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!)

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!!

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.

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!

A New Layout!

Just a quick post because I'm heading out to do a little thrifting!

After spending the last hour attempting to tweak this layout to fit all of my stuff, I think I'm done. Sure, there are some things that are annoying the crap out of me, but I can live with it. Besides, now I have a raging headache and I need to stop "previewing" the blog before I get really mad and end up deleting the whole thing! lol What do you think? Do you like the new layout? Is it hard to read? Is it too busy? I'm still on the fence! I mean I like the colors but I haven't decided if it's too hard to read. Hmm

Yesterday I went to the VV near my house and I found so many goodies! It's been a long time since I filled up my cart with stuff. I'm guessing the big sale on Monday helped clear out some space so they could fill up the shelves again. Yay! I need to go get all of the stuff I bought out of my car and take some pictures and do some Etsy-ing! I bought stuff for my shop on Etsy and some stuff for my office too. I can't wait to share the pictures with you all.

Okay, I promise I'll be back soon (maybe even this afternoon!) with pictures of all of the goodies! Have a fabulous Friday!

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!

Did I Say I Liked Winter?!?

I am a big fat LIAR! We had snow on Tuesday during the day. Several inches. Then that night it sleeted another couple of inches. Then early, early yesterday morning (like 0300 early) everything iced over. Complete mess!! And then yesterday during the day it warmed up to almost 40 degrees. But last night it dropped down to 22. So, everything refroze. Into a huge sheet of ice.

So, anyhow, I get dressed this morning thinking I'll go to the VV for 25% off day (for the cardholders, which I am!) and I spent a good hour taking my time, doing my hair and make up, since after the VV I had to drive the 40 miles down to Will's work and get my ID card renewed and I didn't want to look like poo, which is how I am still feeling, but I digress. So, I spend an hour getting dressed and I look good and I'm feeling better and I gather all of my crap to walk outside and I almost broke my neck! The "path" from the door to my car is like an ice skating rink. I have absolutely no traction, despite my wearing ugly snow boots, and I almost broke my neck!! I mean I realize SNOW boots are meant for SNOW but come on. I thought I was being smart by wearing something made for winter weather. Hell, if I'm going to be slipping and sliding all over the place I might as well wear cute shoes.

I managed to get to my car and throw all of my stuff in the passenger side seat and then I had to trek all the way back across the front yard to drop off a package at the mail box. And then walk back over to my car. I wasn't feeling very optimistic by this point because if I couldn't even walk across the yard, how was my car going to get out of the drive way. Well, simply put, it didn't. Which is why I'm home now, on blogger, in quite the bitchy mood. See, our little drive way is basically a mud pit and it has been since the beginning of December. The snow and rain have just turned our gravel parking spots into muck and it's nasty. Will's truck was able to leave Tuesday, yesterday and today. My car has been parked since Monday and there is ice all around it. I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon & I'm starting to go stir crazy sitting in this house!

I was so mad a few minutes ago that I ventured outside to our back yard (another big ol sheet of ice) and I went into our shed and found a spade/hoe thingamajig and I started hacking up the back yard. You know, a path from the shed to the back door. Not the *whole* yard. I'm sure I looked like a giant idiot doing that but hey, it worked and I had traction while walking!! So, I may try to go out and do that to the front yard too and maybe around my car and maybe I'll get to leave this place this afternoon. Our driveway is in the shade though so I doubt much melting will take place and trying to hack away at ice is quite tiring!

I guess I could make good use of this time by doing Etsy related things or cleaning the house but I'd much rather be at the Value Village and Target (which, btw, is having another huge clearance sale!). Thanks for listening to my rants. I'm feeling a bit better!!

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!

You Know You Have an Obsession When...

...you'll buy an entire bag of crappy ornaments to get to the one good ornament inside!

This little ornament is my favorite, I think. It's scratched up but I still love it. I love the color and I especially love the pink stripe!




And even though this one isn't a Shiny Brite, I really like it too! The colors are great and I like the design.



I love my tree so much I'm seriously debating leaving it up all year! It makes me so happy to walk in and see it in my room.

I've spent a ton of time yesterday afternoon and this morning uploading pictures and listing great new items in my shop, My Vintage Whimsy Etsy Shop! . And, through some googling, I've found 2 new-to-me thrift stores within 15 miles of my house so I'm going there today to check them out! One of them is another Value Village so I just know I'm going to be totally in love!

