Table of pine, from mine to thine

Pine table. 

What image does that phrase conjure up in your mind? 

Something outdoorsy like a picnic table in a forest clearing? 

Maybe something rough-hewn with a highly visible grain?

Wait wait, was it this?

Behold: Table, pine

No?  Not quite what you had in mind?

Oh well, too bad.

This is what you get when you walk through the trash area when someone is moving out in the middle of the month.  I've been around long enough to recognize that this table was from the flatpack scandi-superstore, and the interwebs tell me it retails for $69.00 new.  Despite the small gouge on the front right edge and the sticker residue on the top left this table was in good condition -- all parts present and accounted for.  One quick text message and I had a friend claim it before it made it to my apartment.  His plan was to do a little work, some sort of staining, sealing, or painting

and make it into something lovely for a covered patio area. 
But in the end it turned out to be something even simpler.

Ta da!

Wave hello to your new desk!

I
t's a very small space - the table juuuuuust fit into this little nook between the brick wall on the left and the bookshelf on the right.

 

And in case you were wondering, yes, that desk chair is also a freestyle find. 

A pretty good loading dock loot haul, in two parts, and now this guy has a comfortable spot to write papers and maybe even fill out some grad school applications..... get those personal essays ready.
 
As 2015 draws to a close I wish you all a 2016 full of deliberate living. 
Whatever form your deliberate choices take, whether it is buying less stuff, repairing and then donating what you don't need to those who do, spending more time with those you love, or volunteering your skills for causes you care about, make your day something to be proud of.

Happy freestyling in the new year!

Passion flower vine progression

I was seduced by a photo.

It was something I'd only seen once before, at a famous botanical garden, but never found the name.

The passion flower.

Sigh.

Not familiar with the plant family Passifloraceae? 

Look it up, you'll understand.

In the spring I received a gardening catalog addressed to a former roommate.  While idly flipping through the pages I saw it, the passion flower vine, for sale.

Thus began my first foray in purchasing plants from a catalog.

The vine survived over the summer on our balcony. Through my absences while it was casually cared for by roommates, through the beating sun and car pollution, in spite of a small container and less than optimal drainage, it survived. 

I saw buds for those magnificent flowers form, but they never opened.

Sigh.

So what to do with the passion flower vine at the end of autumn? It would not survive the winter outdoors.  I reused a larger plastic container for repotting and put that into a prettier freestyle green plastic planter.

 It looked kind of spindly and sad. No fit state for a passion flower vine.

Then I remembered the two bamboo poles I bought at a garden center over the summer for no particular reason other than that they were cheap and seemed potentially useful...

Ta da!

a little peppier

I placed the dark red sticks (leftover from found orchids) in the soil and attached them to the bamboo poles to act as anchors.

I reused the orchid accessories to tie the vine up, including the small green clip shown below.

We'll see if the passion flower vine likes its new indoor home. 

Will there be a winter passion flower? Time will tell.

Happy gardening.

Fern curiosity

How long can a fern grow in the same pot and be happy? Apparently quite a while.

This common Nephrolepsis species had been growing for at least 2 years in this medium size ceramic pot. It had been sitting near a south-facing window in a climate-controlled environment for most of that time and was looking pretty lush.

Channeling the hair-spirit of Sideshow Bob?

 The fern fronds seemed happy, but I wasn't sure how much longer I should wait before splitting the plant seeing as how the roots were growing abundantly outside the pot.

reaching for it

As fate would have it I came across an extra planter just waiting for a new friend, time to split and repot the fern!

This is what it looked like when it came out of the pot. Hardly any soil fell away because it was so caught up in the roots. Very impressive.

Bonus close-up show of the root ball.

 After quality time with a sharp knife and some new potting soil the fern was split and I had two containers of air cleaning plants instead of 1.  The white ceramic pot went back to its old spot since I know the fern will continue to be happy there. The cutting was planted in a black plastic pot that had once held some mums (not very pretty). That black plastic pot now sits inside another plastic planter (light green, slightly prettier, and yes, it is a freestyle find).

getting used to the new digs

The new plant needs a bit of time to grow new fronds before it is large enough to balance out the proportions of this planter.  Given the growth history of this fern I've got no worries that it will settle in and get down to growing and air cleaning.  

