Taking A Break

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know due to my hectic, crazy, stressful life right now, I've decided to give myself a break form my online life for awhile. I really need to spend some time taking care of me right now. I hope to be back some time in the Spring or perhaps Summer? Take care!

xoxo,
MaryDeluxe

Inspiration

Jennifer's Vintage Glam Loft. How did I miss this one?? I found this over on Apartment Therapy's sister site Re-Nest, which was posted last August. Wow!! It sure inspires me, how about you? Do you think it's to much stuff?? I don't! Looks cute, charming, and comfy to me. I also love the light from all those amazing windows! See, living vintage is living green....who knew we were all so hip and trendy all these years?

(Images: Therese Maring)

A Funeral

I hate funerals about as much as I hate weddings....A LOT! But I go to them out of respect for the person I know. Today, I went to a funeral to celebrate the life of my friendly neighbor who lived across the street from me. His wife called me last Friday to tell me he was sick with stage 4 cancer that had spread and would I come for a visit because he was feeling down that day. This was the first I had heard that he had cancer and I said I would try to be over to visit but it was a Birthday weekend and I had tons of plans. I didn't make it over that weekend and so planned to bake bread and make a stew to bring over on Tuesday. When I called after work on Tuesday to see if he was up for a visit, his wife told me that he had died that morning. I missed him. So, today I took a day off work, got dressed up and went to his funeral to celebrate his life. I couldn't have asked for a better neighbor. I even posted about "Harley" before in my blog and this is also the story I shared today with his friends and family.....

The first summer I lived here, I took down the front section of trellis. That's when I met my neighbor from across the street "Harley" I call him this because he's a Harley guy and has even taken me out for rides. Harley is in his 70's and tattooed all over...he even has a cute little butterfly on his neck which takes away from his scary persona...no man with a butterfly tattooed on his neck can be that bad! hahaha Harley and I have a great friendship, I borrow things from him like tools and he watches out for me like I'm his daughter. I can't get away with ANYTHING around here.

And this one too.....

The man who lives across the street from me is my favorite neighbor on the block. When I first moved in years ago, I brought the my Mom aka "the Blonde Bombshell" over to see my place. As we are standing on the front porch, "TBB" sees my neighbor looking out his front door and freaks out! She's yelling at me to open the door, open the door!!! When we get inside I ask her what the deal is and she said the neighbor guy was scary looking. I look out the window and of course he's gone. Later that summer I'm out on the front porch ripping down the wooden frame around it and got to met the "scary" neighbor. At this point I have to point out that as a 20 something, I have brought home boyfriends to met my Mom that were way scarier so I wasn't sure what the hell she was talking about??? My neighbor who'll I'll call "Harley" is a little out of the ordinary, (yes, they talk about him too! lol) He's in his 70's, wears a bandana do rag, has a full beard, and tattoos on his arms, legs, and neck ( a butterfly on his neck!!!! hehehe really scary!!!) But, he's my kinda guy as he will see me working outside and bring me tools to use, he also takes me for rides on his motorcycle... this past December when I hurt my back so bad he gave me a call the day after it happened. Apparently he noticed me not being able to get out of my car the day before and when the mailman delivered my mail that day he noticed my keys were still hanging in my front door!! So the mailman went to "Harley's" house to tell him what was up with my keys in my door. I can't get away with anything in this neighborhood! Sometimes it's a good thing that everybody's always up in everyone else's business.

This is very true, he knew about EVERYTHING that was going on in this neighborhood! I will miss seeing him wave at me this Spring from across the street but I'm glad I had the pleasure of knowing him. Rest in peace my buddy from across the street.

XOXO,
Betsy

Carved Hawaiian Tiki Shoes Deal of the Day II

I know some of you gals LOVE your wooden carved shoes from a "certain shoe company" out there and if you've been reading my blog for a long time you will know that I shared all about Crafts of Hawaii's website back in July of 2009 as my secret deal of the day! Crafts of Hawaii happens to sell on their website similar shoes to that other "shoe company" for much cheaper. That's way this is MaryDeluxe's secret deal of the day part II! Go check out the sale they are having on their Rockabilly Collection of Tiki Shoes and my, my, my what a deal!

