What a difference a few hours can make. Seriously. Yesterday, I was talking about how I was antsy & ready to move, right. Well, shortly after we went to pick up my car from the dealership, Will got an email letting him know that he was chosen for a job at the Pentagon! He'd applied for a job there last fall but was told he wasn't going to get it because he was 5 months short of his 4 years at Andrews. I don't know. To me, it sounds like a bunch of "blah, blah, blah" but evidently he was required to be at Andrews for exactly 4 years before they would "release him" and let him get orders and/or take a new job. So, basically, after he was told that they wouldn't make an exception to this policy for him to be able to take the Pentagon job, we kind of forgot about it and started thinking about where we'd want to put in for orders once September rolled around.
So, yeah, he will be heading over to the Pentagon in May. And...AND...they must know by 18 February where we want our next set of orders. Yes, you read right. That's 3 weeks away. We're both completely shocked right now. Both about him being accepted for this job at the Pentagon and the fact that we have 3 weeks to decide where we're going to go next. Now, he'll be at the Pentagon for 14 months so it's not like we'll be moving out of state immediately, but we do have to let "them" know where we want our follow on base to be.
We definitely need to sit down & make a list of some areas we're interested in and the pros & cons of those places, plus the pros & cons of staying here in MD (although at the moment I'm having a hell of a time finding one thing to keep me here!!) and it's just a lot to absorb in a short amount of time.
Did I mention that he also has to take 28 days of leave before he starts his job in May?! I think we should take a serious road trip! Of course, being the middle of winter, there aren't a lot of areas I'm interested in road tripping to at this time. lol Maybe we'll go see his family down in Va Beach and then see my family in SC before heading to Florida. I hate the heat though so maybe we won't go to Florida.
Anyhow, on the top of my "wish list" is Alaska. Do yall think I'm crazy? You can be honest. lol I know I definitely do not want orders back down south. Nowhere in SC, NC, GA, FL, TX, the Gulf Coast, NM, OK, CA or Hawaii. That narrows it down quite a bit. I'd probably be happy anywhere in the Northeast, definitely out in Colorado or Wyoming, Montana, Washington, parts of the Midwest. Of course my wish list & his may vary drastically and in the end, I'm going wherever he's told he's going so we'll see.
So...those feelings I was having yesterday are gone. They're replaced by excitement and nervousness and confusion. I think I need to have a beer & just decompress & try to take this all in!! With the market the way it is, we'll probably put our house up soon in hopes that it'll sell well before we have to actually move. Besides, his commute is about to double in length and we'd ideally love to be closer to the Virginia line. Ack! See...I told you it was a lot to take in!
If anyone has any suggestions on locations, I'd love to hear your ideas!!
28 January 2010
27 January 2010
Ugh! Is it February yet?!
January has been just so ugh. It's been one of those months. I can't believe that the month is almost over already but I'm not sad to see it go, not by any means!! Will has been insanely busy with work, we've had a ton of automotive issues, I'm still getting the run-around by the military doctors as to why I have a freaking golf ball sized lymph node in my neck. Yeah, it's been one hell of a month!!
But, it hasn't been all bad - we did manage to take a day trip up to Pennsylvania the other week. That was nice. Well, actually, it was pretty boring but at least I got out of the house for a day! lol And Will & I went snow tubing one Friday night for a few hours. That was definitely a great time!! Here's a picture of yours truly & Mr Vintage Whimsy after a fun-filled night of snow tubing. Can you tell my face was frozen?! haha
I'm just feeling very blah this month. Unsettled or antsy or something. It's hard to describe. I'm hating this hot weather we've been having and really want to live somewhere with a true winter. You know, lots of snow. And pretty scenery. Because Baltimore doesn't have pretty scenery. It's gross. And dirty. And dangerous. I just want to get out of this state & move somewhere different.
Will's uncle called him the other day to tell him about some government jobs that were in WV and of course, being the real estate junkie that I am, I immediately go on Redfin.com and start looking up houses in the area! lol Now, the likelihood that we'll be moving to WV is about 5% but I still had to look. Gotta be proactive, ya know. And as much as I joke around about WV being full of hillbillies and rednecks, I do like the area. It's beautiful and peaceful and I love being over there. But, do I want to live there now? I don't know!!
Will has 4.5 years left before he can retire so I think I want to move somewhere else before we go to WV. Like, maybe Colorado. Of course, when I start thinking about moving to the West Coast, I start thinking about my family & how I'd never get to see them. Then I remind myself that I don't really see them all that much now & I only live 400 miles away!! So, is it really that big of a deal to move across the country? Yeah, probably not. I haven't seen my family since September so it's not like I see them on a very regular basis anyway. See, I said I was feeling very confused & blah this month!!
