Archive for the 'Home & Garden' Category

One of my favorite things about FOUND is the variety of merchandise that works with our concept of mixing old and new and handmade into one fun store.  This post features photos of some of our latest finds in each of those categories.  First up are these nutritional teaching aids from the late 1950′s.  I love the vintage Fiesta style dishes.   Pick out your favorite food combos. Check out the nutritional stats on the back.  Interesting for recycled paper arts or just to hang on the fridge.  We have dozens available, but when they are gone, I don’t know if I’ll ever find them again.

Here’s a uique photo frame for the cottage – handcrafted from vintage water skis   The bindings are left on the back side to hold the frame upright.  How awesome is that for that photos at the lake?

If you’re more into sailing than water skiing, then we have a couple vintage books with yachting instructions!

This toy lithographed tin blue & white tea set is in rough condition, but we still love it.

I first saw these special little notebooks at Detroit Mercantile in the Eastern Market area.  Now we have them at FOUND, too (thanks,  Robert, for sharing your source).  Perfect for laying out your big ideas – and to note all the little steps to fulfill those schemes and dreams.

Speaking of Detroit, Urban Ashes has a new “Detroit DeNailed” line of frames in which they collaborate with a non-profit group that deconstructs homes that were slated for demolition.  On Friday, June 21st at 6:30, come to Kerrytown to hear Paul M. Hickman tell the Urban Ashes story, including how Detroit DeNailed evolved.  The talk will be part of the first Art Showcase Art Walk Ann Arbor event.

If you have a dog, you might get a chuckle out of this magnet:

Here’s a little vintage dog that you never need to let in and out.

Lots more to show you, but need to go…. more later!

Frost earlier in the week – 80 degrees yesterday. And beautiful sunny skies this morning.  It’s time to plant flowers this weekend!

Below are some things we have in the shop this week that may give you a bit of inspiration.

A vintage salmon pink trowel!  This is the first one I’ve found.  Have some other nice sturdy green ones.  These old trowels don’t bend when you dig into a bit of clay soil like a lot of the new ones.  And we have a few vintage McCoy pots.  I’ll be out searching for more vintage pots and garden tools this weekend.

I picked up couple dozen of these rusty orange buckets at the Ann Arbor Antiques Market last month.  Not sure what they were originally used for but they have drainage holes in the bottom so they are perfect for annuals.

Also took in a bunch of old fashioned bushel baskets this week – an inexpensive big planting container – just line it with garden cloth before adding dirt.  And how about using a mop pail to plant a big geranium?

Antique tool boxes are the right size to plop a couple of big pots of flowers in – or to use as a coffee table on the porch!  Bert’s tool box is painted orange inside and has the original liner tray.

FOUND has some plant holders made with rulers.  These are manufactured, but we also have yardsticks for those who prefer DIY!

Enjoy these beautiful Spring days!

p.s.  the Ann Arbor Farmers Market had a wonderful selection of annuals and perennials yesterday.  check them out on Saturday or Wednesday…

Right on cue, April showers turned to May flowers last week!   In this part of Michigan, it’s too early to plant annuals, but flowering bulbs and perennials are alive with color.  Daffodils just finished blooming. The bleeding heart by my front walk is looking sweet in pink today.  And the fresh green of spring is everywhere.

Mother’s Day is Sunday.  If you are still looking for a gift, a bud vase made right here in Ann Arbor from recycled silverware is just right for a special spring flower (or even a dandelion that the kids pick).

We also have a fresh selection of  colorful flower pins, handcrafted from old zippers!

If Mom likes to garden, she might like this vintage gardening book.

What about this vintage nursery chalkboard sign?  It would be fun to hang this near your garden or on a covered porch!

The Ann Arbor Farmers Market will have lots of Mother’s Day flowers this Saturday.  Once again this year, photographer Myra Klarman will be taking free portraits with mom in the outside market area Saturday morning from 10-noon.  Her lovely informal shots in the Farmers Market are always special.  The prints will be available for pickup in Kerrytown after May 25th.

On Mother’s Day, the Sunday Artisans Market has a wonderful lineup of artists and entertainment scheduled from 11 a.m. in the Farmer’s Market area. FOUND is so fortunate to have this Artisan’s Market on Sundays AND the Farmers Market on Saturdays and Wednesdays right outside our windows!

We’re thankful for Spring Flowers and for Moms!  Enjoy these beautiful Spring days.

Lots of little things have been added to the shop this month.  Right now at FOUND, you can find about a dozen old compacts with mirrors tucked into one of the drawers.  Little purses.  Little jewelry findings and charms.  And other little doodads for crafting.  Some tiny baskets to hold tiny little things:

More game pieces for crafting, buttons, scrabble letters, tiny little doll parts, and watch parts, and magnets.

We even found small metal hooks shaped like little hands to hang your jewelry from – I forgot to take a photo of those, so I’ll show you the new spool style wall hooks we got from the same Dallas-based company instead:

Back to small things – I found a couple little wooden houses, that perhaps some  urban fairies would like to inhabit.

When you stop by, be sure to look for the little urban fairy door in our hallway.  At night the fairies come and create wonderful things in their special urban fairy workshop….

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Color your Easter eggs with all natural dye this year.  We have the kit to make it easy and fun!  Non-toxic, child-safe  botanicals combine to make pastel or brilliant colors.   We’re excited to now offer watercolor paint sets  from this eco-friendly company, too.

Hop on over to FOUND in Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown –  find decorative bunnies and fun little things for your Easter baskets!

