More Trash to Buy (and cheaper this time)

My friend the Lynneguist just sent me this link to a post on Boing Boing. Here is some more trash you can buy - a smaller and cheaper version of this trash-qua-art that I posted about some time ago. Thanks Lynne!

Two of My Favorite Things Come Together: Jewelry and Recycling

Check out out this post on Inhabitat, about jewelry made from reclaimed and recycled textiles. I went to the artist's site (you can get there from the Inhabitat post linked to here), but alas, my Spanish is way too rusty to be able to read more than the occasional word... I love the necklaces, though I'm not sure I could really pull off the look.

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?

Thrift Shopping = Green Shopping

So, I went to the Sal Army in Lancaster, Ohio yesterday with my friend Julie. This store is well worth the visit. If I were you and I were anywhere in the vicinity, I would go out of my way to go to this particular store. (I don't understand the great differences in quality between different Sal Armies. They must have some sort of distribution system that accounts for the fact that some of the stores really suck,as does the one where I live in Utica, NY, and others are great. It is not that they depend on donations from the place where they are located. There is a more complex distribution system than that.) Anyway, spending a couple hours in this store was as close to a religious ecstatic experience as I am likely to have, although nothing compares to the Garage Sales held at the Sal Army in Cleveland. Back on point, (I can stick to a point, I swear), I spent $54 and change, and here is what I got: All together, my $54 got me: a large bag of candles, which one of these days I'm going to recycle into candle cup gifts; a vintage wool blanket, with someone's name tag on it (love that!); a nice old Boater's straw hat, in great condition that I'll put up on Ebay; 2 cool vintage dresses; a very nice antique ironstone serving bowl in great condition; a little old-fashioned nightgown; a pair of brand new tights (I do draw the line at used underwear); a very cute polka dot lightweight jacket by French Dressing; a very cute reversible wrap skirt WITH ITS TAGS STILL ON IT (I swear, buying clothes and giving them to Sal Army without ever having even bothered to take off the tags strikes me as very weird behavior - wouldn't it be simpler just to burn your money from the comfort of your home?); an oldish white cotton slip (no, slips aren't underwear); a nice queen bedskirt, which I very much need; 5 large men's cotton shirts, which I'll use for more of these; 2 old silk scarves; a Texas Ware sugar and creamer, also destined for Ebay; a little white tea cup, which I'm going to use for those candles gifts I mentioned above; a pair of socks (no, socks aren't underwear either); 2 stretchy tops; 2 sleeveless blouses; a basket ware cup; 2 long linen dresses that I'm going to turn into skirts; 2 long linen skirts that I'm going to shorten; a Flax linen shirt I bought just because I like the fabric; and a matching linen skirt and top set. Not bad for $54, huh? Here are some closeup pics:
I am, as you can probably tell, pretty pleased with this score. I spent as much as I could have easily spent on a single thing, and got over 30 things instead. And, given that a few of those things will end up on Ebay (the hat, the sugar & creamer), I may in fact break even or make a little money. But as pleased as I am for myself, I am also disturbed by how much we overproduce in this country. Most Sal Armies have to regularly take things off the racks in order to make room for the enormous quantities of stuff getting delivered daily to their stores. (All the shirts I bought yesterday were 3 for 99 cents, because they are desperate to get rid of inventory. So at the last minute I scooted over to the men's section and quickly picked up the 5 men's shirts I bought.) I'm not sure what happens to all that stuff, but at least some of it simply gets thrown out, or so I suspect. And, it isn't true, as some people assume, that the clothes in thrift stores are worn out, or cheap, or hopelessly stained, and so on. The wrap skirt I bought was brand new, and I saw lots of other things still bearing their original tags. I always carefully look over what I buy, and nothing I bought yesterday is obviously worn, or stained, or torn, etc. Why waste $54 on a single skirt, when you can spend the same amount and get this much instead? So, my suggestion to those of us who are concerned with such issues as sustainability and are distressed by the extent and ubiquity of waste in the world, I say "Thrift Shopping is Green Shopping!" We all have to consume, but we don't have to do it in the 'normal' wasteful ways.

New York City Garbage as Art!

