Halloween to Christmas

Last I posted I was obsessed with turning this...

...into this!

 And then there was November.  In November, the volunteers of the Bowdoinham Public Library set their crafty minds to creating small bits of paper loveliness for the sale that we call "Treasures From the Library Attic".  We use books left over from the November Book Sale, added to those books we salvage from the Barn of Opportunity, and make ornaments, journals, bookmarks and gifts. We sell the items at the Bowdoinham Guild of Artisan's Show and Sale on the first weekend of December. Here are a few pictures, by Tony Cox, of our successful (first) show last year.

We had a great selection of ornaments.  Katie Smith's ballerinas were again the crowd favorite. Used canning jar lids make great frames for decoupage.


Stephanie Miller made beads from old book pages and strung beautiful necklaces.

Laurie Peavey-Ross covered cigar boxes with sheet music and old illustrations.




Magnet makers this year included the Kira Decker, Alison Berry, Larissa Decker and the Coker family.

This year's magnets featured Kate Greenway illustrations, cherubs from a 1800's poetry text, and the Peanuts gang.

The journals that I make from Reader's Digest Condensed Book covers sold like hotcakes. I'll blog about how I make them. Stay tuned.

With hundreds and hundreds of old circulation cards to use up, we search for new ideas to highlight those old signatures.

And yes, the light switch plates with covers from romance novels were popular items again this year.  If you go the the Barn and find paperback romances devoid of their covers... I'm the guilty thief.

Darcie Moore came to visit one of our paper crafting sessions in November and wrote a nice article in the Times Record.

It was a huge success again this year.  We topped last year's total by $400. I am thrilled and know that we have such a great thing going.  It is fun to share time and creative ideas among friends / volunteers, and to have the end result be a great profit for the Library.  Thanks to Katie Smith, Laurie Peavey-Ross, Allison Berry, Amy Decker and family, Kirsten Coker and family, Jayne Greely, Diana Mosher, Stephanie Miller, Heidi Balboni, Sarah Zell, Marlene Hensley and all of you who came and saw and purchased!

I am determined to be a better blogger in the new year.  For now I'll just wish you a Happy Halloween, a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas.

Ooooo, how I love Halloween!

 I do love the lead up to Halloween. It coincides with the end of summer and the beginning of my crafty season. I feel like locking myself inside, cooking large amounts of food containing squash ( or food containing large amounts of squash) and crafting my little fingers to the nubs.

And the Barn of Opportunity never fails to supply me with the inspiration nor the supplies.

Last year I read about this spider web idea on a Betz White blogpost and off I went to look for a doily at the B. of O.  Gotcha.  Had the rick rack, the plastic spider and the old embroidery hoop (What can I say? I hoard too much stuff).

I can't show you this year's Halloween costumes yet, so I'll show you a Halloween project from years gone by.

Gitsy Palmer came through for me several years ago when a friend wanted me to make a Bride costume for her daughter's Halloween costume. Gitsy decided it was time to bring second life to her own beloved wedding dress.  I converted her gorgeous dress to a version fit for an 8 yr. old princess.  It is modeled here by my friend Jorja, before it was sent off to Anna in Maryland. I loved making it, and Anna loved wearing it.

And these two Halloween goodies were BOTH found in Bin #2 at the Barn of Opportunity in the past few years.  (Modelled this week during storytime at the library.)  While the elephant mask is plastic, the bat hat is clearly handmade. Who, in their right mind would ever part with these gems???

I need to get back to the sewing machine.  I'm finishing up Olena's Rapunzel gown and my own costume... I can't give it away yet, but I must say... it's "practically perfect in every way."

See you in the parade on Friday... and Trick or Treating at the library Halloween night from 6-7:30 ish. I'll be handing out a few spoonfulls of sugar.

Lemonade, of sorts

I've been having fun playing with something called Pinterest.  It's like a virtual pinboard,or bulletin board, where you can "pin" images that you find online, and organize them on various "boards" of your own choosing. I like it so much better than a "favorites" list since it is all visual, and easier for me to organize. Clicking on a "pin" or image sends you to the original source post.   There is a social aspect too, where you can look in on other people's "boards" and "follow" people whose style you like.  This isn't a paid endorsement or anything, I just wanted to tell you how I came to see this little gem on a friend's Pinterest board she titled "humorous":

 

Well, this week the Barn of Opportunity brought me water, sugar AND lemons:

 My" lemons" came last Thursday, when I heard that someone had dumped a whole lot of canvas and webbing, and parts of LLBean tote bags in Bin #2 at the Barn.  I scurried over and indeed found some great bag handles.

Who was this mystery Bean employee?

Today my "sugar" came in the form of empty feed bags. Lots and lots of them, piled up at the barn, that Ramona was nice enough to share with me. I'm partial to the ones with nice barnyard animals on them.



 I took home a dozen.

And the "water" I suppose came in the form of a rainy afternoon, with some kids who occupied themselves, while I cranked out four upcycled tote bags in one hour!  If you want one, stop in to the Long Branch General Store. I know they sell real lemonade, too.

Love affair with a gadget

 At the risk of sounding a bit loony, I must tell you about my favorite gadget.  I am truly in love with a gadget.  It is the Foley Food Mill.

I have vivid sensory memories of Mom making applesauce with the Foley Food Mill. I am sure she made other things with it, but I mostly remember the applesauce.  When it was referred to in my home, it was always with its surname, the Foley Food Mill. As if there were other food mills in the cupboard? One other household item from my childhood has that same formal naming: the Scotch Cooler. I'm sure I'll think of others (or maybe my siblings will chime in).

