@Friends' - Sparkly sandal ornaments find a new home

Twinkle twinkle little freestyle stars

One night last week I got a text message from a crafty friend with a photo of her latest upcycle project, a new purse made from pieces of clothing that were no longer serviceable in their original form.  Who doesn't appreciate a freestyle that happens entirely within your apartment?  Almost as good as going shopping in your closet. I couldn't resist asking to feature her freestyle/upcycle project on the blog.

Ready for a day of holding those odds and ends.

 This crafty purse project was carried out using fabric from old jeans and ornaments salvaged from sandals that had seen better days.  You can see the final product in action in the photo below. Note the cool braided strap.

Looking good while out and about

One final sparkly detail

 Happy freestyling, and don't forget to donate clothing rather than discarding it! Even scraps can be shredded and sold by charities, keep those textiles out of the trash..

NQF - The warmth of wool, in fingerless mitten form

Heat is expensive. Many of my friends live in places where winter sees the thermostat turned down low to save money.  55-60 degrees indoors, that's the situation you just have to live with, but fingers can get a little chilled in those circumstance.  Last year for the holidays I gave two friends some super simple fingerless mittens made from old wool sweaters shrunken in hot water.  Why fingerless? This functional style allows for normal household activities, typing, etc, while still keeping those extremities insulated.  Here they are modeling their gifts.

Soft, warm, and freestylish in the winter.

Why is this a Not Quite Free (NQF) post?  I confess to buying the sweaters at the goodwill for approximately $5 each.  The burgundy sweater was merino wool and the purple was cashmere.  After a little experimentation with shrinking sweaters had I learned that these two types of wool sweaters shrink down while retaining their softness.  Best of all, since these handwarmers are pre-shrunk they can be thrown in the washing machine!

Happy freestyling, stay warm this winter.

Not Quite Free - a case of the ooh shineeez!

Succulents + Silver = Sigh.

If you’ve read any of my postings since September 2012, you might have picked up on my expanding love affair with succulent plants. Thinking back I’d have to say it really started with the sad aloe plant that I inherited when I moved into the previous apartment.  Poor poor aloe, it sat neglected in a corner for who knows how long, slowly shrinking back towards the soil in the dim light. Not wanting to witness a plant death in slow motion I took responsibility for it and the little dude perked up after being moved to a sunnier spot and eventually repotted. 

  The apartment garden expanded again with the acquisition of a tiny fuzzy plant from a stand at the Harvard Square farmers market.  It expanded again to include a striped zebra plant I stumbled upon in the humid corner of a greenhouse. 

Zebra plant in summer sun

But the succulent container garden craze really took off in September 2012, after I got some from a friend's wedding centerpiece.  As a result I started looking around the web for tips on how to grow succulents, and that led to creative ways to display them in planters.  Enter the silver.  

I'm not the only one to adore this idea of combining succulents in silver containers, I think I actually cooed when I first saw it. 

via multiple sites on the interwebs

I've seen this same image of succulents in old silver champagne glasses here, here, and here.  Google it, you'll see, it is popular.  So whoever thought of it first, kudos, and thanks for sharing it, and thanks for giving me a reason to prowl the thrift stores looking for cheap silver-plate containers.  Back in September 2012 I went to a yard sale, not very common in Cambridge, but I found some silver cups in dire need of a new direction in life.  This where the not-quite-free part comes in, shhhh, they were $1 each.

I couldn't fit any of my existing succulents into the small mouths of these cups, so I got some other plants from the 'terrarium plants' section of Pemberton Farms.  The teensy plant pots had no labels and the one person working there couldn't tell me what they were. Exciting! Mystery plants.

Even after the move to a new city, the silver cups are still serving as planters, shiny shiny tiny planters.  More on that in another post.

Happy not-quite-freestyling.

A tall drink of freestyle (furniture)

(An old freestyle adventure from the sidewalks of Cambridge that was never posted, until now!)

