You can fool the fans - but not the players.... John Cage

The I-don't-have-a-home-to-stock swap meet blues - the Choo Choo

Living in limbo makes it hard to truly enjoy a swap meet. From plants to antiques to furniture, if you don't have any place to put the stuff what is the sense of buying it? And reeling as I am from our three storage unit reality I have no desire to add to what we already have sitting there. It is scarey enough to think about unpacking some day.

So the Choo Choo Swap Meet, while still worth going, did not hold the usual sense of adventure for me. T&B planned to get up early and get out, and I went with them just because we only have a swap meet here twice a year and really, who wants to miss that? It is a social event and an bi-annual must-do, practically a local holiday. It is a local holiday, as it is held in tandem with the Home Show, the MikroBierFest, and Taste of the Sierra.

Saturday dawned chilly and breezy, giving me a good excuse to wear the Arc'teryx jacket I had just spent too much money on but was glad I had. It took hours to warm up and I wore that jacket until we went to lunch. I felt sorry for the vendors who had to huddle around their piles of stuff waiting for us to buy and I guess hoping that it would warm up a bit.

 

This is the first thing that caught my eye. If I had a house this would have really been tempting, but the fur throw would have had to have been included. I wandered over close enough to sneak this photo but the image of all of our current furniture piled high in storage was enough to discourage further investigation. I'll just remember the potential.

 

This chair was a no-brainer Vasa chair. Right color, right vintage... but alas, no grass to put it on. No deck, no porch, no piece of dirt for it to call home. I did sit in it briefly, but then the $125 price tag catapaulted me out and on down the row.

 

There was a man who made outdoor sculptures out of all kinds of salvaged junk and they were so stinkin' cute. There were tall sunflowers made out of fan blades and daisies made from horsehoes... animals cut from salvaged car metal and other junk. I'm not usually drawn to "garden art" of this nature (gnomes, flamingos, etc) but I was tempted by these. Again, no need cause there's no garden! All my garden exists in pots right outside my door right now and it all has to be hauled to the resort and then back down in the fall. Pass.

So what did I buy?

 

Traveling stuff. I picked this sage green vintage suitcase up for $2 and can use it for storage this summer. These stack nicely and hold some functional value.

And this:

 

A great wire dishrack perfect for the trailer. And it fit into the suitcase!

Even though I didn't buy a whole heck of a lot, the Choo Choo is still so much fun for browsing, people watching, visiting with folks you haven't seen for awhile, and getting out to do something different.

I can't wait for October's Choo Choo!

Is the bloom off the Anthro rose?

If  you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know that I've had a love affair with the Anthropologie displays for some time. Whenever I visit a city with an Anthropologie store it is high on the "to-do" list to check out the windows and the store displays. The creativity has always inspired me and I love that most of the materials are ordinary, everyday items (like paper plates and fabric scraps) and that many displays are made up of salvaged or recycled items.

The last couple of visits to San Diego, though, have left me less than inspired. Okay, so maybe kind of inspired but not to the degree that I used to be. So what has happened? Has it simply run its course? Or is my opinion colored by the recent articles I've read about the Urban Outfitter / Anthropologie / Free People CEO Richard Hayne? Am I able to separate the design team and the whole aesthetic of Anthropologie from the man who runs the show?

 

And what the heck is this? Pantyhose?

Ugh.

I've also read a little more on the design "internships" offered for college credit and the criticism levied on that topic. You can read a recent Atlantic Wire article on the unpaid Visual Design Internships here.

 

How much should the company matter to me? I usually end up buying something on these design jaunts, so my money supports the current practices of the corporation. And it bothers me that the path to becoming a real part of the design team seems to be opaque. Do you have to start out as an unpaid, college-credit earning intern?

At the same time the color, design and inventive uses of materials still makes my blood race and more than any other store Anthropologie encourages a menthod and style of decorating that anyone with DIY leanings can emulate and be inspired by.

I don't think there's any danger of losing me and my camera phone as a visitor anytime soon, but these things have been on my mind this year and I've thought that I should seek out creative, independent shops that have creative design teams and tout them in my blog. Like Junkee in Reno.

