Apron Thrift Girl

Share Exchange Clothing Swap

We are lucky to have what we call The Share Exchange in Santa Rosa, California. This is a fantastic and inspiring model that includes frugality, thrifty living and community building in the Share Exchange.

Here's what they are about:

"The Share Exchange Innovation and Incubation Center is Sonoma County’s first coworking space. We offer an affordable place to work during the day and hold community events in the evening. 

In addition to having a physical cowork and event space, we are big proponents of LOCAL and SHARING. Often these things can save money and resources.

As such, we are home to the first Made Local Marketplace where everything in our store is made here in Sonoma County. We represent almost 200 local artisans!

If you are short on money, you'll be interested in the Sonoma County Time Exchange which is an hour-for-hour exchange of services.

We find effective resource sharing tools and promote them locally:

Rentalic -- peer to peer sharing of goods

Urban Garden Share -- matching urban farmers with land owners

Neighborhood Fruit -- helps you find and share fruit locally

Santa Rosa Tool Library -- a local lending library for all kinds of tools

This coming Saturday they are having a Clothing, Jewelry, Book and Exercise Gear Exchange. For a small fee of $5.00 you can bring a bag of good, usable items and trade them for something New To You.

I love the entire concept of Share Exchange and hopefully will attend the Swap this Saturday.

Do you have something like this in your community?

Maker Faire 2010

Are you heading to the Maker Faire in San Mateo this weekend? It was on my calendar a couple months ago but due to my new frugal goals, I'll be giving it a miss and instead try to get into this intriguing Geocashing that so many of you shared with me yesterday. If you are in the area though and want a relatively affordable weekend adventure, I'd highly recommend hitting the Maker Faire.

One of the most exciting things at the Maker Faire for thrifters is the Swap-O-Rama Rama. Each swap begins with a giant heap of second hand clothing. You can dive into this fabulous heap of clothes and take whatever you desire. Next you head on over to a Sewing Station with your goods and you get a lesson on altering clothing to create something new. As a fan of altered clothing this idea just makes me light headed with excitement. Local artist will be there to guide you and help you as you work on your item.

Photo courtesy of Shawn Connally, Make Magazine

At some of the Swap-O-Rama Rama's you'll be able to pick up some free "Recycled" or "Modified by Me" labels to sew over the old brand labels. How sweet is that?

Photo courtesy of Shawn Connally, Make Magazine

You can find other Swap-O-Rama Rama's going on in the country here. Or you can find details here about bringing a Swap-O-Rama Rama to your community here. 

Photo courtesy of Shawn Connally, Make Magazine

While I have to give it a miss this year, I'll definitely be planning to go next year with bag of clothing in hand. Has anyone gone to a Swap-O-Rama Rama before? What did you create?

Other exciting things to do at the Maker Faire include How To Events. You can find a detailed list here. I would so want to be at these:

• Easy Root & Veggie Fermentation
• How to Screenprint
• Learn to Make Your Own Soap
• How to Become a Beekeeper

Actually I think I just want to live at the Maker Faire. This is only a tiny glimpse of what is on offer for the How To Events. Don't forget to catch Cathe Holden who is going to be there on Saturday showing you how to make a Vintage Book Cover Notebook.

It's going to be an incredible weekend of creativity, inspiration and learning. I. so. want. to. be. there.

Pen Pal Swap Button

Here's the button for the Pen Pal Swap. Can I just say that it takes me hours to get a button on the side of my blog. Does anyone else have this issue? It took me 20 minutes to find these fabulous steps by the Crafty Crow. Once I found them it probably took me 20 more minutes to get it on my sidebar correctly.

All the Pen Pal swaps are out except for a few that I am holding back because I have had to contact some people to get their email address or confirm that they do want to join the swap. If you haven't received anything by me, please let me know and I'll make sure that you have a partner. Here's some of the match-ups for the Pen Pal Swap.

