Yard Sale Score

It's yard sale time again...my favorite time of year! On my way home from work today, I stopped off at a yard sale. This certain family goes to auctions and every year they host a "barn sale" where they sale off things they've acquired over the year that they don't want. They always have neat stuff for sale and at crazy yard sale prices. I usually don't venture over that way, as it's not my normal drive home, but today I had an errand to run and had the luck of driving past! I only had a couple of bucks on me, but thought what the heck, I'll stop and have a look! I'm so glad I did because they had a really cute Hey-wake Sculptura vanity stool there for $6.50. No vanity with it, but you know me, I buy one Hey-wake piece at a time and work my way slowly up to a complete set! :-)

I think it'll look great with my Hey-wake pull up chair even though it's not meant to actually go with it! I would actually put the stool next to the chair to take a picture, but the chair is packed away in the garage ready for my move this weekend! DeluxeVille is a barren wasteland! Can you believe I'm still buying furniture even though I have to move this weekend....hahahaha...oh well, one more thing to shove onto the moving truck!

Vintage Wedding Cake Inspiration

Since Sgt and I are both DIY'ers, we've decided to make our own wedding cake. Okay really, I came up with the idea and Sgt being the strong silent type, just nodded his head and gave in. Smart man...see why I'm marrying him! I just figure since we plan on building a life together why not start out with the simple task of building a yummy fresh strawberry cake together. When I told him we would be making a fresh strawberry cake, his head perked up, his eyes got big, and he left out a whooping "OKAY"!!!

My plan is to do a very simple cake with a vintage cake topper. I love the pictures below and this is the direction I plan to go in. I love the swirls of the frosting and the simple designs used. I'm not a big fan of smooth cakes. They just seem to perfect to me, I like my cake to have some character!

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I'm also loving all the inspiration from the Sweet and Saucy Shop/ Sweet and Saucy Supply. I love the simplicity and color combination of the cakes pictured below. Not only can you order vintage inspired supplies for all your favorite baked goods, but you can also buy some baked goods that are sure to become your favorites! Don't forget to checkout the Sweet and Saucy blog for more inspiration.

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Now go eat some cake!

The Goodwill Site

Yes, Goodwill has an online auction site called....Shopgoodwill! I've been shopping there for years and over these years have often posted the things I have found there. So, I thought why not showcase Goodwill one more time for all the DeluxeVille readers that didn't know about the sight! Just so you all know, like other online auction sights, it has pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Your money is going to a good organization that supports the local community. It's like making a donation when you buy something.
2. Sometimes (not as often now) the people listing the item wouldn't know what it was they were listing and if one got lucky in their searches, you could steal quite the deals.
3. No sniper
4. You can find cool vintage things there

Cons:

1. Shipping is higher and a handling fee is always charged.
2. Prices on things can go higher than on Ebay.
3. Pictures are not very good quality.
4. Items can be measured wrong or described wrong because the people listing the items are usually not professional dealers when it comes to vintage things.
5. The sight has become well known so there is more competition in bidding.
6. Once you buy it, you bought it!
7. You have to be patient and good at searching!
8. I don't think they ship internationally...but it never hurts to ask!
9. You have to really know your vintage because as stated above, they don't always list items as vintage.
   

No matter what the pros and cons, I really like shopping on the Goodwill sight! I am not a regular buyer on the sight, but over the years, I have never had one bad transaction. I also enjoy finding the deals and have gotten really good at searching for and finding items that were not listed as vintage. Recently I found this cute little 40's Hollywood Sport Life blouse. It was listed as a 70's belly shirt. Score!

I can't remember ever not getting a good deal on something on that sight. I have found some amazing vintage items on there from vintage clothing and accessories to contemporary things. One of my all time best finds is the Cole of California sundress I'm wearing below! I blogged about it a few years ago here. I found out that a sister outfit to this dress is in the Powerhouse museum in Australia! It was listed as "Asian style dress". No one bid on it but me. No one knew what it really was. I was able to tell by the pictures it was from 1950's, I paid $34 when all was said and done. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package to find it was a Cole of California dress!

I have also found these vintage 50's suits for cheap.....Cool Suits

This lucite purse.... .........

And these fabulously awesome shoes.........

There's more but I think you get the idea!

Another Sneak Peak

But this time it's a sneak peek of my wedding dress! Did you all know "The Original Bus Stop Goddess" is getting hitched in June??!! Yup, it's time for this ol' gal to retire from the bus stops.....forever and ever and ever! "Amen" "Hallelujah", sing the glory to the Goddess of the Bus Stop!

I found this amazing 50's bridesmaid dress along with it's matching shoes and veil on the Goodwill site. I love the Goodwill site and I'm sure many of you know about it too. I have found so many awesome things there over the years. What's even more awesome is your money goes to Goodwill, which is like getting the chance to shop online for vintage things guilt free!

But anyway, back to the dress. I wasn't planning on buying a new dress since the Sgt and I are just getting hitched "JP" style, but when I saw this dress while searching around the site, I fell in love with the peachy/coral/pinky color and had to have it. The last thing I wanted was a white wedding dress, because lets face it, after living in sin with a guy for 5 years, there sure ain't nothing virginal about me...sorry Mom...and I'm just not at all into weddings. I have never been one of those gals to sit around and day dream about what my wedding would be like when I got married. I am however the type of gal that sits around and day dreams about how the room would look with a new paint color! This dress is just perfect and exactly what I had in mind for my wedding day. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the bow hat with attached veil.

So, what do you think? What did you wear on your wedding day? Anyone care to share their wedding pictures on their blogs? I would love to see them!

xoxo,
MaryDeluxe

Sneak Peek...

