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!! 

Farmhouse Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, again, and it feels like it all happened in the blink of an eye. I didn't get to decorate as early as I'd hoped, but I still got two trees up, the porch decorated, the hallway decorated and stockings were hung. It was a lovely Christmas here, just the two of us and the two doggies, and it was very low key and simple. I have lots of pics to share but let me start out with this one first:

Yes! This happened this past Saturday night at a local resort here in Asheville. After a really nice dinner, the man told me he wanted us to have our picture taken in front of this huge tree by the professional photographer, and much to my surprise, once we were in front of the tree and the photographer was busy snapping away, the man dropped to one knee and asked for my hand in marriage! Completely SHOCKED, as if you couldn't tell from the look on my face. lol 

Now, on to the holiday decorating pictures. My white office tree which is primarily decorated in minty pastel shades of green, blue and pink, with lots of vintage ornaments mixed in. 

 

 

 

 

 I've always had a 'themed' main room tree -- for several years it was blue and silver, then in 2008, I switched to copper and aqua and browns and that was my plan for my main floor tree this year until the man expressed his desire to have a colorful, non-matchy tree, which kind of gave me palpitations at first since I'm always so matchy-matchy on the main tree but after some thought, I decided why the heck not. I mean we live in this beautiful old farmhouse, so a mismatched, retro style theme would be perfect. 

Unfortunately, I requested my mom to bring my aqua and copper ornaments for the main tree, thereby leaving all of my retro, brightly colored ornaments in SC in their garage, but I scrounged up enough extras here that I've been hoarding for crafting purposes that I was able to pull off a retro themed tree!! I ended up loving it SO much that I doubt I'll go back to my formal-ish tree until/unless we move into a much bigger house that has a formal living room! 

 

 

Once I had the tree decorated with all the brightly colored Shiny Brites and West Germany and Poland ornaments, I figured I'd continue the vintage theme and use a vintage Christmas tablecloth as my tree skirt. I used one on the table too and filled my Tom and Jerry punch bowl with vintage ornaments and tinsel garland. 

 I've wanted to make a wreath like this for several years but never got around to it until now. It is huge and I love how it turned out. I used over 50' of vintage tinsel garland and over 70 vintage light bulbs. It is perfectly kitschy and I am tempted to hang it up inside year round! 

I continued the retro Christmas theme on the banisters of the stairs in our hallway. I put up green garland and then put ornaments every couple of spindles, hung from ribbons and topped with bows. I decided red and green was a good, old-timey look that went with the retro theme.

And I decided to hang up this vintage Santa Mail felt creation from 1957 by the door. I bought this thing back in 2011 at a rummage sale at an assisted living facility while I still lived in MD. It cost me a dollar but it is priceless to me. I love it so much!! It's holding all of the holiday cards I received this year! 

In our bathroom I put up my small tabletop tree and used pink and green ornaments on it. It's my tacky flamingo tree! I ended up putting the majority of my flamingo ornaments on the main tree because they are too heavy for the branches of this little tree but I still love it, even though it's mostly just the ball ornaments. I used some doilies I found last month at a thrift store to make a tree skirt for this one. 

In my office I have a couple of shelves above my desk that usually hold my spaghetti poodles and other dog decorations but I took those down for the holiday and put up my Gurley candles in their place. 

Despite not having children, we were still up by 7:30 yesterday, thanks to Mr. Marty. I don't know how he knew that it was Christmas, but he did, and he would NOT go back to sleep. He sat by our bedroom door, whining, until we got up and told him we'd go see what Santa brought. He was so excited. He sat right by the fireplace waiting for us to get their stockings down and pull out the goodies. Santa brought him and Scarlett 2 new toys each, some cookies and some sausages for puppies. And then they each got new fleece material for their beds. Marty got 2 bow ties and his sissy got a new coat, since she's always cold. 

As you can see from the following pictures, Scarlett was not at all interested in being awake at 7:30, nor was she interested in gifts. Marty played with the toys and then took a nap. That was how the day went, actually. We opened gifts, ate breakfast, took naps, ate lunch, took more naps and generally were lazy like sloths! It was the perfect day. I said last Christmas that this year I hoped to be in the mountains having a nice, quiet, low key Christmas and that is exactly what happened!

I am so excited for 2014 and all of the wonderful new beginnings we'll have. We are planning to wed sometime next year, though we have no idea where or when. The man starts a new job in January, for which we are both very thankful and excited about. After several really depressing years, I have to say that this year has been amazing and I know 2014 will be even better. 

 

Birthday Parties (and other fun stuff)

So, our doggy turned 9 on Sunday. Well, we're guessing he's 9- we honestly don't know because he was homeless before the rescue group we adopted him from picked him up on the streets of Columbia, SC. The rescue guestimated him to be 3 when we adopted him in 2003, so we're assuming he's 9. Either way, we celebrate his birthday on 17 May, which is the day we adopted him. So, we did a little doggy party for him on Sunday, complete with ice cream and a new toy! I made him a little party hat but it looks more like a dunce cap than a party hat. lol He quite enjoyed his ice cream! Here's a picture of my favorite boy in the whole world.



