Waiting it out....

....that's what we're doing here in the western area of New Jersey as our poor coastline is taking a beating from the"Frankenstorm". We prepared the property yesterday for the approaching storm by fixing windows, patching roofs, bringing in wood, covering the wood pile, and cramming as much as possible into the two car garage.

 
Actually, these are normal things we do around here to prepare for Winter, we just had to start a little early this year. We ALWAYS lose power where we live...it could be a perfectly sunny day or perhaps just a passing thunder storm, and if a tree falls down in the right spot somewhere in a 10 mile vicinity, that's pretty much it for the power! We know we will be losing power eventually, we're just not sure when.

So, I've been spending my day making a big pot of veggie chili, making pizza dough for later, and in general prepping for when we lose our power. (the lights have been flickering as I write and I can hear the trees breaking outside my window, it's a creepy, scary sound) I think I'll make some corn muffins next, while I still have use of my oven, and also whip up some mashed potatoes....I love to eat my chili over mashed potatoes! How do you eat your chili?


No serious worries here, as I have a fire to keep me warm, a good book to read, lots of candles, and a big bottle of wine to calm my nerves! Lets all cross our fingers that when we wake up tomorrow, the rest of the Eastern Shoreline will still be here.

Stay safe East Coasters!

~MaryDeluxe

Blog Lovin': Save the Kales

A little over a year ago, I became a new resident of the Lehigh Valley and so I began a search online of blogs that might help me become more familiar with my new home. It's at that time, that I ran across the blog "Save the Kales",written by Jaime K, and have been a devoted reader ever since!

When I first began reading Jaime's blog, I enjoyed trying out her vegan recipes, reading about nifty local restaurants and quirky little shops.  My all time favorite STK recipe has to be her "SteelStacks Salad"!  You just can't go wrong with soba noodles and it's so simple to make!

STEELSTACKS SALAD RECIPE (from Save the Kales)

INGREDIENTS:

• cooked Soba Noodles (2 “bundles” from one package)
• 2-3 heads of broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1-2 cucumbers, peeled and cut into half-circle shapes
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and cut any shape you like!)
• 6-8 raw radishes, cut in circles

DRESSING and GARNISH:

• 1/3 cup soy sauce OR tamari OR Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
• 1/3 cup toasted sesame oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 or 2 cloves fresh grated garlic
• 2 Tbsp agave nectar
• toasted sesame seeds
• 1 bunch green onion, chopped 

Jaime has recently moved on to host her own local television show called, you guessed it, Save the Kales!  The shows are wonderful 30 minute episodes that showcase the community we live in, yummy vegan recipes that are so simple to make, and local people doing cool things!  I've had the pleasure of running into Jaime K,  quite by accident at a local book store, and was happy to discover that she's just as cute, and bubbly in person as she is on her show.  (After we left the store, I had to apologize to Sgt for trapping him in a "girl moment".)  

Where to find Jaime K and "Save the Kales":

Save the Kales

Facebook

Twitter
Pintrest

I look forward to reading more about her life adventures and hope you'll enjoy reading too!

~MaryDeluxe

Dorothy's Diary

 

 (Sis and Dot from Dorothy Diary website)

I've posted about the website Dorothy's Diary before here on DeluxeVille.  It's a wonderful website that documents the life of a teenage girl named Dorothy, from her own daily diary entries, in 1945 and 1946.   I love this site and discovered that Dorothy's son Dave has redone the website and it now includes scrapbooks and interesting facts about the time period and area Dot writes about!  Dot's sister "Sis" also adds comments to Dot's dairy writings.

If you love vintage pictures, the 1940's, and those bygone days, this is a must read website for you to check out.  If you've read Dot's diary in the past, go make a cup of tea and read it again!  Trust me, you won't step away from the computer until you finish it and you won't be sorry about wasting an hour or two doing so!

 

(Dot's friend Sunny....LOVE the hair!)

Also, don't forget to check out the epilogue to see what happened with Dot years later.  You might need a tissue, I know I did. 

Dorothy's Diary Links:

Dorothy's Diary

Dorothy's Diary Blogspot

Dorothy's Diary Facebook

Enjoy!

~MaryDeluxe

Repost: Feburary 10, 1941

Originally posted on DeluxeVille, January 10, 2010 

In 1941 my grandfather George lived on a farm with his brother Edward and 2 sisters Catherine and Dorthy( my sassy aunt Dot ). None of them were farmers so I'm not really sure why they decided to go in that direction. From the letters he writes to Frances, I believe he was trying his hand at chicken farming. Some where along the way this venture must have failed for him. When ever George refers to "the girls" in his letters, he is talking about Aunt Dot and Aunt Catherine.

Aunt Dot, George, Grt Grandmother, Grt Grandfather, Uncle Ed, Aunt Catherine

Sunday Night

Dear Fran:-

Just finished checking on the incubator for the last time and before going to bed, to toss and turn, thought this would be a pretty good time to dash off a few lines to my dear Fran, a swell girl.

This morning after coming home from church, and eating a quick breakfast, I dashed down to the incubator room to check up, as usual, and much to my surprise, there were a few chicks hatched out, so I guess it won't be long now, tomorrow is the 21st day, and I expect to be the proud father of 1500 chicks. I will bring you a cigar Saturday. That was one of the reasons why I left church so quick this morning, and I also knew if I did see you Fran, I would want a date, which I can't have now until Sat. the 15, only six more days, but each one like a week. I sure will enjoy seeing you again, and I'm hoping that works the other way.

