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!