A great table straight from the trash

I just got this table out of the trash, just a few doors down from my house. It has a wooden top and the metal base folds up very easily. I will repaint the top, with an oil-based enamel, and make one very small repair to the hardware on the bottom, then I'll have a brandy new, great little table. It will make a perfect addition to my porch, which I am in the middle of painting, and which I'm looking forward to decorating when I'm done. It is just the right size for playing scrabble, which should convince a certain someone (we'll call him Mr. Happy, 'cause he's a pretty upbeat guy) that dragging things out of the trash isn't quite so awful after all...

More Art Using Recycled Materials

A while back, I posted about some art that really caught my eye at Artesprit. As I said, I liked it not just because it was lovely, but because it reused old materials, namely pages from old books. Well, while in Cheltenham recently, I spotted this piece in a gallery, which had done something similar, only this time with the front page from a newpaper.At first you might not quite notice the front page lying behind the painting, but then you see it in the corners especially: This piece is by Akash Bhatt, and was on display at Martin's Gallery in Cheltenham Spa, in the Cotswold region of England.

My sister Martha makes all sorts of great assemblage art pieces out of various kinds of found objects, scrounged materials, and recycled stuff. Her art is a little hard to describe, but Joseph Cornell's boxes come to mind as a comparison. Here is a little piece she made that I have and love. I think the scene in the background and on the back is The Flume, or at least I like to think so. She has a studio in her basement full of great materials for her art, lots of stuff that I covet.

Great New Found Object Straight from the Trash

I was walking the dog on a trash night, when I spotted this great old column in front of someone's house. (My dog knows it's trash night, because we go out over and over again - he loves trash night almost as much as I do.) At first I thought it was a log, but as soon as I poked it with my foot, I discovered that it was an old column. It was carved from single piece of wood (so, it was a log, once upon a time). It is about 4 feet high, slightly tapered, with a decorative carving along the top. It has some very old white paint on it, and inside you can see the screw-like carving marks. I wonder how old it is? In any case, I think it's just great, and once I get my porch painted later this summer, it will make a great found object decoration. At the end of summer, I'll move it inside.

A Little Revolving Gallery

A few months back I posted about how I reclaimed a dirty old box that I found in my basement. It was just right for displaying a few of the smaller pieces from my collection of green handled kitchen utensils. But I also had in mind that I could rotate various things through it: use it as a little revolving gallery of things I collect. So the other day I took out the utensils, threw (well, lightly tossed, really) them back in with the rest of that collection, and then put into the box a new collection that I just started when I was in Brighton, England recently: old b&w photos of people with their dogs. Dogs can make people very happy (mine makes me happy), so I love these photos because they capture a happy moment in the lives of people I'll never know. I'd like to someday have enough of this collection to fill up a small wall with them. You have to look carefully to find the dog here: because the dog blends in so well with the uniforms!. And in this photo I can imagine that the dogs are tired because they've just returned home from a good walk.

My Bulletin Boards are Better Than I Thought!

A while back, I wrote about putting up multiple bulletin boards around my house, making some of them myself from Homasote. I've just read at Apartment Therapy, via this post on Not Martha, that homasote is a recycled material, made from old newsprint. Cool!

Institutional Surplus - Great Source of Great Stuff

Various institutions, such as schools, hospitals, etc. sometimes have great stuff that they need to dispose of. I got these crocks from my college's 'barn sale', where they sell the furniture, etc. that come out of building which have been renovated: I paid $5 each. My friends Julie and Joe got a great set of oak chairs to use in their dining room for only $12 each: They are good looking, comfortable chairs, and as you can see, they came from Ohio State University: I heard recently that Colgate University, about half an hour from me, has a regular 'store' for their surplus stuff, so I have it on my already-too-long list of things to do to go there and see what they've got. And I've also heard that somewhere in Boston is a regular surplus sale of Harvard's leftovers. What surplus furniture have you found in your area?

A Use for Vintage Suitcases: Sidetable w/ Storage

The top suitcase in this photo did come straight out of the trash. Some neighbors were cleaning out an attic when I spied it on top of the dumpster. I asked if I could have it and they gladly handed it to me. (That I didn't get in on the ground floor and get things out of the attic before they were put in the dumpster is a long, sorrowful story...) But the other suitcases I've bought at various thrift stores and garage sales over the last few years. Stacked together they make a cool looking bedside table, and they offer some extra storage space for sheets, towels, etc. And I don't know about you, but I am always in need of extra storage space. (The only thing is that I suggest only using them to store things you don't need very often, since you have to unstack them to gain access. They would work great for holiday decorations, for example.) This is not an original idea, I know, but I think it's good enough to bear repeating.

