Impromptu Road Trips

As I'm sure you know if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, I love road trips. To me, there's nothing better than getting in the car & just driving. It's so exciting to be on the road with no real plans and no expectations. Unfortunately, gas is still ridiculously expensive (to me anyway) so I don't do this very often. Maybe if I drove a more fuel efficient car, I'd get out there & do more exploring but since I drive a gas hog SUV which only gets 250 miles on a tank ($48 to fill, btw), I'm mostly combining errands these days and trying to limit my gas consumption! 

Anyhow, this past weekend instead of going to the DC Big Flea, I stayed in Baltimore. Well, on Saturday anyway. Sunday, my friend and I woke up sort of late and then headed out for what was supposed to be a day of browsing antique stores up in Havre de Grace. He assured me that he didn't need to use my GPS as we left the Sonic where we'd stopped for lunch. It became quite evident that we were heading the wrong direction to pick up I-695 but the scenery was so nice on this road that we just kept going. 

Eventually, I found part of a Maryland map in the pocket on the back of the seat and I realized we were nearing Westminster, MD, which is a gorgeous little town not far from the Pennsylvania border. We continued our drive into Westminster and then over to Thurmont where we made a quick stop at Catoctin State Park. This park is so beautiful and I can't believe it's so close to me and I've never been there before. It was cold and we weren't dressed for any outdoor activities so we enjoyed the drive through the park and vowed to come back and do some exploring soon! 

After leaving the park, we headed into Hagerstown, MD where we stopped for a caffeine break at the Sheetz gas station. Once we loaded up on junk food & coffee, we made our way down through Sharpsburg and Antietam and into Harpers Ferry, WV. My friend had never been to those parts of the states before so it was nice to see him experience it for the first time. The leaves were just beautiful!! I thought for sure that it was going to be all brown & dead but I was pleasantly surprised to see lots of color still on the trees. 

We visited some of the historic buildings in town and took a walk across the bridge which goes over the Potomac River. Well, we only made it about half way across the bridge because I am terrified of both bridges and heights and was starting to feel a panic attack come on so I quickly turned around and go the hell back on solid ground!! 

Of course with the time change on Sunday morning, it was starting to get dark around 4 so we decided to get back in the car and head towards home. I'm so lucky that I have a friend that really enjoys just getting out and doing things like this. And I'm lucky that I live so close to such beautiful areas that are within an hour or two drive from here. So, I missed the DC Big Flea and all of the holiday goodies but I had an amazing day with someone that really makes me happy and I saw beautiful scenery. I'd say it was a pretty good way to spend the day, wouldn't you?! 

No Tricks Just Treats

Vintage-y Peeps!! It's November -- can yall believe that? I can't. This year is going so fast!! I had planned on blogging last Saturday so I could show off my fabulous big ol Gurley Jack o Lantern candle I found thrifting a few weeks ago. Sixty measly cents! Alas, I decided around 2 that afternoon that I simply must dress up for Halloween (well, that night actually) and went off in search of a costume! I was a caaaa-ute little Scottish girl and as soon as I get off my lazy you know what and get my cord to my phone, I'll upload a picture of me in my costume. 

Anyhoo, earlier on Saturday I went to a yard sale. It's the first one I've been to all year. Yeah, kind of missed out this spring/summer/fall. Just too much going on in my life to go saling. This one was so fabulous though that I am almost regretful that I got there so late in the day. However, I managed to get some of the most amazing things I've ever found at a yard sale. 

Lookie, a whole box of ephemera to sort thru:

But you know what's better than a box to sort through? Hmm? Lemme tell ya. It's having a whole gigantic suitcase to sort through:

As I was talking with the person having the yard sale, I found out that the majority of the items for sale were from her late aunt & uncle. The aunt had passed away some time back but the uncle had died recently. The lady was telling me about her aunt and how she'd ran a brothel in DC back in the 30s (?) and 40s. She'd been married 3 times and she and her last husband were married for an incredibly long period of time - something like 40 or 50 years if I remember correctly. 

