If you have been following at all the efforts of Sunnyside neighbors to influence the drive through plans for Walgreens at Belmont and Cesar Chavez or the efforts to save Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply in Sellwood on land owned [...]]]>

Come along with me on a secret, behind the scenes, journey through summer camps. 

If through it all you find some valuable resources for your family and an angle on shopping you hadn’t quite thought about in a while. . . then this tale [...]]]> This is the story of over wrapped shoes and under wrapped finances . . . the story of estate sales and lawyers, whimsy and wonder.

If through it all you find some valuable resources for your family and an angle on shopping you hadn’t quite thought about in a while. . . then this tale will have worked it’s magic.

This particular peek into the cycle of life starts out with the “shoes of last resort.”

I’m a thrifty gal and my daughters are resourceful acquirers. They dove into the big Sunnyside Swap and Spring Clean Up a few weekends ago eager and willing to try it on and take it home.

But the summer sandals my youngest daughter Claire was hoping for weren’t there. They weren’t in our shoe bins at the Swap Shop. They weren’t at Piccolina on Clinton (our favorite resale shop that recently opened a second store on Woodstock) or the Goodwill.

So we made that trek out into the suburbs to a box store and found a suitable pair just fine but this is the place in the story where I start to whine.

Not about the price or the style or the non-existence salesperson but about the Dr. Seuss style packaging. I could just see the Lorax with his big need to speak for the trees (and a few other natural resources) as we opened the box to find the usual tissue paper and two sandals . . . each incased in their own plastic bag, their toes stuffed with paper and the heels full of styrofoam (to retain a good shape) and, to my bemusement, a stiff piece of cardboard between these super wrapped beauties – you know, just in case they wanted to bump around in the box on that long trip from China and the plastic wasn’t enough to keep them from rubbing up against each other.

The price was decent and, from my experience, the shoe quality quite questionable. If they both make it through the summer without falling apart, I’ll put them in our size 1 kids shoe bin or out with the other shoes at our annual Back-to-School Clothing Exchange . At least the next parent won’t have to witness a whole flotilla of paper and oil based products accompanying their purchase.

I choose to bring up this over-the-top bit of packaging because . . . it’s Mother’s Day next weekend and you might be buying someone a gift or someone might be wondering what’s a great thing to do for you.

While we can’t all take the time to research the original source of our purchases or give our lives over to the ban-the-bag campaign, we can make our purchases in ways that bring us delight and re-infuse our local economy.

If you stroll over to Noun or White Rabbit Vintage on and off Belmont in the high 20′s and low 30′s, the one of a kind items that you could take home for mom (or yourself) are 5 parts beauty, 3 parts kitsch and 2 parts nostalgia. There’s jewelry remade from vintage pieces, refurbished furniture, funky old kitchenware and even sweaters `refurbished’ into wall art.

Stephanie, owner of Noun, gets in her high mileage car once a week and visits the local estate sales so that everything old can be new again. The upcharge from what she pays for grandma’s vintage glassware to what she charges you when you take it home for a mother’s day brunch makes her a modest living instead of helping corporate executives make 250 times the salary of their hired workers.

You don’t have to become a socialist or an anarchist or even a do-it-all-yourself isolationist to step away from some of the insanity. All you have to do is step into Grandma’s Attic in the back of Margaret Kellerman’s White Rabbit Vintage and pick out furniture that came (at least this time around) from inside someone’s Victorian or old Craftsman, not out of a cardboard box with a tiny metal hand crank hex tool.

Sweet gifts for under $20 and great lifetime purchases for under $200 don’t always come with a Swedish meatball lunch. Margaret and Stephanie, each in their own way, have great taste and sweet, comforting stores that are wonderful to shop in.

This first part of our know-your-neighbor weekly post is really just one more reminder that there are plenty of ways to honor mom and our corner of the planet at the same time.

But I promised you lawyers and wonder and we haven’t gotten to that part yet so I best move on, if you don’t mind, from the shopping to the end game.

Mother’s Day isn’t a one way path for any of us as parents. We get to look in both directions as we cross the street from child to parent to the possible caretaker for our own parents.

All the mothers that have passed through this world have tales to tell both of wonder and caution and, once a quarter, I check in on some of those stories with Don Snow, director of Lawrence Convalescent.

Many of the stories Don has to tell from his life long career in assisting the elderly are great reminders that, if an apple a day keeps the doctor a way, then a well timed lawyer visit each decade keeps the crisis at bay.

As an assisted living facility that takes Medicaid, Lawrence Convalescent might seem, at first glance, like the rest home of last resort. Thankfully that isn’t the case. From everything I’ve seen, it’s a place you’d be glad to have your parents at . . . a small facility where everyone is well known and the staff enjoys their jobs.

Don looks forward to working with families that have planned ahead for the golden years and can tell you all sorts of challenging stories about families who have not. If our parents don’t have medical directives or a durable power of attorney in place as their competencies slip then everything from finances to hospice care can get tangled up in complex emotions and greed.

Maybe this is the Mother’s Day that you ask mom more than just how she’s doing but also how well she is set up for ongoing care.

Touchy subjects I know, even in our own lives.

I have been hearing great things from families that are working with our Roost sponsor, Bea Wise-Krull who specializes in family estate planning. From all the times Don’s helped patients work through issues over the years, he also has good connections with several attorneys that specialize in elder law and with protective services. A quick phone call to him and his staff will get you some helpful recommendations.

