Tales from Studio Mailbox

Screw Black Friday, Buy Handmade!

The title says it all people.  *For my European friends, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, which is the biggest shopping day in the United States.

Let me say it like it is; if I wanted to go fight crowds or push in lines, I'd move back to Germany and shop on a Saturday!  In fact, I'd like to start the FBF Movement! (I'm such a weenie though I titled it a little softer).

So if you're with me, I'm here to share some alternative deals and steals. These are TJ's top picks for your holiday gift shopping.  All this is available to you by plopping your ass in front of your computer. So join me in supporting the handmade movement this season, and don't feel one bit bad about staying home!

BARGAIN BUYS

• Fingerless Gloves from Well of Creations (I saved these leopard-print ones for you, 'cuz I snatched up the "Rock-Star" set.  You snooze you lose peeps).
• "Amore" Handmade Mini Quilt from Hanna of Sweden (I sort of want you guys to order something else from her shop and see if my husband gets me this)
• Zipper Flower Pattern - (want to make your own groovy accessories? BUY A PATTERN from the Sewing Loft -duh! Imagine these atop your gifts)
• Sweet Mary (for those keeping Christ in Christmas) OR a Set of 10 Postcards - (if stationery is more your thing)
• Customizable Charm Necklace - (pets, nicknames, kiddos - the possibilities are endless.  I've got my eyes on these fancy)
• Printable Journal Kit - (what a cool project if you're snowed in this year)
• Quirky Hairpins (I own one that shows a portion of a map --where you might ask? BERLIN of course!)
• Camera Cozy (Jacqueline will even stitch your monogrammed initials in it.  Unbelievably cool!)
• Underwater Book of Adventure for Children (illustrated by an artist here in MN!)

TWISTED GIFTS 

• Girl Selling Pretzels - oil on canvas (I am a HUGE fan of Julie Galante's work.  She did an entire study of girls in Dirndls, and I would hang any of them proudly in my home)
• Pretzel Glam (5-inches is a long earring, but I can't help myself, I LOVE THESE.  The etsy seller's profile says "I like my people crazy."  I think I'm in love).
• Museum Quality Wood Turned Items (the bottle stoppers, S&P shakers and napkin holders would make very classy gifts.  Personally, I'm loving the wooden pins and I'm thinking of a million decorating ideas for those faux flakes)

EXPERIENCES

• Drawing Courses (Brigitte holds classes in Germany as well as workshops abroad, she speaks great English)
• Brave Girl Camp (I met Melody and Kathy at the Creative Connection in St. Paul.  They are as kind and cool as they seem on-line.  I would die to go to BGC)
• Writing or Creative Coaching (I was treated to coaching for my birthday this year, and haven't been the same since)
• Intuitive Healing with Spirit (learn about the fascinating concept of energy cords and how Nanci can heal yours)

Perhaps you have your own strong sense of taste?  Check out ARTSCRUM and search artwork yourself by style, medium or type - it's brilliant!

Of course it's impossible to buy everything handmade, but how about becoming a Locallectual? Use their site to enter your zip code to find retailers nearest you, or wherever you are traveling to. This is an awesome resource to find cool gifts in your vicinity. 

*Image credit & Fingerless Glove Warning: the fantastic image above is being used with permission from Robin at Well of Creations. Robin gets animal prints just right; a little goes a long way and makes a BIG impact.  But here's the deal with fingerless gloves: you may find yourself wearing them all the time, not because you're actually chilly but because you want to be cool.  Every time I put a pair on, I pretend I'm Muhammad Ali.  Play Lighters by Eminem and Bruno Mars, and suddenly I think I actually can fight.   So watch yourselves with those gloves.  Love xxx tj

Dont Forget the Knife!

Hey totally forgot to share the knife I found when I reported my other riverside finds! 

How lucky was this?  A real Swiss Army Camper, complete with saw!!  You've got to admit, this is a pretty handy find.  Of course it was filled with sand so it took a little scrubbing and WD40, but it's functional now.