• Sue & Vicki
• Catherine & Nicole
• Desirai & Marissa
• Lisa & Ashley Ann
• Heidi & Karalea
• Dare & Ruth
• Ella & Sue
• Ro & Kathryn
• Kristen & Sarah
• Stephanie & Jill
• Janice & Mindy
• Colleen & Mary Beth
• Aubrey & Clarissa
• Raesha & Cathe
• Puanani & Van (Van don't peek, Puanani has her letter up on her blog ~ everyone else take a look, it is so beautiful)
• Nancy & Me

Thanks again for taking part in this swap. I am going to be so excited to see your letters. I'll set up a flickr page once the children are back in school and send the link to each of you in the swap.

xoxo

Selena

Pen & Paper ~ National Card & Letter Writing Month

I'm not generally a huge fan of "national" days. I don't celebrate "Talk like a Pirate" day or "Bubblegum" day. I do acknowledge "Garage Sale" day because who wouldn't? Yet when I came across a mention of National Card and Letter Writing Month (April) in Country Living Magazine it touched on something in my heart. When I was a young child I remember sitting on the couch and looking out of our living room window waiting for first sign of the mailman (it was the 70's so I could say that back then). He drove a rather beat up, soft beige jeep and delivered mail to our Rt 2 Box 17E address way out in the country.  When we lived in Wales our address was ~1 the Crescent~ as the house was literally on a small crescent in a little village called Mathern.

My mother and I sometimes argued at who would get the mail. Usually she won and I would have to wait patiently while she looked through the envelopes on her walk back to the house. I can still feel the heat of the summer sun on those July mornings and I can see her so clearly sifting through the mail on her walk. She did let me sign up for junk mail any time I had the chance. I wasn't really picky although by far my favorite thing to receive was a hand written letter. I don't remember how I found pen pals back then. I had many though and wrote letters constantly. Maybe I found them in magazines? Do you remember? My favorite pen pal ever was a girl from Belgium. Her name was Caroline and she became one of my best friends as a teenager.

We dreamed big through our correspondence to each other. I remember the trip to Africa that we were going to take. She drew hand written maps of the places that we would visit. When I married Dave and moved to England we actually met for the first time. We had written each other for years before we met and I felt like I knew everything about her. Ironically as we both married and now have children we never write any more. We are both on facebook but even our comments and notes to each other are rare. A part of me really misses her and our letters to each other. I kept every letter that I received from her.

When have you last written a letter to a dear friend? I know as a thrifter, when I come across a box of vintage hand written letters something in me beams with excitement. What will our children find? Old broken computers full of our emails that can't be opened? Will there be any remnants of the written word from our generation?

National Card and Letter Writing Month officially begins on April 1st. To celebrate, I wanted to offer an old fashion pen pal swap for my readers. If you would like to join us leave me a comment that you wish to receive a penpal and I will email you for your details. There are some rules though. Let's make it fun and unique. I'd like you to find a page in an old catalog or some vintage paper to use for your letter. I used one from an Anthropolgie catalog, borrowing the idea from my friend Lissa.

I thought I would write a letter to my parents. I can't think of anyone more in the world who would love to hear from me. Since moving to California I have started to miss them more and more.

The paper does require a good pen. Next time I would use a medium tip sharpie. It was lovely to write on something so beautiful mixed in with the satisfaction of reusing an old catalog. The children were inspired and also begged to write a letter.

I looked through our recycle bin and found an envelope to reuse.

I also used a catalog page to cover the envelope and secured it using double sided scrapbook tape.

I want to make letter writing a habit again and not something I do once or twice a year. I'm hoping that by organizing this letter swap and acknowledging this somewhat lost art, it will once again light the spark of letter writing inside me.

The swap is open until the 31st of March. I will then send everyone an address where they can write their letter to. Please mail your letters by April 30th. Like any other swap, please uphold your promise to join in. There is nothing worse than not receiving something. If you are struggling with meeting the deadline, please email your partner and let them know. I know that I too have procrastinated on a swap and my partner appreciated hearing from me that I was late and kindly forgave me.

