VTT - Vintage Bath Towels

Hola, vintage peeps. Today, I'm going to participate in Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by the lovely Colorado Lady. Please stop in and visit!! 

Today, I'm showcasing my love affair with vintage towels. The patterns are so fab! 

The colors are (mostly) delicious! 

The quality is unlike anything you'll find today, as evidenced by the fact that these babies are still in great condition some 40 years later. 

Towels I bought 3 years ago are not in this same condition. It's true when they say "they just don't make 'em like they used to". Sad, isn't it? 

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my vintage towel collection. Find towels like this in my Etsy shop!

Destashing Again

It's that time again - time to tidy up the linens, clean out the cutters and make room for a new batch of yummy goodies. For months (years?!) I've been meaning to take these bins of cutter sheets and make fat quarters and squares out of them. My space and time just doesn't permit such activities so I decided to put them into like-color bundles and list them on Etsy.

 

 Green Gingham Sheets $25

The other week, my mom and dad came to MD to retrieve the rest of my stuff from my old house and take it to SC. While here, I let my mom rummage through the cutter boxes and pull out any sheets she loved.

 Hot Pink Sheets $33.50 

Mom pulled out lots of pretty coordinating sheets to start her sewing business with. Those sheets are going to make gorgeous aprons and other wearables!! 

Olive Green Sheets $33.50

I'm so glad she took so many sheets off my hand the other week -- I cannot imagine how many I would have to list if they were all still here!! And despite my best (recent) efforts to only buy sheets that are in excellent condition, it never fails that after I get home from a day of thrifting and start sorting through all of the newly acquired linens, I run across a couple that have a small flaw here or there that I didn't notice while I was in the store. Now, instead of just throwing them into the cutter bins, I'll go ahead and match them up with other cutters in the same color family and list them for all of the quilters and crafty people to use!

 

Orange Butterflies and Stripes $33.50

All of these cutter bundles ship in a medium Flat Rate Priority Box, so that's perfect!! Normally, I can only fit one sheet into a Flat Rate Envelope, which mails for $5, so this is really saving a lot of money on shipping!!  Perfect for building a stash, too!

Loving but Letting Go

Summer is in full swing and I have been super busy getting somewhat settled into my new pad. Apartment life isn't so different from house life but it's taken some getting used to, for sure. Namely, the whole dog-walking thing. And although this apartment is smaller than my old house, it doesn't feel cramped and tiny like I thought it would. I am still attempting to unpack and organize my junk and with that comes the realization that I have to sell off some of my beloved treasures. Even though I don't feel cramped in here, I've realized that the space I do have needs to be organized and filled with things I love and can't live without. That brings me to this post - loving but letting go. 

Years ago, when I first started this blog, I realized my love affair with vintage chenille bedspreads. Well, that's not entirely true. I'd suspected that I had a love affair with them a year prior, when I found the super fantackstic double peacock bedspread at the thrift store. But, after I started this blog, I kept finding all these great chenille bedspreads and of course I had to buy them. And I kept them around, folded on closet shelves, in storage bins, basically anywhere that I could find room. I loved looking at them -- the colors, the patterns -- all of the pretty designs. I even used a few of them on the bed, or as a bed skirt, or as a backdrop for photos. They've brought me a lot of joy in the years that I've had them but the time has come to send them to their new homes. 

One day, when I'm old and have a huge mansion to fill with vintage junk, I'll buy more chenille bedspreads and hoard all of them. And when I die, someone will thank their lucky junking gods when my family has an estate sale and it's filled to the rafters with so much vintage junk that they can barely open the doors. In the meantime, I am still living in the apartment and can't keep everything. Or even most things. Downsizing is such a dirty word!! 

I'm kind of sad about having to send these beauties on their way but I know there are a lot of other vintage lovers out there that will cherish these bedspreads. Or, cut them up and make new lovely things with them, so that helps to ease the pain of having to destash my goodies!! I have several more that I need to photograph and add soon! These fabulous spreads are in my Etsy shop.

Cha-cha-changes!

Hello, friends! It's been a while, eh. Ha, who am I kidding -- it's always 'a while' nowadays! I have been so busy these last few weeks and finally have something substantial to write about. So, last time I posted, I was unsure of so many things -- where I'd be living, if I was staying here or moving to PA or to SC, what I was going to do. Talk about stress!! Well, I am happy to say that for now, I am staying in Maryland. In fact, my honey and I have recently moved in together and it has been so wonderful! 