You can only imagine my glee when I found my very own at the Barn of Opportunity gift shop years ago.

 I sped home and whipped up a batch of applesauce. Yummers.

And today, I made a small batch of my favorite roasted tomato sauce, just like Adelaida Gaviria taught me. This sauce is September ambrosia when the tomatoes on my counter get ahead of my capacity to eat them raw and my desire to process them in any fancy way. I cut them in big chunks, toss them with olive oil, add some garlic cloves and an onion, and slow roast it all for a couple of hours while I do something else, smelling the best-ever smell. Then a few spins in the Foley Food Mill and there it is, what I call Laida's Lazy Tomato Sauce.

I won't be winning any awards for food photographs here.  My son tells me these don't look appealing at all.  You'll have to take my word for it, until blogs have an aroma attachment.

Back to school with the Barn of Opportunity

I am very excited to be an instructor this fall at the newly established Long Branch School of Maine.  When I learned of the plans for this new school in Bowdoinham from one of its owners, Pete Feeney, I was hoping that I could find a course to teach that would fit with the school's mission.  From the school's website: 

The Mission of Our School is to:     - provide people with skills they need to live sustainably.
    - rekindle the skills and lifestyles of our heritage in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.
    - provide people a unique and fulfilling experience that builds community and re-localizes our economy
    - incubate and grow businesses that support a local, sustainable economy. 

I thought about the Barn and the many fiber things that I have made using salvaged materials.  Nanette Giacoma, another of the school's owners was enthusiastic  about a three part class teaching three fiber crafts.  We talked details and timing and I am pleased to promote "Upcycling" Fiber, which begins October 6th and continues October 20th and November 3rd.  You'll make items that will fill your holiday gift list.  I picked a Thursday morning to meet so that the class can travel to the Barn to collect supplies.

Rag rugs, jean skirts and wool hats, totes and toys... sound fun?

I do hope you will sign up and help me fulfill my favorite part of the mission, the part about providing a fulfilling experience and building community.  I sure can't do that by myself.

reduce, reuse, recycle ...REPAIR!

I'm lovin' my forth "R" today.  The forth R in the R's of preserving our planet's resources being repair. (The fifth "R" by the way is RENT but that will be the focus of another day's adventure)  Today I went early to the Barn of Opportunity on a pure drop-off mission. No time nor intention to look around in the Gift Shop, nor chat with neighbors and friends. Not a minute to admire the tomatoes nor pet Tuckah.  In and Out, I said.  Yet I managed to spot these fine three ladies and bring them right home.  They had the typical rotted webbing on the seats and clearly the former owners feared they might fall through.

 I knew that I had this massive roll of new webbing from my friend Brigid (you remember her from this post, I'm sure). When she comments here I'm sure she will share where she got this roll.  Anyway, I was really inspired by necessity since I am hosting a bit of a backyard event tomorrow and need more seating.

 I was happy to discover that the straps were individually attached by this simple piece of metal on each end, popped into a hole in the aluminum, and that I could take apart the old straps and replace them with new ones without any tools at all. Well, I needed scissors to cut the webbing but that doesn't really count, does it?

 The webbing on the white chair was a bit more challenging but still only needed a screwdriver to take apart and repair.  I skipped the machine rivet and just slipped the screw through three layers of webbing.

You'll see I didn't replace ALL the straps that could have used replacement (did I mention the rush?) but I'm sure no one will fall through the seat on my watch.

The whole project took me an hour or so. And I'm feeling mighty proud of the results. Didn't make a dent in Brigid's webbing roll, but I do have a few more things to repair with this awesome stuff before I give the roll back.

When did we begin to think that the term "disposable" was a good thing? And how can we turn that around? I know that I often think, "It's so cheap to replace these!", but in this case, cheap is not good for the planet. I sometimes think that my time is more "valuable" than the replacement cost and that the quick and easy replacement purchase is the way to go vs. the time-consuming repair job, but I am working hard to battle that decision and think of the value of my resources and my resourcefulness for that matter.

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Repair. and REAP the good feelings.

Before you Recycle this week's news...

...dig into the newspaper box to the Maine Sunday Telegram from this past Sunday, Aug 14, and pull out section A.  On page 11 there is a big ol' coupon from Hannaford, offering $2 off any "Close to Home" produce item.  Yup, that means when you are in the produce section of Hannaford (we don't need to be there much at this time of year, do we? I admit I still need my avocados and bananas... I digress) you look carefully for the nifty stickers under the item labels for another label that says "Close to Home" which alerts you to the fact that that item was grown nearby.  I'm not an extreme couponer but $2 off gets my attention.  And this time I used it to buy a beloved product: organic arugula grown 100 yards from my front door. Really.

 People know I love to exaggerate to make a good story but this time, when I say it's grown 100 yards from my front door, I am NOT exaggerating. I took this picture standing on my front step. That's my driveway, my lawn, my small patch of corn, berries and weeds, and beyond that, is the Locally Grown greens of loveliness. Maybe it's LESS than a 100 yards. I'm a football mother, I should know my yardage.

We love to watch the farmers till, fertilize, sculpt, plant, weed and harvest this product.  The bummer is that our local Brunswick Hannaford doesn't carry it consistently. I found this box on my way through Lewiston. So you'll need add the price of a drive to Lewiston or Gardiner to your price.  Normally $2.99, but for the coupon clippin' woman from Bowdoinham? .99. Not bad.
You can read an outdated but nice article about this farm here.

Now, what can I make out of that plastic box it comes in?