Alina's Adventures

Our elephant wheelbarrow.

Found for $5 at a flea market this past weekend, the elephant wheelbarrow has already become a carrier of dolls, a seat for munchkins, a run-around-the-house-while-yelling tool, and a perfect respite.

I'm not Catholic, but....

This $5 ceramic holy water basin was too beautiful to resist on our trip home from Atlanta in a tiny little town with a flea market calling my name from the highway. I love beautiful little things made with God in mind...

A used match stick cross.

Tino with tools.

I found an awesome vintage tool belt at Ann's Tiques yesterday and thought it would make a great little memory gift for Tino to remind him of his time in the deep South. He wears it well, doesn't he?

If you aren't following his adventures in walking across America, you are missing out. 

If I didn't know better, I'd say it could double as a holster.

A little yellow chair, a door stop, and some bowls.

I found this handpainted doorstop whom we shall call Elvis for one dollar this morning at a favorite flea market. Methinks Elvis will be performing more than he will be holding doors at the Coryell Castle.

My splurge? The wooden sunshine share for five bucks. It makes this rainy weather sprinkle with shame. This photo (with the backlight from the window) doesn't do the yellow hue justice. Look at the color behind Elvis to get a better sense of its bright beauty.

And then there was a set of 6 curvy wooden bowls for two dollars. The scent of homecooked imaginary food is already wafting through the house.

A peek inside the Coryell Castle's boho-thrift.

On the edge of the mantle, an inspiring art book ($1.98 from thrift store) with a clay statue of a child's head ($1 from estate sale) and a framed postcard from the Romanian Peasant Museum (about $2 total).

Hanging from the ceiling in my sewing corner is the bordello chandelier (free from a neighborhood yard sale), which I strung with knotted twine. The oil painting was a gift from my mother. 

Current uniform.

Getting ready to go and get our Christmas tree requires a little dazzle. My striped orange tights made me so happy this morning that I asked Patrick to snap a photo before I had finished dressing or even started brushing.

Orange striped tights go with everything...

But my uniform for cold weather this year has been the Romanian H&M crushed velvet leggings selected by my cousin Alice and gifted by my dear mother. I've worn these leggings for days on end with everything- even slept in them a few nights. Crushed velvet. Why didn't I ever like crushed velvet before? I mistook its sparkle and shimmer for kitsch. Lesson learned with love.

My favorite pants this fall.

Upcycled cloth napkins tutorial with help from the kids.

The Coryell Castle officially switched from paper towels to cloth towels six months ago. I didn't think it was possible, but it has become a regular part of our lives to use and wash our cloth towels. So I thought we might be ready to move entirely to cloth napkins...

The only problem is that store-bought cloth napkins require folding and arranging- not a favorite for table-setting munchkins or mommies who loathe ironing. The solution? To create my own 2-ply napkins which only fold once and do not require any extra fluffing.

MATERIALS:

• A long, double-sided table runner (mine was 8-ft) 
• Scissors
• Thread (I used black for contrast and a folksy touch)
• Machine set to decorative stitch

Lay your runner out on the ground and encourage your kids to help you divide it into 10 pieces of (almost) equal size using a tape measure. Mark with a piece of chalk and cut.

Then take the 10 cut pieces over to your sewing machine and stitch up the sides on the outside of the runner. (You are leaving the edges to be frayed by a good run the washing machine and dryer.)

Now consider cooking that food that provides an opportunity to use your new napkins.

My embroidered-appliqued-upcycled couch pillow cover.

Our $30 thrifted couch is upholstered in whitish velvet- not always the best fabric for fort-building munchkins. Rather than keep the couch as a foreign country in our home, I've started slowly slipcovering it, cushion by cushion, piece by piece, pillow by pillow.

Yesterday included covering one long, slender pillow + vintage woven linen + black thread + a little stitched design on an old bed sheet + velcro (for the envelope back pillow because little ones love to remove pillows from pillow covers). 

Black stitches make me happy.

My embroidered creation, Doodlehead, seemed appropriate.

Milla can't stop touching and feeling the stitches- two birds warned with one stone now that she has a texture toy to explore.

Weekend craft dresser refashion.

Our weekend work in progress- a thrifted craft dresser which I will use for all my little homeless odds and ends.

Ingredients:

• Thrifted wood dresser
• Blunted black sharpie marker
• Benjamin Williams color sample of bright green paint
• Some whitish pink paint
• Paintbrushes
• A beautiful day and a fenced-in backyard
• Song lyrics
• Handwritten wedding vows

The before, a lovely wood piece that needs some color for our color-hungry home.

The work-in-progress which Patrick painted yesterday.

We decided not to paint the drawers different colors and instead use words as ornaments- words we love. 

