done with that nonsense. I made the decision last May that I needed more out of life and that I DESERVED more out of life. I deserved to have a man that was faithful, that I could trust, that I knew would be there for me when the shit really got tough. I deserved to be happy and not always be the one compromising and breaking my back to please someone when the same was never returned to me. What good is a marriage if it's always one person giving 150% while the other does whatever the hell they want with no regard to the other person or their vows?? I was miserable and I'd rather be miserable alone than with someone I couldn't trust. 

The last year has been so hard. Not because I was second guessing my decision but with the whole having to live together thing. I was called horrible names, repeatedly, because that's what he does. He wants to control me/women by verbally abusing them. I rarely let it get to me but on occasion, I did have my moments of breaking down. It was particularly bad last August, when I seriously thought I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I went to SC for a few weeks and came back with clarity and renewed sense of hope. 

Anyway, so yeah, the last year has been so wonderful, despite the hell. I've never been happier. I started to take care of ME and the rest fell into place. I've found the person that I truly feel God wanted me to be with -- someone that's kind, someone that I can trust with my whole heart, someone that appreciates me and makes me feel loved and cherished. Of course it's not always sunshine and rainbows -- we've gone through our share of hard times but that's what a relationship is about -- weathering the storms TOGETHER and coming out the other side stronger as a couple. I love this man in a way I've never loved anyone. It's amazing how your heart can heal and renew itself and be free to give again when you find someone that you can trust. I thank God every single day for bringing this wonderful man into my life at a time when I needed him most. 

My 31st birthday is this weekend and cannot wait to celebrate and I thank the Lord for another year on this planet. Last year, I was at such a dark and terrible place and looking back, the year was the best one ever. I found myself, found my life partner, found new reasons to wake up with a smile on my face and in my heart. I cannot wait to see how wonderful this next year is going to be!! 

Linens. Lots and Lots of Linens

2011-04-06T07:39:00.000-04:00

My mom was here visiting last week and she helped me sort through, iron and photograph hundreds of linens. It was a very time consuming task, one which I'm still doing on a daily basis. It's nice that my stash of vintage sheets is mostly ironed and organized. Seeing all of the pretty patterns sitting together on the shelving unit in my guest room makes me happy. The editing of pictures and creating new listings is a long, long process. I'd say I'm maybe halfway through. Maybe.

The weather was terrible while my mom was here. It was cold and rainy with some snow showers almost every day, which meant that we didn't get to do any of the touristy stuff like we'd planned. We completely missed out on the Cherry Blossoms but we did manage to get 3 days of thrifting in!! We took a nice drive to Pennsylvania one day, went to a great resale shop, had lunch at a delicious little Mom & Pop kind of place, stopped in our favorite little market. We spent a whole day thrifting here in MD at 3 of the best thrifts around and I really resisted the urge to buy every vintage sheet I found. I only bought the ones that I knew were going to sell right away!!

Mom left on Friday to go home and I've been working every day trying to get all of the listings done and be 'caught up', if there is such a thing. I don't know when/if I'll ever get to that point though!!

Saturday night, I went dancing and had a fabulous time, as always. Then, after 4 hours of sleep that night, I thought it would be a great idea for the honey and I to get dressed and go into DC to see the Cherry Blossoms, despite my legs throbbing from all of the dancing the night before. Well, shortly after hopping on the Metro, I started to feel so motion sick and thought I'd end up yakking on the train but I survived and we finally made it down to the Smithsonian stop. We walked. And walked. And walked and walked and walked. Stood in line for 30 minutes to buy chicken tenders that had too much breading and not enough chicken and cold fries. Went to see the Lincoln Memorial, watched a drum group perform, decided it was time to leave around 5 that night. I didn't take a single picture -- we missed the pretty pink blooms and they were just plain white when we got there. Pretty but not really a picture worthy kind of day. And the crowds were ri-damn-diculous! It's like people forget their manners and/or common sense when they get out in a crowd.

So, anyway, I've been job hunting again for the last week or so. No luck. Big surprise there. I just really don't know what I'm going to do. I am trying to avoid at all costs having to move back to SC but ugh. It's like I can't catch a freaking break here. I was told by the ex that if I could swing the payments for the house, he'd 'rent' it to me. Well, without a job, that's going to be impossible. And furthermore, it's so damn expensive here that I just really don't know that I'd want to waste that much money on rent every month. I don't want to be house poor and living in fear every month, wondering how we're going to be able to afford the basics. I'm trying to have faith that things will work out but after searching for a job for the last YEAR, and not having found one, I'm starting to lose hope.

Once again, I have no real pictures of things to share other than all of the yummy linens. I hope my readers don't mind seeing pictures of things I'm hawking on Etsy. Seems like some of the blogs I read only really publish posts or pictures when they add something new anyway.

VTT: Scottish

2011-03-24T14:58:00.001-04:00

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!!

2011-03-21T07:52:00.000-04:00

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!!

The Good, the bad and the ugly. Weekend Edition

2011-02-28T09:53:00.000-05:00

Hmm. What a weekend. Let's share some highlights, shall we.

The good: that delish Chinese buffet on Friday night, a tasty sour cream doughnut Saturday morning whilst en-route to a 50% off Estate Sale, finding an entire box of vintage cocktail napkins with adorable Scottie dogs while at the Estate Sale, a wonderful Saturday afternoon with my honey and looking at this amazingly huge rental house, weather warm enough to grill out Saturday night, a good dinner with the honey and my bff, our doggies playing together nicely.

The bad: missing the other estate sale because I was too lazy to drive there and I was kind of ticked off that the pictures they'd posted online had the prices blurred in them. Stupid!

The ugly: waking up yesterday morning after having tossed and turned all night long the night before and going to retrieve some things out of my car before leaving w/ the honey for our day only to find that my damn car had been broken into during the night on Saturday and that my wallet, gps, spare keys, fleece jacket, car charger and cheap costume jewelry ring were taken. OMG!! What a freaking nightmare. Yes, it was stupid to leave the gps in my car, it was stupid to leave my spare keys in my car and it was incredibly stupid to leave my wallet in my car but it's MY CAR and it was in MY DRIVEWAY and people should not be on MY PROPERTY! Ugh. Thankfully, the wallet wasn't my current one so the only thing these thieving fools took were expired cards and carbon copies of checks but still. I'm most worried that they'll come back and try to steal my car (although I have to say that with the cost of gas these days, I'm kind of wanting a different car anyhow!!) so I went out and bought a club to put on the steering wheel. I won't feel safe unless I get the car rekeyed but if I do that, my insurance is going to go up.

And I think this has motivated me to start emptying my car every time I come home -- no more tucking the gps down inside the console. Well, that would be hard to do considering I no longer have a gps but you know what I mean. The good news is that the gps is locked and will be of no use to them if they try to use it. Also, I registered my GPS on the Garmin website when I first got it so at least I had a serial number to give to the cops. I really hope these idiots try to pawn it and that they catch these bastards!!

So, how was your weekend? Hopefully better than mine. Well, better than my Sunday anyway. I need to get pics of the cute stuff I picked up at the sale on Saturday -- you are going to love these paper napkins!

Love - a Day Late

2011-02-15T19:16:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day my sweet vintage friends. That's friends that like vintage, not friends that are vintage. Although I think most of us classify as being vintage, at least according to Etsy's 20+ year policy. Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful day full of celebrating with the ones you love yesterday. I certainly did!! Well, it was low-key with a trip to Target for some petroleum jelly for my chapped nose and some Johnson's Vapor Bath and then a little dinner at the best Mexican place in MD (which isn't nearly as good as the places back in SC but it works in a pinch). Oh, and I managed to do some thrifting yesterday too which was a nice treat since I haven't done any since the first week of January.

Here's a picture of my honey & I at Halloween. I said I would come back and update with a picture in November but I never did. So, now you're getting one. I'm always late. You guys should be used to this by now!

So, I've finally added a couple of items to the other blog Vintage Whimsy Tag Sale. I have lots of other goodies I need to add soon but man, that's time consuming doing it that way.

Oh, the weather has been lovely here the last couple of days. Yesterday was 60 degrees. Um, that caused the remaining snow to melt. I wasn't too thrilled about that but once I was outside in the warmth, I stopped caring that we've had a snow deficit all winter!! And it's supposed to be 70 on Friday. I'm definitely breaking out the flip flops & short sleeves for that day.

I need opinions from all of you lovely experienced people. Do you think it's possible to make a living selling vintage? Of course, everyone opinions will vary because 'making a living' is subjective depending on people's lifestyles, bills, expenses etc. I ask this because I'm still looking for a freaking full time job. It's been 9 full months of searching, applying, interviewing, getting stressed and discouraged. Frankly, I'm about to give up!! I really think that if I were to focus, really focus, I might be able to do this vintage thing and make at least as much as I would at a part time job. I just don't know. I'd love for some people that have been in the business or been selling for a while to email me and let me know what you think. You don't have to comment on here, you can email me at shopatwhimsy@aol.com .

Anyway, I spent the entire day sitting here at my house waiting for Fed-Ex to deliver a tire for my car. A tire, which I might add, was ordered on the 3rd and being shipped from California. They tried to deliver on Saturday and I wasn't here so of course they left the little sticky note saying that they'd try again. Well, I checked the tracking this morning at 6:30 and it was already on the truck for delivery. I waited all freaking day, making my bathroom breaks as quick as possible lest I miss them again and would you know that stupid tire didn't show up until 5:15?? The delivery man was all 'i hope you didn't wait all day for me' and I was like 'actually I did' and he's like 'sorry. they scheduled you as my last delivery. I've already made 175 deliveries today'. UUUUUUUUUUUGH! But hey, at least my tire is here!!

So, I'm wired on coffee and I'm going to find something to occupy my time tonight. Maybe I'll do some listings. Maybe I'll just sit here and read some blogs. Yeah, that's more likely. Oh, and for the sake of not having only one picture in this post, I'm going to add one from Christmas Eve when the honey and I went to church.

Time for Tea (with Cream & Sugar!!)

2011-02-11T11:43:00.000-05:00

Hey folks. It's Friday, which I'm sure most of you have been waiting for all week long. I love Friday's too but not as much as I did when I was working full time. lol When you're home all week, it just doesn't hold the same appeal. Besides, I've again found myself sick with a sinus infection so that means I'm going to be home all weekend as well so what fun is that, you know. Even if I weren't all clogged up with gunk, I'd probably still stay home since the honey has drill this weekend.

Anyhow, I finally sorted through some of the goodies I bought while my mom was up here. They've been riding around in my car for the last month and a half and although I kept meaning to bring them inside, I'd always forget until the next time I heard them rattling around as I was driving down the road.

While the fam was visiting, we took a trip to PA where I found a new-to-me shop and my mom and I proceeded to spend a good two hours scouring the place and finding all sorts of goodies we couldn't live without. I spotted these beauties from across the room and made a beeline towards them. Honestly, the design is a little too country for me but I liked the crazing on them and when I turned them over and saw the markings, I couldn't just leave them there.

Unfortunately, the little creamer suffered extensive damage last week when the Spawn went outside to change out my flat tire and tossed all of the bags of stuff from the back of my SUV into the backseat. They were wrapped carefully but I guess 70 year old items are going to suffer when thrown around! Thankfully the sugar dish is intact!! Should I sell it?? I don't even know if it's all that collectible seeing how it took me a good 30 minutes of googling just to find out the pattern name (Cinderella bouquet) and that it wasn't fake!

So, moral of the story is to stop being lazy and bring those purchases inside when you get home and not let them hitch a ride in your car for 6 weeks!

I also picked up this sugar & creamer duo while my mom was here. We went to a gigantic thrift store about 40 mins away and I saw these in separate areas of the store. At first, I passed by the kitty on the left because it wasn't in excellent condition and I wasn't entirely sure what it was. Later, as I was going down another aisle, I saw the kitty on the right. I remembered the first cat and practically ran back to the other aisle to see if it was still there. It was and into my cart they went. They've got a few conditional issues, which isn't surprising when you hear the way the merchandise in the back is just thrown around by the workers there, but I love them all the same! And they're blue and pink and have the sweetest little smiles. How come real cats don't come in blue and pink?!?

