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!

A Sneak Peek...

Here's my work-in-progress retro/vintage Christmas tree! What do you think?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A little spring cleaning in December!

I finally took the plunge and coughed up the $25 to upgrade my flickr account to pro so I could add more pictures without the constant reminders that my earlier pictures were being hidden until I upgraded to a pro account. It sure didn't take long to reach the limit on there for the free accounts! I also spent some time organizing and tagging my pictures and putting them in sets and spiffing up the place. I changed out my avatar on there too so now all of my avatars match on here and flickr and etsy. I also added some new things to the ol etsy shop and I have more to add but my camera batteries are charging so that'll have to wait!

Yesterday was a semi decent day at the Value Village. I managed to get there right after they opened which was nice because it didn't take long to get crowded. I picked up a few must-haves, tried on another fantastic coat but decided against it (wth is wrong with me?!) and signed up for their little card that gives me 25% off of everything on Thursday too! Wooot! Now I can go at least twice a week and find fabulous stuff and get 25% off.

Today, I think I'm going to spend a couple of hours this afternoon trying to get my craft room/studio/office space organized (finally!) and put out some of my Christmas stuff in here. I may even do a tree. What I really need to do is get dressed and go to the mall and try to find something to wear to the Christmas party this weekend at the VP's house. Yeah, time is running out and yet here I sit with no motivation to go shopping. Hmmm.

I'm not feeling very Christmas-y at all this year. It's looking more and more certain that I'll be spending both Christmas AND New Years alone. Will is flying back out to Wyoming and although I could do the same, it's just so freaking expensive to take a flight out there. I'm trying to remind myself that Will and I can always go somewhere together in January for a week or so but the reality that I'll be alone in this stupid state for the holidays is depressing! At least my best friend Andrea will be home alone too! lol Her husband is in the Secret Service and will be with either Bush or Obama for the holidays. Maybe we'll have a pity party together!

I think this is the first year I haven't had all of my Christmas and winter decorations out by now, but I'm just not feeling it this year. I'm definitely in a blah sort of mood right now. Maybe cleaning my room and pulling out all of my great vintage ornaments will help cheer me up!

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.