And Monticello in Portland. Problem is, how often do I get to Portland?

This is where you, my dear readers, could be of help. Is there a great, independent shop in your town that embraces the art of display? Is there a designer that you know of that uses ordinary materials in extrordinary ways? Uses recycled, salvaged, or waste materials?

Send me your submissions - let's start a data base of great independent designers.

I'll continue to blog about Anthropologie but I'd like to start blogging about people and not so much tooting the horn of a big corporation.

And where do these designers go once they've completed their unpaid internship or their stint with Anthro?

The trumpets are sounding and the calvary is gathering: To the independents! To the solitary shopkeepers who toil away at displays without the benefit of unpaid help!

I'm glad that Anthropologie gives creative people a platform on which to perform their magic and inspire those of us who like to see unique displays. I don't want to lose that platform or not support it, but I think there is as much value in seeking out the indies and shining the spotlight on their work.

Please, feel free to post information on any local designer you know who is elevating the art of display in the comments. If we get enough I'll gather them all together and link them in a post.

Exploring a place through the dead

I thought long and hard about what to name this post and whether confessing that we love old cemeteries makes us weird. I decided it does not. I bet that a lot of people find the smallest of hints about a life, a family, a community make for a fascinating afternoon. There is so much to be learned by wandering around a cemetery and so much else to wonder.

 

We aren't big fans of modern cemeteries. You won't find us wandering around the one with the perfectly manicured plots. We like old. We like cemeteries that tell stories and hold the history of a place. We've poked around cemeteries in Leadville, Sierraville and most recently, Benton.

 

Although Benton's cemetery has gravestones dating as recently as 2009, there is a large part of it that is much older and obviously abandoned. The once ornate fences and headstones are falling down around the graves, the wood shows the ravages of time, wind and weather, and no one has visited them for a very long time.

 

Where are the families of these people? Has the entire clan passed on? Is there no one to tend to the memories of the dead?

 

These are the questions we ask each other as we wander around reading the headstones and trying to piece together the stories.

 

It is really beautiful in a melancholy sort of way.

 

There is an unwritten code of ethics in an old graveyard - no one takes anything from it but photos and memories - so the beautifully carved fenceposts and gates and marble are all still laying where they fell.

 

We visited this cemetery in the late afternoon on a sunny winter day and the light was so great, the air so clear and crisp, the wind brisk - it was easy to imagine how harsh yet beautiful life was in Benton years ago.

 

And at one time someone went to a lot of effort to enclose these plots.

 

 

 

But now, nothing but decay.

 

It was just so beautiful to me. I couldn't stop snapping photos from all angles - careful all the while of where I was stepping so as to not to disrespect the dead.

 

All of us end up here and who knows how long a family survives... we have fewer and fewer children to live on after us. And I'm sure a place that seems so wonderful to us might seem like godforsaken nowhere to a descendant. So they move away and the memories of the ones who've passed fade away until the only ones visiting the graves are the curious. Like us.

Human nature's amazing optimism

Yesterday was not a great day for me - truly a Monday. A blue Monday. We got through it, thankfully, but it wasn't a day I'd like to repeat. Thank goodness for animals and animal-related chores that force a person outside and into activity. And outside ones head.

 

I believe the nature of humans is optimistic. Here we've been struggling along in this rotten economy for years now and still we think that any minute it will turn around. Next year will be different. And sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't, but we're still going to think that year after year. It keeps us going and it gives us the energy to plan and dream for that next "thing" - whether it is a new business venture or the one we already have taking off like a rocket.

 

I sometimes get discouraged in my studio when I can't make the things in my head manifest through my hands but I remind myself over and over that it takes doing it 5,000 times in order to get it right. There's going to be a lot of junk along the way. I need my optimism to kick in so that I keep going down to the studio and working.

 

We're going through a bit of a scary time with the economy just beginning to climb out of the tank and big changes for me in terms of work and income. Throwing your eggs into the basket of entrepreneurship isn't the most calming of moves. Optimism is what keeps us moving forward - along with faith in ourselves and each other, and oh, yes - a bit of stubbornness.

