more Industrial Folk-Sale

(i would love this for the office)

One of my favorite things are the old metal objects turned new. We actually have a welding class at the shop a few times a year and it is quite popular-I have been meaning to take it because there are a number of things that I have been inspired by. Put The Steel Fork on that list.
Pennsylvania couple Ben and Kate have taken their love of food, agriculture and recycling creating a line of home-grown design goods that are simple and fun-totally Industrial Folk-Sale.  I am going to see if they do wholesale so i can get some of the signs and spoon/fork hangers in the shop, but if you can't wait-check them out here.

(i love this chalkboard-how cute would this be in the kitchen?)

(they have a number of animals, but i love the red antlers on the moose)

(love this for aprons and towels)

(not cheap but soooo special!)

creative x-mas tree alternatives

having a retail shop has its many perks and non. probably the most obvious NON is the fact that the "holidays" has a totally different meaning than most folks. this is my "crunch-time" where i am completely and utterly busy with sales, calls, making product and whatever else. Nov & Dec will see no planning of the feast, decking the halls, writing cards and shopping for gifts (one perk is that i can shop in 2 sec at my store however!) and especially DECORATING. after spending 10 hours decorating the shop for the holidays, i have little time let alone passion for doing the same thing at home.

(it doesn't always have to be this...)

i am probably not alone in this feeling of wanting to do the bare minimum of holiday cheer at the apartment homestead-2010 holiday time seems to have surprised many and the recession doesn't make the best environment for dishing out extra funds for only a few weeks of decor. my neighbor Lea made this TOTALLY AWESOME tree, that sparked this post on creative x-mas tree alternatives:

(a ladder, tinsel and light=SUPER CUTE!)

 (Ready Made has this cute idea in their latest issue)

(cardboard tree-so cute right!)

(Apartment Therapy has this great idea, perfect for the dining table)

(i love this idea from Homemade grits-and you can use your cards for ornaments!)

(another idea for the photographer in the house)

(at the shop i made a tree from discarded drawers and wine crates-star from old frames)

(BONUS: felt tree project from Thompson Family Life)

A Tale of Two Book Lovers in a Small Space

so when a journalist and an English-Philosophy major live together, one thing is certain-a lot of books!

(YIKES!)

as much as i love them, i did NOT want to go the IKEA route with this venture...i think if you go over 30% IKEA pieces in the home, it ends up looking like the showroom.  so how do you manage 12 bookshelves of books??

over the years, I am starting to realize that my personal style is a cross between country/flea market mixed with industrial minimalist tendencies and a large scoop of cheap....i guess you can call it Industrial Folk-sale?  hopefully this will help me figure something out.

i LOVE this piece from Nobody & Co called the Bibliochase-gotta love the Italians. if i had the money i would buy this in a heartbeat! but the idea of storage and function is quite interesting....

(me want, me want now!)

(this ain't bad either...)

while looking for some inspiration, i stumbled upon this article in Design Sponge where this couple used galvanized steel shelving for their books-LOVE this idea and totally Industrial Folk-sale!

(boring now, but not in a little!)

most local hardware stores have these deals (now in jet black) for around $70 a pop, that is just as much or less than one you would find anywhere else-save a flea market/yard sale. they come in 6' and 4' so there is a little diversity as well.  but the one thing that makes this option perfect for us is the strength of the shelving-these shelves were meant for tires, tools and a crap-load of garage stuff...they can FOR SURE handle dictionaries, Thoreau, Art Spiegelman, Romantic poetry, the histories of various foods and a stereo-bring it!

i used the upper shelves of the cases to showcase some of our fave books, similar collections, tall colored glass and other cute pieces that softened up the hardness of the garage shelves.

(a 1/2' gap in the corner makes 2 of them fit quite nicely)

now, all was not completely solved with this solution.  for sure the double stacking of books solved at least 8 of the 12 bookshelves, but we still had to put about 20 cases of books in a large storage area in the bedroom and gustavo had to take some of his Orange County books (nerd!) to work.
one of the great things about the new kitchen was that it had its own closet/pantry which i turned into my little canning room. in there, i store all of my canning, cookbooks, canning pots and jars-perfectly out of the way and really easy to see what items i have-i love showing this little room off!

(nerd!!)

(a few more images...)

the new, slightly bigger apartment homestead

(one of my niece Nicole's pieces and a photo my father took of me-happy baby!)

dang.
the nice thing about moving: everything is nice and "orderly", a feeling of starting over, total inspiration everywhere you turn, a reason to have people over...
the bad thing about moving: being behind on everything else that DOESNT have to do with the move-like blogging for starters...

yes it is quite apparent that i have taken a quasi-break from writing-i actually have several snippets of posts, but i havent managed to hit the "publish" button for a few weeks. the new place has literally zapped some much needed blogging time, along with some other things that i will be sharing over the next week-i am now back in the game as they say.

