Shop Local: Patterson Park Flea Market & Craft Fair in Baltimore, MD on May 14, 2011
If you live in the Baltimore-Washington area and have ever been interested in viewing my items in person, there is an excellent opportunity this weekend. I’ll be peddling my wares at the Patterson Park Flea Market & Craft Fair. I’ll bring all of the vintage and refashioned goodies from my Etsy shop and sell them at my booth, just look for the large SerendipiT sign. I’ll even have goodies that I haven’t had the opportunity to list in my store, like recycled tshirt tote bags, hats and more. This event will kick off Saturday morning at 9am and last until 3pm and you can find us near Lombard Street and Patterson Park Avenue, by the White House and Fountain.
The Spring 2011 Patterson Park Flea Market and Craft Fair will be presented by the Butchers Hill Association on Saturday, May 14, 2011 from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM.� The event is located in the northwest part of Baltimore�s Patterson Park near familiar landmarks � the Pagoda, the Marble Fountain, and the White House.� Vendors and buyers will enjoy a great outdoor setting, live band music, and picnic food and beverages offered by Butchers Hill.
We hope that you’ll join us in this 20-year-plus flea-market tradition, either as a vendor selling �fleas,� both old and new, or crafts, creations, and other valuables, or by kicking back for a day of fun and bargain-hunting.
So come out and enjoy Baltimore in Spring, shop for some local handmade crafts and unique vintage finds and be sure to stop by and say, Hi!”.
Filed under Events, Local to Baltimore | Tags: Baltimore City, Butchers Hill, Craft Fair, crafts, eco-friendly, Etsy, Flea Market, gifts, Patterson Park, refashion, SerendipiT, spring, sustainable, thrifty, vintage, Washington | Comment (0)Spring Cleaning Time Again: DIY Natural All-Purpose Cleaner Recipes
This weekend is spring cleaning time again around my house. As you may have read in previous posts I try to use inexpensive, effective and natural cleaners wherever possible. I swear by vinegar for cleaning counter tops, stainless steel and cutting boards, but when it comes to all purpose cleaners for bathrooms, floors, etc. I have a new recipe:
All-Purpose Cleaner
1/2 Gallon of Water
2 tsp Borax
1/2 C vinegar
As for everything in the bathroom, when in doubt, just use borax. It’s abrasive and natural and leaves everything clean, shiny and fresh. I sprinkle some around inside my toilet and let it sit while I clean, then I just use my little scrubby brush and voila! It’s clean and fresh! Essentially, some mixture of vinegar, borax and water can clean anything in your house. If you have stains and you need some abrasive, just add the borax. For dusting, cleaning wood floors and furniture polish though I recommend buying. I use Method’s Wood for Good because it removes scratches and leaves everything smelling almondy and rich, but there are lots of healhty and natural options out there. You can even use a bit of olive oil and lemon juice to make a good wood cleaner/polisher if you want. I don’t have to use it enough to be concerned about the economic impact of my wood cleaner because I use mostly all-purpose cleaner around my home. What about you? What natural and/or DIY cleaners do you use around your home? Do you have any great recipes to share? If so, leave them in the comments below. Happy Cleaning!
