Look What I Found!

Fabrics

2011-06-12T16:27:00.005+02:00

Seeing my work and helping me to sell at the markets has finally inspired my friend and co-worker Natasja to get creative too. Actually being trained as a seamstress fabric seemed the most logic choice for her, except after graduating she hated clothes sewing so badly she has only worked in administration since. But now she has found joy and satisfaction in making tiny flower projects and other small things.

These bobby pins are some of her first try-outs. Not by her own design yet but that may come sooner or later too. Instead of going on spending tons of money in fabric shops I told her to wait for what might come out of my vast number of boxes with all sorts of materials.

First offer was the cut out back side of a silk blouse that a lady had just given to me. Here’s the resulting brooch with a vintage button of Natasja’s grandmother. I love that shine!

Going through my stock I found things I had forgotten I have or where they come from. Leftovers from mum or giveaways from friends, I don't know, but this selection here I’m sure I actually took straight from the curbs. Another good rescue that will soon find its way to the loving hands of a newfound creationista.

Grape Hyacinths

2011-04-04T14:24:00.000+02:00

More bulbs from the curbs! I found this pot with soil and planted bulbs that had finished flowering last fall and just left it in a corner of the yard.

When some green sprouts started to come up I thinned them out a bit and planted some over in another pot. I was very pleased when they started budding a month ago and recognized grape hyacints.

In the large pots some leftovers from my sea of rescued tulips from two years ago, already budding too.

My Laptop Cover

2011-03-25T17:29:00.000+01:00

Castaway t-shirts come in trash bags full from the curbs. Either lightly stained or faded, once cut into t-yarn that makes no difference. But often there’s nothing wrong with them at all.

I use the yarn to make potholders, small bags or pouches and even wrist bands. My attempt to make a larger bag ended up in a drawer because I made it to wide and it turned out too heavy to properly fit handles or a shoulder sling on it.

Then I found use for it when I needed protection for my work laptop. As I bring it to the office in a bag that hangs from my bike’s luggage carrier a trolley is useless for me and the shoulder bag that came with the laptop is too large to fit in the bicycle bag.

Though a bit too wide on the sides the height is just fine. T-yarn products are very durable. I’ve used my laptop cover for almost a year now and it shows no signs of wear yet.

If you want to make one of your own all you have to do is make a swatch and crochet around a chain in the number of stitches you’ve calculated. I used double crochet for this project and you will need roughly two large t-shirts.

If you want to find more information and tutorials about bag making with t-yarn or plarn take a look at RecycleCindy’s blog.

Fitting the zipper in my bag was a hassle and it’s also after this project that I developed my trick to make it easier. Read about that in this old post.

That Old Jug

2011-02-20T17:15:00.002+01:00

I already showed this item in my post about ceramics in 2008. So far hadn’t found use for it. Recently I saw the young cook in a trendy food show on tv had his wooden spoons organized in this way. I thought that was quite nice and copied the idea. Besides this gives some space in my drawer.

The matching onion bowl in fact is a handmade strainer (looks kind of tribal), but it is cracked and glued together so I gave it another destination. Also the cute piggy shaped cutting board and the handy foldable dish rack (came unused) are finds from the trash.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-02T18:32:00.004+01:00

Recently I found a thicker than usual synthetic comforter, or duvet for UK readers, just across the street (including a pretty set of covers!). As it’s an extra (I’ve found a pile already) and doesn’t fit in my washer (the standard ones usually do) I gave it to the cats for the time being until I find time or a reason to bring it to a shop. It’s in perfect condition and unstained though.

Oscar and Cézar were overjoyed when I showed it to them look here how happily they are sleeping on it!

Aren’t they cute? I wish my own two brothers were like these two. I have to admit due to an ongoing conflict between them my year’s end wasn’t so great. This also is why I still haven’t been updating this blog for a while, just too much stuff going on in my head. All the more I realize how important warmth and affection from your own blood or those you consider as close as that are.

So here and today I want to wish my readers lots of that for 2011, and – instead of buying useless new presents – just give that back as well! For me a compliment, a hug or a word of understanding from them means more than anything money could buy.

My New Coffee Table

2010-10-22T13:46:00.000+02:00

I found this small round table a few weeks ago in front of my own door. Just perfect to use as a new coffee table, since so far I had to make do with a very tiny end table (equally curb found).

Though it’s not in perfect condition a paint job will make it look good enough for me. There are paint stains on it which I’ve hidden under my coasters for the picture. If you like those there’s still a set for sale in my shop.

I love the bottom board. Great for putting mess out of the way.

Here are the repairs done by a previous owner. Don’t you just love that?

A Late Fifties Mirror Set

2010-09-07T07:54:00.002+02:00

I found this mirror set about a year ago at only fifty yards from my apartment, at the corner of our block. I date it late fifties early sixties. The shape of the triptych mirror panels is still quite romantic, but the formica covered tablet with its plastic gold coloured lining definitely taste early modernism. Then the back support of the mirrors and the mini compartment below are solid wood. Only the knob of the flap is modern again. It’s a wonderful mixture of two style ages and I did not have to ask myself twice if I wanted to take this piece home!

What it was designed for is I think a mini dressing table for a tiny bedroom (so common still these days in my town, Amsterdam) or a as a hallway piece for a quick check up of the face and hair. The tiny compartment could have held a comb and brush, powder box and lipstick placed on the tablet. Which would have been handy to lay a pair of gloves on as wall.

I would have loved to keep it but the problem is I have a fairly roomy bathroom with a wash stand and a wide mirror with a tablet over it. And in my bedroom I already have a pretty large circle shaped triptych mirror. Then my hallway is so narrow I feared my tall BF or visitors would have bumped into the set constantly. So…

After having used the piece to photograph my felted make-up bowls on I decided to take it to the craft fairs as a display. Threatening to get sold of course. Not the first time, but that was in June when sales were low anyway. But last Sunday within a few hours one lady already inquired if it was for sale. She told me it was for a baby bedroom, an idea I didn’t like too much so I held her off saying she could pick it up at the end of the day. I didn’t really expect her back so when later a young woman was totally in love with the mirror I sold it to her immediately at the same price I had asked the first lady, 15 Euros. With the fading silver, hang-up hooks removed and rusty hinges I thought that was a fair price for a still quite unique piece. Not bad for rescued trash, isn’t it?

Polyfill

2010-08-02T12:11:00.000+02:00

Hey all, I’m back! Sorry it took so long to write again, but I needed to reorganize and have some time away from the computer. Now let’s just pick up where I left things in May.

Just as I sacrificed another silly toy to get new polyfill for my piggies…

I found this. Looks like one amigurumi or pillow maker gave up her hobby, but placed the bag of filler neatly beside the underground bin instead of dumping it inside probably hoping someone would pick it up.

Cotton Yarn

2010-05-17T17:20:00.003+02:00

Here is a picture to show you the amount of yarn you get out of just one garment and this is not all because I’ve created a number of things with it already.

This once was a cotton hooded vest and of course I kept the zipper as well. Only the hood had serged seams and was therefore useless. Always remember to check those seams when you go thrift shopping for sweaters to unravel!

Pure cotton knits are not so easy to find so I’m always very happy when I do. The material is extremely versatile and on top I can stencil on it.

Too bad however I didn’t see any cool potholder or cell phone cozy coming from this baby pink. Though it seemed great for face scrubbies after a pile of 20 or so I got fed up of making them and I’m not into baby stuff either. When nothing else came to the question ‘what is cool in pink?’ I simplified that to ‘what is pink?’. First thing that came up was pigs.

Ah well, why not? Amigurumi isn’t my first love but I had fun designing the little creature and in the process developed a few tricks to make the putting together of the parts easier. Dutch readers will find those soon here on my Dutch blog Gevonden Voorwerpen.

Does this make you feel greedy? Piggy is not for sale on Etsy yet because I made him for the markets gambling on huge success. Well, at least the BF already snatched my test model to keep for himself while I still had it placed on my worktable as a reference. I take it that’s a good sign.

Gearing Up For The Craft Fairs Again

2010-05-15T16:05:00.005+02:00

Booked for two craft fairs in June market season is starting again for me. Time to dig up my gear.

A cashbox was something I had long wished for, and was surprised last September the curbs provided me with one. It shows patience does pay off.

To wrap my larger items prettily and practically I have these carrier boxes with simply my own ‘card’ (it’s a piece cut out of my old flyer) stuck over the original shop’s logo to personalize them. Some are used and some are brand new.

I also have shiny sacks from cosmetic stores and such.

And of course for the smaller and cheaper stuff I still have some of my lunch bags and my homemade sacks.

Now help me hope for sales so these goods will all be put to use before they finally will be trashed once more, but hopefully end up in the recycling plant.

For Dutch readers you will find me here: http://www.craftymarkt.nl/ on June 5th

and here: http://www.sundaymarket.nl/ on June 6th.

PS: Sorry about the slightly changed layout, but Blogger has a new publisher and somehow I can't get the pictures positioned on the left without this space they get now. If I try that the text gets wrapped around and that would look even more different.

The Teapot Handle

2010-04-19T10:47:00.005+02:00

Found a broken teapot and removed the handle that was still in mint condition.

Replaced it on my cute little Chinese pot that was desperately waiting for a new one.

Voilà, easy fix!

New Yarn Stash

2010-04-13T00:26:00.004+02:00

Take a look at my new yarn stash. These four handcrafted trashed garments will at least last me through summer, as I have enough leftovers in my drawers and some older curb finds yet to unravel.

For the moment I'm still busy finishing up my vintage wool making felted baskets and bowls.

My Rain Barrel

2010-03-14T16:00:00.006+01:00

Over at Reduce Footprints the weekly challenge to change the world is saving water. Of course we all know we should take short showers and keep that bucket underneath to collect some water for cleaning, flushing the toilet etc. Use a wash-bowl for our dishes and throw the saved drain water in the toilet bucket. And don’t let that tap running while brushing our teeth. I’m looking forward to see what the other contributors of the challenge have added to that.

Results and the new challenge are published every Wednesday. I hope you will join the club too. You don’t necessarily have to dedicate a post to the subject, you can submit an older post that meets the criteria as well or just send in a comment.

For me rainwater is an important alternative for the tap and not only for watering my plants, both indoors and outdoors.

So I’m taking the opportunity to show the rescued barrel I use to collect it. Actually it’s not really a curb find, but it was left behind in the yard of that temporary apartment we lived in three years ago. Probably the large plastic container has been used in the world of food production or dining and the little tap is very handy for filling my watering cans.

To be able to use it I had to raise the barrel and found the cast iron understructure of a castaway coffee table perfect for that.

This large watering can came in mint condition from the street as well as several smaller ones I use indoors.

No Cézar, that’s not good drinking water. You better drink from the fresher rainwater in one of the smaller pots that stand around in the yard. By the way if you were wondering how kitty is doing since last time: all his upper teeth and a wart in his face were successfully removed last Monday. Clearly the pain in his mouth is gone and now he loves to go outside again. So we’re all very happy despite the costs. But if you know how to help a blogger earn some cash (if not read my last post) I’d appreciate that very much. Thanks, it’s desperately needed!

Toy Trucks

2010-02-26T19:04:00.008+01:00

These simple wooden toys were made by hand in a learning workshop. That’s what the sticker underneath tells me. They look quite used, so one little boy probably must have loved to play a lot with them. Yet then his parents threw them out heartlessly when he grew too old for them.

As always it is beyond my understanding. Despite the scratches and dents in the wood they are not broken and I found them ready to use for another child on the curb. Such an honest, safe, non-chemical and plastic free toy can only be found in specialized shops these days and probably at a price. Now mine may be a bit rougher than those professionally made but still I couldn’t leave them to go to waste. They waited a couple of years in my storage because I didn’t know anybody with little boys at the time.

Recently I met a lady – my current crochet student - who does have one and on top works with the 4-6 year old group in a school. After last week’s session I sent her home with some rescued children’s books I suddenly remembered my two wooden trucks. And was reminded again this morning when I had to dig up the cat carrier for a visit to the vet’s with one of my furry ones.

Suzanne was very pleased with her welcoming present this afternoon. And if her son outgrows the trucks she can donate them to her school’s toy corner where they will probably last for many years to come.

I do believe my student is getting more than her worth’s money for her class and I hope she thinks so too, but I like it and I can’t think of a more rewarding destination for my toy rescues.

It made me feel very happy today, despite the bad news that my cat is going to have to undergo very costly surgery which I can barely afford.

But perhaps you could consider to see if one of my sponsors is worth visiting for you. Or otherwise take a look if there's something in my Etsy shop that you like? Thanks in advance!

The BF's Easy Chair

2010-02-05T18:15:00.007+01:00

Meet our good friend Ed once more, here comfortably seated in our visitor’s faux suede easy chair in the BF’s apartment. We found it right in front of our door in mint condition without even the tiniest speck on it. There was one more plus the matching couch, be we didn’t have place for more and of course we were not going to replace our fantastic Alberto Nieri couch.

That pretty glass Ed is drinking his beer from came in a set of four still in the box. Though the leafy decoration seems a bit unfit they just happen to be the same form and size you can get your beer in in bars around here, so that’s what we use them for.

I didn’t check but I’m sure before the morning someone took the other chair and the couch. I only feel a little bit guilty about not leaving them the complete set, but we really had one very ugly used up armchair to replace.

Now I can’t help but also show Ed cuddling Pepe. I’m not so sure if Pepe is feeling as happy as Ed obviously does, but that cat is such a darling, he just lets it happen. And that chair of course is his favourite sleeping place when there are no visitors.

Note the table was a throw-out from the gym behind our house. It was in mint condition as well, only the BF made scratches on it and wound the rope (all from thrown-out cat playing furniture) around the leg for the entertainment of his furry baby.

At the end of a nice evening, finding out Ed has an interest in the Nordic countries, we sent him home with a beautiful picture book with Icelandic sceneries that I found together with some cooking books that I already sold.

Freeform Seventies Crochet

2010-01-22T19:06:00.004+01:00

If you crochet, have you ever tried this style? Or, if you were a kid or teenager in the Seventies perhaps the teacher forced it on you in craft class…

I don’t often find craft books in the trash so my first reaction was ‘how cool’ when the BF spotted it on a heap and handed it to me one night. But it was not for me. Even though I don’t often use patterns I’m a neat stitch counter.

As even the basic instructions taught me nothing new I decided to see if I could list it in my online bookshop. To my surprise it's EAN/ISBN was recognized by the hosting site and the book was ordered a couple of months later. Though I can’t imagine anybody would want to have it, the buyer must have been specifically looking for it. Hope she’s happy. It turned out to be one good rescue after all.

Now I only regret I didn’t scan more pages. This scarf here was really one of the ‘prettier’ designs!

My Enrico Benetti Bag

2010-01-11T14:44:00.006+01:00

Last week I had my face professionally photographed for a short interview I had with a women’s magazine (Vriendin). What about? About this here funny hobby of mine! Where this eclectic way of recycling eventually can lead to…

As both the make-up artist and photographer’s assistant’s mouths fell open when I told them the handbag I was carrying came from the trash as well I thought it might be a nice item to show.

As you may have read before most bags I find are just good for the zippers and other parts that I upcycle. So this fine genuine leather Enrico Benetti in mint condition was a rare and lucky find.

It’s only a bit out of fashion, but actually I’m not a fan of the current style of bags. I find them puffy and overly ornamented with buckles and straps that seem to have no function at all.

The straight and functional design of my find suits me well.

Tea Pots And Tea Cozies

2010-01-03T15:40:00.010+01:00

Sorry I haven’t written a New Year’s post, but it’s not too late though to wish all my readers a happy, healthy, green and crafty 2010!

The thing is late December I got an invitation from a real gallery to exhibit my tea cozies in February. So the year is starting off good, but I’ve been working like crazy to finish off the one new model I had begun to work on since a long time.

With my cutest model ‘Pagoda’ (see album link below) sold I don’t really have that much to show. I made this new one - which I shall name 'Chess' by the way because of the pon-shape inside the tower - to fit a sweet Brown Betty type of pot that I bought in a thrift shop. I didn't unravel, but used a small batch of leftover yarn I found in my mother's attic. For insulation I filled it with polyfiber from an old sleeping bag.

Tea pots are hard to find in the trash and if at all usually very damaged or missing the lid. But I’ve been really lucky once with this simple glass model that was completely unused as well.

Hopefully I’ll find time to model a second new cozy on this pot before I meet for the first time with the gallery owner, which is in less than two weeks.

You can find all cozies I've made so far in my online album here.

The HGTV Gift Exchange And My Easy Chair

2009-12-19T17:58:00.012+01:00

I love the HGTV Knitting and Crocheting board’s holiday gift swap. The only rule to this exchange is that we create something with love for our swap buddies. Items are sent out directly to them so there are no extra costs involved and it’s up to you to decide how large your parcel will be.

This year I received the cutest pillow crocheted by Rachel, the host of the exchange. It just finishes off my curb found black imitation leather easy chair. I’ve had it for some years already and I still love it. I can imagine the previous owner had enough of it, but I actually like that worn out look and otherwise it’s completely intact. And it’s really super comfortable!

My receiving buddy was Mary, who actually won my last giveaway contest! So I wasn’t afraid to make her something with reused yarn from a trashed sweater.

I changed it into a warm but light weight crocheted shawl which this girl from north east Michigan will surely appreciate. This is the back.

Front.

And wrapped as a scarf.

Members of the board can see all the gift's pictures here and here. Or sign up now if you got curious or if you are looking for lots of loyal readers for your craft blog!

