Monday Morning Musings

Hola, vintage peeps. It's Monday, again. Where'd the weekend go? I would love a do-over since it seems as though the weekend went by in such a blur! And it's not like I was actually busy doing anything exciting or fun or whatever. Nope -- it was a lazy weekend, full of naps and football and chicken wings. 

Today is 25% off day at the Value Village(s) which means I must head out soon to do some junking. I need to resupply my vintage linens and hopefully find some kitschy Christmas decorations too. Then, after I finish at the VV's, I have to head to another thrift store which has 33% off and 50% off today. Whee!! That's my favorite thrift store but their offerings have been kind of slim lately. 

Also, I have to do the grocery shopping today since I was too lazy to do it yesterday. Well, that's not entirely true. I managed to get dressed and leave the house by 5:45 last night but it was too late to really shop and some of the stores I needed to visit close at 6:00 on Sunday. So, today, I get to play catch-up on all of the errands that were neglected over the weekend. 

I like to get the majority of the errands done on Monday anyway so that I can stay home the rest of the week and do domesticated things, like ironing linens. And vacuuming. Because I am addicted to my Dyson vacuum. I heart it. So, that's the plan for today: commissary, pet food, thrifting. What's on your agenda for today? 

(these pictures obviously have very little to do with the post, aside from them being vintage linens. I just hate posts that don't have pictures so I'm throwing these in for good measure!)

Stir Crazy? Cabin Fever??

Call it what you want but I am definitely experiencing it. OMG! I've been at home since Thursday. Last Thursday. Minus a quick jaunt to the gas station, the tiny grocery store down the street and Burger King. I was home, alone, from Thursday night through midnight Tuesday morning and I was about to go nuts. There's only so much shoveling one person can do before they go insane. There's only so much talking to my dogs that I can do before I start to feel crazy. I mean they're cute but they don't really talk back and the lack of interaction with other humans was getting to be a bit too much.

Will was home less than 3 days and he just left again. I'm so over this job. OVER. IT. There are only 6 people left on his team that can fly these Vice President trips, so every.single.time. they leave, they're all going. He used to have a few more guys on the team but they either got out of the military, got deployed or are on leave. It's ridiculous that they can't have more people on the team because I would be a lot less stressed if he wasn't having to do 15 jobs at work and then come home & deal with phone calls all night, PLUS being gone every single weekend. This is the 5th weekend in a row that he's been gone, not including all of the trips during the week too. It's just taxing and tiring and I need a break from his constant travels! Come on May!!

So, as I'm sure you are all well aware, MD got blasted with another big storm Tuesday night through yesterday. An additional 22 inches fell in that span of time. That's in addition to the 32" we had over the weekend. Our angel-neighbor down the street came through on Monday and cleared a decent path on the driveway with his snowblower so I didn't have to shovel an entire parking space for Will's truck. It wasn't quite wide enough though as I quickly found out at 12:30 at night when Will finally made it home & tried to turn into the driveway and couldn't fit. There I was, out there, shoveling like crazy in the middle of the night. Ugh. I started having severe chest pains and was wheezing and thought I was going to die. Asthma + cold air + rigorous activity = not good! Thankfully, I didn't drop dead from a heart attack & despite still wheezing a few times a day, I'm okay.

Will and I did more shoveling (imagine that!) on Tuesday and we were able to get the rest of the driveway from the back bumper of my car to the street cleared. Finally. Not that I can really go anywhere because all the stores are still closed. I'm so sick of shoveling. I am going to buy a snowblower. Watch...we'll buy one and it won't snow again for 15 years!!

Since Will had to leave today, he wanted to take me for a drive down the road (yeah, yeah...stay off the roads...blah, blah, blah) so we went into our little downtown area & then to Burger King. I hate BK but that was the only place open besides the 7-11. I stopped there too. lol Loaded up on peanut M&Ms, Combos and those little powdered donuts that come in a bag. We depleted our junk food stash over the last few days. Shoveling is hard work & leaves ya starving!

