A New Home Sweet Home

Hello!! Lots of changes have been happening. We moved -- again!! We quickly realized that the old farmhouse we were renting was entirely too small and didn't offer enough storage space, let alone room for guests, and then after a scary-snake-beside-my-bed incident in August, that kind of made our decision to move become even more urgent. 

After some stressful weeks where we were sure we weren't going to get our current place due to clerical errors, we finally received the call that the place was ours. We moved in a week ago yesterday and are IN LOVE!! It's much, much larger: we have 5 bedrooms as opposed to the 2 in the old place, and at 2700 sq feet, we can now have guests! It's still an old farmhouse, though this one is in MUCH better condition, and the views are to die for! 

We're still trying to unpack and get everything put away but it's much easier now that there is room for all of our stuff!! We're thoroughly enjoying fall here in Maggie Valley, too. It's so much quieter than Asheville and we love not having 6 lanes of traffic and 400 stop lights to sit through! My mom, niece and sister came up last weekend to help us move stuff from storage into the house and get started putting things away. It still looks like a bomb went off in here but we're managing to get it all done. Hopefully we'll knock another room off the list today and I'll have lots of new pics to share soon.

My Someday House, Finally!!

Guess who is living in a nearly 100-year old farmhouse? That's right -- this girl right here. Hi!! I have been MIA for nearly 18 months after my move to SC and lack of anything of interest to write about but I am back. And I am living in a new-to-me farmhouse and I am in love. Both with the house and with a really nice man. I'm also in a new state, living in the mountains of NC, which I have always wanted to do and life is going amazingly well. 

Soooo, long story short, I met the nice man in March, while we were both still in SC. We fell head over heels, madly in love and when July rolled around, he was offered a job here in the mountains of NC so of course, we both up and moved, quite unexpectedly I might add. One thing led to another and we ended up borrowing my parents 34' RV camper and spending the summer in an awesome little campground, ran by the sweetest ladies, while we got acquainted with the area and looked for a house to rent. 

Finally, after nearly 3 months of living in the camper, we found a suitable house and put in our application and waited anxiously to hear if we were accepted. Thankfully, we were, and within 2 weeks, we were signing the lease and preparing to move in. That happened this past weekend. The man had to work Friday so I drove down to SC, helped my parents load up the trailer with all of my worldly goods that have been sitting in their garage for the last 18 months and then Saturday morning, we made the 3.5 hour trip back up here. Spent a couple hours that afternoon unloading and finished up Sunday morning. 

Needless to say, I am in the middle of unpacking hell but it's all coming together nicely and much quicker than I thought. I have a huge (to me, anyway) office and I am sooo ready to get everything put away and get my business back up and running. 

So, our 100 year old farm house sits on a hill, on 2 acres of land and has an amazing view of the surrounding hills and mountains and we have cows for neighbors. It is so quiet and peaceful here and even though the house is only 1500 sq ft or so, it's got plenty of storage and feels much larger, especially after sharing 300sqft with the man all summer long! 

I have to get back to unpacking but I leave you with some photos of the new place. It is so me -- from the wooden walls to the built in china hutch to the painted floors. It's truly my 'dream house' even with its quirks! I hope to get back into blogging on a regular basis once I've unpacked and organized. I'll need to warn everyone that there will be lots of cow pictures. I'm completely in love with our bovine neighbors!! 

A Year of Catching Up!

Hi! Remember me? I used to post awesome pics of lovely vintage finds and then I moved to SC!! The last year has been a depressing time of non-existent thrift stores, crappy yard sales, and an Etsy store filled with cobwebs!

I last posted on this ol blog almost a year ago. I wish I had something really exciting to write about that would explain my absence but the truth is that life in SC just isn't that much fun.

As I mentioned earlier, thrifting is impossible unless I go out of town, which doesn't happen as often as I'd like. When I do go out of town, I'm spending one day trying to hit as many stores as possible in hopes of finding lots of treasures. There is no more Monday and Thursday thrifting expeditions to numerous local thrift shops like I did every week in MD.

