Happy New Year!

"The Puerto Rican Pepper Pot" Olga San Juan, 1944

Times Square, NYC, New Year's Eve, 1942

Happy Holidaze!

Lots of fun holiday times going on here at the Simple Acre and a really bad cold that we can't seem to shake. I've been sounding like a 30 year smoker with a 3 pack a day habit this last week. I'm looking forward to my upcoming 3 day weekend and I'm planning on starting off the new year by getting my hands dirty on a DIY project of some sort. That's how the Sgt and I spent last new year and look how well 2011 turned out! How are you planning to spend your New Year's Eve? I've always been a quiet reveler myself and enjoy small intimate celebrations over being out in the middle of a crowd or on a cold street corner watching something drop! How ever you celebrate, I hope you have a Happy New Year!

Dinner and a Movie

Dinner: Stir Fry
Movie: The Shop Around the Corner. (the perfect pre-holiday, holiday time classic movie!)

Set in and around a Budapest store, co-workers Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) and Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) hold an intense dislike for each other, while maintaining a secret letter-writing relationship, neither realizing who their pen-pal is. They fall in love via their correspondence, while being antipathetic and peevish towards one another in real life. A major subplot concerns the apparent infidelity of the store owner's wife, and its spillover effect upon the various working relationships in the shop. Comic relief is provided throughout by William Tracy's characterization of Pepi the delivery boy.

~DeluxeVille Oh Sweet DeluxeVille~

Oh how I miss you sometimes...."Le Sigh"...."Le Purr"*

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not like I hate living here in the little old Farm House with my Sgt sexy pants....I love my Sgt.......it's just that sometimes I miss that little 1950's townhouse I bought for myself oh so many moons ago! And the fun I had turning it into the swanky little DeluxeVille it became. I forget how much hard work and time it took for me to make DeluxeVille what it ended up being. No folks, it sure didn't happen overnight, just like the transformation of the Simple Acre farmhouse won't happen overnight. The farmhouse has been hard work and I see lots more work in the future....like tearing up floors, putting in new windows, tiling, painting.....the list is long. I'm lucky I've got a man with strong shoulders and power tools! Remember my thing for a certain man with power tools....Antonio Ballatore.... sorry Antonio you had your chance...unless you'd want to come on over for a visit and help me with my kitchen remodel???

But back to DeluxeVille....

Insert rant or perhaps words of wisdom?

I think back with fond memories of my DeluxeVille days and all my single girl memories of living there. I'm glad that I've always been the kind of gal to enjoy every moment of my life as it was happening. I never understood people who couldn't be happy with what they had at the moment because they were to busy being sad thinking they needed something they didn't have to be happy. I say.... enjoy every stage of your life even if it isn't exactly how you think it should/would/could be. There is no perfect life....there is right here and right now so why waste it wishing for something else. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, or next year....stop worrying so much and just enjoy what ya got! OMG there I go being a Bus Stop Goddess again!

End rant....

Okay, back to my fond memories! Well to be honest with this picture, there are also plenty of things that I'm glad I don't have to deal with anymore....like...the time I flushed the toilet and I made a waterfall in my living room..(eeewwww I mean who do you call at 11 at night when that happens?? Trust me, there's no one to call and you just have to hold it!)...shoveling 2 feet of snow in the winter with a flimsy plastic orange shovel...(Sgt made sure to bring my orange shovel in the move, if Sgt thinks I'm shoveling snow this Winter hahaha well I'm just not, orange plastic shovel or not!)....taking the trash out ( it sucked, I lived in a row house, so I had to carry my garbage from out back through my house and out the front door)....the noisy neighbors and their barking dogs (yes, I had a fence, which stopped them from shitting in my yard but they would come watch me through the fence cracks and bark at me insanely)....street parking ....the neighbors LOUD ghetto car that he use to drive around the block at 1 am....(ASSHOLE) the neighbors that use to yell at their young children with all kinds of $%#@#$...(I called the cops so many times on these idiots, yup idiots if you're reading this, it was me!) I'm sure there are many more things I don't miss about where I use to live. There is always a yin and a yang with every picture.

New readers might not know....but the old ones still hanging around out there will know...

My DeluxeVille kitchen went from this the first few months I lived there...

To this for many years....

Then ended up like this for the last year I lived there...