My Seventies Bathroom

2009-11-16T18:27:00.011+01:00

The Seventies are back in many ways. Aren’t we crafters terribly into crocheting granny squares and such? Bell bottoms and block soles have been back and gone again but are not yet totally ridiculous. Or some arty underground fashionable people stick to them deliberately. Yet it’s the design period everybody says to hate. Those horrible colour combo’s, the giant wavy and floral motifs, free-form clothing designs… They’re absolutely not done anymore. I agree.

Yet I’m glad the cold black and whites of the Eighties have past as well. The Nineties brought colour back in, but still with too much modern straightness and chrome to my taste.

I like to mix up all styles and these days it’s absolutely allowed. Carefully dosed elements of styles we wouldn’t want to have full-on can add a fun quirky touch to your home. For me some of the Seventies ideas are absolutely the ones I love to hate. And the curbs provide me with a wide choice of style and design of all ages.

It all started in 2005 when my artist friend wowed at seeing a photograph of my mom in her home with her curtains in the back. They are a wavy motif in dark brown, beige and white and she still has them by the way. Then I knew what I wanted with my new bathroom in my freshly renovated apartment.

I remembered I still had a large piece of a curtain sample from my mom in the same style. Digging it up I found she had even already sewed the tunnel and bottom seam in. I really forgot what she had used it for, or planned to but maybe never did. So all I had to do was hang it up. The ceiling high window needed something long and narrow and this just fitted!

The egg yellow and terra brown are not colours of my first choice, but they make sense. Coming from my living room in natural wood, cream white, pale beige, wine red, soft orange and some black (Eighties leftovers of my own) you turn a corner to my half open kitchen which is in a soft yellow, cream and the same pale beige. Then at the end of this area in neutral colours comes my bathroom. Following the scheme the more pronounced yellows and browns are a welcome contrast with the reds in the living room. And I don’t live there you know, I just go there to do what I have to do.

Leaving the cold white tiles and dull granite floor intact the curbs provided me with just the additional elements to add to the colour and style.

First I found a handcrafted TP and magazine holder. I just love it how this is clearly a hobbyist's or craft class product, it must be totally unique! The brown and yellow match perfectly with the curtain, the orange makes a link with the orange (doors) in my living room.

Same counts for the giant artificial flowers. My curtains in the living are in the same red.

I keep some smaller shower supplies out of the way and organized in this hilarious soup terrine.

Then to finish it off I found a yellow lamp shade. The fixture I still had laying about from another find or second hand buy. The simple iron model is timeless and it may not be so old, but it's just the right colour.

Talking about lamps, to end I want to say something about lighting. A befriended eco-blog suggested followers to write a post about cutting down on lighting at home. The idea was to start using fewer Watts and shutting off lights where you don’t need them, but I think it’s even better to switch to CFL (energy saving) bulbs on top of that. Now I have used those for at least twenty years already. That’s how long they have been around!!!

I never use any of the strong 100W (or the CFL equivalents of those) bulbs anyway. I really hate how they flood the room with sharp light. When I need extra light for e.g. crafting I prefer to use a desk or table lamp locally. Main lamps in living room or kitchen are the CFL equivalents of 60W of the old incandescent bulbs, places where you need even less like hallway or bedroom I have no more than 40W. Actually in my yellow bathroom lamp there’s only the equivalent of a 20W. What more do you need there? For make-up I have a local extra light by the mirror.

Apart from the energy they save I love it that you only have to change CFL’s once every 6-10 years. Isn’t that extremely convenient?

But on top think this: a CFL of ‘60W’ actually uses only 11, ‘40W’equals 8!! Only please remember, once died out you can’t throw them in the bin, they contain mercury so you have to bring them to the recycling depot or a shop or collection point near you.

My Dress Dummy II And A Free Scarf Pattern

2009-11-01T19:22:00.019+01:00

I still had to show you a better picture of my dress dummy.

Now before I give you the secrets of this lovely scarf let me tell you how I fixed the foot of the dummy. Well very simple: with a cast out old floor fan foot and an aluminium rod, probably a curtain rod. Stuck the rod in the foot and placed the dummy over it (she has a hole underneath, rod sticks through the whole body). Done!

The scarf is crocheted in a bow or net stitch consisting of 5 chains per bow, but you can vary that number as long as it's uneven. The stitch is most commonly used for triangular shawls or net bags, so I thought I'd do something different.

For this scarf I used the small batch of mohair yarn I bought at the Queen's Day Market in 2005. I used a hook number 3,5 (mm) or D (US). With ten bows per row I got a width of about 20 cm or 7.85''. But you can make this design in any gauge you like, make a swatch if you want to measure out the width exactly. The beads are plastic with large holes. A present from a friend who emptied her attic when she moved abroad.

ch: chain stitch

sc: single crochet

Ch 40 (or any number devidable by 4) + 5. Make a sc in ch 37 (so skipping 3 from the beginning point). * Ch 5, sc in the next 4th st. Repeat from * till end of row. * Turn the work, ch 5, sc under the middle ch of the previous bow. Repeat from *. Make as long as you like. Crochet one row with 3 ch (only first bow is still 5) instead of 5 to make a straight edge. Cast off and work in loose ends.

Fringes: thread 10 (or equal to the number of bows in each row) beads on your yarn. Start to work from the sc of the last row, * ch 10, pull up one bead, ch 1 around it, ch 10, sc in the next sc. Repeat from *. End in (not under, to keep it better in place) middle ch of the 5 ch bow). Repeat on other side. Note that you're working from the upside down here and your ending is in ch number 40 of your starting chain.

The non-crafty among you can purchase the scarf in my Etsy shop.

Trash For Stray Kitties

2009-10-29T18:43:00.012+01:00

From all the books I find on the curbs there's a number I can't list in my on line shop because they don't have an ISBN or EAN number, either because they're too old or published by Time Life or Reader's Digest or such who for some reason don't have to publish under these official rules.

Which doesn't mean nobody is interested so I kept those apart for a long time, till a while ago I found an ad from a lady on a local website asking for books to sell on markets to raise funds for a foundation that neuters and feeds stray cats. We have several stray cats in the back who've been helped that way and are being fed by people at their own costs. I love cats and think it's very important to prevent more kittens from being born in the wild. It's really hard to socialize them and find homes for them. Remember Miene?

I contacted the lady and she was happy to come pick up the whole lot. I also love helping out such small foudations because I know they don't have any payed employees and every bit of my donation (even if it's not in cash) will go for 100 % to the good cause. I know larger worldwide organizations do good work and are necessary (WWF, IFAW and such), but think a part of your donation will always go to wages (and other costs).

When the lady came to my house she brought me some curb finds of her own, how cool! A vinegar and oil set in a rack and some magazines. Then seeing my work she told me she's a jewelry maker herself and later brought me beads and broken and deconstructed jewelry she had no use for. Most welcome!

Here are some necklaces I made using wax cords I got from my new trash picking friend. See my shop here if you're interested.

She may not sell all the books I gave her, maybe even just a small part. But if it's enough to neuter just one cat or buy some food I'm happy. What local group or micro-foundation do you have near you that you could help out in such a simple way?

My Antique Matrix Printer

2009-10-09T15:47:00.018+02:00

(Find a tutorial for simple and cost free packing bags for small items at the bottom of this post)

Meet my antique printer. It’s a Star AX-20. Yes, it’s a dot matrix printer from the last century! It’s designed for chain paper but has an option for single sheets that have to be fed one by one. So that’s clumsy, slow and it only prints text and simple drawings in one colour. But before you start laughing out really loud let me explain why I love and keep my machine from the stone age.

When I found it in the trash about eight years ago bubble or inkjets were still fairly expensive and I couldn’t afford one. So I was more than happy to be able to at least print my own letters, invoices and so on at home. Or recipes or other instructions from the internet. If the web page look makes it difficult for my machine I just copy the text in a text document first.

It’s reliable. It’s strong and sturdy and just always works. Believe me I see countless broken inkjets in the trash every week. And I don’t have to clean up print canals after not having used it in a while.

But most important: It’s very low cost in use and eco-friendly. I doesn’t need expensive and polluting ink cartridges. The first time when the print started to fade too much I searched all over the internet to buy a new ribbon cassette but with no luck. And then found a simple solution. With a bit of stamping ink that I still had I just re-inked the whole ribbon by carefully dripping the ink on while turning it through by hand.

Last week at the office when we were clearing out a file cabinet I found some blue stamp-pad ink and took it home. No honest, nobody in my department still uses stamps, it would have disappeared in the waste bin.

Now my printer prints in blue.

My printer has a relatively fine print as compared to what most people know as a dot matrix print like this example I found on Wikipedia.

With a freshly inked ribbon in fact the result of my printer is almost as good (left) as that from a modern inkjet (right).

So yes, today I have a better printer as well. A few years ago I snatched a special offer for less than 75 dollars. But as it was a model that was going out of production I already found out by now I can’t get the cartridges in discount shops anymore. Hopefully I can still find them online. But as I’m carefully saving this printer only for photo’s, my business cards and such I’m afraid some day I will have to throw out a perfectly working machine just because I can’t get the ink anymore. Doesn’t that suck? That’s how even if you take care of your stuff progressing technology feeds having to buy new things.

Last month I got my third pc in ten years at home. I never had Windows 2000 and went straight from 98 to XP. I was a bit scared my printer wouldn’t be in the list of pre-installed software anymore, but it still was! I can tell you I was thrilled!

So I’m glad my stone age printer will serve me for quite a few years to come. I also use it to print the packing slips for my second hand book orders. Books that I take from the trash and sometimes go with a profit of less than a dollar so I don’t want to spend any extra money. For the paper I use the blank back side of non-confidential print work from the office or letter sized advertising that I find in my mailbox.

My cost free printer and paper are also very useful for this:

I’ve been selling at quite a few craft fairs lately and I started to run out of my paper lunch bags to pack up my items. So I had to think of something new to create a cost free and eco-friendly packing especially for small items like my flower brooches or bracelets.

To keep in line with the character of my art, fiber work, I decided to not just fold and glue the paper, but sew the sides together. This also is done much quicker as it needs no extra folding and careful cutting!

But that looked a bit to ‘blank’ and I would still have to staple my flyer to the bag. Though I still have enough of those I thought simply printing the information on the bag would be a lot more efficient. I cut the corners of the bag to open it more easily to put the goods in.

Of course if you are inspired by this to make your own packing bags you can still use a laser or inkjet printer as well. But Googling around I found in this day and age of laser and inkjet, matrix printers are still being produced and sold. Unfortunately at a much higher price than the inkjets you can find in consumer’s shops. But think about it, it may be an advantage to have one next to your colour printer. They are more durable and cheaper in use so if most of your print work is black on white text the initial cost may be worth it. On top think of the profit for the environment. And of course you can try to find a second hand, but some of the modern matrix machines may be faster and have better options for single sheet feeding.

Zipper Tutorial

2009-09-13T19:27:00.008+02:00

Making small purses and pouches from T-shirt yarn I encountered two problems:
1. How to machine sew a zipper in at all.
2. How to make stoppers on re-used zippers from bags or re-used zippers cut to size.

1. Problem with my t-yarn work is I could only do it by hand. The items are too small and rigid to work under the machine.

Not being happy with the results, especially when using a contrasting colour I came up with the following solution.

In fact it was simple. When the flat pouch or purse (crocheted in the round) is finished I add two separate rows of single crochet on each side. I now have two open sides and I can bend the opposite flap away and easily machine sew the zipper in.

2. Zippers from manufactured bags often don’t have stoppers at all because of the way they’re sewed in. Then again if they do or when I use zippers from reclaimed clothing I often have to cut them to fit my project so I either loose the front or back lock. In my old model I tried to tuck them away in my work the same way as in the manufactured bags using the end of the purse to lock the zipper puller.

But it’s a clumsy process, causing lumpy folds and it just doesn’t look professional. But with my added rows, before fitting the zipper in I can sew on a stopper from a piece of strong fabric, like from an old jeans.

I cut the zipper at about 1’’ longer than the project on each side or on one side if I have one stopper already. Cut one or two rectangular pieces from the fabric slightly wider than the zipper that folded make about a square. Seam all around then fold around the zipper end and sew the sides together all around. Sew a cross from corner to corner for extra strength.

And voilà, the zipper end(s) hang(s) outside the purse like you see sometimes in manufactured pieces.

On top you can ‘play’ with the stoppers, using matching fabric, fancy fabric, embroider them, print your logo on or whatever!

You can purchase the green purse showed here.

The Turtle And The Bathtub

2009-08-31T16:35:00.006+02:00

A few weeks ago when I came home from grocery errands I found this old plastic hip bath which we dragged home earlier this year parked on our garden path where before I left it was still in a corner of the yard. One of those silly curb finds but the plan was to wash my large duvet in it (too large for my machine) and then get rid of it again, but I'm not sure if this will still happen this summer.

A look inside made clear immediately what had happened. The BF had found a turtle in the park, decided it didn't belong there (turtles don't naturally live in the wild in Holland) and brought it home. The tub turned out to be a perfect place to keep it in with a bit of water in the lower part and leaves and branches on the higher side.

With the BF back in the park I started Googling but couldn't find out which kind of turtle I had here. An email to the official turtle rescue centre only gave me an automated answer ('these animals don't belong here, please call your local animal rescue centre') so I decided there was nothing left to do but call the pet paramedics. Where quite disapointingly the telephone operator told me next time to leave the animal where I found it! Oh? She sent out the team anyway because now that I had him I wasn't allowed to bring turtie back to the park.

Well, Googling more I found out this: the most commonly kept pet turtle in Holland is the Red-eared Slider (see picture below). Therefore often dumped it turns out they do manage to get by in the wild and in parks, but our winters are generally too cold for them too procreate (maybe better so). However once every so many years when we have a really harsh winter they all die for sure.

Then again I don't believe what we found was a Red-eared Slider. With that pitch black head and the dotted yellow line he doesn't fit the picture. Best thing was just to wait for the rescue team. Unfortunately when they finally came they also classified him as a Red-eared Slider. I'm still not convinced. The good thing though is they were a lot more happy about our rescue than their co-worker in the office and found his temporary home in the tub quite an ingenious idea.

Now I can only hope they brought him to the right place where he was properly recognized and gets the right treatment. But if anyone recognizes our turtie I'd be happy to hear from you. Sorry the pic was a quick snapshot and not very clear, please click on in to enlarge.

Zippers

2009-08-11T01:49:00.005+02:00

All zippers I use in my craft projects come from thrown out clothing and bags. I must have said that before. This doesn't mean they have to look old or used.

Here's another bag I just recently found. The handles were broken off in two places before the woven material of the bag even had the chance to become a little bit smudgy.

Love those pullers. On the back side of them 'CHANEL' is imprinted in full. The inside pocket has a finer zipper in beige with a smaller puller in the same style. They will all end up in crocheted bags or pouches.

First I wondered why such a great brand would produce such a poor quality bag (even though it's all manmade material), but at closer look the cuts look too sharp to have come about from wear and tear. I think one mommy's little boy or girl has been playing with a pair of scissors. Hope she came over the shock.

Yarn Leftovers - Free Coaster/Flower Crochet Pattern

2009-07-30T17:31:00.015+02:00

Don't throw away your yarn scraps as the previous owner of this lot did! Though maybe the (presumably a) lady gave up her (knitting) hobby altogether as she threw out her cable needle as well, I think it's more likely she just forgot that was still in the plastic bag too that I picked up from the curb about two months ago.

Search the internet and you will find lots of free patterns for flowers, coasters, appliques and such. Tiny projects to use up your leftovers or otherwise keep them for little accents in larger projects.

In the first picture I can't even show all the yarn I found because I've used up some of it already. I made this set of reusable face scrubbies from one of the larger balls of cotton yarn that came with it. This set is currently for sale in my Etsy shop. You can make your own and save money on cotton pads by crocheting flat rounds of dc with a trim in any fantasy stitch you like.

If you don't want to look further here's a crochet pattern for a flat flower shaped round that I like a lot and takes only a few grams of yarn each. The design is not my own, but I translated it in English from a crochet book I had as a child and is at least forty years old. These two are part of a set with a larger variation for sale in my Etsy shop.

You can use them as coasters in a thicker cotton yarn, but thin cotton thread will make great appliques. Or, done in seasonal colours or sparkly shiny material even hang them in your Christmas tree! Weave a ribbon through if you like (imagine that here) and starch if necessary.

My abbreviations (in universal terminology; BE readers pls look up conversion charts USA>>BE):

ch - chain stitch (Dutch: losse)

ss - slip stitch (Dutch: halve vaste)

sc - single crochet (Dutch: vaste)

dc - double crochet (Dutch: stokje)

Start: 6 ch, close as a ring with a ss.

Row 1: 2 ch, 23 dc under the starting ch, close with a ss in the 2nd ch of the beginning of this row.

Tip: Find it difficult to fit 23 dc in? Make about 6 at a time then pull them back tightly between thumb an index finger, make the next 6 and repeat.

Row 2: 4 ch, 1 dc in the closing ss of the previous row; 1 ch. *skip 2 st; in the next st: 1 dc, 2 ch, 1 dc; 1 ch*. Repeat 7x from *to*. Close row with a ss in 2nd ch (of 4) of the start.

Row 3: 2 ch; 1 dc, 2 ch, 2 dc under the 2 ch of the previous row; 1 sc under the 1 ch. *2 dc, 2 ch, 2 dc as before; 1 sc as before*. Repeat 7x from *to*. Close row with a ss in 2nd ch (of 2) of the start.

Row 4: No build up with ch as before; directly 3 dc, 1 ch, 3 dc under the 2 ch of the previous row; 1 sc to the left and right of the sc of the previous row. Repeat 8x and close with a ss in the first st of the row. Bind off or crochet a loop if you want to hang it up, then bind off.

