Love - a Day Late

Happy Valentine's Day my sweet vintage friends. That's friends that like vintage, not friends that are vintage. Although I think most of us classify as being vintage, at least according to Etsy's 20+ year policy. Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful day full of celebrating with the ones you love yesterday. I certainly did!! Well, it was low-key with a trip to Target for some petroleum jelly for my chapped nose and some Johnson's Vapor Bath and then a little dinner at the best Mexican place in MD (which isn't nearly as good as the places back in SC but it works in a pinch). Oh, and I managed to do some thrifting yesterday too which was a nice treat since I haven't done any since the first week of January.

Here's a picture of my honey & I at Halloween. I said I would come back and update with a picture in November but I never did. So, now you're getting one. I'm always late. You guys should be used to this by now!

So, I've finally added a couple of items to the other blog Vintage Whimsy Tag Sale. I have lots of other goodies I need to add soon but man, that's time consuming doing it that way.

Oh, the weather has been lovely here the last couple of days. Yesterday was 60 degrees. Um, that caused the remaining snow to melt. I wasn't too thrilled about that but once I was outside in the warmth, I stopped caring that we've had a snow deficit all winter!! And it's supposed to be 70 on Friday. I'm definitely breaking out the flip flops & short sleeves for that day.

I need opinions from all of you lovely experienced people. Do you think it's possible to make a living selling vintage? Of course, everyone opinions will vary because 'making a living' is subjective depending on people's lifestyles, bills, expenses etc. I ask this because I'm still looking for a freaking full time job. It's been 9 full months of searching, applying, interviewing, getting stressed and discouraged. Frankly, I'm about to give up!! I really think that if I were to focus, really focus, I might be able to do this vintage thing and make at least as much as I would at a part time job. I just don't know. I'd love for some people that have been in the business or been selling for a while to email me and let me know what you think. You don't have to comment on here, you can email me at shopatwhimsy@aol.com .

Anyway, I spent the entire day sitting here at my house waiting for Fed-Ex to deliver a tire for my car. A tire, which I might add, was ordered on the 3rd and being shipped from California. They tried to deliver on Saturday and I wasn't here so of course they left the little sticky note saying that they'd try again. Well, I checked the tracking this morning at 6:30 and it was already on the truck for delivery. I waited all freaking day, making my bathroom breaks as quick as possible lest I miss them again and would you know that stupid tire didn't show up until 5:15?? The delivery man was all 'i hope you didn't wait all day for me' and I was like 'actually I did' and he's like 'sorry. they scheduled you as my last delivery. I've already made 175 deliveries today'. UUUUUUUUUUUGH! But hey, at least my tire is here!!

So, I'm wired on coffee and I'm going to find something to occupy my time tonight. Maybe I'll do some listings. Maybe I'll just sit here and read some blogs. Yeah, that's more likely. Oh, and for the sake of not having only one picture in this post, I'm going to add one from Christmas Eve when the honey and I went to church.

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?

Freedom - At Last!!

I was finally able to break free from this personal prison I've been stuck in for the last 10 days! I had a great day doing some window shopping but the crowds were ridiculous. You would've thought it was Christmas eve. I guess everyone has been cooped up for a week or more so they were probably feeling much like I was & just had to get out of the house!!

I came home right as a florist was delivering a bouquet that looks much like this one:



Aren't they gorgeous? Will had flowers sent to me since he's gone & felt bad about not being here for Valentine's Day. I love them! All pink - does he know me well or what?!

And the mail man brought me the newest issue of my favorite ever magazine:



Oh, and I totally splurged and bought my favorite ever snack today while I was out - Petticoat Tails.



I freakin love shortbread but I never buy it so it's a real treat when I break down & splurge. I even bought two boxes of shortbread today. I was feeling very deprived after being stuck at home for 10 days & felt like I deserved it.

I am so exhausted. I didn't sleep well at all last night. Stupid sciatic nerve had my whole leg tingling and numb. I woke up at 4:00 and tossed and turned while trying to get comfortable but nothing was working. As a last resort, I ended up folding my electric blanket in half and cranking that sucker up as high as it would go and used it as a makeshift heating pad. That plus the 2 Aleve I popped finally eased the pain a bit & I went back to sleep sometime around 6:30. I was up again at 8:00. Ugh.

It's definitely going to be an early night for me. I'm heading to bed now to curl up with the doggies, my new magazine & maybe a petticoat tail or two and I'm going to try to get comfortable & relax. Will is working tonight so I'm sure I'll have to make some late night phone calls to chat with him for a bit, too.

I am so excited that the snow has receded enough that I can get out of the house. Tomorrow, I'm hitting up one of my favorite thrift stores & then doing some clothes shopping. Yay! Of course, it's supposed to snow again on Monday and Tuesday so my excitement is going to be very short-lived!! Ha!

My Fabulous Weekend!!

Hello all of my vintage-y peeps. I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day & enjoyed the holiday yesterday too! I had a fantastic weekend. Will was off from Thursday through yesterday and we spent tons of time together which was really nice. Thursday we had to do a little retail therapy, not the type I enjoy though. I need tires for my SUV so we spent several hours that morning trying to located a store here in MD that actually had my tires in stock. No one has tires for my car. I had to go online and order them and have them shipped here. That was $500 that I'd really rather have spent on anything else! Hey, at least I got 4 tires for that price. Will had to get two new tires in October and those ran him $500! For two tires!! Good grief!