And here's something to think about:

Everyone should have a knife in the glove box of their car. 

And here's why:  my father-in-law was trapped in the back seat of a totalled car with broken ribs, hips, and pelvis suffocating from the restriction of the seat belt that would not release.  Thank goodness for a quick acting trucker who cut him free.  Knives are handy. You might think I'm nuts, but they also make great gifts.

And now that I've been looking at Swiss Army's official site I think I'll be adding the "One-Hand German Trekker Knife" to my Christmas list.  But hey, if that's too "Rambo" for you, they actually make ladies fashion knives in assorted designs.  Check it out...everyone can be a winner!

Bunch of Garbage or a Sign from God?

Well I don't know if anybody remembers the flood waters I wrote about back in January, but they left behind a ton of garbage and debris along the riverbank.

Since I spend a lot of time at playgrounds and skater parks down there, I end up walking along the brown and dead vegetation killing time.  And I started realizing there were not only groovy bottles to discover, but other strange things as well.

Here are some of my finds:

• The most practical: a genuine swiss army knife
• The most spiritual: a praying ceramic figure
• The oddest: a vintage salt shaker in working condition
• The most mysterious: a broken French dish
• The quirkiest: a red plastic ring in the shape of a hand
• The most sensible: an old fishing lure

There were also lots of bottles and spoons in addition to things I chose not to scavenge such as animal bones, rags, rusty metals, bits of plastic and other unidentifiable "garbage."

So the whole thing has me thinking about objects and the meanings we attach to them.  The day I found the praying figure, I literally said the words, "can I please just have a sign?" less than an hour before discovering her.  And it was the only object that I found that was nearly completely buried.  Only one portion of her shroud was sticking out of the ground and I literally gasped when I pulled her out!  Then I panicked if I had somehow messed with a grave.  Then I got a grip and realized what a religious region I'm in and that it's likely from one of the many garden plots along the river.

It's funny because I'm not a religious person but this was a spooky discovery.  Yet I haven't attached any  emotions to the other objects.  It's not like I'm sitting here saying to myself, "I wonder if the spoon means I should eat softer foods."  Or that the lure "maybe means I should work more fish into my diet."

So last weekend I was puttering along with my plastic bag full of treasure and I pass a German man clearing a path through the woods to the river.  He's using an old-fashioned pitch fork, exactly the type you only ever see on the walls of restaurants anymore.  He's even wearing overalls so he immediately becomes the living German version of American Gothic. I'm in love.  And he starts talking to me.  Now this rarely happens, Germans don't randomly converse with people.  They don't even smile. The elderly are especially skeptical of foreigners.  So this tells me he's either:

1. wanting a break from his work.
2. a curious sort of guy.  - OR-
3. completely insane.

This is when you know your afternoon is about to get interesting!  He asks me what's in the bag and I shyly show him a bottle, not really sure if I should share the rest of the strange debris that I can't possibly explain what possessed me to collect.  I ask him if he's discovered anything interesting while clearing all the tangled dead plants away from his trail and he says, "only a bunch of damn garbage!"  So I go on to tell him about the praying figure and he's totally impressed and laughed at my bad description of how I found her.  "I think it strange rock but then I pull soft ground and comes out lady praying and my heart so beating my ribs break from inside my body!!!"  The dude pulls out a hanky to wipe some sweat but I secretly think he's blotting the tears from his laughter away.  The old bugger had me at "Hallo."

Here are a few tips if you want to scavenge a riverbank:

• Watch out for dog crap.

• Watch the thorns, and possible entanglements.  Use a long stick to push away any bramble-thorned nasties.

• Watch the broken glass and sharp rusty metal crap. 

• Watch for sink holes.  I'm no naturalist, but the soil is so spongy and soft that I sank up to my ankles in a few places.  I'm not sure if there's quicksand in Germany, but it's sure not the way I want to go out of this world. (Can you just imagine being found clutching a plastic bag of garbage in your cold, dead hand? Nice).