I miss my old lifestyle in MD but I am thankful to be around my family again. My ex-husband is still in California and is deploying to the Middle East soon, so any good thoughts and prayers for him would be appreciated. Marty and Scarlett are doing really well. They enjoy living with Nanny and PaPa and have settled in nicely!! I am still living at home (omg!) but after having a close call with a house-buying experience late last summer, I am thankful that I am here. I was days away from writing an offer on my someday house and met a guy that asked me if things with him progressed, would I be opposed to relocating. That made me pause and give a lot of thought to whether or not I wanted to buy a house here, in Florence,and the answer was no. Then I would feel obligated to live here for at least 5 years or so.

Thankfully, things with that man didn't work out, but in the end, I am super happy that I put the brakes on buying any properties here because the truth of the matter is that I just do no like living here. It's small, flat, hot, and most importantly, boring. I am looking for job in other cities right now and hope to find something suitable by the summer.

I have really missed blogging and reading blogs and hope to get back into both soon!! I also hope that since spring is around the corner, I'll start finding lots of good vintage junk at garage sales!!

Home Sweet Home

Well, the move finally happened and I am back to residing in my hometown. Unfortunately, what should have taken one weekend ended up getting dragged out for 2 additional weekends because someone (uh, Dad!) underestimated how much stuff I had and the trailer he brought to Md wasn't big enough to hold all of my possessions. 


It's been so weird being back in this town and I'm still trying to acclimate to things like flat land and scorching heat and having 95% of my crap in boxes in a garage. I miss having my own place but I am so so thankful that I no longer have to walk the dogs!! 


The last load from MD is still sitting in the trailer in the backyard here at my parents house and I really need to get that unloaded sometime this week. I hate living out of boxes and I especially hate that my Etsy shop has been closed for over a month. I am dying to reopen and get all of these linens listed. 


Our house-hunting has been depressing. I fell in love with this brick bungalow with tall ceilings and a fab screened in front porch and stalked the websites daily to make sure it was still available and wouldn't you know that the minute I'm actually on SC soil, someone else comes in and grabs it?! So, I reluctantly looked at this hideous brick ranch house and then fell in love with the super retro bathrooms. One was pink (tiles, tub, sink, toilet) while the other was minty green. I mean it was like a match made in heaven!! It was on a half an acre of flat sunny land and less than a mile from the 'rents. We set an appt with our Realtor for me to go see the inside of it and half an hour before our showing, the Realtor called my mom to tell her it was under contract. 


That afternoon, I found another house that was a 'maybe' and it too had a pink bathroom, so of course that moved it up on the list a bit and then I realized it had a huge finished basement which is super rare here in town. I was envisioning my Etsy stock all organized and having room to spread out and all sorts of things and lo & behold, that damn house went under contract too. It was only on the market for 4 days!! UUUUUGH! I am sensing a pattern!! I am trying to be patient but gosh it's hard!! I have criteria that has to be met though and I'm not just going to rush out and get a house. I'm hoping with the end of school around the corner, more houses will come on the market. I'll be glad to get into my own place and get settled but in the meantime, I have enough crap here to keep me occupied!!


I'm so glad that it's spring (well, not technically but whatevs!) and that I'm not dealing with the usual spring thaw and flooding basement this year. Everything is blooming and it's just gorgeous. I spent my lunch yesterday sitting in my car (pollen is driving me insane!), eating my yummy Greek salad and admiring all of the beautiful azaleas at the park here in town. It was so relaxing!! So, while I'm attempting to get myself settled and into a routine, I'm also just enjoying some downtime - lunch in the park, daytrips to Charleston, visiting family. It's nice being local again and not having to cram all of that stuff into a 5 day visit twice a year!! 

11 Months til Christmas! Are you prepared??

Haha! Just kidding. Well, technically, it is only 11 months til Christmas but let's not dwell on that, okay? 


It is, however, only 29 days until I pack up my life and move to SC!! Yes, there is a definite move date and the only thing that would stop me would be a repeat of Snowmaggedon 2010. 


I am nervous and excited and anxious to get back to my hometown and get on with my life. I'm so sad that I'm having to leave my honey here in Maryland though but it is what it is and I have to do what is best for me. Hopefully in time, he'll find a job in SC and can join me. 


