It was a dreary, rainy day and we headed out to Leesburg, VA for the Old Luckett’s Antique Sale (their 11th Annual Spring Market).  The sale features over 100 vendors with food and music and would have been perfectly enjoyable if much of the merchandise hadn’t been sitting on puddles of mud.  Here’s a bit of what we saw during our antique outing – I spotted some great organization tools, but brought nothing home.  

Image #2 below captures some rare and great iron & glass candle holders in a booth featuring tan, white and grey as theme colors.  

Image #3 captures some wood garden painted stakes that caught our eye because our own garden could use a more enhanced label system.  

Image #4 is a pretty red, white and blue theme set against an old wood screen door – simple Americana.  

Image #5 captures a trend we really saw as taking off, painted wood furniture in non-traditional country colors (this wardrobe painted in an apricot – or see the table in image #3 in kelly green).  

I did almost pickup the cutest turquoise end table for $20 (not shown) because the size was so adorable and the color paint was so perfect, but alas the spindly legs were wobbly.  Check your items before you buy and bring your outdoor shoes when you’ll be traipsing through the rain!

We have an older 1920′s porch that was looking a little ratty after the winter.  Step 1 – sweep porch, shake out pillows & floor mats.  Step 2 – go to the impossibly over-crowed Lowe’s (when you go at lunch on a Saturday, this is what you get) and weed through the many picked-over, wilting and broken hanging plants to find three of similar size, weight and flower distribution.  Step 3 – bring plants home, tear off old and dying leaves, read the care instructions, take off price tags, and hang them so the best side faces out to the street.  Step 4 – Take smaller pots, arrange on stairs, and take photographs.  Today’s flowers came from Basket Beauties – Ramblin Trailing Petunias, guaranteed to bloom all summer (or so they say).  If you need help taking care of your petunias, read here.  Total time = 1 hour.  Lessons learned – the tri-color pots are good for the stairs, but not so much for the hanging baskets – next time, go with one solid color (or at a max two) in brighter arrangements.  It’s overcast today and they look a little dark.  Maybe when the sun shines we’ll see what happens!  

If you happen to be traveling to Hong Kong over Memorial Day, you might be able to hear Prof. Klaus R. Kunzmann in his upcoming seminar on knowledge cities, creative industries and urban development.  Kunzmann is an expert in urban planning who has worked on the role of creativity and the arts for spatial endogenous economic development in cities and regions in Europe and China. He, having written over 12 books on the subject, is really interested in the intersection of creativity, arts, city & urban development and the people there – and so are we!

Kunzmann will be presenting a seminar addressing how policy should support the development of cultural and creative industries in a city including location matters, for cultural industries as well as for creative industries. Can creative spaces be planned? What are successful strategies to promote develop or protect creative locations and spaces in a city? What are the preconditions for shaping sustainable creative urban environments and supporting the much-acclaimed creative class?  Learn more here.

American Style magazine features art, craft, travel and interior design.  It has a strong influence on jewelry and metal craftsmanship and also carries regular features on arts fairs & festivals.  The recent Spring 2010 issue contained an arts tours and several working artists’ spaces while the Winter issue had a fantastic article on 21st century basket makers along with 11 contemporary artists to watch.  It’s a relatively small mag that’s jam-packed with info tidbits and a great resource to see what’s up and coming (and selling) in the marketplace.  The photography and quality of the ads are top of the line.

Displaying a collection of holy prayer cards and mass cards took years to come to fruition.  The collector had acquired the cards over a period of years after having read about one such collector who had amassed over 20,000 cards and who reviewed them daily for inspiration.  So after years of being uncertain what to do with all the cards, some in French and Italian, and one from Jerusalem, we set about finding display cases that would offer both a view and some protection. The display cases shown below were purchased at Micheals from the Martha Stewart line at 50% discount.  The cases were perfect because the French Victorian wallpaper backing offered a natural backdrop for the muted colors of the cards.

Step two was to separate the cards into three piles:  those featuring Jesus (image #1); those featuring Mary (image #3); and other (image #2).  Since each case fits 12 cards, the most challenging part of the project was choosing 12 holy prayer cards from each pile. Fortunately, because the cases are mounted on the wall, the collection can easily be changed so cards can be rotated.  We then took some of the cards and adhered them to strong bond paper to yield support while they stand on their edges.  

Cards were arranged in the display case along with some other religious iconography for visual interest, and now this collector has a beautiful, valuable, and inspirational focal point with a history and a potential heirloom.  Image #2 above shows the glass case enclosure closed with its darling vintage glass knob.  Total time for this project: 1 hour to buy the cases, 1 hour to hang them on the wall (with anchors), 1 hour to sort the cards and store the remainders, 1 hour to select 12 most loved cards per case, and 1 hour for inserting them in case and taking photos = 5 hours.  The Mary case is looking a little flat – so throw in another hour for adding flowers and other mementos.

Here’s a glimpse of a primitive small colored pencil & pen mixed media piece I began over the weekend, in the midst of hotel hopping and chasing a 3-year old.  It commemorates my daughter Lauren’s college graduation and 23rd birthday. Love Limitlessness.  It also depicts her life journey from the island of Sicily, to Bahrain, back to the States, and finally in Manhattan.  