Creative Uses for Corks!

I started saving my corks, mostly champagne, as I don't drink much wine but do occasionally throw big parties where I serve a lot of bubbly, after my contractors pointed out that I could use them to repairs the holes in my baseboards that some lazy person drilled in order to run cable. But now that all those holes are filled, I have at least a large coffee can full of those nice, plump champagne corks. So, here is a great post from another blog about some projects for all your left over corks. Personally, I like this one best:Thanks for sending this to me, Lynneguist!

Another Mirror Saved from the Trash

I recently posted about a very nice mirror that I found in the trash and rescued. But, alas, I was too far from home to save it for myself, though I am happy to have been able to save it for someone else, even if I'm not sure quite who that someone is. Anyway, that reminded me, after I had gotten home, that this mirror was also rescued from the trash: I retrieved the very nice frame, with a gilt inner edge that I don't think quite shows up in the photo, from the attic of the Molly Root House, which the college I teach at had recently bought and was cleaning out. A little while later I came across a large mirror which had once been attached to a vanity or dresser (at least that was my best educated guess) in the trash a few houses down from my last apartment. So, for $10 I had the mirror cut down and fixed inside the frame by a local glass company - a pretty good deal, I think. The mirror is pretty heavy, so I don't want to try to hang it on the wall myself, but I actually like it leaning up against my bedroom wall anyway.

Manga Man - Someone Else's Treasure

So, here is a great piece of funky art which my friends Lynne and Phil rescued from the trash outside this store on Orange Row in Brighton, UK. They assume that the store had decided to do some redecorating, and luckily they were there to take this home. It is now on an outside door of their flat. It was very helpful when I was visiting recently, and needed to be sure, instantly, that I was back at the right place!

Wherever I Go, I Find Treasures!

I've just come back from a week in England, where I had a great time. The weather was very warm and sunny, and I had a lovely time visiting with friends in London and Brighton, and then a very productive and interesting conference at Oxford, where I presented a version of this paper. One evening, while walking home with the Lynneguist and her soon-to-be-husband from a great dinner of Bangers and Mash at a pub which specializied in about a dozen kinds of sausage, including vegetarian varieties, and at least half a dozen mashed potatoes and gravies, I spied this mirror leaning up against a dumpster: I dutifully carried it back to their home (with help - thanks!), where I was able to inspect it a bit more carefully than I could out on the dark street. It is very nice. It is a pinkish amber color, with a scalloped edge, and virtually ready to hang (it just needs some wire attached to the back). When I left it with them it was in need of a good cleaning, and perhaps a scraping with a razor blade to remove some relatively recalcitrant dirt that you can see on left. But other than that, it really is a lovely mirror, and I was tempted to drag it all the way home myself. (But it's rather heavy, so the idea of carrying it up to Oxford and then out to Heathrow dissuaded me.) They weren't sure whether they would be able to find a spot for it in their home, but I left it in their care assured that if they couldn't use it they would find someone who could. So, even when I'm away from home, I can still manage to remain true to myself!

You Can't Have Too Many Bulletin Boards!