I hope you all are having a great day!

Wheee!! Another weekend alone.

Hello all my favorite vintage-y peeps. I hope you all had a fabulous Turkey Day and a relaxing weekend too. I have been insanely busy this last week and have seriously neglected the ol blog. I haven't even found time to go read my favorite blogs which is a shame. I'm going to attempt to play the catch-up game tonight though!!

Last week was way more fabulous than I anticipated, which was a welcome surprise because I was really dreading the holiday. For starters, on Monday I was taking measurements of that fabulous Persian Lamb coat I told you all about in my last post and I thought "what the heck...I should try this on so I can have a better guess as to the size". And I totally expected it to not fit and to be tight but at least then I could guesstimate right? Imagine the shock I had when I tried it on and it fits perfectly. Like a glove. Like it was custom made for moi!! It was seriously like Christmas morning. lol So, now that it fits I'm definitely NOT selling. So much for making a sweet little profit off of that but hey, it fits and I love it!

Not only was the whole coat thing exciting, but Thanksgiving was great too!! I spent some time on Wednesday night prepping a few things and making a deelish pumpkin cheesecake and hanging out with my bestest girlfriend Andrea. She spent the night here at my house even though she lives like 15 minutes away and we had tons of fun cooking and acting like fools. I've known her since we were 16 and we've been extremely lucky to always end up living in the same area. We started out living in the same neighborhood when we were younger, she moved to Charleston to go to school, I moved to Charleston a year or two later when I got married. She got engaged in 2006 and was having to move to Maryland to where her future husband lived and then 2 months after she got engaged and found out she was moving here, my husband got orders to Maryland and we moved up here 6 months later! Damn, typing it out like that makes me seem like a big huge stalker, but I promise that is not the case at all. lol It's purely coincidence that we've ended up living close to each other. Heck, for a year Will and I tried to get orders to Illinois and then Alaska!!

So, Wednesday night Will's brother and his roommate came into town too and we all stayed up way too late and imbibed a bit too much and I was regretting that the following morning. Will and I got up at a reasonable time though and made some fantastic canned cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Nothing cures a hangover like some Pillsbury Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, lemme tell ya! Well rolls and about 3 pots of coffee! We started our lunch appetizers soon afterward and I even managed to sneak in an hour and a half long nap that afternoon. Dinner was served around 6 and it was fabulous. We always deep fry our turkey and it was so delicious. I also made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with a praline topping, a baked cream corn casserole and cranberries. We had rolls and gravy too and it was so freaking good. Man, why don't we cook like that more often?? Once a year is just not enough. I'm going to try to make a big ol dinner like that once a month I think.

Will and I had plans to get up very early on Friday to go shopping but the later we stayed up Thursday night, the more I realized I was not getting up at 0300 this year like I did last year. Instead, we set the alarm to go off at 0515 but when I woke up at 0500, I turned the alarm off and Will and I slept in until 9:30! It was great and I really needed that extra sleep. We managed to hit up a few stores before 1:00 that afternoon and we came home so he could watch WVU, although since they lost, I'm thinking we should've kept shopping! Andrea and I headed back to town that afternoon though and I bought a few more things.

And then yesterday Will and I along with his brother and roommate headed into the District. His brother's roommate is from Colorado and had never been to DC before so he wanted to go see the monuments and whatnot. I wanted to go check out the newly reopened Museum of American History but shortly after walking into that place I realized there was NO WAY I could enjoy being there. It was like a freaking ZOO. Too crowded to see anything so Will and I decided to bounce and we walked around a bit before stopping into the official White House Visitor Center. That was pretty boring. Soon it was time to meet back up with the other kiddos and head back to the train so we could get home. We had a fish fry last night for dinner and it was almost as good as when my daddy cooks it. Almost.

Will had to leave again today, which is pretty much par for the course this month, seeing how this is his 4th weekend he's had to fly somewhere. And of course the weather is complete crap today...pouring rain and cold but not cold enough for snow. Just cold enough to keep you miserable and not wanting to leave the house. Which is why I stayed home, in bed, for the entire afternoon, in my brand new Sock Monkey Footie Pajamas I bought at Target on Black Friday. Check these bad boys out: SOCK MONKEY FOOTIE PJS LOVE! Cozy and comfortable and who can resist sock monkeys? I can't, which explains why I own like 4 pair of sock monkey pj's and a pair of sock monkey slippers!