I've been trying to find the energy to take pictures and list stuff but I'm sick and all I can do is sit here, barely holding myself in an upright position and stare blankly at the computer screen. I need to feel better by Monday because I have a ton of stuff I need to get accomplished!! I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Hello 2011, I'm late as usual

2011-02-09T15:37:00.000-05:00

Wow, already in month two of 2011 and I'm just now getting around to blogging. I have no excuses other than my life is not very exciting right now and I have nothing substantial to write about. It's much the same as it was 6 months ago, only I'm in love, and my future is very promising. I'm still hunting jobs, still hunting for housing, the ex has orders to move to freaking NORTH DAKOTA this year, I'm a bit saddened by the fact that I'm still jobless and soon to be homeless, but hey, let's not dwell on the crappy parts, okay?

My holidays were meh. The 'doggies' bought me some pajamas and a robe and a really nice camera bag for the camera I received last Christmas. My stocking was filled, my belly was fully, it wasn't as sucky a day as I anticipated. I spent the night with my guy, we had such a wonderful evening even with the absence of gifts and decorations and hoopla. It was a perfect ending to what I was sure was going to be a sucky day!

After Christmas, my mom, sister, niece and my sister's girlfriend came to Maryland to visit. Their visit wasn't that great, which was surprising, but it was short and they had a nice time thrifting and then they went snowtubing one afternoon. I spent much of their visit with a huge jaw ache which made me incredibly miserable but I tried to medicate myself to a point where I was pain-free but still able to function. It only sort of worked.

January was filled with afternoons spent driving around looking for rental houses, a day trip to Pennsylvania, lots of hours spent in the car just hanging out with my guy talking about our future. We celebrated his 40th birthday by doing a day trip through the countryside of Virginia and West Virginia and dinner at Ruby Tuesday. Pretty low key.

I've been busy the last week or so trying to go through and set aside items that need to get out of my office/home and find new houses. I've listed stuff on Etsy but I've also set up a new blog for items that I don't wish to sell on Etsy -- Vintage Whimsy's Tag Sale. Of course, that blog is empty now but hopefully I'll get lots of goodies listed there in the next day or two.

Btw, these pictures have very little to do with anything related in this post. It's just random pictures I've taken in the last month or so. lol The cow above was from a farm in Pennsylvania -- when we came down the road, we stopped the car & I rolled down the window and started 'moooooooooooing' at the cows and they all came running over!! There are some pictures of the puppies in the snow, some tins that I'm destashing on Etsy, the animal bedspread which recently sold on Etsy and then a nice little birdie embroidered tablecloth. Lol completely random pictures.

The Season of Giving

2010-12-08T07:48:00.001-05:00

It's also the season of receiving. Last week, I received a bacterial stomach infection. It was most lovely and provided me with much joy. NOT! It did, however, land me in the hospital last Wednesday where I proceeded to spend 7 hours in the emergency room receiving numerous bags of fluid, various shots, a couple of prescriptions, all whilst "donating" several huge vials of blood in the name of research. It was quite the experience, I tell you. This was, of course, right on the heels of Thanksgiving, a week in which I was stuck at home with another sinus infection. That's right -- I've basically been sick non-stop since September. My poor immune system has taken quite the beating this fall but I'm happy to report that after last week's *ahem* episode(s), which btw, took an entire 6 days to get over, I am feeling about 99.8% better. YAY!

Anyway, I participated in my first swap the other week. The wonderful Cristina over at Born to Fly was hosting a great vintage Christmas ephemera swap and I was lucky enough to get in on that action! I had so much fun sorting through all of my newly acquired Christmas cards, pairing those up with some other goodies, packaging them all up and sending them on their merry little way. Our packages are all swapped out and in route back to us and I cannot wait to see what everyone else sent. I should be receiving my package today, I'd guess, given the close proximity between Cristina and myself.

I finally got my white tree up yesterday and it's chock-full of pale pink, blue and minty green ornaments with a good dose of vintage Shiny Brites thrown in for good measure. I know I say it every single year but I freaking LOVE this tree. I swear if I'm ever lucky enough to live in a house with a big enough space in the office to have a tree year round, this sucker is going to stay up. It just makes me so happy to see it. Matter of fact, I came downstairs at 6:15 this morning, turned on the little space heater in my office, brewed a pot of coffee and then came in here and plugged the tree in and just sat and enjoyed my time on the computer with the glow of the tree behind me. LOVE IT!!

I don't believe I've ever had a tree topper on this tree because I could never find anything that seemed to fit the overall style of the tree so this year I created one! I had bought a bunch of these sequin picks last year which I normally put in the branches of trees but I started playing around with a few of them yesterday and realized they'd be a good tree topper. I pulled the ones I'd put in the tree back off, grouped them all together, secured the lot with rubber bands and then affixed it to the top of the tree and arranged the "branches" of the picks. I think it looks okay -- kind of wild and crazy but so what!

Last Monday, before my little bout with what can only be described as an intestinal DEMON, my friend came over and helped me sort through lots of bins of stuff that Will pulled off the attic. I went through a TON of clothing and donated a lot of it and then I went through bins of linens and really pared down the *LOVE & KEEP* pile and let's just say that the "love but need to sell" pile is tremendous at this point. I'm putting myself on a buying hiatus until which time my stash is more manageable. I will most likely be moving here in a couple of months so I don't want to have to cart all of this stuff from my current house to the next one. That means I'm going to be extra busy listing stuff in the next few weeks.

Oh, and before Thanksgiving, I had TWO interviews! One was with the company I had a phone interview with back in October and it went really well! The other was for a job I applied for back in September with a company that's only 10 mins from my house. Well, seems like I was the first choice for the first company and now I'm in a holding pattern at this point -- hopefully full time employment comes quickly so I can get on with my life!!

Anyhow, I'm outta coffee and need a refill so I can have the motivation to get busy listing stuff so I should go. I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season so far and that I'll be able to catch up on blogs sometime in the near future!!

Why I'm Glad the "Estate" Sale Sucked!!

2010-11-16T08:12:00.001-05:00

Yes, you read that right -- the estate sale (and I use that term very, very loosely!) was a total bust. Oh sure, the pictures on Craigslist looked SO promising. Of course, after doing more searching, I see that those are the same pictures this person had on Craigslist back in OCTOBER. So, needless to say, the items in the pictures weren't still at the sale. I did manage to find 4 books from the late 1800s and early 1900s, which I snagged for a $1 a piece. I should've asked the dude running the sale for some reimbursement for the gas I wasted driving up there. I'd never been to that area before, except when I would pass by the exit on my way to western MD or West Virginia and I've always said I wanted to go through there and see what it was like, so I guess I had that chance eh? It's a charming little area and I think it would be most fabulous to live up there -- lots of hills and land and horse farms. So pretty!

After leaving the waste-of-time sale, I switched on the GPS and put in that I wanted to avoid highways and headed back in the general direction of home. I love just getting out on the back roads and seeing what's out there! I ended up in Clarksville, MD but couldn't remember where this cute little store was that I'd passed one other time and googling didn't help either. I tried calling my friend, who coincidentally works in Clarksville but he didn't answer his phone so I headed on through and back towards Baltimore. I knew there was a "thrift shop" at this church in Catonsville and I've been meaning to go so that's what I did.

It was a cute little "shop" with lots of clothing and some knick-knacks and whatnot. I found a few holiday items, some great vintage tupperware and tons of vintage kid books! Yay! Plus, they were having a special discount that day wherein you pulled out a slip of paper from a bag & got an extra % off of your total. All of my goodies came out to $3.75 with the discount but I gave the lady a $5 and told her to keep the change. It's for the church so I didn't mind giving her the extra money. The church was having a roasted pork dinner that night and the entire building smelled so delicious -- I have no idea how those ladies were able to work in there all morning because after being in there for 20 mins, I was STARVING!!

I left the church & decided to just drive down the road a little further and see where it would take me. I came up to an intersection and knew I'd been in that vicinity before, only coming from another direction. I remembered that there was this great little park with lots of trails just down the street and that was the next item on my agenda. This park is never busy, which is a plus!! I've been there a few times before and have seen maybe 3 or 4 people there with their doggies walking the trails but I love that it's almost always empty. I parked, grabbed my Vera Bradley backpack which I've converted into a camera bag and set off to take some pictures of the last of the leaves!

I was the only car in the parking lot except for an employee and they soon left. He did stop me on his way out and told me that the main part of the park was having a celebration for its namesake -- Benjamin Banneker. Mr. Banneker was born a free African American in 1731 and was an astronomer, mathematician, almanac author and farmer, amongst other things. So, this was a little celebration in honor of his birthday. Unfortunately, I spent too much time on the trails and was late to the party so I didn't go. You can read more about Benjamin Banneker here.

The trails were empty, which is how I like them, and since it had been a while since we'd had any rain, they weren't muddy! Yay! I'm going to go back sometime soon and do some geocaching I think. Anyway, it was a great way to spend 45 or so minutes and the colors of the trees were so amazing. The sky was that deep shade of blue that always reminds me of the morning of September 11th -- you know, that deep, dark blue without any clouds in the sky. It was the perfect backdrop to the bright yellow leaves.

I saw lots of little birdies flying through the woods, heard something that was praying was a squirrel and generally had a pleasant, relaxing time just meandering through the woods. I took the shortest of the trails because I have this thing about being alone in the woods, which probably comes from watching too many episodes of CSI with the ex. I didn't feel comfortable traipsing all through the trails and since it was getting to be 3:00, it was already getting dark in there & I certainly didn't want to be in the woods after dark!
The rest of my afternoon was spent running various errands and getting ready to go out dancing with my friend. It was a lovely start to the weekend and I'm so glad I spent some time in nature since it's cold and rainy today and I'm sure all of the beautiful leaves will be gone by tomorrow!! So, even though the estate sale was a bust, my day ended up being so wonderful & that's just the reminder I needed -- sometimes the best things in life aren't things that can be bought!

A Pictureless Blog Post

2010-11-13T07:38:00.000-05:00

Good Saturday Morning my vintagey people! How's the weather where you are? It is another cold & frosty morning here in Maryland. I LOVE THIS WEATHER! It's actually colder now (31°) than when I got up an hour and a half ago! This is great weather though -- cold & crisp & crunchy first thing in the morning and then it warms up to around 60-65° by late afternoon. Perfect fall weather. And it's been nice & dry so no leaky basements. Yay! Did I mention there's still some color on the trees? Yeah, I'm thankful for that. Two years ago, it snowed on 18 November. I'm looking forward to winter and to snow but I really truly hope that we don't get another 5 feet at once this year. Unless of course I have a snowblower to help out because I don't think I can go through that again! Of course, with my current um, situation, I'd gladly accept being snowed in ALONE for a week or two. Now, if the reverse were to happen, I would be absolutely MISERABLE. Ah! But, like I said, there's no snow in the immediate future so I don't have to worry about that yet.

So, as I said before, this is a pictureless post. I'm sorry!! Unfortunately, I have no pictures I can add to this little blog post -- I am sorry to say I still haven't sorted through that big ol suitcase I bought at the estate sale two weeks ago. I did actually open it up and start to go through it but I ran out of time! That's how it always works, right? I mean it's not like I could just open it and not actually read through the letters and cards and before I knew it, I'd been sitting here for 2.5 hours! I think my plan of action is to pull out some big ol manila envelopes and put like items into those -- one for Christmas, Valentines Day, Birthdays, Easter, etc. Then one for letters -- there's a lot of letters! There's also various other pieces of ephemera like a few drivers licenses, business cards, greyhound racing stuff. It's going to be exciting to finally get it sorted but I think it's going to take some time!

So, today I'm heading out for a 28 mile voyage in hopes of snagging some super great deals at this big ol sale that's being promoted as an "estate" sale and claims to have 2 big ol barns PACKED FULL of crap! Yay! The person running this sale cleans out estates and said that most of the stuff has been sitting in storage for 50+ years. There's pictures on Craigslist and it looks promising. So, I'm going to go the the ATM, get a little bit of moohla and then head on over to this sale. Wish me luck -- the ad said something about vintage Christmas and one of the pictures shows a Shiny Brite box (yall know I can spot a Shiny Brite box in a picture full of misc crap!) and the ad said lots of items were $1. Please, God, let the ornaments be $1/box!!