So we used the lyrics to a few songs from our wedding CD and a few songs from old mixes we made for each other:

• Wither, I'm a Flower by Whiskeytown
• All Or Nothing At All by Bruce Springsteen
• Burn the Honeysuckle by The Gourds
• Rebellion (Lies) by The Arcade Fire

And then added excerpts from my vows and Patrick's vows, the words that made us cry with joy.

Three more drawers remain, and I think I am going to take them in an entirely different direction. I'll let you know what comes of it. A hint: acrylic paints and domesticity.

An estate sale.

The entrance to a fascinating dungeon filled with polyester dresses.

A painted plate.

The baby doll cradle with a bell that rings as you rock. Our painting project for today.

A house for a mouse.

A glorious gourd.

Total price: $11.50. Negotiated by Max.

Upcycling as a lifestyle choice.

Living in a commercial society means even our wildest dreams will be marketed and brought to us in the form of a product. While I am grateful for the choices and the material prosperity, abundance ushers in its own spiritual problems, including the belief that we can buy our way to happiness.

One way I try to keep it real here in the Coryell Castle is by upcycling as much as possible. Upcycling, a phrase coined by Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart, is the act of creating useful products from waste materials. We use old things to make new ones. Our imaginations spend time finding novel uses for discarded items. Much of our furniture has been picked up where its previous owners left it on the side of the road. Add a hot pink coat of paint and life begins again. My sewing machine makes upcycling possible in ways I never imagined. All our old, stained clothes-- the ones too dirty to donate-- can be salvaged with a few cuts, combinations, and stitches. So many of the things we "want" already exist if we only decide to create them.

This dress, for example, was upcycled from a stained stretch tank and an old pillowcase. The back of the dress has what I call a "baby bustle" in which the fabric is tucked to create a small bustle. I love it. I loved making it. Like many upcyclings, I must decide whether to keep it or offer it to others on etsy because my closet doesn't have space for everything I love and others might wear it better.

If you are interested in beginning the upcycling adventure, the following might just frost your cupcake:

• 100 amazing upcycling ideas anyone can do from the Engineering A Better World Blog
• Trashion Fashion Show at the University of Minnesota for a little upcycled fashion inspiration
• Danny Seo's upcycling advice in Dwell
• "Upcycling: Re-imagining our waste" from Digital Universe
  
• "Trash or treasure? Upcycling becomes growing green trend" from Reuters
• Upcycle Canada has many ideas and resources.
• The Upcycle Blog

The thrifting find of the weekend.

A funkdafied, handmade clay vase large enough to hold/hide at least 30 of my highlighter markers to the tune of $2. Love at first sight.

Babies need big bibs.

I've always been annoyed by bibs that are short on fabric to cover the baby's entire front. Because my experience has been that little ones don't seek the bib-covered spots on their shirts to try and stain-- they just get the food goop everywhere. So I decided to make a few bibs that actually live up to their promise to protect clothing from various stains.

Of course, the bibs had to come from various upcycled fabrics. And they needed to be reversible because all of us have different sides. I haven't added all the bibs to my etsy page yet, so check back later if you want to see the latest.

In the meantime, little Milla will only model bibs while holding a purple wooden frog. Not having an ironing board, the bibs don't look as spiffy as they might had this mommy found a way to press them with two small children running between her legs. Please forgive (or embrace) my chaos.

 

The anger drum.

Like his mommy, Max gets easily frustrated and ends up acting a little feisty when things don't go the way he planned. As we wandered around garage sales Saturday morning, Max met a little boy named Austin who offered to sell him a drum for a dollar. Max politely declined, but Max's mother, shocked by the light bulb that appeared over her head, took Austin up on his offer. Beating on a drum offers physical and emotional release for various African tribes-- why not for us? Marines are using drums and drum circles to cope with the stress of post-traumatic stress disorder. 

I explained to Max that when he gets angry or frustrated, he needs to grab his anger drum from the top of the piano and find a beat. Since he looked distracted, I asked him to practice with me by imagining a scenario in which he lost a privilege and didn't feel it was fair. How would he feel? Tap it out on the drum. Give me a beat that shows how you feel. For every one of these angry feelings, for every specific situation, there will be a different beat that makes it go away. I told Max he just need to seek it-- to bang on the drum until he found the beat that fixed it. Maybe over time, Max will find that certain beats fit certain kinds of frustrations. Or maybe he'll find that beating on the bongo is a great way to let go. Or maybe I'll just have to buy a bongo for every member of the family so we can use drum circles as a means of conflict resolution. Life is so cool.