And I'm celebrating my 29th birthday on Friday. Ack! I can't believe I'm turning 29. That seems so old. I mean didn't I *just* turn 18 like last month?? Geez. One more year before I enter a whole new decade. And as my luck would have it, Will is gone for the entire week. Fabulous. But, my mom is coming up tomorrow to spend a few days and I am SO freaking excited!! She's coming up ALONE! We haven't spent any alone time together in over 3 years so I'm so looking forward to this week/weekend!! Will comes back from eastern Europe on Saturday morning so we'll celebrate my birthday then I suppose.

I have a busy, busy day ahead of me. I have to ship off some items from my Etsy shop, refill Marty's medicine, drive the 80+ miles round trip down to Base & pick up Will's truck since my friend is supposed to move into her new condo tomorrow and we need to get her crap loaded up tonight. I still need to do some cleaning before my mom gets here tomorrow, too. Did I mention I've been terribly sick with a sinus infection? lol Good times!! I'd really love to sleep all day but we all know that it's impossible to do that and not feel guilty so I'm pushing on!

Moon Pies (and Other Things I Love)

The thrift stores were a total bust today so to take my mind off of how crappy they've been lately, I'm going to fill this post with pictures of things I love.

Moon Pies. Growing up there were always Moon Pies in our house. I remember my daddy eating a Moon Pie just about every night. I bought a box of them last week at the commissary and I'm ashamed to say the box is half gone already. Ever tried them warm? Deelish!



Cherry Diet 7Up. I have no idea how long this has been on the market but it's new to me and I am addicted. Like I can easily consume a 2-liter a day addicted. And I'm not one to drink a lot of soda. This stuff is like crack though!



My Briard. Marty has been the bestest doggy in the whole world. We adopted him in May of 2003 and he's been my constant companion ever since. He's been there through lots of happiness and lots of tears. He's my guard doggy and I love him so very much. I think we have a telepathic thing going on because he just got up off of his doggy bed and came over and jumped in the bed beside me!



My Schnoodle. We adopted Scarlett in August of 2004 because we thought Marty would like a friend. They don't really play together often but I know they enjoy keeping each other company. She's such a diva! She simply must get her cuddle time in bed with me and Will every night. She climbs in the bed, lays in the middle of us and usually falls asleep while we rub her belly. She cracks me up the way she sits on the back of the sofa and looks out the window. She's the perfect guard dog though...she's got a huge bark for being such a medium sized doggy. I'm so glad we adopted her too. She's a perfect fit!



Flamingos. I have no idea why I love flamingos so much. Maybe because they are pink-ish. lol I really don't know why but I love them. A lot. I'd like to have a whole flock of them in my backyard. I took this picture at the zoo in DC the other year. It's one of my favorites!



University of Florida football. Growing up in SC, college football is almost a religion! Most people from SC like one of two teams: Clemson or Carolina. I strayed somewhere along the way because I've been a huge, huge Gators fan for as long as I can remember. I'm counting down the months until it's football season again.



The Cherry Blossom Festival in DC. I think the warmer weather this weekend really got me in the mood for Spring. Last year, Will and I went into the District during the Cherry Blossom Festival and it was so beautiful. I'm hoping we get to go back this year too. Here's a picture from last year. Isn't it gorgeous? That's the Jefferson Memorial in the background.



Country Living Magazine. With all of the magazines that have folded recently, I'm quite happy that Country Living is still around. I have subscribed to this magazine for years and I'd be heartbroken if they ever decided to stop publishing. I look forward to the new issues every month and much to my husband's dismay, I keep every single copy. I mean how could I possibly throw away a magazine with such great information in it?? I read them over and over and look at the pictures for inspiration constantly! It's definitely my favorite magazine ever!



Leonidas Chocolates. Back in 2003 while Will and I were still engaged he had to take a two week trip through Europe. One of his stops included Belgium and he brought me back a huge box of Leonidas Chocolates. Up until that moment my favorite chocolate had always been Godiva. Ha. Needless to say, I was very quickly converted to Leonidas. It's the best chocolate I've ever tasted. Ever. And I've tasted a lot of chocolate. So, since that moment in 2003, it's been mandatory that whenever Will is in Belgium, he simply must find a Leonidas store and bring a box of chocolate back. Did I mention that Will is currently IN BELGIUM? He'll be home tomorrow and he damn well better come bearing a Leonidas box. lol



And finally, I was looking through some old pictures on the computer today and I came across this one. It's from our wedding and it's probably my all time favorite. It just shows how relieved I was. I was so nervous leading up to the actual ceremony. I was so stressed out, it was hotter than hell outside that day, I had so many last minute things to do that day. This picture just shows how happy I was that all of the planning was finally over and we could just get on with our lives. You can't really see Will in this picture but I just love when he gets all dressed up in his Mess Dress. He's so handsome!



Whew! That's only a small portion of things I love. I didn't write about my love for fried okra, convertible mustangs, miniature donkeys, good beer or good ol Carolina Beach Music. Hmm, those may be topics I write about tomorrow!! What are some of your favorite things?

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!