Yesterday, in the middle of the blizzard, Will tried to build me a snowman. I've never really built a snowman because I'm from SC and it doesn't snow there. Well, the snow yesterday was very powdery so my snowman (woman, really) was very small. If Will had been here over the weekend, we could've built a life-size elephant out of snow. That snow was very heavy & wet and perfect for building snow people and/or animals. I wanted a pink snowwoman. She didn't turn out as nicely as I had pictured in my head. And I couldn't find the appropriate things to use to decorate her properly. She looks a little ghetto. Oh well, at least I have a snowwoman sitting on my deck & she has pretty jade green color button eyes. LOL Just pretend she has a nose & a mouth. And that she doesn't look like she's bleeding internally. LOL My not-so-fabulous idea to spray her pink using food coloring made her look kind of bloody. Oops.




Here's some other pictures from yesterday. Behind this pile/shovel is our 4' tall fence. It's pretty much buried at this point. We should see it again sometime around May.



Poor little Scarlett. She wants so badly to go outside but she can't. She's too short. Well, all dogs except Great Danes are too short. She sits here on the window seat every day looking out onto the frozen tundra.



This icicle is gigantic. It's about 4' long now. Drip. Drip. Drip. I wonder if it'll reach the ground before it breaks off.



What is left of our 6' shrubs. They've been reduced to 2' tall piles of frozen sticks. I hated those shrubs anyway so I'm glad to see them go. Now I can finally get that picket fence I've been wanting. lol



Our very snowy roof. Should've bought a snow rake (whatever that is) and cleared the roof off but we're gamblers like that. Figured we'd just wait and see how much weight this 80 year old house can take. So far, so good. No collapses, yet.



Oh and today while we were out being rule-breakers and not staying home, we took a drive through the Wal-Mart parking lot. Not because we wanted to go there but because that's how you get to the Chick-fil-a, which was closed, btw. Wal-mart has only plowed about 1/3 of each aisle. So, these piles are going to get much, much bigger in the next few days.



Here's the main street in our little town. Look! You can see my dirty, streaky windshield! I tore my wiper blade last week but whatev. Clearly, I haven't been out to get a new one yet! Anyhow, the people on this road are still plowed in. I think if I lived on this street, I'd be out there every time the plow came through so I could keep my car semi-clear. Shrug. Guess they had other things to do, you know, like watching Rosanne reruns on TVLand.



Obviously, 7-11 knows what's up. Their parking lot was so clean!! Look at their big ol pile. Almost up to the bottom of the sign!! I bet they've done a ton of business this week.



This is our street. The first time I've seen black top in a week! Finally. Too bad all these people insist on parking in the street. Probably could've been a lot more clear if their cars wouldn't have been in the road. I'm sure it's all refreezing as I speak though. Slushy. Should be fun tomorrow morning!!



I cannot even fathom what another 12" of snow is going to look like. I've read some reports online that say this storm that is coming on Monday could drop another foot of snow. That is going to be insane. I just hope this doesn't melt anytime soon because our basement is going to flood horribly & there is no way I can deal with that all alone!



I am really, really hoping that I can get out of this house tomorrow. I NEED to do some thrifting. Or window shopping. Or something. I just need to get out of this house for a few hours and do something, anything. Well, anything except shoveling.


As I said before, I'm home alone all weekend so you know what that means - time to sit here w/ my junk food & catch up on blogs!! Can't wait to see what you all have been doing. Hopefully you've all been doing lots of thrifting so I'll have some eye candy to hold me over until I can get out of this mess & go do some junking of my own.

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?!

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!!

So, it's the middle of June already...

And here I am making my first entry for the month! This year is flying by, don't you think? Good grief! I wish I could say that I've got lots of fabulous things to talk about or that I was out & about the last 3 weeks doing lots of fun stuff, but the reality of it is that I'm just lazy. There. I said it. Lazy. I mean don't they call it "the lazy days of summer"? Well, I'm definitely a believer!

Despite Maryland's recent monsoon season, I have still been thrifting on a regular basis. Last year after moving here to Baltimore county, I decided it was too far to drive down to Andrews AFB and visit my favorite thrift store. I mean that was almost 80 miles round-trip and with gas prices what they were, I couldn't justify that drive on a weekly (or twice weekly) basis. Of course this was before I started selling fabulous vintage goodies on Etsy and I was just shopping just to shop.

