Give it the old Reuse!

While I love finding things second hand, even better is when I can reuse something that I've had for a while in an entirely new way. Halloween generally allows all sorts of creative reuses of items. The old riding boots that I salvaged from my grandpa's closet after he died have worked wonders with several costumes. Hell, those boots fit right in with today's boot obsessed look. Probably not what my grandpa thought during his years of wearing them at the race track.

Don't worry - it was washed. Twice!

Anyway, I've been excited by several good examples of reuse that I've seen lately. First and foremost is the cute Halloween costume worn by the almost one year old son of my friends Sarah and JB. Doesn't he look cute like a cute crocodile? Well he should. He's in a an old Halloween costume worn by their chocolate lab during the pre-children years of their marriage. Yes, that's right. That baby is in a dog outfit. LOVE IT. Share and share alike, I say!

For me?!!?

A potentially less cute but more hilarious reuse was Steady J's costume consisting of a sport coat, slacks, sunglasses and a strategically placed wrapped gift. Cost? Nothing. He reused everything he already had. Curious to what he was? Here you go. Just remember, I had nothing to do with it.

And finally, totally unrelated to Halloween but still one of the coolest things I've seen: Wrapagain! It's a square of pretty fabric that has ribbon strategically placed so that you can fold the fabric around an item, tie it, and have a beautifully wrapped gift! The fabric wrap can be reused as many times as you want and it even has a tracking number sewn in so you can see how far your fabric has traveled as it has been reused. Too cool!  Taking it a bit further, it would be really easy to make these out of scrap fabric and old ribbon. Don't have fabric or ribbon? I find a ton of it at second hand stores. Goodwill always has lots of spools of ribbon and some of it is quite nice. Or cut up some of your old table cloths or runners. Or even those old t-shirts! These wrappings look so much classier than the paper I salvaged from the recycling at work and the bows I made from holiday candy wrappers last year. Guess it might be time to take it up a notch!

Bite the battery

You know that Weezer blue album song with the lines, "My name is Wakefield, Gotta box full of your toys. They're fresh out of batteries. But they're still makin' noise, makin' noise." I love this song! It's been stuck in my head for days - ever since I had to break down and buy batteries.Yes. Yes. I. bought. batteries. I never thought in the world that it would be batteries that would demolish my plan to buy nothing new for a year. You'd think I would have gone for something more interesting!


Sadly, batteries are some of those weird little things you can't really do without in some situations. What got me was my need for a bright headlamp when I'm riding my bike after dark, which is pretty much every day on my way home from work and most weekends on the way home from Squirrels! My batteries finally gave up the ghost after two years and neither Steady J or I had any AAA size. He and I co-purchased an 8 pack of Energizer Re-chargeable batteries to share - I already had a charger. (Side note: Energizer Rechargeable batteries hold a charge for way longer than the Sanyo batteries that came with my charger.) So now my headlamp is super bright and safe which is great, but I had to buy something new and that felt incredibly weird!!! 

I'm just not sure what to think. Really, I have not interest in buying anything else new any time soon. I sort of enjoy all this money saving and thrift store shopping. I've lately had some quite serendipitous second hand shopping experiences - last week I was looking on Amazon.com for a used down coat because I'm tired of wearing my wool coat out in the woods when it is cold, but of course there was nothing used listed. A half hour later I walked into Second Glance, my favorite consignment shop in Corvallis and there was a used North Face Down Jacket in my size. It's $199 new. I got it for $80.Score! I had a similar situation on the weekend of thinking about how I needed a bottle crowner to put the cap on my bottles of hard cider and then I found one for $3 at the OSU Folk Thrift Store. Another awesome occurrence! I'm looking forward to seeing what else I run across. Perhaps some pants that actually fit will work their way into my life!

I went to Denmark.....

And all I got were these photos. For real! And have a history of searching for the perfect souvenirs so this was quite a stretch for me!

Actually, Steady J and I went to Sweden as well. The reason for the hop over the ocean was to visit my good friends Jenny (aka Hot Dish) and Jacob (aka The Dane) who live in Copenhagen. Our good buddy Party Jon was also Copenhagen bound so we had a mini reunion of Corvallis in Copenhagen. Very nice!