Hope you're having a swell weekend and that you find lots of great vintage goodies whilst out & about today!

Impromptu Road Trips

2010-11-09T13:50:00.000-05:00

As I'm sure you know if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, I love road trips. To me, there's nothing better than getting in the car & just driving. It's so exciting to be on the road with no real plans and no expectations. Unfortunately, gas is still ridiculously expensive (to me anyway) so I don't do this very often. Maybe if I drove a more fuel efficient car, I'd get out there & do more exploring but since I drive a gas hog SUV which only gets 250 miles on a tank ($48 to fill, btw), I'm mostly combining errands these days and trying to limit my gas consumption!

Anyhow, this past weekend instead of going to the DC Big Flea, I stayed in Baltimore. Well, on Saturday anyway. Sunday, my friend and I woke up sort of late and then headed out for what was supposed to be a day of browsing antique stores up in Havre de Grace. He assured me that he didn't need to use my GPS as we left the Sonic where we'd stopped for lunch. It became quite evident that we were heading the wrong direction to pick up I-695 but the scenery was so nice on this road that we just kept going.

Eventually, I found part of a Maryland map in the pocket on the back of the seat and I realized we were nearing Westminster, MD, which is a gorgeous little town not far from the Pennsylvania border. We continued our drive into Westminster and then over to Thurmont where we made a quick stop at Catoctin State Park. This park is so beautiful and I can't believe it's so close to me and I've never been there before. It was cold and we weren't dressed for any outdoor activities so we enjoyed the drive through the park and vowed to come back and do some exploring soon!

After leaving the park, we headed into Hagerstown, MD where we stopped for a caffeine break at the Sheetz gas station. Once we loaded up on junk food & coffee, we made our way down through Sharpsburg and Antietam and into Harpers Ferry, WV. My friend had never been to those parts of the states before so it was nice to see him experience it for the first time. The leaves were just beautiful!! I thought for sure that it was going to be all brown & dead but I was pleasantly surprised to see lots of color still on the trees.

We visited some of the historic buildings in town and took a walk across the bridge which goes over the Potomac River. Well, we only made it about half way across the bridge because I am terrified of both bridges and heights and was starting to feel a panic attack come on so I quickly turned around and go the hell back on solid ground!!

Of course with the time change on Sunday morning, it was starting to get dark around 4 so we decided to get back in the car and head towards home. I'm so lucky that I have a friend that really enjoys just getting out and doing things like this. And I'm lucky that I live so close to such beautiful areas that are within an hour or two drive from here. So, I missed the DC Big Flea and all of the holiday goodies but I had an amazing day with someone that really makes me happy and I saw beautiful scenery. I'd say it was a pretty good way to spend the day, wouldn't you?!

No Tricks Just Treats

2010-11-05T12:11:00.001-04:00

Vintage-y Peeps!! It's November -- can yall believe that? I can't. This year is going so fast!! I had planned on blogging last Saturday so I could show off my fabulous big ol Gurley Jack o Lantern candle I found thrifting a few weeks ago. Sixty measly cents! Alas, I decided around 2 that afternoon that I simply must dress up for Halloween (well, that night actually) and went off in search of a costume! I was a caaaa-ute little Scottish girl and as soon as I get off my lazy you know what and get my cord to my phone, I'll upload a picture of me in my costume.

Anyhoo, earlier on Saturday I went to a yard sale. It's the first one I've been to all year. Yeah, kind of missed out this spring/summer/fall. Just too much going on in my life to go saling. This one was so fabulous though that I am almost regretful that I got there so late in the day. However, I managed to get some of the most amazing things I've ever found at a yard sale.

Lookie, a whole box of ephemera to sort thru:

But you know what's better than a box to sort through? Hmm? Lemme tell ya. It's having a whole gigantic suitcase to sort through:

As I was talking with the person having the yard sale, I found out that the majority of the items for sale were from her late aunt & uncle. The aunt had passed away some time back but the uncle had died recently. The lady was telling me about her aunt and how she'd ran a brothel in DC back in the 30s (?) and 40s. She'd been married 3 times and she and her last husband were married for an incredibly long period of time - something like 40 or 50 years if I remember correctly.

Anyhow, as I was going to check out, I asked her how much she'd take for the smaller box of ephemera and she asked me if I'd looked in the luggage. I told her I'd seen the luggage but didn't look in it. She said "well, there's a ton of this stuff in there. Let's go get it!" so she did just that! I sat on the pavement and started digging through the suitcase and finding tons of things I absolutely had to have. After 15 minutes or so, she came back over and offered to sell me the whole dang thing! Now, I did something I never ever thought I'd do. I paid a princely sum of $50 for the entire suitcase plus the other box of goodies. I almost died having to part with that kind of cash but to me, having the luxury of being able to search through it all in my own time was worth the price. I am not even exaggerating when I say that there are thousands of pieces of memorabilia in this suitcase -- pictures of the aunt and uncle are various jazz clubs in DC, tons and tons of letters written during WW2, hundreds if not a thousand cards from all of the holidays. ACK!!

Somehow, I've managed to resist the urge to dig in to all of this wonderfulness until now. I've got the entire afternoon and I'm planning on sorting through it all! Like the yard sale lady said "it's kind of neat that you're the first person to go through this stuff in years". I am so excited. Another yard sale patron asked the lady if she wasn't sad to be getting rid of all of this family history and she said she'd had a lot of family members die in recent years and she just couldn't keep it all. She also said she had a ton of boxes in her attic that have more of this stuff, from various other family members. I gave her my card and told her to please contact me when she gets around to sorting through it all.

I cannot keep all of this stuff, no matter how much I want to so I'm going to go through and keep my absolute favorites and then decided what to do with the rest of it. I think a few pieces will go to the Christmas swap I just signed up for today. I've never done a swap before but I'm really excited to participate in this one.

So, this weekend is the DC Big Flea and I think I'm going to have to make the 60 mile trek to go check out all of the awesome Christmas goodies. The Baltimore Big Flea 2 weekends ago was kind of a disappointment so I'm hoping there's more vendors & more Christmas goodies in Chantilly! What do you all have planned this weekend??

Let's Play a Game!!

2010-10-27T16:48:00.000-04:00

I like to call this little game "What's in the Pot??"

Any guesses? Hmm?

(BTW - Don't you looove my vintage Club pot? I swear I use this pot more than any of the others I own. I'm so glad I found it at the thrift store last year. I found a smaller pot a few months ago & hope I can find more soon)

Okay, here's another clue. Let's peek inside the pot, shall we?

Hmmm. Melting butter. Yum! Well, browning butter, actually!

Another clue, this time it's more Butterprint Pyrex!

Surely by now you've guessed that I was making Rice Krispy Treats, right?!? Oh, but let me assure you that these weren't just any ol rice krispy treats. Nah. These were the most scrumptious Rice Krispy Treats that I've ever shoved in my pie hole. And, in case there was any doubt, I've shoved a lot of rice krispy treats in my mouth!!

I found the most delicioso recipe over at this blog - Seddyblog and had bookmarked these to try "someday". Well, that day just happened to be today! It's hot as a mother outside, it's 80° in my house, it's been raining all day and I've still been in a semi-bitchy, poor pity me mood. So, I cheered myself up by making these amazing treats.

I'm glad I had the willpower to take a picture before I dove in. Yeah, I'll admit -- I didn't even wait for them to cool before I started scarfing them down! And I totally licked the pot clean and the spatula too. It's just been one of those days!

Here's the recipe:

1 stick of butter (original recipe called for unsalted but I used salted & they turned out perfect!)

10 oz of marshmallows

6 cups of Rice Krispies

1/4 tsp salt (I omitted this since my butter was salted!)

1) Melt butter in a thick bottomed pan over medium heat. Let the butter continue to melt until it's a nice golden color and smells nutty. The original recipe said that the butter would have brown flakes but my pot is dark & I didn't see flakes. I didn't want to take a chance of it burning though!

2) Remove pot from heat & stir in marshmallows until melted. Mine didn't melt all the way before the pot/butter started to cool so I put it back on low heat for a few seconds.

3) Stir in cereal until thoroughly mixed. Sneak a few tastes "just to make sure". Forget that there are pieces of cereal & marshmallow on your oven mitt, take mitt off, place under arm whilst opening the backdoor to let yapping dog inside.

4) Realize your stupid mistake when you go to get oven mitt and realize it's now glued to your arm pit. Scrape off already dried marshmallows and rice krispies from arm.

5) Pour what's left in the pot into a greased 13 x 9 dish. Smooth it out with a greased piece of parchment paper. Or, do what I did and use the leftover greasy wrapper from the stick of butter!

6) Attempt to wait until treats have cooled before you start to devour. Go ahead. I bet you $10000 you can't resist eating them all warm & gooey!

Cookies, Colds and Crazy Ass Ex's!

2010-10-26T15:09:00.000-04:00

Hey guys. After another two month hiatus, I'm going to try to get back to blogging on a regular basis. I shall start this post with a picture of some of my favorite things on the planet:

Vintage Pyrex!! Is there anything better?? I think not. Well, that's not entirely true. One thing that is better than vintage pyrex is thick, chewy oatmeal raisin walnut cookies, which is exactly why I had 5 pieces of vintage pyrex on the counter to begin with.

I decided last week that I really needed some of these cookies so I went in search of a new recipe online and found one here: SmittenKitchen. I added more walnuts than the recipe called for and also didn't chill the dough and I think they turned out AMAZING!! This recipe made 30ish tablespoon sized balls of dough.

See the finished product? Don't they look yummo? Yeah, they were. I just polished off the last 3 a few minutes ago. Now, before yall go thinking I chowed down on all of those, I have to let it be known that I bagged up 18 of them and took them to a friend. So, in reality, I only ate 12 cookies. Since Saturday. Which in my opinion isn't too bad. Plus, they were semi-healthy with the nuts and oats and fruit. LOL Like the way I justify that, don't you??

And you know it's a labor of love to use Pyrex since it can't be washed in the dishwasher. It's worth it though because look how pretty it is when it's all clean and sitting there drying on the counter. I may or may not have let it sit out for a few days just so I could stare at it every time I went in the kitchen!

So.......

The last 8 weeks have been insanely busy!! I went to SC back on 15 September for 14 days. It was the first time I'd gone anywhere all summer long so it was definitely a much needed break. Unfortunately, the day before I left for SC I started getting a cold and by the time I made it to SC I was terribly sick with bronchitis. So, instead of spending my time down there having fun & visiting everyone, I spent the majority of the days and nights curled up in bed, hacking my lungs up. That was miserable. In fact, I'm still hacking a few times a day and it's been FIVE freaking weeks. And my sinuses are still all congested too thanks to seasonal allergies.

And in other news....

Things here at home have been so stressful. I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown at the beginning of September, which prompted my visit down to SC. I'm *still* looking for a damn job. You know, one that will afford me to move out without having to eat at the soup kitchen or live under a bridge. It's impossible to find a job! And I'm stressing out about everything. Living here at this house is becoming increasingly hard, despite my best efforts to keep the peace and keep my distance. I'm routinely called horrible names, made to feel like crap, having to deal with his emotional abuse. Most of the time I'm able to ignore it but I won't lie -- sometimes it gets to me and I find myself just crying uncontrollably. I just really need some good thoughts and/or prayers that I'll find gainful employment very very soon. My only other option is to move back to South Carolina and I desperately want to stay in Maryland.

And with that.....

I'm gonna go. I need to do laundry, clean the house, do the dishes, edit pictures and try to list some stuff on Etsy. Oh, and stop by and catch up on blogs!! I can't wait to see what you all have been up to the last 2 months!

Vintage Playing Cards

2010-08-26T15:03:00.000-04:00

Hola, my vintage-y peeps. Today is Thursday which means it's time to share things for VTT, hosted by Colorado Lady. Yay! I love Thursdays. Not just for VTT but because it's also 25% off day at the Value Village, which is where most of these great items came from.

Today, I'm sharing with you my collection of vintage playing cards. Well, I don't really "collect" them so much as I buy them to turn around and sell, but they do spend some time in my house so I guess we'll just pretend that it's a collection!!

I think the first set I ever bought was the cute little Beagle cards above. I just loved their sweet faces!! And these roses? Meh - not really my thing at all but they were in a baggie full of other items so they are here too.

