Portland, Projects, & Moisture Festival in Seattle

Its Sunday.  I have been working on two awesome projects but they both are part of some up coming birthday presents for friends so I cant share them yet.  Can't wait to though since they are fun and easy projects that you can do too. 

Above you can see a photo of an utensil drawer/divider that must used to sit in someones kitchen drawer protecting spoons and forks.  Over time its interior green flocked material lining stuff has faded and come off in places to give it this perfect velvet looking green patina inside of it.  I love it.  As soon as I saw it at Stars Antique Mall near Sellwood I thought it could either hold litle miniature items oe become part of an assemblage piece I am working on.  I literally have tons of this kind of stuff around here.  Waiting its turn to be the next project in process. 

I saw two old cruddy and perfect patina painted red drawers just like these at a sale on Friday but I passed them up.  Sometimes I cant bring myself to buy a good piece because I have so many projects going and cant justify having another thing laying around waiting for attention.  I should have bought the red ones though.  Darn it! 

This amazingly perfect condition lamp shade/ lighted picture thingy is so cool.  Chad found it hanging on the wall in someones space at House of Vintage in Portland, on Hawthorn, and it was only $10.  Yes, I know, can you believe it?!  Maybe you have to see theis in person to see how neat it is.  The picture shows on both sides and its like really thick transperancy film material, but thick, I mean really thick.  And each corner has a very small grommet stuck in it like you are meant to attach it to the front of something lit up, like an advertising sign//board, or to those old vintage light up pictures people woould hang in their living room.  Or maybe its meant to wrap around a lamp shade base or something similar.  We have it leaning in a window right now and it looks cool with the light coming thru.  We intend to find a flatish little slab of wood that we can cut a channel in and wrap the shade into a cylinder shape and fit it in there with a light bulb in the middle.  Another small little project that needs to happen.  It'lll happen, cuz I love this thing!  Nice score Chad!

Above you can see a couple covers of old books I found in Portland.  The bluish book covers on the left I found at Stars Antique Mall and there are two of them, with both sides looking perfectly aged and with great patina, so I have 4 pieces of those when I seperate the backs and fronts.  The one on the right is from Monticello and its back side is great too so I have 2 covers there.  I will use all 6 peices, seperately, in assemblage pieces I have in mind.  Most likely they will end up as the background in a shadow box/ diorama type dealio.  I wish I could get my walls to look like any of these book covers and I would be in heaven.  The age, wear, patina, and mix of colors, texture and depth are what I long for.  I cant stand my flat single color walls but know this is not the house to completely make over with plaster walls and pigments.  Sigh.  Another time and place in my future.

Went to a fabulous and wonderful comedy/variete show at Moisture Festival last night at Hale's Palladium in the Ballard/Freemont area.  What fun!  The Mositure Festival works to keep Comedy, Variete, Burlesque and Vaudeville alive.  We went with freinds and by the time we left we were holding our faces because our cheeks hurt and ached from laughing so much!  It was that fun!  So we are taking the kids next Sunday.  The day time and 7:30pm show are for kids too and the late night 10:30pm show is for adults only.  I already know my kids will LOVE this because it is funny, weird, and odd.  It's right up our alley!  There are clowns, jugglers, acrobats, comediens, musicians, rope acts, aerialists, dancers, fan twirlers, and burlesque in the late shows.  Check out their times and other shows if this at all appeals to you.  I think you will find it entertaining and enjoyable. 

Back from PDX (a.k.a. I HEART PORTLAND!)

Whew! What a whirlwind! Two nights in Portland (PDX) is NOT nearly enough to do everything this girl wants to do! Dang! I need at least a week to eat, shop and listen to good music, and still, I bet, I would barely squeeze it all in. PDX has the goods and that's no lie. I happened upon a yard sale and an estate sale and scored, as always at Monticello. Found some sweetness in Sellwood and at Stars on Milwaukie. There is ALWAYS some gorgeous treasure to be had at Randy's Madison Park store on SE 13th where you can find beautiful Edwardian, Victorian and primitive antique furnishings and accessories. Always leave there drooling with a fever! And I was lucky to find an awesome item digging thru all the crap at House of Vintage. Chad even scored a brand new pair of vintage shoes at Magpie vintage clothing on SW 9th that still had the original tag on them as if they were old store stock.

I was so jealous! But I did score many a loot and treasure so I am not too sad!