Map files or flat files can be found after what seems to be an exhausting search, even when scouring e-bay or Craigslist.  You’ve got to get the right size, for the right money, in the right materials, and then it has to be transportable to your office or studio.  So one trick many artists use is to forego the flat files and go out in search of larger drawer units which can be used to store works and/or supplies.  All the online art supply stores sell them, at seemingly inflated prices, here’s an “environmental” one through Dick Blick called the Safco Facil Flat file.  It’s really important when comparing prices to try to match apples to apples – a manufactured flat file will run you much less than a true wood one and won’t last as long.

One of the best current values on the market for non-wood flat files is a small flat file unit available through Ikea at about $100, but even that you have to assemble and the drawers are open to air, so this would not be archival.

Finding the right artist’s tabouret, flat file, or rolling drawer storage can be a real challenge.  Today Home Decorators Collection is offering very fine Stanton Carts in wide ranges of widths and numbers of drawers.  Here’s an example of a 16-drawer double wide for $249 .  I love the single units as painter’s side tables and these are constructed of wood.

If none of these strike your fancy, Brimfield and other large antique shows are right around the corner.  I bought my large flat file unit at an antique event called the Big Flea in DC and I paid $300 for solid oak wood with 15 beautiful drawers AND a stand, so antique-ing might just be the answer for you too, even when the little brass label holders fall off as mine in the lower right drawer has – there’s no perfect answer!  Good luck.  

Whether you love an apothecary style medicine cabinet in your bathroom, or you simply just revel in throw-backs to yesteryear, glass jars & canisters are all the design and organization rage.  Crate and Barrel is offering some of the most interestingly designed, modern glass canisters with lids (in a square top design) that I’ve seen in a while.  The small canister (will fit Q-tips perfectly) will run you about $16.95 on sale (until 6/6/10 w/ free shipping on orders over $50).

They also have large glass jars with lids (in a dome top, vintage design) which are perfect for flour, sugar, and salt.  The large 2-gallon will run you about $19.95 on sale.  And if you’re not crazy about glass, C&B also offers countertop square containers from OXO that offer the same visibility in plastic without the weight of glass.  The square containers are great for small kitchens or storage spaces where room is of the essence.

Lately, we’ve been seeing glass jars and canisters used not only in the kitchen and bath, but in the art studio and in-home office, especially for fabric and fiber artists who are storing ribbons, laces, trims, felt, and fabric in them.  I’ve also seem them used as old-style candy jars complete with metal candy scoopers for things like pom poms, beads, sequins, and glitter.  If you’ve got a lot of antique wood pieces in your in-home office or art studio, glass jars can be a great way to balance too much heaviness.  The second image below showing art baubles in glass jars in the studio is credited to My Shabby Streamside Studio.  If you’re in love with French Country or Shabby Chic, pop on some handmade labels or decanter style tags to make these glass containers uniquely your own! 

Shauna Lee Lange joined about 15 other metropolitan Washington DC established veteran business owners last night as part of a new business pilot program sponsored by George Mason University’s (Mason Enterprise Center) School of Public Policy, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the Virginia Small Business Development  Centers.  The program, Veteran-toVeteran Entrepreneur Mentoring Project (V2VE) began in 2009 when the www.vetbizresourcecenter.com was established. 

The VETBIZ Resource Center (see link above) is created for Veterans, Reservists, and National Guardsmen who are also small business owners or are thinking about becoming one.  The site has learning modules, videos, and appropriate PDF documents to tackle every day business challenges. 

The new 2010 grant is designed to get best business practices in establishing dialogue and information sharing exchange between veteran business owners that will encourage an open exchange of lessons learned.  Participants meet in a facilitated mentoring group every other week for 2 hours from June 2 to October 6 for a total of 10 sessions.  The group will discuss pressing issues, hear guest speakers, and work as a mini think tank.  Susan W. Lee-Morrow, Project Manager, facilitated last evening’s session which was ripe with possibility and promise.  Lange is one of three women business owners participating in the pilot program and is the only participant with a business in Alexandria, VA.   

Lange hopes to expand and further develop her organized design firm to four targeted DC regions:  Old Town, Georgetown, National Harbor and SW Capitol Riverfront.  Lange’s firm provides services stemming from architecture and design to art and organization.  She has formerly been concentrated in residential art studios, creative spaces, and work interior development. 

Although I nearly cringe at the use of those plastic bins because I know from experience there will come a day when you’ll want more permanent storage systems, I do have to admit to having a few well-worn ones in my very own basement storage too.  Plastic bins have come a long way, and now are regularly available as rolling carts, household organizing tools, or heavy-duty storage devices. 

Sterilite is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of plastic housewares. Sterilite’s broad line features some of the most innovative and distinctive products available on the market today. From food storage containers and laundry / utility products to home storage and organization products in every shape, size and color; Sterilite helps you “keep it together” like no other.  You can shop directly from Sterilite’s site and readily see what’s available for your fast and easy use.