Below is a brief synopsis of our trip in 11 photos.

We took our bikes on the S-train and headed for the 'burbs to the Dyre Haven (Deer Park) which was the royal hunting grounds. It was sunny and warm! We saw lots of bikes, deer and dogs!

Party Jon and Hot Dish soak up the rays at the beach. That's the Baltic sea - the bridge to Sweden is in the background.

We rode bikes around Christiania, the hippie settlement in the center of Copenhagen.

Commentary in Christiania.

Visited the elephants at the Carlsberg brewery in Copenhagen.

Learned Kubb, a viking game (apparently) from Party Jon.

Bikes, Beers, Kubb and Friends in the park.

This is Sweden, on the island of Vrango outside of Gothenburg (birthplace to Volvo).

This is the Vrango baguette and it was delicious (lobster, shrimp and assorted seafood salad with dill). The Fanta was also amazing.

Outside of the duty free shop in the Copenhagen airport on the way home.

East Coast part II

As I previously mentioned, Steady J and I stayed in New Hampshire with his cousin Ian. Shortly after we arrived, Ian and I started to talk about my blog and not buying stuff in general. Ian's a bit of a minimalist. We stayed in his living room, which is a room he doesn't actually use. He's basically set up his living area to consist of his bedroom, bathroom and kitchen/dining area. That area is cozy enough for him, making the living room just a repository of furniture and antiques that their uncle keeps hoisting on him, some of which are amazing examples of New England craftsmanship. If Ian was into furniture, he'd be set for life!

Instead of dreaming of a big house to fill with family heirlooms, Ian's planning to go in the other direction. He introduced me to The Small House Book, by Jay Shafer. The author designs and builds tiny houses, some of which are less than 100 square feet. All are adorable! Beyond the individual plans for all the small dwellings made by the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, the book contains interesting commentary about urban sprawl, and sheds light on all sorts of ridiculousness like land use laws requiring that houses be a minimum square footage (get around this by building your tiny house on a trailer bed).

The book is fascinating! The whole time I read through it and looked at the photos I wondered if I could ever live in something that small. Probably. But two people? I think that could get interesting! In the book, Shafer talks about planning your house to fit your needs, and in turn, reflecting on what it is that you actually need as opposed to want for the sake of convenience. To balance the idea of living with nothing, he also talks about the importance of keeping yourself comfortable. No need to give up your laptop - just make sure your tiny house has a place to store it when it isn't being used.

I was in Sweden last month and passed by a neighborhood of tiny houses. If the Swedes can do it, why can't these go big in the US? They have much more character than Katrina Cottages which were lauded as the answer to the FEMA trailer disaster that occurred in Louisiana post hurricane. I'd buy one (if I were buying new things).

East Coast part 1

The RockSteady and I recently took a holiday to the East Coast to see his old stomping grounds. You see, Steady J is a Mass Hole. That means that he is from Massachusetts. Get him with his people and the Rs start dropping, and everything becomes "wicked", (except it sounds more like "wikid".) Worcester becomes "Woosta", you go fishing in the "habaaaahhh" (harbor) and the Red Sox play in Fenway - home of the Green "Monstaaaaaaaa". And let me tell  you about driving. Massachusetts drivers are the most defensive I've ever seen, looking for any excuse to treat the turnpike like the Autobahn. In Oregon, Steady J rarely drives, and if he does, it is so slow that I sometimes wonder if he has spent so much time on a bike that he forgot how to use a car. But put Steady J in Massachusetts and he drives like a bean town native, too fast for me to take photos of town signs for places like Leominister ("Lemonster") and Redding ("Reading") or Athol ("Athall"- which sounds a lot like another word that I think is funny).

Anyway, while back east we attended the lovely wedding of Justin's childhood friend Chris to his lady fan Ashley in the college town of Keene, New Hampshire. To save ourselves the drive back to Massachusetts that evening, we stayed with Justin's cousin Ian who lives in Westmoreland, NH in a cool above garage apartment on a farm. 

