Overwhelmed no more

I have been on a mission for the last year - to clean out the massive quantities of stuff in my basement.  Some of it has been remainders of inventory from the (now closed) salvage studio retail space.  Some of it has been raw materials for projects.  Some of it has been projects in process.  And some of it was just detritus that had to be tossed.  I've been making good progress on most of it.  But the albatross that lurked in the back of my studio still remained...
18 plastic tubs of fabric.

As I've commented before, I have been sewing since I was a little girl.  At one time, I made most of my clothes.  When I started my company, four corners design, I made pillows, tablecloths and bed linens from a combination of vintage and recycled fabrics.  So over the years, one accumulates a lot of fabric...because you never know when you will need just that right texture/color/pattern for whatever it is that you are making.

I've stopped making my clothes - I pretty much wear blue jeans, gray t-shirts and wool sweaters now.  I stopped making pillows from vintage textiles - people would love the design but would prefer, for example, that the fabric to be red and not blue- they did not understand that with vintage materials, its one-of-a-kind.  And whenever I was working on a project and wanted to add some fabric, I could never find what I was looking for because there's so much and its so disorganized - to say nothing about rummaging thru 18 tubs and finding the desired fabric in the last tub!

Last year I heard about this "purge party" happening in Seattle - it was too late for me to participate but when I got the early info in January, I immediately signed up.  There's a group of Stashaholics, a fabric swap community, that sponsors a "Purge Party" twice a year at Magnuson Park.  Its a place to unload your stash (and earn a commission on your sales) or you can load up on more stash by coming to the sale.  This spring sale will be April 10 & 11.  All the details can be found on their website, Our Fabric Stash.  One could even sell their stash and also buy more but I'm going to resist and just unload.  And its not just fabric - textiles, yarn, notions, craft supplies will all be for sale.  I also love the part that whatever you don't sell, you can choose to donate and the Stashaholics will take care of giving it to a charitable cause.

So I'm going thru my 18 tubs and have it whittled down to 4 tubs that I'm keeping.  These rest went to Goodwill or is being tagged for the Purge Party.  I have a lot of fabric remnants - I organized them by color and have bundled them together so you get a coordinated package of material - perfect for making a quilt, a totebag, sachets, whatever you want. 













I have 75 bundles - many have vintage materials and designer fabrics in them - don't you need one for yourself?

Beauty in your own backyard

The April issue of Birds & Blooms magazine has a feature article on my book, The Salvage Studio: Sustainable Home Comforts to Organize, Entertain and Inspire.  Written with my former partners while I was a founding member of the Salvage Studio, this book provides inspiration and instruction for 35 sustainable projects to create an enjoyable and comfortable home.

The Birds & Blooms article focuses on projects you can do to liven up your garden and highlights several of the stellar photos from the book (thank you Kate Baldwin!) to provide incentive to get out there and starting creating. If you want the step-by-step instructions, click on the link in the right-side column of my blog where you see the picture of the book- this will take you directly to Amazon where you can buy your very own copy.

The garden goddesses - featured in the magazine article - are one of my favorite projects from the book.  I love thinking up inventive ways to use stuff that people are throwing away- and people definitely throw away old trophies!  I had a eureka moment when I saw a women at the Goodwill Outlet unscrew the top of the trophy from the base.  It never occurred to me that trophies came apart!  And the victorious woman (or man as the case may be) has a long threaded screw attached at the bottom - so I thought that this could be the perfect finial to an art sculpture.  Playing around with more metal/terracotta/heavy plastic junk with holes in the center and building a monument led to the birth of the garden goddesses.  Again, if you want more detailed instructions, this project is included in The Salvage Studio book.  So what are you waiting for - click here to order your copy now!

Collections

This past weekend, we traveled to Eastern Washington to visit my sister - it was her birthday so we wanted to have a grand celebration.

Like myself, my sister collects discarded, dilapidated, vintage and even older- stuff.  The key to keeping such stuff is to find a way to appreciate it without it taking over.  In her house, she has made an extraordinary effort to display her collections with an artfullness sprinkled with wit and humor.  The style tip here is condense and edit - and focus intently on a theme.

Stacey has a niche in her living room with several shelves where most of her collections are kept.  The top photo is the "dog" shelf.  Notice that there are personal photos mixed in with the vintage playing cards and the dog icons.  Those photos add a great punch of personality.

The following photos are from the two shelves of "games".

Every item does not need to be seen - the mix of shapes and colors inside of a jar or the abundance of texture from an overflowing container adds to the complexity of the display.  Variety in height and scale also adds interest.




Two special books receive attention front and center but there are many more interesting volumes behind - and might have their time to shine in the future.











Remember - condense, edit and focus - it can make the difference between a jumble of junk and a picture of panache for whatever collection you may have.

Easy as 1 - 2 - 3

One: old wooden hangers














Two: tattered sheet music














Two & one-half: 

Add a dab of paint, a length of wallpaper, a flourish of ribbon...

Three: a trio of hanger art

great sources for inexpensive supplies:

Latex paint - your local hardware store (like Lowes!) usually has a mis-tint area where you can pick up paint for a discounted price.  The small sample cans are great since you can get just that little bit of paint that you need for a small project.

Wallpaper - Any store that deals with wallpaper will have sample books.  These books expire as new designs are released and the store receives updated samples.  Often the expired books are free for the asking.


Ribbon - for those of you in the Seattle area, Midori Ribbon has an outlet location.  Midori carries an exquisite line of ribbon, handmade paper and buttons for crafts, decorating and gift giving.  Details on their events and sales can be found at www.midoriribbon.com




It's as easy as 1 - 2 - 3! And you can quickly swap out other images and designs - change according to the seasons, the holidays, whatever whim strikes your fancy...

The Weekly Fluff

Today at Faded Elegance, there were chicks, birds, bunnies and eggs - I guess Easter is on its way!

Faded Elegance
Downtown Historic Snohomish
www.fadedelegancestyle.blogspot.com

More metal madness

As the weather warms, many people's thoughts turn to gardening - what to plant, what to prune, what survived the winter, what needs to be moved.  Though I appreciate having a garden, I just did not inherit a green thumb.  When we moved into our lovely 1902 home, the interior was impecable.  Outside there wasn't a single plant beyond the sod in the front yard.  My sister transformed both the front and back yards into a green oasis. Its a struggle for me to do the garden thing.  So instead, I focus on garden art.  What can I add to my garden to make it more interesting...and put off weeding until later...

I made these Junk Flowers to hang on my fence.  I had a motherlode of metal pieces- odds and ends, flotsam and jetsam.  I started with a large metal lid - a garbage can lid for two of them, enameled pot lids for the others.  I like using a large lid as the base - it has a handle on the backside which can be used for hanging the completed "flower" on the fence.  From there I just played around with different shapes and configurations until something just looked right.  It helped if there was a hole in the middle of whatever piece I was adding, but an electric drill with a high-powered bit solved that problem with little effort.  I did drill a hole in the center of the lid that I was using for the base.  The main component holding the flower together is a long machine screw with a washer and wingnut, threaded from back to front.

This large "flower" is composed of a flat round metal grill underneath a bicycle tire frame with gear derailer, capped off with a old water spigot handle.

This "blossom" has a jello mold layered over a car hubcap, topped off with a smaller jelly mold.  I had the metal screw protrude about one inch out from the center where the nut is attached, making it look like a flower pistil.

This "bud" has a plain jello mold cradling a circular mouli grater, capped with the cover from a chicken feeder with a finial of a sink strainer.

As you can tell, the options are endless.  Just playing around with the parts, varying the textures & finishes while adjusting the depths will give you as much variety as exists in the floral world!