I am attending a conference for bloggers called Alt Summit, and the organizers just announced that Martha Stewart will give the keynote address. Is there anyone more fascinating than M Diddy, The Queen of Clean, or Pumpkin, as Jennifer Garner dubbed her? Here are a few reasons why I plan to sit in the front row of that auditorium.
Read moreSentimental Mom
In her beautiful essay "On Being Mom", Anna Quindlen writes, "If not for the photographs, I might have a hard time believing they ever existed."
After my second son left for college and with the third son not far behind, I found myself redoing this corner of the kitchen with old black & white photos, a school desk only I can fit into, and "The Rules to Always Being a Gentleman".
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Read moreOwl Gif Proves Old People and Photoshop Not Always Incompatible
It is nothing short of miraculous that I created the gif below. I did it in Photoshop, which is now in its 13th incarnation. As I'm in my 50th incarnation, Photoshop and I don't really get each other. All of the young whippersnappers out there who grew up with the internets have no idea how strained our relationship can be.
That all changed this weekend. Thanks to the lovely Angela Kohler and Bri Emery at Blogshop, Photoshop and I hung out together and got to know each other and only once did I call it a prepubescent idiot and shortly after, it crashed on me. Typical high-strung teenager.
Read moreElizabeth Gilbert Lets Go of a Dream House
Sam Oberter/The New York Times/Redux
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love", is once again, walking away from what seems to be a really good thing. In her blockbuster hit of a memoir, she describes leaving a marriage, a house in the country, and a near perfect job. This time, she is leaving her dream house, which she and her husband Jose Nunes, aka Philipe, spent six years making their own.
When you see the inside of the house, you'll know why I had to post about this.
Read moreCassandra Smith, Warrior Artist
You know when you get a crush on someone on the internet, and it is all abstract and detached until you find out that OMG! she lives in your backyard and then you can't help but inbox her? Luckily, because your backyard is Milwaukee where everyone is decent and well-mannered, your crush actually inboxes back and agrees to talk with you.
(That really is how it works in Wisconsin. Really, the only drawback is on the highway, where people don't wish to hurt the feelings of other drivers by passing them.)
My crush is on Cassandra Smith.
Read moreTwo Reasons Why You're Dumb Not to Shop Where the Smartypants Live
An example of the great 'shizzle' found on a college visit.
Since launching this site, a number of people have asked where I shop. Where don't I?!
I shop resale stores, antique shops, live auctions, Craigslist, barn sales, estate sales, online auctions, and Ebay. I shop these markets in the U.S. and overseas.
I have the best luck at estate sales and live auctions, and the worst luck on Ebay, where I have been burned more than once.
But today's post is about another favorite source -- college towns. You would be an idiot not to shop them.
Read moreThe First (Hopefully Not Last) April Fools Edition at Finder Not Keeper.
One of the perks of being the boss lady is that I can play an April Fools joke on my site if I want to. Sure, my shop might never be taken seriously as a business. Also, I might offend potential customers. In the end, certain consequences may mean that the joke is on me.
Na-na-na-boo-boo.
Read moreSix April Fool's Kits for Last Minute Amateurs
April Fool's Day is in exactly one week. It's a sacred holiday in our home. Who knows how these family traditions get started but it has now reached the point that the damn kids expect something spectacular. And I'm really tired.
So instead, I'm passing along six solid ideas to you lowly amateurs who believe yourselves clever when you switch the sugar and the salt. These pranks are presented as 'kits', since that's what I do, though they are not for sale on Finder Not Keeper. Yet.
Read moreCraigs Listing with Political Strings Attached
I am writing about this adorable collection of brass miniatures because tomorrow I am going to list it on the fabulous new website Hunters Alley as an experiment. I want to see if adding a secondary marketplace increases traffic to the new shop. I'll let you know how that works out.
But before it gets snatched up by someone like me who finds it irresistible, I thought I should mention that it was the very first purchase I made off of Craigslist. And this post will fall under the category of 'Mistakes' because I made a big one that day. I went alone, into a seller's house.
Read moreBonafide!
Nothing like a box of business cards to make it feel official. Mine arrived last week and I love them. They were designed by the very talented Catherine Brautigam of Lone Shoe Graphics here in Milwaukee. She designed Finder Not Keeper's logo as well. (Talk about a kick ass mark, hers just rocks.)
The typeface on my card is Whitney. It is a sans serif font, which means that the letters don't have little feet and hands on the ends of them. It was originally designed for the Whitney Museum in New York and is clear and compact.
Read moreEmbrace the Fear
One of my sons, leaping into icy waters in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Photo by Atticus Ballesteros.