Ian's front yard

On Sunday morning Steady J and Ian worked on Ian's bike and I wandered down the road to an art studio in an old New England farm house that we had passed earlier that day. What I found was the gallery of Arthur R. Herrick (1897 -1970), a painter who had focused on painting landscapes and farmhouses around Westmoreland during the 1950 and 1960s. I looked at the painting and stumbled upon a cutout of a newspaper article from the previous week explaining that the paintings were being sold by Anne Herrick, the painters grand daughter and that there are hundreds of them up for sale and auction! Correction: I heard back from Anne and she said that none of the paintings went to auction - each one was sold locally. As of today (October 18, 2010) she has only 12 paintings left - the rest found new homes. 

As I looked through the paintings, I started to notice that the people coming to view and buy the paintings were often members of the community - they knew the names of everyone else and were eager to search for paintings of their homes. On two occasions elderly farmers came in, blue coveralls and all, and went through the paintings explaining the farms they recognized and the family names of who lived there for generations. One old farmer looked at a painting and recognizing the road commented, "that farm house was where my wife was born and raised". Another pointed out that the pastoral farmhouse scene in another painting was actually the county poor farm. It was so fascinating to hear their stories of which families lived where and how the village had changed.

Eventually I made my way over to the woman I assumed to be Anne and I asked her about the selling of her grandfather's work. She explained that the farmhouse belonged to her family, and when her grandfather died in 1970, her parents opened a gallery of his works on their property. Anne recently inherited the house and gallery from her parents, but she lives and works as an architect in Seattle (funny to find another Pacific Northwest resident on a country road in New Hampshire) so she is preparing the house and gallery/studio space to be sold. All of her grandfather's paintings need to go, except of course, the paintings that she decided to keep for herself. The fact that there are hundreds of paintings means that this is an incredible undertaking which will take months.  

As I walked back to reunite with the gents, I reflected on the accumulation of stuff, especially art. I come from an artistic household and I understand the habit of keeping the pieces you really like, and also needing to keep a large amount of art as inventory if you are receiving your livelihood from sales. But what happens later, after you are gone from this world and there is still a house full of your creativity and hand rendered records of your experiences? Without the context provided by the artist, how would anyone understand the true meaning of the piece and why it was held onto? Maybe the answer is just to disperse your art as much as possible? Seeing the excitement of the community to own artistic renderings was interesting - would they have been equally excited to have owned the pieces fifty years ago when they were painted? Maybe. It's hard to tell! I would assume that long ago they had the opportunity - perhaps the wealth to buy art just wasn't there at that time? In any case, I'm thinking now about the art I have, the art I make and the art I hold on to. I'm also thinking that I want to know more about the art that my mom has in her house. What pieces does she love? Why? What would she want to keep in the family, and what could be offered to others?

It's been a good exercise in thought.

They Put a Ring on It

Patience and Kyle Stuart
(AKA Rasta P-Stu and Rick)

Last month two of my greatest friends from the days at Linfield College got hitched and I was lucky enough to attend their wedding! 

I'm always fascinated by wedding invitations, especially when gift registries are mentioned. This year there was no going off the gift registry for me! I also personally have mixed feelings about the idea of registering for gifts for any occasion. I know some people swear by needing a list to know how to buy someone a gift, but I sort of feel that if I know someone well enough to want to give them a gift, I'll be able to think of something appropriate on my own. Will you think of me when you use your Target napkin rings? I hope not. I'd rather not be remembered for buying plastic crap made in China.

The idea of brides registering for items to fill their new household was started in the the 1920s by the Marshall Fields Department Store. So let's imagine we're roaring it up the the 1920s and suddenly our BFFs are getting married. Chances are good that the lady hasn't lived away from her parents, so in part, has no items needed to make up her future happy household. Maybe the gent has lived away from home, but only owns a hot plate, a mug and a pair of spats. Thank goodness there is a list where I can see that they would like to own a pot, pan, and a set of dishes. I now what you're thinking: Gifts to set up the happy couple, mainly coming from the woman's side? That sounds like a dowry. Yes, popular belief is that the gift registry is an evolved form of a dowry. Is there a problem with that? Not particularly.