Also, I've just returned from Maryland after 12 days of 'vacation'. Well, technically, only 5 of those days were vacation. I flew to Florida to go to Disney World with my mom, sister, her girlfriend and my super adorable 4 year old niece!! It was so much fun but omg it was HOT! I'm clearly not used to that kind of weather anymore. I went over to Cocoa Beach one afternoon and dipped my toes into the ocean, which was warm like bath water and it was almost enough to make me want to live somewhere that's got almost year-round beach weather. 

After the Disney part of the vacation, I rode back to SC with the family and spent a week there. It was a nice and relaxing few days. I did a lot of browsing at the local antique malls, went to t-ball practice, had lunch and dinner with some old friends and just generally relaxed!! It was so nice to not worry about moving or where I was going to live or even dealing with Etsy for a few days. 

Now I'm back in Maryland, thankfully, and need to finish moving my stuff, unpacking my luggage and about a gazillion boxes from the move, get settled in the new place. I started to move on a Thursday and then left for vacation the following Tuesday so as you might imagine, my house is in total disarray right now and it's driving me NUTS! My office is mostly put together so that helps but I still don't have internet at the new place so I have to keep coming back to my old house to do work which is very time consuming! 

So, we're renting an apartment, which as you might remember from my posts months ago, I was rather adamant that I didn't want to live in but as time grew nearer to the departure date of my ex-h, it became increasingly obvious that I would have to move into an apartment or either move back home. When faced with those two options, apartment living didn't seem so terrible. Plus, the apartment feels pretty spacious, even with my enormous stack of boxes and other miscellaneous crap that needs to be put away. It'll definitely work for the next 12 months and it allows us to save up money and either rent a house or eventually buy our own place. It's temporary and I know I can do anything for a year, as evidenced by the absolute HELL I've gone through the last 12 months. 

Speaking of the last year, although it's been the most stressful time of my life, it's also been the best year EVER. A year ago, I was freaking out about turning 30. I thought my life was over and I was damn near having a panic attack right up until my birthday!! I don't know why I was so upset -- maybe because I was turning a new decade and I was miserable and unhappy with my life. I felt like I'd wasted away and just become so unhappy with who I was. I knew I wanted more out of life -- I used to love going out dancing and I never did that anymore, I loved going sightseeing and I never did that anymore. I had completely morphed into this person I didn't even recognize and I hated myself for it. I was always so worried about my ex whoring around on me (and with good reason) and I was always the one compromising and trying to be a people pleaser and in the end, all it did was ruin my self esteem. It's been a year since I decided that I was done with that nonsense. I made the decision last May that I needed more out of life and that I DESERVED more out of life. I deserved to have a man that was faithful, that I could trust, that I knew would be there for me when the shit really got tough. I deserved to be happy and not always be the one compromising and breaking my back to please someone when the same was never returned to me. What good is a marriage if it's always one person giving 150% while the other does whatever the hell they want with no regard to the other person or their vows?? I was miserable and I'd rather be miserable alone than with someone I couldn't trust. 

The last year has been so hard. Not because I was second guessing my decision but with the whole having to live together thing. I was called horrible names, repeatedly, because that's what he does. He wants to control me/women by verbally abusing them. I rarely let it get to me but on occasion, I did have my moments of breaking down. It was particularly bad last August, when I seriously thought I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I went to SC for a few weeks and came back with clarity and renewed sense of hope. 

Anyway, so yeah, the last year has been so wonderful, despite the hell. I've never been happier. I started to take care of ME and the rest fell into place. I've found the person that I truly feel God wanted me to be with -- someone that's kind, someone that I can trust with my whole heart, someone that appreciates me and makes me feel loved and cherished. Of course it's not always sunshine and rainbows -- we've gone through our share of hard times but that's what a relationship is about -- weathering the storms TOGETHER and coming out the other side stronger as a couple. I love this man in a way I've never loved anyone. It's amazing how your heart can heal and renew itself and be free to give again when you find someone that you can trust. I thank God every single day for bringing this wonderful man into my life at a time when I needed him most. 

My 31st birthday is this weekend and cannot wait to celebrate and I thank the Lord for another year on this planet. Last year, I was at such a dark and terrible place and looking back, the year was the best one ever. I found myself, found my life partner, found new reasons to wake up with a smile on my face and in my heart. I cannot wait to see how wonderful this next year is going to be!!

Linens. Lots and Lots of Linens

My  mom was here visiting last week and she helped me sort through, iron and photograph hundreds of linens. It was a very time consuming task, one which I'm still doing on a daily basis. It's nice that my stash of vintage sheets is mostly ironed and organized. Seeing all of the pretty patterns sitting together on the shelving unit in my guest room makes me happy. The editing of pictures and creating new listings is a long, long process. I'd say I'm maybe halfway through. Maybe. 