Luckily, gas prices went down substantially last winter and I started making the drive down there each Monday. I try to leave my house early enough on Monday morning so that I can go to the 2 thrift stores I like to visit closer to my house first and then I drive down to Andrews and meet up with the husband for lunch. We'll have a nice little lunch somewhere in the hood (remind me to tell you about the absolute fruitcake that we see every week) and then I'll go to my thrift store. I can't deny that I get some of the best stuff at that place so it's worth the drive. Now if gas goes back up to $4/gallon, I'll have to rethink that 80 mile commute!!

Speaking of my favorite thrift store, check out these swanky drapes I found on Monday:



Aren't they fabulous?!? I think they go well with this bedspread I found earlier this year:



I'm having a hard time deciding if I should list them in my shop or not. They're kind of tacky, but on the other hand, I do love the bright aqua and purple! In fact, I think I want to take that bedspread out of my shop too, just in case, you know!

In other news, I've missed some great local sales lately. The Pink Cabbage had their annual Strawberry Days yard sale a couple of weeks ago and I had every intention of going but my friend decided to use that day as the day she removed the rest of her crap from our basement. Of course, she told us the day prior that she would be over "first thing tomorrow morning" which I took to mean 9:30ish, but that really meant "oh, I'll call you around 3, after you've wasted your entire day waiting on me, and then I'll expect you to drop everything and come running". I was *not* happy!

And then last week, my not-so-dear husband informed me that he'd invited various members of the outlaws over to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. We were going to go to an Orioles game Friday night and then some of them would be leaving while others were staying the whole weekend. Now, I have no problem having family over. I just like to know ahead of time. You know, like I wish my husband would at least talk with me about it before he invites people over!!!

So, having said all that, I missed this amazing sale: Sue @ Vintage Rescue Squad's First (and last?!?) Annual Sale I was so not happy about missing that. See those pink chairs in the picture? Yeah, I think those would've come home with me if I had gone. Instead, I sat here at my house having to entertain our guests. Not my idea of a fun Saturday morning. My husband did take me to Ellicott City later that afternoon and I visited lots of antique stores so my day wasn't a complete waste.

Well, I have lots to do today. I need to get dressed and go find my dad something for Father's Day, I need to take pictures (my "good" camera kicked the bucket so I'm using Will's work issued camera- it sucks!) and try to list some goodies in the shop, I need to clean the house (again) and I need to finish putting out some of our patriotic decorations. I can't guarantee I'll be back this week but I will certainly try! Hope you're having a great day!!

Photographic Evidence

Hey guys! I'm back and feeling 1000% better. Finally!! My mom came up last week and spent a few days here and that was fabulous! We did lots of thrift and antique store shopping and I found so many new goodies! Here are some pictures of my latest finds:

Lots of great vintage invitations-








Lots of great vintage flash cards-

German-French cards:



French-English cards:



Some HUGE food flash cards:







A few weeks ago I found a ton of these vintage floral pictures that were once in National Geographic magazines. I must have 30 of these!



So, as you can clearly see, I've been busy doing lots of thrifting & lots of Etsying too! I have so many items I've yet to take pictures of but I'll hopefully get around to that today or tomorrow!

In other news, I turned 29 last Friday. I simply cannot believe I'm 29! It's going to come as a huge shock next year when I turn 30. lol I'll have to start checking a whole new age bracket on surveys. Will was gone for my actual birthday but I still had a great day. It was very low-key and I really enjoyed it!

On Monday, my Mom and I made one last run to a thrift store as she was on her way out of town and I totally scored! The store was having a huge sale & everything was 50% off. YAY! Later that afternoon, Will and I went into Baltimore proper & watched the Orioles game. It was a nice time. Well, until it started pouring rain anyhow. Note to self: don't wear a white shirt to a baseball game. At least not if rain is in the forecast! Oopsie

So, that's about it from here in my cute (yet very messy) office! I need to get off of the computer, package up some items, go to the Post Office and then come home and organize this room! I hope you all are doing great & having a fabulous day!!

