UsedEverywhere.com

Play a little game

Awhile back I posted about a cool board game I found in a secondhand store.

Last night my family played a round of Careers, another vintage game we have on our shelves. It’s an oldie but a goodie. Unfortunately it was missing some rather important score sheets, so my husband did a quick search online and printed them off. (I just realized you can find and print scans of the original score sheets from 1957! Check out this PDF.) Did you know you can also do this with Monopoly money? You can print your own One, Five, Ten, Twenty, Fifty, One Hundred and Five Hundred dollar denominations. (AND FEEL RICH!)

Missing game pieces are also an unfortunate reality of buying secondhand games. That’s why I started collecting them separately. I can’t tell you how handy this has been!

You grab a die or playing piece when you need one. Handy eh?

Home decorating with UsedOttawa and Pinterest

Last week I wrote about some cool camping-related items from the UsedOttawa website. Well, I’m still browsing. It’s been non-stop really. As some of you might already know, my family is venturing into a big home renovation. I’ve given myself the title of “chief decorator and ideas person” and so I’ve been scouring UsedOttawa for some great finds for our home.

There are a few things on my wish list (like a great big stove, and a money tree) but right now I’m trying to focus on thrifty and cool bedroom furniture ideas for my tween daughters.

At the moment I’ve got my eye on beds like this one:

… and turning them into something that looks like this.

That link goes to a website called Pinterest. Are you a Pinterest user? Pinterest is my other addition (besides UsedOttawa of course). Pinterest is a virtual inspiration board, and the cool thing about it is its social-media type features. You can share your inspiration boards and peek at other people’s. It’s a neverending magazine, with no beginning, middle or end. It’s a buffet of eye candy, so trust me when I say that you can spend many hours submerged in there.

Want to see more of the kind of thing I’m loving on Pinterest? You can see some of my “boards” here. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you about Pinterest’s addictive qualities.)

So here’s my plan. I’m going to comb UsedOttawa for great stuff, and then use Pinterest to nail down some colour and fabric ideas for those UsedOttawa finds. It’s a match made in heaven.

Although Pinterest has thousands of great examples of design and bedroom decor, there are also lots of links to DIY tutorials like this one for distressing furniture. (Check out the after photo! I think that’s something that’s actually within my grasp.) Woot!

Tell me, where do you find inspiration to decorate? Is it in a magazine? A store? Or somewhere else? More importantly, are you on Pinterest and UsedOttawa? What kind of things are YOU looking for?

Summer = camping

Are you a camper? Or a wannabe camper? Maybe you want to dip your toe in the water and don’t quite know where to begin. I’ve been there, and I know it can be overwhelming. The aisles at Canadian Tire are filled to the rafters with gear. Do I need a special container to store eggs? Do we need to buy an axe? Bear bells? What’s the best way to avoid getting eaten alive by mosquitoes?

Here’s a tip, if you’re just starting out I suggest you buy a few lightweight sleeping bags and then beg, borrow and buy the rest of it secondhand for your first time out. You never know, you might just hate camping. I hate to be blunt, but let’s face it, camping is not for everyone. (And just for the record, we love camping. We’ve been going with the kids ever since they were two.)

Here are a few ideas of some of the things you can snag from UsedOttawa. CHEAP.

Tents:

Boats and canoes:

Trailers and transportation (in fact, there are plenty of campers and trailers on the site right now – look!):

Camp stoves. Get one with a couple of burners (you know, in case you can’t get that fire started and your kids are STARVING):

A source of light (because it gets pretty dark in the woods):

A backpack for when you hit the trails:

Folding chairs for when you return from the aforementioned trail, exhausted:

Fishing equipment:

And a place to store your perishables:

What else am I missing?

Are you a camper? We’d love to hear what’s on your “must bring” list (besides the beer of course).

Summertime treats for coffee lovin' folks

I started making coffee popsicles a couple summers ago. If you like coffee, and if you like sweet things, and if you are a parent like me who wants to survive the oppressive summer heat with your sanity intact you will definitely want to try these. Trust me. They are perfectly portioned mouthfuls of frozen caffeinated deliciousness.

(I hope I don’t need to remind you that you don’t want your kids getting at these, right?)

Note: I eyeballed the quantities because of my tiny molds, which are actually fancypants ice molds for summer beverages (but perfectly fine for this purpose). You might have to tinker to get the ratio a way you like it.

For this recipe you will need approximately 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk and 1/3 cup hot espresso. That’s it!

1. Brew your coffee. (I use an espresso maker, but a french press works great too. If you have an ordinary coffee maker just brew a very strong cuppa joe.)
2. Combine the hot coffee with the condensed milk in a measuring cup and stir until it’s well combined.