While heading out to the store one night with a friend, I spotted a tall narrow shelf lying in a pool of streetlight on the far sidewalk.  Full stop! Immediate inspection required!  Groceries had to wait while we brought this shelf into the apartment and laid in on the floor in the living room.  Moving furniture at night always feels a leeeetle bit (scandalous, secretive, surreptitious, sketchy??), but also somehow more victorious.

I was initially excited at the prospect of using this shelf for shoes, going so far as to put it in the closet. I measured the space, but not my feet. Turns out, my shoes were too big to lay flat on the shelves, they fall out! Boo.  So the shelf had to come out of the closet. Then it had to wait around a while, twiddling its thumbs, while I considered how to use it.  A narrow shallow bookshelf? Display space for tchotchkes? I suspect in its former life this shelf displayed CDs, or movies.  

The tall shelf sat around our place, empty, for a while, until one night we were visiting friends and I spied the SAME SHELF but in a different finish.  Quelle coincidence!  It was also a freestyle find, perhaps no one in Cambridge needs to store CDs anymore.  They had arranged their shelf to charming effect with books, mementos, and a plant.

Looking good!

 I asked if they would be interested in a second, free, one to use as they saw fit.  (Thinking to myself, Please, take it off my hands, we don’t actually have the space) After some hemming and hawing, they agreed to accept the shelf when Friend offered to deliver it to their front door.  *Sigh of relief*  Adios to the tall shelf, may you serve a purpose for someone else.
Happy freestyling.

Autumn gold in the form of a lampshade

Why oh why did I leave that lampshade behind when I moved? It was a little frayed (true) and a little outdated (more true), but I had it. Maybe I was worried it would get ruined in the moving van, perhaps I was just focused on my plants surviving, either way, silly.  Soon after arriving in the new city I went to an actual retail store buy a barrel lampshade. I didn't like the prices.  Ok, how about thrift stores? The Cambridge Goodwill seemed to have lampshades, there must be something similar in this other major metropolitan area, right?  If so, I haven't found it. Between work, travel, and having a life the lampshade acquisition project got moved down the priority list pretty regularly, the result being that the lamp sat without a shade... for 10 months.  A few weeks ago I tried visit a flea market where I had heard they sold lampshades, but I went the wrong day of the weekend.
Thrifting fail. 
Last weekend on the proper day I drove by the same flea market, no shades in sight. Sigh. At that point I was almost resigned to shelling out the money to buy a nice white linen barrel shade, but then an early Thanksgiving gift appeared on the loading dock next to the recycling bin.

Sorry this is sideways, try turning your phone!

An (almost) barrel shade, for free! No rips or mysterious stains.

Full story: this golden sand lampshade was attached to a black floor lamp, also perfectly nice. In the initial rush of excitement I only took the shade, but then around 1 a.m. on Saturday I thought, "hmm, maybe I should go back downstairs and see if that lamp is still there. We could use some better lighting in the apartment." Down the elevator, onto the loading dock, and yes, the floor lamp was still there!   I took it upstairs to test it.... and that is a story for another post.

Happy freestyling.

Hanging in there

For all two of the Cambridge Freestyle followers out there, you might have noticed a precipitous drop-off in posts after February 2013.  Moving to a new city and starting a real-ish job put a crunch in my sidewalk-hunting and blog-posting time, but the Freestyle spirit lives on.   Living in a large apartment building has its advantages, besides the gym and free coffee in the lobby there is a loading dock....with dumpsters. I don't even have to leave the building to indulge in a freestyle search, it is quite a change.  Another change is that I have a lot of space for hanging clothes, and no dresser, pretty much the opposite of my last apartment. Lucky for me, sometimes people discard perfectly good hangers in the recycling bin.

Multicolor free plastic

Never fear, I wash them before using.  

Even the fancy ones.

Someone in my building is fancy! That person is not me.

Too bad they don't just set up an official free bin somewhere in the building. I imagine lots of perfectly usable durable goods get discarded when people move every month. Such a waste!  Meanwhile, my clothes are sitting pretty on their freestyle hangers.

