Happy New Year

Communities where I live will mark News Year's Eve by raising or lowering various items. Below I listed a county-by-county look at some of the bizarre items that will be getting dropped or pulled up on New Year's Eve in small towns around my area!

LANCASTER COUNTY – Akron, shoe; Elizabethtown, M&M; Manheim, ball; Reamstown, barrel
DAUPHIN COUNTY – Hershey, kiss; Hummelstown, lollipop; Middletown, orb
LEBANON COUNTY – Cleona, pretzel; Palmyra, shoe; Richland, cigar
YORK COUNTY -- Dillsburg, pickle; Hallam, shoe; Red Lion, cigar
CUMBERLAND COUNTY – Carlisle, car; Mechanicsburg, wrench; Shippensburg, anchor
PERRY COUNTY – Blain, cow; Duncannon, sled; Liverpool, canal boat

Here's Mr Pickle being hand dropped into a pickle barrel on New Years Eve in Dillersburg PA
I went to this one year and had lots of fun! Can't get any more kitschy then watching a big pickle drop! haha

Happy New Year Everyone!

Dear Mid-Century Home Owners

Dear Very Cool Mid-Century home owners,

I am not stalking you, investigating you, or trying to blackmail you for some sort of wrong you might have done. I am simply in love with your very cool house and stopped to take a quick picture to share with my friends. I hope you appreciate the very cool house that you reside in and have not taken it upon yourselves to rip out every cool old feature in your home to do some crazy updating you might have seen on HGTV! That would be blasphemy. Please don't listen to the lies that certain TV channels like to tell. Not everyone likes or needs granite counter tops in their kitchens. There are still plenty of us out there who enjoy fake laminate with nice metal edging and original appliances. I hope you are one of those people too. So, dear very cool mid-century home owners, if you ever find that you can no longer fullfill your duties as very cool mid-century home owners to this very cool mid-century home, call me!

Bye for now but remember, I've got my eye on you, so watch your renovations!

xoxo
~MaryDeluxe

MIAMD

That's me....Missing In Action Mary Deluxe! I've been feeling a little under the weather since Christmas and fighting a horrible sore throat. I must have gotten it from school as I remember a few of my students telling me they weren't feeling so hot and had sore throats. Thanks kids!

Tomorrow Mr. Milo is off to the vets for more shots. You can just bet that I'm soooo not looking forward to taking little hissy pants to the vets. I'm sure he's going to make a big dramatic scene and the new vet will tell me what a horrible cat I have. This is exactly what happened the last time I took him to the vets. I was so unhappy with the way the last vet handled Milo that I found a new one. The last vet told me Milo was a mean cat and he puts down mean cats because they don't make good pets! Milo must have overheard the vet because he decided to be as nasty and obnoxious as possible. I almost started crying when I watched the way the vet handled him. Poor Milo ended up biting his tongue and limping around the house for 2 days! It was completely unnecessary in my opinion how the vet restrained him. My poor little buddy. He's really not mean at all, he just doesn't like stupid vets.....he prefers big pink atomic 50's chairs! Can't blame him there.

Anne Fogarty

Many, many, many years ago I found a wonderful little black dress at a thrift shop that I absolutely fell in love with.

I bought it even though I knew it would be to small for me. But hey, a girl can dream can't she! I just loved the fitted bodice and very full skirt! It was to me, an amazing example of a 50's design! Like many of you out there, I love to research and find out the history behind my vintage finds... knowledge is power! So, I was determined to find out all I could about Anne Fogarty and the Margot label. What I found out was that Anne, was one very talented, outstanding designer. My dress was made between 1950-1955 when Anne was designing for the Margot label. It was at this time that she developed her own take on the New Look with what she called her "Paperdoll" silhouette. Her Paperdoll dresses featured a very fitted bodice and full skirt with which a crinoline or petticoat had to be worn to achieve the desired effect. My dress was a perfect example of her popular design.

