Linens. Lots and Lots of Linens

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. 

It's Wellie Season!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vintage Thingies Thursday

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?

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?