The weather was terrible while my mom was here. It was cold and rainy with some snow showers almost every day, which meant that we didn't get to do any of the touristy stuff like we'd planned. We completely missed out on the Cherry Blossoms but we did manage to get 3 days of thrifting in!! We took a nice drive to Pennsylvania one day, went to a great resale shop, had lunch at a delicious little Mom & Pop kind of place, stopped in our favorite little market. We spent a whole day thrifting here in MD at 3 of the best thrifts around and I really resisted the urge to buy every vintage sheet I found. I only bought the ones that I knew were going to sell right away!! 

Mom left on Friday to go home and I've been working every day trying to get all of the listings done and be 'caught up', if there is such a thing. I don't know when/if I'll ever get to that point though!! 

 Saturday night, I went dancing and had a fabulous time, as always. Then, after 4 hours of sleep that night, I thought it would be a great idea for the honey and I to get dressed and go into DC to see the Cherry Blossoms, despite my legs throbbing from all of the dancing the night before. Well, shortly after hopping on the Metro, I started to feel so motion sick and thought I'd end up yakking on the train but I survived and we finally made it down to the Smithsonian stop. We walked. And walked. And walked and walked and walked. Stood in line for 30 minutes to buy chicken tenders that had too much breading and not enough chicken and cold fries. Went to see the Lincoln Memorial, watched a drum group perform, decided it was time to leave around 5 that night. I didn't take a single picture -- we missed the pretty pink blooms and they were just plain white when we got there. Pretty but not really a picture worthy kind of day. And the crowds were ri-damn-diculous! It's like people forget their manners and/or common sense when they get out in a crowd. 

So, anyway, I've been job hunting again for the last week or so. No luck. Big surprise there. I just really don't know what I'm going to do. I am trying to avoid at all costs having to move back to SC but ugh. It's like I can't catch a freaking break here. I was told by the ex that if I could swing the payments for the house, he'd 'rent' it to me. Well, without a job, that's going to be impossible. And furthermore, it's so damn expensive here that I just really don't know that I'd want to waste that much money on rent every month. I don't want to be house poor and living in fear every month, wondering how we're going to be able to afford the basics. I'm trying to have faith that things will work out but after searching for a job for the last YEAR, and not having found one, I'm starting to lose hope. 

Once again, I have no real pictures of things to share other than all of the yummy linens. I hope my readers don't mind seeing pictures of things I'm hawking on Etsy. Seems like some of the blogs I read only really publish posts or pictures when they add something new anyway. 

VTT: Scottish

Wow! My Vintage Whimsy's participating in VTT? I know it's a shock but please don't go giving yourself any heart palpitations or anything. It's the first time in months that I finally had a cohesive collection of junk nearby and so I decided to take pictures and share with you all. Today's 'collection' is on Scottish themed items. Now, being of Scotch-Irish decent (and by decent, I mean that someone about a gazillion years ago decided to leave the beautiful green hills of those two lovely countries and come to the deep South -- clearly they had mental issues but I digress) I do have a tendency to acquire things related to my ancestry. Am I one of those people that goes all crazy buying everything with my surname on it? No, of course not. For one, finding "Keith" items isn't as easy as you'd think. Not like "McLeod" or "Smith" or "Kennedy". So, I don't go crazy but I do like to hoard a few things. Perhaps hoard is the wrong word. Collect. Yeah, I have amassed a collection of things that remind me of Scotland. I only own one thing that reminds me of Ireland and it's a 4 leaf clover tattoo in an area of my body I'm not about to show a internet full of strangers. Trust me, you'll be thankful I'm not sharing that.

Anyway, without further adieu, here are my items for this week. Let's start off with this Bates bedspread. I found this thrifting the other week, felt it, realized how soft it was and put it in the cart. Only later did I realize it was a Bates. I love this thing and even though I bought it with the intention of selling, I can't bring myself to part with it. I think it will make a great picnic tablecloth this summer.

Isn't it lovely? It has a tiny hole which will perhaps one day be mended but I'm in no hurry. It's too damn cold for a picnic here in Maryland anyway. Did I mention its supposed to snow this weekend? Psssssssshhhhhhhhh.

Anyway, last fall when I happened upon that estate sale from which I bought an entire suitcase of ephemera from the brothel lady, this was one of the items in the lot. I haven't really read through this yet but I'm sure there's a recipe for shortbread and you all know I love some shortbread.

Speaking of estate sales, the one I went to last month of the lady that bred and showed Scottish Terriers, netted me an almost full box of these adorable napkins! I love them so much! They're for sale in my shop, which can me found here: MyVintageWhimsy. They're almost too cute to use.