For now I am just going to post some photos of many of the cool things I found. Later I will write about the food we ate and the music we saw. It was all good and fabulous!  Above you can see three of the four cardboard boxes I found.  These three all came from Monticello.  I love the old graphics on these and they are truly useful.  Usually I use them to wrap gifts in because I believe the presentation of a gift is just as important as the gift itself.  Its the whole experience I am looking for!  My cousin and I have gotten into a wonderful habit of gifting each other with these amazing vintage boxes and it makes gift exchanging all the more spectacular!  I especially love the typewriter paper box becasue of its size.  It is often hard to find vintage boxes, in useful shape and in larger sizes.  Sometimes I find good hat boxes but they are a bear to wrap since they tend to be roundish!  The My Little Library box with the bunny coming out of the watering can is so darn cute and it has the best graphics on the side as well, pictures of every nursery rhyme you can think of, some you can above.

This tiny little wire chair I love because I can upholster it!  Yes, folks!  I want to embellish this little fellow with gorgeous vintage velvet and make it the most inviting chair you ever had laid your eyes on.  Imagine it with a load of beaded olded velvet and maybe even a little weird doll sitting on it and a couture pillow with fringe.  Perfect!

And next, OMG, the most fabulous French ribbon and silk embroidered butterfly appliques I have ever seen.  There is one vendor at Monticello who has tons of vintage french ribbon and material and odd millnery items and whatnot.  Love that vendor!  So hard not to spend every cent there!  Another vendor had these, never before seen, silk embroidered butterfly appliques.  What?!  I mean..... WHAT!!?!!  Have you ever?!  These are TO DIE FOR!  What will I do with them?  Stare and drool and tuck away till gawd knows when....  Just look!  And the butterflies ar on old tissue paper.  Not sure how they are stuck on but they dont seem to be iron ons so ....... Hmmmm......

Well, I had planned to make this a much bigger post but since it has taken me three days to get this far, I think I will publish now and start a new and continuing post later.  Gus gets home from Death Valley National Park tonight.  He has been there 9 days with Community School.  We are all anxious for him to be back but have enjoyed our time with Jasper alone.  Funny how we had Gus alone for 8 years and have yet to enjoy extended amounts of time with just Jasper.  Bitter sweet since it all goes too fast anyhow.  How did August get to be turning 15 years old?  Time flies when you are having fun.....

Gnome Houses and Headed to Portland!

I have been wanting to share these pictures and gnome house ideas with y'all for a while now. I still can't find the pictures of the gnomes themselves but will hunt them down and add them later. Also, heading to Portland for the weekend where I intend to listen to wonderful live music, eat amazing food and shop til I drop. Will be staying at my beloved Ace Hotel and hitting all my usual haunts. I intend to make a Portland post next week to fill ya in on all the places I love to visit while there and share my treasures too!
In the meantime, let me give you peek at the gnome houses. I made the first couple of these over a year ago. I made one for Jasper to keep in his room for all his varied gnome folk and I made another another for an auction. I have made them for friends kids for gifts and just made another for August's Wilderness Awareness School auction so they could raise the money they needed to currently be spending 9 days in Death Valley National Park.
Anywho, I hunt and gather, all throughout the year, from tag sales, to estate sales, to rummage sales, Christmas Nativity Sets. The barn/building part is what I use to build my gnome houses and if I can, I leave the figures behind or give them back to a thrift store when I take a load in. The Creche is so useful to attach all my gathered and dried moss and twigs to. Whenever there is a strong wind I just walk around my yard and gather as much moss and lichen covered sticks as I can. I dry them out well and then use a hot glue gun to attach these in every which way to the nativity creche and voila, a gnome house is born. On this last one I used gathered shells and glued them to the tips of sticks to make them into mushrooms. We also used found and bought feathers and one tiny fake bird. The gnomes themselves are hand sewn using wool felt, gold or silver thread, and tiny bells for the tips of their hoods. I use wool stuffing and make them in three sizes so they can be a family. Last time the kids used nuts in the shells to glue together gnomes and added acorn hats and fur collars. So cute! Also on this last one I used a tiny grapevine wreath and placed some beeswax birthday candles around and melted into it and hung it as a chandelier! So darling! My lovely friend Brooke won this one at the auction and she was thrilled.
The kids help a lot with these projects and have great ideas about how to make them magical places. Try making one with your people and let me know how it goes. Have fun!