Filed under DIY, Environmentally Focused, Product, Shopping, Tutorial | Tags: DIY, eco-friendly, ingredients, natural, recipe, spring, sustainable, thrifty | Comment (0)The Spring Cometh
Well, it’s hard to believe that winter will ever end, especially since the majority of the U.S. is being hammered by awful winter weather for the last week or so. Snow, ice and wintry mix, the forecast buzzwords that can be heard everywhere along the North East lately don’t exactly call to mind fun in the sun. However, the folks at Pantone, who begin looking at fashion runways in the fall, analyze what they see and predict the colors for the next season. After, they post the Pantone Fashion Color Report filled with their predictions. What I find particularly exciting is that this year’s colors have been themed, “An Exotic Journey”. And seriously, who doesn’t want to go on one of those? I can easily sit here at my desk and imagine myself being whisked away to someplace warm and exotic like Morocco, India, Egypt to name a few. It’s likely that designers have tapped into our collective subconscious as they determine which colors will lead the next trends. In thinking of the U.S., where are we as a nation? Well, mostly we are depressed, anxious and weary as embattled consumers await the spring of our financial discontent. These colors represent our “need to escape” and perk up our wardrobes with “feel-good” colors like Honeysuckle pink. What I found most interesting is that they have tried to appeal to our newly found frugality by allowing us to work with the wardrobe we already have rather than ecouraging us to toss everything and don something more avant-garde. The Pantone Fashion Color Report says, “By cleverly combining complementary colors, those that are opposites on the color wheel, they have created a striking intensity in the palette. These unique color combinations make it possible for consumers to pair existing pieces in colors traditionally associated with fall, with new favorites to punch up springtime wardrobes.” That’s ceratainly good news for women like me, who are always looking for new and interesting ways to work with what we already have. I was happy to see some of my very favorite colors included, variations of teal, turquoise, pink and purple. One color that I see myself adding to my wardrobe for the spring is mustard yellow. It is similar to the beeswax listed in the report, but a bit more earthy and is more flattering to my particular skin tone. Interestingly enough, sunny yellow has always signfied optimism. Maybe that means that our collective consciousness has finally taken a sigh, decided that it can only go up from here and are trying to move past the anger, outrage and utter desperation that many of us have felt from the seeming bailout of Wall St. and the abandonement of Main St. I, for one, am happy to be moving to a sunnier side of the street.
I’ll be incorporating these colors into my personal wardrobe and focusing on these color combinations for my Etsy store, SerendipiT and the Fashion:Remix Team Store as well.
In the meantime, enjoy my mustard inspired treasury.
Happy Travels to your faraway land of choice. Even if that exotic locale exists only in your mind and can only be accessed from your couch. Where will you be traveling?
Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap
Boy am I sorry I didn’t see this sooner! I was posting a comment on the Baltimore Sun this morning and to the right saw and ad for the Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap. I had never even heard of this, but I was immediately excited. Woohoo, someone is organizing clothing swaps in my very own city! I love clothing swaps because you can shop for free and reducing your carbon footprint by reusing the clothes that someone else no longer wants. I love to swap out my closet at least twice a year and since I discovered clothing swaps I don’t have to feel bad about it anymore; It’s glorious. I clicked on the link and noted that they were having a swap this Saturday, May 1 from 10am – 6pm in Mt. Vernon. I’ll be out of town on Saturday celebrating my Dad’s birthday, so unfortunately I’ll have to miss this one. The good news? They are traveling all over the city (and have been since early April) through the middle of May. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for the next swap so that I can spruce up my wardrobe for Spring. The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap has it’s own website here where it says:
Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap:
Style & Sustainability Through Common Threads
April 18 – May 17, 2010All ages, genders and sizes are welcome to participate in a new kind of shopping experience that benefits the environment and the Baltimore community. Donate, trade or take clothing and accessories in an exciting, outdoor, store-like, money-free exchange. (Even if you do not donate, you may take up to three items!) The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap will travel to a variety of locations throughout Baltimore city for one month.
The swap is free and open to the general public.
Their mission is simple, “The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap’s mission is to raise awareness about recycling, focused on secondhand clothing and accessories, through an exciting and free service that benefits the environment and brings together the Baltimore community.” There are two very important differences from the little clothing swaps that I attend (usually put on by friends at my local bar/restaurant The Parkside):
1. You can only bring Ten (10) items to donate
2. You have to tag your items
Still, choosing only ten preloved items to donate may be the hardest part and if shopping for free means that you have to fill out some little paper tags I think it’s worth it.
Here are the remaining events; see you there!
Saturday, May 1
Mount Vernon Park, North Square
699 North Charles St
Baltimore, Maryland
10 am – 6 pm
JUST ADDED:
Sunday, May 2
Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar
Underneath the Jones Falls Expressway at Holliday & Saratoga streets
7 am – noon
Sunday, May 9
Patterson Park (specific address not yet determined)
10 am – 6 pm
Friday, May 14 – Monday, May 17
Maryland Institute College of Art, Mount Royal Station, Frost Plaza
1300 Mount Royal Ave
Baltimore, Maryland 21217
Fri: 11 am – 8 pm
Sat-Mon: 11 am – 5 pm
Hey! What happened to my Spring?