Also at that sale, I found these two little salt and pepper shakers. I don't really collect salt and pepper shakers but these were too cute to pass up. They remind me of my dogs. Yes, I'm aware that my dogs aren't black and white. Or terriers. But the black doggy reminds me of Marty, and really, that's reason enough for me to buy these two!

I would love to show you the vintage Scotch grill I picked up last year at a thrift store but it's tucked away in the basement and I don't have the desire to go down there. There is a pile of laundry waiting for me in the washer and one ready to go in so as you can tell, I'm avoiding the basement at all costs. Too bad.

So, I hope you enjoyed my little Scottish themed collection. Thanks for stopping by & visiting with me (that's for the two people that still read my blog, btw). I am in dire straights as my mother is coming tomorrow and it looks as if a tornado swept through my house so I must end this delightful entry now!!

It's Wellie Season!!

Do I even own wellies? Nah. Do I need to go buy some? Definitely! You can tell that winter is over (and not just by looking at the calendar, which said the first day of spring was yesterday) but  by my basement, which is once again flooding on a regular basis. Fabulous!! Now, I am happy that I survived another crazy Maryland winter. This makes winter number five that I have been through. I remember the first winter when we moved here -- I was wearing thermal underwear in OCTOBER. Yes. Seriously. It wasn't unusually cold in October either, I just wasn't accustomed to temperatures in the 40s! I'm glad to say that my blood has thickened up quite nicely over the years and that this winter was mild in comparison to last year. In fact, I wore flip flops three times in the past week and it's been in the 50s or 60s.

So, spring is here and I'm so excited to see leaves on the trees and flowers blooming. We have like 3 daffodils in the flower beds that are just about to bloom and instead of leaving them out there to do their thing, as soon as those suckers open, I'm going out there with some shears and cutting them off to bring inside! The forsythia is blooming too and it's so gorgeous. I hate that the blooming period is so short lived though and then for the rest of the year, it just looks like a big ol tangled mess.

You know how I've been searching for a job for the last, oh, 11 months? Well, I've kind of given up. I have sent hundreds of resumes, filled out countless applications, had several interviews, tried to apply at retail jobs and nothing, NOTHING!!, has come of any of it. I've come to the sad realization that Maryland is just not going to work out. I am tired of spending God knows how much time searching for jobs in a place that's quite frankly too expensive to live in. I don't want to slave away for 40 hours a week at a job I hate just so I can barely afford to live here. I don't. That doesn't make any sense. I mean I like Maryland, for the most part, but I don't love it. And I don't want to spend the next 5 or 10 years of my life in a place that is just mediocre.

 So, having said that, I am thinking (seriously thinking) about moving to Pennsylvania this fall. I am on a time constraint insomuch as the ex is for certain moving in September to North Dakota. As you all know, our living situation has sucked because we're still forced to live in the same freaking house together because we bought when the market was high and were trying to wait until it recovered a bit before selling. Well, unfortunately for us, we won't have enough time to wait for that to happen since he has orders to get to ND and we are going to have to sell or rent by September. So, that's my timeline. I am hoping to spend the next few months saving money, destashing some goodies, researching the PA area even more and then hopefully, come July/August, I will be prepared to start applying for jobs there. In the event that I can't find suitable work, I will have enough saved to live for a while and I can still do my Etsy gig part time. I just really feel like I need to move somewhere that I love, that has a lot of opportunities to continue doing what I love. I have nothing to tie me down, except dogs (they love to travel!) so I might as well take advantage of this chance, right?!

 I am longing for the chance to live somewhere peaceful. Somewhere with a lot less traffic, a lot less houses, a lot less crime. I want to be able to see beautiful scenery without having to get in my car and drive an hour. I want to live somewhere that I don't hear the constant noise of trains, buses, fire trucks, airplanes. I want to hear the clip clop of horse hooves and be able to see rolling green hills and buy vegetables from a local market. I do think that the Amish area of PA will provide these things. And if by some chance, I end up hating it, I can always move again.

 I'm debating if I should keep this blog or not. I don't really post here much anymore. I don't really receive comments anymore. Maybe I'll think it over for another week or so and decide then. I find myself wasting a lot of time reading other blogs and commenting and I don't know that it's worth it to keep mine open. Hmm. Well, that's that. Time to go schlep to the basement and start laundry and package orders. In lieu of actual sunshine and flowers, I'm sharing some of the great vintage linens I've listed recently in my Etsy shop. These will have to work until the real things start blooming here!!