Queen's Day 2008 (and More Clothing)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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)

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)

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

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.