Those that live in the DC Metro area can attest to how wicked expensive it is here. I've talked about it ad nauseam for years but here's the major reason I can't wait to get back to SC:


Our rent on a 2 bedroom/1.5 bath apartment with a 'den' is $1465 a month. Now, this is a basic, run-of-the-mill apartment, circa 1970 that has had a few upgrades but nothing to make you think it's 'luxury' by any means. 


And, in SC, you can BUY A HOUSE for less than $75,000. In fact, my parents are being extremely generous and are looking to buy a house for me to live in and 'rent' from them. There aren't a lot of suitable rental homes in their town and the few that are available are either too expensive or won't allow pets. Speaking of pets, pet rent in this apartment is $600/year. That is RIDICULOUS!


One of the houses they are currently looking at to perhaps buy, the mortgage would be less than $200. Yes, TWO HUNDRED dollars. 


You know, for pretty much my entire life, I couldn't wait to get out of my hometown. I wanted to move north, to experience life in a bigger state and a bigger city. I was SO tired of the heat, the humidity, the small town that didn't have a Target. 


Well, thankfully, the town has a Target now, and lots of other necessary retail shops (plus a drive through Starbucks!) but now that I'm older, I completely understand why people never leave there and/or so many people MOVE there. Because it's AFFORDABLE!! 


Sure, it's hot as hell during 8 months of the year, but the fact is that people can afford to live there. You can make an average salary and have enough money to live in a house, take vacations, have a life. I can't do that here in MD. I am barely scraping by month to month here. Barely. If it weren't for the generosity of my parents and my Etsy gig, I would be flat broke and eating at the soup kitchen and living under a bridge!! 


So, within the next couple of days, I get to start boxing up  my life. A lot of my stuff is still in storage at my bff's garage but the things we've been living with for the last 9 months have to get packed away. I am stressing out over the details. Since the bf will continue to live in this apartment until his lease is up at the end of April, he'll need to acquire pretty much everything - dishes, furniture, etc. Everything in this apartment, minus a tv and a crockpot, belongs to me and they have to come to SC. 


Trying to nail down the logistics of all of this is proving to be a huge stress but I keep reminding myself that in 60 days, I'll be living somewhere that I can afford, surrounded by my family and finally moving forward in the life I wish to create. I'm so excited to have my very own house that I can decorate how I wish, with a backyard for the puppies, with family close by. Now, I just need to get through the next 30 days without freaking out every step of the way. 

Vintage Gurley Candles

I found a large glittery Gurley tree this week!!! My first Christmas Gurley of the season. I was so excited to get my paws on that little baggie of vintage goodness. 

It goes great with my other Gurley Christmas candles: 

And a few weeks ago, I had the extreme pleasure of finding an entire baggie of Gurley Thanksgiving candles. I have never ever found even one Thanksgiving Gurley's in all my years of thrifting so this thrilled me -- 3 turkeys and a pilgrim  boy & girl! So excited to add them to my collection. 

And last but not least, the giant jack o lantern I found the other year. I ::heart:: it so much! 

I still haven't decorated for Christmas -- probably won't. Don't feel like digging through my bff's garage for all of the stuff. 

And, I think after the first of the year, I'm moving home to SC. I haven't decided if it will be in January or in April when our lease is up. I am incredibly homesick and so tired of living up here away from  my parents and sister and niece. I will miss the thrifting opportunities here but it's so much more affordable to live there. I never in a billion years thought I'd *want* to move home but the fact is that I want to live somewhere that I can afford to maybe one day own a house, somewhere that's affordable enough that I can go on vacation a couple of times a year, somewhere that doesn't cost $1500/mo just for a stupid apartment with no yard and a lease that allows the landlord and maintenance 24/7 access to your house with no warning and no courteous call beforehand. 

I am praying that the honey can find a job there and will consider moving but if he chooses to stay in MD, I will understand. I just feel like I've given up so much over the years by being a military wife and having lived so far from my family and it's time to think about what will make ME happy. So much weighing on my mind but I think this is what I need to do. It doesn't have to be permanent but I've lived away from my hometown for over 8 years now, five of which I've been stuck here alone in MD so it's time to go home. 

Cha-cha-changes!