Simple Pull Up Curtain

2009-07-27T15:12:00.021+02:00

This is my front window. As it faces the street directly (we have no front yard) I want it covered completely with a non see through material that still lets in enough light. But I also had a construction problem. The bow shape, the central heating pipes and a plasterboard placed in front of the stone wall (which they probably did for isolation and to be able to construct a windowsill, not present before the renovation), make it very difficult to hang up any kind of normal curtain rail or rod. Sorry it's not a great picture and now that it finally hangs maybe I will get inspired to paint that wall and window pane too.

The solution is a simple white thin cotton pull up curtain. I just screwed two small hooks in the ceiling borders to hang it up on. Not even electricity required; a hand drill was enough to make the two tiny holes in the thin planks.

The solution was offered by IKEA. Well, sort off. The nearest shop for me would be a long bus and metro ride away and take me at least an hour. Luckily my neighbours like to shop there and just buy and buy and then just cast out what in the end they didn't need or didn't fit after all... Yes this curtain just came brand new from the curb to me and had never even been out of its packaging. I only had to make it a bit longer which shows in the slightly darker colour at the bottom for which I used another but used curb found piece of curtain.

It's not the first time. I have IKEA slat blinds on my hallway door that had never been unpacked and (this is a very old post) that picture frame with plastic 'glass'. Just recently put a curb found Dali repro in it. Looks cool!

So what is it with IKEA? Are they really that cheap that people just take home things to try out and don't care to bring back? For me they have changed from a cool company that offers affordable modern design in honest products to a monster multinational that exploits people in poor countries and sells mass products that people don't care to keep if they don't need them for a certain moment. I'd think the crisis would change that, but I don't see much effect on the curbs yet. Don't even want to start about the pile of IKEA duvets, pillows and covers for those and towels I found.

Eh, what I really want to say is, thank you IKEA for being so cheap so I can get the stuff for nothing at all, but really, when are we going to stop wasting? Me alone I can only rescue so much, you know.

The Swine

2009-07-09T16:46:00.009+02:00

This has nothing to do with trash but I had to think of the incident when I was talking about my 'funny' neighbours a while ago in The Hand And The Doll.

It was last summer when I came home from work and found a little black swine happily routing in the hedges along the path behind my house.

By the time I came back with my camera the girl had come to try to bring the escaped animal home. She is not the owner but another neighbour who thought she knew where the hog belonged. It looks like she managed to get it moving!

To this day I haven't found out who the owner is and where exactly they live. Or still do live here for that matter.

The Handbag

2009-07-04T19:26:00.005+02:00

I found a handbag made by 'Kenneth Cole New York'. I wondered who would have ever fancied this baby blue fake croc design. All I saw were the pretty steel rings that attached the handles and so before I even Googled the brand I had started cutting them off. Well it turns out these bags go for up to around 400 dollars! Take a look here: http://www.kennethcole.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3075304

Not that I care. The bag was really used and this is what the rings end up in.

If you want to see the listing in my shop look here.

And perhaps you remember that garden table I photographed the bag on! Look here.

The Hand And The Doll

2009-06-30T08:31:00.004+02:00

To stay a little bit with last post's theme I want to show some more display stuff my neighbours threw out.
Here's the hand again that came with the shop window doll's legs.

Here it is in the layer of black paint I gave it. If you look carefully you can also see it on my market table (second picture). It really works to draw attention to my crocheted bracelets and helps folks to immediately understand what the bands buttoned around the cardboard cylinders are for.

Now I'm still dreaming of a complete adult lady model, but I'm quite happy with this little girl. Actually I was pretty amazed when we found her and only a block away! Some neighbours I have.

It's a pity her hands are missing but I can live with that. She looks a bit funny in her oversized shirt, but I hope to use her soon to show my first crocheted little girl's clothing.

In the meantime she's perfect to show my tiny beanies. The truth is some just turned out too small for an adult by accident, but at the markets I found out that children often look at them so now I started a complete series in kid's sizes on purpose.

At The Market Again

2009-06-15T13:59:00.021+02:00

For Change I took a picture from behind my market booth on April 5 of this year. If you want to see the complete photo impression of the Sunday Spring Market at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam click here.

This venue is at five minutes walking from my home and my only possibility to bring out all my stuff without having to worry how to get it there. Basically it all goes on a trashed Maxi-cosy style baby push cart (cradle removed) that holds two large house moving boxes and much more. If necessary I walk twice. And those boxes themselves? You didn't think I bought them, did you? One's on the left under the table holding extra paper and bags for packaging and one's on the right, nicely covered as a high rise for my tea cozies.

Covering my table is my usual curtain. Here you can clearly see this booth is a big size professional one but the sheet is still large enough. Covering the box and display board is that purple silk sheet I talked about in my earlier post mentioned above. So yes, I found it again but last year Octobre found out the hard way it's not suitable as a table cover. Too light, it blew away in the wind! The board itself is the larger version of the one I showed in my first post about craft fairs and how to cut costs taking part.

It was a lovely sunny day but April can be still chilly so in the foreground you see my winter coat - once trashed because of a broken zipper, but it closes with push buttons over that, so who cares? And it's hanging over my handy fold-up stool that I took from a renovation dumpster.

Making a high rise on your table with boxes or boards is not only good for display, it serves to hide your personal stuff from the visitors as well. On the right you see my blue thermos that was brand new when it was trashed. At home we use one of my own tea cozies of course, so in fact I believe this rescue had its inauguration this day. Next the lunch bags I use for wrapping. Then my hand/back bag. Very practical, trashed and never used probably because the ugly company logo printed on it. I covered that with a piece of crochet from my own hand.

If you take a closer look (click on image for a larger view) you can even see the old-fashioned green school notebook I use to keep my 'sales administration'. Found in a box of children's books and when this one is full I have a pile more. You can see there's a pile of shoe boxes behind the board as well. Shoe boxes are great to store small items and perfect to protect my handmades from dust and smells in the house and when I don't have to travel lightly I just bring the stuff in them. Problem is though I never buy (new) shoes, so can you guess where I got them from? And if the neighbours are really nice they leave that silky protection paper inside too. It makes the best protective wrapping for delicate work when shipped to online customers!

Here's a picture from my second market this year, June 6 at the Craftymarkt in het park. Also in Amsterdam, but a little too far to walk.

Though I could have loaded up my bicycle, the very next day I had to go to Eindhoven (by train) and I didn't want to repack from boxes to my suitcase, so I came here by city bus with my Samsonite (the bulky black suitcase gave up last year unfortunately) and a large bag on a fold up trolly. Last one being a super handy curb find I often take on trash tours as well. Light weight and fits in the bag before using it! When filled up one of those large reusable supermarket bags fits perfectly on it. Those sell for about 5$ here, but the fun (or sad thing really) is that a lot of people only 'reuse' them to put trash in, so I have a whole pile of them at home and never paid a cent. For my train travel it just held my lunch, some drink cans and extra warm clothing so I traveled pretty conveniently.

This was a very windy day and what's new here is that I hung up my wind proof flower brooch display (made from a trashed fold-up curtain) vertically instead of horizontally and push pinned it at the bottom to the table planks to prevent it from flapping. And with no boxes or boards available in the same time it served to hide my personal things.

This venue is actually at the bottom of the office where I work so of course I had to rally there for visitors and to finish this post I want to thank my co-worker Natasja who 'just' came to visit but ended helping out selling for almost half of the day.

That's her behind the booth and here's the item she chose as a reward. That means it's sold out for the moment, but still available in pink in my Etsy shop.

I have no pictures from Eindhoven yet as my camera failed that day and I'm still waiting for the shots my booth-sharer made. Next up is the Summer edition of the Sunday Market at the Westergas fabriek on 21 June, where I will be sharing with the organizer of the Eindhoven market herself. Sharing a booth is another great way to cut costs if you want to bring out your work to a real live audience! Coming up some day soon!

Mosaic Table Tops

2009-06-08T15:42:00.007+02:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been up to my neck in preparations for two craft fairs I had last weekend. But fortunately I found some inspiration there. Looking around on one market I found someone selling mosaic, and she had the loveliest round end tables.

They much reminded me of two table tops I found in the trash over a year ago. Mine are maybe less refined and a bit more of a mass product than the work of the artist I saw, they are still hand work and though I never planned to remake them into tables, I found it a shame to see them trashed just because the legs broke off. I took them home without specific plans, but recently found they serve as a perfect background for photographing my 'cosmetic' crochet.

These reusable eco-friendly 'cotton-pads' or face wipes are of course available in my Etsy shop, but if you are in the Netherlands your next chance to buy them at a reduced price is at the Sunday Market on 21 June at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam!

Rescued Bulbs Update

2009-05-07T08:39:00.004+02:00

It's time to show what has become of my rescued bulbs.

The fun is, as it turns out they were not all that deep red tulip Oscar, but a mix of those and a bright yellow variety.

I hope I can divide the colours when I dig them up so next year I can make a nicer arrangement, but I kind of like this random mix too.

Take a closer look at the yellow flower; see that lovely fine red edge? Now of course it would be nice if anyone could give me the official name...

Queen's Day Finds

2009-05-04T19:04:00.008+02:00

Despite Thursday's tragedy street partying went on as usual almost everywhere. Even with modern communication it takes a while before such information reaches all corners and I guess by then half of the country was already too drunk too be stopped or to be in shock. I suppose the real blow came for many when during the next day(s) the number of deaths (seven including the driver) was announced plus the fact that this was officially now confirmed as an attempted attack on the royal family.

As said in my last comment (previous post) I'm not a royalist at all, but it killed my festive mood and especially my pride over that story I wrote for the Etsy blog. So I just had to go over there and announce the premature end of our beautiful celebration.

But when I arrived in the park to see the boys I found they knew not much yet and I heard the usual noises coming from town as if nothing had happened. So from there later on the BF and I went for our tour for market leftovers as every other year. This time I mainly looked for books because since last August I have a venue at Bol.com to sell them on line. Collection was quick and easy. First corner we found the leftovers of a book seller and I loaded up my cart with about 50 copies. About half of them turned out to be good for the shop, the rest will go to the 'exchange box'.
Further on we found some clothes from which one was a good sweater for unraveling. Nice blend of material too: 60/40 cotton/acrylic. Plus a nice reusable zipper. Then I decided that was enough and we went home to suck in the news reports.

Queen's Day 2009

2009-04-30T09:07:00.005+02:00

Today we're having that wonderful party again in Holland. For this year's celebration I had the honour of being asked to write a story about it on the Etsy Blog in 'The Storque':

http://www.etsy.com/storque/handmade-life/celebrate-orange-koninginnedag-dutch-queens-day-april-30-3829/

If you want to know more about how I will pass the day check my previous posts on the subject. I sure hope to come home with a lot of great finds tonight!

ADDITION (2.15 pm): I'm sorry to report that just before noon local time here a bizarre car crash near the bus of the royal family happened. At this moment all festivities are being slowed down and will be cancelled altogether during the afternoon...

Garden Update II

2009-04-12T19:40:00.007+02:00

Last year Octobre or so the plant shop trashed their leftover pansies which I potted in my large curb found planters and they almost all survived the winter.

A couple of weeks ago the first flowers started to come out and I was so pleased to find so many different colours! Right now they bloom in abundancy.

In between the little pots I found some bulbs as well. Unfortunately one was ruined by the cats, but here's the elegant plant that grew from the other one.

The Kitty Blanket

2009-03-30T16:55:00.005+02:00

Well, it's finished but immediately claimed by my own cats and I'll have to create another one for my Etsy shop!

Yet doesn't this prove what a cast out sweater in an unfashionable colour is still good for? At least Oskar isn't complainig about the baby blue and it keeps the cat hair from my chair.

If you're interested in the stitch I used see my minimalistic directions here. Otherwise just Google for front post double crochet and back post double crochet (but here only front post is needed).

Happy Cat In A Doll's Pram

2009-03-28T17:56:00.006+01:00

When I was a little girl my cat would always sleep in my doll's pram. Or sometimes even in my doll house because my parents made it by hand and used these very very nice pure wool carpet samples to cover the floors... I guess it's every girl's story who grew up with a cat or a small dog! Or did you maybe even go for a stroll with your Jack Russell in your pram? Wouldn't surprise me, I've seen our little niece do it.

So we were quite happy to bring home a little wicker pram for my BF's darling, even if the wheels were off. Of course cats love all baskets, but this one just looks super cute, doesn't it? And doesn't he know how cute he looks in it!

Our Pepe only didn't like the bottom of pressed wood. I had to quickly crochet him a tiny blanket to cover that from a curb found sweater. On the right corner you can just see a little bit of the pale blue of it.

That inspired me to start on a larger cat or pet blanket with the rest of the material for my shop. It's almost finished now and available soon. I'm using a special rib cord stitch to make it extra attractive, because I know cats love to feel some sort of structure under their paws. But don't forget reused for them is also more interesting than any brand new material. Because no matter how many times you wash it, they'll still smell the history of it!

Garden Update

2009-03-02T18:19:00.004+01:00

Spring is in the air, the days are lengthening and temperatures slowly going up. The time when most people are likely to head for the garden centre but the curb brought me a new addition for my garden:

I don't know what it's called, but I've seen it in other gardens so I'm sure it's a good outdoor perennial. You can see it has been kept in a pot and ripped out of that before it was trashed, but other than that it was in good condition. The leaves were hanging a tad bit dried out, but after a night in the rain it thrived again. As usual it's beyond me why it has been abandoned...

Does anyone know if this is a plant that needs a lot of light? My feeling is it can do well in shadowy conditions. At least I hope so because I plan to cheer up one of the darker corners at the side of the staircase with it.

In the background you can already see some of my Oscar tulips pushing up! Though it wil still be a surprise if they will flower at least they are doing something. Hope to be able to update you on that soon too!

Old Boots

2009-02-22T15:45:00.005+01:00

About ten years ago I found a pair of boots - the ankle height type of the model you see at the bottom of this post - you know the kind, they're pretty common but the greatest to wear under jeans. They were used but good enough to last me another five years. By then the leather soles were really through and I had to part with them.
But not until I cut off the leather straps to keep those nice large metal rings. They then disappeared in a drawer waiting for a project to be used for. I've been close to do the obvious and use them in a bag, but something told me they should end up in some sort of jewelry though I didn't know how or what.

The answer came last week when I was looking for new metal parts to use in my rag bracelets. I ran out of the coat closures and wanted something more sturdy anyway to create a bracelet that would suit guys as well. I think this turned out quite groovy! If you want to view the Etsy listing click here. I'm now working on a model without a button that is adjustable and looks even more masculin.

In the meantime I threw out my other boots as well. I bought these in 1991! I must admit I didn't wear them while I had my curb found pair because they were more comfortable. But I turned back to my bought boots until the soles (rubber) broke in two parts. Even though they still look pretty neat they were beyond repair. And of course I also kept the rings. These are a bit smaller and will be great for a more unisex type of wrist band, but who knows what they will end up in.

A Strange Musical Instrument

2009-02-13T16:28:00.004+01:00

A long time ago I wrote about the simple rack we gave to our good friend Ed to display his collection of musical instruments on. In fact we only picked up this guitar-like instrument because we thought of him and we were just waiting for the proper occasion. So when he invited us to join the celebration of the 20th anniversary of his arrival in Amsterdam we were ready to go and didn't have to go shopping for a present.

It misses most of its strings but it's otherwise in good condition. Though nobody at the party had ever seen anything like it before it's a real instrument to be played on, not some kind of toy or decorative thing.

And at least our man is more than happy with his new curiosity. Now the only thing I still haven't done is to go over to his place and take a picture of the complete collection on that rack. But as I promised him a frame from my curb found pile for a drawing someone made for him I hope to get that opportunity soon.

65 Lampwork Beads

2009-02-07T16:35:00.005+01:00

Though it's not as bad in Holland as the in rest of Europe we're still having the coldest winter in thirteen years or so. Meaning late night trash excursions are not always the most pleasant and there's less to be found as well. Packed up in warm coats and scarves we make a bit shorter walks and leave the few big things for they guys with the vans. It's certainly not the time for big hauls, but I still come home with a little something most of the times.

Last December with a temperature below zero and a biting wind, when we intended only to go for dumping our waste glass and paper a man just put an old chandelier on the same corner. It's not the first time we found a chandelier and I still have a lot of the plastic beads from one my BF brought home years ago.

The simple flat beads were the perfect addition when I wanted to upgrade these Eighties heart earrings. And they went too at the market in December.

So I was happy to find some more but still with my gloves on I pulled off only a handful of the bead chains and then we went quickly home. Only there I found my new beads were not plastic but glass and wished I had taken more. Next time I'll take the whole lamp after all. Still after washing the dirt off I counted 65 shiny beads!

Moulding Mixture

2009-02-02T16:48:00.004+01:00

Another one of the more curious products we found in our favourite shop that we call 'The Last Order'. At least on a quick Google search I couldn't find any place where you can buy the stuff on line.

The pack looks old but it hasn't even been opened and the contents feel soft so I'm sure it's all in perfect condition. I've no idea yet what I'm going to make with it, but this is just one more proof even specialized craft shops are places I don't need. And I don't even want to start about the piles of half full paint cans, glue bottles etc. I've collected.

Winners Fall Contest

2008-12-27T09:41:00.015+01:00

Sorry it took so long to come back on this. But first there were so few replies to my Fall Contest that it was useless to make a draw. Then after some rallying on the message boards I had a handfull more, but found myself already up to my neck in making Christmas gifts and preparing for the upcoming Christmas craft fairs.

