The Start of Summer

I cannot believe it's already the middle of the year. Last time I blogged was right after Christmas, and I was sitting here in this ol drafty farmhouse freezing. Now the opposite is happening! It's not officially summer until tomorrow but here in this old house that has no central a/c, it's felt like summer for some months now. 

We're coming up on our 1 year anniversary of our move to the mountains of NC. A whole year! It's flown by, that's for sure. I never imagined this time last year that in a few weeks I'd have packed up the essentials and moved to NC, very spur of the moment. But despite some trying times, it's all worked out and we're both very happy with our decision to move here. 

Life here in our old farmhouse has been going well. The cows returned to the front pasture in late April! I love seeing our cow neighbors. We've started looking and other areas we might wish to move to in the next year or so. I so love my old farmhouse, but the rental company we're dealing with is anything but efficient, or helpful, and they really don't care if this house falls into complete disrepair. Our porch literally has holes in it, and soft spots that aren't safe to walk across, and even though they've known about these issues since last fall, they haven't bothered to fix them. 

There is a long list of things they need to maintain but they won't, and we don't want to shell out anymore money that is absolutely necessary (and removable upon our departure)so we're looking for other places. Our lease is up the first of October but we may have to stay on after that until we can either find another suitable rental or until we can purchase. 

In the meantime, we've stapled screen to the outside of the window frames so that we at least have some breeze coming through. And my mom came to visit a few weeks ago and she and I planted flowers in pots, and installed a gate on the front porch so that the puppy can go outside alone. The back yard is fenced in but with the ever growing snake population, I don't like her spending a lot of time out back. 

And speaking of puppies, sadly my Mr. Marty went to heaven back in early April. It's still a huge, raw hole in my heart and I miss him every single day. He was acting perfectly fine up until 2 days before we had to put him down. One afternoon, he started pacing the house and wouldn't settle down, so after 2 hours of this, and him yelping when I picked him up, I decided to drive to SC where our vet is so he could be seen the next day. After x-rays and an ultrasound, it was discovered that he had a very large tumor the size of a 20 oz soda bottle on his kidney. It was inoperable. I had to make the heartbreaking decision to have him put down the next day. Gosh, I cry just thinking about it. But, I knew that was what had to be done. I will never not miss my boy. 

The girl puppy is doing well and we'll be celebrating her 14th birthday in August. She's a bit lonely without her brother here but she and I are constantly together so that helps. 

My Etsy shop is continuing to do well, though I wish they'd stop 'testing' all the time, as each time they run tests, the views and sales seem to vanish, but I'm plugging along as best I can. And a couple of weeks ago, I opened a new shop just for the vintage books. With the amount of books I have, it would easily overwhelm the regular shop so I opened a new one just for them! DogEaredBooks is slowly growing but hopefully soon it'll be filled with all sorts of great vintage books. I also started a new blog just for the books, which can be found here: VintageDogearedBooks. If you're on Instagram, I'm at @myvintagewhimsy and @dogearedbooks. Look for me on either of those accounts, where I offer special flash sales and discount codes to the Etsy shop. 

I hope everyone is having a lovely spring and that the summer will bring lots of memory making opportunities!! 

Baby, It's Cold Outside

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

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

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

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

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

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

VTT: Scottish

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snow Day!

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, the East Coast got hammered with a big ol snowstorm last night and today. Luckily, Will had a snow day today and didn't have to drive the 80-ish miles to and from base. Unfortunately, I missed the 25% off day at the Value Village!! There are a couple of stores I'll run to tomorrow though!

Here's a couple of pictures of our puppies playing in the snow. Please ignore the fact that their coats and snow boots don't match!

Scarlett, our Schnoodle in her snazzy purple coat with pink boots:



And Marty, our Briard, in his handsome green coat with blue boots!



They are both sporting their summer cuts a few months early this year. We normally cut their hair around May or June but they were looking a little too scruffy and I shaved them down last week.

They love sitting here on the sofa looking out the window. Today they were watching the snow. Usually they watch for the Boxer across the street or the neighbors or a stray cat. Or squirrels, which are Scarlett's absolute favorite!



Well, the Bachelor is on so I need to go watch this train-wreck! I don't know why I keep watching this crap every season! Mindless television. I have a million other things I could/should be doing but I cannot turn the tv off...it's like an addiction!