A couple of years got back, I too got caught up in the clever idea of magnetic bulletin boards, that is, using a metal surface and magnets to post notes, messages, etc., rather than a more traditional push pin type of bulletin board. And I found an old enamel top table at at a yard sale for $10, so I took the top and secured it to a wall in my last apartment, which I thought was really extra clever of me: This takes a bunch of magnets, so that gave me the excuse to make more button magnets (simple to make: hot glue round magnets to the back of old buttons):But then, when I moved into my new house (I've lived here for more than a year now, so I wonder when it will stop feeling 'new'...), I decided that I was over the whole idea of metal bulletin boards. The button magnets, or even more traditional smaller magnets take up a lot more room than do push pins, and how many enamel tables does anyone really want to take apart? (I recently found one in the trash, took it apart, and stuck it in my garage, but I'll leave that for another post.) So, I've returned to regular old bulletin boards, and I actually have four, all over the house, because I find them so useful! (Meanwhile, I put that green enamel top table back together and use it in my craft room.) Here's the cool vintage one I found years ago at the Salvation Army in Cleveland, that I keep in my craft room, with various inspiring images on it: Then there's a little green one, from the same Sal Army in Cleveland, with fish swimming across the top. I use it as a small rotating gallery. It currently has old pictures of my house, kindly given to me by a previous owner. But if I manage to collect a few old chipmunk postcards (such is the kind of ambition to which I'm susceptible) then they will go there next: And, after I had painted the kitchen and the back study, I made two more bulletin boards out of homosote. (This is very easy: go to a lumber yard, and have homosote, a soft cardboard like material which comes in 4' x 8' sheets cut to whatever size you like. Then stretch over it any fabric that can withstand the pushpins and staple it to the back. Finally, attach it to the wall with screws and washers. I learned this from my sister Julie, who teaches me many cool things.) I made a relatively small one just for displaying my modest collection of 'display-worthy' vintage kitchen towels (the collection of usable vintage kitchen towels is far from modest): And I made a larger one for next to my desk, for the usual desk-like things: calendar, movie listings, etc. So, that's four in all, which so far seems to be enough, so I don't even have to put things on my fridge, which I'm glad about. So, all I've got on the fridge is all those left over button magnets!

A New Use for Old Graters

I was just browsing through all the iPhoto albums on my Mac, when I came across these pictures: The pictures were taken the day of my nephew Eli's wedding. The reception was at my sister Julie's house, and I made these lights as one of my contributions towards the festivities and decorations. I made them out of the old fashioned graters that come with big old industrial style food graters. I used a string of Christmas lights, cutting them apart, running the wires through holes in the tops of the graters and then rewiring the lights. I think that there must be a better way to do this, but it did the trick at the time. The picture don't show this very well, but they cast a very nice, mildly funky light at night. My sister kept the lights up for quite a while, but eventually returned them to me. I've got to see if I can find them, and put them to use this summer when I hope to host some gathering s in my back yard.

Hardware Store = Art Gallery

Several months back, a revered old hardware store here in Utica, Doyle's Hardware, closed its doors forever. I was very sad. Doyle's was the perfect place to get all sorts of hardware, including old fashioned screws and parts for lamps that are otherwise hard to find. They originally had five stores throughout Utica, but as those had closed, they had consolidated all their stock into the huge, three story brick store down by the train station. So, the store had all sorts of old things with nice old prices on them. As they were getting ready to close their doors, prices, already low, got slashed. I picked up three of these old brushes for 30% off of $2.65! I picked them up just because I really liked how they looked, and because right off they struck me as having a certain sculptural quality. For a while, they were just piled up on a table in my living room. I really liked how the orange worked with my greenish blue walls. But I knew that I really wanted to hang them on those blue walls, so after I finally got around to painting my stairwell, I found just the right spot for them under the windows on my landing. By then I had already decided that I was going to paint my stair risers a color other than the off-white I use for all my trim and woodwork. So, I hit upon the idea of painting the risers the same orange. I took a brush to J-Kay, where Sam Rudolph (who has been incredibly helpful with many a paint color dilemma) mixed up a quart of paint in that very same orange. The color adds a bit of punch to a color scheme that I sometimes worry heads a little in a conservative direction. The morale of this little story is that you can find art in unexpected places!

Another Cool Item from the Trash - But What Is It?

I don't have the slightest idea what this thing is: I only know that I like how it looks, and I figure that sooner or later I'll find just the right use for it. Then I'll be so glad that I dragged it home. It was out in front of a neighbor's house, with their trash. I asked them what they thought it might be, and their best guess was that it was some sort of wine rack. (No way -- it's both way to flimsy to hold a bunch of wine bottles, but, more importantly, the individual slots are much too small.) The wooden knobs are for pulling the middle dowel forward, which slides a small wooden piece towards you, like this: A few of the knobs are missing, and one dowel is broken, but these problems will be easy to repair. It stands about 2 1/2 feet high. I think that one of these days it might make a nice plant stand or what my mother always called an "occasional" table. But for now, it is safely stored in a nice, dry corner of my basement, waiting for inspiration to strike. Meanwhile, if you think you know what it might be, do tell!

When Did Plants Become Disposable???