Hello, friends! It's been a while, eh. Ha, who am I kidding -- it's always 'a while' nowadays! I have been so busy these last few weeks and finally have something substantial to write about. So, last time I posted, I was unsure of so many things -- where I'd be living, if I was staying here or moving to PA or to SC, what I was going to do. Talk about stress!! Well, I am happy to say that for now, I am staying in Maryland. In fact, my honey and I have recently moved in together and it has been so wonderful! 

Also, I've just returned from Maryland after 12 days of 'vacation'. Well, technically, only 5 of those days were vacation. I flew to Florida to go to Disney World with my mom, sister, her girlfriend and my super adorable 4 year old niece!! It was so much fun but omg it was HOT! I'm clearly not used to that kind of weather anymore. I went over to Cocoa Beach one afternoon and dipped my toes into the ocean, which was warm like bath water and it was almost enough to make me want to live somewhere that's got almost year-round beach weather. 

After the Disney part of the vacation, I rode back to SC with the family and spent a week there. It was a nice and relaxing few days. I did a lot of browsing at the local antique malls, went to t-ball practice, had lunch and dinner with some old friends and just generally relaxed!! It was so nice to not worry about moving or where I was going to live or even dealing with Etsy for a few days. 

Now I'm back in Maryland, thankfully, and need to finish moving my stuff, unpacking my luggage and about a gazillion boxes from the move, get settled in the new place. I started to move on a Thursday and then left for vacation the following Tuesday so as you might imagine, my house is in total disarray right now and it's driving me NUTS! My office is mostly put together so that helps but I still don't have internet at the new place so I have to keep coming back to my old house to do work which is very time consuming! 

So, we're renting an apartment, which as you might remember from my posts months ago, I was rather adamant that I didn't want to live in but as time grew nearer to the departure date of my ex-h, it became increasingly obvious that I would have to move into an apartment or either move back home. When faced with those two options, apartment living didn't seem so terrible. Plus, the apartment feels pretty spacious, even with my enormous stack of boxes and other miscellaneous crap that needs to be put away. It'll definitely work for the next 12 months and it allows us to save up money and either rent a house or eventually buy our own place. It's temporary and I know I can do anything for a year, as evidenced by the absolute HELL I've gone through the last 12 months. 

Speaking of the last year, although it's been the most stressful time of my life, it's also been the best year EVER. A year ago, I was freaking out about turning 30. I thought my life was over and I was damn near having a panic attack right up until my birthday!! I don't know why I was so upset -- maybe because I was turning a new decade and I was miserable and unhappy with my life. I felt like I'd wasted away and just become so unhappy with who I was. I knew I wanted more out of life -- I used to love going out dancing and I never did that anymore, I loved going sightseeing and I never did that anymore. I had completely morphed into this person I didn't even recognize and I hated myself for it. I was always so worried about my ex whoring around on me (and with good reason) and I was always the one compromising and trying to be a people pleaser and in the end, all it did was ruin my self esteem. It's been a year since I decided that I was done with that nonsense. I made the decision last May that I needed more out of life and that I DESERVED more out of life. I deserved to have a man that was faithful, that I could trust, that I knew would be there for me when the shit really got tough. I deserved to be happy and not always be the one compromising and breaking my back to please someone when the same was never returned to me. What good is a marriage if it's always one person giving 150% while the other does whatever the hell they want with no regard to the other person or their vows?? I was miserable and I'd rather be miserable alone than with someone I couldn't trust. 

The last year has been so hard. Not because I was second guessing my decision but with the whole having to live together thing. I was called horrible names, repeatedly, because that's what he does. He wants to control me/women by verbally abusing them. I rarely let it get to me but on occasion, I did have my moments of breaking down. It was particularly bad last August, when I seriously thought I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I went to SC for a few weeks and came back with clarity and renewed sense of hope. 

Anyway, so yeah, the last year has been so wonderful, despite the hell. I've never been happier. I started to take care of ME and the rest fell into place. I've found the person that I truly feel God wanted me to be with -- someone that's kind, someone that I can trust with my whole heart, someone that appreciates me and makes me feel loved and cherished. Of course it's not always sunshine and rainbows -- we've gone through our share of hard times but that's what a relationship is about -- weathering the storms TOGETHER and coming out the other side stronger as a couple. I love this man in a way I've never loved anyone. It's amazing how your heart can heal and renew itself and be free to give again when you find someone that you can trust. I thank God every single day for bringing this wonderful man into my life at a time when I needed him most. 