Now I'm sitting here waiting for the husband to give me a call and let me know he's made it to Arkansas safely and then I have to drag myself downstairs and decide on something for dinner and then I have to go package up 3 things from my Etsy shop that I need to get mailed off first thing tomorrow morning. I should probably take some pictures too and list some of my other stuff on there. We'll see how much I can get done tonight before the bed starts calling my name again! I'm not feeling overly optimistic about any of it at this point though!! I must get a good night's rest because tomorrow is 25% off day at the VV and I have to go check it out, ya know?

My newfound love for the Value Village!

Yesterday afternoon, I had to run to town and pick up some dry cleaning but had an hour to waste before that so I ran into my most favorite store ever and boy was I pleasantly surprised. See, I only go on Mondays because that's when everything is 25% off, but yesterday I found out that the VV has different specials on other days too! Now, I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse because now I want to go there every.single.day just to see what's on sale! Yesterday all shoes, jewelry and "showcase" items (which is what they call all of the expensive crap they keep behind the counter) were all 50% off. FIFTY percent! Gah!

So, I'm cruising through my favorite sections of the Value Village and picking up some cute stuff when something told me to go check out the coats. Oh my good Lord. I nearly fainted! There, standing mere inches from me was a faaabulous Persian Lamb coat. In damn near perfect condition. With a beautiful satin liner with monogrammed initials. I picked up the coat and put it in my cart and a lady came over and started talking about how beautiful it was and how she'd just looked at it and then she had the nerve to reach in my cart and pick it up to show her daughter! I seriously thought I might have to throw down right inside the Value Village if that lady tried to walk away with my coat! Luckily she had the good sense to put it back in my cart and I rushed off to pay for all of my goodies! Unfortunately, the coat is like a size small and well, I'm a bit bigger than that so I won't be able to wear it. But, I'm thinking I'll sell it because it's too fabulous to just have hanging around. Some lucky lady is going to look gorgeous wearing that thing!

In other news, the husband had to work again today which makes the third Saturday this month and quite frankly, his job is starting to annoy the crap outta me! I know it's his job but I'm staring to wish that Mr. Dick Cheney would stay home a couple of weekends a month! But, since the husband was gone I was free to do whatever I wanted today and that included a trip to Ikea and a couple of thrift stores. Man, the economy is definitely in the toilet! It's been slim pickings at the thrift stores lately. Well, compared to a year ago anyhow. I remember when I first started going to the Value Village down near Will's work. There would be so many things to buy that I had to decide what I really, really wanted and leave the rest. I'm not having that problem anymore! I left both thrift stores empty handed today and that's not good! Maybe Monday at the Value Village will be better. I think I'm done with the Ghetto Thrift for a while. The quality of their stuff has gone down and I just don't feel very safe going in that neighborhood.

Naked Trees

You can definitely tell that winter is on its' way. All of the beautiful leaves that were hanging on the trees last week are now scattered all over yards and streets and the poor little trees are so naked. Here are 2 pictures I took last week looking out of my craft room






Beautiful, huh? Look at how colorful those leaves are. My intentions last week when I took these pictures was to run up the road to the state park on the weekend and take lots of pretty pictures. Of course that didn't happen because someone whose name I won't mention (ahem, Will) wanted to paint instead. And now I'm regretting not going because all the leaves are GONE! Oh, our Weeping Willow is still full of leaves, but I suspect those will just fall off without any real color change. Here are 2 pictures of the same part of the yard I just took a second ago. See the naked little trees?





I'm going to miss looking out the windows and seeing beautiful colors everywhere. Buuuut, I'm also excited about winter. I love winter, really. The cold, crisp air, snow (man, I *REALLY* love snow!), all the yummy soups we make for dinner, ice skating, frozen waterfalls. LOVE.IT. Some people hate winter but I really like it. Perhaps it's because I grew up down south, where "winter" is anything under 45 degrees. Y'all think I'm kidding, don't you? Haha Nope. It was a "cold day in Hell" if the mercury dropped below freezing!