So, part of me really wants to move out west & live somewhere with huge mountains and lots of snow and experience that. But part of me really likes the familiarity of the east coast and knowing that I am just a 7 hour drive from "home" should I need to be there ASAP. And then I find amazing houses like this over in WV, and it really, really makes me want to just go ahead & move there. Isn't this house amazing??
Ugh! I'm so torn!! Of course, we have until September to really figure out what we want to do since that's when Will can put in for orders. I think we'll sit down and write out the pros & cons to staying here on the east coast & try to determine what we should do.
Moving along!!
Did I mention that I'm currently stuck at home without a car?! Yeah, which is probably how I found the motivation to actually get on blogger & update. It's not like I can actually go anywhere right now. My car is in the shop getting a new reservoir tank installed and having some recall repaired. Unfortunately, the reservoir tank is not included in the 100k mile warranty. Boo! But, it *had* to be repaired so here I sit, without a car. We do live on a bus route but I'm not that desperate to leave! The buses here in Baltimore are sketchy! I should have my car back this afternoon though which is a must because tomorrow is 25% off day at the thrift stores & I must go do a little retail therapy.
And since I'm stuck at home until at least noon, I finally have time to stop by & visit all of my favorite blogs. I really need to do a better job at keeping up with that because right now, I have 926 unread items! haha I'm never going to get through all of those! I should probably use this time to do something else, like clean my office, but what fun is that?!
But, it hasn't been all bad - we did manage to take a day trip up to Pennsylvania the other week. That was nice. Well, actually, it was pretty boring but at least I got out of the house for a day! lol And Will & I went snow tubing one Friday night for a few hours. That was definitely a great time!! Here's a picture of yours truly & Mr Vintage Whimsy after a fun-filled night of snow tubing. Can you tell my face was frozen?! haha
I'm just feeling very blah this month. Unsettled or antsy or something. It's hard to describe. I'm hating this hot weather we've been having and really want to live somewhere with a true winter. You know, lots of snow. And pretty scenery. Because Baltimore doesn't have pretty scenery. It's gross. And dirty. And dangerous. I just want to get out of this state & move somewhere different.
Will's uncle called him the other day to tell him about some government jobs that were in WV and of course, being the real estate junkie that I am, I immediately go on Redfin.com and start looking up houses in the area! lol Now, the likelihood that we'll be moving to WV is about 5% but I still had to look. Gotta be proactive, ya know. And as much as I joke around about WV being full of hillbillies and rednecks, I do like the area. It's beautiful and peaceful and I love being over there. But, do I want to live there now? I don't know!!
Will has 4.5 years left before he can retire so I think I want to move somewhere else before we go to WV. Like, maybe Colorado. Of course, when I start thinking about moving to the West Coast, I start thinking about my family & how I'd never get to see them. Then I remind myself that I don't really see them all that much now & I only live 400 miles away!! So, is it really that big of a deal to move across the country? Yeah, probably not. I haven't seen my family since September so it's not like I see them on a very regular basis anyway. See, I said I was feeling very confused & blah this month!!
So, part of me really wants to move out west & live somewhere with huge mountains and lots of snow and experience that. But part of me really likes the familiarity of the east coast and knowing that I am just a 7 hour drive from "home" should I need to be there ASAP. And then I find amazing houses like this over in WV, and it really, really makes me want to just go ahead & move there. Isn't this house amazing??
Ugh! I'm so torn!! Of course, we have until September to really figure out what we want to do since that's when Will can put in for orders. I think we'll sit down and write out the pros & cons to staying here on the east coast & try to determine what we should do.
Moving along!!
Did I mention that I'm currently stuck at home without a car?! Yeah, which is probably how I found the motivation to actually get on blogger & update. It's not like I can actually go anywhere right now. My car is in the shop getting a new reservoir tank installed and having some recall repaired. Unfortunately, the reservoir tank is not included in the 100k mile warranty. Boo! But, it *had* to be repaired so here I sit, without a car. We do live on a bus route but I'm not that desperate to leave! The buses here in Baltimore are sketchy! I should have my car back this afternoon though which is a must because tomorrow is 25% off day at the thrift stores & I must go do a little retail therapy.
And since I'm stuck at home until at least noon, I finally have time to stop by & visit all of my favorite blogs. I really need to do a better job at keeping up with that because right now, I have 926 unread items! haha I'm never going to get through all of those! I should probably use this time to do something else, like clean my office, but what fun is that?!