• Write at least a full one page letter.
• Try to use vintage paper or recycle something creative like a catalog
• Reuse a junk mail envelope
• Mail your letter by April 30th
• If you have a blog, post about the letter you wrote & the letter you received
• And of course, Have Fun

Thanks so much. And don't forget to enter the Sarah's Silks Giveaway.

swap updates

The aqua and red swap of fall 08 is coming to a close. All swap should be posted November 12th. If for some reason you are delayed, as in life-gets-in-the-way, please let your swap partner know that you are behind and also when you are able to mail your package.
 
Our Aqua and Red Fall Swap Flickr page is up and running. Already we have 8 members and delicious photos are starting to appear. Please join the group and add your photos. Thanks again to every for participating in this gorgeous swap that I still can't get enough of. I just adore these colors.

I also wanted to share some photos of a Fairy Tale swap I took part in a couple months ago. I was matched with the lovely Apryl from Meridian Ariel. Being a romantic at heart, I still love fairy tales. Years ago when Cerys was a baby, we went to our first Waldorf school in England for a holiday festival. We walked onto the grounds of the Michael Hall School and virtually fell in love with this form of education. I saw the most calm and beautiful children that I had ever come across. They seemed so content with themselves. They walked around the school playing the recorders and didn't show a hint of embarrassment. They smiled and played and created the most magical feeling that day. When I arrived at the crafts hall I was taken back. There wasn't a single polyester crocheted hot pad in sight. Actually the crafts that day are very representative of the craft renaissance that is being seen all over the blogs and Etsy.

I fell in love with a small felt hanging of the Frog Prince. I'd never seen a felt hanging before and I was in awe that they could create something like this out of wool. I spent far too much money that day not even realizing how much I would spend in investing in my children's school education for many years to come. By far it is the best money I have ever spent. We left that day feeling like we knew our path in life for our family and our child. Not bad for new parents with an 11 month girl in our arms.

When Apryl asked me what my favorite fairy tale was, I had to say The Frog Prince because it meant so much more to me than just a small story. It also represented the time I kissed a frog when I was a young girl and years later met my prince in the Sears Tower on April Fool's Day.

Here is what Apryl made for me.

I love Apryl's unique style of art where she stains vintage books with tea and then paints illustrations over them. Of course being a Waldorf mom, I am naturally drawn to toadstools as well. I adore the napkin she embroidered for me and am considering framing it. And the cuff? So beautiful and warm. But wait there is more...

The necklace is actually my favorite. I wear it day after day and have received so many compliments about it. Apryl, thank you so much for putting your heart into this beautiful swap.

Here was my gift to Apryl.

I commissioned my friend Jacki, who is a felt artist, to make something for Apryl. Apryl told me that her favorite fairy tale is Little Red Riding Hood. I asked Jacki to make something felted of Little Red Riding Hood. When Jacki showed this to me I fell on the floor. I looked up at her from the ground and asked her if I had to really give it away. Not to mean any offense to Apryl but I fell in love with this wall hanging and wanted it for myself. How selfish is that? And I was terribly slow to get it posted because I loved to just sit and look at it. Jacki is such a talented artists and I'm pushing her gently well maybe forcefully to open up an etsy shop. Jacki is one of those artists where anything she does is truly golden. That girl has so much talent. The picture was felted on an off white wool felt pad and then stitched onto linen.

Look at the detail of her hair and her hood? She used velvet ribbon for the loops and vintage buttons to secure them into place.

Another close up showing the detail of the flowers and her sweet shoes.

I also sent Apryl some red wool felt and some Japanese Little Red Riding Hood fabric. Although it was such a hard swap to part with, I enjoyed making (well cheering on I guess) this package for Apryl who like me, adores fairy tales.