Breathe Owl Breathe and Smith

Had an amazing Monday night! Who woulda thunk it?! Got to see Breathe Owl Breathe at a house concert in Seattle (bottom two photos) and went to Smith for the first time to try their awesome drinks (photo of beer) and food. The atmosphere at Smith made me feel right at home with all its taxidermy and portrait paintings. Just like being in my own house! If it weren't for B.O.B. playing up the street at 8pm, I could have sat at Smith all night drinking, switching back and forth from Cardinal 75s to Allagash White pints on tap. I know, I know, not supposed to mix grapes and grains, but they are both so yummy! The menue at Smith is certainly gastro-pub fare with so many dishes looking so delicious that it was very hard to choose. Everyone raves about the Smith Burger so I had it this time and will try something different next time. Chad had the Cuban style Pork and Ham Sandwich. We both also wanted the Braised Oxtail, Roasted Lamb, Mac and Cheese with housemade sausage, and Hanger Steak but, alas, dont have stomachs large enough to consume all that in one sitting!
After our fine dining adventure we got to see a band we discovered at Pickathon last summer, Breathe Owl Breathe, at a house concert with about 20 other folks. It was so fun (see happy photo of Chad!), refreshing, and exciting to be up close and personal with such incredible musicians. We are headed to Portland this weekend to catch some more of them when they perform at Live Wires 6th anniversary live radio show and again on Saturday night when they play at The Woods, an old funeral parlor turned into a performance space. Portland deserves many other posts of its own but I just have to say here.... I LOVE Portland!! OK, anyhow, B.O.B. will be at Pickathon again this year along with many other superb bands, including The Fruit Bats, who I have not seen yet but am so excited that I will! Visit the Pickathon website to discover for yourself some new talent and let me know what you like and love. With Pickathon, you can't go wrong! Enjoy!

A few pictures

Here are a few photos of some things around the house that I love. The two dolls I found in a tiny town outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I have them dressed in some vintage dresses and old silk I had. The Beaded bird pillow/pin cushion I found in Duvall at a shop and I had to have it right away! The amazing blue velvet vintage box is a gift from my cousin who spoils me rotten with THE COOLEST gifts ever! Its full of treasures as well. The little red wheelbarrow is from a vendor at the antique mall I am in, M & M Antiques in Monroe, WA. and the tiny blue metal bed frame is a gift from my bestie Julie. I love my treasures! Enjoy!

Friend and Food and Lover

OK all you Seattle foodie folk. Lets talk about FOOD. I have been waiting to post on Bastille and Cantinetta until I could figure out how to link to them. Ta Da!! Silly me, so technologically lame, I thought it would be hard. But I think this mighta worked!
OK, so have you been to Bastille or Cantinetta? Must Go Now! No kiddin, no foolin, no messin around, GO!
My dear darling BFF of almost 20 years, Erin, dined with me at Bastille after we hit the Sandpoint Antique and Design Market way back at the end of January. What a lovely market and what a lovely meal. I will have to create another post on the fabulosity of Sandpoint but right now we are talking about food. Bastille is a francophiles heaven in Ballard. We were there for brunch and we enjoyed it for three hours! Erin had crepes, I had duck confit and we both tried their brunch drinks, Rosemary Lemonade and a French 75. Delicious! It was divine.
More recently, Chad and I had a superb meal at Cantinetta last Wednesday night before seeing the amazing Fred Eaglesmith at the Tractor Tavern. You know when you have the experience of several different people, from different areas of your life, all saying you should check something out, and you finally do and its like the perfect fit? Well that's Cantinetta. Had heard about it from folks all around me and wouldn't you know we were going to the city early on a Wednesday night so we could actually get a table and not wait (they don't take reservations)all night. The food was good, down to earth and tasty. We started with antipasti: mussels with garlic, shallots, bay leaf and Bresaola with miner's lettuce, egg, and lemon. The bresaola is a cured beef and it was wonderful and salty just like I like it! Then I had contorni: Creamed Nettles with ricotta salata and we both had primi: Chad had Tagliatelle bolognese and I had Garganelli with lamb, lemon and farm egg. Nice and lemony, just like I like it! It was a great meal, although quick, but you could sit there, especially at the bar, eating antipasti and glugging drinks, for hours. Sounds divine. Think I will make a point to get back there and do just that. Join me!

Back in Action

OK, so took a long break from blogging and now I am back to finally tell you about the cashmere hand warmers I have been making as of late. Here you will see photos of two pairs. One pair is a darker blue cashmere and they are long, go half way up your arm, and can be worn over or under a shirt or jacket. The other pair is a lighter blue cashmere that already had this gorgeous shell button detail that I took advantage of. They are shorter but you will notice that I used the same vintage blue velvet trim on both pairs. To make these I simply felt down a cashmere sweater and seam rip a hole in the side seam where it seems like I would want my thumb to stick out. Then to reinforce the hole, I zigzag stitch with my machine, or hand stitch with embroidery thread, depending on the look I am going for. I made two other pairs for friends and used vintage ribbon around the open end near the fingers for a decorative detail. I will try to post pictures of those when I can get photos taken. Really, the possibilities are endless. I have yet to find a better use for felted cashmere sleeves! Try some yourself and let me know how it goes!