03 January 2010
Brrr! My Toilet is Frozen!
Happy New Year guys!! What did you do to celebrate? I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. lol Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I posted on Etsy, drank a few cherry wheat beers and talked to Will on the phone. Oh, and watched our jackass of a neighbor shoot fireworks into our yard. That was entertaining!
Remember last week when I said I had lots of things I wanted to accomplish while Will was gone? Yeah, approximately 17% of those things actually happened. I did manage to take pictures of linens & list those but otherwise, yeah, I stayed holed up in this house for the majority of the week. In fact, I think I've been out of the house *maybe* 5 hours since last Saturday! I'm finding that it's just too windy & cold to go anywhere. I mean this wind is freaking ridiculous right now. The windchill is 2. TWO. It is so cold that the water in the toilet in the 1/2 bath off of the kitchen froze solid overnight. I've never had that happen. Hell, I didn't even know that COULD happen!!
So, Will is coming home today, finally. The first half of the week seemed to fly by but since Thursday it's been really dragging. And, as usual, he's bringing lots of goodies home with him. This time instead of Belgian chocolates, I'm getting chocolate rum from the Virgin Islands. Sounds delicious to me and maybe drinking a bit of that will help warm me up!! He's also bringing back rum balls and rum cake. And jewelry. I'm so spoiled!!
Will is supposed to be off for the rest of the week starting on Tuesday and I'm hoping we can take some day trips out of Baltimore. I am starting to go stir crazy being home all alone!! I'm sure he'll want to stay home & relax since he's been gone for a week though. We always run into this same issue when he comes home. He wants to stay home and I want to go out. He wants to eat every meal here and I want to go out. lol See, he gets to eat out 3 times a day while he's gone and when he comes home, he's ready for home cooked meals. On the other hand, I'm eating at home 3x a day while he's gone so by the time he gets back, I'm ready for someone else to do the cooking, preferably that someone being a chef at a restaurant!
I think it's almost time to take down the Christmas trees too. Although I love looking at the trees, it's time to get my house back in order and the first thing I need to do is get the Christmas stuff outta here. Even my pretty retro tree in my office needs to go!! Hopefully I'll get them put up in a more timely manner next Christmas. I feel like I *just* got these things decorated and now it's already time to put them away again.
I have a huge list of things I should be doing today. Things like cleaning and organizing and taking down the decorations and getting all of my linens put away. None of that sounds like a good time though so I'm thinking I'll put on some thermal underwear, bundle up in layers and brave the elements and go do a little retail therapy. Tomorrow is, of course, 25% off day at all of the thrift stores but I haven't left the house since Thursday so I think I need to get out of here before I go insane!! Besides, I'm pretty sure my car heater works better than the house heater so at least I can finally warm up!!
I'm leaving you with a picture of my favorite ornament on my retro tree. It's all scratched up but I love it so! I'm loving my new camera! I'm so not good at taking pictures and I have a ton to learn but I'm so happy that I'm not stuck using Will's work camera anymore. I should probably sit down & actually read the manual that came with the camera but let's face it: that's kind of boring!
Remember last week when I said I had lots of things I wanted to accomplish while Will was gone? Yeah, approximately 17% of those things actually happened. I did manage to take pictures of linens & list those but otherwise, yeah, I stayed holed up in this house for the majority of the week. In fact, I think I've been out of the house *maybe* 5 hours since last Saturday! I'm finding that it's just too windy & cold to go anywhere. I mean this wind is freaking ridiculous right now. The windchill is 2. TWO. It is so cold that the water in the toilet in the 1/2 bath off of the kitchen froze solid overnight. I've never had that happen. Hell, I didn't even know that COULD happen!!
So, Will is coming home today, finally. The first half of the week seemed to fly by but since Thursday it's been really dragging. And, as usual, he's bringing lots of goodies home with him. This time instead of Belgian chocolates, I'm getting chocolate rum from the Virgin Islands. Sounds delicious to me and maybe drinking a bit of that will help warm me up!! He's also bringing back rum balls and rum cake. And jewelry. I'm so spoiled!!
Will is supposed to be off for the rest of the week starting on Tuesday and I'm hoping we can take some day trips out of Baltimore. I am starting to go stir crazy being home all alone!! I'm sure he'll want to stay home & relax since he's been gone for a week though. We always run into this same issue when he comes home. He wants to stay home and I want to go out. He wants to eat every meal here and I want to go out. lol See, he gets to eat out 3 times a day while he's gone and when he comes home, he's ready for home cooked meals. On the other hand, I'm eating at home 3x a day while he's gone so by the time he gets back, I'm ready for someone else to do the cooking, preferably that someone being a chef at a restaurant!