Freestyle not taken: a chair preserved only in memory

In retrospect I should have taken this one, but at the time (early January) I was trying to minimize the amount of stuff that would have to soon be tetris-packed into a cargo van. Oh well, how was I to know that the chairs expected to furnish a future apartment would have molded and warped in someone's shed over the winter?  This is the type of retrospective realization that pushes me towards preemptive stockpiling.

My first thought upon seeing this seat-less chair was, 'a little 1980s...but it could be painted.'  It probably needed to be re-glued in parts, and obviously a seat would have to have been fabricated.

Chair on sidewalk - Broadway

The back reminds me of upside-down hockey sticks, but something like this might look nice in a dark color like navy.   The seat cover is trickier for me, solid? Curvy pattern? How to offset the pronounced lines of the chair back? Maybe mirror them on the seat cushion with a mod-inspired fabric.

 Even though I didn't take the seat-less chair I'm prepared with inspiration for the next possible freebie find.

via Knack Studios

Different chair style, but the dark frame with crisply graphic fabric fits the type of look I lean towards.

Happy Freestyling, or freestyle dreaming if that's all that is possible during those winter snowstorms.

NQF - Vintage ice bucket becomes a planter

[author's note: I thought I published this post earlier, but according to Blogger it was still a draft, so if you have seen it before, well, you know how it ends, if not, read on!]]

Say hello to the NQF.

Not Quite Free, a designation I'll use when there is something oh-so-worth-sharing that involved paying money somehow. Surprising perhaps, but it does happen.


I write this from deep within the throes of my succulent obsession.  Lately I find myself perusing the shelves of Central Square thrift stores with an intense eye for anything tarnished and ornately fashioned.  It can't just be silver, it has to be slightly aged.  It has to be ornamented, with some sort of scrolled, molded, or floral decorative motifs to have the right look I'm after to round out my vision for a shelf of succulents in silverplate planters.......

Behold the ice bucket!!

I thought the substantial depth would allow for a thick gravel layer at the bottom for adequate drainage of the plants.  Am I the first to post about re-using an ice bucket in this way? Probably not.  Did I know what I was doing when I decided to take out the old and crumbly lining/insulation that connected the ceramic insert to the silver? Most definitely no.  After my deconstruction I discovered that the white ceramic insert was just sitting on a rough wooden block to keep it from touching the metal.

I added planting materials (gravel, succulent/cactus potting soil) and my plants - a mix of purchases from a local florist and the Scandinavian superstore (who would have thought?).  Check out the results.

I should note that at first I thought this doohickey was a soup tureen.  It was Creative Roommate who said, "oh, it's an ice bucket, my Aunt ----- had one of those when I was growing up."  Nice.

Project costs
Ice bucket from the Goodwill: ~ $8.99
Plants (from 2 different stores):  ~ $15

While the planter and plants were not quite free, the inspiration certainly was.  Check out some the pictures that inspired me (below) or search for 'succulents and silver' to find your own favorites.

via Pinterest

via Garden Therapy featured on Shelterness

via Antiquechase
I'm impressed with the trophy cup on the left, it adds such nice height variation.

This won't be the last post describing succulents planted in silverplate containers, so stay tuned.
Happy not-quite-freestyling!

Love! Valour! Compassion! Freestyle!

I love the community that exists in Cambridge.  The intelligent and interesting people, the creativity on display in everything from customized bikes to unique lawn ornaments, the area practically hums with ideas.  I also appreciate that friends keep a lookout for free stuff, and call me when sightings happen.  Such was the case when “Lady K” (girlfriend of Technologist Roommate) had her boyfriend call me with notice of ‘a nice-looking frame on the sidewalk’ near our house.  So, shoes on, keys in hand, out I went to scavenge on a sunny afternoon [clearly this was a while ago!!].  I didn’t bring a camera, but I was impressed with Lady K’s ability to spot a nice frame amongst a pile of miscellaneous cabinets.  It was a framed poster for the 1997 movie Love! Valour! Compassion!