Hi. Remember me?

I'm back. Not that anyone knew I was leaving, myself included, but I've been away for a bit & have finally found the time to actually sit in front of my laptop and catch up on everything!

I've been quite busy here in Maryland! Will and I built some raised garden beds for the yard. Well, technically Will built them. But I had to explain to him how I wanted them built and the sizes I needed, etc. That took up one afternoon. And then the next day we decided we were building a deck on the back of our house. Just kinda out of the blue. That took the next two days. It's still not finished. I'm not pleased about that because we can't even use the deck yet seeing as there are no stairs. Or rails. And I'm quite clumsy so we need rails for sure before I get on the deck.

And last weekend we went over to WV to spend the weekend with Will's side of the family. We drove over Friday and had a fabulous home cooked dinner with the family because Will's uncle was leaving the next morning to drive to Texas for some military school thing for 6 weeks. After dinner, we sat around the bonfire and had some drinks. Normally, I'm a beer person. I used to drink only mixed drinks but sometime around the age of 22 I switched over to beer. I freaking LOVE beer. I switch brands/flavors constantly. But Friday night I was a big dumbass (with a capital D) and had mixed drinks. Oh, they were mighty tasty, those cherry flavored vodkas and diet Sierra Mist drinks. Oh, the Hell I paid on Saturday though.

I woke up that morning to a severe allergic reaction to something in the vodka. I was violently ill (and not like hangover ill) and ended up spending 3 hours in Urgent Care and the ER. That was not fun at all. I felt so bad. Not just because I literally thought I was dying but because Will was supposed to go play golf with his brother and dad that day but ended up having to drive me to the hospital. He was such a trooper though. I know he hates shots and needles and he didn't even pass out while I was getting that huge shot in my behind. Or those huge vials of blood taken. I'm proud of him!

We had Easter dinner with my aunt-in-law's parents (got that?) on Sunday and then drove back here to Baltimore, where I promptly passed out in bed for a couple of hours. Monday I was a little too optimistic and despite feeling like poo I ended up driving down to the Base & meeting Will for lunch and then doing some shopping at the thrift store across for the base. Yeah, I kind of knew I was overdoing it when I kept getting lightheaded and feeling like I was going to faint while shopping. I did manage to pick up some great stuff though!!

Tuesday I had a doctors appt on base so once again I had to drive those 80ish miles round trip. I am not pleased with military doctors. At all. I have yet to have a good experience with any of them. I had an EKG on Saturday which came back abnormal so I needed a follow-up done on Tuesday. Can I just say that I think that after years of schooling that doctors lose their common sense? My doctor (whom I just saw for the first time) is a idiot. I'm being kind. I really want to call her something that starts with a B! I have to see her again next Tuesday to try to get to the bottom of all of my ongoing symptoms because she wasn't interested in listening to my problems the other day. I really, truly hope she doesn't come across as condescending as she did this week or I might have to go off on her AND Tricare!

Today was 25% day at the Value Village (for cardholders, anyhow) and I managed to find *tons* of great stuff, some of which I've listed in my Etsy shop already. I've still got a lot of pictures to take tomorrow though! Will is gone again so I should have ample time to get stuff done before he comes home tomorrow night.

Well, that's the latest news on me. I hope to find something interesting & worthy to talk about soon because I don't like ignoring my blog for weeks at a time! Maybe if Will gets the deck finished this weekend I'll have pictures to share!! So, what have you all been up to the last couple of weeks? I haven't even stopped by to read any of my favorite blogs lately so I'll definitely be doing that later tonight.

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!!

Early to Bed (sort of) and (hopefully) Early to Rise

Today was packed full of activities and I am beat! Like I said in another entry, I don't usually sleep well while Will is gone and last night was no exception. Will was going to call when they landed in Chile so I was trying to stay awake but eventually fell asleep around 0100. He did finally call at 0400 and then his stupid alarm clock went off at 0700. So, my sleep last night wasn't very restful.