I think it's almost time to take down the Christmas trees too. Although I love looking at the trees, it's time to get my house back in order and the first thing I need to do is get the Christmas stuff outta here. Even my pretty retro tree in my office needs to go!! Hopefully I'll get them put up in a more timely manner next Christmas. I feel like I *just* got these things decorated and now it's already time to put them away again.
I have a huge list of things I should be doing today. Things like cleaning and organizing and taking down the decorations and getting all of my linens put away. None of that sounds like a good time though so I'm thinking I'll put on some thermal underwear, bundle up in layers and brave the elements and go do a little retail therapy. Tomorrow is, of course, 25% off day at all of the thrift stores but I haven't left the house since Thursday so I think I need to get out of here before I go insane!! Besides, I'm pretty sure my car heater works better than the house heater so at least I can finally warm up!!
I'm leaving you with a picture of my favorite ornament on my retro tree. It's all scratched up but I love it so! I'm loving my new camera! I'm so not good at taking pictures and I have a ton to learn but I'm so happy that I'm not stuck using Will's work camera anymore. I should probably sit down & actually read the manual that came with the camera but let's face it: that's kind of boring!
28 December 2009
Christmas, the Blizzard, Etsy, etc
Hey Vintage peeps. How was your Holidays? I'm hoping that Santa left you all a lot of goodies. I had an amazing Christmas. Santa brought me a new camera, which I desperately needed, and now I can get back to listing lots of goodies in my Etsy shop!
And how fabulous was it for us Mid Atlantic people to finally have a white Christmas? I think it was pretty fab! And I've been lucky enough to have 2 White Christmases in a row now. Of course, last year in Jackson Hole, we had way more snow than this year in MD, but I won't complain about that!! I'm just happy that the 27" we received the Saturday prior lasted through the week. I'm not so happy that when the rains came on Saturday, that all of the snow melted and flooded our basement. Again. Oh, and I'm not so happy that the snow collapsed our canopy thing on our deck, but that was kind of our own stupidity for not taking it down before the snow started. When we woke up that morning to see it snowing, this is what greeted us as we looked out our back door onto our deck. Hahahahaha
And here is my cute little Schnoodle, Scarlett, and her Daddy-o:
She was having a blast in the snow. Well, until it got so deep that the only thing above the snow was her snout! Poor dogs were buried in the snow. Marty the Briard simply refused to go outside!
Look at Scarlett trying to walk through the snow. This was around 2:00 that afternoon. I'd say we received another 10 or 12 inches on top of that! Please ignore my voice! I don't think I sound like that in real life.
Here's Marty giving me that "you want me to go where?!?" face. lol He was not pleased when I forced him to go potty!! I'm not sure what his issue was this time because normally he loves the snow!
Here's what our house looked like when we first went outside that morning. So pretty!!
So, now all the snow is melted and Christmas is over. Will left today for a week. He's in the Virgin Islands and I know most people would be so jealous but I couldn't care less. lol I have zero desire to go anywhere hot & sunny. Give me cold & snow any day over sandy, hot, sunny places! I'm going to use this next week to hopefully get back to listing lots of vintage goodies in the shop. Perhaps I'll take a day trip or two to some places in PA or western MD. I may do a little antique shopping at some of the places around here. I might even go snow tubing one day! I'm quite looking forward to the solitude. I'm going to sleep when I'm tired and relax and maybe even eat junk food for breakfast and cereal for dinner!!
And finally, some pictures of the great new-to-me linens I've acquired in the last couple of months. Take a peek at all of this yummy goodness!!
That's just the tip of the iceberg. I have so many others I need to pull out of boxes and get ready to list!! It's kind of like Christmas morning all over again every time I go through the boxes and see all of these great linens!!
And how fabulous was it for us Mid Atlantic people to finally have a white Christmas? I think it was pretty fab! And I've been lucky enough to have 2 White Christmases in a row now. Of course, last year in Jackson Hole, we had way more snow than this year in MD, but I won't complain about that!! I'm just happy that the 27" we received the Saturday prior lasted through the week. I'm not so happy that when the rains came on Saturday, that all of the snow melted and flooded our basement. Again. Oh, and I'm not so happy that the snow collapsed our canopy thing on our deck, but that was kind of our own stupidity for not taking it down before the snow started. When we woke up that morning to see it snowing, this is what greeted us as we looked out our back door onto our deck. Hahahahaha
And here is my cute little Schnoodle, Scarlett, and her Daddy-o:
She was having a blast in the snow. Well, until it got so deep that the only thing above the snow was her snout! Poor dogs were buried in the snow. Marty the Briard simply refused to go outside!