 

This is it - this is the life we have and we are midway through it. No use looking back and wondering about the choices we made. There is only moving forward. And some days, some Mondays, it is just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other and getting through it.

A lull in the vintage....

Not too much vintage has been coming my way lately.... course my mind has been on other things and there hasn't been anything in particular I've been looking for. Still want a pie safe / buffet but that's out of reach at the moment so I haven't even been looking. Reclaimed wood floors are high on my wish list but again, out of reach for now. I ended up buying a whole case of new quart size canning jars to finish my snowglobes and to use as vases after several fruitless forays into the thrift stores. Just not too much out there right now or maybe just not too much within my budget.

One exception is this fabulous metal chair that a friend just gave us. I saw it in her yard and commented on how cool the frame was - and she told us to take it away, no one really ever sat in it. And it is functional... I can make cushions for this and we can use it at the resort or here at the house... but what I really like about it is the frame and the distressed, faded paint. It is a sculpture!

I've decided to list some of my vintage treasures in my etsy shop. I've had some of these things for years and haven't found a place or a use for them so they may have to go.

Like these beautiful Charles Jourdan shoes. This isn't the greatest photo but these have little leather pom poms on the toes, the famous red sole, and are still in great shape. They are just a little too small and require a more delicate foot to show them off.

 

I always thought there would be a way to display them but until I get that big walk-in closet with the excellent lighting and the 360 mirror (ha!) they just languish in a box in our dark, crowded closet. Someone else should enjoy them.

And this sweet little bag:

Made in the USA with a resin handle... crocheted body and satin lining. Again.. I have not displayed or used this since I bought it at the Choo Choo swap meet a couple of years ago. Time for it to go to a loving home.

I really like vintage but I don't want to be surrounded by things I don't use anymore. It keeps things moving through the house - these days I take almost as much into the thrift stores as I take out. I'm no longer hesitant to discard - my experience is that there is an endless supply of secondhand stuff as people's taste changes, we acquire new or "better" stuff, or we go on cleaning binges. Our house looks less cluttered but what we do have we love (for the most part - we are still itching to get rid of our current sofa and find a leather one).

I don't think I'll ever stop cruising the flea markets, swap meets, yard sales and thrift stores... you never know what you'll find.

Gettin' down to the wire with the wedding planning

Just over two months to go and so much to do... that is how we roll. JC has transitioned from resort mode to home mode and is now tackling his wedding assignments with gusto. I continue to plug away at the wedding crafts. This week it feels like I am making progress although I'm not sure I'm getting things done fast enough.

 

I managed to finish stamping the back sides of the linen sachet pieces last night with the date and now I can package up the linen and the lavender and ship it off to Southern Charm, who will work her magic with the raw materials and create something absolutely lovely to give our guests. I love the look of the stamps on the linen and next time I'm at Mill Ends Fabric I'm buying more of this linen. The color is beautiful and the fabric has a fabulous hand.

 

Today I'll epoxy this together, the third of this series of cupcake servers I'm making out of vintage and thrift store platters and plates. I've run into a shortage of plates large enough for the bottom (don't want to be skimpy) and picked up that white square one yesterday at a thrift store. I may have to throw down some cash at our local collectables shop in order to get things done as time continues to tick away... especially if I go the bouquet route I'm now thinking of. More on that later.

 

I managed to put together two more Alabama Chanin flowers last night during 'Gray's Anatomy' and with the three I have ready to assemble it brings my total to seventeen. How many months have I been making these?

 

And now I'm thinking that I might want to make a brooch bouquet. Am I crazy? The bouquet has been a sticking point for me since we don't live where it is easy to get a good variety of fresh flowers in the middle of winter, I'm not crazy about most of the ones I see anyway, and well, I'm still thinking about it. But this is an option.

 

I pulled these images off Google wedding sites and don't have credits for who made them - so if you see this and these are your creations, contact me and I'll be happy to give credit where credit is due. I just wanted some ideas. People make and sell these on etsy, and some florists make them, but of course I would make my own. There are numerous tutorials out there in internet land.