My 31st birthday is this weekend and cannot wait to celebrate and I thank the Lord for another year on this planet. Last year, I was at such a dark and terrible place and looking back, the year was the best one ever. I found myself, found my life partner, found new reasons to wake up with a smile on my face and in my heart. I cannot wait to see how wonderful this next year is going to be!!

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?

UGH!! Why?!

Instead of attempting to get out of this house today & perhaps doing a little thrifting, I now get to stay home and try to shovel out a 4' deep canyon/gap/area around the perimeter of our yard. Why? Well, because the snow has now hardened and my dog just walked right over to the fence and almost jumped over. Okay, it wasn't so much a jump as it was just casually walking over. Thankfully, I saw her & yelled her name and she came running back!!



Stupid snow.

I do not want to have to take the dogs out on a leash for the next week while I wait for this crap to melt far enough down that they can't escape. I'm thinking that's probably my only option at this point though because I just don't see how I'm going to be able to shovel all of that snow. I mean sure, the 40 pound dog can walk across it, but I know as soon as I get out there, I'm gonna sink up to my waist!

Btw, Will and I have sort of narrowed down the list of places we might want to move. Colorado Springs is on the top of the list now. Anyone lived there? Visited there? I drove through on my way back from Wyoming and it was pretty. Oh, and I checked and they have FIVE TARGETS there. Two of them are Super Targets! Yay!! And I googled & saw that there was plenty of thrift stores too!!

Of course, plans could change & we could end up staying in the area if Will is offered another job at the Pentagon after his year-long tour is up. If that happens, we're still moving - back to the bay because if I have to live here with all this crazy traffic, I at least want to be able to go home at the end of the day & have a nice view & a relaxing neighborhood!! Our current house is convenient for shopping but I'll sacrifice that in order to have a view of the Chesapeake Bay & not have to deal with planes, trains and the bus!!

I *heart* Winter

No, really, I do. I love winter. Especially this winter. The last 2 winters? Eh, not so much. But this one? Oh yeah! We've had at least 5 accumulating snows so far this season. Last year? I think there was 2. The year before? One. Did I mention I love snow? Well, I do. Maybe it's because I grew up in SC and we very rarely saw snow. Maybe once every 4 or 5 years. And then, if we were extremely lucky, we'd get 2 or 3 inches. So, to me, having a true winter is still kind of new & exciting.

I woke up on Tuesday morning to this amazing sunrise.



And then yesterday morning, I woke up to this beautiful sight.







Unfortunately, it warmed up to 40 degrees so there was a lot of melting. Our ground is still covered though and really, that's all I care about! I really want to live in a place where the ground is white from November through at least March. I know I'm crazy but I'd much rather see pretty white snow than the ugly, brown, dead grass all winter!

So, as I'm sure you're all aware, the Mid Atlantic is supposed to get hammered by another storm tomorrow and into Saturday. Will is leaving tomorrow for the weekend. Which means I'm going to be home alone, again. Well, maybe not. My friend mentioned coming over on Friday to spend the night so we'll have a slumber party with our doggies and consume mass amounts of diet coke & Reese's peanut butter cups. And then on Saturday, I'll solicit her help in shoveling! Sounds like a plan, dontcha think?

Oh, btw, Will & I still haven't come to any real conclusions as to where we want to go after his Pentagon job is up in July 2011. We have to have the list done by 18 February. I would think that this would be one of those times where we'd be having some important talks and trying to really figure it out but so far, that hasn't really happened. Isn't it terrible that part of me wants to base our next location on how many thrift stores are in the area? Hahaha Sad but true. I'm not sure when/if he & I will find time to sit down and talk about this. He's gone all this weekend, part of next week, all of next weekend. And then the list has to be turned in. At this point, we should probably just hang a damn map on the wall & throw some darts at it & see where they land. Can you tell I'm a little frustrated?! Wish us luck.