Look at Scarlett trying to walk through the snow. This was around 2:00 that afternoon. I'd say we received another 10 or 12 inches on top of that! Please ignore my voice! I don't think I sound like that in real life.
Here's Marty giving me that "you want me to go where?!?" face. lol He was not pleased when I forced him to go potty!! I'm not sure what his issue was this time because normally he loves the snow!
Here's what our house looked like when we first went outside that morning. So pretty!!
So, now all the snow is melted and Christmas is over. Will left today for a week. He's in the Virgin Islands and I know most people would be so jealous but I couldn't care less. lol I have zero desire to go anywhere hot & sunny. Give me cold & snow any day over sandy, hot, sunny places! I'm going to use this next week to hopefully get back to listing lots of vintage goodies in the shop. Perhaps I'll take a day trip or two to some places in PA or western MD. I may do a little antique shopping at some of the places around here. I might even go snow tubing one day! I'm quite looking forward to the solitude. I'm going to sleep when I'm tired and relax and maybe even eat junk food for breakfast and cereal for dinner!!
And finally, some pictures of the great new-to-me linens I've acquired in the last couple of months. Take a peek at all of this yummy goodness!!
That's just the tip of the iceberg. I have so many others I need to pull out of boxes and get ready to list!! It's kind of like Christmas morning all over again every time I go through the boxes and see all of these great linens!!
16 December 2009
It's Finally Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas...
But it sure took forever!! I am just not on top of my game this holiday season at all!! I did manage to put up 3 (yes, three!) trees this year though, so that makes me quite happy. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm still not done with the decorating though and I'm well aware that Christmas is less than 10 days away. I still have one more tree that I want to put up, simply because it's my "flamingo" tree. You know, the one with all of my tacky flamingo ornaments and the hot pink and bright green balls. It's my second favorite tree, my absolute favorite being my white tree with my shiny brites!
Here's the foyer tree again this year. Looks almost the same as last year, dontcha think? We didn't hang stockings last year since we were vacationing in the winter wonderland out in Jackson Hole but since we'll be home this year, I decided to hang the stockings by the stairs. How's it look? Hopefully okay because I doubt I could muster up the energy to move them!
And this year, we decided to put up a tree in the guest room. Well, the bigger of the two guest rooms. The walls are actually a buttery yellow color but I'm still having to use Will's work camera and it's a crappy point & shoot which distorts colors horribly despite all the tweaking I do to it! The tree in this room has lots of gold and sage green ornaments. My favorite ornaments on this tree are the little yellow bell shaped ones. I bought them at a thrift store back in 2003 & I just love them!!
Look!! I found a picture of the bell ornaments! Love!
Finally, here is my tree in my office/studio/whatever it is room. I love it so much! I'm thinking it might come down sometime around Valentine's Day. lol I just can't bear to take it down right after Christmas. It makes me so happy when I walk into my office & see it - all of those pinks & greens & blues. Ack! It's just so much vintage goodness that I can hardly stand it!
So, Thanksgiving was so peaceful this year. It was just Will, my best girlfriend and myself. Perfectly relaxing and low key. We had a nice breakfast, some munchies at lunch and then ate dinner around 6:00, just like we do every year, only this year, I didn't feel like I was in a rush. Man, I wish every holiday was that perfect! It's such a huge help having Andrea in the kitchen with me too. She does the cleaning while I do the cooking. Can it get any better than that?!
Here's a picture of part of the spread. Look at all the vintage Pyrex! I decided a few months ago to box up all of the newer pyrex and casserole dishes and use the vintage stuff. I mean it's the stuff I love and I got tired of seeing it on the top shelf in the cabinets & never using it. So, now I use it almost exclusively! As you can see, I most love the Butterprint pattern, but the snowflake pattern is also a favorite!
And just because they are cute, here are a few pics of the doggies.
Marty & Andrea's dog, Charlie, take a snooze on the sofa:
And Scarlett all bundled up & also taking a nap on the sofa!
Well, we didn't get the farmhouse. After we went & looked around the inside, our realtor was supposed to email us with comps for our area & see if we could get our house on the market. We have yet to hear back from her and while she was "pulling the comps to email us" the house went under contract!! Man, I was so upset when I saw that online. The part that gets me the most is that it's a contingent offer & the potential buyers still have the sell their house. See, that's the same thing Will & I could have done but our realtor slacked off on getting us the comps and now we lost the house! I was so sad but I guess things work out for different reasons.