I have a secret tip, do you want to hear it? First, a confession. I’m a huge spiller. I can never get my popsicles to the freezer without them sloshing, so I put the empty molds in the freezer first and THEN fill them.

HA HA to you, sticky floors!

Anyway, fill your molds and leave to freeze overnight.

They are delicious. They taste like frozen coffee candies, best served when your spirits and energy are flagging and you can’t afford the time/energy/money for a trip to Starbucks or Bridgehead.

Let me know if you try this recipe!

Special things and signs from above

Awhile ago I wrote or tweeted (or both), asking people what item they’d save if their house was on fire. I think everyone took me a bit too literally because the only person who replied said something along the lines of: “as long as the kids are ok I’m not grabbing anything.”

Just so we’re perfectly clear, I would never advocate digging through boxes in the basement while your home is collapsing around you. So allow me to rephrase:  Is there something in your possession that has special value to you? If so, what is it? What is the story?

I was thinking about this a lot last week while we were sorting though our old things for a pending garage sale. What things should we keep? And why should we keep them? It occurred to me that sentimental things are only valuable if we know the stories behind them.

My mother, bless her heart, has been know to hold on to things like plastic drinking straws. She’s a very tidy hoarder. She held on to those straws for 25 years thinking someone might use them someday. I’m more of a sentimentalist. I tossed the straws my mother bequeathed to me but kept my grandmother’s old playing cards, the ones my grandmother – her mother –  played solitaire with for many years before she passed away.

You know what the sad thing is? When I’m dead and gone no one will know the stories behind the things that are the most special to me.

-

When I was 17 I was travelling alone to the Czech Republic. I was going to be staying with my grandmother, but getting there was a big scary adventure for me. I didn’t know if I could do it. How could I possibly make my way through the mess that is the Toronto airport, fly across the ocean, and find my way in a totally foreign city? What’s worse, I was afraid of flying. I’ve always believed that I’m going to come to a fiery end some day.

Happy stuff eh? This is what I was thinking about after I locked myself in a toilet stall somewhere in the depths of Lester B. Pearson International Airport, where I was so wracked with anxiety that I thought I was going to toss my cookies. Or just stay there. Forever. I’d never prayed very much before, after all, we weren’t churchgoing folks, but it seemed to be a good time to send out a quick SOS to any higher power that happened to be listening to a teenager in an airport restroom.

Please give me a sign that this is all going to turn out ok.

At that moment I looked down towards the empty stall beside me. There, lying on the floor, was a piece of a wooden toy train. It wasn’t there before, and there was no owner in sight. I picked it up. It was warm. This was the sign I needed in order to continue my journey. I put it in my pocket, happy, and boarded the plane.

And you know what, I didn’t crash and burn. My trip turned out to be life-altering (in a good way), the kind of adventure that an almost 18-year old SHOULD take on her own because it will change her forever.

It sounds silly now that I see it in black and white in front of me, but that toy train was the talisman I needed. I’ve held on to it ever since, and I still bring it with me when I travel.

If you were to ask me whether I believed in good luck charms I’d say no, thinking that maybe you were talking about rabbit’s feet, pressed clovers, or hairy trolls standing sentry over bingo cards. But my little train, that’s different. And if my house was on fire and it was in clear view and I knew my kids were safe, that’s what I’d grab.

Vintage children's books as time capsules

One of my favourite things to buy secondhand are children’s books. We are voracious readers and buying used saves our family a ton of money over buying new. But the thing I like best thing about buying old books is that sometimes I have had the good fortune to stumble upon a real gem.

I found this book at a local thrift shop when my kids were small.

If I had stopped at the cover I would have given it a pass. It’s called “My Clock Book” and the cover illustration is an uninspired 1970’s-style sketch of children gathered around a pile of clocks.

Something on the cover caught my eye:  “Originally entititled WHAT TIME IS IT?” Hmm. Okay.

I pulled it off the shelf and flipped it open. It all became clear. The publisher took the original 1954 version of “What time is it”, changed the title (what was wrong with the old one?) and put an updated cover on it. Interestingly, all of the illustrations inside remained the same. Budget troubles, perhaps? I don’t know, but they all look like this:

Not bad for a quarter eh?

The quality of illustrations in these kinds of old books is so charming. There is a certain innocence that I really like. Books like this are like a time capsule of society’s expectations, aren’t they? I mean, how many moms nowadays are out shopping at 10:00 a.m … dressed to the nines (in heels no less!), rosy-cheeked and beaming with love and patience for their adorably well-behaved children?

And what on earth is she about to do with that orange? And is she dancing a jig? So many questions.