A Birthday Weekend Bash!

Unlike so many people out there, I absolutely LOVE having a birthday! Flowers, cake, good food, family, presents, and another years worth of accomplishments! Birthdays are the best days ever in my book. Actually, I like to celebrate for the whole week and I also celebrate my half birthday in July. Yup, I love having a birthday!

Thursday: My Birthday!

The birthday flowers the Sgt sent me on my birthday. Notice the lemon in the vase...he says it's because one of the things he loves most about me is that I like to think positive about things...I make lemonade out of lemons!

Friday: A day off and dinner with the Sgt!

Sgt took me to my favorite restaurant too...John J Jeffries... organic, local food restaurant! These are the roses that Sgt had waiting for me at the restaurant table when we arrived. Sneaky stinker...I never realized they were mine until the server mentioned how much he liked my flowers...then I did a double take and noticed no one else had flowers at their table. Plus he made me a card and a pair of salsa eyes (an inside joke between us) ...yup the guy is romantic and crafty! Oh, he also gave me a charm bracelet that he plans on filling with charms when we share special occasions. *Swoon*

Saturday: More flowers and a yummy dinner with my Dad and Step-Mom!

Sunday: I'm tired by now, but we mustered up the strength for a brunch with my Mom and Step-Father!

Sgt and I also spent some time working on projects around DeluxeVille this weekend. It's nice to have strong fella around to move things for me! :-) It's weird to see a for sale sign swinging in the breeze in front of my house. Weird but exciting!

Hahahahaha...he makes me laugh so much.... reason #3,655 why I love this man!

MaryDeluxe had the Best Birthday Ever!
Thanks Family!
Thanks Sgt!
xoxo!

Where's Milo?

Just a picture post of all the crazy amounts of staging work I've been doing around here to get DeluxeVille ready for the real estate market. I found a great real estate agent who understands the vintage look ...and let me just tell you all, I have a great story to share about a really bad real estate agent encounter... but that will have to wait for another day! Onto pictures....how many times can you find my little beastie Milo??

Simple Living

I really must be honest and admit that I am becoming more and more interested in modern homesteading. But not in the "dancing around naked under a full moon while chanting to the Goddess Mother Earth" kinda way. That's just a little to cornball "hippy" for me. I mean the "growing your own food, saving money, wasting less, and being self-reliant" kind of way. If you've followed my blog for awhile you will know that I love to garden and the farming gene runs in my family on both sides. I remember having chickens, veggie gardens, home canning, raising steers for meat, and homemade clothing in my early childhood years. My Dad heated the house with a wood stove, he still does...it's just fancier now and called a pellet stove. Then something weird happened to society and people began to get materialistic....I'll just call it the 1980's. I've been noticing a lot lately that people have been returning to this frugal/green/homestead/sustainable "call it what you will" style of living again. I think mostly due to this awful recession that has collapsed our economy. I think the economy is beginning to get better out there, but even as it does, I think people will continue living more within their means and being frugal. Being frugal is trendy! I think people who live a vintage lifestyle are already frugal unless of course you're just into vintage cause you're trying to be cool. In that case, you're the kind of person who inflates the prices on things that a normal vintage lover knows isn't worth paying that much for. Eventually vintage will stop being trendy and you will move onto the next big thing. The next big thing will probably be gardening on fire escapes in urban areas while wearing big sombreros and talking pig Latin! Just remember you heard it here first!

Look what this family did in their urban neighborhood with the little bit of land they did have available to them. Very impressive! I could have done more with my little dirt patch here in DeluxeVille...oh well.



I look forward to seeing what the Sgt and I will be able to create out of the 1 acre of land at BachelorVille. I think we will start off by renaming BachelorVille as it will no longer be a place for a bachelor. Perhaps we will call it Green Acres or maybe MarriageVille?? We've been planning some Spring projects for our outside space which includes in no particular order...