Curious about what plants you can easily grow in your home to improve air quality and reduce common household air pollutants? Check out How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office by Dr. B.C. Wolverton, formerly of NASA. I found a copy online for a few dollars and have found it to be clear, informative, and a good resource for recommending which plants will do best in different parts of the home.  It doesn't include every possible house plant on the market, but if you are new to growing houseplants it might be just the thing for you get started. Maybe fresher air in your home is a good goal for the new year?

Happy gardening!

Un Vaso de Veracruz

On an unusual mid-morning loading dock walk-by I saw a neat little ceramic pitcher with some southwestern style designs around the bottom.  The bottom said 'Veracruz, Mexico'.

lines and colors and shapes

It immediately made me think of a friend with lots of earth tones in her apartment and a fondness for geometric patterns. Soon after I found the vase my lovely friend was over for dinner, but she left with more than a full stomach. She took the pitcher home and said she would use it as a flower vase. 

Ta da!

From discarded to on display into under 48 hours, not too shabby.

Happy freestyling!

A Bright Idea in 5 Parts

Lamps can be so expensive. They can also be really cheap. 

How did it get to the point where lamps can become throw-away items? Aren't they complicated electrical devices with wires and switches? Apparently that doesn't matter, I still find them next to the dumpster sometimes.

I've found 2 of these 5-bendable- arm lamps, both solid pieces in working order with a well weighted base so the lamp doesn't feel like it will tip over if you bump it.

One lamp had matching white shades, and the other had each shade a different color.

(Yes, that is a bag of clothing donations in the corner, waiting to be dropped off)

I had seen a photo of a friend's new studio apartment and it looked a bit dark so i asked her if she wanted a free floor lamp to brighten things up.  She said a lamp would be great, but the style of the shades didn't really match her personal aesthetic. I suggested removing the shades and having only bare edison bulbs (aka cool hipster light bulbs) instead.  She was game to try and the results turned out pretty well. 

The photo below shows her new cool floor lamp casting a gentle glow reflected off the room divider.

There are multiple styles of edison bulbs out there, from globes to elongated tubes available in stores and online. Lots of possibilities.

Happy freestyling, don't be afraid to experiment with light!

OR-you-CHIDding me?

Despite my enthusiasm for plants I've never had luck with orchids.  Well, let's clarify that a little. I bought two orchids from swedishmegastore a few years ago, didn't have a good indirect sun location for them, didn't repot them after purchase, and then left them in the care of a boyfriend for two weeks in winter. 

They died. 

Maybe it wasn't so much "bad luck" as not knowing anything about orchid preferences, probably overwatering them, and then neglecting them. 

Lucky for me the freestyle karma wheel has turned by some degree and I found this pot with two orchids in September. I believe them to be Phalaenopsis.

 As you can see they had just passed flowering. I'm assuming the owner was moving out and didn't want to take just dirt and leaves, so thank you mystery donor for leaving this on the loading dock instead of throwing it in the trash.

I am determined to keep these orchids alive, and hopefully to coax them into flowering... within a year.
After a little research and an excellent tutorial video from the Chicago Botanic Garden & Illinois Orchid Society I was ready to repot the orchids. It didn't seem like full coverage with potting soil in a plastic pot with no drainage would be the happiest long-term situation for the orchid and its velamen (spongy tissue covering the roots that looks green/gray on healthy orchids). Velamen is like a sponge around the orchid's roots, and you've all seen what happens to sponges when they never get a chance to dry out.

While repotting I had to remove a lot of sphagnum moss and rotted velamen, it felt good.  I decided to give each orchid its own pot so I could put them in two places within the house to see which had more suitable light. I also varied the pot size, so it's not a perfectly clean sing-variable experiment, and I have no control, but c'est la vie.... well, maybe, if the orchids live. Otherwise c'est la mort.

Here they are in their new homes. The orchid mix seemed less bark-y and more fine-grained than what she used on the video, so that's another thing to consider.

This zinc container  was sold as a planter with tree bark glued around the edge, but it was so cheaply made the tree bark came off in one big piece after about a year. I still have the bark somewhere, but at least a bucket is still a bucket.

Exercising proper orchid care seems to mean rarely watering, and keeping things temperature controlled. I will attempt to do both.

Happy freestyle gardening!