And snow. We hardly ever saw snow. Maybe half an inch every 5 years. And the entire 3+ years I lived in Charleston, it never snowed once! Now, where I grew up in SC it would snow maybe .5" every 5 years and then every 10 years or so we'd get a "big" snowfall, which in SC terms means anything over an inch! If the forecast predicted any sort of frozen precipitation, the entire state would shut down. Down south we just aren't prepared for any sort of frozen stuff. The grocery store shelves would be empty, people would be stock piling like they were preparing for Armageddon. Of course if you live down south, you know I'm telling the truth. But people that have never lived down there don't really believe that the entire town/state will shut down until they experience it for themselves.

Back in 2001, my boyfriend moved to SC from New Hampshire, a state which is frozen and covered in snow for something like 10 months out of the year, and he didn't believe me when I told him that if it ever snowed while he was living there that the entire city would go nuts, stockpile like lunatics and then the city would shut down until all traces of snow melted. Luckily for me, within 3 or so months of him moving down we had a HUGE snowfall. Now, huge by SC standards is probably a lot different than say, South Dakota. Or New Hampshire. But it was HUGE to SC. I remember the day like it was yesterday. It started snowing one afternoon around 3:00 and when we got off of work, I took him to the grocery store to show him the pandemonium. He couldn't believe people were acting like that. We took pictures to send to his friends back in NH. The bread aisle was completely empty, no lunch meat, no canned goods, no milk, even the fresh meat section was almost empty. LOL I'm telling ya, people down south ain't playing around when it comes to snow. We ended up with 7 or 8 inches of snow, the town was shut down for 3 days and that was the last time there was considerable snow in SC.

So, now that I just went off on a tangent, lemme get back on track! Yeah, I love winter. Especially winter up here in Maryland, because we actually get a couple of snow days each year. Last December, I was home alone because Will was overseas in Africa, and it snowed a good 6" one day. It was beautiful! Of course the next day it all melted. Boo! Then a day or two after that, some jackass decided to drive a little too fast down a very narrow road leading into our neighborhood, hit a patch of ice, took out some utility poles and we lost power. So, there I was in my old house, freezing, pregnant, no friends or family anywhere around, my husband halfway across the world. It SUCKED! Each time I called the power company, I kept getting the runaround. Oh, the power would be on in 2 hours, then 4, then 6 and finally I spoke to an actual person, explained my situation and told him I needed a straight answer because if the power wasn't going to be on for several days, I needed to know so I could pack my crap and drive down to SC. Yeah, I drove to SC. Ugh!

And the year before that, on Valentine's Day no less, we had a terrible ice storm. Terrible. Like a good half inch or more of ice coating every single surface. We lost power then too, but Will was home that time. Although I was very sick with a terrible winter cold and thought I would surely die. That storm saw us sitting in a old drafty house for HOURS, then trying to find a pet-friendly hotel for the night, finally driving all the way over to West Virginia to stay with Will's aunt & uncle, driving all the way back home the next morning because the power company said the electricity was back on, realizing it wasn't, driving 70 something miles down to Virginia to a pet-friendly motel....on and on and on. It was insane.

Wow, I guess it probably sounds like I don't like the winter very much after all! But I do. When we still have power! And I'm excited that it's only 2 weeks until Thanksgiving. And Christmas is coming too and I love decorating for Christmas! We usually go all out but I'm not sure what we'll do this year. Looks like Will is going to be back in Wyoming for 2 weeks during the holidays so I'm not sure if I'll stay here or fly out there. I don't want to decorate as much as I normally do if I'm not even going to be at home to enjoy it. But, I don't want to sit around a naked house either. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

Oh, here's a picture of my cute little coat I bought at the VV on Monday. It's actually dark black but I had to lighten the picture in order to show the detail of the trim. And check out the brooch. That's the one I won a few weeks ago over at Lisa's Retro Style . Looks fabulous, doesn't it?



Ignore the ugly pink price tag I've yet to remove!

Anyhoo, I suppose I've rambled on enough for one day. I need more coffee, I need to figure out if my 5 year old camera is going to live to see another day so I can take more pictures of stuff for Etsy and I need to let the puppies outside. Oh, and catch up on some of my favorite bloggy pals! Have a great weekend, y'all!

I *heart* Etsy!