So peeps, what are your thoughts on my little Holy Figurine?  The old fella in my story is what made me think it's meaningful.  He had cleared away wheelbarrow loads of dead crap and didn't find anything so precious.  What's the coolest things you've ever found?

Summer Plunder

I haven't been very faithful about reporting my summer plunder to you.  But this weekend was the local flea market where endless piles of basement boxes were sprawled along the castle walls of our small town.

As always it was a mix of amazing treasure, scary objects and confusing things.  Intertwined with happy people, excited buyers, pushers, barterers, bashful hunters, aggressive crazies and a few haters. 

For awhile I actually stopped going to these because I couldn't hear the old people tragically explaining to me just how much that object had cost them in Deutsch Marks.  It breaks my heart every time. I'm never really sure how to respond because I don't know how to nicely say in German, "I'm terribly sorry about the coming of the Euro but your stuff has been in a basement for years.  Do you actually want to sell it to me or should we just brew coffee and talk about this?"

I'm always happy to find the ones who want to tell me the story behind the object.  I usually understand 80% of what they say, but what I'm hearing over and over is, "give me a little something for this thing that you like because my turn with it is over.  Give it a new home, a new life and new stories.  Here you go, I've been saving it all this time just for you..."  After years and years of treasure hunting experience, I've learned that the people who don't sell much of their merchandise are the people who aren't ready to let go of their stories.  That, or else they happen to be the ones who are offering lots of broken junky garbage.

The weather was gorgeous, so unexpectedly hot that some were stripped down to their undergarments and strangely one man was wearing tassles on his ears. (Probably a better choice than his nipples). 

My "big" find was a solid, heavy printer drawer for 8 euros.  Here's some pics of the event along with the final shot of the treasures I've amassed over the summer.  Like a hibernating bear, I've clearly gorged myself for the upcoming winter. 

Kitchen Cupboard Hubbard

Before I fell off the radar in August, I bought this beautiful old German cupboard.  And since I want to get it into our kitchen sooner than later, I've been sanding my heart out in the garage in my spare time.

Despite having scrubbed the be-geezus out of it, now that I'm on the sanding step... I'm still finding patches of caked on grease that makes me suspect the old lady who owned this thing must've fried schnitzel everyday of her life for the last 40-odd years.  The grease removal is becoming so intense, this thing has become a bigger project than organizing the world's biggest cupboard ever was.  It's grossed me out to the point that I've stepped up the cleaning in my own kitchen, as if somehow grunge is contagious.

And look at this wacky paper that lined every shelf and drawer... funk-o-rama!  (Guilty confession: I scrubbed the waxy paper and salvaged all that was not oily or stained.  It's just waaaay too groovy not to make something from it someday).

I'm thinking about a simple "white wash" paint job... a very thinned out coat of white to freshen the whole thing up but light enough to still see through to some of the wood grain and battle scars.  If you have any other suggestions, speak now!

Old Stamp Stash

Stumbled across these stamps off of holiday cards from 1988. 

Looks like 19 years ago it cost 25 cents to send a letter in the US! I don't even have a clue what it costs now. I think it's 40 or 50 euro cents to send a letter here in Germany.  (I also used to walk to school uphill both ways barefoot in the snow, clutching a bowl of soup for warmth).

Finding the stamps gave me the same feeling as when I'm doing laundry and discover unexpected cash in my jeans pocket!

Plunder Comeback

For those of you who don't know what plunder is, get informed here. 

For the rest of you, I have a little admission:  I thought I had lost my edge!  I was getting increasingly irritated with the kind of vendors who are attempting to sell stuff like rusted bottles of hair mousse for 3 euros apiece.  Umm last time I checked you could go buy a new can of mousse at the drugstore for 3 euros and it probably actually still foams up in your palm.

But just as I was leaving the flea market defeated, I spotted these.  A box with two layers of old wooden printer blocks.  Mostly A's, J's and G's but who cares?  It instantly reminded me why I love the thrill of the hunt.