You can read more about Anne Fogarty : FuzzieLizzieVintage and Vintage Fashion Guild. And you can buy my little Anne Fogarty Dress at DeluxeVilleVintage on Etsy!! Yes, I have finally decided to stop living in denial and accept the fact that my waist will probably never be 26" again!

Dude Where's My Car...

As you can see, I live on the
east coast and we got hammered today by a big snow storm! I've shoveled already once today at 1pm and I just finished my second round of shoveling now! I think the best time to shovel is 11pm at night. It's peaceful and quiet. I walked across the street to see what my house looked like from the other side of the street. I opened the curtains on my big window today to watch it snow and I've never realized as much as I can see out, others across the street can see in! No wonder the old guys across the street like me so much! Whose your favorite neighbor?? Why, MaryDeluxe of course...when the curtain opens, she puts on the best shows!

I Gave In......

So I gave in and put out a few Kitschmas things. Milo was on it like the evil kitten that he is. I wonder if things will last 7 days till Christmas. Did I tell you that he has learned to flush the toilet? What cat does that? Apparently my evil kitten does! He flushed it twice this morning while I was getting ready for work. I've been wondering how he's been doing it and this morning I caught him in the act. He actually puts his front paws on the handle and pushes down. What a weirdo! But I have to admit, at least he flushes... which is better then my ex boyfriend I lived with for 6 years... hahahaha Eeewwwwwww!!

Evil kitten head checking out the palm kitschmas tree! Do you see the destruction in his little beady kitty eyes.



I think I have just enough Kitschmas to make Miss Mary feel a little merry or maybe that's just the eggnog kicking in!

Happy Holidays DeluxeVille Readers!

XOXO
~MaryDeluxe

My most recent awards!

Thank you Pink Champagne and Stephanie Valentine for my most recent award!! These sweet gals have newer blogs so you should definitely go take a look if you haven't already. I'm sure you'll be drooling over Pink Champange's cute vintage outfit posts and Miss Stephanie Valentines amazing, perfect bangs just like me!

Thanks Dolls,
xoxo
MaryDeluxe

Heavens to Betsy

Because everyone needs a little bit of Betsy in their lives!

Yours Truly

Betsy Bouncer and Her Doll

Betsy Bouncer and Her Doll
1904

Betsy Bouncer and Her Doll is one of those weird Sunday pages from the early part of the Twentieth Century. Betsy Bouncer is an otherwise ordinary girl but for the fact that her closest companion is a grotesque almost-human-but-not-quite living doll. The relationship between girl and doll is a nightmarish one as the plaything is constantly plotting oh-so-funny ways to injure her owner, say by bee stings or a bear mauling. The doll typically gets what is coming to her, though sometimes in a surprisingly brutal fashion - it's not often the star of a comic strip is beheaded, is it? This all comes to us courtesy of Tom Tucker.

Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer is an American actress best known as a regular panelist on the game show, I've Got A Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhess in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.

Betsy Drake & Cary Grant in Every Girl Should Be Married

Betsy Drake is an American actress and writer. She is also the third wife of Cary Grant. Cary first spotted her in 1947 in Deep Are The Roots in London, and the two, who happened to be returning to the US on the same ship, struck up an instant rapport. On Christmas Day 1949 they were married, and deliberately chose a low-key, introspective private life.

The Crew of the Betsy Anna

The Betsy Anna was an 880 tonne steel steamer that was run by a subsidiary of the Berghuis Coal trade from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She was used mainly for transporting coal from European countries, steaming all the way through the Mediterranean and Baltic waters as well as all along the Atlantic Coast. The Betsy Anna met her fate in October 1926 when she stuck Prawle Point, off the coast of Devon. From here she was re floated but sank whilst being transported under tow to Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. The wreck has become a favorite for British divers over the years due to its fabulous diving and large numbers of marine creatures. In 2004 ULSAC adopted the wreck of the Betsy Anna and have carried out a number of surveying dives on it since then.

Betsey Johnson

One of my favorite fashion designers!

