Shrines of the Times

Saturday's workshop was Cigar Box Shrines. Here are some of the creations from simple wooden cigar boxes, glue, bits of paper and a whole lot of imagination.

Karen's Grandmother


Karalee's Garden Angel

Denise's USA Shrine

Melinda's Peace

(still in process)

Heather's Home

Christie's Harmony

Busy shrine makers gathering supplies.

Sunday's Musing

A shot of my neglected fall garden

– in my eyes –

equally as beautiful as anything I’ve seen on my travels.

I am a nester. I love my home and creating a sanctuary for my family and friends. My idea of a perfect day is when I can stay home, have a pot of homemade soup on the stove and putter.

I also love to travel. The process stretches all my boundaries of comfort and routine. I pack a good book I’ve been meaning to read, and savor it during those pockets of time on the airplane or settling in for the evening in the hotel. On this last trip of ours, I enjoyed Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes. Raoul and I experienced a memorable cooking tour of Italy five years ago. And prior to that, I enjoyed her well known book – Under the Tuscan Sun.

This passage from Bella Tuscany, caught my eye (and spirit):

“What is replenishing? What is depleting? What takes? What gives? What wrings you out and, truly, what rinses you with happiness? What comes from my own labor and creativity, regardless of what anyone else thinks of it, stays close to the natural joy we all were born with and carry always.”

I’ve been pondering what my answers are to these questions. It feels really good to know some of my answers. And to trust I’ll figure out the others. -- Beth

Toronto Style at Home Show

The Style at Home Show in Toronto was fab. It was well attended by interesting people and terrific vendors. Of course, I am very partial to this one - Indigo Books. It is connected to Chapter Books, which is a national chain of bookstores in Canada. There were two big stacks of our books front and center.

The salvage studio was invited to the show by Canadian Home and Country magazine. This was their display area. Everyone loved that light fixture with the five glass pendants.

Canadian Gardening magazine had created this striking seating area.

The third major magazine sponsoring this show was Style at Home. They had these floral arrangements in purples and greens. Really great.
An action shot of me putting the finishing touches on the show and tell display.

Erin McLaughlin, the editor of Canadian Home and Country magazine, introducing me. By the second day (in this picture), she had her own microphone. The first day we shared my headset. And with the difference in our heights, we were literally "bosom buddies". It could have been awkward, but she is the epitome of grace and kindness. We got some inside scoop from Erin that we'd find a delicious lunch at this hip hotel, The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West). We had a memorable late lunch - like one of the top ten sandwiches of my life good! It is exactly the kind of spot you hope to find when you are discovering a new city - not a tourist in sight, casual, friendly and spectacular food.
Here is their ceiling light fixture - crafted from numerous bicycle frames.
Time to hit the sidewalks and amble our way back to our hotel. Which by the way, deserves noting. The show had a media discount at the Hotel Victoria (56 Yonge Street) in a very handy section of downtown. With just 56 rooms, we received such helpful service from everyone at the front desk. We would certainly recommend it, and stay there again ourselves.
Not only did this shop have the perfect name - Preloved, it had clothing designed with recycled sweaters and textiles. I tried on a couple of sweaters and yearned for a bit. They stayed in Toronto.
Queen Street West goes for miles and miles. We were amazed at the HUNDREDS of small, independent, one-of-a-kind shops we saw along this street.
Our last free morning in Toronto found us at the St. Lawrence Antiques Market. It is open every Sunday year round. I felt like the luckiest junker ever, except for the lack of suitcase space and being dangerously close to our airplane weight limit on all our bags. I was happy to mainly look, and did manage to find some plastic party charms from the 60's and some rhinestone pins that could wiggle into my carry-on bag.
Then it was time to head for the airport for our return flight home. Let me tell you - it's not easy taking a fire place tool holder through airport security and customs! -- Beth

Toronto Television Time

Our salvage studio book caught the eye of Erin McLaughlin, the editor of Canadian Home and Country magazine. (If you are near a big book store with a good magazine selection, please check it out. It is first rate!) She invited us to do some presentations at the Style at Home Show in Toronto this past weekend. Lisa and Amy stayed here to do our book presentation at the Seattle Goodwill and to keep the studio humming along. I packed up close to 100 pounds of show and tell props and bought my husband, Raoul, an airplane ticket to Toronto. He was a great sport lugging these two extra heavy suitcases everywhere, along with our other stuff.

One thing led to another, and I was asked if I would do two live television segments at a local Toronto station. So Day Two of our Toronto adventure found us up bright and early at CHCH television. Click on the CHCH link to see the TV segments.

Here is a picture of us in the green room.

We had a great time meeting the other guests - the mayor of Hamilton and his wife, plus another author of a national book with her publicist.
Here's a little picture of me on the television, along with a peek of the room.

The anchor, Annette Hamm, was so friendly, and had spent some time looking through our book ahead of time. Here she is holding one of our ideas - a jar holding a copy of a photograph (that's our sons - Carlos in his dress whites on his wedding day and Morgan, his best man).