Yesterday, Finder Not Keeper officially opened. The image above captures my feelings exactly. Exhilaration. Elation. Excitement.
But also fear.
Let's talk about fear. I'm from the school of worse-case-scenarios. I sit in a movie theater and count the rows to the exit. When my sons were in driver's ed, I made posters with news clippings of fatal car accidents. I am a defensive driver, a defensive skier, a defensive sunbather.
It stems from my own childhood, of course.
Read moreMore Domain Name Mistakes
Three versions of an identity mark for a domain name I should not have purchased. The designer described this as chaotic and beautiful, where every letterform is interacting with another and no letter is exactly the same. I think it seems very French, very Art Nouveau, very chic.
Oh the pitfalls of domain names. It is a tricky business, thinking up a clever name, getting all excited about it, then plugging it into Go Daddy and BLAM! It's not available. It happened over and over again with fabulous names like:
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- Red Truck Round-Up
- Milwaukee Pickers
- Turnkey Charm
- Bricolage Collage
- Brave with a Little 'b'
- The Commoner and Her Things
- Sweaty Betty's Man Things
- Mit Kit
- My Sister the Shopper
- Those Wanton Ways
- Frogtown, Ltd.
- Group Therapy
- Vagabond, Ltd.
- The Foundry
- Me, My Shelf, and I
No Smoking!
Photo by Renn Kuhnen.
Some collections come together in a very abstract way.
Not this one. It is an homage to the art of smoking. The accessories on their own are interesting but the poster with its smoke-obscured face is what gives the whole set its edge.
I found the poster at an estate sale of a deceased hippie who was also a hoarder. Those hoarder houses are always the best but they're very exhausting because you can't relax your radar for a second or you'll miss something amazing. (Really, hoarders are modern day archivists. They just lack the credentials and the proper facilities.)
Read moreDream Deferred
Dream of skateboard flight fueled by oxycodone and a lecturing subconscious. Collage by Nicholas Ballesteros.
I have been working on Finder Not Keeper for quite some time, hammering through the enormous checklist inevitable with opening an online store. The task felt insurmountable at times, but every month yielded results that gave me a sense of progress. Last spring, I decided the perfect time to launch was that fall of 2013, when the kids had returned to school and my daytime hours were my own again.
Read moreNorthernaire Ski Resort
It was a resort called Northernaire, and it was frozen in time in the 1950s. Our family went every winter to ski, sled, and skate in woodsy Three Lakes, Wisconsin. The owner, Carl Marty, loved animals. He trained his beautiful Saint Bernard dog, Bernice, to be a nursemaid to the many orphaned creatures living there.
Read moreGo West Old Girl
Collection inspired by my love for the Little House on the Prairie books. Photo by Renn Kuhnen.
Pa Ingalls would have been an internet early adopter. He packed up Laura, Mary, Baby Carrie, Jack the bulldog, and poor patient Ma into that covered wagon more times than Steve Jobs asked us to update our iTunes account.
Read moreThe Backstory of My Adorable Toothless Italian
Oil portrait by Enrico Frattini (1890-1968). Also known as Frattini del Case.
The second I saw this painting, I was smitten.
I asked the shopkeeper for more information about the artist. The signature on the canvas was E. Frattin. An internet search revealed nothing. So I walked away from the painting.
But that adorable man stayed with me in my mind, which is a sign that walking away was a mistake. A few weeks later, I checked back in to the shop. The painting was still there and the shopkeeper wanted to sell it. She offered a deal. And I took it.
Read moreDomain Name Mistake
This is an image I rushed to create for a blog titled "Still Life No. 3". That '3' was a beast to tape onto the stone wall.
It can be a joyous exercise to brainstorm names for a new business -- almost as much fun as naming a baby or a pet. But before purchasing that domain at Go Daddy.com, consider this mistake I made. The first of many.
Read moreHow a Cartier Watch Morphed into a Prada Bag and a Grumman Canoe
Collage by Nicholas Ballesteros.
It was a contest sponsored by Saks Fifth Avenue. The challenge was to write a 50-word essay that used the words from their ad campaign, "Live a Little".
Read moreInspiration from the Garden Store
Photo by Renn Kuhnen.
I was wandering the aisles of my favorite garden store when it hit me. I noticed that each year, the garden store created more and more mixed planters. These are the planters with a variety of flowers and greenery, beautifully scaled, paired for sun or shade, each plant's blooms complementing the other. And every cart had them. People love the mixed look but they don't have the skill or the time to put them together.
It's the same with accessorizing a home! No one is offering a finished look that is more personal, unique, authentic. Why not?
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