@Friends' - This coffee table is a square deal

After conversing with a friend who mentioned the desire for a coffee table in his new bedroom (he's moving up in the roommate house-share world!) I came across this solid little number next to the dumpster on night

Here is the record of the text message exchange from that night:

          Me [10:01 pm]: Small black square coffee table, nice, you want it?

          Me [10:03 pm]: [send two pictures]

          Him [10:05 pm]: Save that!

So there you have it, a freestyle deal in 11 words.
Here is the table in its new home.

Ready to help entertain you!

This table isn't the only good thing making its way into this other apartment as part of the room upgrade, stay tuned for other freestyle finds shared @Friends'.

Happy freestyling, and don't forget to share it forward sometimes.

Transfer treasure: White enamelware bowl

Transfer station.

Sounds so much better than 'place with giant garbage bins for you to separate recyclables and trash on a Saturday morning.'  Transfer stations are also know to have swap sheds, or give-n-take racks -- all things that are music to my ears.  During an autumn visit to a transfer station I found a lovely little bowl gathering dust in a nearly empty swap shed.

Top view, dust included

Such a lovely piece of white enamelware, only a few dings around the top rim, but otherwise in great condition.

Side view

Coincidentally, the next day I was walking by a parking lot flea market in another city when I spotted this bowl for sale.  $12 for a vintage white enamelware bowl.  Not bad, but mine was free!

I'm not sure what I'll use my new bowl for, but given its wide flat bottom and vertical sides it has the look of a potential succulent planter....

Happy freestyling!

Free planters inspired some NQF gardening fun

yellow and purple mums, rockin' out

Plastic tubs, that is really all they are. Plastic tubs with holes in the bottom, and another plastic tub to catch the water so that everything looks tidy. So simple, so wonderful, and even more so when I found three adobe colored plastic planters on the loading dock in late summer, with the right dimensions for our balcony.  After a little bit of a wash, and a few weeks sitting on the porch (I was busy, it happens) the planters were ready for some action. But what to plant?  Late September is probably too late for edibles, although who knows what the weather will be like throughout autumn.  I was finally struck by the gardening inspiration spirit when I passed a rack of mums at the hardware store.

After two trips to the store, involving 8 mum plants, 10qt of potting soil, then another really heavy bag of potting soil I was well supplied to create my autumn garden.

You can see the mums arranged on the balcony, beautifying the world. 

Happy freestyling, and when life hands you planters, make a garden!

Rack 'em up! Another item diverted from the landfill.

As part of the great late August move-out I found this very serviceable-looking drying rack on the loading dock, all assembled and ready to get its dry on, mesh top and all.

This might just be the Lexus of drying racks.

Of course I already have a drying rack, but a recent arrival to the city said she could be interested in such a piece (and who doesn't like saving $30 on something that will last for DECADES?).

Her decision..... take it!

So here it is, doing its job just being a drying rack after a little journey from one apartment complex to another.

Watching laundry dry is slightly more exciting than watching paint dry?

Happy freestyling, and don't forget to offer things to people who just moved.

Late Night on the Loading Dock: Classic Upholstered Chair Finds a New Home

An end of summer late night treasure from the loading dock passed through my world,
way back in early September.

Almost unbelievably it was:

pet hair free,

stain free,

rip free,

with legs intact,

and no suspicious smells.

In addition it had a lovely shape and some retro-cool upholstery.
Do you see the depth of that seat??

Hello gorgeous!

My own apartment is on the full side, but I couldn't let this go, so I texted a nearby friend who already owns a similarly shaped chair if he was interested in this piece, and interested in picking it up...in about... right now...yes I know it is after 10:30pm......but......

Yes, RIGHT NOW.

Who doesn't love slightly demanding late night texts offering free furniture?

He was game for the adventure, drove a few blocks over, and immediately said yes upon seeing the piece.  Being, among other things, an accomplished musician and regular host to jam sessions, he is always looking for comfortable seating.  He said this little beauty was going in front of the piano, and here she is.

How about a lovely duet?

So now this lovely little chair (aka Chairie amour) lives in a gracious rowhouse, ready for a jam session, having been saved from an uncertain fate after being left on the loading dock.

We make such beautiful music together

I think the view out this window is far better than any view from inside a landfill.

Happy freestyling.

Isunda gray couch cover find, ta da!

In my last post I described finding the Isunda gray couch cover for free on our loading dock / furniture discard area. All it required was a little dis-assembly of the discarded couch so that I could remove the cover pieces.