I don't really care for these lilies either but somehow they ended up in my cart, in the bag and in the house. I should probably redonate these & get them outta here!

Now these flowers? These funky, bright flowers that remind me of embroidery? Yeah, these I like! I think I've sold them all though so all I have left are the memories. I'm okay with that!! Less clutter, ya know?

I bought these duck cards a few months ago and I just love them. They're manly! And the colors are so bright. I mean they're a little too manly and too country for me to ever display them in any way but they're for sale in my Etsy shop and someone else can enjoy them! lol

These are my absolute favorite cards ever! I just love the colors and the horse and the spunky little blond riding said horse. They came in a velvety box which was supposed to have another deck inside as well, except with a boy on a horse but there wasn't a full deck of those. I wish I would've kept a few of these for myself as they'd look fab beside the pastel color horse show ribbons that I picked up at the thrift store a few months back!!

And finally, I just picked these up today! I love vintage bird prints so these are just a super fab find!! I haven't checked yet but it seems like they are complete decks and it's going to be awfully hard for me to part with these. I love how the bird on the right looks like he's hollering out to his birdie wife "hey, where the hell's my dinner?" hahaha

So, there you have it -- most of my vintage playing card collection. I love cards even though I don't play any card games. Just seeing them around reminds me of my late PaPa. He was always sitting at the table playing cards. I can still picture being a little girl and going to his & MaMa's home and pulling open the drawer in the kitchen and seeing stacks of cards all rubber-banded together. Aww! Of course he never had any of these fancy schmancy cards!! No velvety boxes of cards, just the regular packs you'd buy at the checkout at Revco. I'm definitely more partial to the nice boxed sets though.

Thanks for visiting me today for VTT. I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my fabulous thrift store finds!!

VTT: My Someday House

2010-08-05T20:46:00.001-04:00

Hola, my vintage-y peeps. It's that time again: Vintage Thingies Thursday hosted by Colorado Lady. This week, I'm sharing some fab-u-lous vintage dinnerware that I picked up last week at the Value Village. I've always been one of those people that's bought things for my "someday house" and now that I'm moving on with my life, I've started collecting things that I'll use in my own place one of these days. As I've said before, I've always wanted a pink & aqua kitchen and I think these will be perfect in such a kitchen, along side all of my Butterprint and Pink Daisy Pyrex, and my great vintage aqua Club cookware!!

I've long admired this pattern but let's face it - I am cheap - and I was never willing to spend whatever the asking price was. Until last week, that is. I scored the cups and small plates for a mere .45 cents each and the dinner plates for $1.20 each. I'm still kicking myself in the rear for not buying all of the available ones! How dumb was that?? Then again, what was I really going to do with china for 8 or 16? I mean these are adorable and all but not exactly gender-neutral! And as it stands, I don't really have large gatherings of females over for tea & biscuits so the set of 4 is probably sufficient!!

In addition to the 4 cups, salad plates and dinner plates, I also snatched up 2 serving bowls for a very good price! I'm definitely on the hunt for other pieces in this pattern. There's quite a few pieces on Etsy & I'm sure tons of it on Ebay but I'd rather hunt for them myself. That way I don't accumulate too much of it right away!

Anyway, I'm still plugging along here at home. My friend is having one of "those" parties this weekend so I've been spending a lot of time helping her plan our fun little girls night in. The food is hilarious, the decor is going to be great & I'm so looking forward to getting out of the house for a few hours prior to going dancing! Hope you all are having swell weeks - I'll be stopping in soon!!

I'm also sharing my new-to-me dinnerware over at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Fridays. Please stop in & have a look at all of the fabulousness over there too!!

Hello? Remember Me?

2010-07-31T15:02:00.000-04:00

I'm doubting no one remembers me because I've certainly not had any comments asking where I was or if I'd fallen off of the face of the earth!! Haha I've taken a very long blogging break - from posting and reading - and I'm hoping that I can start doing both again. 

So, I've got some important news to share with you all. I kind of eluded to it back in May but I wasn't comfortable sharing anything at that point but now that it's been over 3 months, I'm sure that my decision was the right one. Will and I are separated. Well, as separated as you can be when you're forced to still cohabitate with each other. I've been looking very hard for full-time employment, sent out dozens of resumes and nothing has panned out yet. I did have an interview this past Wednesday and the lady was super nice and seemed interested but she did let me know that she wasn't hiring until the third or fourth week of August. Please, please keep your fingers, toes, eyes crossed that I'll get the job. It's one that will actually pay me enough to live on.

So, aside from that bit of news, I thought I'd also share with you all this bit of happiness - I've lost 36.5 pounds since April!!! Isn't that amazing?? I take a new picture every week right before I go dancing and I can really see the difference in my face. Here are a few pictures from the middle of May through this month.

Things have been stressful as all hell here at home, as I'm sure you can imagine, but I'm making do as best as possible. My family has offered to come help me pack up and to move me back down to SC but I just really don't want to do that. I mean I like Maryland, this is my home now. I guess if I can't find any permanent full-time work that I'll have to move back but I'm praying it doesn't come to that.

So, remember the earlier this spring when I was absolutely panicking about turning 30? Well, as it turns out, this has been a fabulous year so far! Turning 30 left me feeling so empowered - the changes have been amazing. I finally felt like I could leave a bad situation, with no regrets, knowing I'd done my absolute best to work it out and that it just wasn't going to happen. I've focused - really focused - on losing weight and getting in shape. I work out several times a week, I've given up beer (replaced it with rum & diet coke!) and I still haven't had chocolate since I gave it up for Lent!! As I said in my last blog post, I go dancing every single Saturday night. I love dancing and that's something I'm never giving up again. I've realized that giving up parts of who I am and what I like, really sucked the life out of me. I'm only sorry that it took me 7 long years to realize that!!

I was home alone last night and I was feeling a bit down (surprisingly!) so instead of sitting here and allowing myself to wallow in my own misery, I decided I'd do something I hadn't done in way too long - I got crafty!! I started digging through boxes of craft ~~crap~~, I mean supplies, and I found this:

An old composition notebook I scored at the thrift store for 45 cents. Actually, there are two of them and this is the second one. I kind of forgot to take a picture of the other one before I started altering it! Anyway, the pages are numbered, slightly yellowed and it's perfect for recording all of the new changes in my life. I really found the inspiration for even doing this kind of journal by reading this blog: Thrifty Miss Priss. Robin is so crafty & creative and I just love the journals she makes. They're always crammed full of vintage goodness so I hope mine turns out half as good as hers!

So, the ugly gray comp notebook went from plain & boring to this:

I used the word bliss as a reminder of what I'm looking for. A life that's happy and stress-free. One that's full of love and peace and serenity. One that's filled with things I truly treasure. Of course, I had to use my favorite colors for the cover and some of the inside pages but I also went through my stacks of magazines from the 30s and 40s and found hilarious pictures that are so applicable to my current situation so I had to rip those out & put them throughout the journal. This one cracks me up:

Bwaaaaaaaahahaha Notice how I had to add in the word "not". And that's just the reality of the situation. It wasn't forever. I mean sure, if I'd felt like spending the rest of my life being constantly betrayed and lied to, it probably could've lasted forever, but I deserve so much more than that!!

My journal-ish notebook thingie is definitely going to be a work in progress, which is how it should be - I'll add to it here & there, tweak it into what I want it to be and I'll treasure it always! It's a permanent reminder of my life as it is now!

Anyway, I should get going. I need to clean the house, package an Etsy order, get dressed and go to my second favorite store on earth - Target!! Hope you all are having great summers. I'll try to stop by soon & catch up with everyone!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

2010-05-22T07:24:00.000-04:00

Hey guys - today is my 30th birthday. You know, the one I've been dreading for the last year. I thought for sure that I would spontaneously combust at midnight but so far, so good!! Unfortunately, I'm spending my birthday quite depressed. You guys, so much has happened in the last month & I just can't get into it right now but I'm dealing with lots of life changes & it sucks spending your birthday all sad and confused.

Some random pictures from last week while the family visited - like this one from the air show on Friday!

The whole month hasn't been completely terrible though. My sister, mom and niece came to visit me last week. We had a great time together and it was so nice for them to come here instead of me having to go there!! We went to the big air show down at Andrews AFB, to Pennsylvania Dutch country, thrifting! My sister and I went out dancing last Saturday night & had a great time. We used to go out dancing 2-3 days a week when we were younger but after we both got married and I moved away, things changed.

Aren't we cute? I don't think we look anything alike though! No one ever believes that we're sisters!!

Will started his new job on Wednesday - the drive from here in Baltimore to down to the Pentagon is proving to be even longer & more ridiculous than his previous commute to Andrews. He starts his crazy shifts on Monday so that will take some getting used to I'm sure. He did have the first 18 days of May off though and he spent them finishing off some projects around the house, traveling to VA Beach to see his mom and to WV to see the rest of his family. I'm glad he was able to go & visit everyone before starting his new job since he won't have any vacation time for the next year!! Still no follow-on orders but he may decide to try to stay in the DC area. I don't know how that's going to work out yet.

(I love the Blue Angels - it's my favorite part of any air show. Shhh! I like them even more than I like the Thunderbirds - sorry AF, but the Navy's show is so much better!!)

Oh, and I've been trying to find a "real" job for the last few weeks. I've thoroughly enjoyed being the stay-at-home wife over the last 7 years but it's time to get a j.o.b. that will allow me to support myself. The whole Etsy business isn't going to provide that so I have to get serious & find something that will afford me to actually live and not just provide some fun money

My silly niece looking out my sunroof while watching the Blue Angels

So, I'm going out dancing tonight to celebrate my birthday. Well, that's kind of a lie because for the last few months, I've gone out every Saturday night. I don't know what happened but one weekend while I was sitting at home - again - I decided that I felt like the life was just being sucked right out of me. I'm not a homebody by any stretch of the imagination and for the last few years, I've just been I dunno, complacent?! and given up all of the things I enjoy doing (besides thrifting!) and I just felt this urge to make some changes. So, I started to go out on Saturday nights. And you know what?? It's done amazing things for my self-esteem!!

Aren't goats adorable? We visited this Petting Zoo while in PA and the goats were so friendly!

I'm really hoping that this funk I've been in the last few weeks passes quickly and that this year will be amazing. I'm sure it will be. I've lost over 20 lbs in the last 3 weeks from being all depressed (yay!!) and I want to join a gym & start getting back into working out on a regular basis. I know once I start doing things to improve myself, my depression will go away. I guess I could just as easily go to the dr & get some medication for this but I don't think I need that. I just had to have the courage to do some really difficult things and realize that it's going to suck for a while because change is always hard but in the end, I'll be so much happier!! Right?! Hope you all have been doing well - I need to go around & visit my bloggy friends soon!! Maybe tomorrow while I'm recovering from a well-deserved hangover! haha

VTT - Games

2010-04-22T09:52:00.001-04:00

Good Morning my favorite vintage peeps!! I'm actually going to participate in VTT today. Woohoo! I've been slacking for the last few weeks even though I have tons of ideas of things to share on VTT. Anyhow, I'm here today & I'm sharing with you all some of my favorite vintage boards games. I mostly buy these for the awesome graphics but on occasion, we do play them too!

First up, this Educational Play Set. Counting, phonics, telling time - it's all included! Yay!

Here are some of the game pieces - love the graphics!

A couple of years ago I found this plastic puzzle of America. I think I'll repurpose it & use the states in my scrapbook. You know, the scrapbook I'm going to eventually make of my cross-country drive in 2008. lol Yeah, one day!!

I always check the game section at the thrift stores for vintage games and usually I don't find anything worth purchasing but the other week, I totally scored!! I bought all three of these games for less than $5 (total, not each!!) but I found stickers on the sides of the boxes with prices ranging for $4 - $10 which leads me to believe someone either had these in some sort of overpriced yard sale or maybe in a booth. Either way, they were cheap at the thrift & they came home with me!!

There was a game-ish type thing to teach Bridge. I looked in the box when I got home and realized I'm never going to play bridge, even with this very helpful tool. It looks so confusing. And boring. The only time I can foresee myself wanting to play bridge will be when I'm 75 and sitting in my retirement village on the coast of Florida. So, yeah, I have a few years to worry about learning!