 

All of these are so gorgeous. And would make a beautiful keepsake or provide plenty of material for future jewelry projects.

 

And one more, my favorite because it would match our colors....

 

Beautiful.

Well, gotta run... we are printing invitations today. Yay for printmaking!

Making choices, choosing time and back to projects

It is good to know I'll be home for awhile. Last night I was in the studio, putting things away from Art & Soul, cutting and bending brass for another round of bezels, and really truely enjoying it. Staying up too late. Planning. Making. Listening to music.

I'm to assessing projects and wedding plans since there is no time to waste now. There is more time to work on things, so if I don't squander it away on the computer I should be able to spend time each day working on a project or two. These are the acorn caps collected along the way home. I've see the cutest little ornaments made with felt balls and these caps - so I'm going to make some this year before Christmas. Easy - peasy, just gluing the felt balls into the caps and adding a bit of ribbon. Here is one tutorial.

Note the Copenhagen tins too - those will be recycled into something jewelry related.

See? Little tan caps and larger, yellow caps that turn dark when they dry. And a couple of bits of moss. All things we don't have on the east side.

 

This huge bag of lavender is from my amazing mom II. She grew, cut, and dried this and then carted it all the way from Washington to contribute it to the wedding stock. Since the color has faded but the lavender scent is still there, and since so much of the lavender is in the bottom of this bag, that what I'll use this for is filling for the sachets Southern Charm and I are making to give as favors.

 

Which was the reason I was up too late two nights ago on ebay browing through pages of linen and then, oh yes, French textiles. Thankfully I did not bid on anything - simply filled up my watch list - and in the morning it hit me, "What was I thinking? Buy pricey french linen to cut up for sachets that will live in an underwear drawer?" Sorry, guests, I'm going to Mill Ends for the fabric.

 

Now these, these also came all the way from Mom II's place. These, however, have maintained their color and will be used for some arrangement at the wedding. Aren't they gorgeous? And sturdy, as they went from Washington to San Diego, then up to the resort and back down and around the the Owens Valley. Well-traveled hydrangeas.

 

The colors are perfect, a range of gray-blues.

 

A couple of months ago, JC and I were in southern California for a wedding and we spent a morning at the swap meet. For $10 this rusty chandelier frame and a bunch of rusty crystals came home with us. At last there was time to pull it out and start looking at the pieces. I removed the old light fixture and tried this single bulb fixture from the hardware store - and it fit!

 

The crystals were put into a solution of white vinegar and water and soaked for awhile, then I came back with a nail brush and scrubbed them one by one.

 

Ta-da! It worked! Just a hint of reddish-brown on some of them.

 

It is ready to be reassembled and hung somewhere.

 

Rust + shiny sparkly....

 

Can you go wrong?

This is a glorious time of year for projects, for being outside with dogs and horses, and for being thankful for a wonderful life, an incredible man, and no end of satisfying work of all kind - paid, not paid, in the studio, on the computer, on the end of a manure rake.

"All things are coming".

Monticello marketplace - Antiques, collectables, eye-candy

Of COURSE we went back to Monticello! After finding it last year we were not going to leave Portland without another visit. And miss all that inspiration? And who knows what we might find - even though flying ruled out any large purchases of pie-safes and the like.

We remembered the great Halloween assemblages from last years...

 

And even though I don't go to this kind of trouble at home I did put up orange and black decorations last year thanks to the inspiration of Monticello.

Oh, and Halloween is right around the corner. Along with Day of the Dead.

 

There is so much to look at and the vendors must be chosen at least in part for their ability to put together a pleasing display. Now I have to bling up a lock.

 

The people who work at Monticello are very nice and for the most part let you wander around in peace. If they see you with your arms full they will ask if you'd like to have your future purchases put up front - they tag them with your name in a little (or big) cubby and then you are free to handle and collect even more.

 

I could go through here and choose a room for each room in my house although I bet JC would start to protest over the abundance of silver and white after awhile. There aren't many kitchen displays so I could still keep the kitchen at home bold as well as the office.