There is a slight chance we may be looking for orders after September anyhow. Will's eligible for orders then so we may put in for something & see what happens. We're both kind of tired of Maryland. I definitely want to move somewhere with more winter, too! We're talking now about our options and as the time gets closer, hopefully we'll be able to narrow it down a little more. If by some chance we do decide to stay in Maryland, we still want to move. This house is just too far away from base & the commute is really taking its toll on both of us. All the traffic is ridiculous!
In other news, I haven't done much thrifting at all lately. Not because I don't want to, but since I'm still using Will's camera, my etsy related stuff has all but come to a halt. I don't list items and therefore don't sell. I just can't spend 2 or 3 hours taking pictures and then retaking them and then still having to edit. It's crazy!! But, come January, after Santa brings me a new camera, I'm going to get cracking on my Etsy shop again! I have tons of stockpiled stuff to list. But lately, I just haven't been thrifting. I have no more room to store stuff. lol
Speaking of shopping, I need to find the motivation to go do some Christmas shopping. I have been slacking for real this year. I don't have hardly anything for Will yet. Or the dogs. Or the best friend. I think it's going to be a very busy weekend since I will probably put off the shopping until then.
Today, I am going to sit here with my coffee, open up Google Reader & catch up on all of my favorite blogs! It's been forever since I've done that so I know I'll have tons of reading to keep me busy for most of the day! I can't wait to see what you all have been up to!!
Here's the foyer tree again this year. Looks almost the same as last year, dontcha think? We didn't hang stockings last year since we were vacationing in the winter wonderland out in Jackson Hole but since we'll be home this year, I decided to hang the stockings by the stairs. How's it look? Hopefully okay because I doubt I could muster up the energy to move them!
And this year, we decided to put up a tree in the guest room. Well, the bigger of the two guest rooms. The walls are actually a buttery yellow color but I'm still having to use Will's work camera and it's a crappy point & shoot which distorts colors horribly despite all the tweaking I do to it! The tree in this room has lots of gold and sage green ornaments. My favorite ornaments on this tree are the little yellow bell shaped ones. I bought them at a thrift store back in 2003 & I just love them!!
Look!! I found a picture of the bell ornaments! Love!
Finally, here is my tree in my office/studio/whatever it is room. I love it so much! I'm thinking it might come down sometime around Valentine's Day. lol I just can't bear to take it down right after Christmas. It makes me so happy when I walk into my office & see it - all of those pinks & greens & blues. Ack! It's just so much vintage goodness that I can hardly stand it!
So, Thanksgiving was so peaceful this year. It was just Will, my best girlfriend and myself. Perfectly relaxing and low key. We had a nice breakfast, some munchies at lunch and then ate dinner around 6:00, just like we do every year, only this year, I didn't feel like I was in a rush. Man, I wish every holiday was that perfect! It's such a huge help having Andrea in the kitchen with me too. She does the cleaning while I do the cooking. Can it get any better than that?!
Here's a picture of part of the spread. Look at all the vintage Pyrex! I decided a few months ago to box up all of the newer pyrex and casserole dishes and use the vintage stuff. I mean it's the stuff I love and I got tired of seeing it on the top shelf in the cabinets & never using it. So, now I use it almost exclusively! As you can see, I most love the Butterprint pattern, but the snowflake pattern is also a favorite!
And just because they are cute, here are a few pics of the doggies.
Marty & Andrea's dog, Charlie, take a snooze on the sofa:
And Scarlett all bundled up & also taking a nap on the sofa!
Well, we didn't get the farmhouse. After we went & looked around the inside, our realtor was supposed to email us with comps for our area & see if we could get our house on the market. We have yet to hear back from her and while she was "pulling the comps to email us" the house went under contract!! Man, I was so upset when I saw that online. The part that gets me the most is that it's a contingent offer & the potential buyers still have the sell their house. See, that's the same thing Will & I could have done but our realtor slacked off on getting us the comps and now we lost the house! I was so sad but I guess things work out for different reasons.
There is a slight chance we may be looking for orders after September anyhow. Will's eligible for orders then so we may put in for something & see what happens. We're both kind of tired of Maryland. I definitely want to move somewhere with more winter, too! We're talking now about our options and as the time gets closer, hopefully we'll be able to narrow it down a little more. If by some chance we do decide to stay in Maryland, we still want to move. This house is just too far away from base & the commute is really taking its toll on both of us. All the traffic is ridiculous!