The answer to the question was ten. On the bottom, though not clearly visible, but it's just logic to me, there are four. Second floor there are two next to the box. Third floor two are clearly visible, and as said, one hidden behind the monkey makes three. Then there's one more on top, though you see only half of it. Was this difficult? I didn't think so.

However again there was only one correct answer and again (third time!) is was Mary (m/mi) from the HGTV boards. I don't know if it's correct to 'let' her win again, but I excluded her last time.

So I think this clever girl deserves to receive her favourite item from my shop. The funny thing is that this cute necklace is actually a curb found item too, but I fixed the closure so that's a tiny little bit of me in there.

For the second prize I made a fair draw from the other participants, no matter what your answers were. And the name I drew was: Hybrid Hopes who found me through the GetCrafty forum. The cat booklet will go to Portland. Here's her blog: http://hybridhopes.blogspot.com/, a fun blog about crafting and decorating.

To thank the others for their effort I'll mention all their sites or blogs if they have one:

My good friend Nate, who runs a great photography website with his family: http://www.vla.com/fpstrong/

See Nitab43's (HGTV) craft projects here: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/559593567xiybuL

Drema2 (HGTV) didn't get the idea of the contest somehow, but here's to thank for taking an interest anyway:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suddendrema/

A special thanks to Tisme (HGTV). This is her quilting and crafting blog: http://tismeisme.blogspot.com/ But she also happened to be my Christmas gift exchange buddy on the board and she shows her gift from me here!: http://tismeisme.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-purse.html

Sherryknit (HGTV) stole my heart with a post about recycled yarn on her knitting and crochet blog: http://fortheloveofyarn-blog.blogspot.com/ Read the post here: http://fortheloveofyarn-blog.blogspot.com/2008/11/recycle-yarn-make-centre-pull-ball-of.html

Last: thanks Fuzzbugjr (also HGTV), but she has no online photo album or blog to share with us.

Just one more thing. At one point the second prize winner of my Barbie contest (the curb found scarf) offered to send me some crochet hooks totally for free, when I mentioned on the HGTV-boards I needed those for my recycled T-shirt projects. But I never even realized this was the same person until they arrived in the mail and I recognized the return address! Sarisue, thanks so much again and this is just one more reason to continue these contests. No matter how tiny the groups of participants are, there's alway something nice coming from it! Though next up, somewhere in January, there will be just a simple giveaway. Keep checking!

Pouch crocheted with fabric strips from a trashed T-shirt, zipper from a trashed pair of jeans.
And here's a cuff, using the closure from a trashed winter coat! I already sold this one at my last craft fair, but I'm planning to make some more.

Alley Roses

2008-11-28T19:29:00.011+01:00

Last week I had a custom request from a buyer on Etsy, for a flower brooch in a different colour than I had available in my shop.

She didn't have one specific colour in mind and just wanted something not too flashy that would match her brown coat, but one she mentioned was ochre.

To get to that I finally frogged the colourful stripy jumper I showed in my post about free recycled yarn.

As I ended up with a whole palet of colours I decided to make small array for my customer too choose from. Not completely to my surprise, she chose the bright red one with the black bead. Now these photos are horrible but I had to take them inside by winterlight, before work, as I wanted to show the results quickly.

Today I had more time and wanted to see how my new dress dummy could be of help to nicely picture the leftover brooches. You don't see much of the dummy itself, but the nice thing is that I can place it by the window and turn it to catch as much possible light and still be myself in a good position to take the photo. And now I can finally drape that lovely jacket I found on a body, so you don't see the inside of it on the picture.

Also the scarf is a curb find.

I didn't make a lot of money on my order, but in the end it cost me next to nothing and hopefully the new pictures will help to sell the rest. I had fun responding to the request and I collected a new very happy buyer's review in my shop. Feel free to take a look if you want to see more crocheted 'alley roses'.

A Dress Dummy!!

2008-11-16T17:13:00.006+01:00

I'm not a dress maker, but being a textile crafter I do reconstruct clothing sometimes and I have knit/crocheted garments in the past. So a real dress dummy is something I've wanted for ages, but not something I'd spend money on.

In the past I already showed the items I had to make do with so far, a cardboard male shopwindow dummy and a half body lingerie dummy. But those were only good for displaying. But nevertheless at the time when the BF found them on Monday morning errands I was happy enough.

But some two weeks ago he had a bigger surprise for me. These days he sometimes goes for an extra late night excursion after our usual Sunday evening walk. Already asleep I never even heard him leaving. So what a thrill when he came downstairs the next morning and sort of casually said: Oh, found this for you last night... Ah, my eyes popped, my mouth fell open... Couldn't have been happier with expensive jewelry.

This dress dummy was thrown out because the foot is broken. I can fix it, but for the time being she fits right on top of the pair of legs (this is out of proportion of course, the whole thing has double hips now) from a shopwindow dummy I found last summer. That's funny because I know they used this as a sort of decorative stand (they fitted a flat piece of plastic on top) in a bar where we went a couple of times years ago and it was in the trash right in front of it. I also found one of her hands, painted in the same ugly way. Until all's fixed or repainted they're waiting in the messy corner in my workroom, so sorry for the messy picture. Soon I hope to be able to show some either curb found or hand made garments on both the dummy and the legs!

Tulip Oscar

2008-11-09T17:12:00.003+01:00

As I was sorting out my bulbs (see previous post) - unfortunately quite a lot were bad, so I was left with about half the amount, but still a lot - I found a piece of paper in the bucket that read: 500 bulbs, tulip Oscar. So now knowing what they are I dicided not to plant them in my lawn (Sher) as I will have to dig them up again, but I did put some alongside.

Then I quickly Googled tulip Oscar to find this gorgious deep bright red flower! Maybe a bit traditional, but I love it. I also found some information and it turns out to be one of the strongest tulips around, it takes bad weather and thrives in both sun and shade. Just perfect for an Amsterdam garden. Now hopefully the strength of this variety also means these old bulbs will still push up and flower. We'll see!

A Bucket Of Bulbs

2008-11-03T19:23:00.006+01:00

It's bulb planting time, and some two weeks ago the trash offered me this very timely gift. And as you can see, when I say bucket I don't mean a yoghurt pot sized bucket (that's what my harvest from my tulips from last year fits in... see here). This is a 20 or more liter container and really filled from the bottom to the brim with... well, I'm not sure what type they are, but because of their size my guess is daffodils. They were waiting for me only a block away in the Wednesday trash and of course this report will be continued next spring when they will flower.

Now this amount is even too big for my small garden, but I plan to put them in the public patch behind the garden fence as well, and as I suspect they maybe older than this year's harvest and may not come up all, I'm not afraid to put them all over. Can't wait for spring now!

Come Curb Shopping With Me

2008-10-12T19:49:00.017+02:00

First this: My Fall Guessing Contest is still open! Click HERE to read more.

I live in an old but very green part of Amsterdam, very close to the historic center, but evenly close to parks and nature, almost near the edge of our town. This is just a very nice walking lane next to a playground around the corner from my block. Now, first I want to tell you something about the trash system in my neighbourhood.

Across the road at the end of my street, is a fairly new group of blocks that were built around ten years ago. They call it the eco-friendly neighbourhood because in between the blocks no cars are allowed. There are only footpaths and lots of green. Around it are underground trash collection points where people can dump their bags in anytime, so they don't have to wait for trash night, next to the more traditional containers for paper and glass.
Over time, when more old buildings were torn down and replaced by new luxury apartment blocks, more of the underground collection points were placed in other parts of my neighbourhood, provided there's enough place for them. But there will always be enough traditional collection points that can only be used on trash night in the older narrower streets. These are simply blue iron poles placed around 50 meters apart in every street where people can leave all bags and bulk trash. They make the work of the trash men a bit easier as they don't have to stop in front of each door or go look behind parked cars. Even though you'd think the underground containers take most trash from the sight of pickers, it's unbelievable what collects around them on trash night. Often they're full by then, but on trash night people place everything that doesn't pass through the openings, like bulk trash but also boxes with small goods, around them. In fact they've proved to provide us with some of our best finds.

Now let me take you outside with me and take you on a tour to show you some of our favourite shopping spots. In daytime that is, because my camera is useless in the dusk and who wants to see piles of trash anyway?

This is usually the first street we take. It's alongside the 'Eco-'hood' as it's generally called. In the middle, where you see the cyclist is the first group of underground paper, glass and other waste containers. It's right there we found our fantastic couch. It's also a first stop because it's where we bring our own waste paper and glass.

After a second collection point further on we turn right into the footpaths between the blocks and come back this way. As the houses were built on the premises of the old water company, you can still see the watertower (that 'spaceship' in the back) and some of the old 19th century industrial buildings (these are now official historic monuments), now turned into a restaurant, a tv-studio and theater.

We then find this collection point to our right. Here you get a better view of what the containers look like. The 'chimneys' on top are used to pull the containers up from the ground. Once they hang in the right position over the truck the bottom opens and the contents fall into it. It works the same for the glass and paper bins. They look the same, only have different openings. The chairs are not supposed to be there as it's Saturday afternoon and trash night is Sunday, but I take it someone is hoping they will be found by someone before the trash van passes.

From there we have various routes through the old streets around my own house with the traditional collection points, to arrive here at the flower shop. There are 'undergrounds' to left, not on the picture, that have been put there more recently, less than two years ago I think. If you want to see some of the gifts of the flower shop itself, take a look here. We found our dresser in the street straight up from the left of this block, which we go up and down.

This bin is across the street and proves that on a Sunday afternoon it is already filled to the brim.

We then turn left past the shop to arrive at this recently re-furnished square. There are one collector for glass, one for paper and two for other waste. It looks really neat now, but believe me in a couple of hours it's an enormous mess. The paper container is always full, so countless bags full of magazines and newspapers are placed next to them. Objects like lamps, pottery etc. could pass through the openings of the waste collectors, but people always put them in boxes next to it. Then there's always a lot of bulk trash; I guess the wide space invites people from across the street and more far to bring it here instead of placing in on their own narrow curb. By the time we arrive often other pickers have gone through it all and don't place items they don't want back in the boxes. Sometimes clothing is lying all about, being pulled out of (unsealed) bags. Plus there are the stinking bags of regular kitchen waste if those collectors are full as well. And even those are being cut open sometimes! I'm not very proud of it and we never stay too long here. I've found some interesting magazines and take a quick peek in the boxes for kitchen stuff, I've found nice shoes and lamp shades and such. If it jumps in my eye I take clothing for recycling. But I don't go rummaging through the dirt, not only is it beyond me, I just don't want to make the mess worse! But is here we got our television set. We were just crossing the road when we saw a man coming out of the building in front carrying it in his arms!

From there on it's back home via various routes. All in all it's been a walk of about three quarters of an hour, only if we linger or find something great that I have to go pick up a cart for it takes up to an hour and we hardly ever go more far. I sometimes still can't believe how much we find in such a small area!

If you enjoyed this post you may also be interested to read this old post about my house.

Lunch Bags

2008-09-22T18:05:00.003+02:00

What's so special about a pack of lunch bags to even blog about? Nothing. But:

- Well, I blog about anything I find in the trash that I think is not trash. This product is complete and even still sealed and clean, so definitely not trash, no matter how cheap or futile.
- I found them in Amsterdam, Holland, that is Europe! How does a USA manufactured product end up on the curb here? Because I wouldn't know where to buy this over here. Besides, any paper lunch bags are nowhere to be found in my country. We use plastic 'boterhamzakjes' or 'sacs a sandwich' as is printed on the box you buy them in.

So someone, on vacation or a business trip, flies from Holland to the US, buys paper lunch bags (maybe because we don't have them over here, I can follow it until there), drags them home, but then never uses them and (years later I presume) trashes them. I think that's amazing. Or ridiculous!

Now if you think this means I'll bring 50 lunches to work in paper instead of plastic you're wrong. Because I've recycled plastic bread bags for that for years and I won't change that. I use one bag (they're that strong) for at least a week (just shake out the crumbs and it's good for another day), then I still don't throw it away, but use it for cleaning the cat litter box. We use the lump making litter stuff, a day or two of the cats 'production' fits perfectly in one reused bread bag and it keeps the smell from my trash bag and in case I get a hole in that, no harm is done (allows me to use the thinner, cheaper and more eco-friendly trash bags as well).

The paper bags I will take to my next craft fair. With a card stapled on them they will make great and neat looking eco-friendly packaging! Brings me to my craft: if you still want a chance to win an item from my shop or a lovely (curb found) booklet, you can still enter my contest. Previous post or click here.

Cat Accessories And My Fall Contest For Cat Lovers

2008-09-14T10:03:00.020+02:00

Sometimes all things fit perfectly together. I haven't posted in a few weeks so it's about time. I've been wanting to show our - with the help of curb finds - self constructed cat furniture for a while.

I still have to present our new cat Pepe, who showed up in our neighbour's garden last March out of nowhere. Not exactly a curb find, but a good find after all. He is the sweetest! I have a new great curb found gift to give away - and it happens to be a lovely booklet for cat lovers. A new season is coming up... So it's the perfect moment for a new guessing contest!

I'm keeping it simple this time: all you have to do is guess the number of scratching poles my BF used in his latest construction (second picture). Next - as usual - go to my Etsy shop and describe what you like. And as before there will be two winners. First prize is any item from my shop up to $10, provided it ships as a flat envelope.

Second prize this lovely booklet with the story of Tobermory and bloggers will be featured. It's unused, so you can still use it as a gift if you like.

Does that sound like fun to you? I sure hope so. You can enter your comments until: THIS CONTEST IS NOW OPEN UNTIL I HAVE ENOUGH RESPONSES TO MAKE A REASONABLE DRAW!!. Make sure I can contact you through your blog or message board account.

Now let me show you our stuff. I don't know if they sell exactly the same constructions in the US, but with mondialization it wouldn't surprise me. These fun play sleeping and scratching constructions are a must for every cat lover, but they are expensive. As it turns out sometimes they are not very strong and fall apart quickly. And people throw the pieces on the street. All we have to do is reconstruct them with the help of some old planks for a strong basis and really strong screws and bolts (the only things we bought). The fun is our structure often changes when we find new additions for it. Cats love that. They also love to get stuff from the street. They hate shop smell. It doesn't tell them anything.

This is the situation about two years ago. That's my fat Cézar on top. A few months ago we found a complete and hardly used piece. At home we soon found out why it was thrown out. Every time a cat jumped from it, it fell over.

So the BF integrated it in the existing piece and now we have this fantastic cat castle.

To make a passage from the balcony to the garden we simply connected two old ceiling beams and made little 'chicken steps' from scrap wood.

Any man (read burglar) trying to reach the balcony this way would immediately break through the connection but for our Pepe here it's strong enough!

Of course I never bought a litter box in my life. As you can read in The Cat Carrier, they come in numbers and so I even had an old one to give away. With one upstairs and one downstairs in great condition we are well provided, but I still see them regularly in the trash. Sometimes I'm tempted when I see one in a fancy colour, but it's not even worth the trouble.

I do own one cat carrier that I bought, because I wanted this model, a top loader for my difficult outdoor cats and it's easily attached to the luggage carrier of my bicycle. But I have two of these wicker carriers (and had and used up more in the past) that were nicely 'handed' for free to me by my neighbours.

One warning: do not bring stuff home from the street that has been used by other cats when you have kittens that haven't been vaccinated yet and clean all plastic items with bleach. Even though you can bring cat's disease with you from anywhere, you can't be too careful!

To end here's a little help for the contest: one of the poles is hidden behind the monkey and you can't see the top plateau. Have fun!

Pottery and Ceramics

2008-08-23T16:07:00.008+02:00

Last time I was quite militant, wasn't I? So now for those who prefer to read my blog for that reason, let's go back to showing some of the prettier trash found treasures. I don't want to talk about the pile of ordinary plates, cups, bowls, mugs etc. Apart from what I inherited from my family any addition to my kitchen cabinets comes from the curb. Honest, people throw out complete sets! But here are a few of my 'showpieces':

This crude terracotta jug makes a nice vase. I like it because it's quite probably someones project from a pottery class or so. Despite the crudeness it's well made and beautiful in it's simplicity.

This earthenware piece comes from the trash of on of the few detached houses in my neighbourhood. It's the old lockkeeper's house; the old locks being out of use for years, the keeper's widow was allowed to stay, but recently she moved to a home and in the year previous to that we found all sorts of interesting things there. I can't say how old the vase really is or what it's worth because it has no factory stamp, only the maker's signature, but it is an original hand paint in the tradition of Delft Blue (even though this one is coloured).

Here's a nice bowl that's not old, but certainly handwork and completely intact. I don't know what part of the world this comes from, India, Africa? If anybody knows, let me know!

And isn't this cute? It's only 4.5'' high! A mass produced piece for sure and a copy of old styles, but it's fine porcelain and the paint work is still done by hand. As it's not really my style I put this one up for sale in my Etsy shop, in case you're interested.

Intermezzo

2008-08-02T17:46:00.008+02:00

Just philosophizing about trash and recycling a bit. But an important renewed explaining about this blog. Please, please read even if you think it's long... And some of the smaller stories from my life as a curb shopper that I haven't gotten around to make complete posts about that still need to be told.

The curb gives and the curb takes. When I put out old furniture myself it's usually stuff I already had for free and really trash. But somehow it even always finds it's way to a new user. That old school table (my dad was a teacher and he saved an old one and then gave it to me when I moved out) with rusty iron legs was taken practically from my hands by the old iron collector. Probably the same guy took my totally worn out ugly office conference chairs (present from work, I was in the purchase dept. at the time). They were gone within half an hour. And even my great aunt's ugly (though real oak) round table at least was gone in the morning. It's top was stained and had burn marks and I always wanted to give it a paint job or new varnish, but the thing was just to large for my house and after he found his fantastic table even my BF had no use for it anymore.