And of course there was the bathroom remodel...and the garden makeover front and back. So many projects and so many happy years of my life! To bad my renter who resides there now doesn't have my love of all things vintage....he's a boring beige kinda guy and it just doesn't look the same...but he keeps things very clean. He just has a problem paying rent on time! Oh the hassles of being a landlady.

Is this not just the most annoying pointless never ending post ever? At least there were pictures!

xoxo,
MaryDeluxe

*A common catch phrase used in the popular classic cartoon "Pepe Le Pew" of Looney Tunes.

Bizarre Christmas Decor 1940's

Taken from Life magazine, 264 Christmas ornaments. For the non-traditional holiday!

a flaming umbrella?

Now that's a mantel!

Construction paper mistletoe.

I have no idea....

I actually like this simple idea!

Construction paper and a patriotic flower pot.

He doesn't look very excited does he?

A Sunny Spot

Wow, I can't believe it's December already and the Christmas holidays are right around the corner! The older I get, the more time seems to fly right on by. I'm not a big fan of the cold Winter months, so I'm crossing my fingers they fly right on by in a wink of an eye. However, in reality, Winter is the only time of year that never seems to fly by for me....it just drags on and on until I don't think I can take it any longer. Since I'm living in a new place this year, I've decided to find a nice sunny space to spend some serious time hibernating in. Sunshine in the Winter is about the only thing that makes me feel better. Nothing beats working in a patch of sunshine on a cold Winter day surrounded by some happy plants.

The small 1950's child's table I picked up many years ago at some random auction for a $1. It's in great condition and has a white cracked ice Formica top. I've used it in random ways over the years...I'm loving using it as a small desk. It works great with my Chromcraft fiber glass chair. What I love best about the chair...other than it's amazingly comfortable...is that, it's also a swivel chair! Oh how I love to spin around in my chair! Long time readers might remember me blogging about these finds here.

The plants also enjoy a nice sunny spot. The plants compete for sunny spots with the cats. Now, lets talk about my push pin board above my desk! This was a DIY project. I found the huge wooden frame at an auction this Summer. It had a furniture sticker on the back of it from the 1940's and so I assumed it had at one time held a mirror and been part of a bedroom furniture set. When I found it, it was missing the mirror, but had a bunch of screw hooks in it and being used to hold keys. The minute I saw it, I knew it would be a great bulletin board DIY project. A little paint, cork board, vintage fabric and voila...cool desk bulletin board!

I also happen to be in love with postcards, vintage embroidered postcards, and farmers markets.

I hope you are all enjoying the season... no matter where you are and what ever type of season it is! Stay warm or cool and enjoy a little sunshine too!

Until next time,
MaryDeluxe

Random Weekend Pictures

The biggest and the littlest


Homemade raviolis


Cuddle time


Daddy time


More cuddle time


The end

Have You Heard The News?

The Black Pinafore is having a giveaway to celebrate having 100 followers!

Hi Debora! So what are you giving away??

What Debora is giving away is one of her amazing vintage reproduction skirts!!! All you have to do to get a chance at winning her fab giveaway is..... be or become a follower and leave her a lovely comment saying howdy! That's it??? What, no flaming hoops of fire to jump through or quiz to take to win?? Well, that's so easy even a caveman could do it! But I doubt he'd look as cute in one of The Black Pinafore's skirts!

I LOVE this fabric!

If you can't wait that long to see if you get to be the lucky winner, you can always go check out Debora's Etsy shop here....The Black Pinafore!

Good Luck.....pick me Debora!!!! *wink wink*

XoXo,
MaryDeluxe

The Great North East Snow Storm....

...has kept me out of commission for the last week. We lost power for a total of 6 days! Yup, I was living Amish all week long and let me tell you, at first it was fun but by Wednesday I was like...give me some #&*(%$ hot water so I can take a shower PLEASE! In all honesty, we were lucky as we had heat from our wood stove and a gas range to cook on. It was the lack of water and not being able to turn on the lights in the morning that really got to me.

We had about 10" of snow fall last Saturday and by Tuesday it was all melted. The heavy, wet snow brought down many trees and it sounded like bombs going off outside. Pretty scary stuff!

We also have a new addition to our family here on The Simple Acre...this little guy came meowing and running out of the forest at me on Thursday. Please don't get me started on people who dump animals! I looked for more little kitties running around but found none..or perhaps I should say, none found me!