Maybe I'll sell this since I'm not planning on using it! Any takers?

And I bought this game in case my mother-in-law comes to visit. Shes' a self-confessed Bingo freak! lol I'm kidding about the buying it for her part but not about the bingo addiction! I bought this because it was a good price. And it has wooden numbers! None of that crappy plastic junk they have out today!

And finally, my absolute favorite vintage game I've ever found - this amazing 1960s version of Go To The Head Of The Class! I almost squealed right there in the game aisle of the thrift store. I cut through the tape holding the box shut, made sure all of the pieces were accounted for & almost had to throw an elbow up in the face of the person getting ready to take it out of my hands! What is it with people in thrift stores? RUDE!!

This boy cracks me up. He looks terrified...like he's about to get his azz whooped for saying a dirty word or something. Wait, is he shooting the bird?!

And how about Dad over here with his smirky little smile. Yeah, you know what's on his mind! And then there's Sister, pointing and taunting. Get these kids some therapy, for real!

Anyhow, back to the actual game! The very same day I bought this, I tortured Will for 3 hours one night by making him play this with me! It was hard!! The question book was, obviously, from the 1960s and some of those questions were so irrelevant to today. I'll have to go through the booklet again and post some of the questions sometime. lol They were hilarious and I eventually won, which you know I just had to brag about for the following 48 hours. He's used to me bragging because I do it every night when we watch Jeopardy! lol

Aren't the graphics adorable? There is no way I'm ever parting with this game. In fact, I think I'm going to make Will suffer through another 3 hours tonight!!

I mean this game is perfect for us - see, there is even a Cowboy Joe and sometimes Will thinks he's a cowboy! And I always envision myself looking exactly like Mommy, pearls and all. hahaha Not!

Thanks for joining me for VTT!

My Trip to SC - Pictures from Charleston

2010-04-21T15:51:00.000-04:00

Hey vintage peeps - it's been a while, eh? I had a perfectly good excuse for my absence the first couple of weeks, but the last two? Nah, just haven't felt like blogging! I had an amazing time in SC though! Will and I went down there back in March for 9 days and we ate tons of great food, went on some day trips, renovated my parent's bathroom. It was great seeing my family & visiting some of my favorite places in SC!

One day, Will and I went to Charleston. I love Charleston & hadn't been there since the summer before we moved here I guess. That was 4 years ago and for as much as things change in that amount of time, it's nice to go back to somewhere that hasn't changed in centuries!! The weather was great - sunny and warm - and Will and I spent several hours just walking through the city & parks and pretending we were tourists.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day.

Our view from the parking garage. We could've easily parked on a lower level, but what fun would that have been when we could drive to the top & take in this outstanding view of the new bridges?!

After we ate lunch at Wild Wing Cafe, we walked down to the Waterfront Park. I was hoping we'd see some dolphins but no such luck. I took a ton of pictures of other things though - like this one of Will. He's holding my Vera Bradley bag. lol

And then there was this guy. His eyes totally creep me out!!

This single, sandy ladybug was nice enough to sit there while I took a picture.

Will and I toured this boat one day while we still lived in Charleston. It was, uh, interesting. And I was quite thankful to get off! I have this issue with claustrophobia and those tiny little hallways weren't helping things. I was happy enough to just take a picture of the Yorktown from across the river - no need to go on another tour!

While we were sitting in one of the swings down at the waterfront park, we heard the familiar roar of a C-17, the planes Will used to fly on before we moved here. Those things are huge!! Funny story - Monday, Will and I went grocery shopping and he picked up a package of brats and was like "these are the kind we used to fix on the c-17s when we'd fly back home from Europe. We'd start cooking them in the oven on the plane when we'd take off and they'd be ready halfway home". I was like "isn't that a 9 hour flight??" and he said "yeah, it took about 5 hours to cook them in the oven." Hahaha Can you imagine?! Five hours to warm up a brat?!

Here's the famous Pineapple Fountain. I don't know why I didn't have some of my wedding pictures done around this thing. We saw a bride getting her pictures made here and it made me really regret my choice of photographer for my own wedding.

One of my favorite things to do in Charleston is to walk around looking at all of the historic houses. I love seeing the old bricks, the old iron fences, all of the details. This house had amazing window boxes.

Aren't the tiles on this roof amazing? I love them. It reminds me of the tile floors in bathrooms.

Here's another picture of my favorite steeple in Charleston.

Our wedding reception was held in this building. It's the Old Exchange Building & Provost Dungeon.

Wow, this turned out to be kind of long so I will come back (hopefully tomorrow) with pictures from our day in Myrtle Beach!!

Floods and Family

2010-03-24T09:19:00.004-04:00

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

2010-03-08T20:26:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-04T08:04:00.002-05:00

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!

Vintage Thingies Thursday

2010-02-25T07:29:00.002-05:00

Hey y'all! I'm doing something today that I haven't done in quite a while. I'm participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday hosted by Colorado Lady. I don't think I've taken part of VTT since Colorado Lady took over for The Apron Queen but I think it's time to start doing this again each week. Gives me the motivation to actually take pictures of my vintage goodies!!

Ahem.

Moving along.

Today, I'm sharing with you some of my favorite vintage planters. You know, those little ceramic planter thingies that came with flowers when little Johnny was born back in 1962. Yeah, those kind. For some reason, one of my local thrifts has started to really jack up the price on these things so when I find them for a decent price, I buy them. Otherwise, they can sit on the shelf because as cute as they are, I'm so not paying more than $3.00 for one.

Anyhow. Without further adieu, here's my rather small collection of planters. I have these hanging on the wall in my office/scraproom/studio/place-that-collects-junk.

I love the duck. That was the first one I bought. She was sitting the shelf last year and like the biggest dummy in the world, I decided to HAMMER THE WALL beneath the shelf and she took a fall. You can't see it, but her butt is damaged. Severely. I could probably attempt to glue her back together but whatev. You can't even see it and knowing me, I'd end up super gluing my fingers together.

See. You can't even tell that she's damaged, can you? Nope. Haha So until the time that I feel like inflicting some torture upon myself in the form of gluing my hand to the table, she's going to stay broken!

The ducky sits beside this cute little pair of booties. I like them okay but with the other 3 planters being animals, the booties look a little out of place. I may have to replace them with something else. Like a dog. Or a sheep. Hmm. I need to find a dog. Or a sheep. Ooh, today *is* 25% off day at the Value Villages so maybe I'll find a replacement!!

And these two, ack!! aren't they just too cute? Now, honestly, I don't really like owls. Well, not the ugly brown and avocado green monstrosities from 1976 because those remind me of these ugly coasters my mom had when we were little. There were 4 coasters and they all had different, ugly, scary, mean looking owls on them. ::shudder:: But this owl? This cute little blue owl with the flowers and the baby owl? Yeah, I think she's pretty cute! I think this is the only owl thing I own though and I intend on keeping it that way. Unless, of course, I find another planter like this but in pink. Come on, y'all know me. The pink owl would be coming home with me and I might be tempted to pay more than $3.00 for it too!

And the cute, pink kitty sitting beside Miss-Not-So-Scary Owl, she's just adorable! Actually, I think it's a he, even though it's pink. The face just looks like a boy. lol And boys can like pink too. Just ask my dog Marty - he looooves pink. So, back to the cat, I quite like the little flower on the top of its head. Is it supposed to be a hat? A flower hat?! I dunno, but it's cute!!

Now, most people would probably use these to store bits and bobs of stuff but I keep mine empty. Well, except for the dust bunnies that probably live in there. Why? Because I know if I started putting things in there, I'd totally forget about them and then I'd spend 2 hours tearing my office apart trying to find whatever it was that was conveniently tucked away in the cat's behind. So, I don't do that to myself. I just leave them empty & smile at them each time I glance up at the wall & see them sitting there looking all cute!!

Thanks for visiting me today to check out my great vintage items. Be sure to stop in over at Colorado Lady and see everyone else that's participating!!

More Snow? For Reals?

2010-02-23T18:11:00.007-05:00

What's up peeps? I was sitting here at my desk, minding my own business, listening to Run DMC and reading some blogs when my weather.com add-on thing alerted me to the fact that we're under a Winter Storm Watch until Friday morning. So, being the little investigator that I am, I turn to my favorite source for accurate weather information (ahem, not weather.com because they are ALWAYS wrong!). A few weeks ago I found the most helpful, albeit kind of confusing at first weather forums over at Accuweather.com. All their talk about this model and that model...pffft...whatev - I totally don't understand all that mess but they have been almost completely 100% accurate about predicting the last 2 storms. And lets just say that some of the people on there are calling for more than 5" of snow. I'm going to have to keep checking back to see what they think will happen here in MD.

So, yeah. More snow is on the way and I'd be surprised if it were only 5 inches! I was just commenting early today that we needed some fresh snow to cover up the ugly grassy patches that are showing up near our walkway! Woohoo!! And, this time, if a blizzard decides to drop 4 more feet of snow, Will IS HOME. Thank the good Lord! It might be nice to be snowed in with him for a week! It could also turn out to be a week in Hell if we were snowed in together. We have the tendency to get on each others nerves if we're around each other constantly for more than like 72 hours! I'm going to attribute that to the fact that for our entire marriage, he's had jobs which kept him from home for at least a few days a month so we really don't know what it's like to be around each other constantly. Better get used to that though considering this next job will have him home every night. Oh boy.

Anyhow, no more snow talk until I see some flakes falling! Promise!

Will emailed 'the powers that be' the other night with our list of base choices. The first 4 were in Colorado, then Spokane, Anchorage, a base in Idaho and finally, a base in Massachusetts. Will thinks we should know by Christmas where we'll be heading next summer. It's both exciting and scary!

And yesterday was the monthly reminder that my 30th birthday is fast approaching. Only 3 more months. Ack! I really need to get busy planning some sort of vacation! I would love, LOVE to go to Scotland for my 30th but I don't see that happening. We're going to have to take whatever vacation I decide on before my birthday anyhow because Will's job will start on the 18th. Think he'd mind if I took a solo trip to Scotland and the UK? That would be so amazing! I'm not sure I'd want to come back though. Well, I'd come back long enough to pack my house up, grab Will and the puppies and contact the post office with my new forwarding address! I'm not sure why we didn't put England on our list of places we'd like to get orders. That was kind of dumb!

Anyhow...it's time to relax, catch up on some blogs & stalk the accuweather.com forums for the latest info on the impending storm. If you don't see me again for a few days, please send out the search & rescue party. I've sworn off chocolate for Lent so it's going to be challenging around here if I'm snowed in for any length of time! lol

PS- aren't my flowers gorgeous? These are the ones Will sent to me for Valentines Day. They are holding up quite well, don't you think?

Lookie!!

2010-02-22T08:09:00.004-05:00

Y'all, my amazing apron from Suzy over at Georgia Peachez arrived last week. Of course, my husband didn't bother to tell me about it until the following day but we won't get into that! I found the inner strength to refrain from ripping the package open immediately because I knew I'd want to take pictures of everything so I waited until we had a free moment (ahem, yesterday) to open it. It. is. amazing!! Love!

First, look how cute the packaging was. Wrapping it in pattern pieces is such a great idea! Now I know what to do with all of those horrible 1970s patterns that are clogging up my cabinet! lol I'll start wrapping gifts to my mom in them. She's probably the only person I know that would "get it". Will would look at me like I'd lost my mind.

And here's my cute apron just waiting for me to try her on! Man, these pictures are kind of blurry. Evidently, I was too excited to sit there & take focused pictures. Sorry about that!!

And of course, here are some self portraits in my bathroom mirror. Why I didn't just put the camera on a tripod and take them that way - I have no idea. Either way, look at how great the apron matches my shirt. lol And look at all of the amazing details on the apron. Love the flowers. Love the paisley. Definitely love all the pink!

Thanks again, Suzy!! I love it!

I Won! I Won!! I won, I won, I won!

2010-02-15T14:07:00.004-05:00

I woke up this morning to a fabulous email from the very talented Suzy over at GeorgiaPeachez letting me know that I had won the apron from her One World One Heart give-away!! I was/am shocked!! I am so excited & can't wait to get the apron & wear it while I'm in my craft room. Isn't it beautiful?? I love it!