What would the 2011 version of this book look like? Would they draw the mother with a Coach bag or wearing pilly yoga pants and flip flops?

Hmm. Maybe I should write the updated version myself…

Garage sale: lost in translation?

A long time ago I had a friend who was the daughter of educated French parents who’d transplanted themselves to Canada. They loved their adopted country.

When they first came to to Canada they marveled at the verdant and lovely quality of Canadian Spring. After the long harsh winter it was truly a blessing, a time of happiness and renewal and rebirth. Everything was so joyously fragrant and green, a sight for sore eyes, especially after so many months of so many shades of white and grey. There was one odd thing they couldn’t understand about Spring in this new country. As they drove through their neighbourhood they couldn’t understand why so many homes had signs on their lawns advertising the fact they had dirty garages. It was shocking. And odd. They couldn’t figure it out. Who would do such a thing? And why?

They didn’t figure it out until an Anglophone friend explained that “Garage Sale” doesn’t mean “Filthy Garage,” it just means that the people are selling their old stuff. You see, in French, sale translates to something that’s dirty, nasty, foul, and unclean.

Translation issues aside, garage sales, or yard sales, or whatever you call them, don’t mean the same thing for everyone everywhere. This is something I’ve always wanted to explore. I’ve always wondered if people in other countries have garage sales too or if it is largely the invention of our own society. Is the garage sale a product of the crazy style- and gadget-driven consumer-oriented part of the world we live in today? What do you think?

When I was 18 I was travelling in the Czech Republic. One evening I was having a few beers with a friend. (Because that’s what you do in Prague, where beer is big.) I don’t know how we got on the topic, but we got to talking about garage sales. At first she didn’t understand what I was talking about.

“What do you mean you sell your stuff,” she asked.

I could see that she wasn’t kidding. She’d really never heard of a garage sale. In fact, she appeared to be astounded at the very idea. I continued, grasping for the right words to explain.

“If you were hosting a garage sale you’d sort through our things and decide what you didn’t want.” I said, slowly. “Then you put little price tags on each individual item, and put it all on a table in front of your house.”

“The house where I live?”

“Of course.”

“And who buys this stuff?” By this point she was totally flabbergasted. “Do you sell it to your friends and neighbours? Your neighbours go through your old STUFF?”

I mulled this over. I could see what she was getting at. “Well. Yes.”

By this time my friend was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe. In fact, she was practically hyperventilating. “Your … neighbours … buy YOUR … old… things… BWA HA HA!”

She nearly fell off her stool, unable to speak. People were beginning to stare. Seriously. And I swear it wasn’t the beer talking. I think she was imagining a table full of raggedy old underwear and broken dishes. I was mildly offended at the time but I now understand where she was coming from. My friend was born in a former communist country at a time when people didn’t own a lot of things. As a result, their relationship with stuff was different than ours.

That’s when I learned that garage sales are a rather unique, and a rather new, cultural phenomenon. Perhaps they are limited to people on this side of the ocean? I’m still not sure. If anyone is reading this from far away I’d sure like to know.

A barrel of laughs, er, rain

Our rain barrel is one of the best purchases we ever made around our house. It’s about ten years old and it’s still going strong.

We bought it at Arbour, a cute eco-friendly store in the Glebe. In its former life our barrel was a commercial-grade olive container. With a capacity of about 200 litres, I truly can’t imagine how many olives floated around in that thing once upon a time. Arbour still carries them, but I’ve noticed there are a bunch of them on Used Ottawa too.

It is very simple.

1. Rain falls on the roof of our home
2. It makes its way to one of the downspouts and into the rainbarrel
3. That’s it.

The water is there, ready to be used during the next dry spell. A screw on lid with a mesh covering prevents children, mosquitoes and other critters from getting in there, a spigot at the bottom allows me to easily prop a watering can underneath, and a hose near the top prevents overflow.

There’s enough water for me to keep my containers in good shape if there’s a dry spell.

Not only am I making a small dent in my water bill (ok, a very small one), but it makes me deeply happy to know that I’m doing my part to conserve water and giving my garden a long cool drink of the good stuff.

Also, drawing water from it requires a bit of patience. The flow is a little slower than you’d get with a hose, so I am forced to stand there and wait for an extra minute or two. I spend this time gazing around the garden, sometimes I pick a few weeds, but you know… I would argue that waiting is not necessarily a bad thing.

If you’re interested, heed my advice and pick one up quick. They’ll be in short supply around Ottawa, especially with water bans in the south end of the city.

Do you have a rainbarrel or two? Has it made a difference in your life? Do you love it, or do you love it?