Yay! I made another sale today, not even 10 minutes after listing an item! I love when that happens! I have been busy trying to get good photos of my items and listing some new things today, but I have so much more I need to get on there.

My room is coming along, slowly, but I'm getting to a point where I can actually walk around without tripping over everything. lol And Will has been busy painting our living room and foyer the last couple of days. It looks great in there but I'll be glad when we're done painting. I think I mentioned before how much I HATE to paint.

I had a ton of good luck on Monday at the Value Village. I found a fabulous 1960s (I guess!) coat which I desperately needed. It's black, has big ol buttons on the front, and fits perfectly. Best part was only paying $15 for a big, heavy wool coat that I'm most likely going to be wearing to the very swanky Holiday Party Will and I have been invited to at the Office of the Vice President. As in *THE* VP, not just some VP of a company! I'm pretty excited about attending such an event, although I'm not sure anyone else will be sporting a thrifted coat from the 1960s! lol The coat really does look fabulous though. I also was quite tempted to buy this great little camel color coat, which fit like a glove, but it had a few imperfections near the hem. It was dirt cheap though, only $5 and was made out of 100% baby camel hair. I loved it and I'm regretting not buying it now! Oh well.

I also picked up a great old scale for $6. Of course this was after I went out last week and bought one for $20 at Office Depot! Oh well, the one from Office Depot only goes up to 2 lbs while the one from VV goes up to 25 lbs! My shopping trip on Monday also found me buying some more vintage Shiny Brites, some vintage beaded ornaments, some more little glasses, old sewing notions and lots of other vintage goodies which I'll be listing in my shop in the near future.

I have been neglecting my google.com/reader list for the last couple of days so I'm going to try to make my way there this afternoon so I can catch up with all of my favorite bloggers and see what vintage goodness you've found recently.

Another little peak...

Would you all believe my room still isn't finished?? Good grief!! This is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated! Oh, we're through with painting, thank the good Lord but now I'm dealing with the nightmare of where to put everything. See, Will built me a big ol bookshelf thing which you would think would offer a lot of storage. I mean it does offer a lot of storage but at the same time, I'm losing another piece of furniture that I had a lot of stuff stored in. I guess I could keep it in here, but the whole reason I wanted to re-do my room, the whole reason I wanted Will to build me a bookshelf was because I felt very cramped in here. So, now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to store all of my stuff! It's slowly coming along though.

Check out this picture. It's a shot of my wall color and the valance that I initially bought for the twin size guest room, before I even knew I wanted to paint my room these colors. It matches perfectly! It's just like the picture of the curtain I posted last week, only it's a valance. Of course now Target has stopped carrying these so I'm forced to go on Ebay and order 2 more so I can have matching treatments at each window. I looked at several fabric stores and couldn't find anything I liked nearly as much as these so I'm just going to go ahead and buy 2 more and be done with it. The curtains are $20 a panel, and I found 2 valances on Ebay for $12, so I'll stick with the valances!




Oh, it's 25% off day at the Value Village and I found out last Monday that they open a full hour earlier than I thought! I got there right at 10:00 last week and I couldn't figure out how so many people were already in the store with full carts and then I saw the hours on the door. They open at 9! So, I'm going to be there at 9:00 today and maybe I'll snag some good deals. I have a TON of stuff I need to get posted on Etsy today too. I made another sale last week, so in a weeks time I made 2 sales so I hope my luck continues!!

I'm hoping later today that I'll have a chance to catch up on some of my favorite blogs too because I haven't even had the chance to do that lately and I'm dying to see what you all have been up to! Hope everyone has a fabulous Monday!

A Sneak Peek

I haven't had much time to get online these last few days but I'm taking a break from painting to hop on here for a few minutes and catch up on everything! The painting is almost done and hopefully by tomorrow I'll have my room put back together and organized. I never realized how much I'd miss having my own space until it was gone and lemme tell ya, I miss it A LOT! Sure, I've got my laptop that I could be using to update, but it's not the same. Anyhow, the room is almost finished and I'll definitely share pictures when it's all done, but in the mean time here are a couple to hold you over! I cannot get a good picture of the paint color on the walls. It's a light robin's egg blue. At least I'm guessing that's the best way to describe it. It's definitely not baby blue. I love the color. And my desk...my fabulous PINK desk. Yes, pink. I love it so much! Both colors are a lot lighter in person than they are showing up in the pictures so just pretend that you're looking at them in person!