When Mother came up from York today, she said that she expected to see Frances here, I think that she is getting anxious to meet you Fran, and I know that both Mother and Dad will like you as much as the rest of the family. Swell people at times.

The girls, also wanted to know when I am going to bring you to dinner. So we can get together and pick a date, for a Sunday if it's okay with you. I have lots to tell you, but I will keep it until Saturday when I'll see you about eight or a little after. I want to go to church first.

Goodnight and lots of
Love
George

The Bullet Planter

Sgt and I went to a really nice two day farm auction last weekend to see if we could snag some things for our shop.  Sgt and I make a good team, we both see things differently in terms of what we might buy for the shop.  I think this helps to give our booth an interesting eclectic mix of farm house country/mid century modern items.  So far, we've had no complaints!   There wasn't much mid-century items at this auction, but I was still happy, as it was full of other really neat things.  I did however spy this generic bullet planter and I made poor Sgt stay till the very end of the auction so I could snag it up for myself!  I've always wanted a bullet planter but have never run across one in my auction travels before and the ones I do see online, I could never afford.  But this one ended up mine for the outrageously high price of 10 bucks.

 

This afternoon, I decided to fill it up with dirt and put it to good use!  Good timing as I decided it was time to bring my plants in from the back porch before we get hit with our first frost.

 

And just in case you're wondering what the gruesome twosome was up to as I was digging in the dirt and moving plants around......they were just hanging out supervising! 

Now to find a safe place in the house to put the planter!

~MaryDeluxe

Pets

Chester sees a deer and learns self control and self discipline!  Or at least I like to think he's learning those important dog lessons!  The deer is that little brown blob in the center of the picture and we ran across her in a field on one of the farms we pass on our evening walk/runs.  He's a hound dog, so of course he wants to chase things!  I put him in a sit and we watched the deer watch us.  We eventually moved on and so did the deer. 

 

I however have no words for this next picture!  Ever have one of those long days at work only to walk in your front door and find your loving pets have been up to no good! The only thing I could do was document the situation for proof to show Sgt when he got home.  Goodbye down comforter!  Bad, bad chicken!

 ~MaryDeluxe

DeluxeVille Vintage

Here's an instagram peek at our shop located inside Harvest Star Antiques

 

   

 

 

   

   

 

I've got pictures from other great booth spaces to show you from Harvest Star, so stay tuned for more eye candy! If you're fairly local, it's definitely worth a road trip to check out all the goodies! 

The Stomach Bug

I'm at home today with a sick puppy who seems to have caught a stomach bug.  A few weekends ago our other puppy also had the same thing... vomiting and diarrhea.  That's not a good thing for a puppy who spends a day in a crate to have, so I volunteered to stay home to make sure we could avoid some unwanted accidents.   As the patient snoozes away on the bed with his faithful side kick, Lab-O-Potamus, I got busy pulling out some vintage dresses that I picked up when I went off to auction with SusieQT. 

 

 I still need to clean and mend the buttons on some of the dresses but otherwise they are in excellent condition.  The woman had a wide range of amazing clothes!  

 
A Cotton halter dress with a batik style print.
 
 

   
 A cotton dress with cutouts and tie back.

 
 
A taffeta house coat dress
   
Halter evening dress.  Any ideas what type of fabric this is?  It has a stiff/crisp feel to it and an iridescent quality.  I'm guessing it to be a fabric made with lurex.
 

As you can see, this lot added to my suitcase of vintage clothing from another auction this Summer, means I'm going to be busy cleaning, mending and ironing for awhile. But that's okay because October is motivation month and this is just another chapter to add to my book.

~MaryDeluxe

October the Month of Motivation

I've elected October as my month of motivation!  I have been a slacker in all things in regards to my life for months now and I think it's time for me to kick my own butt back into action.  Why do we lose our motivation?  Has my life gotten so busy?  Is that the excuse I should use to justify the lack of care I've been giving my life?  Perhaps I've just gotten bored with my life?  Or maybe I have been overwhelmed by all the life changes that have happened to me?  What ever it is that has been demotivating me, I think it's time to banish it and settle back down into my groove.  And by groove, I mean, getting back into finding the joy and inspiration on an everyday basis in my life!  No, I have not been reading tea bags again....I'm just hoping to rediscover myself and perhaps some new things about myself that I didn't know existed!  I think we all go through times in our lives when we lose touch with ourselves, for what ever reasons, for however long, and then we have a moment or perhaps moments when we realize for our own happiness, we must take the time to find ourselves again.  I decided October will be my month to start listening again to my inner me.

So where do I start?  Easy, the first thing I plan on doing is committing again to being a healthy me.  Not that I'm a complete slacker here, I just would be healthy for a month only to suffer some sort of set back and fall of the commitment wagon again.  This time I'm on the wagon and I plan on staying on the wagon come rocky road or smooth road! :)  I'm strapping myself to the wagon this time.  With a recent new gym membership, I have been re-motivated to get my butt back into shape and I'm super excited to take advantage of all the new possibilities of various fitness classes my new gym has.  The old gym had none and they also had really basic boring workout equipment.  When I get bored with my workout routine, I lose my motivation and fall off the fitness wagon!

 

At the new gym, I have rediscovered my old friend The Precor 100i and the original Nautilus StairMaster.   I have always enjoyed torturing myself in various ways on fitness equipment!  The first 15 minutes are hell but the last 5 are amazing!

October is the month where my inner journey begins again.  I am on the path to rediscover myself, explore new ideas, and create joy on a daily basis in my life.  Part of my plan is also to begin blogging more often and finding my creative spark again.  It's been a dim flicker for too long.  Here's to some interesting posts coming your way!

~MaryD