through the looking glass window.

i was just reminded of this, spring is coming, today.

so i took a much needed long drive out to my parents property to investigate and reacquaint myself with "the looking glass studio".
originally built as a green house by my dad and i-- and made almost entirely of salvaged windows and glass doors.
the roof is courragated tin and fiberglass from an old chicken coop and the floor is equal parts cobblestone and slate. the slate was purchased from a local quarry and the cobblestone was salvaged from a cobblestone street they tore up in downtown portland. my dad is a pretty resourceful guy and i like to indulge myself in thinking i've picked up a bit of that from him.
the windows we found mostly at the town dump and a few on curbs. many of the large windows were from the old post office building in town.
we used it as a green house for a few years and then i started using it as my studio. there was at one time a honeybee's hive under the eave of the roof facing the east side.
they hummed and i worked.
tonight i just snapped some pictures.
oh- and yes, the royal typewriter was a dumpster dive find too.
see my flickr for more on the looking glass studio.

diy madness

our design*sponge entry for the diy contest.
karen from brownmouse and jared of jrusten furniture and i put our heads and hands together on this one. wish us luck!

about the project:
"the bi-coastal"

my oldest and dearest friends jared and karen rusten and i have been
itching to work on a project together. karen and i both spied the diy
contest as soon as it was posted and began conspiring at once!
jared is a modern by hand furniture maker (jrusten.com) and his wife
karen is a photographer(brownmousephoto.com), and me i'm always up for
a project esp. if it includes sewing-- see also (www.mosey.etsy.com).
so jared had this old box spring that he had found on the street in
brooklyn last summer. and actually when the two relocated to the bay
area this fall the box spring came all the way across the country with
them (much to alls dismay) .
jared loves working with reclaimed wood...think calls in wee hours of
the morning pleading for helping hands to haul off giant slabs of
walnut that were on there way to the chipper!
the woods used (amapola and cedar) to make the frame were also
reclaimed wood scraps from his work at the macri park bar in
williamsburg,ny .
so jared got to work and built a wood frame. he then cut up and
covered the ye old box spring with a bit of foam (picked up from canal
street in nyc). we topped it off with unbleached canvas.
we had gotten some fabric from mood back in the new york days and so
we went right to work.
we covered buttons, sewed french seams, and pinched and pulled until
the whole thing was a glorious piece of modern furniture.
the luxe-y green is just right for spring and their new live work space.
what i loved about the project was working together and also being
able to incorporate and reuse something that had been discarded.
it's very comfy and the wooden back piece comes right off for use as a
bed so it is multi functional- and perfect for there petite living
space.

for the birds.

these WILL be incredibly soft and luxe-y bird mobiles! (i hope soon) and are inspired by the little mobile that hangs above my bed (came over on the boat from tibet).
i love using recycled sweaters. i have always been a thrifter and it feels so good to put "the old" to new use and send it back out into the world.

new hats for the new year!

with a little help from my local savers(well actually i was home in california over the holidays..so i should say "my old haunt..savers")
i found a bunch of great wool sweaters just waiting to by dyed, cut up, and fashioned into new hats! i was worried that i wouldn't find any wool in cali- but quite the opposite- i suppose people cast off their woolies after 1 season since it's never really THAT cold in the bay area.
anyhow..here's the new batch c/o my brand new sewing machine!!!!(thanks nan!)
and many hugs to karen of brownmousephoto who took my new pics...her nieces who did the posing and mama victorine who graciously egged everyone on!