Ugly Phone Cover-Up

You know the one.  You've seen them before. That's right.  One of these babies! 

Why there's an entry phone in this house when you can look out the front window and see who's at the door is beyond me.  In the middle of the vineyards, the only thing I can think of it being for is when the farmers have spread manure and you don't want to get a whiff of the fertile outdoors.

Anyhow, other than framing the phone, (not a bad idea actually), I wanted to detract from it so I can avoid the wise cracks such as "Waiting for a phone call?"  Or, the ever popular, "Should I step back outside so you can buzz me in?"  Hah hah.

I took my latest acquisition and installed it above the plastic monstrosity.  A beautiful heart art quilt made by iHanna and bought from her etsy shop by my hubby for Valentine's Day in lieu of flowers.  The package arrived with her beautiful handwriting and groovy decorative tape.  I'm so excited to not only see her handwork in person but to actually own it!

Above the quilt is a red-framed self portrait of us in Italy.  The kind of snapshop where you stretch your arms out, direct the lens at yourself and then click a few shots trying to capture a moment in time.  Across the dining room from the entry way door are four gi-normo canvases, each with one letter from the word LOVE.  I guess I started a theme and didn't even know it.

Now all eyes are directed to the colors and hopefully will skip right over that ugly old phone.

   

Red Riding Hood

One of my dreams someday is returning to America and opening a handwork musuem and gallery.  A place where I can display all the pieces I've collected throughout Europe complete with Studio space where classes can be held.  I pretend this is already funded and possible, so I justify all my crazy and obsessive purchases by thinking about them as "aquisitions."  If I hang in them in my home, I "install" them.  Hee hee.  In all seriousness, I do feel that handwork is on the brink of extinction.  I am trying to do something about it.

Anyway, my latest aquistion (in the Black Forest no less) is this wall hanging of Little Red Riding Hood or as the Germans say "Rotkappchen."

This is seriously one of the finest pieces I now own.  It's framed in a gorgeous linen who's thread count is so good I haven't tried to figure it out.  What's most interesting to me is the stitching.  Instead of a standard needlepoint stitch where you basically have ///// slash after slash, and instead of a traditional cross stitch where you have the slashes crossed back over in the other direction, this seems to be some kind of star stitch.  It's been done with floss instead of wool, and it's basically a cross stitch crossed over with an additional plus sign!  Each tiny square has four stitches.  A cross and then a plus.  It's beautiful. 

 

Bruce Lee in Germany

Part of why I love to find old used treasures is because of the stories I dream up behind the objects. 

The hubs and I bought a "proper" (and expensive) office table for our home office space.  It was a huge clunky and beautiful white table.  We got it home and were ready to build it up but then decided it was just too big for the space.  We returned it, remembering an old German school table that was for sale at Brauchbar (German Goodwill). 

Everybody who sees this table has a nostalgic moment. "Ahhhhh" they say.  And then I get to point out the best part.  Underneath the left-hand side of this old 2-seater school table, scrawled onto the wood where it would be sheilded by a child's knees is boldly written "BRUCE LEE."

I have this visual of a little German boy, hiding behind the cover of his backpack that's conveniently hanging off the end of the table and rebelliously inscribing the name of his hero with a permanent marker.

On the right-hand side of the table, in a much more delicate, pencil-inscribed format is a very faint, bubble-lettered "LOVE ME."  I can't help but think of the little German girl who's neighbor brings out her rebellious side and joins in the fun.  In English no less.  So so sweet.

 

In the romantic sense, every single person who has seen this table is transported back to the time when we were forced to sit through hours of lessons and our only display of power or control were these little daredevil acts of courage.  Crayon breaking.  Note passing.  Spit ball making.  In the practical sense, this table is so sturdy and well-made it holds our printers on top and our stacks of paper underneath where the children's books used to go.  It doesn't wobble like all this new hollow-tube legged office furniture that's out there now.  It makes me wonder why anybody buys anything new ever.