So yes I admit I'm guilty too of throwing things away... But as said, I'm afraid the thrift shop wouldn't have sold them and I make sure the other scavengers get to see them. I know a lot of people think the same way when they put out large things. It just happens you don't have place for things anymore. Elderly people move to a home and have to down size. The thrift shop will gladly pick the stuff up, but you just decided to give it for free directly to it's new users. OK, I can live with that. Though the thrift shop (GW, SA or whatever) trains people, you may not agree with their policies. It's often the smaller things (sometimes the cheapest plastic stuff) that are obviously really trashed that puzzle me most and prove the stupidest irresponsibility! And that's basically what this blog is all about. You'll find enough examples when you scroll down my posts, but here's some more recent ones to illustrate my point of view. Last week I found an opened bag of clean cat litter stones. Almost full. Well, there may be a sad story behind it, but with hundreds of cat owners in every street, couldn't they find a neighbour who could use it? Or why trash an almost brand new complete dustpan and brush set? Hmm, did they buy a vacuum cleaner? Perhaps they emigrated? Now the BF has a double set, but kept his old one to use on the balcony.

And then the toys. Recently I found more bags full of plush puppets that I'm definitely going to try to sell after washing them, but if their previous owners could have taken that little effort (machine does the job) they could have made other children happy with them. There also were a baby floor puzzle and a large wooden pull cart with blocks. Both neatly packed up in their original packaging, even taped up!. Used, but complete, intact, good and expensive toys, not plastic shit. A school or day care centre would have been so happy with them! They were hidden in plastic shopping bags (not sealed) between real trash, so I took those boxes and placed them visibly in front so hopefully someone took them.

I'm always really happy when I see other people finding great stuff. Like the young couple who found a baby bicycle (you know the real mini bicycle with the side wheels on the back wheel) for their little girl. Judging from their skin colour they were immigrants, maybe even refugees, people who have a hard enough time getting by I guess. I'll never forget the proud smile on daddy's face. Or the time we passed by and didn't take a very clean and new looking matrass, because we already have a great curb found matrass. When we came back from another direction we saw a young man, a student I took it, struggling with it on his bicycle. We saw a couple, probably in their mid fifties, loading up a set of the cutest kitchen cabinets (real wood, not ply or pressed) on a cart. They didn't look like curb shoppers and were a bit startled when we congratulated them with the find, so I just figure they had accidentally stumbled upon the cabinets and took them for a child that just moved out to his or her own flat. Or that young lady (she looked educated and trendy!) with her vase. It was huge and looked like some sort of African primitive art. Beautiful, I might have taken it myself! It must have weighed a ton because she had to go and get her cart for it. I think she too just went outside to place her kitchen trash and stumbled upon it.

I already posted about clothing but I just want to add how really stupid it is to put clothes on the curb (because of the alternatives in my country). Of course, I'm happy when I find them, but especially in my neighbourhood, they only have to walk a bit to drop them of in a special container, placed there for Amnesty International. They are all over the city, but this one is right in the centre of my 'shopping area' which includes no more than six streets or so, so any clothes I find are never more then two streets away from it! In fact I just Googled to find this picture and learned these containers are all over the country.

So this is not the actual one near me, but just an example to give an idea because I don't know if anyone overseas is familiar with the concept. Anyway, you know what I do with curb found clothes I can't use? In there, of course, never back to the curb! And I guess Amnesty would be happy with those plush toys as well.

This morning I went for groceries early and before my local thrift shop (it's on my way) opened. When I passed there I already saw some plastic bags placed on their doorstep. On the way back I saw more goods placed by their back entrance. Good to see people bring their stuff of course, just makes me wonder: are they avoiding contact with the shop personnel?

Brings me to a discussion I found on HGTV (read here). Someone was (rightfully I think) complaining about a GW store refusing her stuff. But it brings two questions in mind. One, of course if thrift shops have such a luxury problem, it says something about how many perfectly good to use goods there are around in the rich countries, where in the same time we just go on producing new stuff! It's crazy!!! What if the crisis hit today and no more furniture, clothing and such were produced? For how many years could we go on without a problem? A lifetime, believe me. Second, as I found the question on the T-2-T board, I was asking myself how come they still have so much stuff to offer to GW and SA... But that's not really criticism, as I don't know the stories behind it. I generally love what these ladies are doing.

It has become a long post without much pictures, so I want to end with one of my own after all. A bit OT, but not completely. Remember that second hand display head I bought through Etsy I showed in the post about the craft market? That lady who sold it to me was so sweet, finding out I'm a yarn girl who likes leftovers, instead of normal parcel fillers she used old yarn she had no use for anymore. It turned out to be 100 % wool bits of tapestry and embroidery yarn, perfect to use in my felted flowers!

Here's one of my favourite results so far. The flower itself is my own yarn (which I bought for next to nothing from a man who kept it for years after his crafty mother deceased), but the leaves are made of hers. For sale in my shop of course. If you like look here for the sale info.

It really has become a long post and I hope I didn't bore anyone (I know myself I tend to scroll down when posts are to long). These were stories I've been wanting to tell for a long time but just never seemed to fit in anywhere. And somehow I felt the need to explain once more why I curb shop. I'm not greedy, it's not about getting free stuff, it's not even about making great benches from bed headboards or shutter boards (no matter how cool that is and I admire these people!!!), but about showing how we overproduce and right now that's more than bad for the Earth. We don't need all that new stuff, it has to stop!!!

A Bag Of Potting Soil

2008-07-27T19:32:00.006+02:00

I really wonder what the story is here. Someone decides to repot some indoor plants and buys a bag of 20 liters of potting soil. They end up using not even a tenth of that amount. Place the bag in a (balcony) closet, the attic or something for the next time they need it. But somehow they got rid of all their indoor plants or only bought complete new ones and threw out the old ones every so often? After a couple of years the soil in the bag got completely dried out, they consider it useless and throw it in the trash? I just can't believe they have a garden and not found use for the stuff.

I also don't believe they put it out with the idea of 'someone will pick it up' as most people do when the put out furniture (including myself). They just really trashed this. What a waste. Waste of money for them, waste of resources for the Earth and everybody. Lucky thing I came by and spotted it.

Not that I really need potting soil, since I make my own compost with only fallen leaves from my garden, but the stuff comes in handy filling up those holes on the side when I repot plants to bigger pots. Especially because it's so dried up, it falls in like sand!

Cosmetics

2008-07-20T16:41:00.006+02:00

I don't mean creams, lipsticks or other things you smear on your face, but I don't mind taking for example a bottle of nail varnish from the trash. Perfume is expensive, so I don't say no to a free bottle.

These varnishes weren't even used and came complete with the accessories in the cute case. The cardboard files are brand new too. I have no problem at all using up the leftover of remover. The perfume (when I found it the bottle was almost full) was a Queensday pick from left behind goods of the flea market vendors.

Selling Trash

2008-07-11T15:35:00.009+02:00

I love sending my trash all over the world. Preferably I just give it away and I use curb found items as (second) prizes in my contests.

But recently I sold my first real trash item through Etsy. I forgot where and how I found this cute knitting spool, but probably in a bag of toys. I still have my own old knitting spool and I couldn't use it as a prize because it had to ship as a parcel. That's a bit too expensive for a giveaway.

I was anxiously waiting for the buyer to send feedback for a couple of weeks, but she just did yesterday, so I'm quite happy about that now. Unfortunately I made a mistake with the shipping rate and undercharged, so I practically didn't make any money with the sale but that doesn't matter. I'm just glad someone across the world is now happily spool knitting on a tool that I rescued.

And this is Cat's prize! The winner of my last contest has good taste and chose an item that I made from a real landfill rescue, while most of the yarn of my crocheted work in my shop at the moment is still from my thrifted and vintage stock.

Recently I found several pairs of pretty brand shoes that are not my size. One pair never used, the others in very good condition. As I've seen others selling second hand shoes on Etsy, I think I'm going to give that a try real soon.

These are Sacha sandals.

Original Bally's fabric covered pumps with a genuine leather sole.

The Winners

2008-07-02T23:42:00.008+02:00

And the winner is....
First let's go to the correct answers to my Summer Contest: The Simba dolls are picture 3 middle and right, picture 5 middle. The vintage doll is picture 2 right. Two of the Simba's were easy to recognize by their hair from my Etsy shop, then knowing their face (all the same) I thought it would be easy to find the third. Can you see the vintage doll sitting with her stiff legs in front of her on the main photo? Also on the detail photo you can see her make up is much lighter than all the other dolls. Clearly my whole concept (four answers to find) was too complicated, because I had the stunning number of six replies, one of them not participating. I decided not to extend the due date, because I hate to linger on and what's not working is not working, period. Due to the few responses I didn't make a draw, but a personal choice of the winners.

So let me present you my six wonderful contestants and their sites/blogs as far as they have one and explain how and why I chose the winners. Despite the lack of responses I had a boost in visitors and made just enough in ad revenue to cover the costs of the postage, so nothing's lost. And now my biggest fun is starting, because I'm going to give away the prizes!

First Mary (m/mi) sent me a PM over from the HGTV Knitting & Crochet board. As turned out in the end, she was the only one who had all answers right and took the trouble to go over to my shop and comment on my work. Unfortunately she won my last contest, so I hope she understands it will have to pass this time...

I'm grateful for Barbie expert Vikki from Pimp My Barbie to have come over and taken the time to really study my dolls and try to name them. Her answers were correct (of course!) but not complete and I would have loved to know what she thinks of my Barbie dresses... Yet I do hope to get her some extra visitors to her blog this way, so she will feel her effort wasn't for nothing.

Debbie, from My Cozy Cottage World, just thank you for stopping by and letting me know. I sure miss you on the (BlogCatalog) boards.

Of course I expected a response from my good friend Jenn T. of The Thrift Shop Romantic. Or perhaps she'd appreciate it more if I mention her new humour blog, Of Cabbages and Kings. She'd be in with two correct answers even though she too forgot my shop, but you know, I did send her that Christmas present last year... Sorry Jenn, I'm sure you understand.

A last minute reply came from Sarisue from the HGTV-boards. With three correct answers and taking the trouble to review my work I think she deserves to win my second prize, the lovely silk scarf. Also because she revealed to me she makes doll's dresses and I'd like to see those some time.

Which leaves me with Cat from down under. I also met her on the HGTV boards, where she profiles herself as the most productive, most enthusiastic crocheter I met so far on line. But apart from that her work is all self designed and quite humourous (I think) and if she does copy she gives it always a touch of her own fun style. On top she shares all her designs on her weblog and website, both named Cats-Rockin-Crochet. And rocking she is. Highly recommended! She's not afraid to show all her try-outs and she does stand critique. Cat had only two correct answers but she did take the trouble to judge my work. On top I find in her an ever enthusiastic responder to my posts on the board, so to thank her for her support and her friendship I think she well deserves to win the first prize. As she let me know in her private comment she likes my polka dotted hearts coasters I will gladly send those over to Australia! Unless you'd really want something else Cat, just let me know!

To end here are some pics of a crazy dress I designed a while ago. Inspired by a thrift shop find of real goat hair sock wool, Ken's curb found sword, Joan of Arc and Wagner's Walküres.

Winners are contacted through PM on HGTV. Thanks everybody, hope to see you again in my next game!

My Barbie Dolls (Including Contest)

2008-06-15T18:43:00.014+02:00

ADDITION: 06/25/08
Sometimes you do things right, sometimes you do things wrong. When I posted my contest around Christmas lots of people enjoyed guessing what my silly kitschy deer head was originally made for. I thought my Barbie dolls would entertain you as much, but from the few replies I've had so far I take it I'm wrong. So I've decided to make things a bit easier and make a statement as well. Please read:
1. I do NOT think Barbie is a good role model for girls (or any woman, for that matter), but fashion dolls DID help develop my creative skills when I was a kid and though I found them pretty, I don't think I ever tried to, or thought I had to, look like them.
2. I collect these dolls because other people throw them away and I'm proud to show what I rescue.
3. Of course I want to attract extra visitors to my blog and create awareness, but other than that the contest is only meant to entertain and with the above in mind, I hope you see the irony of it too.
4. Rules change: Any entry that has two out of four guesses right (three imitation dolls, one vintage doll) is in for the prizes. I do need your critique of my designs, so please visit my Etsy shop and tell me what you like (or not).
***************************************************************

ORIGINAL POST:
Finally summer is almost here! To celebrate I cooked up a little guessing contest again. Entries must be posted before 01 July 00.00 CET. It may sound difficult at first, but it is absolutely not! Clues are in my Etsy Shop and in this post, so I expect only correct answers!!

But before I continue bear with me and let me explain why I collect Barbie dolls. Because I'm not one of those who spend money on latest editions and official Mattel clothing. None of that, Im not a Barbie girl, but they just come to me and I still love making clothes for them (sometimes). You can read a little more about that and how Barbie helped me develop my creative skills when I was a kid here on my official designer's website.

My mom bought me my first Barbie dolls when I was four or five, so around 1967 or 68. Little did I know then that the 'modern' dolls with the rubber legs with a knee mechanism were on the market since 1966 and my mom bought me cheap leftover stock with the stiff legs on the street market. No matter how I begged later on for a Barbie with bendable legs, I never got one. She always claimed she found the new Barbies had ugly faces with to much make-up on, but obviously she found them too expensive as well.

Now my two old dolls are classified vintage and worth money and I'm so glad! I'm also very glad my parents never ever threw out toys and waited till we were adult to decide ourselves what to keep and what not. I left my dolls in their house for my nieces to play with. Only when they were getting to old for it too I took the whole lot including clothes (many of them hand made by mom) with me and then, just for fun picked up my child's hobby: dressmaking for Barbie! But then I started wondering if my dresses would fit the modern Barbie dolls, so I went to the thrift shop and found one very ugly one with inked hair and only half a foot for one euro or so. But as she only served fitting purposes she was good enough. I cut off her hair and gave her boots to make her a bit more presentable. But not good enough for pictures so I browsed the internet and bought some more second hand ones after all. Got a good deal and found there were many special edition dolls around and got one very pretty doll with a different body than the standard ones with them.

But I should have known then that I could have even saved that money. Soon after we switched from occasional curb shopping to really regular scouring the streets two years ago I started finding dolls. Some were damaged or had ugly hair, but some were just gorgeous and in mint condition. A clean-up and hair wash and combing made them all presentable enough for me. So here's the whole lot, believe it or not 14 in total (plus one of my own in the photo here)! I undressed them all, so the experts among you can recognize the various types. The accessories came with the finds as well.

There's a little catch here. Not all are real Barbies. There are three imitations, Simba dolls, in my collection. Do you recognize them? Well, that's my first contest question. As said, clues in my shop, you don't need to be an expert!
1
2
3
4
5
Here are five close-up shots to see better. Use these for your answer. There is no logic in the grouping of the dolls, I picked them randomly by three for the photo's. That left me with an empty spot of course, so I added one of my vintage dolls. Question two: which is she? It should be easy, there are two clues in what I wrote above. For your answer just give me the picture number and tell me if the Simba doll and/or vintage doll is left middle or right.
There's one more thing I want you to do for this contest. Go to my Etsy Shop, pick the item(s) you like best (not made by me category excluded) and explain why. Of course I'm doing this for marketing reasons, but your comments will be very useful for me. And you may end up winning that item! Maybe one of the Barbie dresses themselves? Your pick is by no means decisive and I can't give away the larger items for reasons of shipping costs, sorry for that, but feel free to comment on them if you like. If you win you get to pick any item up to 15 dollars that ships as a letter.

Like last time, there will be a lovely curb found second prize as well. Isn't this silk scarf gorgeous? It comes from the bags I wrote about in this post.

To sum up the contest rules:
-Find the three Simba dolls.
-Find the vintage (before 1966) Barbie doll.
-Browse my shop, choose a handmade item (name the title of the piece or post the link) and explain what you like about it (it doesn't have to be a page full, but please try to use more than one word).
-Send your answer as a comment to this post. I will hold the comments back for publishing until the drawing date, 01 July 00.00 CET.

Make sure I can contact you through your blog or blogger account. If you don't have one leave your community ID (HGTV, Craftster, Getcrafty etc) or just tag the option to receive replies in your private email (address wil not be visible for me or others). Only if none of these options work for you leave your email address in the comment.

HAVE FUN!

Craft Fairs

2008-06-08T08:26:00.028+02:00

I don't often sell my wares at craft fairs because I usually don't even get back the costs, but once or twice a year it's worth it because of the contacts I make and the selling experience as such (what items attract attention for example). Let me show you how I gear up for it without much extra costs (apart from traveling and the fee), using mainly curb finds and hand me downs. I use the few second hand items I bought for my Etsy shop as well, so those are worthwile investments.

Because I don't have a car and don't even drive I depend on public transport or a lift of others (and for this one, thanks to Julia Lomoro, check out here beautiful artwork here) to go to wherever the fair is (usually far out of of town) and I have to travel lightly. That limits my choice of display materials a bit and I can't take my dummies for example, but in the end I always manage to pack up everything in my two curb found super handy trolleys. Notice the one on the left is a real Samsonite, but the other one carries double the content.

This is just half of everything that came out of those two little suitcases! I'm not too happy about the polka dotted sheet I used as a table cover, as you can see all the stuff I have is such a splash of all sorts of colours already. It's a piece of cloth I took years ago from my mom's stock and the only one I could find that was four meters long! And I know I have a huge piece of purple viscose silk somewhere, but of course on the crucial moment I couldn't find it.