More on drums, emotions, drum therapy, shamans, drum circles, and drumming your way to better health:

• 101 drum circles rhythms for the hand drum
• "Drum therapy", an excerpt from the book The Shamanic Drum by Michael Drake, which describes a led exercise for centering the drumming experience. Good resource.
• Documented medical benefits of drumming
• Free drum circle mp3s
• "Embodiment and Ambivalence: Emotion in South Asian Muharran Drumming", a paper by Richard K. Wolf
• "Fortune 500 tunes into bang the drum therapy", an interesting article.
• The Drum Therapy website opens doors.
• Of course, once you get over the lingo, the Therapeuetic Drumming Foundation is also an excellent resource. Happy pounding.

A Max+Alina tradition.

Max rushed into my room around 6:11 this morning huffing and puffing. "Mom! Are you ready to go to garage sales?" 'Twas the only voice saying the only thing that can make me smile at 6:11 on a Saturday morning. 

I grumbled a bit, threw on some jeans, and climbed into the minivan with Max, who immediately reminded me that we forgot to brush our teeth. I told him it was too late for hygiene-- just flash your smiles quickly and no one will know. Garage sales are a tradition that Max and I started when Micah was born. It gives me time alone with Max to chat and giggle and explore our town and various trains of thought. We never bring a newspaper because that would cut down on the time we spend together just jabbering. Instead, I let Max tell me which way to go and we look for signs. Sometimes we get lost (which is fun). Other times we strike gold with an estate sale. Mostly we drive around with the windows open and Led Zeppelin blaring. Max tells me when he sees something beautiful-- something that makes his "heart soar". I point out the way the early morning dew leaves a trail of diamonds in the grass. 

We always chat with the ladies and gentlemen hosting yard sales or garage sales. Someone always says that Max is "very smart". Then they ask where he goes to school, and I tell them we homeschool. Many conversations begin from there. Today, a lovely lady with bright blue glasses told me that she wished she had homeschooled. Then she asked Max if he liked it. Tossing his hair to the side, Max replied, "Of course. I LOVE it." His matter-of-fact tone made me happy.

Max wanders through the old linens, crumpled leather shoes, and mangled plastic toys in search of treasures. He has one single dollar to spend for the whole day, so he must be very choosy and careful. Normally, the dollar goes unspent. The point of our Saturday adventures is not to shop but rather to explore the world around us in a wandering, wondering fashion. To learn the history behind the trinkets. To forgo planned moments for the open road. To see where life takes us. I love our tradition as I love watching my wild, creative son grow into his heart and head.

Our $10 treasure for the day

Slip and slide days are here.

And Dirt Cheap has a 70% sale on slip and slides, which works well for my family who goes through a couple of these every year. So I purchased two for under $12 and felt pretty good about the whole thing.

Micah's new pink shoes.

We got them at Patiently Waiting, a consignment store in Northport. Lately, Micah has gotten into the habit of removing shoes at various and sundry locations where her mother does not realize that shoes are missing until it is too late. Since Micah is quite skilled at velcro and zippers, we found a nice little buckle sandal that she cannot remove. So far, the shoes have been perfect and she hasn't discovered how to remove them yet!

Sick little munchkins.

When it rains, it pours on the poor little munchkins. Micah has been sick since Friday (?), so I took her to the doctor and it turns out she has RSV. She doesn't want to eat or drink, which has been quite a challenge. We've also had to do a few breathing treatments because her bronchial tubes are inflamed. There is nothing this particular mommy likes less than administering breathing treatments to her screaming little ones. But it did make her feel better...

Her little nose runs like a faucet so I have a nasal aspirator attached to my wrist. Who will be the next stay-at-home mom to create the ultimate product-- a mom's tool-belt for sick kids, including nasal aspirator, kleenex caddy, Vick's VapoRub pouch, homeopathic honey cough syrup pouch, dropper, and so on?

Musings aside now,we were supposed to spend the week in Ohio visiting my Dad, his wife, Granma Vicki, Bill, Jess, Ryan, Drew, and Baby Ben, but the doctor said travel was out of the question. So our first family plane trip has been canceled. I was SO excited about this trip in which we could see dear family from across the country! Instead, my dear husband spent his vacation days helping me with sick lil' ones instead of enjoying the Ohio snowstorms.

Max has also been sick, and took a turn for the worse last night. Coughing and congestion, though no asthma, thank goodness. I am so grateful that his asthma has been better this year; it seems he is growing out of it! Now the challenge is to keep Mischevious Micah and Many-Feathered Max away from each other for the next 24 hours so their illnesses don't cross-fertilize. And keeping these two apart is a tremendous challenge..... A challenge made easier by the presence of the super-hero-husband-dad pictured to the right in a stunning ladies' swim cap circa 1940.