In other news, I haven't done much thrifting at all lately. Not because I don't want to, but since I'm still using Will's camera, my etsy related stuff has all but come to a halt. I don't list items and therefore don't sell. I just can't spend 2 or 3 hours taking pictures and then retaking them and then still having to edit. It's crazy!! But, come January, after Santa brings me a new camera, I'm going to get cracking on my Etsy shop again! I have tons of stockpiled stuff to list. But lately, I just haven't been thrifting. I have no more room to store stuff. lol
Speaking of shopping, I need to find the motivation to go do some Christmas shopping. I have been slacking for real this year. I don't have hardly anything for Will yet. Or the dogs. Or the best friend. I think it's going to be a very busy weekend since I will probably put off the shopping until then.
Today, I am going to sit here with my coffee, open up Google Reader & catch up on all of my favorite blogs! It's been forever since I've done that so I know I'll have tons of reading to keep me busy for most of the day! I can't wait to see what you all have been up to!!
19 November 2009
I think we're certifiably insane. What do you think?!?
Hey y'all. It's been a while eh? I've been catching up on reading my favorite blogs but I haven't found the time to actually update mine. Until tonight. Lucky you!
So, about the title. We are thinking of selling our house (well, attempting to sell anyway) and moving back down towards the part of Maryland that we lived in when we first moved up here three years ago. As I've said before, we've never really felt settled in this house. We still check out Realtor.com on a near weekly basis and see what is for sale and a few weeks ago I stumbled across this place:
I. AM. IN. LOVE! Actually, we both are. It needs a tremendous amount of work to restore it to its original beauty but the good so outweighs the bad. It's 20 miles from there to base, so Will's commute would be 18 miles less each way, which may not sound like a lot, but it would cut down the time from 1.5-2 hours to about 30 minutes.
The house is on over 3 acres of land, it's in the middle of nowhere yet still close to shopping and the house is just huge. Well, huge to us at almost 3,000 sq ft. There's also a huge storage shed on the property, a guest cottage (which needs complete rehab but think of the possibilities!) and a small horse barn.
We drove down to look at the outside of the house & surrounding property last week and then emailed our Realtor and met up with her on Tuesday to tour the inside. She's looking into the comps for our current area & hopefully we'll have our house on the market in a few weeks. Fingers crossed, please!!
So, in preparation for all of that, we're going to be busy bees around here for the next few weeks. I'm going to start boxing up the majority of our stuff starting this weekend. Gotta make the house look like a model home, ya know?
In other news, the thrift stores have been super fab lately. I've found so many great vintage linens, some destined for my shop but lots of keepers too. Oh, and I found this great Gurley candle the other week. Isn't he cute? Love him!!
Well, it's about that time. Gotta do the nightly routine of setting the coffee pot for tomorrow, letting the dogs out, giving medicine to them both and hopefully finding the energy to stay awake for the 11:00 news, although that last part is not looking promising tonight. lol
So, about the title. We are thinking of selling our house (well, attempting to sell anyway) and moving back down towards the part of Maryland that we lived in when we first moved up here three years ago. As I've said before, we've never really felt settled in this house. We still check out Realtor.com on a near weekly basis and see what is for sale and a few weeks ago I stumbled across this place:
I. AM. IN. LOVE! Actually, we both are. It needs a tremendous amount of work to restore it to its original beauty but the good so outweighs the bad. It's 20 miles from there to base, so Will's commute would be 18 miles less each way, which may not sound like a lot, but it would cut down the time from 1.5-2 hours to about 30 minutes.
The house is on over 3 acres of land, it's in the middle of nowhere yet still close to shopping and the house is just huge. Well, huge to us at almost 3,000 sq ft. There's also a huge storage shed on the property, a guest cottage (which needs complete rehab but think of the possibilities!) and a small horse barn.
We drove down to look at the outside of the house & surrounding property last week and then emailed our Realtor and met up with her on Tuesday to tour the inside. She's looking into the comps for our current area & hopefully we'll have our house on the market in a few weeks. Fingers crossed, please!!
So, in preparation for all of that, we're going to be busy bees around here for the next few weeks. I'm going to start boxing up the majority of our stuff starting this weekend. Gotta make the house look like a model home, ya know?
In other news, the thrift stores have been super fab lately. I've found so many great vintage linens, some destined for my shop but lots of keepers too. Oh, and I found this great Gurley candle the other week. Isn't he cute? Love him!!