Never mind, let's move on. A pocket calculator is of course one of the things a salesperson can't do without. Not that I needed it for this market, but you never know, someone could just buy five items at once. Even if they don't cost much these days, every investment I don't have to make is one. I found this one in a box of toys.

For displaying earrings and necklaces I cut up a discarded conference presentation board up to fit in my suitcase and covered it with a piece of a curtain sample, also from my mom's stock. The board is made of a sort of hard foam covered with paper, so perfect to stick pins in to hang the pieces on.

To make the platform for my tea cozies, I simply covered the shoe boxes that I transport all the small stuff in with a nice piece of cloth. This is actually a small curtain from the fifties or sixties that a friend gave me a few years ago. Funny thing is the shoe boxes themselves are curb found! You see, I never buy new shoes. I usually get them from the thrift shop, but occasionally I find perfect fitting ones, just my style even in the trash. You can find a picture in this post. The pretty white teapot that goes with the red cozy is an original sixties Melitta pot in mint condition that I bought in a thrift shop for next to nothing.

Here's that curtain as a background for my new felted brooches.

To attract extra attention to certain brooches, I display them on sweaters or tops.

All reclaimed from the trash, some of which I also use for photographing my items. On top this nicely fills up the four meters of booth space!

You know funny thing is last year I even sold one of the sweaters (without the brooch)! I didn't mean to but the lady simply was in love with it!

But I actually sell some of the finds on purpose. Any really nice item that I can revamp somehow becomes 'handmade' and a proper item for my shop. Here's that cute clutch again I found on Queensday. I just exchanged the flower from the last photo.

This is the second used item I bought. I found it on Etsy. Being inked on the display head was so cheap it was even worth paying the fairly high shipping fee, which with the profitable dollar exchange (for me) made it still a better deal than I could get locally.

But all this Suzy Kin needed was a bit of (curb found) paint to be pretty again.

If you sells hats, earrings, necklaces and such you should have a mirror on your table. I would love to have a pretty hand mirror, but this ugly old make-up mirror serves the purpose just as well. And how do I make those dolls stand up? I just place them with one leg in a small glass soda bottle. The fashion dolls are curb finds as well. Like the clothes, I will sell them with the doll dresses if people are interested. These two are just some of the average models (and only one is a real Barbie) and I don't really mind parting with them. Which brings me to my upcoming guessing contest. The other day I counted all my found dolls, photographed them all together and came to the stunning number of 14 pieces! So I thought it would be a real fun idea to set up a little contest around them. After all, even if you're not a total Barbie fan (believe me I am not that type of girl at all), which girl has never played with them? I plan to post this coming Sunday, promise!

Queen's Day 2008 (and More Clothing)

2008-05-13T15:51:00.012+02:00

Last April 30 was our national celebration again. If you don’t know yet what Queensday in Holland is all about see my earlier post about that here.

I used to love to scour the flea market, but these days I can’t stand crowds anymore, so as usual we stayed home, just enjoying the holiday while the rest of the country was out celebrating. But like every year, towards the end of the day we ‘do’ a few streets near our neighbourhood to taste the party atmosphere and to see what goods departed vendors have left behind.

As it is I’m still in the process of a giant decluttering of my house so I didn’t want to take too much. With so much stuff found over the past few years I can afford to be selective. But it’s a tradition now that we bring our Queensday Trophy home. It’s our way of celebrating.

As always there were lots of books, but I didn’t even stop to look at them. Though in passing I saw some interesting titles (one Oriana Fallaci for example). If you remember my post about books you know I still have a complete case to read. Well I haven’t had much time to read with all that blogging :D and I haven’t even finished my first Ludlum yet (progressing though!).

Then when we took a left turn into a narrow street (I think it was the same one where last year I found my orange H&M tank top) I saw a trash bag full of textiles that seemed worth looking at and I picked out a this fine long jeans skirt and an all natural looking clutch made of some sort of rope.

I’m not so keen on these bleached out leg marks but in reality they don’t come out as strong as on this photo. When I tried it on it turned out to be the stretchy fabric, so it feels a lot more comfortable than it looks too. Oh and yes, amazingly as always, it’s just my size and fits me like a glove. It’s not even too long for my short legs!

The clutch isn’t for me, I don’t use that type of purse. Just plain it was a bit dull, but with one of my crocheted flowers in a matching natural colour added it’s perfect to sell in my Etsy shop as a reclaimed/handmade item.

The BF picked up a black beret somewhere (he’s hat-crazy) and that was that and we went home. We’re not greedy…

Nooooooooooooooo… Just after writing my concept for this we went on our Sunday trash excursion and I came home with two large trash bags stashed full of clothing. They weighed a ton! At home I found out why. It was for 90 % brand new tightly folded clothing, some even with tags still on them, probably leftovers from a shop or so. It all smelled a bit musty from storing it for years in a humid place but still had that shininess of new fabric. Now what did I say about decluttering? Well I want to keep only the cutest items for myself, but there’s also a lot that’s not my style that I’m seriously thinking of putting for sale in my Etsy shop as well. Really gorgeous blouses and tunics! They don’t weigh much, so it won’t be too expensive to ship them overseas.

If you hadn't read yet about why I wear and collect discarded clothing you can find that post here.

Planters and Plant Boxes

2008-04-29T14:47:00.016+02:00

My tulips were in full bloom last week so a good reason to show my curb found planters and plant boxes, since I potted some bulbs and that looks really nice.

When I see people coming out of shops with brand new planters I can't help feeling a bit pity. Don't they know? There's no need to buy any! Planters are probably THE most often trashed items in the world and nine out of ten are in good condition. So here are some I rescued.

They come in all shapes and sizes, from the simple plastic round pots to the rectangular balcony or window plant boxes, from pretty terra cotta ones to the decorative indoor cover pots. I now only take them when they are too pretty too leave or when I really need some. Last summer I found so many I haven't used half of them yet. If I would take them all I could fill a shop, really.

This is just so cute. It's handmade in Italy. It has a crack, but I don't care.

This rectangular plant box came including the hang-up hooks.

Remember my phloxes?

This is what I potted them in.

My neighbour left this huge pot behind after she moved, but I know she didn't buy it in a shop.

With a little patience you can even collect a series of matching pots.

Nothing growing yet, but I sowed beans in here. The picture isn't very clear, but if you watch carefully you can see that's little ducks on the framework.

Apart from the tulips, almost needless to say all the plants showed themselves were curb found or otherwise for free. If you want you can read more about that when you select all my garden and plants posts here.

My T-shirts

2008-04-09T15:11:00.007+02:00

I have tons of plain simple curb found t-shirts in all shapes and sizes and colours. Oversized or tight fitting, long or short sleeved, I haven’t bought one in years and all are in excellent condition.

Here’s a brand new cute tiny black one from H&M.

You wouldn’t be bothered to see them all I guess, we all know what a t-shirt looks like, so I’m just showing these two that are a bit different from my standard wardrobe.

Usually I’m not a fan of tops with texts or pictures on them, but these are fairly neutral and quite stylish and in a colour that suits me.

If you had not read my introduction on clothing from the trash yet, find that here.

Some Bicycle Accessories

2008-04-03T09:52:00.007+02:00

I'm not always looking forward to getting up and out at 10 pm to go curb shopping. I'm not tired of it yet, but right now with spring in the air but the nice warm weather unwilling to come I really need BF's motivation to get me going. On top I need to reorganize my stuff before I go on adding to it, but the cold, rain and wind aren't a help for that either.

So after the BF's 'Come on, get some fresh air, the walk will do you good!' I sometimes just follow him pro forma thinking 'I'm NOT taking anything!', but then somehow I always do. It's easy to leave the big things for other people, but there's always the small handy items, like last week's box full of bicycle accessories.

There were a number of perfectly in order pump hoses, two brand new tire tubes and a load of elastic binders from which I chose these three for my own bike. They were the newest and nicest colours and already on my bike now, so no addition to the mess in my house. In fact they were just what I needed!

My Teddy Bears

2008-03-24T14:36:00.013+01:00

It all started with one giant teddy bear I found lying face down on the curb. The BF wined 'You don't need that', but I just couldn't leave it behind.

Now the BF even brings me bears and other stuffed animals when he sees one in the trash.

A while ago I found Teddy & Pencil's blog. Teddy and Pencil are two little bears who talk about their adventures and their concern about this world. When I wrote them I rescue abandoned bears they dedicated a post to it, which you can read here and where you'll also find some more pictures of my bears. Thank you so much, little bears!

Unfortunately not all stuffed toys are worth keeping, but that doesn't mean they have to be thrown away altogether.

I really wanted to save little Piglet here, even though after washing he still looked very used. But only then I noticed the ugly suction cups and decided he was going to be cut up.

Poor Piglet, but I needed his insides to make these cute felted pin cushions. These are another result of my use-up-all-my-old-wool project, which I talked about in my post about discarded knitwear. Now for sale in my Etsy shop.

The Television

2008-03-15T19:01:00.009+01:00

When I wrote about our couch I already said that between earlier and later photos of it, the television in the picture had changed. Here's how:

After we had found the couch my BF was bragging about it to a friend who then, looking around him at the table, the dresser, and some other stuff asked: What are you still looking for on the curb, what more do you need? Th BF replied: A larger TV! Sure, said our friend, like the neighbours are just going to hand it to you. True, even when on several occasions elderly neighbours moved to a home and left us with a fridge, vacuum cleaner and cooker, their tv's were sold or they kept them.

But a few weeks later when we almost finished our tour and turned the last corner we saw a man coming out of his house carrying a huge set. Before he even put it down we asked him if it was broken. He said only the scart socket was a bit loose. So we took the chance and I went for our cart.

At home it turned out the scart connection was really bad, but a makeshift repair with tape and toothpicks solved it. And we went from a brand 'X' 50 cm (which the BF now has in his bedroom) to a Panasonic 70 cm screen.

Technically it has never been in the trash, as the man literally handed it to us. I just had to buy a new remote for it. We forgot to ask...

My Laundry Baskets

2008-03-05T17:18:00.004+01:00

If you read the post about My House you may remember the BF and I are neighbours. That means we have to have a lot of stuff double, but we share the washing machine. It’s in my place for practical reasons, but I don’t mind doing his laundry as long as he cooks for me. Which is pretty much every day since we freecycled a cooker with an oven for him from an old guy next door.

The only disadvantage is it involves using a load of laundry baskets. Four at least: one to collect my laundry, one to collect his, one to bring his clean stuff upstairs and one extra just in case I forgot to bring the empty one down again. Luckily I didn’t have to buy any. Of course they don’t cost anything retail, the other day I saw them on sale for two euro’s, still I’m thinking that’s a total of eight euro’s not spent and four plastic items not made especially for me.

This yellow one is from the fifties and I found it twenty years ago. They still made strong stuff those days, it’s simply unbreakable. But I’m afraid it’s not very eco-friendly. So I think if I ever decide to get rid of it I’ll have to bring it to the chemical waste depot instead of leaving it on the curb.

This grey one had a few cuts already, but it was still perfectly usable, but guess what? The evening after I took the picture I was able to replace it with another in the exact same model and brand new.

A few days later the Gods of the curb rewarded me for my frugality I think when I found this extra large basket. It’s nice to have things in natural materials and this one certainly can’t have been cheap and it’s in mint condition. It will be very practical for the summer, when I often have two machines full hanging to dry outside in the yard.

My Tank Tops

2008-02-23T09:37:00.005+01:00

Tank tops are such basic garments; who doesn't have at least ten or more? I couldn't live without them in summer, but in winter they are comfortable under warmer tops or blouses and can add a colourful touch to your outfit. They are timeless and therefore don't need to be of top designers quality. At least not for me. As longs as the fabric and seams are good I don't care what brand name I find on the label. So I really don't understand why people would throw them away before they're worn out, unless it was maybe a size problem.

I chose to show these orange ones because I love the colours. They always do add colour to my otherwise mainly black outfits. This stripy one was in the trash heap right by my front door. It came with some more cute black T-shirts and a skirt.

This one is a H&M by the way, so no complaints about the quality! It was actually a Queensday find: once a year I pick up left behind goods from the flea market on the celebration of the birthday of our queen. You can read more about that here.

Clothing And Textiles (Introduction)

2008-02-17T10:48:00.009+01:00

Where I get my new clothes can't be any surprise for my regular readers: from the curb, of course. But maybe you're thinking, that poor woman, she's missing out? Hell, no! Or maybe you thought I'm the type of girl who doesn't care about pretty garments and lives in shabby jeans and sweaters all the time? Absolutely not true. Ok, I don't care much about what fashion dictates, but I create my own style and I'm not free of the hormones that make us want to always renew our wardrobe or at least add to it regularly. I'm a girl after all. As for so many things I own now, here also counts that I have better quality stuff now than when I still shopped for clothing. I really don't find rags! People are just too lazy to even bring their clothes to goodwill. To prove it, I will start showing them off every now and then from here on. I may also sometimes add pictures to existing posts if I find new stuff that fits the category of that post.

What I find really goes from socks (last week I found a pair of Pierre Cardin socks) to coats, but you also won't believe the amount of curtains, towels, bed sheets, pillow covers, duvet covers and blankets I have curb found! I brought home tons of T-shirts for the BF and even a brand new black jeans jacket. It's really to much to show all at once, so I'm writing this introduction first because I want to create some awareness and provide you with tips on what you can do too, without having to follow my example and pick trash (so I don't have to repeat this every time):

I just read that the total clothing industry's contribution to the world's CO2 emissions is about 8 percent. That includes production, distribution and processing of old products. I don't know if that's just clothing or if it includes all textiles, but even, 8 percent? That's a lot! In the same newspaper I saw something about polluting cotton production. Simply because in those poor cotton producing countries a lot of pesticides and weed killers are still being used. It's good to know there's a lot going on already if it comes to sustainable and organic production, as you can read in this blog of a fellow countryman of mine who lives in Berlin.

But in the meantime still tons of textiles are being discarded daily worldwide. I don't know exactly how much, but the amount must be beyond imagination. So maybe could you try second hand sometimes to fulfill your craving? Or swap clothes with your friends from time to time. There are even organized clothes swaps. Keep your things a bit longer if they're not worn out. Fashion is always revolving and these days you don't even have to wait ten years before something comes back.

I'm sure these shoes will be hot again this summer. I've already seen some thicker soles in fashion magazines lately. I found them two years ago but they must be from around 2001 or 2002. Or sometimes just digging up something from your wardrobe you haven't worn in a while can give you a taste for wearing it again. Even if you were totally fed up with it back then. Try some new combinations. You'll be surprised. And if you're a bit handy with the sewing machine you can try reconstructing your clothes to make new things. Read my friend Krista's blog here for some ideas. What she does with her kid's clothes is equally applicable to adult's.

So think about this the next time you open your wardrobe and you don't know what to wear. Or at least buy organic and then keep that as long as you can. Thanks for reading!

More About Recycling Yarn

2008-02-10T19:16:00.002+01:00

After last week's post about unraveling knitwear I got some interesting questions from readers at the HGTV Knitting & Crochet forum. Though I answered those there, I thought they might be helpful to more people, so I'll review them here.

First there was a question about washing the creases out of the yarn, how and if is it's really necessary. The trick is to roll the yarn in hanks, but here's another link that also explains that. I had that link, but I'd forgotten they also (other than the one I gave last week) explain about the washing bit.

If it's necessary depends on what you're planning to do. For crochet most of the times not! Crochet, especially single crochet is thicker, tighter than knitting and the creases just disappear in the new work, so save yourself the trouble, although you may consider it for a loose double crochet (but I don't) or a net stitch. It becomes a different story when you want a smooth purl knit. But sometimes I even prefer the effect the creases give!!! I did a sweater years ago completely in garter stitch that got an interesting 'messy' effect because of the creases, where otherwise it would have been pretty dull. So it's really up to you, play with it, make swatches, find out what you like.

One lady had actually started unravelling, but the yarn broke of all the time and she couldn't get started. The knit was probably a pure wool and had felted lightly, sticking the stitches together. The trick is to jerk the knit a bit, pulling at it and stretching gently so the stitches will loosen up.

Thanks for the input, ladies. If you want you can read the whole thread here.

Free Yarn

2008-02-03T18:08:00.002+01:00

Here's just a selection of sweaters that I found curb side quite recently that I keep stored currently in one box. Believe me I have two more!! If you think unravelling old sweaters to get free yarn is a great idea too, here's a link to a guide that may be helpful.

The choice of the colour is Hennes &Mauritz. They seem to have a preference for loose knits, but these models always sag after three times washing and so people throw them out (see also this old post). It's the third one or so that I found. I don't know why people still buy them. I think it will become a nice lush scarf in a brioche stitch. It's a bit fuzzy, but that will go away when I rework the yarn.

I'm not a big fan of too contrasting colours in a blended yarn, but this may come out nice as a worked in detail in a black or white project.

A hand knit. Beautiful shiny material. Very thin yarn, for the finer projects. Unfortunately I have no label to tell me what the material is, but it feels like a cotton/man made mix.

Very thick wool. I've no idea what to do with it yet. The patches are crocheted and stitched on with big stitches so they will come off easily.

Pure, thick cotton. Great for kitchenware, potholders and the like. Only too bad I will have all these loose ends to work in, but I have my tricks for that.

But before I start working these into scarves or tea cozies I have two more big boxes full of leftover yarns, given to me or small parties that I bought for next to nothing from private persons. Most of it is not enough or too fine to work into larger projects. But if I don't use it up soon it will start to decay, so I've come up with these lilttle cuties.