Anyhow, as I was going to check out, I asked her how much she'd take for the smaller box of ephemera and she asked me if I'd looked in the luggage. I told her I'd seen the luggage but didn't look in it. She said "well, there's a ton of this stuff in there. Let's go get it!" so she did just that! I sat on the pavement and started digging through the suitcase and finding tons of things I absolutely had to have. After 15 minutes or so, she came back over and offered to sell me the whole dang thing! Now, I did something I never ever thought I'd do. I paid a princely sum of $50 for the entire suitcase plus the other box of goodies. I almost died having to part with that kind of cash but to me, having the luxury of being able to search through it all in my own time was worth the price. I am not even exaggerating when I say that there are thousands of pieces of memorabilia in this suitcase -- pictures of the aunt and uncle are various jazz clubs in DC, tons and tons of letters written during WW2, hundreds if not a thousand cards from all of the holidays. ACK!! 

Somehow, I've managed to resist the urge to dig in to all of this wonderfulness until now. I've got the entire afternoon and I'm planning on sorting through it all! Like the yard sale lady said "it's kind of neat that you're the first person to go through this stuff in years". I am so excited. Another yard sale patron asked the lady if she wasn't sad to be getting rid of all of this family history and she said she'd had a lot of family members die in recent years and she just couldn't keep it all. She also said she had a ton of boxes in her attic that have more of this stuff, from various other family members. I gave her my card and told her to please contact me when she gets around to sorting through it all. 

I cannot keep all of this stuff, no matter how much I want to so I'm going to go through and keep my absolute favorites and then decided what to do with the rest of it. I think a few pieces will go to the Christmas swap I just signed up for today. I've never done a swap before but I'm really excited to participate in this one. 

So, this weekend is the DC Big Flea and I think I'm going to have to make the 60 mile trek to go check out all of the awesome Christmas goodies. The Baltimore Big Flea 2 weekends ago was kind of a disappointment so I'm hoping there's more vendors & more Christmas goodies in Chantilly! What do you all have planned this weekend?? 

Let's Play a Game!!

I like to call this little game "What's in the Pot??"

   

Any guesses? Hmm? 

(BTW - Don't you looove my vintage Club pot? I swear I use this pot more than any of the others I own. I'm so glad I found it at the thrift store last year. I found a smaller pot a few months ago & hope I can find more soon)

Okay, here's another clue. Let's peek inside the pot, shall we?

Hmmm. Melting butter. Yum! Well, browning butter, actually! 

Another clue, this time it's more Butterprint Pyrex!

 

 Surely by now you've guessed that I was making Rice Krispy Treats, right?!? Oh, but let me assure you that these weren't just any ol rice krispy treats. Nah. These were the most scrumptious Rice Krispy Treats that I've ever shoved in my pie hole. And, in case there was any doubt, I've shoved a lot of rice krispy treats in my mouth!! 

I found the most delicioso recipe over at this blog - Seddyblog and had bookmarked these to try "someday". Well, that day just happened to be today! It's hot as a mother outside, it's 80° in my house, it's been raining all day and I've still been in a semi-bitchy, poor pity me mood. So, I cheered myself up by making these amazing treats. 

I'm glad I had the willpower to take a picture before I dove in. Yeah, I'll admit -- I didn't even wait for them to cool before I started scarfing them down! And I totally licked the pot clean and the spatula too. It's just been one of those days! 

Here's the recipe:

1 stick of butter (original recipe called for unsalted but I used salted & they turned out perfect!)

10 oz of marshmallows 

6 cups of Rice Krispies

1/4 tsp salt (I omitted this since my butter was salted!)

1) Melt butter in a thick bottomed pan over medium heat. Let the butter continue to melt until it's a nice golden color and smells nutty. The original recipe said that the butter would have brown flakes but my pot is dark & I didn't see flakes. I didn't want to take a chance of it burning though! 

2) Remove pot from heat & stir in marshmallows until melted. Mine didn't melt all the way before the pot/butter started to cool so I put it back on low heat for a few seconds.