Well, here in Baltimore Spring has sprung and gone. We went directly from cold weather sweaters to hot pants and flip flops in the last 3 weeks. With temperatures hovering just below 90 degrees at the end of March I’m not sure what to expect this summer. While I am certainly enjoying turning off the HVAC and tossing open the windows I am left feeling completely unprepared. I hadn’t yet switched my closet over to spring and now I’m going straight to summer! (I have a tiny, dark little close that requires me to make creative use of hangers, bins and shelves.) Worse yet; it’s too hot to wear shoes and my feet are in no conditions to be let out into the light yet. My friend and I are going for a pedicure after work so I can have some spring pruning done on my tootsies. And, yes, I know I should do it myself at home and save money, but…. I usually pamper myself once a year with a good professional pedicure and then I’ll do it myself from there. Oddly enough this usually takes place on Mother’s Day in preparation for the summer in May, not April! Fortunately I can perhaps even justify this (at least to myself) becuase I’ve saved up so much money by not using my credit cards or buying new clothes, etc for so long now. (I wonder if this rationalization will work on my husband too?) Anyway, I digress… The biggest issue at present for me though involves the garden and backyard. In years past my husband and I had built a pump track and dirt jumps in our backyard so that we wouldn’t have to drive out to local trails to have some fun on our bikes; we could just ride at home. Unfortunately this led to a permanently muddy kitcken floor thanks to my husband, dog, and daughter. Worse yet, the berms helped to collect water which I’m certain led to an increase in our burgeoning mosquito population. Finally, as 30 soemthing adults it was generally frowned upon by our parents and others because we couldn’t hold a proper barbecue or patio dinner with such a mess in the back. So… finally, now that we’ve decided to focus our moutain biking efforts on downhilling, we are flattening the back yard and putting in a real adult lawn and deck. (I do get to have a horseshoe pit, though which is pretty super). This means disassembeling wooden ramps, filling in some very large holes, removing rock supports and a whole lot of digging. We’ve felled a tree and are ready to rototill and pickup topsoil, then plant grass seed. Seed can really only be planted in the fall or spring and with the weather so hot we are really falling behind in getting this all done. If that weren’t enough we’ve got taxes, Easter and lots of family birthdays… and well, maybe some time to spend to ourselves doing other thigns like maybe eating, sleeping, or even saying hello to each other…sheesh! To dig the hole even deeper, litteraly and figuratively, I it’s also time for the annual moving of the plants in my front yard and mulching. I landscaped my front lawn because it’s better for the environment and local wildlife for a variety of reasons, but it is also very draining on my personal scheudule and my pockets. I’ve even taken a vacation day from work trying to get caught up on my gardening nightmares and I’m still falling behind. I’ve been shoveling, separating and transplanting all week. This weekend I’ll be digging, moving, mulching and weeding. If you see me unconscious in the garden, I’m likely just exhausted and please feel free to revive me with coffee. Don’t even get me started on herb and vegetable gardening that needs to be started immediately… So far this entire year seems accelerated by the crazy climate in Baltimore and what I really want to know is, “Hey! What happened to my Spring!?!” Help…
Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: Baltimore City, DIY, eco-friendly, flowers, garden, mulch, plants, spring, summer, vegetable, weather | Comments (2)Threadbanger How-To: Spring Skirt from Old Dress Shirt Sleeves
That’s right, you read that title right. Take some old cotton dress shirts from your friend, father, or significant other, cut off the sleeves and make a really cool spring skirt with cute button embellishments. I’m planning on whipping myself up one shortly. I’m thinking I could also grab some corduroy or flannel shirts for some fall/winter wear skirts layered over tights; oh the possibilities. Thanks to Threadbanger and Brooksie of Haute Stew for this awesome refashion tutorial! I’ll post pictures of mine once I have it finished; if you make one comment and let me know how it turns out.
Filed under DIY, Environmentally Focused, Tutorial | Tags: cordury, cotton dress shirts, DIY, eco-friendly, fall, flannel, recycle, refashion, shirt sleeves, skirt, spring, Threadbanger, thrifty, Tutorial | Comment (0)