After packing up and getting the props back to our hotel room, it was time to see some of Toronto!
First up - we were walking by the Hudson Bay Company, and this window display was absolutely captivating. Gorgeous dresses created from toilet paper! And to support the breast cancer awareness cause.

Raoul and I are good walkers and enjoy getting to know a new city this way.
We headed to Chinatown and had one of the most delicious dim sum lunches ever at Rol San (323 Spadina Avenue). Across the street was B & J Trading (378 Spadina Avenue), which had been recommended to us. I bought some small paper flowers there with labels in French.

We finished our afternoon with a walk through the Kensington Market neighborhood. Loved this shop - Bungalow (273 Augusta Avenue), with lots of retro clothing and furniture.

I'm sure whomever lived in this charming house would be my new friend.

Then came an edgy shop, Exile (22 Kensington Avenue). It offered even more retro clothing.

The public relations firm hired by the Style at Home Show was Peter Ashworth & Associates. He and one of his staff members prepared this hot shopping list for me. It even included the local Value Villages and Goodwills. But this day had been plenty full and plenty wonderful.

Tomorrow - a look at Toronto's Style at Home Show. -- Beth

Busy Weekend!

First off...Amy and I had a terrific time at the Goodwill. They always make us feel so welcome. We brought our stuff in through the back and got a sneak peek at the racks and racks and racks of clothing, shoes and accessories they were preparing for their annual Glitter Sale. Yowsa! It was a beautiful sight!

Here are some shots of the Organizing display that we take on the road.

Mary had created some magnet message boards a la salvage studio and created a vignette in the entry of the event room. Loved them!

We will be at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park this Wednesday at 7pm for an Organizing show and tell and booksigning.

Then on Sunday, The Herald ran this delightful article about us with great photos to boot! It was great to work with the reporter, Debra Smith and photographer, Jennifer Buchanan again.

Watch for some upcoming blog posts from Beth about her jam-packed 5-day adventure in Toronto at the Style at Home Show.

Thanks one and all for a tremendous weekend.

Amy and I will be speaking at the Goodwill on Saturday at 2pm. It will be at their Seattle store location: 1400 South Lane Street. We always draw a fun crowd at the Goodwill!

We will be presenting some of the Organizing projects from our book 'The Salvage Studio...' and we will be selling and signing books as well. And if you already own a copy, bring it along. Here is a sneak peek. See you there. -- Lisa

The salvage studio is on YouTube!

A few weeks ago we filmed a video to promote our new book. Each of us did a project. Each of our three segments will make its’ debut separately. First up is Beth sharing how to repurpose a table lamp into a birdbath. Closer to the holidays will be Amy setting a buffet table for holiday entertaining in the salvage studio style. Lisa will be the final segment of our trilogy, showing you how to create a silver-plated domino clock. Please check it out and feel free to share the links with all your friends.

Click on this link to see Beth in action.

salvage studio on TV today!

Monday we did a fun interview with KING 5 news that included three customer friends – Cheryl, Karen and Samantha. Thanks a ton to the three of them for helping us out and doing such a fab job! Our interview aired this morning. We could not have asked for a better two minutes on the air! Thanks to Bridgit, Pete and everyone who helped with this at KING 5 news.

Click here to view the video!

Tailgating -- salvage studio style

A post from a guest blogger:

Hi guys, I thought you'd appreciate these photos. While you guys were celebrating your fabulous new book, we had ourselves a renegade tailgate ATC swap outside. It was very funny. Anyway, here are a couple of photos from the parking lot. They were taken with a phone camera, so the quality isn't the greatest - but the spirit of our group shines right through. Fun. Congratulations again on your book! It's very exciting :) Rebecca

Thanks for capturing the moment for us!

Whew!

Our book signing event last Saturday was one fine party! THANK YOU to all of you who joined in the celebration of the official launch of our book, The Salvage Studio - Sustainable Home Comforts to Organize, Entertain and Inspire. One of our cakes says it all. And we use the word 'Whew' in the most positive sense - we did it!


Thanks to our fine helpers for that day. Doug (Lisa's husband) along with Judy and Colleen.


Raoul (Beth's husband) was supervising cake service in another corner. Our picture taking that day took a back seat to visiting with all our party guests.

We are really grateful for all of your friendship and support.

Beautiful Bottles

This project started with my son Carlos bringing a big, fancy bottle of beer over to our house. Of course, I was more interested in the bottle, than its’ contents! It became an empty bottle in no time. I decided to decorate the bottle with some acorns tied together with copper wire, a rusty little something, twine and wired ribbon. I was tickled with my creation and made some more. They’ll hold some dried hydrangeas in cream and burgundy colors, and be at the studio this weekend. -- Beth

Why we love our job

We met Alex last Saturday at the studio. Amy had bent a carpenter’s ruler into a simple star, which is a darn clever idea. Alex started his ruler shaping show by taking the star to the next level, with the crossed inside lines. The four square creation was next. He even created a small guitar and a fish! Lisa and I were quite entertained by this charming young man. -- Beth