I was just sorting through and trying to organize all the sites that I've bookmarked in the past few months, and I came across
this article about Justin Gignac
who collects NYC garbage and packages it as art. (I no longer remember who sent me this link, but thanks!) What he is doing is very cool on many fronts: he's recycling, he's stretching our concept of 'art', he's calling attention to how much stuff gets thrown out (especially in NYC), and to boot he is making money doing it! I love it. You can
check out his site here.

Big Score at the Utica Zoo Rummage Sale

Personally, zoos make me sad. All those beautiful animals pacing in their relatively small cages, when they really should be out in the woods or the savannah. Oh well. But the Utica Zoo had a rummage sale this morning, so off I went. There was a medium sized line when I got there, and once the gates opened at 10, in we went. It was a pretty small sale, but there were some good things and they priced by volume. The young woman in charge of pricing and taking money didn't bother to see what exactly we had found. Rather, she just sized up the amount of stuff that we had and priced accordingly. I paid a mere $10 for all of this: I know you can't quite discern all the stuff in this picture, so here is an inventory, more or less clockwise, starting on the left: a nice, though not old, wicker magazine rack which will be perfect for carrying reading material to and from the porch this summer; a set of three inflatable clothes hangers that were way too funky to resist; a bag of tea lights; a set of 6 shot glasses with a carrier; a little box with 13 little old porcelain Christmas bells (I already had 5, now I have 18!!!); a bunch of old linens in a variety of conditions; a pair of jeans that just might fit; a men's shirt with which I can make more of these; a food strainer that I picked up because I have others just like it and one of these days I'm going to fashion them into some oh-so-cool hanging lights; a step on trash can, which, if I can find a bucket that fits, will be perfect in my kitchen for compost (I really need a hands-free way to dump my peelings, etc.); a vintage book on rug-making for my Dad, my favorite rug maker; a metal milk jug carrier; an irresistable vintage white bustier for which I'm too busty but which I'll put up on Ebay; and a zip lock bag full of nice ribbon to replenish my supply. Not a bad haul for $10! I LOVE RUMMAGE SALES!!!

Great Shopping Sites, Part 3: Green Glass, Inc.

I just love the whole idea of this endeavor: taking empty, used wine bottles (and sometimes bottles that are rejected right off the assembly line) and keeping them out of the 'waste stream' (meaning keeping them out of either landfills or keeping them from being traditionally recycled) by turning them into drinking glasses (and other nifty objects as well). Green Glass, Inc. is a small, new company, started in South Africa and now operating in the U.S., doing just this. What a great wedding gift for people who are more environmentally-conscious or, like us, hate to see good things going to waste when there are creative ways to see those things put to new uses.

Great Shopping Sites, Part 2: Elsewares

Here is another great site for buying handmade, independently produced, artsy stuff: elsewares. To be honest, I haven't yet bought anything from this site, but there is much to admire and lust after.

Great Shopping Sites, Part 1: Etsy

Okay, so part of my whole deal, and much of what inspired me to start this very blog, is that I eschew the normal, mainstream (and may I say, very wasteful) consumer culture that makes America what it is. Part of this is that I HATE spending any serious amount of time in a soulless mall that makes you feel like you could be anywhere, which feels an awful lot like you are nowhere. And I want to have things, even when I only have them long enough to give them away as a gift, that are unique, handmade, inspired. Moreover, if someone is going to benefit from my spending, I'd rather it be an independent crafts person than a corporation. But even I do have to shop sometimes and so I've become more and more taken with a few great websites that sell great, interesting, handmade, and cool stuff. So I'm going to post about a few of them, and keep a running list of them up at the top of the page.

First, I was introduced to Etsy a few years ago by a good friend. She recommended it as a place I could sell the jewelry I design and produce, which I may or may not do (a tautology, I know) sooner or later. But meanwhile, it is a great site for finding really cool stuff. I've never bought myself anything there (perish that thought), but I have bought various gifts on it. It is a little like Ebay, without the adrenaline-driven thrill of the auction. But Etsy simply provides the site, so that all the transactions take place directly between the buyer and maker/seller.

I've had nothing but good experiences so far, and have found some nice gifts. So save yourself a trip to the mall, support someone who is trying to make a living making things, and check it out!