The master bedroom at The Simple Acre is almost done...only a few finishing touches left to do! We spent this past weekend painting up a storm. Here's a little sneak peek. More to come after my BIG move so stay tuned!

Oh My, She Didn't....

Oh yes I did! Thursday after work I stopped off at a local auction house to have a look at what vintage goodies they might have. Imagine my surprise when I came across the table with all the vintage clothing on it!! I went off to get a bidding number straight away and settled myself down in an old wooden chair. Then I waited....and waited....and waited some more, but eventually I scored the lot of vintage clothing I wanted. I didn't get all the clothing as the bidding numbers were flying! Okay really, it was just me and some other guy who's a regular there and usually buys up all the vintage textiles and such. But not tonight!! Tonight I hung in there and came away with a victory. A more expensive victory then I wanted to pay but a victory none the less. So what did I get?? Well, there was one dress I wanted really, really bad out of the whole lot. I wasn't even sure it would fit but I knew I could at least resale it if it didn't. When I came home, I spun around like the Tasmanian Devil and tried everything on! WWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. It was then that I realized my vintage karma is still right with the vintage universe because not only did the dress I want fit me but so did everything else!

Now I present to you, the love at first sight dress:

Stop drooling on your keyboard.......

I know right, to die for!!! It's so, so dreamy. The perfect little cotton Summer dress and the cutest peasant style neckline. Now admit it, you would have done the same thing if you were me.

Do you want to see what else I got??? I mean come on, I know you do!! I picked up a total of 5 dresses, three shirts, a strapless bra slip, and a cute pair of wool children's winter pants! All for the high price of $150. EEK ! That's like $30 bucks a dress so, that's not so bad is it? I also picked up 6 pairs of vintage 40's & 50's shoes for $3! Yup that was all. I wanted two of the pairs but had to buy the lot of 6 and for $3 bucks it wasn't so bad because the 2 pair of shoes I wanted are killer and they fit me. They were the only ones that did. It amazes me how good I am at eyeballing the sizes of things and being right. Does anybody else do that too?

If you guessed that the two pair of shoes I wanted are the front two, you are right! $1.50 for each pair I wanted and a bonus of 4 more pair of shoes, no complaints here!

Okay back to the clothing! In my lot was also this cute little R & K Original light green Summer dress. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know how much I love an R&K dress! This one is exceptionally nice and has adorable bows on the shoulders!

A lacy cotton pink Summer dress and below that, a cotton blouse/Summer jacket.

Love the embroidery details on the bottom.


I love the print on this top and the color used on the sleeves, collar and pocket. I'll be wearing this one over my jeans for sure! These were some of my favorite pieces, more clothing to show but that will have to wait for another time.

Before I forget, I also picked up these three working fans for $12 bucks. I love old fans and happen to really love the color of these. Plus they still work...why buy cheap plastic crap fans when you can buy well built, still working, metal vintage ones?!

Oh what an awesome night it was and oh what an auction high I got. I can not tell you how rare it is to find a whole lot of vintage clothing come up at an auction. You might get a dress here, or a pair of shoes, but never as much as what was in this auction. I let a lot of things go because I just didn't have the $$$ I wanted to spend on everything. I had to decide on what I really wanted and pool my money for that. I still think I did really well for the money I spent. Proving to myself once again that you can find bargins still out there. You just have to put the time in to look and have patience.

Burpee

If anyone out there likes to garden like the Sgt and I do, I'm sure most of you have heard of the Burpee seed catalog or perhaps have visited their website...Burpee. This past weekend, we decided to take a road trip and head down to Warminster, PA to pick up some seeds and plants at the Burpee discount warehouse store. I scored some good deals on wildflower seeds and the Sgt picked up a gazillion tomato plants. I see lots of tomato canning in our future if all the plants do well. Oh geezzz!

Here I am holding up a very big tomato....I have my fingers crossed the Sgt didn't pick out this variety of tomato plant to grow!


The outside space of the Burpee discount warehouse.


A nice mix of plants to choose from. Vegetables, perennials, annuals, herbs, and fruit plants. I think their best deals are found inside with the seeds they had for sale. I have gotten better deals on my live plants from local nurseries where I live.

We still did really well for ourselves and loaded up the car with lots of goodies. Then went home and got down to business. The veggie garden is filling up fast and I was excited to see all the seeds we planted coming up. I'll be eating fresh salads any weekend now.

Yay BURPEE!!!!!!! He's such a show off!

A Covet Garden Inspiration

Hi DeluxeVille readers! I got an email today from DeluxeVille reader Sandra, who sent me a link to Covet Garden, because she thought I might enjoy looking at the recent issue. Boy, did I ever enjoy taking a peek! I enjoyed it so much, I thought you all might enjoy taking a peek too! Trust me, you'll be very inspired by the 40's/50's vintage decor and style of Moira Roe. Not only do you get to look at some fab eye candy, but they also include some killer recipes so you can throw a swinging cocktail party!

And what a neato little online magazine Covet Garden is too.

"Covet Garden is for folks who are curious about real spaces. We take a peek into the homes and lives of some of the city’s most interesting people—spaces that have not been styled by interior decorators. Covet Garden is inspirational, not aspirational."

Now I'm off to take a look at their back issues!

Cheers,
MaryDeluxe

A Scooter to Make You Drool....

Oh my, lookie what's coming up at an auction!
A Vintage Lambretta!

This is, as far as I can tell, the same Lambretta that was sold at this auction a year ago....Vespa Hunting. It went for over $3,000 then, so I wonder why it's going up for auction again so soon?? Hmmm Weird. I'm sure there will be a $3,000 reserve on it. Perhaps I'll go just to be nosey and see what it sells for this time.