My high from last week has tanked with Dave leaving on Sunday having only returned late on Thursday. Which should just be illegal in my opinion. He's not home until Thursday again. I'm down and depressed but looking forward to some retail therapy with a trip to Ikea. I haven't been there in a couple years and the children have the day off today from school. Sounds like a perfect excuse to head across the water to Seattle for some Swedish fun.

felting

After featuring Laurie's book here I was really keen to start felting. I didn't have any supplies though except a few bits of roving that I purchased years ago at a Waldorf craft fair near Washington DC. But when I went to our local thrift store, there on the shelf sat a piece of foam, a felting needle and lots of roving. I went home and started fiddling with it and fell in love immediately. I couldn't believe how enjoyable it was to manipulate these little fibers of wool into shapes and patterns. Better yet this craft is so speedy compared to the painful craft of cross stitch. I love cross stitch, I love the patterns that tease me at the store to buy them and I adore the feel of the embroidery thread. What I don't love is how slow I am. I've been working on one piece, a celtic knot for at least 7 years now. And I must own 20 odd kits a large percentage of them thrifted. Let's see if I complete the celtic knot in 7 more years since I'm half done thats 14 years a kit. So I'll be 280 years old when I complete them all. Sigh...maybe I should sell them at my next yard sale and turn to felting instead.

Here is my first felted piece, a work in progress.

This took me about 30 minute which is more to the speed I like for crafing. The white wool backing I found in my office in another kit. This is going to be a donation for our school auction. What I love about felting is how easy it is to form the wool into the design that you want it to be. And it is relatively easy to take the wool back out and change the direction you were felting it in. Although the beastly bird was harder than it looked and took the same amount of time as the girl. I can't help but think of her when I look at this.

Here's a close up.

My friend Jacki who is a felt artist told me that some of the needle points on the girl will soften when I felt the completed piece in water. As that sounds too complicated I think I'll have her over when this needs to be done. I took the pattern from this appliqué book.

These photos were taken yesterday and since then I have added a small branch above the girl like the one pictured. Because felt is so different from appliqué I have had to sort of make it up as I went along. Especially since in some ways I have no idea what I am doing.

Most of the money our school collects from the auction will go to our scholarship fund making the education available to those who might not be able to afford Waldorf education. Our auction is filled with arts & crafts and it is very hard to attend on a frugal budget. I try to shop for Christmas as an excuse to spend more money than normal. Dave suggested that we leave our checkbook at home this year. I still might have to sneak a check and hide it in my shoe.

ready to swap?

Thanks again to everyone for signing up to our Aqua & Red Fall Swap of 08. Sara and I have been busy most of the weekend matching up swap partners. I can now see why people use swapbot but I did enjoy it despite the time it took. Here is my half of the list. Sara is going to post hers later today. Please check both blogs to insure that your name is included. If for some odd reason your name is missing please let us know as soon as you can. 

Sara Mc & Sara L
Monica S-S & Raesha
Sarah M & Holly D
Amy N-L & Courtney H
Tonya S & Jennifer S
Kathy I & Kristina R
Terri M & Michele S
Ashlee & Katie
Elizabeth C & Jessica O
Angie & Marianne
Jessica & Chanda
Erin H & Jennife T
Harley & Kate T
Linn & Kristin
Lisa D & Sherry W
Sarah B & Shawna R
Megan P & Betts
Selena C & Heidi

We hope that you can all send your delicious parcels out by November 12th. Please budget around $20. Your swaps can include vintage, new, thrifted and especially handmade items all in the theme of the colors Aqua & Red. If you are falling behind and will be late on mailing your package, please let your swap partner or Sara and I know. If something comes up and you are not able to do the swap please send us an email so that we can help. We'll be setting up a flickr group shortly. You will be receiving the swap addresses and details from me over the course of the day.

Oh and on a totally off topic subject of the swap does anyone here use Twitter? I just don't get it and I really want to. My bookseller friends are talking about this but I am lost. I signed up for it and have left a couple sentences of what I am doing (as it asked me to do) but I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm remembering those early days of blogging when I distinctly asked other blogger the funny question of "how do I get comments". Does anyone remember those days? If you do twitter, send me your link and I think I'll try to add you. Is it kind of like a cheating way to blog but in quick sentences? Or is it something to do with IM'ing? Help me girls.

swaps & thrifting

Do you ever feel the mailbox is attuned to your mood? Well it may have been a day late but yesterday as the rain was falling I pulled over to the mail box and found not only the newest issue of Martha Stewart Living but also my Vintage Halloween Swap from Rachel.

