It's Finally Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas...

But it sure took forever!! I am just not on top of my game this holiday season at all!! I did manage to put up 3 (yes, three!) trees this year though, so that makes me quite happy. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm still not done with the decorating though and I'm well aware that Christmas is less than 10 days away. I still have one more tree that I want to put up, simply because it's my "flamingo" tree. You know, the one with all of my tacky flamingo ornaments and the hot pink and bright green balls. It's my second favorite tree, my absolute favorite being my white tree with my shiny brites!

Here's the foyer tree again this year. Looks almost the same as last year, dontcha think? We didn't hang stockings last year since we were vacationing in the winter wonderland out in Jackson Hole but since we'll be home this year, I decided to hang the stockings by the stairs. How's it look? Hopefully okay because I doubt I could muster up the energy to move them!



And this year, we decided to put up a tree in the guest room. Well, the bigger of the two guest rooms. The walls are actually a buttery yellow color but I'm still having to use Will's work camera and it's a crappy point & shoot which distorts colors horribly despite all the tweaking I do to it! The tree in this room has lots of gold and sage green ornaments. My favorite ornaments on this tree are the little yellow bell shaped ones. I bought them at a thrift store back in 2003 & I just love them!!



Look!! I found a picture of the bell ornaments! Love!



Finally, here is my tree in my office/studio/whatever it is room. I love it so much! I'm thinking it might come down sometime around Valentine's Day. lol I just can't bear to take it down right after Christmas. It makes me so happy when I walk into my office & see it - all of those pinks & greens & blues. Ack! It's just so much vintage goodness that I can hardly stand it!



So, Thanksgiving was so peaceful this year. It was just Will, my best girlfriend and myself. Perfectly relaxing and low key. We had a nice breakfast, some munchies at lunch and then ate dinner around 6:00, just like we do every year, only this year, I didn't feel like I was in a rush. Man, I wish every holiday was that perfect! It's such a huge help having Andrea in the kitchen with me too. She does the cleaning while I do the cooking. Can it get any better than that?!

Here's a picture of part of the spread. Look at all the vintage Pyrex! I decided a few months ago to box up all of the newer pyrex and casserole dishes and use the vintage stuff. I mean it's the stuff I love and I got tired of seeing it on the top shelf in the cabinets & never using it. So, now I use it almost exclusively! As you can see, I most love the Butterprint pattern, but the snowflake pattern is also a favorite!



And just because they are cute, here are a few pics of the doggies.

Marty & Andrea's dog, Charlie, take a snooze on the sofa:



And Scarlett all bundled up & also taking a nap on the sofa!



Well, we didn't get the farmhouse. After we went & looked around the inside, our realtor was supposed to email us with comps for our area & see if we could get our house on the market. We have yet to hear back from her and while she was "pulling the comps to email us" the house went under contract!! Man, I was so upset when I saw that online. The part that gets me the most is that it's a contingent offer & the potential buyers still have the sell their house. See, that's the same thing Will & I could have done but our realtor slacked off on getting us the comps and now we lost the house! I was so sad but I guess things work out for different reasons.

There is a slight chance we may be looking for orders after September anyhow. Will's eligible for orders then so we may put in for something & see what happens. We're both kind of tired of Maryland. I definitely want to move somewhere with more winter, too! We're talking now about our options and as the time gets closer, hopefully we'll be able to narrow it down a little more. If by some chance we do decide to stay in Maryland, we still want to move. This house is just too far away from base & the commute is really taking its toll on both of us. All the traffic is ridiculous!

In other news, I haven't done much thrifting at all lately. Not because I don't want to, but since I'm still using Will's camera, my etsy related stuff has all but come to a halt. I don't list items and therefore don't sell. I just can't spend 2 or 3 hours taking pictures and then retaking them and then still having to edit. It's crazy!! But, come January, after Santa brings me a new camera, I'm going to get cracking on my Etsy shop again! I have tons of stockpiled stuff to list. But lately, I just haven't been thrifting. I have no more room to store stuff. lol

Speaking of shopping, I need to find the motivation to go do some Christmas shopping. I have been slacking for real this year. I don't have hardly anything for Will yet. Or the dogs. Or the best friend. I think it's going to be a very busy weekend since I will probably put off the shopping until then.