Good websites to help care for sick little munchkins:

• Dr. Sears

• American Academy of Pediatrics

• Mayo Clinic Children's Health Center

• WebMD Children's Health Center

• Dr. Paul's Child Health and Wellness Info Site

• KidsHealth- this is actually more useful for sick kids to play and learn about health while recuperating

Playing ball.

Max and I headed over to America's Thrift yesterday for some books, which we found aplenty. Of course, as is usually the case when we wander into a thrift store, something else called our name.

Alas, I could not resist this collapse-able ball game for the grand sum of $3.88! It reminded me of those fun games at the fair where you can win a teddy bear or some other lame and straggly stuffed animal prize. But it's not about the prize...

Lots of fun with the balls. Max beat me every time we played. Here he is playing with Casey, one of his favorite babysitters. (Hint: His other favorite babysitter is Jessica, Casey's sister. Who is married to Jason. Whom Max also likes a bunch.)

Free ink cartridges on September 12th!

Who knows why Walgreens decided to refill ink catridges for free in stores tomorrow with no purchase necessary? Just print a copy of the coupon and take it with you! Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

Everything is beautiful. And cheap.

Since we have be learning to live on very little, I've been harnessing the powers of imagination to furnish and decorate our home cheaply. My strategy is simple- thrift stores, trash trips, and flea markets.

Thrift stores are what you make of them. To make the most of your thrift store shopping, you should walk in to the store looking for things to use in unusual ways. For example, I found some really neat handmade quilts for $3 a piece at America's Thrift Store, which I keep in a bin near the fireplace for those who like to nestle under a blanket in the evening. I also bought an old nightstand for a couple of bucks and then whitewashed it. Whenever I stop in, I make sure to keep an eye out for cheap baskets, cheap Mason jars and coffee mugs, and old wooden wall hangings or shelvings, which I then use as backboards or foundations for photo and art projects. For ideas and inspiration, wander around your local thrift store for a few hours and imagine that your job was to create furniture from odds and ends that you found there. Come up with at least four ideas for furniture pieces based on your finds. Or, peruse the winners of the Thrift Store Art Revamp contest.

Every Tuesday and Friday I put Max in the car seat and take a little spin around the neighborhoods of Tuscaloosa for a "trash trip" around the "floating flea markets". We keep out eyes open for furniture, lamps. and wood or metal scraps that people have left for the garbage man. When we see a prospective treasure, we pull over for a closer look and a possible trash collection. So far, I've found a wonderful old wooden entertainment center (which we whitewashed), lots of neat wooden pieces and chairs, lamps aplenty, and poster frames for my maps. Trash trips are always fun- the biggest challenge is getting the heavy old wood furniture into my rickety Avalon, though someone always stops to help.

Ever since I was about 7 years old, and believed that flea markets actually doubled as flea zoos, I considered family trips or stops at the flea market to be an esoteric type of rural safari. Finding old mugs and love letters made the personal historical. Of course, flea markets carried "merchandise", but this merchandise was more raw for its use and history. Everything I touched wore its age and suggested a story, the scent of secrets made my nose itch.

But life is more pragmatic, and some people prefer their flea markets on the margins. If you aren't a fam of flea markets and haven't yet found a reason to savor the flavor of other people's memories, Better Homes and Gardens offers a free online guide to flea market shopping that even the most stringent pragmatist would respect. If you are of the "flea markets are nasty" school of thought, then you can still get your flea market thrills from a pleasant distance using the Country Living online flea market.

In general, when I see the following for a good price (no more than $5), I scoop them up if the weekly budget permits.

• Old suitcases have many alternate uses. You can use them to make tables, 3-D art pieces, and benches.
• Antique spools and bobbins double as rustic candle-holders.
• Old glass doorknobs always look neater than the usual doorknob. You can also use them to make an outdoor candle chandelier or mount several on a plank for a quaint coat hanger.
• Old garden furniture- the sky is the limit.
• Old skis and poles can be used as curtain rods. Alternately, use the skis as chair-backs for home-crafted chairs
• Aged canes or golf clubs make fun curtain or shower rods.
• Vintage hand mirrors make a neat wall hanging.
• Old window frames can be used as freehanging room dividers or mounted picture frames. You can also use them as frames for mirrors.
• Antique children's toys and signage can be worked into any room under any decorative guise.

If your imagination feels the weight of all this imaginative responsibility, you can explore a few of the neat-o crafts and projects below. I especially loved the suitcase table and all the wild ways in which you can use old garden tools to make furniture.

• Garden table- a table made from rakes and garden supplies
• Creative use ideas for old garden gates
• Magazine rack made from an old metal crib rail
• Plant stand bedside table
• The niftiest suitcase table I've seen (picture above)
• Crate coffee table
• "Sign of the times" coffee table
• A collectibles showcase made from an old window frame