Auction Saturday

Crazy auction Saturday. It's snowing and freezing outside so why not head off to an outside estate sale?? Makes perfect sense to me. After all I needed an auction fix. I didn't think there was going to be lots of people there due to the crappy weather and I was right about that one but quite a lot of dealers were there. Dealers that tend to like the same things I do. So, I didn't have much hope for actually snagging anything because I wasn't looking to spend a ton of money. I originally went to check out these lamps. I wasn't in love with them and need another set of huge lamps like a hole in my head but if I could get them for a good deal, why not?

The lamps were unmarked and when they came up for sale, it was me and a dealer bidding on them and I stopped at $50 as this was the limit I gave myself for the day. So, he got em for $55. Sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some. Just how it works. I was also saving my funds for another set of chalk ware lamps that I liked better. Those I did get. I don't care much for the shade but they match really well to the set of lamps I got a couple weeks back. For now, I put them in my dressing room. I will have to look around for some fiber glass shades to replace the ones on there. Perhaps I'll save my funds and buy some from here: Moon Shine Lamp and Shade. Shades that are to die for!!

I also picked up a flamingo mirror. The mirror is fogged up but the artwork on the inside is in excellent condition so I plan on removing it and finding a cool frame for it.



I also got a frozen face and feet! I will not be going to anymore outside sales until spring. That was just stupid of me to stand out there for 5 hours freezing my ass off! This just proves that I have a problem. A very serious problem....I smell an intervention in my future! :)

Kitschmas in DeluxeVille 2008

Unfortunately I don't think I will be doing Kitschmas this year. Not because I am Bah Humbug or anything...it's because of *"Milo the Monster"* and the potential he has for the destruction of my Kitschmas decor. I can just see him now swatting at vintage ornaments and breaking them. I already lose a few each year to my adult cats. I could just imagine the damage those little clawed paws could do! Oh the HORROR! Since it's been snowing here all day, I've been in a Kitschmas kinda mood. So, here's some various pictures of Kitschmas in Deluxville 2008!!

Tomorrow I will tell you all about the freezing 5 hours I spent outside at an auction. Why yes, I'm crazy!

*kittens are evil!!

The Chair

My Mom recently had an old chair reupholstered that belonged to my great grandmother. Now, I'm sure a lot of you are probably thinking...well whoop dee do MaryD what's so darn special about that? Well, what's so special about it is this, my Mom is my biggest fan and reupholstered the chair in a fabric that I designed many years ago when I was working as a textile designer. (I have had sooooo many careers it's not even funny...and I never know what I might get into next??) Anyway many years ago when I was working for this textile company I would bring home yards of unwanted fabric....you should see my basement....I gave some to my Mom. Here's what she had done with it....

This is not the first time she used fabric I designed to redo a chair. She also did this one a few years ago.....

Now before you say, okay that is pretty cool. I'll go on to say that years ago I would actually see fabrics I did on furniture in furniture stores. I also once saw a fab design I did on a chair on HGTV. My 15 min of fame! I remember how difficult that design was do figure out and make weave right on the loom...it took me a lot of time to do... so it was a nice cherry on my sundae to see it on hgtv! See Antonio Bellatore, it's meant to be, we are like 6 degrees of separation, I had a fabric design on HGTV and you are actually on HGTV, it's so like meant to be! hehehehe Call me!!

What a Crappy Day Outside.

Here in the North East we are having yet again another cold, rainy, winter day. If this gloomy weather keeps up, I'm gonna turn into a poor, sad little emo kid. After a long day of having to deal with disrespectful kids at work, all this gal wanted to do was come home and put her feet up. That's exactly what I did to. After a nice long hot shower, and an application of skin so soft, I jumped into my comfy pjs, slippers, and fluffy robe. Made myself some yummy veggie burgers for dinner.... and will be snuggling down with a cup of tea, a book and my kitties very shortly. The perfect ending to a gloomy day.

What ever happened to Natalie Merchant anyway??