Today I had to run to Target and Wal-mart and then I had to stand in line at the post office for almost 20 minutes. God, I hate that place. I really need to find another post office around here because that place stresses me out. Parking is a joke, the lines are always out the door and the employees are so rude!

After running those errands, I came home for a bit and then had to run *back* to the post office and then I did some thrifting at the VV even though they weren't having any sales today. I found some great things for my shop and a couple of dress shirts for Will. I freaking LOVE thrift stores. I know you all know that. And I know you all probably feel the same way but can I tell you how happy I am when I find fabulous deals?!? Like yesterday & today I found Brooks Brothers dress shirts for Will for like 2.00 each. I mean who, WHO would pay $80 or $90 for a dress shirt? Uh, not me. Not ever. Not even if we won the Mega Millions lottery. But, for $2, heck yeah I'll buy Brooks Brothers! And furthermore, I found two brand new with tags Lands End bathing suits! For $4.00 each. Once again, I would never pay $100 for a swimsuit but I'll definitely pay $4 for a brand new one! Yay! I never really thought I'd buy a swimsuit at a thrift store but the tags mean it's still new right? Right?!? They'll get a soak in some color safe bleach just to be sure!

So, I'm in bed at 10:00 and hopefully I'll rest well tonight. I found an Estate Sale that I want to try to go to tomorrow. It's about 50 miles from here but the description sounds promising. It's raining right now though so if it's still raining tomorrow I doubt I'll go. And then Sunday I may go into the District and do some sightseeing. The Cherry Blossom Festival kicked off today so I'm sure it'll be ridiculously crowded but at least I'll have some social interaction with someone other than the dogs!

Okay, I am going to try to find something to watch on HGTV that will put me to sleep until I get another middle of the night wake-up call from Will! I hope you all have a great weekend!

It's Cold and Dreary & This is How I'm Spending Tonight:

Curled up in bed with the doggies and this stack of magazines that I bought today! One of the thrift stores has a fabulous deal on magazines: 30 cents each or EIGHT for 1.40! I bought 16! No wonder their magazine selection is so slim!

I picked up 10 of these:



And 3 of these:



And these 2:



( I am especially looking forward to The Progressive Farmer magazine which lists the 10 Best Places to Live in Rural America. After sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for over an hour this morning, I'm ready to move. Somewhere very, very rural would be fabulous!)

I also picked up an issue of Cottage Living but I forgot to take a picture of it and I'm too lazy to do that now!

It doesn't even bother me that some of the issues are from 2008 (and a couple from 2000) because these aren't magazines I subscribe to so they're all new to me!

Will is gone again for a few days and I'm looking forward to spending the next 12 hours in bed reading and snoozing. How are you spending your afternoon and night?

My Office is a Ridiculous Mess

And I cannot take it any longer! I have been struggling since last November to get this place set up in a functioning manner and I have failed miserably. Today, while I was emailing back and forth with my mama, I had one of those light bulb moments. I think I've finally figured out how to set it up in here so that I can actually keep it neat and organized AND be productive! Part of this light bulb moment included the realization that a couple of my favorite pieces of furniture that are currently in here just aren't going to work for this space. And that leads me to the second half of my day:

I'm switching out the two guest rooms upstairs. Currently, we have a larger bedroom which has two twin size beds and a chest of drawers. And then there is the smaller room that has the full size bed and a chest of drawers. Now, this probably seems like a ridiculous set up, given the sizes of the rooms, but last year when we moved in, I was certain we'd need to keep the two twin sized beds and I wanted to have more room in between them so I put them in the bigger of the two bedrooms. Having lived here for almost a year now, I'm realizing that we don't really have many guests and it's pointless to take up that much space when I could better utilize it by switching beds/rooms and taking away one of the twin size beds! Yay for that little insight!

Additionally, once the bedrooms are switched, I'll then have enough room in both rooms to put one piece of the furniture currently in my craft space! So, I'll have more space in the bedrooms plus I'll be able to take the furniture in my craft room and repurpose it to work in the bedrooms, thus freeing up some much needed wall space here in my office/scraproom. I should really stop calling it a scraproom. I haven't scrapped in forevah! Like at least a year! Okay, I think I'll go with craft room. Or maybe just office. I don't really do much crafting either! lol Decisions, decisions!