 

Plenty of rust, plenty of burlap and linen, plenty of sparkle.

 

And these are not the same displays as last year - so there is constant revival of the spaces. Last year our favorite display, the outdoor room made from old doors, was no where in sight this year. It might make another appearance, but I bet it will look completely different than the first time around.

 

 

I think of this as Anthropologie, unplugged. And I'm discovering more and more of these remarkable places that I can visit for design inspiration and to buy things that fit my style and vision.

 

This is my dream bedroom. Wood floors, antiques galore, piles of white and off-white linens. Of course, I have dogs and a cat so this wouldn't work for us... but I can dream!

 

And this one, for the grandkids we don't have yet.

 

And this chair for my studio....

I bought a few things as did Southern Charm, and then we had lunch. Did I mention they have a cafe? With wifi? And books and magazines? This is a smart idea, folks. And as we made our way back to the front of the store after lunch, Southern Charm spied this and there was no need to even think about it - the Tonka Farms horse trailer was mine.

 

Absolutely the crowning touch to the morning!

Next time you are in Portland I recommend finding Monticello if you have even the slightest interest in antiques and collectables. Or just need a design fix.

Mixer Love

It sort of snuck up on me but I now have a collection of vintage mixers. I just inherited one from my grandmother and as I cleaned it up and thought about where to put it I realized that there are probably enough of these mixers in my kitchen to qualify as a collection. My workhorse mixer is a KitchenAid but even that is vintage - the newer one lives at the resort.

 

This is the latest addition and it is a beauty - love the red. These old mixers were so sturdy - made of steel and aluminum with few frills - really very little to break which is why most of them are still serviceable today. Most of the time the bowls that came with them are gone, broken a long time ago, and sometimes it turns out the beaters aren't the right ones. But I think every one of these mixers still works.

They aren't built like this anymore. Now they are cheap, lightweight plastic and practically disposable.

 

These were manufactured to pass down from mother to daughter and they were made to make possible the baking of many, many cakes. Nowadays how many people actually bake cakes for birthdays and such? I know people who do, and do it well, but I also know a lot of people who just run out to the closest market for a cake. I'm guilty of it myself. Probably because I just don't know how to decorate them.

 

We'll never see mixers like this made in the United States again - the time for those manufacturing plants is done and gone. We live in such a different time now. So maybe part of the collecting of these is a nostalgia for a time I skirted but never really knew.

 

I can't remember the first one I bought or why I bought it but I think these stand mixers just have such great lines. They seem influenced by airplanes or something. This one I think I got at a yard sale and it came complete with the two white glass bowls. It is a Hamilton Beach and in great shape; I don't think it was heavily used by its owner. I believe this one works but doesn't have the right beaters.

 

I like to think about the kitchens these lived in - like my grandma's kitchen. Functional, workhorse kitchens. My grandmother cooked and baked food all the time. Every day. Practically three times a day, except that she worked part-time at the local drive-in in the small town in Oklahoma that she lived in and sometimes we ate lunch there.

 

Here's another one - again, with that rounded, aerodynamic look to it. I haven't purchased a mixer since the darling little blue Mixette - but the collection is still growing. I'm going to run out of room soon and then what? Will the vintage blenders have to go to make room for the mixers? Will we have to find a bigger house? Or will I find a way to display them at the resort - perhaps along the walls of the cafe?

 

Many of these were made to be both a stand mixer and a hand mixer, but hand mixers were also produced during this era. I'd have to say that most of these came out of the 50s but I've never really gone to the trouble of dating them.... any ideas out there?

 

I use this little mixer all the time for beating egg whites. It works like a charm, it just doesn't have a lot of power and will bog down easily. I use it but I don't want to burn it up cause then it becomes just a decoration. Part of the attraction of all of these mixers is that each and every one of them still works. Could still play a role in baking a cake.

 

And here is the beloved Mixette. Such a perfect shade of baby blue. Who wouldn't love one of these? This one I bought at a local collectables shop - and it has the wrong beaters too, so even though it works I can't use it. Someday I'll find the right beaters or maybe not - maybe it will always just be something the right shade of blue.