Today, I am going to sit here with my coffee, open up Google Reader & catch up on all of my favorite blogs! It's been forever since I've done that so I know I'll have tons of reading to keep me busy for most of the day! I can't wait to see what you all have been up to!!

I'm back. (I think!!)

Wow, blogging peeps! I've been gone almost a whole month and I'm hoping I've finally found enough motivation to get back on track. This last month has been insanely busy though so I've had good excuses for not writing. Between my doctor appointments and the appointments at the vet for my boy dog, I've seen enough doctors and offices to last for a while! My uh, issues, from last month were never really diagnosed and I've been referred to a rheumatologist so maybe I'll have answers one day!

In other news, my friend moved in with Will and myself a few weeks ago. She's waiting for the condo she's going to be renting to get new carpet & paint before she moves in. It's been a lot of fun having her here and I'm sure Will is enjoying having 2 "wives" lol! And our girl doggy is loving having the other doggy here to play with, so all in all, it's working out well.

I've been trying to get some Etsy related stuff accomplished this week too. May is proving to be a very slow month! And my thrift store visits today were mighty slim. Pretty disappointing but there's always next Monday!

Will left today for a little jaunt to California for 2 days. And he'll be overseas all of next week. Boohoohoo. I'm trying not to be sad about it because my Mommy is coming up to visit. ALONE!! WOOHOO!!! We haven't really spent any time alone in 3 years so I'm really, really looking forward to her visit.

I've been trying to get my momma, who is a fabulous seamstress btw, to join Etsy and start making some cute stuff to sell. Hopefully we'll be able to work on that while she's up here visiting and hopefully she'll do really well and be able to sew full time again soon. I started a blog this morning for her so when she does get her shop up & running, she'll have a place to post pictures and whatnot.

I have so much reading I need to catch up on too. So many blogs I haven't had time to visit lately - I'm going to try very hard to get by those tonight and see what you all have been up to.

Well, I need to unload my purchases from today and start taking some pictures. I hope I'll be back again soon with lots of fun stuff to share! I certainly don't want to wait another month to update so I'm going to force myself to come back here tomorrow & post something, even if I don't really have anything worth talking about!!

I *heart* the New Thrift Stores AND

I especially *heart* the Value Village. I'll show you why in a minute! So, yesterday afternoon I went in search of the two new thrift stores I'd found while googling. One is about 11 miles from my house, the other 14ish. The first one was HUGE! Alas, it was mostly clothing but I still managed to find a few must haves. There was a fabulous old dresser there - it had an enamel top on it and it was only $30 but I couldn't fit it in my car so I had to leave it behind. Oh, I forgot that I get 25% off in there so I guess it would be less than $30! I really, really hope it's there on Saturday because I want Will to go with me (in his truck) so we can buy it. It would be fabulous here in my office. Yes, I'm still having trouble organizing my stuff!

The second thrift store, the one I thought was a VV, turned out to be called Village Thrift or something along those lines. I did major damage in that store! I found tons of linens and housewares I just had to have! I'm very happy to have found new thrift stores near my house! I'll miss going to the Ghetto Thrift but I'm very happy to have good stores in good areas where I don't feel like I'm going to be carjacked at each intersection. ::knocks wood::

Anyhow, so the husband left again today for a couple of days and to pass some time I decided to run over the the Value Village. I was trying to figure out what would be on sale today. I may have to go each day for a week just to see what is on sale when! lol Today's sale items included "showcase", jewelry and bikes. Blah! But, you know me!! I didn't leave there empty handed. Oh, no sirree! I found tons of good stuff! My favorite find of the day was this guy:



As I'm sure you all know, this is a Gurley Santa! Now, lemme tell you. I'm almost embarrassed to admit, but I had no idea what a Gurley candle even was until a few months ago when I started reading all of y'alls blogs! And since then, I've always wondered where you guys kept finding these candles and how you knew they were Gurley's. I don't know why I didn't just Google that info, but for some reason I didn't. Well, today I saw a little baggie full of misc. Christmas crap hanging up at the VV and inside I saw this paper tag stuck to the bottom of a half-melted snowman. And the tag said "Gurley" and I had one of those light bulb moments! So, I looked through every single baggie I could find in that place hoping to find more Gurley candles. Perhaps some that weren't all melted and disfigured! Well, I never did find anymore inside of a baggie, but I found that guy up there stuck way back on a shelf! Wooooot! He's a big boy, almost 9" tall and although he's got a few dings and some paint missing, I'm happy to finally own a Gurley candle!