(before: living and bedroom)

(after: living room)

(before: kitchen)

(after: this is the first thing people compliment on-the fact that more than 3 people can be in here at the same time!)

without a doubt, i absolutely LOVE our new place, just across the way in another 100 year-old farmhouse. unlike our last place, it is about double the size and only a few steps up instead of 20...great for moving!
i have finally situated the last of our things-the larger space has given us many bonuses but also some challenges that on a budget of extreme proportions has come out quite nicely.
i will be taking the next few months to talk about cheap solutions to challenges (like my soda crate light) in the new place as well as the new garden and food projects that are already happening.

(Sweet Pea testing out the new bedroom-yep, it's comfy)

(after many years, i finally get to use my father's desk-my fave spot in the house)

one of the best things about the move however was that our apartment has become this sort of "hangout" for our little neighborhood. almost every day, we will have spontaneous visits from friends & neighbors for dinner, cocktails and on certain nights, really bad TV-moving has really brought our little community together.  we also receive a number of compliments from the neighbors on the "life" in the area-something as simple as plants and happy curtains have made a difference and encouraged interest in starting gardens...can't wait to see what happens next!

cheap lights: soda crate lamp

a bigger place means some more room and unfortunately more things.  i am really trying to make it be as little and as cheap as possible though, limiting it to the things we REALLY need.-i am going to post over the next 2 months of solutions and projects that i have been working on that tries to accomplish these things.

one of the first things i noticed we needed was lighting in the living room, it has a dark corner and unlike our previous place, no ceiling lights, so we will need some sort of lighting solution to have proper light during the evening.
at first i was going to buy a few of those paper lanterns from IKEA, but . however, will searching the site GreenUpGrader, i saw this post on furniture from old shopping carts which got me thinking...

(furniture from Shelton Davis via GreenUpGrader)

i few weeks ago, i wrote about the Pop Shoppe bottles that we had. well,  i also had a bright red plastic crate that some of them came in-what a cute lamp that would be right!  then i remembered that several months ago i saved an image (i forgot where-sorry!) of this sweet light:

so now i know EXACTLY what i want to do!

-first thing was to was salvage the crate-it was very dirty and needed a little TLC.
-now the light part...again IKEA to the rescue.  they have these great light attachments that are really made for the paper lanterns, but i brought the crate in one evening and checked it out-and it fits! 
- i think the hardest part of this project was figuring out the how to make it balance without looking all rickety  and cheap...i want it to look sturdy not junky. while looking through some things from the move, i realized that i had this awesome little kit from-yes-IKEA, that was filled with little do-dads for speaker wires, home entertainment organizing (PS: this is a mist-have staple for any home).

(this +)

(this equals...)

-a couple ties and secures, proper hanging with the help of friends in the perfect dark corner and BAM!

total cost= $5

IKEA goodness

love me some IKEA.  as far as big-box retailers, they seem to be the best one out there-they treat the employees pretty well, quit on the formaldehyde years ago, recycle and were one of the first big-guys that started charging for bags (should have been $1 though, not $0.05).  i always suggest my customers to go there if on a tight budget (just dont over-do it, too much IKEA is well, too much IKEA-you gotta mix it with other stuff).
when i first opened the store and was doing a majority of the build-out (about 8 months), i spent a good amount of time there (that and the Depot, salvage yards & flea markets) ...i was quite familiar with the products.  over the years i only go a few times and up until last week when i had to pick up another coffee press.

again, IKEA has come out with some pretty neat items, great for the person with a small space or a little imagination.

BYGEL- magnetic knife rack: i have a larger version of this at home for all of my knives, but i HAD to get this cuter, small version and at $2.50 (you get 2 of them), i figured that i could find something to do with them.  i actually used them to hold larger scissors that could not fit in the drawer!

KROGEN- pot hangie thing: huge fan of these, but unless you score on one at a flea/yard sale, they can be costly.  This version is only $25 and attaches to the ceiling.

BEKVAM-spice rack: yes pretty ordinary, but with some cute bright color this could be super cute and it was only $4!

GLASORT KULLE-bedding:  i just thought this we super inspirational to make as a quilt or wall hanging yourself

OSTLIG-plant helper: always expanding on the garden supplies, this trellis is a heck of a lot prettier than the traditional ones...very English garden!