The symbiotic act of garbage picking

I have no problem with garbage picking, both as a picker, and pickee. As a person who has obtained some cool stuff from other people’s garbage, I can only hope that the (former) owners of this stuff appreciate the fact that I am giving their old things a good home and preventing them from rotting in a landfill. And as someone who regularly puts unwanted items out by the curb to find that they somehow managed to magically disappear, well, let’s just say that I’m just thrilled that someone is saving me a trip to the donation bin.

The City of Ottawa has some funny rules about it. Apparently if you put something out on the curb for garbage pickup it technically belongs to the City. So if you take something out of someone’s garbage, you are stealing (that is, in the eyes of the law), although I seriously doubt that bylaw police are waiting to capture someone in the act of someone pilfering someone else’s garbage.

Same goes for recycling. There is a fellow who walks around our neighborhood and rifles though people’s blue bins, taking beer and wine bottles and anything with a deposit attached to it. I have no problem with this. In fact, I think he’s doing us a favour.

That being said, I still think there still should be a few basic guidelines.

1. Pickers: don’t tear open closed bags and leave a mess.
2. Pickees: if you have an item you think might be useful to someone, leave it in plain view. If it’s not gone by the next morning, bring it back inside and pledge to donate it to charity or list it on UsedOttawa. Who knows? That tiny bit of extra effort might earn you some extra coin.

A few years ago the City of Ottawa decided to get on the bandwagon and create a legally-sanctioned garbage picking event. It’s called Give Away Weekend. It’s a great idea, but more people need to participate in order to make it really worthwhile. This year’s GAW will take place on Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, 2011.

It really is a win-win situation when you think about it. It’s gives people an effortless way to clean their closets, and gives other people an opportunity to score some cool stuff for free at the same time.

What about you? What do you think about taking items from another family’s trash? Is this something you’ve done? If so, I’d love to hear about your best finds!

Shopping for secondhand denim? You can do it.

Is there anything more challenging than shopping for jeans?  (Okay, maybe bathing suit shopping tops the Most Challenging list, but never mind that for a moment.)

Shopping for jeans is hard, shopping for jeans in a secondhand shop is even harder … but so worth it. New jeans are expensive. It’s certainly not unusual to find ones that cost $100 or more. Secondhand jeans tend to run a fraction of the price, between $5 and $20 depending on where you’re shopping. And if you’re really lucky? You will find a pair with the tags still on them. (It has happened!)

I’m a big fan of buying secondhand denim, yet at the same time, it’s probably one of the most time-consuming thing you can venture out to buy.

Allow me to share a few things that have worked for me.

Off to shop for jeans secondhand?

1) Devote a couple of hours when you’re not feeling tired (or bloated for that matter) or about to rush off somewhere. Saturday mornings are perfect for me. Do I need to remind you that it might be best to leave the kids at home?

2)  Do not be distracted by household knickknacks or children’s clothing. You are on a mission. If you’re shopping for jeans, shop for jeans. Time and energy are limited! Speaking of which…

3) Fuel up with a fine balance of caffeine, protein, and carbs before you head out. (Think bacon and eggs and a good dose of coffee.) You will need as much energy as you can muster. Bring water.

4) Consider shopping with a friend, someone who can honestly answer that age old question: Does this make my butt look big? And don’t be offended if she says yes. Do the same for her too.

5)  Wear comfy clothing (and shoes!) that you can put on and take off easily. I like to wear wide-necked summer dresses with flip flops for this exact reason. No laces, belts, or pony tails.

6)  Ok. Now you’re at the jean racks (assuming the store you’ve chosen has such a thing and not just a large bin of random pants). Start with the part of the rack that is a few sizes past your normal size and work towards what you normally wear. There is no such thing as standard sizing. It ranges hugely from manufacturer. I’ve been a 2 in some brands and a 12 in another. (No joke.) Clothing is frequently mis-sized. What’s more, once they get to the rack you’re about to go through they’ve often shrunk and don’t reflect the size stencilled on the inside of the waistband anymore. Also, customers and staff sometimes put them back in the wrong spot on the rack.  I’ve often found the perfect pair of 29s in the 32s. Hooray for human error!

7) As you’re flipping through the rack, position yourself so that you are focusing on the back of the jeans instead of the front. When they’re hanging up, jeans all look very similar from the front. If you look at the back of the jean while it’s still on the rack it will save you precious seconds of shopping time.

8 – And this is kind of obvious, but grab a boatload of different jeans before you head into the changeroom. Grab more than you think you need. I’ve tried on 20 pairs and come out with nothing.

I’m charging my batteries to go shopping for secondhand jeans this week. Wish me luck! Maybe I’ll come back here and show you what I found.

Any suggestions you’d add to the above?