Garden Update II

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

More Curb Found Craft Fair Solutions

This is a follow-up on my post of June last year. If you want you can take a look back and see the improvements!

I had another one in between in Octobre, but that was a disaster because of the strong wind that day. The silk cover sheets I finally found were too light and together with a lot of my smaller items like the flower brooches were blown from the table! Even after pinning everything down on the wood I couldn't walk away for a second.

Last month I had two Christmas fairs in my home town, Amsterdam. I don't know if it was the Christmas spirit or the different attitide of the big city folks, but for the first time in my craft fair history I sold at a profit. Maybe it was a bit of both, but nine out of ten people were clearly buying for themselves.

One thing that may have helped a little bit too was a better set-up of my table. Because both markets were very close to home I could carry all my stuff by bicycle in two hauls and so I could take more and better display stuff.

First of all I had a really good cover sheet. This one is in one piece and not too heavy, but not too light as well. When I went through my boxes I found a white curtain that measures about 4 by 1,5 meters, the perfect size for a market booth, though the stalls were a bit shorter than the usual 4 meters on this market. I had even forgotten I had it and I also can't remember when and where I found it. And though it's a bit bulky and heavy to carry, I think I may keep this one and even drag it with me in the train for a future market out of town.



With a neatly hemmed piece of finer cloth from a trashed pull up curtain I made a wind proof display for my flower brooches. Can you see it flapping in the wind? And that was only half the wind force as in Octobre. Only the second day I hung it to the side (first picture) as it was blocking my view of my visitors' faces a bit. It's also very handy for transportation and setting up, as I just keep the brooches pinned on and roll it up. It saves a lot of packing and unpacking, so this one is also a keeper too, even for markets out of town.

In June I showed the display board that I made to fit exactly in my suitcase. This time I had to lay it almost flat on the table because it was to light to stand up in the breeze. If you look close you can see it in the photos before the above paragraph.

But I still had one of the same boards in its original size and covered it in a pretty trashed piece of silk fabric (same I used in Octobre for my table). Unfortunately it's too large to bring with me out of town, but here I think it really helped to draw attention to my crocheted jewelry and dressed earrings.

I sold three pairs of them.

For one time I didn't have to bring that ugly plastic make-up mirror (again, see June) and took a pretty one that normally hangs in my kitchen. The mirror leans against a cardboard box that I used for transportation and covered in the same purple silk as the display board and serves as a rise for my tea cozies on the table.



When I first saw it on the curb I thought it was cheap kitsch, but I like a bit of fun kitsch anyway, then at home, looking at the back I found it was actually a handmade item, and who knows how old!

Here's that display hand I talked about in 'A Dress Dummy'. Even not yet repainted it helped to draw attention to my crocheted wrist bands and I sold almost all my broader models, including the orange rag cuff I showed in my previous post and this dark blue one. And just like this red one below, it's completely made of discarded clothing, including the buttons.



Perhaps you thought my post about the rescued lunch bags was a bit funny. But here's how I used them to pack up the products for my customers.

Last but not least: carefully tied on top of a box I even managed to bring a small fold-up stool. I found this one in a dumpster near a renovation site. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of my loaded bike...

Winners Fall Contest

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

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!!

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

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

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

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.