Well, I need to go. Gotta do some chores, check the chocolate & diet coke supplies, get ready for the big storm! Ooh, I bought a new shovel yesterday too. It's one of those "back savers" with the bent handle. Can't wait to try that out! lol

Wow. Some shocking news.

What a difference a few hours can make. Seriously. Yesterday, I was talking about how I was antsy & ready to move, right. Well, shortly after we went to pick up my car from the dealership, Will got an email letting him know that he was chosen for a job at the Pentagon! He'd applied for a job there last fall but was told he wasn't going to get it because he was 5 months short of his 4 years at Andrews. I don't know. To me, it sounds like a bunch of "blah, blah, blah" but evidently he was required to be at Andrews for exactly 4 years before they would "release him" and let him get orders and/or take a new job. So, basically, after he was told that they wouldn't make an exception to this policy for him to be able to take the Pentagon job, we kind of forgot about it and started thinking about where we'd want to put in for orders once September rolled around.

So, yeah, he will be heading over to the Pentagon in May. And...AND...they must know by 18 February where we want our next set of orders. Yes, you read right. That's 3 weeks away. We're both completely shocked right now. Both about him being accepted for this job at the Pentagon and the fact that we have 3 weeks to decide where we're going to go next. Now, he'll be at the Pentagon for 14 months so it's not like we'll be moving out of state immediately, but we do have to let "them" know where we want our follow on base to be.

We definitely need to sit down & make a list of some areas we're interested in and the pros & cons of those places, plus the pros & cons of staying here in MD (although at the moment I'm having a hell of a time finding one thing to keep me here!!) and it's just a lot to absorb in a short amount of time.

Did I mention that he also has to take 28 days of leave before he starts his job in May?! I think we should take a serious road trip! Of course, being the middle of winter, there aren't a lot of areas I'm interested in road tripping to at this time. lol Maybe we'll go see his family down in Va Beach and then see my family in SC before heading to Florida. I hate the heat though so maybe we won't go to Florida.

Anyhow, on the top of my "wish list" is Alaska. Do yall think I'm crazy? You can be honest. lol I know I definitely do not want orders back down south. Nowhere in SC, NC, GA, FL, TX, the Gulf Coast, NM, OK, CA or Hawaii. That narrows it down quite a bit. I'd probably be happy anywhere in the Northeast, definitely out in Colorado or Wyoming, Montana, Washington, parts of the Midwest. Of course my wish list & his may vary drastically and in the end, I'm going wherever he's told he's going so we'll see.

So...those feelings I was having yesterday are gone. They're replaced by excitement and nervousness and confusion. I think I need to have a beer & just decompress & try to take this all in!! With the market the way it is, we'll probably put our house up soon in hopes that it'll sell well before we have to actually move. Besides, his commute is about to double in length and we'd ideally love to be closer to the Virginia line. Ack! See...I told you it was a lot to take in!

If anyone has any suggestions on locations, I'd love to hear your ideas!!

Ugh! Is it February yet?!

January has been just so ugh. It's been one of those months. I can't believe that the month is almost over already but I'm not sad to see it go, not by any means!! Will has been insanely busy with work, we've had a ton of automotive issues, I'm still getting the run-around by the military doctors as to why I have a freaking golf ball sized lymph node in my neck. Yeah, it's been one hell of a month!!

But, it hasn't been all bad - we did manage to take a day trip up to Pennsylvania the other week. That was nice. Well, actually, it was pretty boring but at least I got out of the house for a day! lol And Will & I went snow tubing one Friday night for a few hours. That was definitely a great time!! Here's a picture of yours truly & Mr Vintage Whimsy after a fun-filled night of snow tubing. Can you tell my face was frozen?! haha



I'm just feeling very blah this month. Unsettled or antsy or something. It's hard to describe. I'm hating this hot weather we've been having and really want to live somewhere with a true winter. You know, lots of snow. And pretty scenery. Because Baltimore doesn't have pretty scenery. It's gross. And dirty. And dangerous. I just want to get out of this state & move somewhere different.