Tonight I'm going to be super busy listing some more goodies in the Etsy shop. I found some cute little elf knee hugger things today so those are definitely going in the shop, along with some other kitschy retro ornaments and other goodies! I'm also going to try and make up my mind as to whether or not I'm flying to Wyoming next weekend. We got a Christmas card in the mail yesterday from Lynn & Dick Cheney and the front of the card is a picture of the Grand Tetons all covered in snow and there is snow all over the ground and I really really want to go but I'd have to see if my parents will watch my dogs and I still need to find a flight! Uuuuuuugh so many decisions!

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas...

But I still have a way to go before I get everything exactly how I want it. The tree in our foyer is up and half decorated. It looks great so far but I need to finish it tomorrow. And *MY* tree, the one in my scraproom/office is up and mostly decorated and I am totally in love. I went out and bought a 6.5' tall, white, pre-lit tree and it's decorated with all of my old Shiny Brite's and other vintage ornaments. I cannot wait to get it done so I can take pictures and share with y'all!

I cannot believe it's already 7 December either. This month is already flying by!! Of course I had a fashion crisis last week which had me at the various malls in the area shopping for 11 hours one day and another 5 the next. I was in desperate need of finding something to wear to the Holiday Reception we had to attend tonight at Vice President and Mrs. Cheney's house. Do you have any idea how much I hate to shop for clothing? Uh, I was so frustrated after spending 11 hours in the stores that I literally started crying. I was tired and ill and nothing fit right and I couldn't find anything I thought would be appropriate for this little shin-dig. Ugh. I didn't even make it to the Value Village on Thursday to try out my new card which gives me 25% off on Thursdays!

The aforementioned party was this afternoon and it was pretty swanky! Granted, it was held in a huge white tent but damn, that's the nicest tent I'd ever been in! The Air Force band (orchestra?) was playing the entire time, there was an open bar(!!) and the food was decent, although kind of weird for a cocktail party! I didn't expect to see mini cheeseburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs cut in half, bowls of popcorn and macaroni and cheese, but whatever. lol There were quite a few kids there so I'm sure the food choices pleased them but I think it was, I dunno, not tacky but weird. Even the port-o-potty trailers were all swanked out. Heck, those toilets in trailers were nicer than the bathroom of the first house we rented here in Maryland! We were shuttled in to the actual residence and then we had a photo with the VP and the Mrs and then went into the tent and socialized. I just assumed that the VP and his wife would come into the tent at some point but they never showed! Of course our party was their second of the day and at that point they'd shook hands with roughly 1000 people so they probably just wanted to go sanitize their hands, take some Airborne and get some sleep! All in all it was a nice time and I've figured out that NW DC is way nicer than the ghetto parts over near the Base!

I am still debating if I'm going to fly out to Jackson for Christmas. I've found an even better price for a flight than I found last week (and much less than the 2,200.00 one!) and I really really want to go back out. While at the party today, there were all of these pictures of Mr. Cheney out in Jackson during the winter, and just pictures of the scenery itself with tons of snow and I tell ya, I felt a tug in my heart because I really do want to be there. I told Will the other day that if I had known in August that I probably wasn't going back out for Christmas that leaving would've been much, much harder. If I had known when I drove away that that was the last time I'd see that area I would've been so sad. And I've been kind of in a funk lately because I thought I'd be here alone and my husband would be there seeing all of the beautiful snow and winter wonderland and maybe I was feeling jealous.

So, do y'all think I should go? If I have to stay home, I'll be sad but I'll make the most of it too. I can thrift as much as I want, I can hit up all of my favorite antique stores, I can go to DC and go ice skating or up to PA and go snowtubing. On the other hand, out in Jackson I can see so many fabulous things I just can't see/do here in Maryland. I can't drive down the road and see herds of buffalo or elk. I can't drive down the road and see the amazing Grand Tetons. And snow. I don't see much of that here, although it did snow (and stick!) yesterday. Ugh, I am just so cheap that I hate spending that much money on a flight. Not to mention the total pain in the ass that flying has become. If I do fly out, I'm sending all of my bags with Will on Air Force 2 just so I don't have to check any luggage or deal with any of that crap.

