Moving In and Moving On

My time here in DeluxeVille is drawing to a close and I have but 4 1/2 short weeks until the BIG move happens. I of course have been packing my car and moving things each time I visit the Sgt, but the really BIG move will be taking place the end of May. That's when the moving truck will get packed up and ALL my things will be in the same place and all together again. YAY!! I can not tell you how excited I am about this. I'm a gal that loves to make her home a nest and living here and there and everywhere has just been a super pain in my butt.

As you can see, my things are beginning to take up space in the Sgt's garage. It sure was nice of the Sgt to move his guy toys around to make space for my crap. Every time I visit, my pile keeps getting bigger. Just so you know how sweet he is, Sgt even goes to auctions with me and lets me buy more crap to put in the garage! Now if that doesn't say love, I don't know what does? hahaha Wait till I start bringing it into the house and moving his crap into the garage! He sure will be surprised then won't he!? Just kidding Sgt *wink wink* Okay, maybe not about all your surfboards in the living room...they can go in the garage.... right??

Anyway, I did pick up a really cute kitchen table at a recent auction out in the boonies. Not a lot of people showed up so prices stayed relatively reasonable on things. I got the 50's kitchen table for $10, a very cool atomic pole lamp for $1, an old table I will probably use for a potting table for $1 and a neato Smith Corona turquoise 60's type writer for 50 cents. Which proves the point that there are still lots of sweet deals to be had out there....just keep looking!

The table top is in great condition but the legs need a little steel wool action.


A shabby but chic potting table.


Okay really, how could I not buy this for a $1! It works and it came with the light bulbs still in it. I mean come on, the light bulbs cost more than a $1 now a days!


The cute turquoise typewriter I dug out of the "nobody wanted it pile"!

Can I just add how happy it makes me to have finally found a guy who loves to go to auctions with me, has a truck that he actually uses for a truck, and lifts all my heavy things for me without me even having to ask! I've been looking for a bus like this for a long time! Riding all those wrong bus routes all those years sure does make me realize what a great bus I finally found. Thanks for picking me up Sgt and taking this crazy, vintage loving gal in the right direction!

xoxo,
~MaryDeluxe

Working vs Watching

Spring Planting


Working


Watching someone work


Watching someone work.


Working.

Happy Spring!



For my Mom....... Yup the rain barrel rocks...Thanks Mom!

Things From Local Auctions That Made Me Drool

Gathering old things together connects someone's past to your
future. When you collect you are a curator of lives.

I love the color and the amazing lines of this sofa! I can picture this sofa in a robins egg blue room.

With these lamps next to the sofa.


Mermaid lamps....every surfer girl should have a set of these!

I love old VW Bugs...I had one just like this in my early 20's! Thanks Dad!

Bunting lawn chairs....the best made lawn furniture.

A pair of 50's slipper chairs.

The Little Devil Grows Up

A Milo Post

Remember this guy?

Yup, all grown up!

Yes, he's huge and weighs in at a whopping 15lbs! He's still goofy though and enjoys expressing this side of himself in the middle of the night or early in the mornings with what we like to call..."Milo's Circus". He will often enlist the help of the other side show freak on the premises, "The Tailess Wander" in his antics. The circus side show scene often involves, high speed chases (similar to the movie Bullitt), bed bouncing, and the occasional toilet flush. As you might also guess, he's a Mama's boy, but will adamantly deny this fact with growling and hissing when ever I try to love up on him. His hissy pants ways have certainly not changed, but he often forgets himself at bed time when he demands nightly cuddle time on top of Mama! So, just in case you've been wondering....yes, the devil still wears stripes!

If you don't know the reference I made in regards to the high speed chase scene from the movie Bullitt, you can watch the clip below! Steve McQueen...1968...It's one for the car guys out there!

Plycraft Chair

I went off to an auction a few weeks ago and came across this chair pictured below. I know, you're thinking what I was thinking, Eames chair! But in reality it's a Plycraft chair. Plycraft??? I had no idea, so now of course, I had to discover what I can about Plycraft. Here is the 2003 obituary for Paul R Goldman the owner of the company. Oh by the way, the chair sold for $300 and even had the original Plycraft brochure with it. Do any of you own Plycraft furniture?