Here's what I find most interesting: Given that many people I know who are getting married have lived in their own places for quite some time, and have accumulated items to stock their houses, why do they need to register for a bunch of new items? I'm sure it's for a lot of reasons: wanting higher quality items, needing more of something, not having money to buy a KitchenAid Mixer, etc. What's comical is the fact that the idea of having a gift registry is seen as "critical". This lovely quote was taken from Wikipedia, so take it with the same grain of salt that I do:

The History of the Bridal Registry and Why You Need One

"While some brides may think they can get by without registering their wish list on a bridal registry, this can be a recipe for disaster. If you've ever been to a wedding where the happy couple got three toasters, two toaster ovens, and four sets of silverware as I have, then you know how critical it can be to let your friends and family know what you want and need. Otherwise be prepared for returning the extras and doing exchanges, or getting stuck with those duplicate items."

OMG. The poor couple mentioned is going to be stuck eating toast! How tragic.

Here's my main point: if you want/need to register for anything, why not open yourself up to receiving high quality second hand items? I recently received an invitation to a baby shower and it said, "second hand gifts are appreciated and encouraged" and had a list of items that the couple felt they could use. That was interesting. Parameters were given for the people who aren't good at thinking up their own gifts, and the door was opened for giving second hand items. Love it.

What did I end up doing for the wedding gift? Well, I'm lucky to have friends that appreciate their odd friend (me) and put up with my infatuation with second hand items.....In fact, I didn't even look at the items that K and P registered for, mainly because I wanted to be creative in my gift planning and not be influenced by their list. Here's what I came up with:

• A small cast iron pan for toasting sandwiches (bought at Goodwill)
• An antique blue glass canning jar (from OSU thrift store) that I filled with dried red lentils from the CoOp down the street
• A bottle of Belle Vallee Pinot Noir
• Recipes for Red Lentil Apple Sweet Potato soup, and grilled gorgonzola cheese and green apple sandwiches which I tied to the bottle of wine
• Instructions for the couple to cook together some evening when the season turns chilly

The card made from the wedding invitation

I was especially proud of my recycled wrapping featuring a CoOp paper bag, crumpled magazine photos of food in place of tissue paper, re-used ribbon I had from Christmas and the card I fashioned from the wedding invitation that the couple had designed and made.

It was a fun gift to put together for two great people! And the wedding was a blast!

Putting the Barter in Beg Barter Borrow

Sooooo.....I had a bit of a long hiatus from blogging due to a perfect scheduling tornado of work, gardening, friend and family visits, weddings to attend, packing to move, packing to travel, traveling and finally moving! I'll be playing catch up for a few posts, taking you way back to mid summer (I've kept detailed notes) and all the interesting events and dilemmas I've had associated with my project.

Barter: Screens for Canning Jars

Remember back when I wrote about the Master Food Preserver (Family Food Educator) course I took through the extension service? Well, I've had a canning obsession since then - and this has made me run into my first big dilemma in not buying anything new! You see, each time you can something you have to put on a new lid. The jar and the ring can be reused (as long as the ring isn't rusty on the inside), but that lid has to be replaced since it gets dented when the can is pried from the jar, and dented lids don't seal to jars. I had a good amount of jelly jars thanks to food school, my mom and some garage sale finds, and I had rings, but I had no unused lids. I hemmed and hawed about what to do for two days, while glorious days of u-picking fruit for jam passed me by. And then I had to start packing to move! Lucky for me, I'm always willing to take a break for a beer and burger at Squirrels Tavern, my favorite local, and it was there that my friend Jill was talking about how much she was enjoying her silk screening class. And what did I have under my bed? Two used and one brand new silk screen which I had tried to sell on Craigslist last year! Long story short, Jill and I set up a barter: canning supplies in exchange for my silk screen stuff. My first trade!

While I technically did not buy anything new, I am using some new items. Is this wrong? Is it negating my whole project? I can't decide. I feel really good about preserving food that I have grown in jars that I am reusing. But those lids are making things complicated!