Lots of people decorate miniature trees with tiny little ornaments.  We found many styles that work on a small Christmas tree (or as little gift tie-ons). 

You could make little ornaments with bottle caps and a holiday pictue, or purchase the ones we have at FOUND!

Mini sheep look great on this new “feather tree” that is available at FOUND.  In Victorian times, small Christmas trees were handcrafted using actual bird feathers, usually goose feathers.  I once found a blue antique feather trees – each feather had been dyed. 

Speaking of miniatures – wouldn’t this 1930′s vintage doll house be fun to decorate for the holidays?  We have 2 nice wooden doll houses at FOUND right now if you’re in the market to buy a house…

I wonder if urban fairies might take up residence in a doll house… don’t think so, but we do know that urban fairies HAVE set up a workshop and garage in the front window at FOUND.  And it’s on the latest version of official Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor poster. 

Have a good week.  And don’t forget to look around for tiny things that bring a smile to your face!

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This week the shop looks entirely different than it did 7 days ago!  Here’s a bit of what we’ve done:

Elves and gnomes posing throughout the shop.  This one likes to play with jewelry, another has a favorite toy train, while others play with owls and birds in the woodland section.

Next week, we’ll all flip our calendars to the November page.  At FOUND, that means we shift into holiday mode.  We’ve been working behind the scenes for months gathering and prepping great holiday finds. We’ll be closed the last two days of October to hang sleds and snowflakes from the ceiling and transform every inch of the shop. On November 1st, we’ll reopen as a holiday wonderland!
 
Here are dates to mark on your calendars:
 
Oct. 30 and Halloween – CLOSED
 
Thursday, Nov. 1 thru Sunday, Nov. 4 – first look at 2012 collection & gift with purchase! 
 
Sunday, November 11 – Kerrytown Open House – storewide sales!
 
Friday, November 16, 5:00-8:00 p.m. – let us help you decorate your wreaths (& sleds) in this free evening demo, with our favorite Melrose rep, Cyndi Valerio.
 
Friday, November 30 – Midnight MADNESS & KindleFest – an Ann Arbor tradition!
 
Friday, December 7 – Festive Friday. Open til 9 p.m.  Fresh trees, greens & Gift Market outside, caroling, santa and more.
 
I’ll send more information on each of these as the time gets closer.  Right now it just seems too early to write (or think) about Christmas, but we hope you’ll mark your calendars and watch for details later.

Even though I know that Summer officially begins June 20 or 21st, I usually think of it being “summer” around Memorial Day, so decided take a peak at what The Old Farmer’s Almanac had to say about it.  Nowdays, www.almanac.com is the quick way to check out what that age-old reference has to say. 

The sun will reach its farthest point north of the equator at 7:09 p.m. on June 20, 2012 in our time zone (EDT).  According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac: “the word solstice is from the Latin solstitium, from sol (sun) and stitium (to stop), reflecting the fact that the sun appears to stop at this time (and again at the winter solstice).”  

On the day of summer solstice, the northern hemisphere has more sunlight that any other day.  On our calendars, the Summer Solstice is marked as the first day of summer, but some would argue that it is more correctly MID-summer.  And climatologists use “meterorological” seasons, with summer beginning on June 1st.

No matter, it’s summer on June 20th in Ann Arbor!  It’s great to have the trees and flowers in bloom.  The Ann Arbor Summer Festival is in full swing.  The 4th of July and then Art Fairs can’t be far behind!

And in my yard, the geraniums and petunias are adding a burst of color. 

I love to use traditional annuals for pops of color mixed in with my hostas and other perennials.  Later in the summer huge red canna flowers will tower over this scene – right now they are just greenery.  If you look closely, you can see the vintage stuff I use as planters.

Old tins and wooden boxes make great planters!  And they look good next to standard clay pots.

An old truck drove into the flower bed.

My daughter planted tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and zucchini in an old watering trough.  The zucchini is winning….

I got this trough and another one at a spring farm auction – the better one is at the shop right now.  It would be great to fill with ice and cold drinks for large gatherings!

Another thing we have is a small selection of door mats.  This is one I took home with me – have a couple more like it at FOUND.

I took these photos around 8:30 tonight and the light is a bit dusky, but I hope you enjoyed seeing MY front yard. Enjoy these long summer days!

FOUND is ready for summer!  Are you?

Seems like people ease into a more casual style this time of year.  We’ve been gathering fresh finds at FOUND that are fun for summertime.  Here’s a quick photo blog of some of our favorites.

At the Third Sunday Market in Bloomington, Illinois, I found someone who was making flowers with antique doorknobs – of course I needed to bring some back to Ann Arbor!

Another artist at that show had flowers she made from corrigated tin from rusty sheds – all the small ones sold already – but we still have a few of these huge ones. Great on a garden fence or hung instead of a summer wreath.  Love these for casual rooms and cottages, as well.

 This vintage sign proclaiming Air Conditioned was probably from a motel or cabins for vacationers.  In rough shape, but the red plastic letters are screwed on, so could be removed to repaint – but it makes me smile just the way it is.

Briwaxed this heavy duty, large capacity vintage red wheelbarrow and wheeled it into the shop.  Put a little display of sweet (okey-dokey) artichoke pillows in in, but it would be quite happy in someone’s garden. 

While you wait for your flowers to fill in, plant these in a row for instant color!  And add some candles to the garden stake votive holders to illuminate your party.

Back by popular demand:  Great Lakes Pillows & Go Jump in the Lake signs!

Enjoy these lovely days & nights!