Will's uncle called him the other day to tell him about some government jobs that were in WV and of course, being the real estate junkie that I am, I immediately go on Redfin.com and start looking up houses in the area! lol Now, the likelihood that we'll be moving to WV is about 5% but I still had to look. Gotta be proactive, ya know. And as much as I joke around about WV being full of hillbillies and rednecks, I do like the area. It's beautiful and peaceful and I love being over there. But, do I want to live there now? I don't know!!

Will has 4.5 years left before he can retire so I think I want to move somewhere else before we go to WV. Like, maybe Colorado. Of course, when I start thinking about moving to the West Coast, I start thinking about my family & how I'd never get to see them. Then I remind myself that I don't really see them all that much now & I only live 400 miles away!! So, is it really that big of a deal to move across the country? Yeah, probably not. I haven't seen my family since September so it's not like I see them on a very regular basis anyway. See, I said I was feeling very confused & blah this month!!

So, part of me really wants to move out west & live somewhere with huge mountains and lots of snow and experience that. But part of me really likes the familiarity of the east coast and knowing that I am just a 7 hour drive from "home" should I need to be there ASAP. And then I find amazing houses like this over in WV, and it really, really makes me want to just go ahead & move there. Isn't this house amazing??



Ugh! I'm so torn!! Of course, we have until September to really figure out what we want to do since that's when Will can put in for orders. I think we'll sit down and write out the pros & cons to staying here on the east coast & try to determine what we should do.

Moving along!!

Did I mention that I'm currently stuck at home without a car?! Yeah, which is probably how I found the motivation to actually get on blogger & update. It's not like I can actually go anywhere right now. My car is in the shop getting a new reservoir tank installed and having some recall repaired. Unfortunately, the reservoir tank is not included in the 100k mile warranty. Boo! But, it *had* to be repaired so here I sit, without a car. We do live on a bus route but I'm not that desperate to leave! The buses here in Baltimore are sketchy! I should have my car back this afternoon though which is a must because tomorrow is 25% off day at the thrift stores & I must go do a little retail therapy.

And since I'm stuck at home until at least noon, I finally have time to stop by & visit all of my favorite blogs. I really need to do a better job at keeping up with that because right now, I have 926 unread items! haha I'm never going to get through all of those! I should probably use this time to do something else, like clean my office, but what fun is that?!

I think we're certifiably insane. What do you think?!?

Hey y'all. It's been a while eh? I've been catching up on reading my favorite blogs but I haven't found the time to actually update mine. Until tonight. Lucky you!

So, about the title. We are thinking of selling our house (well, attempting to sell anyway) and moving back down towards the part of Maryland that we lived in when we first moved up here three years ago. As I've said before, we've never really felt settled in this house. We still check out Realtor.com on a near weekly basis and see what is for sale and a few weeks ago I stumbled across this place:



I. AM. IN. LOVE! Actually, we both are. It needs a tremendous amount of work to restore it to its original beauty but the good so outweighs the bad. It's 20 miles from there to base, so Will's commute would be 18 miles less each way, which may not sound like a lot, but it would cut down the time from 1.5-2 hours to about 30 minutes.

The house is on over 3 acres of land, it's in the middle of nowhere yet still close to shopping and the house is just huge. Well, huge to us at almost 3,000 sq ft. There's also a huge storage shed on the property, a guest cottage (which needs complete rehab but think of the possibilities!) and a small horse barn.

We drove down to look at the outside of the house & surrounding property last week and then emailed our Realtor and met up with her on Tuesday to tour the inside. She's looking into the comps for our current area & hopefully we'll have our house on the market in a few weeks. Fingers crossed, please!!

So, in preparation for all of that, we're going to be busy bees around here for the next few weeks. I'm going to start boxing up the majority of our stuff starting this weekend. Gotta make the house look like a model home, ya know?

In other news, the thrift stores have been super fab lately. I've found so many great vintage linens, some destined for my shop but lots of keepers too. Oh, and I found this great Gurley candle the other week. Isn't he cute? Love him!!




Well, it's about that time. Gotta do the nightly routine of setting the coffee pot for tomorrow, letting the dogs out, giving medicine to them both and hopefully finding the energy to stay awake for the 11:00 news, although that last part is not looking promising tonight. lol