• Earth Oven
• Expanding of the veggie garden space with raised beds
• Chicken Coop for chickens
• Fish pond

It's going to be a busy Summer and I'm sure more things will get added to this list as we go along. I think living simple is the direction that we will be choosing to go together. I would never be able to give up my modern conveniences like a cell phone or my computer, but I could definitely do without all the materialism and "new" things that society says we need to have in order to be happy. I could definitely get by with just the basics....roof over my head that I can get nesty in, basic food in my pantry that I don't have to spend a lot of money to get and can be used in a variety of ways, a small wardrobe with pieces that can be mixed and matched to create a bigger wardrobe, the unity and strength of my family whether it be a family of friends or blood, and a job that allows me enough money to be able to save and afford to live at the same time without sucking out my soul.

How have you been simplifying your life lately? Anyone else have ideas on how they plan to live more frugal, simple lives?

More info on the Durvaes Family at UrbanHomestead.org

Motivation

I know you guys have been waiting for another underwear post and since I've been behaving myself so well these last few months, I figure my Mother's heart could probably take the shock again, so here you go! Actually, the real reason I've taken some "look I'm in my underwear" pictures is to document my progress for a "biggest loser" competition I joined at work! Now I know some of you will say, "What?? Are you crazy, you look fine" and just so you all know, I think I look pretty swell, not bad for an almost 39 year old broad! Yes, seriously, I'm almost 39. I also think I've done a most excellent job at maintaining my weight loss all these years, (yes, I was overweight) but I really felt like I needed something to help me stay motivated and on a healthy track this winter. I don't know about you but this gal always gets a little blue in the Winter, eats more and exercises less. I think this is common for a lot of people in the colder climates, but this year, I really want to avoid the winter blahs and decided to join in the competition with some of my other co-workers.

My biggest goal for the competition is simply just to tone up more. I've always loved exercising but have never been a big fan of weights. I'm really going to focus more on making sure I get a weight workout in three times a week along with my cardio. I hit up the gym with the Sgt this past Sunday (which was a lot of fun) and he gave me a bunch of weight exercises to get me on my way to a toner me! Lucky me, I have my own personal trainer!

Some of my other personal goals for the competition include:

• take a daily vitamin
• stop drinking diet soda and drink more water
• track my daily food intake
• exercise 4-5 times a week
• Break outta the 120's....I feel good about the number 115!
  

I completely accept the fact that I won't be winning all the loot in the "biggest loser" competition at work.... there are some teacher who have a lot of weight to lose. They all look at me like I'm crazy! But that's okay cause I'm gonna impress them with my kick ass slow and steady pace! ; ) I also know that I have petite curves on a well proportioned hour glass body and never will be a stick skinny girl, which is absolutely fine by me. I think it's important to stay healthy and fit not only for yourself but also for your significant other in your life. When you're taking care of yourself, you tend to feel and look better and that makes your relationship better! I'm really happy that I get to share healthy eating and exercising with my significant other....I really don't know if I would have started dating Sgt if he was a fast food, beer chugging, sheet cake, dozen donuts eating kinda guy. But that's okay cause I know he wouldn't be with me if that's the kinda gal I was either!

My Stats: Recorded on January 22, 2011

My weight as of this morning is 122.4! I'm feeling quite excellent about this btw!
Height: 5'3"
Bust:35"
Waist:27"
Arm:11"
Hip:38"
Thigh:21.5"
Calf:14"

I also suffer with hypothyroidism and take synthroid daily to help manage my levels. I've been working really hard to keep after my thyroid. What a pain in the ass that little thyroid is and he can wreck havoc on your metabolism! Screw you thyroid, I'm losing another 10 lbs whether you like it or not!

Anyone else out there on a healthier you in the new year quest?? After all, bathing suit season and VLV is right around the corner....anyone care to join me in feeling the burn??

Cheers to a healthier me and a healthier you too!

xoxo,
MaryDeluxe