Anyhoo, tomorrow is of course Monday and we all know by now that the VV does 25% off on Monday which means I need to get to bed early so I can be up/dressed early. I also have to stop by the post office and mail off another package. Someone bought that totally cool Halo Tree Topper I posted last week on my Etsy page. I had almost decided to keep it and put it on my tree but I'm happy to have made another sale too!

I hope to get things somewhat organized tomorrow so I'll have time to visit all of my bloggy friends. I'm starting to go through withdrawals since I haven't had time to visit lately. Hope you're all doing fabulous!

Yard Sale Saturday

Boy, I've got some catching up to do, huh? I haven't been feeling well for the last week and although I've wanted to post I just haven't felt up to it. Luckily I am feeling much better now and I can share all of my latest goodies with you guys.

Today being Saturday and all, I went yard saling. I stayed up late last night plotting my course and finding all of the sales in my area and making notes as to what each sale had to offer. The doggies woke me up too early today, at 6:15, so I went ahead and got up and started getting ready even though none of the sales started until 8:00 or later. It's so weird going to yard sales so late! Back down in SC yard sales usually started at 6:00 or 7:00 and most were over by 10:00. I guess because it gets so dang hot outside by 10:00 and there's no point sitting outside sweating all day long!

So, anyhow, I get ready and I go to the bank for cash and then starting driving towards my first sale- listed as an Estate Sale. Okay, maybe it's just me, but when I hear/read "Estate Sale" I'm picturing an entire house full of stuff, not 10 boxes on the lawn with a bunch of broken junk that no one wants.

I left that sale without buying anything partly because I canNOT stand to go to a yard sale where NOTHING is priced. I am not going to waste my entire morning asking over and over "How much is this?". Well, that and the lady running the sale didn't even bother to acknowledge me at all and kept on talking to her neighbor. Oh, and well, there wasn't really anything there that I wanted anyhow.

I left that sale and drove over to a yard sale at a Church and I totally scored at this place. One lady was selling so much stuff and it was really dirt cheap! I picked up 4 vintage aprons for $1/each, 2 vintage tablecloths also for $1/each, a bag full of vintage cake decorations for $2, an old cookie press and about 12 cookie cutters for $2, a package of baby dolls that are cake decorations I think for 10 cents and an old glass measuring cup for 25 cents. Of course I didn't realize it till I got home and added up all of my stuff but I think she miscalculated. She only charged me $7.35 but I gave her $8 and told her to keep the change. Hmm, maybe she just really wanted to get rid of her stuff and didn't care about the money!

After leaving the church sale I went to another sale advertised as an "Estate" sale. Haha Yeah, once again, a couple of boxes of junk does not an estate sale make. I mean really, just call it what it is. It's a yard sale. Even if I had seen something I wanted at this one I probably wouldn't have bought it because I find it very misleading to call it an estate sale when it very obviously isn't!

I then drove over to my favorite store ever- the Ghetto Thrift. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't very busy. I managed to find another little glass jar to put more of my craft stuff in, 3 vintage pillowcases, and two different tablecloths. One is from Hawaii and has 3 matching napkins. All of these goodies only set me back $10 and some change- thank you military discount!

All in all, a successful day I'd say. And for less than $20! Twenty dollars won't even get me a quarter of a tank of gas these days so I am pretty happy to have found so much stuff for so little money.

Here are some pictures of all of my great finds:

1) little baby dolls- cake decorations


2) a cute little King crown with "King of the House" wording underneath. I think I'll put this on the husband's cake for his birthday!


3)The cookie cutters that came inside the box for the cookie press


4)Tablecloth with 4 napkins


5)Another tablecloth- I swear I think I have a blue one that is exactly like this. Well, except that it's blue!


6)Aprons








7) Hawaiian Tablecloth w/ 3 matching napkins



8) All of my thrift store finds from today



Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a great weekend!