Paul R. Goldman
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Paul R. Goldman, 91, formerly of Andover, Mass., and president of Plycraft, Inc., in Lawrence, Mass., died Aug. 12, 2003, in Los Angeles.
Mr. Goldman graduated from the Boys Latin School in Boston, Brookline, Mass., High School, Class of 1931, and the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Economics, Class of 1935.

He married Sylvia Kravath of Dorchester, Mass., and Hull, Mass., in 1935. They were married close to 60 years before she died in March 1995.

The Goldmans moved to the Lawrence area in 1937 and resided at 8 Joyce Terrace in Andover from 1941 to 1994. Mr. Goldman bought the Joyce Castle Estate on North Main Street in Shawsheen Village in Andover and developed the Castle Heights neighborhood on that land.

Mr. Goldman started building his own sailboats and then went into the woodworking business in Lawrence. In his initial business, the Plywood Corp., Mr. Goldman developed Plytube, a molded plywood tubing. With this, he designed and manufactured Plytube products for the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean conflict, including masts for the signal corps and dummy aircraft decoys among other things. After the war, he started making molded plywood furniture and in 1953, started Plycraft, Inc., in Lawrence, making fiberglass-covered boats. He later went back to plywood-molded furniture and continued in that business until 1994, when he and his wife moved to Florida.

Mr. Goldman is considered "the father of plywood technology" and a pioneer in the furniture industry. He was described as one of the "Horatio Algers" of his time in a Newsweek Magazine article in November 1962. The same article noted the installation of his chairs at the Lincoln Center in New York City. Mr. Goldman designed his own machinery to mold plywood veneer into complex shapes, creating beautiful and very comfortable furniture. His first molded chair was made for Herman Miller, then he continued to manufacture all of his own designs.

Mr. Goldman designed thousands of tables and chairs during what is known as the "mid-century modern period". Several of his chairs, including the "Mr. Chair" and the "Cherner Chair", have become classics of this period and are now sold as valuable antiques of that area. Numerous articles have been published about Mr. Goldman. He has been noted in books about this period, and some of his chairs have been on exhibition in museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in Chicago. His most famous chair, "The Rockwell", was first produced in 1956 and is thus named as it appeared in a painting by the eminent artist, Norman Rockwell, on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in September 1961. Another famous chair, coined "The Swinger" because of its shape, has also become a classic. It continues to be recommended by various medical specialties because of its ability to raise the legs above the user's chest, truly the first real healthy ergonomic chair. Companies all over the world have copied this design. Both "The Rockwell" and variations of "The Swinger: are still manufactured in the U.S.

You might also want to check out this interesting article in Collector's weekly about furniture designer Kem Weber! Kem Weber the mid-century designer who paved the way for Ikea

One Happy Puppy

What does the Sgt and MaryDeluxe do on an overcast Sunday afternoon? Why we plant the vegetable garden and watch the puppy play. hahaha Nothing is better then a dizzy black lab to put a smile on your face! Silly Raven!

Deluxe-a-Fied Part II

Okay, first off, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed getting comments from you all with your thoughts and feelings in regards to something we all have in common....vintage! A lot of your comments gave me a good giggle and one or two gave me a good eye roll! One of the best things about having technology is that it allows us to connect with other people in regards to things we have a passion for. I started this blog a few years back to do just that, share my passion for vintage crap with others who get it too. I also wanted a place to share with my family the love letters between Fran and George. I never expect anyone to agree 100% with what I say or do in my life. I really don't care what others might think about the dribble I scribble out here on my keyboard. I do this whole thing just to amuse myself and as it turns out, I guess, I amuse other people too. How cool is that!

See how dedicated I am to blogging....any spare moment I get...A sunny Saturday afternoon...blog, blog, blog!