HAVET-chair/bed deal: this is a great idea and so perfect for the person who has zero room, but might have company. what i love most is that it has wheels so you can move it around anywhere...awesome for the loft or bachie-pad, make your own cover from an extra sheet set that you can use with the bed conversion and you dont even have to clean up as quickly when guests leave!- 250 is not really that bad when you think of how many things this can be (mobile comfy chair, bed, and a long bench...even in a pinch a couch if up against a wall with big comfy pillows!)

dont get me started on AS-IS section-LOTS of ideas there!

root cellar decor-what the heck is that??

now most people wouldn't think about how to decorate a cellar. thinking back to when root cellars were a real necessity (not something that a food preserver junkie makes when her 5ft kitchen is maxed-out), they were basically a room, like some of the images below:

functional with a hint of scary? yes
cute? oh hells no!
just because it is a storage room doesn't mean that it has to look boring-i mean you are going to spend a little bit of time there, you might as well make it look kind of cool right?
the nice thing about a project like this is that you can get all kinds of crazy decorating and making things fun-its not like you are entertaining royalty in there!
my friend Diana, had the great idea of making a chalkboard to keep track of stuff in there-SO much cuter than a clipboard and pen!!  i had a thin piece of wood in the storage room at the shop, i slapped on a few coats of chalkboard paint and DONE-we attached it to the door....how cute it that.

(looking at this makes me realize that i forgot to date the cabbage!)

color was really important too-who wants to look at dirty old wood and concrete?  i had some zero-VOC bright green paint from AFM Safecoat in enamel that was a mis-tint, talk about perfect for the door!  i used some bright red paint (that i was going to use for our couch, but was too lazy to sand) to paint a huge heart on the door-you know, because food is all about love.
i also had these old window frames-some in our bedroom, but i still had a few extra.  we painted one with the bright green paint and hung it up on the entrance to remind you to duck your head when entering.  at first we were going to paint it red, but that seemed too much like a, "don't enter" sign...green seemed like a better choice.

the chalkboard idea led to another decoration: root-cellar graffiti! the upper part of the cellar is old dark wood.  i used the while chalk to make these cute wheat leaves  on the corners and to label the sections of the area-SO MUCH CUTER than the Sharpie i was using before!

lastly, i used old frames that my neighbor was going to throw out to decorate some of the areas. in the center of the frame i either chalked a picture or nailed canning items in.

(always got to have a little Marge representin'-thanks Bonnin Designs!)

the last thing that i need to do is weather-strip the doors for the "uninvited guests" and then you have what i like to call :

 "easy, breezy, beautiful...root cellar" 

(yes i watch WAY TOO much ANTM)

i think it is time for a new display

it's March and i have just about run out of excuses for the x-mas lights in the store....at least in the same theme that i had back in December.
when i was in my first few years of business, i was super excited and motivated to do displays and rearrange stuff. in the beginning, Rachel Hulan of Path Design was my mentor in merch, and i would simply sit and watch her figure stuff out and work her magic (PS if you ever get the chance to watch a professional do displays, i very highly RECOMMEND doing so, very fascinating!). After that, i took lessons that i learned from her and researched other ideas, both in person and on-line and used what i liked from each and tried to put something together (of course it took me 10xs longer).
Now that i am in my 4th year of business, displays although fun, are not part of the monthly routine anymore...i just can't spend all that time doing it-as a result i try to do my displays every 2-3 months, more mimicking the seasons.

(yeah can you feel it is time to mix it up a bit?..yes i am tired!)

Back to it's March, not December. i little bit ago i posted about DIY garlands, i really wanted to do something like that in the store as either a display of some kind. i looked at a few ideas on Etsy and then one day on Facebook, i saw crafter Cathy of California posted a gorgeous display that she did using the same technique...i think i am finding out my new display theme...

This past weekend, Corissa cut out numerous circles and sewed them together in long strands from leftover paper from flyers in bright colors attached with string.

(Corissa says that it reminds her of 1st grade)

Every dilemma with the store and displays: making 2 window cohesive and an interior piece or display that relates to what is happening to the windows (or what is happening in the season)...basically 3 displays that are all a little different but somewhat the same...easy right??

(second window-same idea, different take)

The paper garlands worked out great. the first window, which i have crappy images of (not seen here), is a springtime scene with a bike and some awesome Nikki McClure posters depicting "ditch the bike" images and of course garlands. the other window...more garlands with huge scissors made from an old cardboard box from the new couches we have in the store. the center piece?? a HUGE chandelier-type creation made from extra long garlands and leftovers.... super springy and totally cheap and easy to make...we have already had a number of people using the idea to decorate...go for it!