Thanks so much, Suzy!!

Freedom - At Last!!

2010-02-13T20:06:00.004-05:00

I was finally able to break free from this personal prison I've been stuck in for the last 10 days! I had a great day doing some window shopping but the crowds were ridiculous. You would've thought it was Christmas eve. I guess everyone has been cooped up for a week or more so they were probably feeling much like I was & just had to get out of the house!!

I came home right as a florist was delivering a bouquet that looks much like this one:

Aren't they gorgeous? Will had flowers sent to me since he's gone & felt bad about not being here for Valentine's Day. I love them! All pink - does he know me well or what?!

And the mail man brought me the newest issue of my favorite ever magazine:

Oh, and I totally splurged and bought my favorite ever snack today while I was out - Petticoat Tails.

I freakin love shortbread but I never buy it so it's a real treat when I break down & splurge. I even bought two boxes of shortbread today. I was feeling very deprived after being stuck at home for 10 days & felt like I deserved it.

I am so exhausted. I didn't sleep well at all last night. Stupid sciatic nerve had my whole leg tingling and numb. I woke up at 4:00 and tossed and turned while trying to get comfortable but nothing was working. As a last resort, I ended up folding my electric blanket in half and cranking that sucker up as high as it would go and used it as a makeshift heating pad. That plus the 2 Aleve I popped finally eased the pain a bit & I went back to sleep sometime around 6:30. I was up again at 8:00. Ugh.

It's definitely going to be an early night for me. I'm heading to bed now to curl up with the doggies, my new magazine & maybe a petticoat tail or two and I'm going to try to get comfortable & relax. Will is working tonight so I'm sure I'll have to make some late night phone calls to chat with him for a bit, too.

I am so excited that the snow has receded enough that I can get out of the house. Tomorrow, I'm hitting up one of my favorite thrift stores & then doing some clothes shopping. Yay! Of course, it's supposed to snow again on Monday and Tuesday so my excitement is going to be very short-lived!! Ha!

UGH!! Why?!

2010-02-12T11:17:00.003-05:00

Instead of attempting to get out of this house today & perhaps doing a little thrifting, I now get to stay home and try to shovel out a 4' deep canyon/gap/area around the perimeter of our yard. Why? Well, because the snow has now hardened and my dog just walked right over to the fence and almost jumped over. Okay, it wasn't so much a jump as it was just casually walking over. Thankfully, I saw her & yelled her name and she came running back!!

Stupid snow.

I do not want to have to take the dogs out on a leash for the next week while I wait for this crap to melt far enough down that they can't escape. I'm thinking that's probably my only option at this point though because I just don't see how I'm going to be able to shovel all of that snow. I mean sure, the 40 pound dog can walk across it, but I know as soon as I get out there, I'm gonna sink up to my waist!

Btw, Will and I have sort of narrowed down the list of places we might want to move. Colorado Springs is on the top of the list now. Anyone lived there? Visited there? I drove through on my way back from Wyoming and it was pretty. Oh, and I checked and they have FIVE TARGETS there. Two of them are Super Targets! Yay!! And I googled & saw that there was plenty of thrift stores too!!

Of course, plans could change & we could end up staying in the area if Will is offered another job at the Pentagon after his year-long tour is up. If that happens, we're still moving - back to the bay because if I have to live here with all this crazy traffic, I at least want to be able to go home at the end of the day & have a nice view & a relaxing neighborhood!! Our current house is convenient for shopping but I'll sacrifice that in order to have a view of the Chesapeake Bay & not have to deal with planes, trains and the bus!!

Stir Crazy? Cabin Fever??

2010-02-11T19:17:00.002-05:00

Call it what you want but I am definitely experiencing it. OMG! I've been at home since Thursday. Last Thursday. Minus a quick jaunt to the gas station, the tiny grocery store down the street and Burger King. I was home, alone, from Thursday night through midnight Tuesday morning and I was about to go nuts. There's only so much shoveling one person can do before they go insane. There's only so much talking to my dogs that I can do before I start to feel crazy. I mean they're cute but they don't really talk back and the lack of interaction with other humans was getting to be a bit too much.

Will was home less than 3 days and he just left again. I'm so over this job. OVER. IT. There are only 6 people left on his team that can fly these Vice President trips, so every.single.time. they leave, they're all going. He used to have a few more guys on the team but they either got out of the military, got deployed or are on leave. It's ridiculous that they can't have more people on the team because I would be a lot less stressed if he wasn't having to do 15 jobs at work and then come home & deal with phone calls all night, PLUS being gone every single weekend. This is the 5th weekend in a row that he's been gone, not including all of the trips during the week too. It's just taxing and tiring and I need a break from his constant travels! Come on May!!

So, as I'm sure you are all well aware, MD got blasted with another big storm Tuesday night through yesterday. An additional 22 inches fell in that span of time. That's in addition to the 32" we had over the weekend. Our angel-neighbor down the street came through on Monday and cleared a decent path on the driveway with his snowblower so I didn't have to shovel an entire parking space for Will's truck. It wasn't quite wide enough though as I quickly found out at 12:30 at night when Will finally made it home & tried to turn into the driveway and couldn't fit. There I was, out there, shoveling like crazy in the middle of the night. Ugh. I started having severe chest pains and was wheezing and thought I was going to die. Asthma + cold air + rigorous activity = not good! Thankfully, I didn't drop dead from a heart attack & despite still wheezing a few times a day, I'm okay.

Will and I did more shoveling (imagine that!) on Tuesday and we were able to get the rest of the driveway from the back bumper of my car to the street cleared. Finally. Not that I can really go anywhere because all the stores are still closed. I'm so sick of shoveling. I am going to buy a snowblower. Watch...we'll buy one and it won't snow again for 15 years!!

Since Will had to leave today, he wanted to take me for a drive down the road (yeah, yeah...stay off the roads...blah, blah, blah) so we went into our little downtown area & then to Burger King. I hate BK but that was the only place open besides the 7-11. I stopped there too. lol Loaded up on peanut M&Ms, Combos and those little powdered donuts that come in a bag. We depleted our junk food stash over the last few days. Shoveling is hard work & leaves ya starving!

Yesterday, in the middle of the blizzard, Will tried to build me a snowman. I've never really built a snowman because I'm from SC and it doesn't snow there. Well, the snow yesterday was very powdery so my snowman (woman, really) was very small. If Will had been here over the weekend, we could've built a life-size elephant out of snow. That snow was very heavy & wet and perfect for building snow people and/or animals. I wanted a pink snowwoman. She didn't turn out as nicely as I had pictured in my head. And I couldn't find the appropriate things to use to decorate her properly. She looks a little ghetto. Oh well, at least I have a snowwoman sitting on my deck & she has pretty jade green color button eyes. LOL Just pretend she has a nose & a mouth. And that she doesn't look like she's bleeding internally. LOL My not-so-fabulous idea to spray her pink using food coloring made her look kind of bloody. Oops.

Here's some other pictures from yesterday. Behind this pile/shovel is our 4' tall fence. It's pretty much buried at this point. We should see it again sometime around May.

Poor little Scarlett. She wants so badly to go outside but she can't. She's too short. Well, all dogs except Great Danes are too short. She sits here on the window seat every day looking out onto the frozen tundra.

This icicle is gigantic. It's about 4' long now. Drip. Drip. Drip. I wonder if it'll reach the ground before it breaks off.

What is left of our 6' shrubs. They've been reduced to 2' tall piles of frozen sticks. I hated those shrubs anyway so I'm glad to see them go. Now I can finally get that picket fence I've been wanting. lol

Our very snowy roof. Should've bought a snow rake (whatever that is) and cleared the roof off but we're gamblers like that. Figured we'd just wait and see how much weight this 80 year old house can take. So far, so good. No collapses, yet.

Oh and today while we were out being rule-breakers and not staying home, we took a drive through the Wal-Mart parking lot. Not because we wanted to go there but because that's how you get to the Chick-fil-a, which was closed, btw. Wal-mart has only plowed about 1/3 of each aisle. So, these piles are going to get much, much bigger in the next few days.

Here's the main street in our little town. Look! You can see my dirty, streaky windshield! I tore my wiper blade last week but whatev. Clearly, I haven't been out to get a new one yet! Anyhow, the people on this road are still plowed in. I think if I lived on this street, I'd be out there every time the plow came through so I could keep my car semi-clear. Shrug. Guess they had other things to do, you know, like watching Rosanne reruns on TVLand.

Obviously, 7-11 knows what's up. Their parking lot was so clean!! Look at their big ol pile. Almost up to the bottom of the sign!! I bet they've done a ton of business this week.

This is our street. The first time I've seen black top in a week! Finally. Too bad all these people insist on parking in the street. Probably could've been a lot more clear if their cars wouldn't have been in the road. I'm sure it's all refreezing as I speak though. Slushy. Should be fun tomorrow morning!!

I cannot even fathom what another 12" of snow is going to look like. I've read some reports online that say this storm that is coming on Monday could drop another foot of snow. That is going to be insane. I just hope this doesn't melt anytime soon because our basement is going to flood horribly & there is no way I can deal with that all alone!

I am really, really hoping that I can get out of this house tomorrow. I NEED to do some thrifting. Or window shopping. Or something. I just need to get out of this house for a few hours and do something, anything. Well, anything except shoveling.

As I said before, I'm home alone all weekend so you know what that means - time to sit here w/ my junk food & catch up on blogs!! Can't wait to see what you all have been doing. Hopefully you've all been doing lots of thrifting so I'll have some eye candy to hold me over until I can get out of this mess & go do some junking of my own.

THE BLIZZARD Part 3

2010-02-07T07:33:00.005-05:00

Ugh. Every muscle in my upper body is aching. My arms feel like wet noodles and I can barely even pick up the coffee pot to pour a cup of much needed caffeine. I feel like crap!! It snowed most of the day yesterday and when it finally stopped around 4, I swear I broke out into a chorus of "hallelujah". Of course, that's when the real *fun* began. Not!! I had to do more shoveling, which I might add, is one heck of a workout! Who knew! Obviously not me, because I've never had to shovel 32" of snow before.

My doggies were not happy with their 2' diameter patch of ground I had previously cleared for them so I had to make it bigger. They still weren't happy. Marty kept trying to figure out how to get up & over the 'wall' of snow. Silly dog.

He looked to the right:

He looked to the left:

Finally, he thought he'd try to jump up onto the top of the snow. That didn't work out like he'd planned and he promptly sank into 3' of snow.

Then he looked at me like I was the crazy one. Meh, whatever. I warned him that would happen & he didn't listen.

Meanwhile, Scarlett was back on the deck, surveying the situation. She didn't feel the need to do any belly flops into the snow.

Earlier in the day, I had shoveled a path from my front porch down the walkway and made it within 5' of my car! I felt like I'd really accomplished something. The snow was 28" deep at that point. I started to feel dizzy so I came in to take a break when my fabulous down-the-street neighbor came over with his snowblower! I'm telling ya, if I hadn't been sitting inside in nothing but thermal underwear, I would've ran out & kissed the man! He cut a path from the road, up the sidewalk to my front porch, back down the walkway that I had just shoveled and then out our driveway!! He's my new best friend!! Of course, after the snow stopped, an additional 5" had fallen so I had to shovel again, but still, it wasn't nearly as bad as it would've been had he not come over!!

Here's a good view of how deep the snow is by my front porch. Please ignore all of the crap that's on the porch! lol

And this is what the view is from my driveway into my back yard.

And our 4' tall fence, which has maybe 6" sticking up above the snow!!

This is the only part of my SUV that is still visible. This tiny little patch by the tire!

Well, that's not true. Here you can see about 4" of what used to be my windshield wipers! lol

After I finished shoveling the walk again, I started trying to dig out a space for Will's truck. I shoveled for a good hour and only ended up with a spot big enough to park a golf cart. I ran out of energy and daylight. Look at this great sunset though.

I came inside and collapsed in my chair in my office, read a few blogs, at microwaved food for dinner & was asleep by 9:00 last night.