3) Stir in cereal until thoroughly mixed. Sneak a few tastes "just to make sure". Forget that there are pieces of cereal & marshmallow on your oven mitt, take mitt off, place under arm whilst opening the backdoor to let yapping dog inside. 

4) Realize your stupid mistake when you go to get oven mitt and realize it's now glued to your arm pit. Scrape off already dried marshmallows and rice krispies from arm.

5) Pour what's left in the pot into a greased 13 x 9 dish. Smooth it out with a greased piece of parchment paper. Or, do what I did and use the leftover greasy wrapper from the stick of butter! 

6) Attempt to wait until treats have cooled before you start to devour. Go ahead. I bet you $10000 you can't resist eating them all warm & gooey! 

 

 

Cookies, Colds and Crazy Ass Ex's!

Hey guys. After another two month hiatus, I'm going to try to get back to blogging on a regular basis. I shall start this post with a picture of some of my favorite things on the planet:

Vintage Pyrex!! Is there anything better?? I think not. Well, that's not entirely true. One thing that is better than vintage pyrex is thick, chewy oatmeal raisin walnut cookies, which is exactly why I had 5 pieces of vintage pyrex on the counter to begin with.

I decided last week that I really needed some of these cookies so I went in search of a new recipe online and found one here: SmittenKitchen. I added more walnuts than the recipe called for and also didn't chill the dough and I think they turned out AMAZING!! This recipe made 30ish tablespoon sized balls of dough.

 See the finished product? Don't they look yummo? Yeah, they were. I just polished off the last 3 a few minutes ago. Now, before yall go thinking I chowed down on all of those, I have to let it be known that I bagged up 18 of them and took them to a friend. So, in reality, I only ate 12 cookies. Since Saturday. Which in my opinion isn't too bad. Plus, they were semi-healthy with the nuts and oats and fruit. LOL Like the way I justify that, don't you??

And you know it's a labor of love to use Pyrex since it can't be washed in the dishwasher. It's worth it though because look how pretty it is when it's all clean and sitting there drying on the counter. I may or may not have let it sit out for a few days just so I could stare at it every time I went in the kitchen!

                                                        So.......

 

The last 8 weeks have been insanely busy!! I went to SC back on 15 September for 14 days. It was the first time I'd gone anywhere all summer long so it was definitely a much needed break. Unfortunately, the day before I left for SC I started getting a cold and by the time I made it to SC I was terribly sick with bronchitis. So, instead of spending my time down there having fun & visiting everyone, I spent the majority of the days and nights curled up in bed, hacking my lungs up. That was miserable. In fact, I'm still hacking a few times a day and it's been FIVE freaking weeks. And my sinuses are still all congested too thanks to seasonal allergies.

And in other news....

Things here at home have been so stressful. I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown at the beginning of September, which prompted my visit down to SC. I'm *still* looking for a damn job. You know, one that will afford me to move out without having to eat at the soup kitchen or live under a bridge. It's impossible to find a job! And I'm stressing out about everything. Living here at this house is becoming increasingly hard, despite my best efforts to keep the peace and keep my distance. I'm routinely called horrible names, made to feel like crap, having to deal with his emotional abuse. Most of the time I'm able to ignore it but I won't lie -- sometimes it gets to me and I find myself just crying uncontrollably. I just really need some good thoughts and/or prayers that I'll find gainful employment very very soon. My only other option is to move back to South Carolina and I desperately want to stay in Maryland. 

And with that.....

I'm gonna go. I need to do laundry, clean the house, do the dishes, edit pictures and try to list some stuff on Etsy. Oh, and stop by and catch up on blogs!! I can't wait to see what you all have been up to the last 2 months! 

Vintage Playing Cards

Hola, my vintage-y peeps. Today is Thursday which means it's time to share things for VTT, hosted by Colorado Lady. Yay! I love Thursdays. Not just for VTT but because it's also 25% off day at the Value Village, which is where most of these great items came from.