They're only a bit over 1.5'' or 4 cm and will surely brighten up anything from jackets to bags or purses. One lady even told me she put (my former, still larger model) on a pair of casual shoes!

And now I can only hope they will become my big Etsy hit and sell like hot cakes. Well it can't be the price: for only $2.50 they're yours. Click here to go to my shop.

My Torso

2008-01-26T18:34:00.000+01:00

It's too bad I don't have a better and 'clean' picture of it, but I decided in a flash to give this find away before I had the chance.

When I found this polystyrene torso I didn't have to think a second before I carried it under my arm, despite the many dents and an awful beige paint. I painted that over with a leftover of creamy white curb found latex, giving it back a sort of white marble effect.

But only to find I didn't have place for it in my tiny home; as it didn't work out as a display very well after all, which you can see on the photo.

When I heard our friend Ed, who is of Greek origin, planned to make a Greek corner in his flat I couldn't resist. Well, to be honest I swapped it for a free meal (at less than 5 euro's) in the community center 'cooking club' where he does the dishes once every two weeks. He promised me the torso would get a prominent place on his rack.

Everybody in the restaurant thought it was a hoot, Ed was shining and I was glad to be able to declutter somewhat.

Just A Bin

2008-01-09T20:53:00.002+01:00

I picked up this little plastic bin last summer. Even though my house is so tiny it takes five steps to reach the kitchen bin, I still could use one for my desk. It's just a cheap thing you get for a couple of euro's in every household shop, so what's so special about it to dedicate a post on it?

First it's still another undamaged throw out that I rescued and didn't have to buy, no matter how ordinary or cheap. Second it was brand new and so shiny and clean I think it had never even been used. But third is that when I put it in its place I noticed how the colours match with my dictionaries! Two helpers that are, being a translator and a native Dutch speaker writing in English, ever present on my desktop. And that just made me very happy for a moment. It's not much, but I thought it was worth sharing.

Note that the vase is also a trash pick but the rose, for those concerned about global warming, is real and freshly picked from a public garden on January 6.....

Happy New Year! (and contest results)

2008-01-01T13:29:00.000+01:00

And this is the correct solution of the contest...

And we have a winner (Mary) with the one and only correct answer and a runner up (Julia) who came very close suggesting it was a lamp. No fellow bloggers, but both members of the HGTV craft boards. HGTV is one of my favourite communities. If you are looking for a very lively board to chat about craft or decoration I highly recommend it.

Congratulations to both! Julia, the pouch is on its way to you. Mary chose a lovely necklace from my shop which you can see at the bottom of this old post.

I never thought it would be so difficult. Of course, with the actual candle holders broken off the antlers it wasn’t easy to see and I only figured out what could have been stuck in the empty spaces when I found some wax drops on the head.

To share a bit of the fun with you here are the other guesses.

Is it some sort of a lighter, you squeeze it and a flame comes out?
Okay, does its nose light up like Rudolph?
Is it a Christmas Cookie Jar?
A tree topper?
Hmm... so maybe it's either part of a puppet, or is a tree topper? (Hopefully it's not a toilet paper cozy... :)
Was it originally part of a calliope/merry-go-round reindeer?
Antlers would make a nice plate holder.
A Lamp Shade.
I'm guessing it's original use was a 'mask'.
Do his antlers hold something-- I was thinking either a Christmas card or a book of some sort-- like a Christmas recipe book or a Bible? Or is he a wine bottle holder?
I think that the deer head is part of one of those animated wall 'trophy' items that are battery operated and sometimes motion-sensored.
Hmmmmm....did that reindeer head hold a decanter of some sort?

I thought the lighter was actually plausible. I've seen large table lighters in the most ridiculous disguises. Funny the tree topper came up twice. I've no idea how it could be attached... A toilet paper cozy? Thank god, no. I've never seen one in my life. In fact when I read about TP-cozies on HGTV I had no clue what they were talking about. I had to Google it! A trophy... you mean like that fish with a flapping tail on a plank?

Thanks for the fun everybody!

My Christmas Tree (including contest)

2007-12-23T19:16:00.000+01:00

Really one of the last things I expected to find some two weeks ago was a Christmas tree. I spotted it just around the corner on Sunday afternoon while going on an errand. So on the way back I checked it out, it looked good and complete, so up on my bike it went. Which was a bit of a hassle because it had been raining and the box fell apart, but I managed to get it home.

A while ago I wrote about finding yucky stuff (The Cat Carrier) and how people throw perfectly alright stuff out just because of a bit of dirt. And I don't mean things rotting or bugs, just dirt you can wash off, no matter how disgusting. This turned out to be a case like that. When I started to set up the tree I noticed a big blob (but really big like two inches or so) on one of the branches and some minor dirt on a few more. It looked like mud so I just took that part to the bathroom to wash it off. Then I started smelling what it really was: bird poop. So what had happened? I think the previous owners stored the tree on their balcony and let the city pigeons do their droppings on it! Stupid a. to not cover it, but b. it's only natural! Ok, it doesn't smell nice but I had it sobered up in less than five minutes and I I'm used to the smell of my neighbour's chickens anyway, so I can take that.

A few years ago a friend of mine moved back to the US and left me all her Xmas decorations including a small tree. To make it look like something I had to put all the decorations in, but those were mainly in blue, pink, lilac and purple (including the lights), her favourite colours. I love those colours too (except the blue), but somehow not for a Christmas tree. Last year I didn't even set it up. Now this is just an average tree (same model they have countless ones of in my office building), but it's in great condition and I found it could do with less trimming. So I limited it to the few wite and silver balls and garlands Tracy left me and added some home made stars from foil covered isolation foam I found a while ago. You can see one top left, just a matter of cutting and glueing. The lights do the rest. And that's the only thing I bought since I decided to leave my friend's coloured lights packed up as well and bought a new set of normal ones. My total costs: 2,50 euro's.

Sorry Tracy if you read this, I love you anyway and I'm still grateful for all the stuff you left me. And the little bears are cute!!

Last week we found even some more cool kitschy stuff to put under the tree, so I'm more than complete. Including a triptych nativity scene, some tea light holders (all not pictured) and last not but least this super kitschy 'reindeer' head. It looks like it's been made just as a decoration, but it's not. It took me half of the evening after we found it to figure out what the missing parts were and what it's original function must have been. Can you guess just from the picture?

Now that's my contest to finish this year with and thank all my readers for visiting, and their comments and support. Please send your answers to: le-chat@zonnet.nl before 12/31 24.00 CET. That's not a lot of time left, but I think it should be enough, and honestly I can't wait to decide who are going to get the prizes!

The first prize will be any item of your choice from my Etsy shop up to 7,50 dollars. Take a look and you'll find a lot to choose from. The runner up will get this cute curb found (document) pouch. It's brand new and has two compartments that close with zippers. Don't worry I washed it, even though it looked perfectly clean. Both winners, if they have a (hopefully craft or eco related) blog or website will be featured on my blog of course. I will ship anywhere, so anybody around the world can enter.

If there are too many correct answers I will make a draw, but I might just fall for the coolest, funniest or cleverest motivations. I'm looking forward to your emails!!

Good luck and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

The Staircase

2007-12-17T01:20:00.002+01:00

Just returning from a trash excursion out in the cold and in times when everybody talks about X-mas decorations I'd like to go back to last summer and sunny afternoons in my garden for a moment. If you read the post about my house you'll remember that I have to pass outside on the street to visit my BF upstairs. It's not really a problem, but when we saw a complete staircase in the trash across the street, taken from the renovation site there, we got ideas. But it turned out to be too short to reach the balcony and I didn't want to have it indoors, as that would take up precious space and the whole operation would be too costly and drastic, so it ended up lying in the garden for a couple of weeks.

Then the BF put it up against the shed, right in the middle of my newly created 'lawn' of 3 square meters, claiming he needed it to clean the roof. Yeah, how many times a year does he do that? But I said nothing thinking I'd throw it out as soon as I had enough of it and put some of my found plants on it to give it at least a sort of a function.

But then it was discovered by our two furry fellow residents. Of course they have other ways to reach that shed roof, like a tree or fences or even an iron bar in between our and the neighbour's shed. Did you think cats would prefer these much more fun and adventurous ways? You're totally wrong. These creatures appreciate convenience and above all style. Isn't it much more elegant coming down for your meal after an afternoon in the sun on a broad staircase than climbing down a tree? They seem to accept the fact that I too now can easily reach the roof and take them in if I decide it's time to come home.

But there's more. I soon noticed that the roof became immensely popular. In fact they would have spent all day and night on it if they could. The top steps being slightly higher than the roof also turned out to be a great vantage point. Or just sitting anywhere on it is simply cool. But it's logic. Of course such a fun place has to be guarded and defended at all cost: don't forget we are not alone in the garden. The new neighbour's cats from two houses down got curious seeing those two up there. Even though they had to use the tree or the fence, of course they had to check it out. Yeah, right! Who do they think they are? Newcomers at that! Uh!

So we had some fierce fighting going on up there for a couple of weeks. Of course my cats won. After all they were there first and it's their shed. That's how it's supposed to be. We are the good ones. Even the neighbour's part of the shed belongs to the next door neighbour (who luckily has no cats), not those intruder's owners. They don't have a shed there, it was broken down years ago. Their problem.

So take a look at Oskar and Cézar after the peace had settled in again. Can you see victory on their faces? Although I must admit that Cézar, the fat one below left most of the work to his more courageous brother. This tough one is sitting on my knees right now as I'm writing this. The brother is upstairs with the BF.

Obviously the staircase is a keeper. I wouldn't dare taking it away now. Just too bad for my lawn then. Anyway the whole idea behind that was to have some grass for the cats. They need it sometimes. It doesn't have to look pretty.

The Couch

2007-11-16T08:42:00.001+01:00

Have you ever heard of Alberto Nieri? I had not, until we found this great settee. It’s hard making a really good picture of such a large piece with my simple camera, so these photo’s don’t really do it credit, but you can clearly see the woodwork is handwork and the shape is well thought of: it is so comfortable!!

Underneath the cushions I found the label. Believe me, this is Italian top design. Here's the link to their official website. In fact, Ferrari designer Pininfarina designed a special line for the Nieri group. Read about that here.

When the BF moved upstairs two years ago (see previous post) I gave him some old furniture I didn’t have place for, a neighbour donated dining-room chairs and we bought a couch in the thrift-shop. He and his mate chose one that was comfortable and cheap. I found it ugly, but it’s his place, so I said nothing. Early this year we found an easy chair in great condition on the curb that matched with the colour of the couch. There was a small couch of the same model as well on the curb, but since he already had one that was slightly longer, we settled for the chair. We also didn’t have that handy dolly yet and I wasn’t looking forward to carrying the couch, especially as the chair turned out to be heavy as it was.

A few months later he decided to throw out his old two-seater couch anyway, since he was now always using his easy chair. But this summer he started talking about looking for a larger couch. I just knew he was going to want a couch again. We saw many at the curb, but none good enough to be worth the effort of bringing it up the narrow stairs.

Then last September we finally had luck. We went into the 'rich' part of our neighbourhood (large apartment blocks built some ten years ago) and already at a 100 meters distance, seeing the outline of a couch I said I’d better go home for the dolly. A closer look proved what I suspected: it was made of genuine leather, a three-seater and in great condition. This neo-classic design wouldn't be my personal choice, but the great condition and the quality of the woodwork made it easy to decide this one was going home with us. And the more I look at it, the better I like it.

As I turned to go pick up the dolly at home a man just stopped with his bicycle and wished me a good evening. I had never seen him before, but feeling happy about our find I just smiled and greeted back. When I returned I found the man and my BF chatting in French while turning around and admiring the piece. The man turned out to be a Moroccan who lives in that street and most of them love to speak French. He also pointed out the logo (AN) on the couch to us which made me suspect more and more we had found something really expensive.

I know a lot of Moroccans pick trash and recently I found out why: they load it up vans and trailers and ship it to their family at home! (And unfortunately for a good reason-there is still a lot of poverty there) So if we had arrived a minute later, I’m sure this lovely piece would now be in North-Africa. However the guy was kind enough to even help us loading it up the dolly. Now that’s real trash-pickers ways as it should.

PS: note that in between the first and last pictures the tv and rug have changed? I'll come back later to those finds :)

My House

2007-10-28T09:44:00.000+01:00

Now that I have some regular readers (at least I hope so) I thought it would be nice to tell something about how and where I live. My apartment block in the Amsterdam Van Bossestraat was built in 1915 and declared a monument in 2004. The building stretches out to the left and right, but with a slightly lower roof. Hence it has been nicknamed 'The Castle' sometimes. I'm not sure about this, but I think it was designed by the architects bureau of Mr. Pierre Cuyper, who desigend the famous Rijksmuseum and Central Station in Amsterdam. In 1915 Mr Cuyper himself was far over 80 years old, so it's likely his son Joseph deserves the credits. I only know for sure several other buildings in my neighbourhood (De Kempenaerstraat) were designed by his student and coworker De Bazel. But therefore the connection is quite obvious.

The monumental status of the building meant it had to be restored to its original state on the outside. During the seventies and eighties, most of the traditional cross log windows and panel doors were replaced by ugly modern ones and of different types at that. At the same time the landlords planned a thorough modernization of the apartments on the inside. At that time, going crazy on 40 square meters, my BF and I had been looking for a bigger place for ages, but without much success or otherwise we couldn't agree on the few offers that we had. It may be hard to understand for US people how hard it is to find a proper apartment (especially for rent), but it is in this densely populated country and from the big cities the problem is spreading to the area around them. And if you read on you'll see it wasn't any better in the past.

The renovation offered new options though. Not long after we heard about it, our upstairs neighbour moved out and I knew they wouldn't rent the flat out again until after the works were done. So I asked the landlords if they could join the two apartments together. Well, the answer was a disappointing 'no'. But in the end they agreed to letting my BF move upstairs on his own. So now we live contently 'together' as neighbours and I have to say we're happier than ever before.

On the picture you can see each vertical row of flats has two front doors. I have my own front door that leads directly to my ground floor (first for US) and the door on the left side leads to the stairways to the upstairs. I think this was done to save space. Otherwise the hallway to a shared entranced would have been taken from my space. Now that's my private hallway. This means to visit each other we have to pass outside on the street, but luckily the porch is covered and it doesn't bother us at all.

In 1943 an English bomber was shot by the occupiers of our country and crashed on my building after hitting the ornamental tower with its wing. Only one of the New Zealand crew of four survived and seven citizens died. Three of them were inhabitants of my very apartment.

From what I read, the row of flats I live in and the next door's were completely destroyed, but I think it was mainly the add ons on the back side of the building that housed the bedrooms at the time.

This picture is from before the last renovation. The add ons were isolated on the outside and beautifully plastered.

After repairing the damages the replaced ornamental tower was badly taken care of and in the late sixties or early seventies they tore it down. I found this photo from 1966 in the city's archives.

Locals who saw the crash and former inhabitants have been lobbying ever since to have it replaced again. With the monument status and final renovation their request has finally been granted in 2005.

Also a plaque was placed to commemorate the victims of the crash.

While doing research for this entry I stumbled upon a weblog of a nice gentleman, Joop, who is a teacher, and wrote about both the renovation and the crash. It turned out he lived in my apartment as a kid in the fifties and sixties. Being a collector of used items I'm always curious about their history and this equally counts for my house, so I contacted him. Now you have to imagine this: the bare 40 square meters that drove me and my BF crazy, housed complete families at the time, and often with over four kids! The narrow 2 x 7 meters add on at the back of the house, that now are my bathroom, the central heating installation and washer closet and my narrow kitchen, then were two (2!) bedrooms where the kids slept in bunk beds. The parents had a fold out bed in the living room.

In the seventies the first real suburbs were being built around Amsterdam and families like this moved out there, leaving their small apartments for young couples, students and singles. However due to bad maintenance the buildings got in such a bad state it seemed the only solution would be to tear them down and replace them with cheap and ugly modern buildings. Thanks to the squatter movement that was prevented. By occupying the empty apartments in the end they forced the city council to start renovating. This way the authentic character of many old neighbourhoods in Amsterdam has been preserved.

When my BF and I moved in in 1989 the flat had had a first basic renovation and at least a proper bathroom and kitchen were put in, a concrete floor, new ceilings and some double glazing. But we still had that narrow, now one bedroom, 2 x 7 space and we never knew how to put the bed in... Thank god that's all better now. And of course we have twice the space.

I have to thank Joop for the picture of the plaque. It turns out he still often comes back to his old neighbourhood to take photo's. Dutch readers can read his story here.

Now all I have to do is grant his wish to have a look at the inside of his old house, which I will gladly do in the coming weeks or so.

My Latest Creation

2007-10-21T17:06:00.002+02:00

OK, this is a bit shameless self promotion for my Etsy shop, but I really didn't start my weblog for this purpose. This just happens to be such a great example of how I change curb found knitwear into 'arty' tea cozies and other things. And it just happens to be for sale as well.

The nice story about this is how the discarded, from wearing and washing somewhat sagged H&M sweater (otherwise the yarn was in perfect condition), just exactly matched with the colour of some vintage seventies beads I picked up at my mum's weeks before I found it. And then there was a leftover of purple cotton yarn from a sweater I bought years ago in the thrift shop, that was just perfect for the embroidery.

I like to design fully inspired by these accidental finds and combinations and my own eclectic mind and hope I am free from influence from fashion, tv and other commercial things. Well, there's a full description of the tea cozy in the shop, so read that here.

To end, if your fingers start to itch right now, I don't think I showed that link before, here's a complete instruction for unraveling sweaters.

PS: if you read the earlier post about Queensday with the beige potholders, they were sold and the link will now lead you to the mint green replacements.

