Thrifty Tuesday

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!!

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!!

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

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

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!

Realizations (& other important lessons) from Today

Number 1: Estate Sales are never worth my time. Especially when they are 50+ miles (one-way) from my house.

Number 2: That despite #1, I usually find a new-to-me thrift store along the way.

Number 3: Being home alone almost every weekend sucks. Such is the life of a military spouse, I suppose.

Number 4: Being able to come and go whenever I want without having to consider anyone else is fabulous.

Number 5: That #3 has some bonuses, like getting me that handy 25% off discount at the new thrift store.

Number 6: I should listen to my gut more often. Like on the way home from VA when I really wanted to go catch the train into the city but decided I'd come home instead. I really wish I would've gone now.

Number 7: That sometimes it's best to breathe deeply and have a beer instead of calling all of the people that are pissing you off and telling them to go pound sand.

Number 8: That I am going to start making myself less available to certain people. Don't freaking call me only when it's convenient for yourself. Don't tell me you're going to do one thing and then repeatedly let me down. Actually, I should probably tell myself to stop believing anything you say because time & time again you've proven yourself to be nothing more than a self centered b-word. Furthermore, don't pretend like you are too busy to answer my text messages when I know you always read the ones your boyfriend sends. At least have the freaking decency to call/text and tell me you've changed your mind about coming over. God, you get on my last freaking nerve.

Number 9: That if I were (God forbid) seriously injured or laying dead in a ditch somewhere that it would be days before anyone knew. See numbers 3, 7 & 8.

Number 10: That if I had stayed in that crap hole of a town I lived in growing up, had married some local jackass, mooched off of my parents and generally didn't have the gumption to be a grown up, that perhaps my family would still consider me important. I'm damn glad nothing bad has happened to me (yet) because it's impossible to get a hold of anyone. Ever.

Number 11: That it costs $6 a minute to call Baltimore from Chile, but only .24/minute to call Chile from Baltimore. Also, it only costs .08/minute to call Europe but .25+/minute to call South America. How's that possible?

Number 12: That if I lived alone I'd never cook a real meal. I'm perfectly content skipping real meals and having popcorn and Wheat Thins for dinner instead.

Aren't you glad I was enlightened today? I think I'm going to take a bubble bath and try to unwind. See #'s 7, 8, 9 and 10. Ugh! It's just one of those days!!