After I discovered swapdex this last summer I quickly went in and signed up for a few enticing swaps, the Vintage Halloween swap being on my list. Rachel is gifted in paper art and made a lovely handmade card and some gorgeous halloween tags. Parts of the swap is missing as the children quickly discovered my bag of goodies and proceeded to make off with some of it. Notice there is only one lollipop instead of 3. They are little monkeys sometimes. Thank you Rachel for your sweet gifts.

Here is what I sent to Rachel.

I enjoyed searching for vintage halloween gifts to send Rachel. My favorite is the old scarecrow. Also there is an item here which is a hint to my first shop update tomorrow. Rachel should receive her package today.

After my previous blah day and my good morning yesterday I felt like getting out of dodge. I picked Keiran up from school and we drove 45 minutes through the mist and rain to St Vincent De Pauls. It's by far our best thrift store in the area if you want to find vintage items with inexpensive prices. Goodwill & Value Village are the two other main stores and their prices just continue to climb higher and higher. Keiran loves the toy section of Vinnies so I had no problem with him accompanying me on our thrifting adventure. For the most part he's always been content to go shopping with me. Although when we went to the canned food store after Vinnies he whined that the entire store was teasing him with sugary foods.

~Two strawberry shortcake records, .25 cents each.

When I found these items I gave a little whoop and a semi quiet cheer. The cups are Denby which go perfectly with my Denby teapot. The bowl is Dansk and will be pleased to accompany this odd little collection below.

They do look like something out of a Tim Burton movie don't they? I can totally see Jack Skellington pouring his morning jo from this coffee pot which seems to be about half my size in height. But there is something about the design and form of these that I am drawn to. The coffee pot, sugar bowl and warmer were found at a yard sale for $2.00. The teapot was a bit more, $12.00 at our island thrift store. This pattern is called Flamestone and was designed by Jens Quistgaard. I have quite a few of his pieces which I originally planned to resell but now I think I'll just buy a 50's house instead and use them. there goes my math again You can read more about Jens here on this fantastic site.

I also picked up the orange/yellow tablecloth $4.50 and these simple midnight blue napkins, .95 cents for the four of them. I aspire to embroidery them with some wintery owls but they may end up being added to all my other craft dreams in the craft closet.

or maybe they will go straight on the table since I just adore this shade of blue. Despite the gray skies, constant rain and chill in the air I still had a very pleasant afternoon. How could I not with so much of my mind on chocolate, a new magazine on my lap, a halloween parcel and hearing about these dishes which I totally heart and must have. Sigh...

aqua & red fall swap

One of my favorite swaps ever was the red and aqua swap of 06. Who can resist such a color combination? As you can see from this little corner of my breakfast nook that I was influenced so much that I change my kitchen from the green/pink theme to aqua colored wall with red throughout. It did help that I found this dinette table at a yard sale for $25 dollars.

Sara and I are hosting our own Aqua and Red Fall Swap. If you are interested in joining us please leave a comment for me or for Sara. We will leave the swap open until October 8th with hope that you all send your delicious parcels out by November 12th. Of course being a thrifter, I personally love a swap that includes a sweet amount of thrifted items. What's not to love about a vintage aqua cup from the 60's. Think autumn, think cozy warm and think aqua and red. Please budget around $20. Sara and I are going the old fashion route and will be matching up partners by hand. If you are open to an international swap please let us know. You can use a flat rate priority international envelope and still fill it to the brim for less than $12.00.

Sara is my graphic designer at the moment because I still can't get photoshop element to work despite the slue of helpful online tutorials. And PS Element is supposed to be the easy one? She made this lovely button for all of you to post on your blogs. She also makes banners. If you need any graphic designs I would definitely recommend her.

 

I know some of you have asked me where I find out about swaps. I love Jenna's blog Swapdex. There is also Swap-Bot which actually helps match up swap partners. 

