Craft Fairs

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)

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.