Friday morning I decided I wanted to go over to Harper's Ferry, WV and to some of the other surrounding towns for the day. We saw the most adorable house for sale and now I'm dying to buy this place, make it super cute & rent it out. It's really affordable so we'll see if my dream of owning a vacation property finally comes true! After we drove through the countryside and all of the little towns in MD and WV, I persuaded Will to take me to the Outlets over in Hagerstown, MD. There's an LL Bean outlet there and I love that place! I don't really shop for clothing there, but I was hoping they'd have bedroom slippers on sale and I lucked out! I found a pair of cute pink slippers on clearance, plus an additional 30% off for the President's Day Sale they were having. Score! Of course, this was after I paid almost $35.00 for the same pair (in green!) a few weeks ago. I'd much rather pay $13.00 for slippers!

Saturday I woke up to breakfast in bed!! Will slipped out of bed without me hearing him, got dressed and ran down to pick up flowers, fruit & donuts. He came back, put everything on a little tray and brought it upstairs to me. He woke me up with a kiss and we sat in bed and ate breakfast together. Check out the pictures:

My delicious breakfast- cantaloupe, a glazed donut, a cherry flavored heart donut, coffee in a vintage pyrex mug, flowers & a card!



Close up of my cherry flavored heart shaped donut. Check out that classy paper plate!!


I stayed in bed most of the day Saturday which is very unlike me! I wasn't feeling well and figured I should just rest for the day! It was a very relaxing day & exactly what I needed.

Sunday found Will and I doing some more shopping, this time for a new tv. Now, keep in mind we didn't/don't need a new tv. We had 3 tv's that were functioning just fine. But Will has been wanting a flat screen tv for years now, so he went out and bought one on Sunday. He kept asking my opinion on different models, etc but I couldn't really offer an opinion. I don't watch much tv, usually HGTV or Food TV. And I'd never, ever buy a new tv just buy one. Especially when I already had 3 that worked perfectly fine.

Yesterday Will had to go into work for a few minutes so I rode with him. I was definitely making a stop at the Value Village down there. Well, that was a huge mistake! I had no idea that the VV was having a huge sale for President's Day. The entire store was 50% off and that place was packed! I can't deal with crowds like that so I made my way back out the car where Will was waiting. That place was insane! I did stop at another thrift on the way home and while crowded, it was nothing like the VV. I picked up some goodies for my house & for the Etsy shop.

Will had to fly out to Colorado today so I made my way over to the Value Village closer to my home. I thought I might find some good stuff since I kind of figured they had a huge sale yesterday and they might have restocked last night. Yeah, no so. The racks were all empty but I managed to find a couple of things I wanted but when I went to pay, all of the credit card machines were down. I'll try going again on Thursday.

I've been busy all afternoon taking pictures and listing goodies in my Etsy shop. I have been so lazy lately so I really need a swift kick in the you-know-where to get back in gear and list on a regular basis. I had my first non-paying buyer last week and that was kind of disappointing. Why do people do that? I mean if you have no intentions of following through and actually paying for the item, why even put it in your cart & check out? Ugh! I guess I should be glad it's only happened once!

Okay, I'm off to put on my pj's & check out some of my favorite blogs while I wait for Will to get home! Hope you all are having a great week so far!

Spring is in the Air!

Well, for today anyhow! We're supposed to get some rain/snow mix on Saturday, but today the weather is lovely!! I'm starting to get in the mood for Spring Cleaning, which is a great thing, because my craft room is still a disaster and the rest of the house is just kind of blah. I'm ready for the days when I can pull back the drapes & open the windows and get some fresh air circulating through this place!

In an attempt to get my never ending craft room re-do finished up, I've spent the better part of today doing some much needed organizing and I've worked on a couple of projects too. I'm changing out the window treatments in here. You guys remember back in November I bought those oh-so-cute striped valences, right? Well, Target is having a huge clearance and the matching full length curtains are on sale. So, I bought those and I'm hanging them up today. The valences will go in our guest room upstairs.

I'm hoping that the husband will be around this weekend so he can hang some shelves in here too. I have some really cute pink corner shelves I bought at a thrift store last summer that I want to hang up in here. I had bought them to go in the guest room but I need them in here more than I do in there!

So, are you guys doing anything for Valentine's Day? Will and I went to dinner at Outback last night and I told him during dinner that I didn't want to go out again this weekend. I think I'll make us a nice dinner here at home and we can just hang out and relax! Last weekend while Will was in Germany with VP Biden, Andrea and I drove up to Hershey, Pa and went to the Chocolate Buffet! It was $35 and worth every single penny. The buffet started at 7:00 and there was such a huge spread on the table. It was almost ridiculous! I ate so much chocolate I thought I was going to be sick! I think we'll make this an annual event although next year I definitely want to get a room and spend the night. Driving home after eating all of those desserts was not fun! Needless to say, I do not want any chocolate from Will for Valentine's Day. Unless of course he's going into the District to the Leonida's store. I can't turn down Leonida's chocolate since those are my all-time favorites!

I'm hoping to get around to some of your blogs this afternoon & tonight so I can catch up on what you all have been doing. I seriously need to get back into some sort of regular blogging/reading schedule! I'm such a slacker lately.