Cashmere Schmazmere

I dont know about you but I have a storage tub full of cashmere sweaters that have been awaiting my attention. I'd say half of them have been felted down and half are begging to be washing machine felting. The ones that have been felted have been a great source of amusement for making fun hand/wrist warmers and some funky sweaters. Amazingly, one of the the thickest, most gorgeous vintage sweaters, felted perfectly down to the size of my rather big-for-his-age 6 year old. He is delighted beyond what I can express in words and is always asking, "Mom, can I wear 'the sweater'?" As if its the only swaeter he has. But if you could feel how soft and warm this little sweater is, you would want to wear it every day too. And to make it even more desirable, it has ended up with the sweetest woodland scene on it! I LOVE wool and cashmere! So versatile to use and design with since once felted you can cut to your hearts content and no unraveling occurs. Love it! So with the rest of the scraps from those other felted cashmere sweaters in the tub, I came up with this woodland scene that is so darn tootin cute, I can't stand it, and I want one for me! I tend to make myself the more deconstructed looking, slap it together, and call it a sweater, kind of sweaters. I'll post some pictures of those too as I wade thru all the completed and half finished projects I have goin' on around here. So here, for eye candy and hopefully inspiration, are a couple photos of "the sweater." Most of the appliqued pieces were machine stitched on and then a few of the pieces I added embroidery to give them more definition. There is the big tree, a bird nest with eggs, a bird, a mushroom and a yellow bunny! J wanted a gnome but we couldnt figure out where to squeeze him in so he will be on the next one, probably a vest, that I do for him. The bigger the applique, the easier it is to maneuver and manipulate. The mushroom is layered and machine stitced and also hand stitched. Just depends on how intense and time consuming you want your objects to be that determines which process you use to get there. I will try to post soon on some of the handwarmers and other sweaters I have done or are working on currently. Enjoy! And spend some time felting and sewing for yourself or someone you love. It will make you happy!

Here we go....

Welcome and beware! You have entered the strange but wonderful world of Smashing Rubbish, an outlandish place where I can assure you will get to look in on random acts of collecting, altering, creating and displaying that are sure to astonish and amaze if not totally freak you out! The common layer of dust and cob webs alone might throw you into a tizzy! Come along and join me on this never ending journey of discovery as I blah, blah, blah your ear off with all that I have scored, found, bought, altered, tweaked, picked up off the ground, been given, thrifted, traded, and created. Interspersed you may find rusty yet shiny pearls of wisdom on subjects ranging from mothering two boys ages 14 and 6, to traveling and surfing, to what food I am obsessed with, to what music I have currently set on constant repeat, to how my sweet honey bees are doing, to what I am doing in the garden, to what herb I am using to cure my ills and to what book I can not put down. I will wax on till the cows come home and then some, marvelling all the while!

Smashing Rubbish is the poison I pick, my vice, if you will. Smashing = anything I deem extraordinary, impressive, wonderful, excellent, awesome, cool, badass, the bomb, sweet, groovy, hot, sexy or amazing. You get the idea. Rubbish = any old junk, treasure, trash, crap or garbage that I see potential in and is often not quite junk at all. Rubbish can include antiques, fabric, furniture, stuff other people throw away, bits and pieces of this and that, fixin's, findin's and all the whatchyamacallits I have scattered around here and discover at every turn. Some of my excellent junk, or smashing rubbish, I use to create other stuff. As stated, I will post on what I find, what I do with it, what I love, how I display all the smashing rubbish I acquire, what I have for sale, and anything I deconstruct, sew, alter, create, glue, bead, plant, Dremel, wire, and otherwise transform, which is much of the smashing rubbish I score.

Curious? Then come along and take a peek once in a while. Along the way, and for your benefit, I will attempt to amuse and inform, often gratefully rejoicing and bitterly complaining all in one breathe while sharing my latest projects, blabbering on stuff I don't know enough about, staying calm and freaking out, and hoping to help you realize that if I can do this stuff, so can you, if you choose! You are sure to, at the very least, get a good laugh and come away with a smile. In fact, beware of belly aches and your face hurting. Onward ho!