And then wash them. 

And then dry them.

And then partially disassemble my existing couch,

 take off the old boring blah beige cover and replace it with the new gray one.

No pictures for any of those steps, you can imagine what doing laundry looked like.

But it is safe to say that even though the tag says 'no machine wash' for all of the cover pieces, you most definitely can was them in a machine, using cold water, gentle cycle, and line drying.

No need to dry clean.

Here she is!

Contrast couch, with new pillows!

The lighting is kind of wonky, but I think it looks a 10^6 times better.

Did you notice the brown square velvet pillow on the right? 

Looking good together.
From initial find to final product it was only 2 days.

Happy freestyling!

5 shades of [Isunda] gray

I resisted owning a couch for a long time, well into the post-college years, well well into adulthood. Couches represented some sort of commitment to a space that I never expected.  Multiple apartments in multiple states can attest to my lack of residential continuity.  But, finally, in April I finally took the plunge and bought a couch.  Well, an Ikea couch - which is like 1/4 of a real adulthood couch - and it was only $200 on craigslist, so a little more than a really nice pair of shoes and about 1/10 of what you would spend on a quality piece of couch-ness.  Be that as it may, I have for some months now been the owner of a 'sand' colored Ikea Karlstad couch.  Who buys a beige couch? I did, because it was one of two decent options for sale at the time.  It is very comfortable for napping.

There it is in the background, doing not much of anything, blending into the other-tone-of-beige wall.

I've wanted to get a grey cover for the couch, but they retail for $150. What??? 

That Isunda Gray though, it will haunt you.

It seemed wrong to spend almost as much on a cover as I did on the couch itself. So I covered it with throw pillows and a blanket and realized it was ok-meh just being beige.

Then, one night, I was looking for picture frames and I saw this....

 Oh Lord. There it is. Having had to disassemble and then reassemble the couch when I bought it, the size and shape were very familiar.   Please please please please please don't be covered in parakeet vomit and mysteriously technicolor stains. Please.
(I approached cautiously, waiting to be disappointed)
....

No parakeet vomit.

No smells.

No pet hair.

All the pillows present and accounted for.

Some random extra wood screws in places, ok, I can handle that.

No legs, who cares? I'm not here for the couch.

Is this really here, and happening?

Yes.

Off I went, to get my tool kit so I could loosen those hex nuts just enough to separate the armrests from the center section. I stripped off that cover - easy as pie - its only attached with velcro anyway.  In one place the previous owner had screwed through the armrest cover, but it is in a spot you can't see once the pieces are assembled.  10 minutes later the pieces were in my washing machine and on their way to becoming part of my living room update.

We'll see if the guys even notice once I change it out. That's a story for the next post.

Happy freestlying, don't be afraid of a lil' bit o late night disassembly.

Prettifying a past porch

This is a post about an old apartment, one with a balcony that was hardly ever used because there was no place to sit and it was filled with odds and ends.Or at least there was no place to sit until someone found chairs for free and decided to bring them to the balcony as part of the great balcony cleanup. The great balcony cleanup didn't think to take a before-before photo, so just use your imagination.

Here is the balcony after getting some sweeping action and free furniture.

Better-ish, you could sit comfortably, yet something was clearly missing from this space.

 Bringing in a bromeliad and a geranium helped bring a little bit of summer greenery and softness into this otherwise very harsh angular space.

Not a stunning before-and-after by any stretch. The space could have been further improved by a colorful rug, matching chairs (or matching chair covers), and of course more plants with a trellis, but the chairs and shelf were free. That's the point, it doesn't have to be perfect to be a huge improvement over what came before!

Happy freestyling - don't forget to go outside and enjoy a greenspace today.

A square canvas gets the turquoise treatment

If you want to buy a large canvas at an art supply store it will cost you a pretty penny.  If luck is on your side you just might find one for free, with something already painted on it.... that you don't mind covering up and making into something pretty.  Example, this large canvas (or imitation canvas?) picture of Charlie Chaplin I found back in early summer.

 The dimensions are something like 30 inches by 30 inches. At first I didn't know what I would do with it, but that doesn't usually stop me from saving something from the landfill if the possibility of creative re-use is in the air.  Soon after acquiring Mr. Chaplin's image I learned that a friend had signed a lease on her very own studio apartment and wanted help decorating it.  Perfect!  I told her about the giant canvas and an idea to do some sort of abstract painting.  She was open to the idea of creative re-use to make a custom piece, so I delivered the canvas, she painted it white to cover up the previous image, and then added shades of turquoise paint to resemble an ocean surface. 