Now, the sun is up & I get to go outside and start shoveling again. Whee! Will's flight has been delayed until tomorrow so at least I have another whole day to get him a spot cleared out! Did I mention we're supposed to get more snow on Tuesday/Wednesday?? It's pretty to look at but it'd be a lot more fun if Will was here to help me shovel!! And, for the record, if we get orders to anywhere that regularly gets snow like this, the first damn thing we're buying is a snowblower!!!

THE BLIZZARD Part 2

2010-02-06T07:08:00.003-05:00

Wow. Just wow. I realized it's an overused phrase on the internet but I am having trouble thinking of adequate words other than those 2. lol

Last night, around 10, I measured 8" on the top of the patio table. I took this picture around 1 this morning before I went to bed. I'd say there's 10" or so on the table.

This was the patio table at 6:30 this morning. I measured 19" but couldn't find the top of the table so I'm thinking it's a little more than that!

I tried to clear a path off the deck & into the yard for the puppies. I couldn't tell how many steps I had already gone down, missed a step & ended up in a drift that was waist-deep. Thought I was going to be stuck for days!!

Once I got unstuck, I tried to shovel them a little patch of yard. This took serious effort! I can see why people tend to have heart attacks whilst shoveling!

Neither dog would come off the deck. The dogs peed on.the.deck. lol Poor doggies. They would've been buried if they tried to get off the deck though so whatev!

This picture is blurry as hell but take a look at the garbage can lids. Those bushes beside it are usually around 6' tall. That's a 40 gallon trash can, btw.

Oh, and this little white blob that looks like a smart car? Yeah, that's my mid size SUV. Pretty sure I won't be driving that anytime soon. lol

Did I mention it's still snowing and we're still under a blizzard warning until 2200 tonight? I think they're still calling for another 10" of this stuff. We have snow drifts that are maybe 6" from covering our 4' tall fence! I am amazed. And a little irritated that Joe Biden decided to go to Colorado this weekend, thus leaving me (and all of the other wives/families of the people that have to fly w/ him) home alone during the worst snowstorm in MD history!! That's just sort of a jackass thing to do, don't you think? I'm not sure how Will thinks he's going to get home tomorrow & even if he does, I'm not sure where he's planning on parking because I can tell ya now that I'm so not shoveling that whole driveway!

I am cold, I'm hungry, I'm tired because my sciatic nerve is killing me and I cannot get comfortable when I try to go to sleep & only got 4 hours of shut-eye last night and I need to go start shoveling so hopefully the doggies can do their business somewhere other than my deck! God help me. It's going to be a hell of a day!!

THE BLIZZARD Part 1

2010-02-05T19:50:00.004-05:00

Hello my few & faithful readers! Just some quick pictures of the weather today. This is what my view was this morning around 10, right before the snow started falling. You can see the leftover snow from the Tues night storm.

The snow started falling around 10:15 but didn't stick until around 4:30. I took a long nap between 12:30 & 3 and was hoping that when I woke up that it would have started sticking already but that didn't happen! Why did I take such a long nap? Well, because Will was up at 3:00 this morning & left at 3:30 and I was wide awake for hours after that!! So, a nap was in order! Plus, I forgot to make any coffee when I came downstairs at 7:30 and I was dealing with a lack of caffeine for real!

Anyhow, I ran out first thing this morning to gas up my car & was planning on running into Walmart to pick up some last minute items (non-perishable foods I'd actually eat!) but the traffic just trying to turn into Wal-Mart was insane. I decided to come home and hang out here for a few hours until the madness died down. Ha!

Instead of going back to Walmart, I made a quick little trip at 4:15 to the grocery store down the street. That place is stuck in a time-warp. Feels like something straight outta the 1970s. Not that I was alive in the 1970s but I'm imagining what it must have been like. Bought some essentials (cheese puffs & cheez-its - sensing a pattern here!) and by the time I was on my way back home, the snow was really coming down and sticking. Lookie:

Will made it safely to Colorado earlier and he said they didn't have as much snow on the ground as we did. Hahahaha - too bad for you! Oh, and I just read the funniest thing on Facebook:

Snow on da' ground.....snow on da' ground..... Drivin' like a fool wit da' snow on the ground....look at ya now - car spinnin around.....drivin like a fool wit da' snow on Da ground!!!

That is such an accurate statement for the people in Maryland!

Well, I'm going to relax for a while with my pot of coffee & stack of magazines & then go out and get a head start on shoveling! Don't wanna wait until tomorrow afternoon and then have to try and shovel 30" of this stuff outta the way!

I heart Winter

2010-02-04T08:34:00.003-05:00

No, really, I do. I love winter. Especially this winter. The last 2 winters? Eh, not so much. But this one? Oh yeah! We've had at least 5 accumulating snows so far this season. Last year? I think there was 2. The year before? One. Did I mention I love snow? Well, I do. Maybe it's because I grew up in SC and we very rarely saw snow. Maybe once every 4 or 5 years. And then, if we were extremely lucky, we'd get 2 or 3 inches. So, to me, having a true winter is still kind of new & exciting.

I woke up on Tuesday morning to this amazing sunrise.

And then yesterday morning, I woke up to this beautiful sight.

Unfortunately, it warmed up to 40 degrees so there was a lot of melting. Our ground is still covered though and really, that's all I care about! I really want to live in a place where the ground is white from November through at least March. I know I'm crazy but I'd much rather see pretty white snow than the ugly, brown, dead grass all winter!

So, as I'm sure you're all aware, the Mid Atlantic is supposed to get hammered by another storm tomorrow and into Saturday. Will is leaving tomorrow for the weekend. Which means I'm going to be home alone, again. Well, maybe not. My friend mentioned coming over on Friday to spend the night so we'll have a slumber party with our doggies and consume mass amounts of diet coke & Reese's peanut butter cups. And then on Saturday, I'll solicit her help in shoveling! Sounds like a plan, dontcha think?

Oh, btw, Will & I still haven't come to any real conclusions as to where we want to go after his Pentagon job is up in July 2011. We have to have the list done by 18 February. I would think that this would be one of those times where we'd be having some important talks and trying to really figure it out but so far, that hasn't really happened. Isn't it terrible that part of me wants to base our next location on how many thrift stores are in the area? Hahaha Sad but true. I'm not sure when/if he & I will find time to sit down and talk about this. He's gone all this weekend, part of next week, all of next weekend. And then the list has to be turned in. At this point, we should probably just hang a damn map on the wall & throw some darts at it & see where they land. Can you tell I'm a little frustrated?! Wish us luck.

Well, I need to go. Gotta do some chores, check the chocolate & diet coke supplies, get ready for the big storm! Ooh, I bought a new shovel yesterday too. It's one of those "back savers" with the bent handle. Can't wait to try that out! lol

Wow. Some shocking news.

2010-01-28T15:29:00.003-05:00

What a difference a few hours can make. Seriously. Yesterday, I was talking about how I was antsy & ready to move, right. Well, shortly after we went to pick up my car from the dealership, Will got an email letting him know that he was chosen for a job at the Pentagon! He'd applied for a job there last fall but was told he wasn't going to get it because he was 5 months short of his 4 years at Andrews. I don't know. To me, it sounds like a bunch of "blah, blah, blah" but evidently he was required to be at Andrews for exactly 4 years before they would "release him" and let him get orders and/or take a new job. So, basically, after he was told that they wouldn't make an exception to this policy for him to be able to take the Pentagon job, we kind of forgot about it and started thinking about where we'd want to put in for orders once September rolled around.

So, yeah, he will be heading over to the Pentagon in May. And...AND...they must know by 18 February where we want our next set of orders. Yes, you read right. That's 3 weeks away. We're both completely shocked right now. Both about him being accepted for this job at the Pentagon and the fact that we have 3 weeks to decide where we're going to go next. Now, he'll be at the Pentagon for 14 months so it's not like we'll be moving out of state immediately, but we do have to let "them" know where we want our follow on base to be.

We definitely need to sit down & make a list of some areas we're interested in and the pros & cons of those places, plus the pros & cons of staying here in MD (although at the moment I'm having a hell of a time finding one thing to keep me here!!) and it's just a lot to absorb in a short amount of time.

Did I mention that he also has to take 28 days of leave before he starts his job in May?! I think we should take a serious road trip! Of course, being the middle of winter, there aren't a lot of areas I'm interested in road tripping to at this time. lol Maybe we'll go see his family down in Va Beach and then see my family in SC before heading to Florida. I hate the heat though so maybe we won't go to Florida.

Anyhow, on the top of my "wish list" is Alaska. Do yall think I'm crazy? You can be honest. lol I know I definitely do not want orders back down south. Nowhere in SC, NC, GA, FL, TX, the Gulf Coast, NM, OK, CA or Hawaii. That narrows it down quite a bit. I'd probably be happy anywhere in the Northeast, definitely out in Colorado or Wyoming, Montana, Washington, parts of the Midwest. Of course my wish list & his may vary drastically and in the end, I'm going wherever he's told he's going so we'll see.

So...those feelings I was having yesterday are gone. They're replaced by excitement and nervousness and confusion. I think I need to have a beer & just decompress & try to take this all in!! With the market the way it is, we'll probably put our house up soon in hopes that it'll sell well before we have to actually move. Besides, his commute is about to double in length and we'd ideally love to be closer to the Virginia line. Ack! See...I told you it was a lot to take in!

If anyone has any suggestions on locations, I'd love to hear your ideas!!

Ugh! Is it February yet?!

2010-01-27T09:24:00.004-05:00

January has been just so ugh. It's been one of those months. I can't believe that the month is almost over already but I'm not sad to see it go, not by any means!! Will has been insanely busy with work, we've had a ton of automotive issues, I'm still getting the run-around by the military doctors as to why I have a freaking golf ball sized lymph node in my neck. Yeah, it's been one hell of a month!!

But, it hasn't been all bad - we did manage to take a day trip up to Pennsylvania the other week. That was nice. Well, actually, it was pretty boring but at least I got out of the house for a day! lol And Will & I went snow tubing one Friday night for a few hours. That was definitely a great time!! Here's a picture of yours truly & Mr Vintage Whimsy after a fun-filled night of snow tubing. Can you tell my face was frozen?! haha

I'm just feeling very blah this month. Unsettled or antsy or something. It's hard to describe. I'm hating this hot weather we've been having and really want to live somewhere with a true winter. You know, lots of snow. And pretty scenery. Because Baltimore doesn't have pretty scenery. It's gross. And dirty. And dangerous. I just want to get out of this state & move somewhere different.

Will's uncle called him the other day to tell him about some government jobs that were in WV and of course, being the real estate junkie that I am, I immediately go on Redfin.com and start looking up houses in the area! lol Now, the likelihood that we'll be moving to WV is about 5% but I still had to look. Gotta be proactive, ya know. And as much as I joke around about WV being full of hillbillies and rednecks, I do like the area. It's beautiful and peaceful and I love being over there. But, do I want to live there now? I don't know!!

Will has 4.5 years left before he can retire so I think I want to move somewhere else before we go to WV. Like, maybe Colorado. Of course, when I start thinking about moving to the West Coast, I start thinking about my family & how I'd never get to see them. Then I remind myself that I don't really see them all that much now & I only live 400 miles away!! So, is it really that big of a deal to move across the country? Yeah, probably not. I haven't seen my family since September so it's not like I see them on a very regular basis anyway. See, I said I was feeling very confused & blah this month!!

So, part of me really wants to move out west & live somewhere with huge mountains and lots of snow and experience that. But part of me really likes the familiarity of the east coast and knowing that I am just a 7 hour drive from "home" should I need to be there ASAP. And then I find amazing houses like this over in WV, and it really, really makes me want to just go ahead & move there. Isn't this house amazing??

Ugh! I'm so torn!! Of course, we have until September to really figure out what we want to do since that's when Will can put in for orders. I think we'll sit down and write out the pros & cons to staying here on the east coast & try to determine what we should do.

Moving along!!

Did I mention that I'm currently stuck at home without a car?! Yeah, which is probably how I found the motivation to actually get on blogger & update. It's not like I can actually go anywhere right now. My car is in the shop getting a new reservoir tank installed and having some recall repaired. Unfortunately, the reservoir tank is not included in the 100k mile warranty. Boo! But, it *had* to be repaired so here I sit, without a car. We do live on a bus route but I'm not that desperate to leave! The buses here in Baltimore are sketchy! I should have my car back this afternoon though which is a must because tomorrow is 25% off day at the thrift stores & I must go do a little retail therapy.

