Spring is in the Air!

There has been the slightest increase in outside temperature…and the calendar does say March, so I am hoping that spring is on its way. Have been out in the garden, sprucing things up. Our concrete birdbath suffered a casualty this winter – the basin cracked. Since we love attracting birds to our yard, I needed to find a substitute. Putting on my salvage studio thinking cap, I found a galvanized pan to be perfect – and it was in my pile of stuff in the basement that I was clawing through to weed out – it was very serendipitous! Come summer when the weather is warmer, my sister may mosaic the outside or maybe we’ll paint it so it blends better with the base- but the birds are much happier now to have water!


We also have a new garden trellis in the back corner of the garden – courtesy of our next door neighbor who is remodeling his house and had taken off the front porch railing and replaced it with a wood railing. His wife thought we were crazy when my sister Stacey and I hauled it to our back garden, but once she saw it in place, she agreed that it was quite cute.

Looking around the garden, I snapped a few other photos to demonstrate that garden art can be anything that adds wit and whimsy to your foliage. The metal “flowers” hanging on the fence are made from solitary trash can and pot covers embellished with found odds and ends. The plastic birds with flower frogs entice real birds to the yard. And the sentiment on a metal locker door propped up in the side garden sums it all up. I can't wait for warmer weather! -- Amy

Eco-Artists

We are in the March issue of Sunset Magazine. What fun! You too can be an eco-artist by participating in our Think Green Event. (see post from February 14 for more information)

Charm Love

Every Saturday that I work at the salvage studio is fun – usually really fun. We’re only open two days a week, so those two days can be special. Last August, we had our first charm swap. 25 women attended bringing 25 hand-crafted charms each of them had created. Everyone traded with everyone else, and it was charm love galore! So we had to do it again. Yesterday, to borrow a phrase from our friend Deb Jensen, was “Charmed I’m Sure II”. Only by now, we had two groups of charm lovers trading – one in the morning and another in the afternoon. As the first wave of charms landed on our trading tables, I literally felt my heart beat faster. And by the time we were immersed in deciding which prize to select on each plate, we totally forgot to take even one picture from the morning swap! Fortunately by the afternoon, the camera made it out of my purse, and we took two pictures. Obviously, we were still totally distracted by even more swell charms arriving, and knowing we would go home with one of each.

Afternoon swappers at the studio

After the swapping was done (and my heart rate was in a healthier range), each person shared a little bit about their charm – how they made it, where they found that cool component, what tool did they do what with. Genuine admiration and appreciation was shared by all. The wonderful energy was memorable.

Someone said they couldn’t wait to get home and look at their charms more closely – like when we were kids with our Halloween candy. I loved that analogy.

Our next charm swap will be August 23, 2008. If you are interested, just send an email to gardngal@usa.net and we’ll put your name on the waiting list. (This go around, everyone on the waiting list made it in.)

This morning I’m truly feeling I have a charmed life. --Beth

Game On!

Sometimes you collect something forever and ever and never quite know why. And then one day, inspiration hits and it’s a powerful force! My sister Stacey has always loved vintage board games and collects both the old boards with their interesting graphics as well as the game pieces (it’s not often that you find them together – over time they seem to get separated and then only one or the other shows up at a yard sale.)

Well such inspiration hit her two weeks ago – and she made these lovely mosaic collages with an eclectic mix of various game pieces. I love that the dog token from Monopoly is a featured motif! -Amy

Think Green

Beth and I traveled to Bellingham this week to visit the Re-Store in order to collect treasures for our annual Think Green Event. Bernadette kindly let us have the run of the place (within reason) to pick out the doodads for you to use to make your artpieces out of.

What is Think Green? Here it is in a nutshell: First, visit the studio from February 15 through March 8 to pick up a container of recycled treasures and found objects. Second, create a masterpiece of home décor, garden art, altered couture or subject of your choosing from the ingredients in each container. Each will contain the same ingredients, and the only rule is you must use every single item. You may add whatever components you wish. A $10 donation for each container will be collected for a contribution to Re-Sources. Third, return your completed creations to the salvage studio on March 15 for an art display running through March 29. You'll have an opportunity to view all the other submissions and collectively we can revel in our green creativity!

A Re-Store creation in the spirit of Think Green.

We had a great time...it is really wonderful when during the course of your job you can have your and eat it too. -Lisa

Lisa always manages to find a cat...Misha, the store cat, was 'supervising' the whole operation.

Portland, Pearl District, Pretty Little Things

Workshops are one of the favorite things I do as part of the salvage studio. Usually I am on the teaching side of the process, but when I can, I love to be the student. This last Friday, I attended an absolutely swell workshop on soldering jewelry charms given by Sally Jean Alexander in her gorgeous studio in the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon. First off, Sally Jean radiates such a

gentle kindness and a generous spirit! She shared so many nuggets of her hard earned knowledge and experience when it comes to soldering.

The class was limited to ten students, which gave us plenty of elbow room and the opportunity to ask a gazillion questions. It was a vibrant group of women from all over – Texas, Rhode Island, California, Idaho, and of course, Washington and Oregon.

Whenever you need a little computer eye candy, please visit her website, http://www.sallyjean.com/ and maybe treat yourself to a little something. Her blog, http://sallyjean.typepad.com/ is charming as well. Plus her recent book, Pretty Little Things, is a goldmine of information and ideas.
This afternoon I’ll be practicing my soldering, and maybe some of my soldered creations will start showing up at the salvage studio. In the meantime, I’ll continue to bask in the glow of that really inspiring day! - Beth

Beth soldering away!

Happy Hearts

We love Friday's and Saturday's at the studio. It is when all our hard work from the week pays off. Our friends and customers drop in to see what we have been collecting, creating and preparing for them. One of our very favorite days is the first Saturday of month. It is our Artist's Trading Card Swap (ATC). Our group is growing by leaps and bounds. I made 25 cards this month and traded them all. Here is what we came home with this month! - Lisa