In all the excitement I apparently never took a photograph, but look at the picture above, then imagine it in a frame, there you go.

Found: black metal frame (minimal scratches), glass front, white poster-board backing

Size:  poster size, approx 24x36 inches

Now, as much fun as Jason Alexander was to watch on Seinfeld, I never saw the Love! Valour! Compassion! movie, so had no attachment to the poster. Sorry poster, off to the recycle bin for you.

Creative Roommate took charge of this project, and painted an imposing lion to adorn her wall.

It's just a yawn, really.

You might notice that there is no glass in the final version, if so you should be complemented on your keen eye. Why no glass? Well, let’s just say someone experimented with tension forces and unconventional dis-assembly techniques, learned a valuable lesson, and now knows the proper way to take apart a metal frame.  Fear not, no one was injured in the making of this freestyle post.

Remember, if you don't want it, maybe someone else does. It never hurts to notify.
Happy freestyling!

Are those wooden ducks?

I don't know when duck hunting season starts, but we found these little beauties back in June 2012 (yes, yikes! last year) and just couldn't resist their avian charms. So Creative Roommate bagged 'em carried them home by hand and stowed them away for future use.

Results of the day's hunt

The 'mallard' arrived first with his colorful red beak leading the way.  He found a home amongst the wall art from futon pieces, remember those?  Luckily they make him look almost like a peacock with a fancy set of tail feathers.  The female arrived later, and seems to still be evaluating the situation.

Meanwhile, the fashionable ladies continue to chit chat in the corner, totally oblivious to the giant wooden ducks hanging over their heads.  

Happy freestyling!  Watch out for quacks.

Lampshade to dirtshade - Update!

You might remember an earlier post about some glass lampshades repurposed as planters.  Here is the original photo:

Did you notice the mismatched saucers?  Well, I sure did. It was okay at first, they were at least the same color, but one was octagonal and the other round with some floral impressions, not exactly a matched pair.  I thought I could do better, it is the living room after all.

People seemed to be getting of dishes left and right during November and December, so when I found these nice little tea saucers with gold painted edging at le dump I knew exactly where to put them.

Nice rims. 

Happy freestyling, and keep your eyes out for tea saucers, they always seem to come in handy.

The freestyle not taken - remembering a rattan étagère

Contrary to my first impulse I do NOT pick up everything cool that I find on the street. Now that it is deepest winter, and the heady days around moving season have long past, the street furniture pickings are greatly reduced.  With all that non-existent extra time I would be happy to have a few projects waiting for me in my ground-floor heated workshop...which doesn't exist. Darn, that puts a crimp in my plan.  Finding big stuff at this time of year is harder because it is cold outside, and sometimes rainy, or snowy, or all three at once...not exactly conducive to leisurely strolls with no destination in mind. But I can share with you, dear reader, a few things that I spotted on the sidewalk back in the day and didn't grab - the freestyle not taken.

Our first exhibit, the rattan étagère, a.k.a the rattan shelving unit.

  

How's that for a bad picture?  Old phone, nighttime, no flash, only streetlights for illumination. Thank goodness for the help of Picasa, but it can only do much. Still, you can sort of get the picture, I hope.  The shelf was laying on its side, the top was curved like a roman arch, and the 5 shelves seemed to be intact and attached.  Even the caning looked ok.  If I had been in need of shelving I so would have taken this.  Rattan (or whatever this was made of) may not scream 'New England,' but it does make sense if you have to move a lot.

Perhaps in an earlier life stage the shelf looked like this picture (pulled from the web).

via auction website

I could have sanded and painted the shelves and backing, the options for rattan and wicker extend far beyond white or black.  (Plus, if it is free one doesn't feel quite so worried about small mistakes or imperfections in the paint job...)  Some colorful painted wicker inspiration pulled from the the interwebs:

Orange

via Etsy

Grey and natural

via

Pink

via Etsy

Periwinkle

via Etsy

Happy freestyling, and remember - if you have to let it go, at least take a picture and be ready with ideas for the next time.