In other news, Will made it home safely late last Tuesday night and he came bearing a huge Leonidas box *and* some chocolate covered Belgian waffles! We relaxed a lot on Wednesday and Thursday and then headed to the beautiful Amish countryside in Pennsylvania on Friday. Of course I was hoping to leave rather early, giving me plenty of time to explore the area but we didn't even get on the road until a quarter til noon! I visited some antique stores, found a Salvation Army where I bought a couple of cute old suitcases and then found a fabulous Goodwill. We stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel on the way home that night and all in all, had a very relaxing day! It was great!!

I did some thrifting yesterday and had a little bit of luck. It seems that the thrift stores are getting kind of slim though. And what they do have to offer is so much more expensive than it was a year ago. I always get good laugh at some of their prices! Oh, and I roll my eyes a bit too!! I'm quite ready for some yard sales and church rummage sales. I always find good stuff at those places.

Well, I need to get back to the reorganizing or I'm going to lose my motivation. I promise I'll have lots of pictures to share once it's all complete. And yes, I realize I've been saying that for 5 months!! I'll do much better this time around.

My Latest Acquisitons

The last couple of weeks have been very good on the thrift store front. Along with tons of goodies for my Etsy shop, I've also found quite a few things for my house!!

Like this adorable lemon yellow chenille bedspread:



I think it's a great addition to my small collection of other chenille spreads. Like this one:



And my favorite so far:



I can't decide if the peacock spread is beautiful or tacky. Or somewhere in between. I love it though!

I also picked up this Morgan Jones bedspread:



And this Bates bedspread:



And this great quilt, which besides having too many brown petals for my liking, is still really cute.



I went thrifting again today hoping to find more goodies for the shop but that was a no-go. I think I've bought every cute thing the thrift stores around here had out on the floor! I'm either going to have to wait a few days for them to restock or I'm going to have to expand my thrift store radius and find some new places!! Probably the latter of the two! Will is gone again for a couple of days so I have plenty of time to shop! My friend is supposed to come over for a slumber party tonight so I may finally initiate her into the whole fabulous world of thrifting tomorrow!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

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!

My Extremely Productive Day!

Despite sleeping in until 8:30 this morning, I have already accomplished so much today! I'm quite proud of myself because even though it's raining and gloomy and I'd love to take a nap, I'm pushing through! I ran to Wal-Mart first thing this morning, where I spent a good 20 minutes standing in one of the 3 open lanes trying to check out my shipping supplies. I hate that place. If the prices weren't so good and it wasn't so convenient (less than 1 mile from home), I swear I'd never go in that place. I hate how they have like 500 lanes and only 3 open. Even when it's ridiculously busy! ::vent over:: When I got home from Hell Wal-Mart, I packaged up some orders and ran to the Post Office, where I once again had to stand in a very long line. Boo!

But, the rest of my day has been fabulous! I came home and started ironing tons of linens I've purchased recently so I could then take pictures. I ironed for a couple of hours and I didn't even mind! Now, as domesticated as I am, there are some tasks/chores which I just despise doing. Like dishes. Or vacuuming. And normally, ironing. But a few weeks ago while I was shopping in Homegoods I picked up a bottle of Lavender scented linen spray and now I love to iron! Well, I'm not sure if it's the smell of the lavender or the smell of the money I'll hopefully make upon selling said linens, but something is making ironing a lot less dreadful than it used to be! LOL

Speaking of linens, I went to three thrift stores yesterday and I scored big at all of them. I shopped until I almost dropped. My joints were killing me by the time I got home last night! Part of my haul is pictured below. I haven't taken pictures of the "keep" pile yet, but it's equally huge. All of this is stuff I'm going to sell, despite my deep desires to hoard it all! lol











The husband is gone again until late tonight so I'm going to try to get the rest of my "sell" pile done and then start on the "keep" pile. I have so many things I want to show you guys! Maybe I'll get caught up soon!! Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!