If you have any other questions about this, please feel free to email me~ thrift girl at earth link dot net. We'll get a flickr group up and running in the next couple of weeks so that we can admire all of the gorgeous aqua and red swaps in one place. I can't think of better eye candy to take us into fall.

apron swap

Anyone who has read my blog since the early days knows I am addicted to swaps but at the same time I am such a lousy swapper because I always wait until the last second to mail my swap parcel. Or when I plan to join one I think to myself that sure I'll have lots of free time in August. Of course August hit and Dave disappeared every week and included one week where we disappeared with him. My previous "free" month turned into an unexpected crazy, chasing my tail last month of the summer. I liked it that way. Usually August brings on a small dose of depression that is only cured by blood orange sorbet. A lot of it. I try to pretend that it is warm outside and the sun is shining.

When I arrived home from Los Angeles I found a package from Jenna waiting for me on the kitchen counter. What a tease for me since my swap was in pieces around the house. She emailed me and asked what I thought and I shamefully admitted that I hadn't sent mine out yet. As a self punishment I made the decision not to open the package until I posted hers. Otherwise I would suffer far too much guilt as I opened her package and no one wants to open a swap gift ladened with guilt. Thankfully I posted her package yesterday and sent it priority even though she told me not to. Here is what I received.

Garb-oodles played host to this Vintage Apron Swap. She matched Jenna and I up perfectly since we are both Corgi owners. Sully and Elffin have not yet met but maybe one day. Instead of sending me a vintage apron, Jenna found a vintage apron pattern and made me a new apron using vintage material. The red goes perfectly in my aqua and red themed kitchen. She also included some surprises in the pockets.

In the other pocket I found a fab orange colored note pad. Who doesn't need an excuse to have more paper? Thank you Jenna for this lovely, sweet apron swap. Now if you are reading this close your eyes as I'm going to share my swap to you.

This is a really unique apron with pockets on the inside and the outside. Plus there is a strange drawstring thingy that tightens near the pockets. I think because of this mystery about the apron that I was drawn to include it in this swap. I also included some goodies.

We have a really neat grocery store in the puget sound that has a very large oriental section that includes Japanese sweets. The sweets on the left are Cerys and Keiran's favorite and I like them because they are colored with beet juice. Wishing this parcel a speedy journey to your home Jenna.

Despite my delayed swap and the busyness in my life, I am still playing around with organizing a red and aqua swap. Sara has offered to help me create a button. I have tried to make buttons and banners in MS Publisher but the results have been substandard. They look good in publisher but when I move them to typepad the pixels do something weird and it makes it look tacky. I love computers and can't imagine life without them. Even if a day goes by without checking my email I start to feel a slight unease. I know that probably verges on obsession but I assume in blogland I'm in good company. I did just order this yesterday in hopes that I can start fending for myself in the graphics department. I actually bought it for the slightly dated but still useful Adobe Elements software on the advice from this blog. I figure the pad looks kind of fun too and the price was right.

Regarding yesterday's post, my heart felt sad to read that some of you don't have close friends locally to share a meal with. I'd invite all of you here if I could. I don't know if it helps but it has taken me years to find someone like Jacki and her family. And for the first year of knowing each other we never really spoke much despite being parents in our children's class. We have very similar personalities which can be good and can be challenging. Luckily we both have done a lot of self reflection this last year which helped make our friendship very strong. But to look inside yourself sometimes mean losing a part of yourself. The part I lost I was glad to see go but it's a hard path sometimes. I don't know if this is making much sense. I will say though that with the thought of possibly moving, I am appreciating our friendship all the more. I just wish I wasn't drawn to the sunshine so much. Not that this the the reason behind our move but it certainly is part of my motivation. This song keeps coming into my head over and over again. When I watched the video yesterday my skin broke out in goosebumps. Jason seems to be singing this song truly with his heart. He's right though. How else would I appreciate the sun without experiencing so much of my life in the cold. And without my years of loneliness, I would never know the joy of friendship. Now that I am possibly about to lose that, it hurts all the more.