Because Free is the BEST - usually.

Thriftiness is an art.  One that Lisa, Laura, and I try to practice whenever we can!  What do you expect from an accountant and a couple broke artists?  We extreme coupon, reuse materials whenever we can, and put our craftiness to work to make old things new. That's why April is like Christmas for us.  Well, for me. Lisa and Laura just don't know it yet.

Lisa, Laura, and I currently reside in the city in which I grew up.  We have lived here about 6 month and love it! Every spring the city coordinates a fantastic event called "city wide clean up".  Each weekend from mid -April through May, residents put all their unwanted belongings out on the curb, quadrant by quadrant. Things begin appearing Thursday evening and pickup occurs Saturday.  Its a thrifters DREAM.  Free stuff  everywhere.  Some of it is absolute crap - broken appliances, rusty furniture, crappy rugs, broken wood pallets, etc.  But there are those diamond in the rough that can be found no where else and at no other time.  FOR FREE.

On Wednesday, Laura and I took a stroll around our neighborhood - about a 6 block square. We left some  fun things for other scrappers to find, but we managed to come back with some excellent finds.

Items included -
A working patio umbrella (the really nice, but well loved kind)
A patio chair
A patio rug
3 medium planters
A steel pole (this is WAY cool because of its importance in a later project)
And a wheel  (also for a later project)

This will probably way more impressive when I post before and after picts of our patio after it all comes together, but for now - go find a recycling or re-using center that will let you paw around in their stuff.  For those in the MPLS/ Twin Cities area check out the following places:

http://www.greeninstitute.org/programs/reuse-deconstruction.htm  - The ReUse Center

http://www.tchabitat.org/restore - Re-Store for building materials and paint etc.

http://groups.freecycle.org/freecycleMpls/posts/all

http://www.twincitiesfreemarket.org/


*Please note that we can't vouch for any of the information listed on the websites above - so use your discretion.

We would LOVE to see what you come up with, so post your comments and re-using stories here!

The Beginning in the Middle

Welcome to our blog!  I (Melissa) have been trying to figure out how to begin this blog with a bang!  I think the most interesting blog posts are ones that document real people doing cool stuff. The hard part is taking time from doing all that cool stuff to blog I guess.

Who we are:

Laura Lee Ernster is one amazing lady and one of my biggest inspirations.  It is rare day when this beautiful blond is without a project.  She is currently building a website to sell some of her more sought after work.  Among these are her crayon drip paintings.  You may have seen the original inspiration on Pinterest.com. Oh yeah, I should mention, we are Pinterest CRAZY!  More about this in the future.

Lisa Ernster's is undoubtedly a large part of the glue that holds our bigger ventures together.  This girl could organize a wedding and funeral at the same time and theme both so that the decorations could be re-used in an efficent way.  And it would be fabulous. And fun.  (see our upcoming party blog post for pictures and reviews....don't worry, the party is neither wedding, nor funeral themed....)

(Pointing the way home)

Me - Melissa Lundquist - I like art and crafts and people. I'm currently on a sewing binge and am really stoked to start party planning. (Again, more later)


We've been friends for a while and family for what feels like forever.  We get in trouble (mainly my fault) and then we get organized (mainly Lisa's fault), and then we get excellent (probably Laura). I look forward to sharing our adventures!