Has it really been 3 months since I made a post?! I swear this blog isn’t dead! I’ve been super busy – let’s talk about it!
Well, no better way to start this post than with the biggest news of all – we’re moving!
I’ve lived in MD for almost a decade now. I moved here when I was 16, left my mom’s house to live with my dad, and never looked back. I did a lot of firsts here – I got my license, I graduated twice (three times if you count high school lol), started my career, met my husband, made many friends, learned new skills, and grew so much.
I do want to preface this post with the statement – Maryland is a fantastic state. Where we’re at – central MD – we have a genuine mixing pot. I’d find it hard to believe many places on the East Coast have as much diversity as we do here. You can really learn about and experience nearly every culture in the Baltimore-DC strip. There’s always something to do, big cities within driving distance, and mountains, lakes, shores, are all a short road trip away.
However… if you don’t love the population density, it can be hard to thrive here. I find constant noise quite overstimulating, and it’s nonstop here. As I write this a neighbor is putting up a shed of some kind (I could go on a whole tangent about this, but I won’t for respect of your time and my sanity), cars are honking as they drive passed, and the highway is buzzing with rush hour traffic. Even then, this is relatively quiet for this neighborhood! When we moved here, my mental health symptoms weren’t quite so apparent. Now, I find the area overstimulating. It’s really, really difficult to lead a normal life if just having the window open overstimulates you!
Aside from that, MD is HOT! Our summers are brutal. High humidity, high heat, and so much asphalt that it doesn’t actually cool down at night. My migraines are triggered by high heat, so you can imagine, it’s quite difficult for me here. This past summer was really bad. I had a constant migraine for roughly 6 weeks straight. Every time I left the house it would worsen tremendously.
Our long term plan was always to move somewhere else after 5ish years. We work locally, so it made sense to have a house near work. Our goal was to live here long enough to make the initial investment worth it. Unfortunately, with this past summer, it was starting to feel like we weren’t going to make it to 5 years. We knew we wanted to land in New England, and we were loosely looking for houses.
Well, this beautiful house came up in Vermont. It was like a fairy tale house. I would just look at pictures and day dream, it really was gorgeous. But – we weren’t ready to buy. We hadn’t even visited the area. So, we didn’t go for it. It went under contract and I’d pushed it out of my mind.
Early August we visited the area that house was in. It’s hard to capture in words how beautiful it is. Quite rural, but with civilization all around. Not built up civilization like Maryland by any means, but it’s the quintessential New England small town vibe. We fell in love with the area.
So, we started looking at houses. Put a couple offers in on ones we liked, but we weren’t accepted on any of them. I was getting discouraged… until the storybook house came back on the market. I immediately recognized it once it came up on the MLS (realtor-made house search) – I texted our agent that we absolutely had to put an offer in, no ifs ands or buts. We put in an offer site-unseen, and I am so humbled to share we were accepted! We found out on Labor Day.
We have been in a whirlwind ever since. We went up during the inspection period and fell in love with it even more. It’s a really, really gorgeous house. I’m going to eventually share videos of it on Youtube. I think somewhere here I’ve got it linked, but it’s also been rebranded to soopy studios. I’ll explain why in a minute!
The house is a beautiful nearly 2 century old home. It was built in the 1840s (a lot of homes in New England are quite old). It’s beautiful. Big wood beams, original wood windows, character that is simply off the charts. I keep saying it’s beautiful, but I simply cannot stress enough how beautiful it is! The land is, not joking here, 40x the amount we have in MD. We are going to buy a tractor… I don’t understand how I got to this point in life but here I am lol
With the move comes finding new work. My husband is staying in tech and will be working remotely, a change both he and I are very excited for! I know he’ll be much happier without a commute and getting to work outside when the weather’s nice. Of course he’ll get to hang out with the creatures of the home more too, which I know they’ll love! I’m actually doing a full career pivot.
In two weeks from today, I’m planned to start my new career… drum roll here… as a teacher!
I wanted to be a teacher for most of my childhood; I was one of the seemingly odd children that loved school. As I grew up, gun violence became much worse, and I decided against going into the profession. For transparency’s sake, I am absolutely still worried about this, and maybe I’m a bit naive to think it won’t be an issue in such a rural area, but it feels less risky. I’ve made my coin in tech, and I have learned so many valuable skills, but I am more than ready for a change. In my new role, I’ll get to help students learn how to use technology safely and responsibly. It’s a change for sure, but I’m very thankful the school is taking a chance on me: a random lady in tech without a teaching license. Luckily, it doesn’t take much to be less of a random lady and then follow the process to get a license! 🙂 This triggered the YT channel name change, to be a little harder to find. Not that I’m doing anything bad of course haha
We move in a little over a week, so my time is mostly spent packing and panicking. Once we are settled (both in careers and homes) I’d love to pick this blog back up again! I’ll leave you on some crafty notes, to fulfill my role as the crafty coder:
- We visited Rhinebeck on the way back from our last visit to the house. It was quite lovely, the weather was perfect!!! I got a totebag and really love it, it’s fantastic quality. It was Sunday, so the line wasn’t too terrible. However, if you live in – or closer to – Maryland Sheep and Wool, just go to that! It is less crowded and just as fun. For MD locals it really is a spoiling event – I wouldn’t drive 5+ hours to visit NYS&W again.
- Frederick Fiberfest remains a favorite with fiber arts festivals. We went this past weekend. Shoutout to The Sheepyshire – they were very kind to set aside some yarn for me when I realized I should’ve bought a coordinating color! I’ll share the yarns I got from them when I get around to crocheting that project, I’m thinking a shawl!
- I’m strongly considering trying my hand at knitting socks. I always say I don’t want to knit, but I really want to make socks. I’ve got some lovely sock yarn that is just dying to become some socks… I may be cracking tonight and buying a set of needles. Listen, New England is cold, I’ll be inside a lot, might as well knit some socks!
- I am loving having a scarf collection. As I come up on my one year anniversary of learning how to crochet, I’m so happy I can make something like that for myself. What a fun skill and hobby.
I hope everyone has had a lovely fall so far, and I’m excited to report back more soon! ❤
bye();
p.s. cover pic is a picture from our field. yes, we have a field now! hence the tractor. i might be fully losing it
The Crafty Coder 
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