Books

2007-10-09T21:03:00.001+02:00

Do you like to read? I love books. I think books are so important, educative and enriching my life. And I like to share that with others. Ok, there is a lot of pulp too. But in general, I worship the book. I'm a bit of an omnivore: detectives, mystery, romance, political, historical, fantasy, biographies, all good for me. How can people throw them away?

As said in the last post, we find loads of books on the Queensday market. But also in the normal trash we get good stuff. Usually it's a box or plastic bag full of them. If I see a few interesting titles we just take the whole lot home.

We find so many that I can't even read them all. The fun is that I've learned to appreciate and read books that I may have never chosen in a shop or the library. I've learned to not want the latest bestseller (anyway I get the bestsellers from a few years back). New books are too expensive for me and it takes no effort to avoid book shops. It took a bit more practice to stay away from the book section in the thrift shop, but I manage. From the books that really don't appeal to me or for whatever reason I won't ever read, there's always a few that I think might be nice for friend X or Y and make great gifts. I always say how I got them and nobody minds. If there's any real pulp left over it ends up in the waste paper collector (however I found a seller on Etsy who makes wonderful objects from such book covers, so maybe I should think again next time...)(if you're curious, see in my favourite Etsy items widget below in the side bar for the mini pin cushions, that's her).

But also the books that the BF and I read and did like, we share with friends. We don't have the problem of having to worry about the unreturned book, which I know has stopped many people from lending books. Shame on them! Books deserve to be read countless times. But it's easier if it didn't cost you anything, right? I often even say: Bring it back if you want, but if you know someone who would like to read it too, feel free to pass it on! Of course, writers have to make a living and they need to sell copies, but I don't think any writer wants to see his book in the trash. I think what a writer wants most is to be read.

We find books in different languages (after all Amsterdam is a very international city), but mainly in Dutch and English. The BF is a Frenchie and though he speaks Dutch and English, until recently he wouldn't read anything but French. It was always trouble to find him cheap books. But his own enthusiasm for our little 'book club' changed that. After finding a couple of Ludlums and Le Carres, which I told him are respected and famous writers, he was so eager to lend them to his best mate Edward (who's a Dutch guy but born from British parents) that I couldn't even lay a hand on them yet. But Edward returned them with the comment: Fantastic! so the BF got curious and now he is hooked. He found having no trouble reading English at all and a world of before unknown literature (it's hard to find French translations of foreign books in Holland) has opened for him. I am so proud!

In the meantime I still haven't had a chance to read the Ludlums, because he already passed them on to his Turkish friend from our local coffee shop. Oh well, I still have about two meters of other books to go through... I just started a Tom Wolfe.

All books on these shelves are found and still to be read. As you can see I don't even have enough place to store them. What I'm done with goes in boxes and hopefully finds new readers some day.

Queen' s Day (including crochet tip!)

2007-09-29T16:20:00.003+02:00

One great way of getting great cheap stuff is visiting one of the 'Freemarkets' held in most big cities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, Rotterdam among others) in Holland on the day we celebrate the birthday of our Queen, Beatrix. It's held on April 30, but that's not her actual birthday, but her mother's (Juliana). Beatrix' birthday is January 31, but we Dutch like outdoor parties, so when she ascended the throne in 1980, she decided not to change the date of our national celebration, simply because of the weather conditions.

There are all sorts of happenings all over the country, but the 'freemarkets' are traditionally the biggest attractions.

What happens? The centres of the cities change into one giant flea market, where anybody can sell whatever he wants, as long as it's not foods that could decay. It's our way of having a yard sale, only the whole country does it on the same day. Some people plan the whole year for it. Only commercial sellers have stalls or booths, private sellers who live nearby carry old tables out to the curb, others just display their stuff on a blanket or sheet.

The main park of Amsterdam (Vondelpark) is reserved for children only. See more pictures of Queensday in Amsterdam here. All US thriftshoppers who read this, believe me, you'd have the day of your life. I've come home with great buys and I've sat there myself and sold stuff too.

But I don't do either anymore. I can't stand the crowds nowadays and I don't have the energy anymore to get organized to sell. If it's a nice day, my BF and I go to our local park and sit there with friends and neighbours. But between five and six, when the market starts to close up, we go to the streets that are nearest to our neighbourhood to pick up stuff that sellers who have already closed up left behind. It sounds a bit unfair or just too stingy, doesn't it? But the thing is, a lot of sellers really don't care to take their unsold stuff back home. And at seven the city cleaners come to shove it all in the big trucks. So, here we come to rescue it...

It's usually a quick tour through only one and a half street that results in four big plastic bags full of books and clothing. I'm sitting here right now in a Kappa sweater that I got that way. For my BF we once found a brandnew black jeans jacket. And it's not that I just want free stuff. Two years ago a guy was just packing up, but understanding what we were doing told me I could take anything I wanted if I gave him two Euro's. He had some interesting yarn that was worth that alone, beautiful turquise mohair and thick strong cotton) but we also ended up with loads of books, a lamp, a fruit bowl and more. I haven't done anything with the lamp yet, but it turned out that there was a working energy saving bulb still in it. Those cost between four and ten Euro's!

This is what I made with some of the yarn I got that day. These potholders are for sale in my Etsy Shop if you're interested.

To end I want to reveal to you how I make these perfect flat rounds. It's maybe not a secret but I made some alterations to the patterns I found in books. Please read the whole thing before you start, as there are several options.

You start with a chain of 4 which you close with a ss.
First row 6 sc.
Second row double those to 12.
Third row a double sc in every second stitch. You get 18 stitches.
Then you keep adding 6 stitches every row, but to avoid getting a hexagonal shape, just must alternate the places where you put the doubles.
That means: forth row, a double in every third stitch, but you put the first double in the FIRST stitch.
Fifth row: a double in every fourth stich, as normal.
Sixth row, a double in every fifth stitch, but you start in the SECOND.
Seventh row, a double in every sixth stitch, as normal.
Eighth row, a double in every seventh stitch, but start in the THIRD.
Got it? And so on.
Of course if you do want a hexagonal form, put all the doubles on top of each other.
If you work in a spiral, make sure you have the starting point marked.
If you work in circles (which I do), here's a trick to make the seam less visible:
Closing the row, you normally make a ss sticking the needle under the chain stitch which started the row. Instead, stick your needle through the loop, not under it. This way you get a flat seam, otherwise it will lay on the work as a thick line. Don't forget to start every row with that cs if you want to work in closed circles.
If the work doesn't get flat enough to your liking and gets a slight cone shape, try starting with 9 stitches, which you then double at once to get 18. The rest is the same. Note that working in a spiral or not may make the difference to this, as the seam in fact adds one stitch to the row. My advice: spiral start with 9, circles start with 6.
But it also depends on the material you use and your personal 'handwriting', so it's a matter of trial and error.

My favourite decorative border is a sc worked from left to right. Literally translated from Dutch it would be the 'lobsterstitch'. If anyone knows the proper name for it in English, please let me know! To finish the potholders off I make a loop from 10 cs, with 16-18 sc worked around it.

sc: single crochet, ss: slip stitch, cs: chain stitch

The Cat Carrier

2007-09-15T14:59:00.004+02:00

There is a downside to everything and the reason why a lot of people are horrified with the idea of trash picking is the possibility of coming across yucky or creepy things. Experienced pickers can't be put off by that of course, they just share their story on HGTV, have a laugh afterwards and get on with business as usual. But I warn you, if you have a weak stomach don't read this thread.

The truth is, I believe these accounts are the exceptions, and I had only one smelly experience a few months ago myself in all these years. And to be honest I still smile when I think of it.

Neighbours and friends of ours are stray cat feeders. They live 5th floor a few blocks away from us, but one of their furry groups live right on the footpath behind my yard. Earlier this summer the lady, Ganny, called me and told me they had to break down the wooden shelter her man, Freek (pronounce Frake, not Freak) had built in the backyard of my next door neighbour, Harry. The police had decided it was too visible and Harry had already a bad name for holding chickens and not keeping his yard too clean. There was fear of other neighbours thinking the cat shelter might attract critters and such. It was total nonsense of course, because I know my friends take extremely good care of their stray cats, bring them to the vet if necessary and certainly kept that shelter clean. Besides, Harry got rid of his chickens last year (and I miss them, I liked having chickens running around my yard).

This is Miene. She was born stray and she's over seven years old already. Can you see these cats are well taken care of?

Anyway, Ganny got permission from the cops to place smaller shelters hidden in the bushes between the yards and the path (behind that hedge you see on the picture) and they thought about using cast away litter boxes and pet carriers for it, so she asked me to look out for those on our trash round. My BF happened to have one old litter box on his balcony, recently replaced by a better find. So we were glad to get rid of that for such a good cause.

Once there I immediately ran to the bathroom, put on my rubber gloves, scooped out the pooh, flushed it in the toilet and thoroughly scrubbed the whole thing (and my scoop) with bleach. Then I took a closer look: I had a brand new, bar code sticker of the shop still on it, unscratched, complete, hardly ever used (except once for a human toilet) cat carrier in a highly fashionable lime green colour!

The next morning I presented a grateful Freek with the two pieces when he passed by. I told him I had to get rid of some 'dirt' from the carrier but that I disinfected it thoroughly and they didn't have to worry about it. I also said that I wouldn't be surprised if they kept it for their own cats, giving their own old carrier to the strays instead and in fact I believe they did!

Apart from a little bit of the bad smell I have no bad memories of this experience. The only thing that puzzles me is how the pooh ended up there. I can imagine one thing: maybe a small child used the carrier as a potty, putting it on its back and using the door as a hole. But what kind of parents are too disgusted to clean up their own kid's pooh and instead throw away a brand new cat carrier? The curb is full of stories and I never grow tired of them.

But on top the same evening towards the end of our twice a week stroll I found a plastic cat carrier, close to the model up here. It looked pretty good and clean, only the door was missing. Well, we didn't need that for our purpose, but still I looked inside to see if it was there after all. It was, but there was something else too: an enormous turd! It was about ten times to big to be of a cat, but it also didn't have the sharp penetrating smell of dog shit. I could have sworn it was human! Before asking myself how on earth that ended up where it was, I faced a difficult decision. My eagerness to help my friends and the cats was struggling with my disgust. Well you can guess, my love for the cats won. I know that little group and Miene is such a darling. After all the outside and the handle of the carrier were clean and it's easy to disinfect plastic. I quickly walked home, hoping passers by wouldn't smell anything. Lucky it was dark!

Awards

2007-09-09T10:43:00.000+02:00

It's been ages since Jenn T shared her Rockin' Girls Award with me. And I've been procrastinating for so long to share it in my turn, that I received another before I got to it: The Nice Matters Award by Sher. So it was about time to start thinking.

All blogs I've chosen are somehow 'green', but they all share an aspect of uniqueness. This can be overall quality, a point of view, a theme, an experience or just one idea that I haven't seen in other blogs so far and that's why I keep reading them.

My Rockin' Girls nominations (in random order) are for:
Debbie for 2Times Upon A Time. She lived out the ultimate t-2-t dream: completely furnishing and decorating her new home from scratch with second hands and gifts. And what a 'Cozy Cottage' she created indeed!
Krista shows (among other things) reconstructed clothing at Random Blogger. It's something I've done since my teens and a great way to renew your wardrobe for next to nothing. Though I found a webshop that sells redesigned jeanswear, Krista's the first I've found so far who shares her ideas for free on a blog.
Dora Renee' Wilkerson came up with an age old, but great idea on Y-2K Hippie. Making your own casein plastic, as she calls it, instead of using polymer clay. Although it doesn't fit the category recycling, I feel this eco-friendly idea deserves attention.
Barbara Mathieson at The Earth Is Not A Trash Can is so offended by careless people littering the environment that she takes photo's of it and shows them on her blog. Of course it's a well known problem, but it's good to have someone rubbing it in once more.
Malin from Sweden records her experiment in growing vegetables indoors in a flat on Indoor Gardener. Apart from that, I like to read her accounts of other green things going on in Sweden because my brother lives there (Göteborg).

The Nice Matters I want to share with three more blogs that also 'rock' for me, but unfortunately aren't written by only girls. But I find these 'nicely' different:
Wind-It-Up, recycling tips from a young Australian computer geek.
Green Is The New Black, very short no-nonsense posts, great simple green tips. Readability 10+.
Arnold The Methodical, a Brit living 'green' in France, or in his own words: A light hearted look at downshifting and self sufficiency and perhaps lifestyle changes. I love his light entertaining style.

About the numbers: Browsing around I've found people sharing their awards with different numbers of people (from only two up to seven). So I didn't feel necessarily obliged to stick to the respective five and seven of Jenn and Sher, although by chance I did find five 'Rockin' Girls'. Of course there are so many more to choose from, but after eight I was tired of the decision-making. To make it easier for them to make their own decision about this or to whom to pass them on, I've added the links of the initiators of the awards (first paragraph).

Indoor Plants II, Garden Plants III

2007-09-04T20:05:00.000+02:00

Hope I’m not getting boring, but here’s yet another one about free and found plants. I promise it will be the last, at least for this summer.

First the found. It turns out to be a good idea to check your local flower shop’s trash, especially when they’re about to close up for vacation. Ours is about two minutes walking from home. One night we had already ‘done’ a complete block in the other direction without seeing anything interesting, when the BF suddenly ‘remembered’ he had seen something that afternoon. So I followed him to the corner where the shop is. Next to the underground ‘dumpsters’ were five or six trays with small pots of two kinds of plants. Other people had apparently already made their choice, because not all were full. I wanted to do the same and take 2-3 of each, but the BF went: You want those? And picked up a complete tray and walked off before I could answer. So I thought why not and took the fullest tray of the other plant.

At home I counted 24 plants. What to do with all of them? The red flower is obviously an indoor plant. My windowsills were still empty, so I put them in rows of six, all in (found) white pots, which looks quite chic. Unfortunately the flowers are turning brown now, so it’s too late to take pics. Hopefully they’ll grow back next year.

The other one looked more like an outdoor plant to me, so I put them in pots all over the garden. Then after a couple of weeks they surprised me with the cutest violet flowers!

Two more free plants I didn’t show yet, because they had no flowers yet:

Geraniums are really too easy to grow from cuts. Just cut off a 10-15 cm branch from your mum’s, aunt’s, neighbour’s or friend’s plant and stick it into the ground. Keep it fairly wet for the first few weeks and voila: They grow quickly.

An enthusiastic for the plant spread Alcea Rosea (Hollyhock) through the neighbourhood years ago and they’re even all over town now. They grow in window gardens and even around trees. I just had to take some seeds to have my own. This colour was a surprise. I hope to get more colours and other varieties next year.

Look at this webpage: http://www.malvaceae.info/Genera/Alcea/gallery.html
All these varieties can be found in the streets around my house. It’s a pretty sight in summer here.
These were taken by an amateur photographer in the streets of the centre of Amsterdam: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kennethverburg/archives/date-posted/2006/06/30/

Freeganism vs T-2-T

2007-08-24T20:10:00.000+02:00

If you want to push trash picking to the limit, you should know about Freeganism. The term is a combination of 'free' and 'vegan'. Freegans don’t only take durable goods from the curb, they search for food as well. They know their places; dumpsters at restaurants, supermarkets and shopping malls. Also they don’t only look for treasures to recuperate, but anything they need in everyday life; clothing, tools, washing liquids, kitchen stuff etc. etc. See the links below this post to find out more about their lifestye and motivation for it.

Personally, I don’t ‘shop’ for food, but mainly because I never find any. Large shops in Holland don’t throw their unsold food in dumpsters and I never saw any on the curb next to smaller shops. I think the latter, often owned by Turkish or Moroccan people, simply hand it out to their own extended families. Foodbanks have a fairly active policy and don’t wait for shops to bring in food, they go to pick it up at the larger restaurant chains and supermarkets.

I am somewhere in the middle of being a Freegan at heart (because I will take home anything I can use and my anti-consumerism is almost as extreme as theirs) and a ‘trash-to-treasurer’, someone who mainly scours the trash in search of vintage objects to recuperate or recraft into something original and beautiful.

I think it's a pity the two groups are seperated, because I think in reality most people are more or less a little bit in both ‘camps’. I suspect there’s craftiness in most Freegans and I know a lot of t-2-t’ers who are quite open minded about picking up clothes and other textiles for example and who admit they are concerned about the world and want to reduce the landfill. Although some seem to agree with the Freegans without realizing it themselves; on HGTV, where I started a discussion on the subject, there was understanding for Freegans, but a big NO to even thinking about picking up food themselves. On the other hand on the Freegans’ official website I miss the FUN and creativeness of the less extreme curb shoppers.

If you want to read more here are the links:

The Freegan Website

Not Buying It, NYT article

My topic on HGTV

The Dresser

2007-08-15T09:43:00.000+02:00

Here's another fine addition to my BF's flat. The previous owners of this dresser had put it on its side on the curb with all the drawers pulled out next to it, but that couldn't fool us, since we recognize a good piece. It's made of solid wood, only the back and the drawer bottoms are hardboard. One leg had to be reattached and one (at the back, so invisible) replaced.
It stores a lot of stuff and matches perfectly with his sturdy table (see May, 24). He didn't stop to talk about it for days. I didn't know a guy could be so excited about a piece of furniture.

It's a very heavy piece and we couldn't have moved it home without this very handy and helpful find of a couple of months ago: a genuine mover's dolly (company name and all stamped on it). You may think it's just a plank on four wheels, but these things are expensive. I suspect the guys forgot it after moving someone in somewhere. Rather than one simple phone call to the company, they just threw it on the street. It's one of those times when you think: What are people thinking?