There was nothing I could do to stop it from clinging onto me. So, I picked him up and took him into the house... knowing the whole time that it wasn't staying here! I have enough cats, thank you very much. All the other cats agreed with me, but we got out voted by Sgt and the dog! As you can see, the dog and the kitten have a very close relationship...actually the dog is obsessed with the kitten. Raven follows the kitten around constantly, sniffing, licking, and in general annoying the little guy to no end. We eventually have to pick the kitten up so he doesn't drown from doggie kisses. Yes, the secret is out, my dog loves cats.

The cats however, have a completely different opinion of the new addition!

Castle Creek Farm

Inspiration farm stand.....

The Stairway Project

Yup I'm climbing up on ladders again!

Here's my latest DIY atomic farmhouse project....the stairway leading to the master bedroom. There use to be a door at the top of the steps that you opened to come into the bedroom....that's gone..Yay! There also use to be gross beige carpet in the bedroom and stairway....ummm really gross....that's gone to..Yay! Taking down the door and part of the wall was a smart decision and really opened up the space. You can see pictures of some of the changes here.

Things I love about my master bedroom:
Since removing the door and creating a small section of half wall, we've created a room that gets filled with afternoon sunlight. I love a sun filled room especially in winter time.

The walk in closet just rocks! Okay it's not completely done yet and we still need to build the shelves on the other side of the wall....but I love having a room right off the master bathroom to walk into and get dressed. It's only going to get even more amazing once we get it completely finished!

I'm also loving the hardwood floors Sgt put in last winter. Going to that auction and snagging all that wood flooring is really going to pay off for us and I'm glad we had that opportunity. I recommend anyone who is planning on doing remodeling to try to attend some home builders auctions before you just trot off to the big box stores and spend your hard earned money. Here's what I'm talking about..here!

I've got the walls painted and hope to be moving onto the stairs this weekend! I'm still deciding what direction I'm going in with them. I'm leaning towards painting them due to the worn condition they are in. I'm thinking of painting a fun colorful runner on the steps! Will keep you posted on the final outcome.

Keeping It Simple

I witnessed something at an auction on Saturday that I've never seen before and hope to never see again...a crazy mental auction bidder! Seriously, this woman must have been having a manic episode. She was literally bidding on and buying everything that went up for sale. At one point she had her bidding ticket in her hand and was waving it around in the air while having a conversation with the fella next to her. She stopped her conversation with the fella and said to the auctioneer, "What am I bidding on?" She spent $50 on an old rusty rake. She bid against everyone on everything it didn't matter what it was, she didn't care, she just wanted to bid. She was bidding on items before the auctioneer even said what the opening bid was for an item. He told her a few times to allow him to get out the bid amount before she started bidding. The auctioneers were starting opening bid prices extremely high because they new she would just instantly bid on it. People left the auction because they became so annoyed with what was happening. Towards the end of the auction, Sgt overheard the auctioneers talking about her behavior and becoming concerned that in the end she wouldn't pay for all she bought! It was so weird. She didn't know what she was bidding on half the time, she didn't care if she over paid for an item, and she didn't seem to have a spending limit what so ever. Yup, that's right, she just waved that number in the air like she just didn't care! I saw the auctioneers go over to speak with her a few times during the auction. Now don't get me wrong, she had every right to bid on anything she wanted at any price she wanted to pay for it, as it was after all a public estate auction. That's the nature of an auction, it goes to the person willing to pay the most for it. It was just the weirdest, most disturbing auction I've ever been to.

But not to worry the day wasn't a complete loss because when the crazy bidding lady was briefly distracted with picking out what she wanted from a bid she just won (yup, she didn't know and an auction employee took her over to the side yard to show her) I snagged up a two piece bookcase I had my eye on for $5. And that was it for my auction buys!

In other fun and entertaining news, this morning Sgt and I pulled up our crop of sweet potatoes that I planted this Summer from the garden! I love hunting for potatoes and we did pretty well with our harvest. I'll be writing about our sweet potato harvest over in the blog we share, The Simple Acre later today...so stop on over if you want to see the Sgt and I gettin dirty!

Blog Loving

HEY ALL!