I have that fabulous chippy green cabinet I bought at an estate sale back in the summer that is going to come back in here when I'm done painting and then Will is building me a huge bookshelf that's painted a pale green too. I found some drapes at Target that would match this room perfectly but I'm trying to resist buying them because they are pricey and I could make them cheaper.

My $5 estate sale cabinet from this summer:


And the curtains at Target that I really want for this room but don't want to spend $80+ dollars on. I couldn't find the picture of the actual curtains on Target.com so I had to "borrow" one from an ebay auction:


Wouldn't those look great in here? I may break down and buy them!

I took a couple of hours yesterday to run to the Value Village and I bought a ton of amazing stuff. Except for 3 items, all of it is for resale and I'll hopefully get to list it soon. Speaking of resale, I learned a very valuable and expensive lesson this weekend. Don't list on Etsy when you are only half-awake. Because if you're like me, you'll put the wrong price on shipping for "Everywhere Else" and someone will buy an item and you'll be out of pocket when you pay almost eleven freaking dollars to mail something to France! So, don't do that! And if you discover you made a mistake on several other listings, go back in and change the price on shipping before anyone else makes a purchase. Yes, I learned the hard way, but it was nice to get a sale within a week of listing something on Etsy. Of course the timing could've been better, seeing how my entire scrap/craft room is turned upside down and it was a PITA having to find the product and then my mailing supplies but hey, a sale is a sale and that's cool!

Oh, crap, I almost forgot! Last week I was browsing through some other blogs and I stumbled across this amazing place: Lisa's RetroStyle. Well, I was reading through some of her posts and saw where she'd recently bought a mannequin and was needing a name. I offered up the name "Veronica" and at the time I don't think I even realized that she was having a *CONTEST* to name the mannequin, but I received a comment from Lisa over the weekend telling me that I'd won the contest and she was naming her new mannequin Veronica! How cool is that? I really want a mannequin of my own and I've been searching the thrift stores and craigslist to no avail! Maybe soon. So, a huge thank-you to Lisa for the brooch that is coming my way!! I can't wait to see some of your other fabulous clothing on Miss Veronica!

Well, I suppose I should get back to work. What I really want to do is drag myself and my doggies upstairs and take about a 3 hour nap, but I must persevere and get this room finished. Look at this weather. Isn't this perfect sleeping weather? This is the view from my windows in my craft room. It's rainy & cool outside and I just want to go snuggle up in bed with my dogs and a book at relax!

Monday's Finds at the Value Village

Well, nothing helps cure those post-vacation blues quite like a 2.5 hour trip to the fabulous thrift store! Luckily, I got there early today so it wasn't quite as packed as it was last week and I was able to get down a couple of the more busy aisles before the crowds got there. I swear, sometimes I will stand in that store and wonder if people are really *that* obtuse. I mean if your cart is in the middle of an already narrow aisle and you see someone else walking down said aisle and coming towards you, don't you have the good sense (and/or manners) to try and pull your cart as close to the racks as possible??? Yeah, most people up here don't. I don't get it at all. So, it was nice to get most of my shopping/looking around done before the rude people got there!

I think I may have spent more there today than I ever have, but I bought a bunch of cute little things. I picked up a bag full of old Boys Town Christmas stamps/seals from the 50s, a baggie full of German ornaments, 4 pillowcases, a twin sized flat sheet, a couple of books and a huge Gund bear that still has tags on it and must've been a collectible type of thing from 2000. I dunno if I'm going to resell it or maybe strip his ugly clothes off and just keep him. The bear is about 30" tall and just so cute so he might be staying even though I don't really even like bears!

Yesterday I decided it was time to start trying to sell some of my stuff on Etsy. It's all vintage stuff right now, but I may at one point decide to actually make things too. I need to list more things today and start going through some of my stuff and putting aside things I know I can live without. See, that's my problem. I always go into the thrift store and find such good things I just know would sell online but then I have a hard time parting with them! I'm hoping all of that is about to change though. lol And I also signed up for Twitter yesterday too. I am so lost! I'm guessing I'll get the hang of it soon though. Seems easy enough to figure out.