And since I'm stuck at home until at least noon, I finally have time to stop by & visit all of my favorite blogs. I really need to do a better job at keeping up with that because right now, I have 926 unread items! haha I'm never going to get through all of those! I should probably use this time to do something else, like clean my office, but what fun is that?!

Brrr! My Toilet is Frozen!

2010-01-03T11:49:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year guys!! What did you do to celebrate? I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. lol Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I posted on Etsy, drank a few cherry wheat beers and talked to Will on the phone. Oh, and watched our jackass of a neighbor shoot fireworks into our yard. That was entertaining!

Remember last week when I said I had lots of things I wanted to accomplish while Will was gone? Yeah, approximately 17% of those things actually happened. I did manage to take pictures of linens & list those but otherwise, yeah, I stayed holed up in this house for the majority of the week. In fact, I think I've been out of the house *maybe* 5 hours since last Saturday! I'm finding that it's just too windy & cold to go anywhere. I mean this wind is freaking ridiculous right now. The windchill is 2. TWO. It is so cold that the water in the toilet in the 1/2 bath off of the kitchen froze solid overnight. I've never had that happen. Hell, I didn't even know that COULD happen!!

So, Will is coming home today, finally. The first half of the week seemed to fly by but since Thursday it's been really dragging. And, as usual, he's bringing lots of goodies home with him. This time instead of Belgian chocolates, I'm getting chocolate rum from the Virgin Islands. Sounds delicious to me and maybe drinking a bit of that will help warm me up!! He's also bringing back rum balls and rum cake. And jewelry. I'm so spoiled!!

Will is supposed to be off for the rest of the week starting on Tuesday and I'm hoping we can take some day trips out of Baltimore. I am starting to go stir crazy being home all alone!! I'm sure he'll want to stay home & relax since he's been gone for a week though. We always run into this same issue when he comes home. He wants to stay home and I want to go out. He wants to eat every meal here and I want to go out. lol See, he gets to eat out 3 times a day while he's gone and when he comes home, he's ready for home cooked meals. On the other hand, I'm eating at home 3x a day while he's gone so by the time he gets back, I'm ready for someone else to do the cooking, preferably that someone being a chef at a restaurant!

I think it's almost time to take down the Christmas trees too. Although I love looking at the trees, it's time to get my house back in order and the first thing I need to do is get the Christmas stuff outta here. Even my pretty retro tree in my office needs to go!! Hopefully I'll get them put up in a more timely manner next Christmas. I feel like I *just* got these things decorated and now it's already time to put them away again.

I have a huge list of things I should be doing today. Things like cleaning and organizing and taking down the decorations and getting all of my linens put away. None of that sounds like a good time though so I'm thinking I'll put on some thermal underwear, bundle up in layers and brave the elements and go do a little retail therapy. Tomorrow is, of course, 25% off day at all of the thrift stores but I haven't left the house since Thursday so I think I need to get out of here before I go insane!! Besides, I'm pretty sure my car heater works better than the house heater so at least I can finally warm up!!

I'm leaving you with a picture of my favorite ornament on my retro tree. It's all scratched up but I love it so! I'm loving my new camera! I'm so not good at taking pictures and I have a ton to learn but I'm so happy that I'm not stuck using Will's work camera anymore. I should probably sit down & actually read the manual that came with the camera but let's face it: that's kind of boring!

Christmas, the Blizzard, Etsy, etc

2009-12-28T15:43:00.004-05:00

Hey Vintage peeps. How was your Holidays? I'm hoping that Santa left you all a lot of goodies. I had an amazing Christmas. Santa brought me a new camera, which I desperately needed, and now I can get back to listing lots of goodies in my Etsy shop!

And how fabulous was it for us Mid Atlantic people to finally have a white Christmas? I think it was pretty fab! And I've been lucky enough to have 2 White Christmases in a row now. Of course, last year in Jackson Hole, we had way more snow than this year in MD, but I won't complain about that!! I'm just happy that the 27" we received the Saturday prior lasted through the week. I'm not so happy that when the rains came on Saturday, that all of the snow melted and flooded our basement. Again. Oh, and I'm not so happy that the snow collapsed our canopy thing on our deck, but that was kind of our own stupidity for not taking it down before the snow started. When we woke up that morning to see it snowing, this is what greeted us as we looked out our back door onto our deck. Hahahahaha

And here is my cute little Schnoodle, Scarlett, and her Daddy-o:

She was having a blast in the snow. Well, until it got so deep that the only thing above the snow was her snout! Poor dogs were buried in the snow. Marty the Briard simply refused to go outside!

Look at Scarlett trying to walk through the snow. This was around 2:00 that afternoon. I'd say we received another 10 or 12 inches on top of that! Please ignore my voice! I don't think I sound like that in real life.

Here's Marty giving me that "you want me to go where?!?" face. lol He was not pleased when I forced him to go potty!! I'm not sure what his issue was this time because normally he loves the snow!

Here's what our house looked like when we first went outside that morning. So pretty!!

So, now all the snow is melted and Christmas is over. Will left today for a week. He's in the Virgin Islands and I know most people would be so jealous but I couldn't care less. lol I have zero desire to go anywhere hot & sunny. Give me cold & snow any day over sandy, hot, sunny places! I'm going to use this next week to hopefully get back to listing lots of vintage goodies in the shop. Perhaps I'll take a day trip or two to some places in PA or western MD. I may do a little antique shopping at some of the places around here. I might even go snow tubing one day! I'm quite looking forward to the solitude. I'm going to sleep when I'm tired and relax and maybe even eat junk food for breakfast and cereal for dinner!!

And finally, some pictures of the great new-to-me linens I've acquired in the last couple of months. Take a peek at all of this yummy goodness!!

That's just the tip of the iceberg. I have so many others I need to pull out of boxes and get ready to list!! It's kind of like Christmas morning all over again every time I go through the boxes and see all of these great linens!!

It's Finally Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas...

2009-12-16T07:10:00.003-05:00

But it sure took forever!! I am just not on top of my game this holiday season at all!! I did manage to put up 3 (yes, three!) trees this year though, so that makes me quite happy. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm still not done with the decorating though and I'm well aware that Christmas is less than 10 days away. I still have one more tree that I want to put up, simply because it's my "flamingo" tree. You know, the one with all of my tacky flamingo ornaments and the hot pink and bright green balls. It's my second favorite tree, my absolute favorite being my white tree with my shiny brites!

Here's the foyer tree again this year. Looks almost the same as last year, dontcha think? We didn't hang stockings last year since we were vacationing in the winter wonderland out in Jackson Hole but since we'll be home this year, I decided to hang the stockings by the stairs. How's it look? Hopefully okay because I doubt I could muster up the energy to move them!

And this year, we decided to put up a tree in the guest room. Well, the bigger of the two guest rooms. The walls are actually a buttery yellow color but I'm still having to use Will's work camera and it's a crappy point & shoot which distorts colors horribly despite all the tweaking I do to it! The tree in this room has lots of gold and sage green ornaments. My favorite ornaments on this tree are the little yellow bell shaped ones. I bought them at a thrift store back in 2003 & I just love them!!

Look!! I found a picture of the bell ornaments! Love!

Finally, here is my tree in my office/studio/whatever it is room. I love it so much! I'm thinking it might come down sometime around Valentine's Day. lol I just can't bear to take it down right after Christmas. It makes me so happy when I walk into my office & see it - all of those pinks & greens & blues. Ack! It's just so much vintage goodness that I can hardly stand it!

So, Thanksgiving was so peaceful this year. It was just Will, my best girlfriend and myself. Perfectly relaxing and low key. We had a nice breakfast, some munchies at lunch and then ate dinner around 6:00, just like we do every year, only this year, I didn't feel like I was in a rush. Man, I wish every holiday was that perfect! It's such a huge help having Andrea in the kitchen with me too. She does the cleaning while I do the cooking. Can it get any better than that?!

Here's a picture of part of the spread. Look at all the vintage Pyrex! I decided a few months ago to box up all of the newer pyrex and casserole dishes and use the vintage stuff. I mean it's the stuff I love and I got tired of seeing it on the top shelf in the cabinets & never using it. So, now I use it almost exclusively! As you can see, I most love the Butterprint pattern, but the snowflake pattern is also a favorite!

And just because they are cute, here are a few pics of the doggies.

Marty & Andrea's dog, Charlie, take a snooze on the sofa:

And Scarlett all bundled up & also taking a nap on the sofa!

Well, we didn't get the farmhouse. After we went & looked around the inside, our realtor was supposed to email us with comps for our area & see if we could get our house on the market. We have yet to hear back from her and while she was "pulling the comps to email us" the house went under contract!! Man, I was so upset when I saw that online. The part that gets me the most is that it's a contingent offer & the potential buyers still have the sell their house. See, that's the same thing Will & I could have done but our realtor slacked off on getting us the comps and now we lost the house! I was so sad but I guess things work out for different reasons.

There is a slight chance we may be looking for orders after September anyhow. Will's eligible for orders then so we may put in for something & see what happens. We're both kind of tired of Maryland. I definitely want to move somewhere with more winter, too! We're talking now about our options and as the time gets closer, hopefully we'll be able to narrow it down a little more. If by some chance we do decide to stay in Maryland, we still want to move. This house is just too far away from base & the commute is really taking its toll on both of us. All the traffic is ridiculous!

In other news, I haven't done much thrifting at all lately. Not because I don't want to, but since I'm still using Will's camera, my etsy related stuff has all but come to a halt. I don't list items and therefore don't sell. I just can't spend 2 or 3 hours taking pictures and then retaking them and then still having to edit. It's crazy!! But, come January, after Santa brings me a new camera, I'm going to get cracking on my Etsy shop again! I have tons of stockpiled stuff to list. But lately, I just haven't been thrifting. I have no more room to store stuff. lol

Speaking of shopping, I need to find the motivation to go do some Christmas shopping. I have been slacking for real this year. I don't have hardly anything for Will yet. Or the dogs. Or the best friend. I think it's going to be a very busy weekend since I will probably put off the shopping until then.

Today, I am going to sit here with my coffee, open up Google Reader & catch up on all of my favorite blogs! It's been forever since I've done that so I know I'll have tons of reading to keep me busy for most of the day! I can't wait to see what you all have been up to!!

I think we're certifiably insane. What do you think?!?

2009-11-19T21:42:00.003-05:00

Hey y'all. It's been a while eh? I've been catching up on reading my favorite blogs but I haven't found the time to actually update mine. Until tonight. Lucky you!

So, about the title. We are thinking of selling our house (well, attempting to sell anyway) and moving back down towards the part of Maryland that we lived in when we first moved up here three years ago. As I've said before, we've never really felt settled in this house. We still check out Realtor.com on a near weekly basis and see what is for sale and a few weeks ago I stumbled across this place:

I. AM. IN. LOVE! Actually, we both are. It needs a tremendous amount of work to restore it to its original beauty but the good so outweighs the bad. It's 20 miles from there to base, so Will's commute would be 18 miles less each way, which may not sound like a lot, but it would cut down the time from 1.5-2 hours to about 30 minutes.

The house is on over 3 acres of land, it's in the middle of nowhere yet still close to shopping and the house is just huge. Well, huge to us at almost 3,000 sq ft. There's also a huge storage shed on the property, a guest cottage (which needs complete rehab but think of the possibilities!) and a small horse barn.

We drove down to look at the outside of the house & surrounding property last week and then emailed our Realtor and met up with her on Tuesday to tour the inside. She's looking into the comps for our current area & hopefully we'll have our house on the market in a few weeks. Fingers crossed, please!!

So, in preparation for all of that, we're going to be busy bees around here for the next few weeks. I'm going to start boxing up the majority of our stuff starting this weekend. Gotta make the house look like a model home, ya know?

In other news, the thrift stores have been super fab lately. I've found so many great vintage linens, some destined for my shop but lots of keepers too. Oh, and I found this great Gurley candle the other week. Isn't he cute? Love him!!

Well, it's about that time. Gotta do the nightly routine of setting the coffee pot for tomorrow, letting the dogs out, giving medicine to them both and hopefully finding the energy to stay awake for the 11:00 news, although that last part is not looking promising tonight. lol