I know what you're all thinking, where the hell has MaryDeluxe been this Summer?? Right? Okay maybe not my Mother as she has my phone number and checks up on me on a regular basis....I'm just mainly talking about the rest of Y'all out there in internet-land! Well, I've been just a busy little buzzing bee over here in my new state of New Jerzee! I'm still trying to get boxes unpacked!! GAK! Moving is such a big deal for people who have way to much stuff...ya know. But a good thing is the Sgt and I had a big ol' yard sale in front of the Belvidere Library last week and got rid of a lot of crap-o-la....we also made some nice *cha-ching* chunk of change...which I will happily say, some of that chunk of change was used to fill my belly with yummy Thia food tonight! Sgt also used a bit of the cash to finally fix the dripping shower in the bathroom...such a handy guy that Sgt and I learned a few new curse words to boot! Now onto business!

New Blog Alert!

Here's a fab new blog for you guys to check out! If you enjoy collecting vintage as much as I do, you'll have to drop over and check out My Life as a Collectorator! Now here's a gal after my own collecting heart!

Chartreuse pottery.

CollectoratorToo writes.... I am a Collectorator....It is not a disease but an obsessive state of mind. Technically, I am Collectorator Number 2 as there is a Number 1 Collectorator out there... Visit www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/, and you will see the collection of CollectoratorOne who is the one that inspired me (or is that infected me?).

Wondering what a Collectorator is? It is a person who decorates with collectibles! I should probably change that to obsessively decorates with collectibles. We like to call it Collectorating for short. Oh and decorating yourself with collectibles counts as Collectorating as well.

I cannot take credit for coming up with the Collectoration terminology. Credit goes to Knifezilla, the one that tries to keep CollectoratorOne's obsessive collecting "somewhat" in check.

So if you are a Collectorator, we are here to be your support group! We understand, condone, and fully encourage the obsession! Enjoy our Collectorations and be sure to share your own Collectoration with us as well!

Part of her box purse collection! *Drool*

CollectoratorToo is in the process of packing up her things in hopes of moving into a bigger house in the near future. She's taking pictures and talking about her collections as she goes... which is fun to watch... but I feel her pain over having to pack everything away as she waits...I really do. I also know what it's like to part with things along the way. As much as it hurts, it does feel really good to declutter!

Until next time Dear DeluxeVille Readers....Keep calm and carry on!
xoxo
MaryDeluxe

Milo's Master Bathroom

Here's a look at the first step on our master bathroom remodel. I have always loved how new paint color can make a huge change in the way a room looks and feels. Originally the bathroom was a beige color and had a counter sink that was fake wood with a matching medicine cabinet above the sink. Hello 1980's! I took some white paint to the sink cabinet which was an easy upgrade and replaced the matching medicine cabinet that stuck out of the wall with a flat vintage 1920's wall mirror. Eventually, I would like to replace the sink cabinet with an old pedestal sink...I've been keeping an eye out for a cheap one in good condition. I also plan on tiling the floor down the road because I love tiling! But for now the floor will do just fine and so will the basic shower stall.

I removed the doors from the sink stand because I hated them :) I replaced the doors with hanging 50's bark cloth fabric that I had in my kitchen previously at DeluxeVille. I also made Sgt replace the wood grain toilet seat with a nice new white one. It's a small master bath but does have a linen closet and those built in shelves in the corner by the window. That helps a lot with storage.

Milo on the toilet........ Can't a guy get some privacy around here!??

I love old planters! I have a variety of ones I've picked up over the years. I like to use them for more then just plants. The green one on the sink is holding my soap bottles. The fab turquoise one holds Q-tips and cotton balls, while another planter on the sink holds our tooth paste and tooth brushes! I also have a plant in one! For real!!

Look there's my plant. Actually the poor thing has turned into Milo's salad bar. The peeping window got covered with cheap opaque contact paper I found at the dollar store. It works great and the only reason I know this is because I sent Sgt outside at various times of the day and night to stand in the back yard to check if he could see me peeing! He couldn't......or at least he said he couldn't!? He's a good sport! :)

Get out of my bathroom!


I also like using old boxes to hold things. Recently I received a bunch of old boxes from my cousin Sheri and they turned out to be the perfect size to be used in the bathroom! Thanks Sheri! I also have old boxes other places around the house too. Here's a great tutorial on how to make your own wooden boxes, if you're interested!
House of Smiths : DIY Vintage Crates

This is step one of my bathroom remodel. Down the road as time and money allows, we will be moving on to step two. If you've followed my blog for awhile, you probably have noticed by now that I never do a complete room renovation all at once. I like to go in stages. I do enough to make a space livable for my current standards/needs, make a to do list of what I also want to do with the room, and then do a little more when time and money permits.