repurposing vintage finds - we really don't need those colorful whoseewhatsees from Target


Just a quick post today while I finish up some orders and family stuff this week

(is family stuff ever finished ...)

before I get back on track next week with a SUPER cool giveaway and a new marketing series for makers.

I took some pics around my house of some easy-peasy repurposed vintage goodies. The key to being able to flea market is to use the stuff you can't live without.

1. Vintage sifters make great silverware caddies - I have these out all the time, although it may not be practical for everyone - they would be great for parties.

2. Gumball machine turned dog treat holder - Olive comes running from anywhere within a 2 mile radius when she hears the handle turn - it is also a great way to get her to do some work around the house since we charge her in nickels

3. Grater turned magnet board - perfect for recipes - if you would like one of these adorable magnets just pop me an email - I have a few left over from a party I would be happy to send one your way for free

4. Birdbath turned bathroom/dressing room caddy - perfect for appliances, towels, soaps, etc

My other tip is my stop at 3 rule - which means my collecting must stop when I get to 3 pieces - so I do not end up on Hoarders until I am really ready to be there

(ie glassy eyed expression, chin hair, knee stockings, pissed off children)

I am about 75% there this week .... still need those knee stockings.

the journey of energy into matter ...

I have always been surrounded by big dreamers - people who think big

(and sometimes this thinking big results in the kind of craziness that has someone proclaiming that they invented Facebook because they said to their college roommates in 1987 that there should be a way to keep track of who is single and who is dating - electronically)

but maybe don't always take action.

I have never found the expression 'the well planned job is half done' to be ... well, true actually.

There is a whole lot of space between the timeless buzz of a dream and the time-filling demands of actually giving birth to it.

Because the action part - the journey of thought to form, the journey of energy into matter - no matter how many affirmations are said and positive thoughts are thought

(and I know these things do help with our intention and focus ie attention, but have never actually gotten anyone off the couch)

is pretty much the key to the whole thing - nothing actually happens until well, until something actually happens.

Anyhoo, our saga with David for anyone who has been following it at all closed a chapter a few weeks ago when he went awol, relapsed, got violent in a social setting he should have never ended up in and landed himself in jail.

He is probably going to get out next week, still untreated by anti-psychotic meds for his schizophrenia and looking to come back to our house.

(or maybe just looking for us to say he can come back to our house so he can get out of jail - it is hard to say and there is no lasting truth here anyway since the disease outruns any chance of finding it)

But our house isn't the same place he left. The windows are still peeling and the stairs still squeak, but being inhabited this summer by one person broken open and one person closed down from the experiences of the last six months doesn't create a whole lot of healing energy for anyone else - so much has been expended without an equal amount of anything coming in that things have become unbalanced.

(when I first started meditating again after a long lapse, I noticed that although I could exhale for what seemed like hours, my inhalations could never keep up - a sure sign from our bodies that we are putting out more than we are taking in)

And the dream work - the turning energy into matter - part of our journey has become as splintered as David.


* was it all a dream print by joy st. claire

major geek alert - adam savage (the mythbuster guy) at maker faire on why we make what we make


An inspirational 20 minutes with Adam Savage from Maker Faire last month.

He tells a great story about his Indiana Jones hat plus how he got started building his obsessions and why makers should embrace the things that they have no choice but to make ... love that!