28 February 2011

The Good, the bad and the ugly. Weekend Edition

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!

15 February 2011

Love - a Day Late

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.

11 February 2011

Time for Tea (with Cream & Sugar!!)

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!

09 February 2011

Hello 2011, I'm late as usual

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.