Her living area furniture (2 leather sofas inherited from a former roommate), wall paint, and carpet are all in earthy shades of brown and beige so the bright blue square contrasts and brings in a nice accent color.  The blue painting also brings some interesting texture to an otherwise flat beige wall.  The decorating continues, perhaps with more freestyle inputs.

Happy freestyling-- keep an eye out for free art supplies, someone will want them!

Vellllllllvehhhhhhht pillllllloooooooows

Pillows are a rare find on the loading dock. 

Perhaps because they are lightweight and easy to move, perhaps people here just don't go for throw pillows, perhaps people throw them out in trashbags and I never see them. Whatever the case, I was surprised (delighted) to see these lovely throw pillows late at night, clearly part of a massive moving-out discardfest.

 No, I did not take the couch, or the blanket.

Maybe I should have, but the couch had a few bites taken out of it from a pet and I don't really need another blanket...... Anyway, look at those pillows!  Do people know how expensive those pillow inserts can be??? These pillows didn't smell, had no rips or stains, and had clearly only been on the loading dock for a few hours, so into the washing machine they went. After I washed them I took the inserts out to read the labels (wow, real down, survived the machine wash just fine) and found out they are brand name pillowcases with nice hidden zippers. Did I mention they're velvet, velvet, and velllllllvehhhhhhht?

Now they sit like lovely jewels on the couch, waiting to support your head, and to look darn good while doing just that.

Happy freestyling.

Summer plant giveaway, to anonymous receipients

Apparently part of growing plants successfully is wanting to give the offshoots away, at least for me.

I enjoy seeing things take root, go to a new home, and inspire someone to be happier and healthier in life with their new bit of greenery.  In that spirit here are some of the small plants I've given away this summer, all propagated from existing stock. Maybe this will inspire someone to try their hand at growing an easy houseplant, start with pothos or a Sansevieria and go from there.

 The pothos that keeps on giving.

Check out those roots after this cutting spent almost two months in nothing but a glass of water.

Impressive!

Giving away a sextet of succulents... sort of.

Left column from top to bottom: Sansevieria 1 & 2 (champion houseplant), bromeliad pup. Right column: aloe x2, some sort of succulent, other sort of succulent.

  

Depending on how you count there are at least six different succulent plants here, so I stand by my alliteration. I put these plants out for anyone to take at an office - when I went back to check about 2 hours later they were gone. I think that means people need more green in their life, definitely in their offices.

Happy freestyling, and wherever you can, grow a garden.

It would've been NQF if only I'd seen it on my way home: a boat shaped ceramic

Sometimes you need a belt. 

Sometimes you need a belt because you are wearing your awesome lightweight travel pants that happen to be a bit too big because you bought them a few years ago when you were doing serious pilates everyday and your thighs were super developed but now your more sedentary job and the fact that those pilates videos somehow disappeared from netflix means you don't do pilates, but you still don't want your pants to fall down.

So you go into a Goodwill during your stopover on the west coast to look for a cheap belt and of course you have to look in the housewares section to see what donated items look like in this city.

Then among the miscellaneous mis-matched odds and ends stacked on wire shelves in the back

you

find

this...

Freestyle pass along: a bromeliad baby and a fern split

A friend recently moved into her own apartment and needed some greenery to counteract all that beige. 

 I had a fern and a bromeliad that needed splitting.....

You can perhaps guess the rest.

Here is the bromeliad living its new life (apparently through rose colored glasses).  This bromeliad was a "pup" (offset) that appeared about 1 year after buying the original mother bromeliad plant from a grocery store.  Don't discount those grocery store plants, they can be quite hardy.

And the very studious fern, perched atop a bunch of books.

Worth noting that this is at least the 3rd split from the original grocery store fern (Nephrolepis type). That things just keeps growing, again, don't overlook grocery store plants.  You can achieve a lush look indoors by combining easy-care ferns that have a graceful drape and small leaves with spikier-leaf plants (such as Dracena spp) or broadleaf plants such as Crotons or Pothos.

Happy freestyling, and gardening.