Today, I'm sharing with you my collection of vintage playing cards. Well, I don't really "collect" them so much as I buy them to turn around and sell, but they do spend some time in my house so I guess we'll just pretend that it's a collection!!

I think the first set I ever bought was the cute little Beagle cards above. I just loved their sweet faces!! And these roses? Meh - not really my thing at all but they were in a baggie full of other items so they are here too.

I don't really care for these lilies either but somehow they ended up in my cart, in the bag and in the house. I should probably redonate these & get them outta here!

Now these flowers? These funky, bright flowers that remind me of embroidery? Yeah, these I like! I think I've sold them all though so all I have left are the memories. I'm okay with that!! Less clutter, ya know?

I bought these duck cards a few months ago and I just love them. They're manly! And the colors are so bright. I mean they're a little too manly and too country for me to ever display them in any way but they're for sale in my Etsy shop and someone else can enjoy them! lol

These are my absolute favorite cards ever! I just love the colors and the horse and the spunky little blond riding said horse. They came in a velvety box which was supposed to have another deck inside as well, except with a boy on a horse but there wasn't a full deck of those. I wish I would've kept a few of these for myself as they'd look fab beside the pastel color horse show ribbons that I picked up at the thrift store a few months back!!

And finally, I just picked these up today! I love vintage bird prints so these are just a super fab find!! I haven't checked yet but it seems like they are complete decks and it's going to be awfully hard for me to part with these. I love how the bird on the right looks like he's hollering out to his birdie wife "hey, where the hell's my dinner?" hahaha

So, there you have it  -- most of my vintage playing card collection. I love cards even though I don't play any card games. Just seeing them around reminds me of my late PaPa. He was always sitting at the table playing cards. I can still picture being a little girl and going to his & MaMa's home and pulling open the drawer in the kitchen and seeing stacks of cards all rubber-banded together. Aww! Of course he never had any of these fancy schmancy cards!! No velvety boxes of cards, just the regular packs you'd buy at the checkout at Revco. I'm definitely more partial to the nice boxed sets though.

Thanks for visiting me today for VTT. I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my fabulous thrift store finds!!

VTT: My Someday House

Hola, my vintage-y peeps. It's that time again: Vintage Thingies Thursday hosted by Colorado Lady. This week, I'm sharing some fab-u-lous vintage dinnerware that I picked up last week at the Value Village. I've always been one of those people that's bought things for my "someday house" and now that I'm moving on with my life, I've started collecting things that I'll use in my own place one of these days. As I've said before, I've always wanted a pink & aqua kitchen and I think these will be perfect in such a kitchen, along side all of my Butterprint and Pink Daisy Pyrex, and my great vintage aqua Club cookware!!

I've long admired this pattern but let's face it - I am cheap - and I was never willing to spend whatever the asking price was. Until last week, that is. I scored the cups and small plates for a mere .45 cents each and the dinner plates for $1.20 each. I'm still kicking myself in the rear for not buying all of the available ones! How dumb was that?? Then again, what was I really going to do with china for 8 or 16? I mean these are adorable and all but not exactly gender-neutral! And as it stands, I don't really have large gatherings of females over for tea & biscuits so the set of 4 is probably sufficient!!

In addition to the 4 cups, salad plates and dinner plates, I also snatched up 2 serving bowls for a very good price! I'm definitely on the hunt for other pieces in this pattern. There's quite a few pieces on Etsy & I'm sure tons of it on Ebay but I'd rather hunt for them myself. That way I don't accumulate too much of it right away!

Anyway, I'm still plugging along here at home. My friend is having one of "those" parties this weekend so I've been spending a lot of time helping her plan our fun little girls night in. The food is hilarious, the decor is going to be great & I'm so looking forward to getting out of the house for a few hours prior to going dancing! Hope you all are having swell weeks - I'll be stopping in soon!!

I'm also sharing my new-to-me dinnerware over at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Fridays. Please stop in & have a look at all of the fabulousness over there too!! 

Hello? Remember Me?