Today I need to go pick up coffee creamer and a pumpkin carving kit for the husband and I'm going to try to make it to the Ghetto Thrift too if I have time. What I *really* need to do is stay right here at home, box up my entire craft/scrap/office room and clear it out so I can paint this weekend. But, seeing how I haven't decided on paint yet, cleaning all of this stuff out doesn't make much sense. I swear I tried to settle on a green shade yesterday but none of the swatches I have seem like the right color. I have a lot of red and green accents in this room so I can't find a color I really like. Maybe I'll just stick with white walls! Ugh!! I am so indecisive...it drives me NUTS!

Back to reality

Hello, my favorite vintage peeps. Hahaha. I make it sound like I actually have a lot of people reading my little ol blog! I've been away for a while but I'm back now and hopefully will get back on some sort of regular posting schedule. Which in reality, means about 1.5 times a week, but still.

So, Will and I just returned from a little jaunt down to the mountains of Tennessee and I have never been so happy to leave from a vacation! I know that sounds ludicrous but it's true. This vacation is proof that not all vacations are magical and that sometimes vacations can pretty much suck.

Now, don't get me wrong. I absolutely LOVE being in Eastern TN and in the mountains but the circumstances with this particular vacation were just so, ugh, I can't even form the words. Will and I went down and met up with my parents and my sister, her boyfriend and my niece. Everything was going okay the first night down there. Even the second day seemed to start off okay. We were going to go to Dollywood and have a fantastic time riding rides and eating tons of junk food. Except Dollywood is closed on Thursdays and we didn't know it until we got to the little entrance to the parking lot. Things just got worse from here on out.

Friday morning we woke up to torrential downpours and tropical storm-like winds. It was insane. The cabin we rented, which was quite nice I might add, sprung a few leaks around the windows and doors. That's how hard the rain/wind was. Oh, and then we lost power just as I was starting to get ready. No more power = dead curling iron and I went to town looking like a hot mess.

By Saturday the weather was fair again and the rest of the family went to Dollywood but Will and I skipped out. There were just so many things we wanted to do that we hadn't done yet and since it was our last day, we decided to skip going to the amusement park and actually get a few of the things done. One of our stops was at the Apple Barn, which I normally LOVE, but I ate a fried pie and drank a huge glass of apple cider and within about 20 minutes I became violently ill!

So, as you can see, our vacation wasn't that great at all. The weather was horrible one day, I was sick as a dog for several hours on another, I only spent about 5 minutes with my mom (which is another story I won't get into here because it just makes me so damn mad), the leaves looked like crap and Will and I didn't do hardly anything we had planned on doing.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to stop at any of my favorite little antique stores in the area either. But, today is 25% off day at the Value Village and I have every intention of drowning my vacation blues sorrows by getting there when the doors open at 10:00. I found a couple of cute little vintage Christmas things there last week and I cannot wait to go today & see what I can find.

In other news, I absolutely HAVE TO pick out a paint color for this scrap/craft/office room this week because I am painting this weekend. I am the most indecisive person ever when it comes to paint. I am torn between painting this room a shade of pale green, like maybe a very pale jade color, or maybe pale pink, or even pale turquoise. Gaaaaaaah. Why can't I make a decision?? And I must find a bookcase this week. My room looks like a bomb went off in here and it is driving me crazy. I think having a bookshelf/case would offer a lot more storage and could help me keep this place a little more neat. I hope. lol

So, what color should I paint this place?? Pink? Green? Turquoise? Something entirely different?? I need help people!

Slim pickings at the Value Village

So, I didn't find too many goodies at the VV today, but what I did find was a total steal. I still cannot believe my luck! Take a look at what I found:



That's right. An authentic old Hudson Bay Point Blanket, in good condition and it doesn't smell funky like a lot of old blankets do! I immediately look for tags on old blankets and when I saw that this blanket was a REAL one and not a fake, I had to snatch this up. Do you think $7.50 was a good deal?? After checking Ebay and seeing how much these have sold for, I think it was a steal!! Here's the tag from the blanket.



So, that blanket and a couple of other small things were the only items I bought today at the VV. Will is gone again for the day so he won't be flying back into DC until late tonight so that means I can go to the Ghetto Thrift here in a little while! Maybe I'll have good luck there too!