Well, it's about that time. Gotta do the nightly routine of setting the coffee pot for tomorrow, letting the dogs out, giving medicine to them both and hopefully finding the energy to stay awake for the 11:00 news, although that last part is not looking promising tonight. lol
13 October 2009
My Poor, Neglected Blog
Man, I have been so slack these last couple of months. I cannot find the motivation to update on a regular basis, especially since my *good* camera died back in June and I've resorted to using Will's crappy work camera. No camera = no pictures to share and thus, I have nothing of importance to blog about, usually.
I feel like my world has been going non-stop since July. In addition to the trips to SC in both July and August, I went back down in September for a week and a half. Will was, once again, out of the country for a while and it was my sister's birthday so I loaded up my car (and most of my etsy shop) and drove to SC. I'm so glad I went, too. The day after I arrived, my Grandpa (he's 94!) had to have emergency surgery on his stomach. So, the days I was in SC were not filled with any of the things I had anticipated. Instead, it was a week-long blur of hospital visits, driving to Grandpa's house to help clean, going back to the hospital, etc. Very tiring! I'm happy to say that my Grandpa is doing remarkably well now and should fully recover!!
One night while I was in SC, Will and I were texting back and forth and I asked him what he thought about the Adirondacks. Silly boy thought I meant the chairs but I explained to him that I was talking about the region of NY and whether or not he'd be interested in going on vacation in a few weeks. He said he would and I spent the next two weeks scrambling to find a house to rent and doing research on the area.
We went up to NY Sunday a week ago and spent an entire week up there and I fell in love with the area. It was so quaint and charming. I loved all of the small towns with their general stores. We rented a cabin that was, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere! We had to drive a good 20 minutes just to get a signal on our cell phones. If we needed internet on our phones, that was about an hour away! The cabin had no electricity, although there were gas lights (which sucked, btw) but all in all, we had a great week. The weather was rainy most of the time and it was rather chilly, but the leaves, wow, those were amazing!!
Will and I both started dreading coming home to all the traffic and the noise and the crime and the congestion. For the entire week we were in NY we didn't hear/see a plane, didn't hear any sirens, didn't have to deal with traffic, didn't hear about any crime. It was so wonderful! And, to be honest, aside from the horrible lighting in the house we rented, it was perfect - didn't mind not having a tv or phone and by the end of the week, I was getting used to not having internet too!
So, now we're back home and trying to get unpacked, do laundry, put our fall decorations out, get our chimney inspected since it's crumbling(!!!) and get used to all the noise and traffic!
I have to get dinner started but I'm leaving you guys with some of my favorite pictures from last week. Hope you're all doing well!
I feel like my world has been going non-stop since July. In addition to the trips to SC in both July and August, I went back down in September for a week and a half. Will was, once again, out of the country for a while and it was my sister's birthday so I loaded up my car (and most of my etsy shop) and drove to SC. I'm so glad I went, too. The day after I arrived, my Grandpa (he's 94!) had to have emergency surgery on his stomach. So, the days I was in SC were not filled with any of the things I had anticipated. Instead, it was a week-long blur of hospital visits, driving to Grandpa's house to help clean, going back to the hospital, etc. Very tiring! I'm happy to say that my Grandpa is doing remarkably well now and should fully recover!!
One night while I was in SC, Will and I were texting back and forth and I asked him what he thought about the Adirondacks. Silly boy thought I meant the chairs but I explained to him that I was talking about the region of NY and whether or not he'd be interested in going on vacation in a few weeks. He said he would and I spent the next two weeks scrambling to find a house to rent and doing research on the area.
We went up to NY Sunday a week ago and spent an entire week up there and I fell in love with the area. It was so quaint and charming. I loved all of the small towns with their general stores. We rented a cabin that was, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere! We had to drive a good 20 minutes just to get a signal on our cell phones. If we needed internet on our phones, that was about an hour away! The cabin had no electricity, although there were gas lights (which sucked, btw) but all in all, we had a great week. The weather was rainy most of the time and it was rather chilly, but the leaves, wow, those were amazing!!
Will and I both started dreading coming home to all the traffic and the noise and the crime and the congestion. For the entire week we were in NY we didn't hear/see a plane, didn't hear any sirens, didn't have to deal with traffic, didn't hear about any crime. It was so wonderful! And, to be honest, aside from the horrible lighting in the house we rented, it was perfect - didn't mind not having a tv or phone and by the end of the week, I was getting used to not having internet too!
So, now we're back home and trying to get unpacked, do laundry, put our fall decorations out, get our chimney inspected since it's crumbling(!!!) and get used to all the noise and traffic!
I have to get dinner started but I'm leaving you guys with some of my favorite pictures from last week. Hope you're all doing well!
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