So, I got this lovely orchid plant(it's a Phalaenopsis) as a gift from my brother and sister-in-law several weeks ago, as housewarming gift, when I finally got around to throwing my housewarming party. (The party was a great success, if I say so myself.) When they gave it to me it had a lovely stem with four or five very pretty white blossoms on it. The last of the blooms died recently, and after removing the flower stem, I was reading the tag that came with the plant to find out how best to care for it. Reading the tag, I was rather discouraged to read the last line:It's that last line that really struck me. This is a lovely plant, even without the blooms, but the company that made it would prefer that I throw it away and just buy another one, rather than keep this plant and nurture it while it readies itself to bloom again. Now, throwing it away isn't directly wasteful. If I were to throw it out, I would put it into one of my compost bins (you aren't surprised that I compost, are you?), so the plant itself and its soil would get recycled. (One of the many reasons I look forward to Spring is that I can once again drag home my neighbors dead plants in order to add them to my composting efforts.) But all the energy that went into growing it, watering it, transporting it from Florida to Massachusetts (where my family bought it), would all be a waste. And much of that energy is, of course, in the form of fossil fuels. And so this little example of planned wastefulness strikes me as the perfect microcosm of the biggest source of our environmental woes and coming disasters: our economy depends on all of us wasting as much as we can, which always means, among other things, wasting fossil fuels. The company that grew this Phalaenopsis makes more profit the more we waste these plants by throwing them away and buying more. We are in serious trouble if we don't change our ways and waste less.

Glass Paperweights as a Photo Collage

Okay, so you are probably familiar with these old glass paperweights. You can find them in a range of sizes and shapes at thrift stores, antique shops, yard sales, and so on. Sometimes you find them empty, and sometimes they have an old image, or sea shells, or dried flowers in them. Several years ago, I took an old one, I don't remember where I had found it or what was in it, and put my own photograph in it. It's one of my very favorite photographs of the seven children in my family, back when we were still children (I'm the little girl on the bottom right). For a long time, that was the only one I had. Then, slowly, I gathered more of the old paperweights, and scrounged around my mother's house for more old photographs, like this one of my father with his brothers, his father standing in the background (his father died a year or so after this photo was taken, so it's a rare image of my grandfather). And so the collection grew. I haven't done any in a while, for reasons of space, and also because I've now represented just about everyone in my family. So, lately I've been thinking of doing these as gifts, but I have yet to follow through on that! I do worry a little about keeping them in front of a window that at some times of year does get direct sunlight, so I am planning on making some sort of simple fabric cover for them so that they don't fade.

Nice Old Hooks on a Board

Here's another slightly crummy, definitely old, thing I found in my house when I bought it, though this time in the garage, rather than the basement, where I found this dirty old box. This set of hooks on a board was in the garage, where, for all I know, it had been for 100 years, used to hang up the sundry things we keep in our garages. Check out the hooks, aren't they great? And they are all in perfect shape. So, I cleaned it up, both the wood and the hooks, with a wire brush, then I put two coats of polyurethane on both the wood and the hooks. I decided to poly the hooks so that they wouldn't leave rust spots on anything wet that might end up hung on them. I considered painting the hooks black and putting poly on the wood, but decided against it because 1) that would take longer, which would mean that I would get less done that day, and 2) I like the look of the 'raw' iron. Once it was dry, I hung it up next to the shower stall in the back bedroom. I love how the browns of the wall, the wood, and the hooks all complement one another.

Another Item from the Trash

Sometimes I think of my house as a small scale Humane Society for lost or abandoned things. I take them home, clean them up a little if need be, give them temporary shelter, and then try to find them a permanent home. Take this little lamp for example: I found it in the trash back in the Fall. When I first spied it, on top of a recycling container, I immediately thought "must be broken or something, but maybe the cord will be worth salvaging". But when I got up to it, I saw that there was not a single thing wrong with it - it even had its light bulb. So, I took it home and the next day offered it to a friend, who wanted it, but I held onto it so I could take a picture and post about it. (She has it now.) I really just can't wrap my mind around why someone would just throw it away. Didn't she have a friend who would want it? (I did.) Or couldn't she be bothered to put it in a box with other unwanted items, which, when full, could go to the Salvation Army or some such place? We live in a disposable culture, which is surely going to contribute to our undoing.