I'm doubting no one remembers me because I've certainly not had any comments asking where I was or if I'd fallen off of the face of the earth!! Haha I've taken a very long blogging break - from posting and reading - and I'm hoping that I can start doing both again. 

So, I've got some important news to share with you all. I kind of eluded to it back in May but I wasn't comfortable sharing anything at that point but now that it's been over 3 months, I'm sure that my decision was the right one. Will and I are separated. Well, as separated as you can be when you're forced to still cohabitate with each other. I've been looking very hard for full-time employment, sent out dozens of resumes and nothing has panned out yet. I did have an interview this past Wednesday and the lady was super nice and seemed interested but she did let me know that she wasn't hiring until the third or fourth week of August. Please, please keep your fingers, toes, eyes crossed that I'll get the job. It's one that will actually pay me enough to live on. 


So, aside from that bit of news, I thought I'd also share with you all this bit of happiness - I've lost 36.5 pounds since April!!! Isn't that amazing?? I take a new picture every week right before I go dancing and I can really see the difference in my face. Here are a few pictures from the middle of May through this month.












Things have been stressful as all hell here at home, as I'm sure you can imagine, but I'm making do as best as possible. My family has offered to come help me pack up and to move me back down to SC but I just really don't want to do that. I mean I like Maryland, this is my home now. I guess if I can't find any permanent full-time work that I'll have to move back but I'm praying it doesn't come to that. 

So, remember the earlier this spring when I was absolutely panicking about turning 30? Well, as it turns out, this has been a fabulous year so far! Turning 30 left me feeling so empowered - the changes have been amazing. I finally felt like I could leave a bad situation, with no regrets, knowing I'd done my absolute best to work it out and that it just wasn't going to happen. I've focused - really focused - on losing weight and getting in shape. I work out several times a week, I've given up beer (replaced it with rum & diet coke!) and I still haven't had chocolate since I gave it up for Lent!! As I said in my last blog post, I go dancing every single Saturday night. I love dancing and that's something I'm never giving up again. I've realized that giving up parts of who I am and what I like, really sucked the life out of me. I'm only sorry that it took me 7 long years to realize that!! 


I was home alone last night and I was feeling a bit down (surprisingly!) so instead of sitting here and allowing myself to wallow in my own misery, I decided I'd do something I hadn't done in way too long - I got crafty!! I started digging through boxes of craft crap, I mean supplies, and I found this:





An old composition notebook I scored at the thrift store for 45 cents. Actually, there are two of them and this is the second one. I kind of forgot to take a picture of the other one before I started altering it! Anyway, the pages are numbered, slightly yellowed and it's perfect for recording all of the new changes in my life. I really found the inspiration for even doing this kind of journal by reading this blog: Thrifty Miss Priss. Robin is so crafty & creative and I just love the journals she makes. They're always crammed full of vintage goodness so I hope mine turns out half as good as hers! 


So, the ugly gray comp notebook went from plain & boring to this:





I used the word bliss as a reminder of what I'm looking for. A life that's happy and stress-free. One that's full of love and peace and serenity. One that's filled with things I truly treasure. Of course, I had to use my favorite colors for the cover and some of the inside pages but I also went through my stacks of magazines from the 30s and 40s and found hilarious pictures that are so applicable to my current situation so I had to rip those out & put them throughout the journal. This one cracks me up:





Bwaaaaaaaahahaha Notice how I had to add in the word "not". And that's just the reality of the situation. It wasn't forever. I mean sure, if I'd felt like spending the rest of my life being constantly betrayed and lied to, it probably could've lasted forever, but I deserve so much more than that!! 


My journal-ish notebook thingie is definitely going to be a work in progress, which is how it should be - I'll add to it here & there, tweak it into what I want it to be and I'll treasure it always! It's a permanent reminder of my life as it is now! 


Anyway, I should get going. I need to clean the house, package an Etsy order, get dressed and go to my second favorite store on earth - Target!! Hope you all are having great summers. I'll try to stop by soon & catch up with everyone!!