Pricing:
Yup, as I stated before and have been reading elsewhere on other people's blogs, vintage has gone way up in price. And just because I can remember and reminisce about my good ole days of finding $5 vintage dresses in goodwill does not mean anything other then, I'm older than you and have been around much longer. How do I know vintage has gone way up in price in this day and age is simple....I have to pay more for it myself at auction. In the last 5 years auction prices have sky rocketed on anything considered mid-century modern. So, if it's costing the dealer more to buy it at auction, they are going to charge you more to buy it from them. Even though I'm paying more for vintage mid-century items now than I did three years ago, I am still getting it cheaper at an auction then from a dealer. Also about dealers, I have no problem with what they do for a living. There are some really good dealers out there that know a lot about what they sell and price accordingly. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of bad dealers who make the vintage market not such a good place. I am not pointing fingers at anyone here one way or another because to be honest with you, I don't buy online. I hate buying online. There's lots of reasons for this. One reason is that I just happen to love the hunt, finding it online is just to easy and takes away my thrill. Another reason is, I really prefer to try my vintage on and examine it before I buy it. I prefer to support my local vintage clothing dealers when I'm looking for vintage clothes and I enjoy finding my own mid-century crap at auctions, cutting out the middle man so to speak. I pay a lot less to buy locally then I do on the internet. I also know that I am lucky because I live in such a rich area of the country for mid-century crap. Some of you have no choice but to buy over the internet and pay for it if you really want it.

I personally think you can still find good deals on vintage items. The deals are out there, you just need to look for them and be patient. If you have to have a certain type of vintage dress or shirt in a certain time frame, well then, you're probably going to have to pay money for it. But if you're in no hurry and just enjoy collecting vintage, then you are probably going to do better at finding deals. After all, I've been collecting for years just by being patient and waiting till I found things in the price range I wanted to pay. Trust me, as you've seen, I can still find it out there and I don't pay out the ass for it either...I refuse to.

Scenes:
I also wanted to point out that my post was not meant to be directed at any one person I know in my real life or my online life. It has been an observation that I have made over the years about people I would see out and about. I don't consider myself as being in a scene. I personally don't like scenes and would never want to stereotype myself that way. I find that people are way to complex to be stereotyped in one particular way or another. I like what I like and do what I do because I want to. It's that simple to me. I have always lived my life for me and not for other people. Do I get stereotyped into a certain group by people because of the things I like or the way I look...yes. Does it bother me. I will say no for the most part, but every now and again it does. It depends on the situation. Lets face it, EVERYBODY passes judgment on other people. We do it all the time whether you want to admit it or not and it gets done to each of us every single day. It's up to you how you let that judgment affect you.

I tend to have always judged people based on their actions versus the simple image that they try to convey. I try very hard to never judge a book by it's cover and stick to the more important facts of what someone says, how they act, and the way they treat others. If I find that I'm not agreeing with how someone else is conducting themselves, I just stay away from them. No drama and no talking behind their backs for me, I prefer to just keep doing my thing the way I want to. I can't stand being around people who do that shit either. If they are going to sit around and talk crap about someone else and try to start drama, trust me, as soon as you leave the room, they'll be talking crap about you too. Those aren't friends. I prefer to be friendly to everyone, but only be friends with a few. I take this same approach with blogging, if I don't like what I read, no biggie, I move on. I don't feel the need to leave a negative comment or a positive comment. I have never seen the point in leaving a negative rant on someone elses's post. It does nothing but cause drama and in the grand scheme of things....something must be very wrong in your life to leave a negative comment on a person's blog who you don't know in real life. Really, if it bothers you that much what some random stranger writes on the internet....well then, the internet police should take away your internet privileges and force you to go get a real life! Blogging is just another form of entertainment and should never be taken to seriously. If you don't like it, move on....it's so easy, it's called that little arrow at the top of your screen. Remember, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!

Here's what MaryDeluxe thinks about negative people....and Sgt taking her picture as she's blogging!

Why Vintage:
The real reason I got into vintage things so long ago is simply because I was poor. I had to furnish my apartment and myself but had little money to do so. As an artsy fartsy kid who loved to be different, vintage was just a natural fit. You could find it cheap at any Goodwill or Salvation Army. People thought I was weird and that fit in great with my artsy, rebel, little poor, punk ass self. I rocked my vintage dresses with my combat boots and converse all over the place! Like many of you out there did or some of you might still be doing! Go you!!! As I got older, I got less angry..hahaha..and more into just pure vintage. I hit up auctions and found things way cheap there too. Now, it's a different story of course. Yup, Madmen...I don't need to say anything about that do I. I've never watched Madmen. But anyway, I didn't start buying vintage things because I was trying to achieve some image for other people, I bought vintage because it was cheap and I liked it. I still do even though the prices have gone up. I love mid century vintage in particular....always have, always will!