I’d rather go shopping for a present than shopping for a lawyer or a social worker any day but I sleep better at night when I’ve put some protections in place and let someone more knowledgeable and experienced than me walk me through my options.

So it’s no wonder that when I walked into Lawrence Convalescent yesterday, Don and a few staff members were gathered around a large salt water fish tank. I have some friends who make a hobby out of keeping a salt water environment in their living room. They will talk your ear off about how much easier it is these days with improvements in equipment and technology. The woman taking care of the lobby fish tank at the corner of Belmont and agreed. “Don’t skimp on the set up,” she said (referring to the purchases you make in advance on pumps and what not to get a large fish tank started). “A lot of people try to do that and they just end up struggling because of it.”

I’d like to think we’ve gotten a large fish tank started, a nice little set up, a thriving co-op and a great community that we can all swim around in. If it’s improved your life I am ever so glad. It’s certainly improved mine and I can only hope that the shops and the legal resources in this cycle of life story add something special to the mix for you.

I picked up a book at the Sunnyside Swap and Spring Clean Up called “The Inside Scoop” – all about the rise of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream as one of the inspiring examples of socially responsible business. There’s a whole chapter in the book dedicated to linked prosperity.

You’ve probably guessed by now, I’m a big fan of linked prosperity. Hope you are too.

White Rabbit Vintage 916 SE 29th AV, Portland OR 97214 between SE Belmont and Yamhill. Look for the red door. Open Wed – Sat 11-6 503 577-3355

Noun: A Person’s Place for Things 3330 SE Belmont Corner of 33rd and Belmont across from Zupans Tues – Sat 10-7, Sunday 10-5 503 235-0078

Lawrence Convalescent Center 812 SE 48th Ave. Portland, Oregon 97215 503 236-2624

If you have ambitions to ditch the car to become a bike only commuter, are ready to get more exercise or are getting excited about more family bike outings when the sun starts shining . . . this is the know-your-neighbor post with the things to know.

Everything [...]]]>

“Mom, guess what I’m going to [...]]]> I don’t know how it is in your house, but in our world ever since my oldest was two it’s been Halloween every month of the year. First there was just a whole lot of dress up going on and then . . . the talking and planning started.

“Mom, guess what I’m going to be for Halloween” is a conversation starter I have heard in January, February and March – all with a different description of the coveted costume to be.

While this week’s post is conveniently planned nice and close to Halloween, it could work just as well any time of the year. If you don’t sew or don’t sew well enough to make that elaborate thing your son or daughter is cooking up for All Hallow’s Eve or just for their latest fantasy adventure, you are going to be very glad to know Heidi Witte and her beautiful micro business, Humble Luna .

I get asked how I do all the things I do and my best answer so far is . . . by not doing a whole lot of other things that I could easily talk myself into thinking I should be capable of. I have for a long time now made a firm commitment not to bake, not to garden and not to sew. So far I have been sticking to my convictions really well (just drive by my house and you can verify my no gardening creed).

But I love a great Halloween costume as much as the next person (maybe more) and I’m willing to put good money towards it (especially if that money stays local). But who do you go to when you want a Halloween costume made or a little more than you can handle alteration done to add that tail or wings or wild, whirling thing to the garment you already have?

Your journey can start in our arts and crafts room on Wednesday afternoons after school or with a quick phone call or email to Heidi after you browse her shop on Etsy to see her style. When Heidi isn’t mixing paints and helping little hands with glue in our Wednesday afternoon arts and crafts meet up 3:30-4:30, she’s dreaming up new designs for hats and tails and other such things for her growing business selling whimsical designs for children in person and on line.

She’s been making costumes long enough that she can estimate the cost of materials and hours of labor easily to let you know how much your dreamed-up creation will cost. She is also happy to do alterations on things that you already have for less cost.

Heidi worked for the Portland Children’s Museum in a textile internship for over a year and through that really perfected the art of making costumes that last through rough use and growth spurts (good news if you are spending money on a custom piece.) For the museum, she had to design and produce super safe costumes to fit their smallest visitor to the older siblings and everyone in between with easy, kid-managable Velcro so they could keep and use every costume for a very long time. Visit the museum today and many of her costumes from 2004 are still in use. The dragon tails she makes and sells now came from needing to develop museum costumes that are super fun but don’t go on your head and are easy to take on and off.

By connecting with her directly, you can save money over what a store would charge you for her pieces on consignment and still help her see more of the revenue than she gets from sales through Portland stores or Etsy.

She’ll be turning the kind of talent she shared with the Children’s Museum towards our dress up bins and adding some not-for-swap costumes for all of us to share. Already, one of her wonderful red dragon tails is hanging out on our stage with more on the way.

And those daughters of mine that keep changing their Halloween plans by the month, the day and sometimes the hour? I don’t think I could have loved the Swap Shop any more than I did a few years ago when I had already bought my younger daughter Claire a pretty darn cool witch costume when she found an even cooler, full sized Scooby Doo get up in the swap clothing room. Instead of having to tell her, “No I already bought you a costume,” I got to just smile and say, “Sure, trade as often as you want. I’m sure someone else will love that witch costume.”

I think several other people already have. I saw it come back through the swap room just the other day. If you have the Scooby Doo costume and need it altered to fit or are ready to pass on, you know where to go.

Not everyone knows that we have costumes that we don’t put out for dress up (because they have head pieces or are for adults or babies) in two big blue tubs on the highest shelf across from the kid’s clothing tubs. Our adult racks are thinned out enough that we will start hanging costumes on the clothing rack closest to the door now that Halloween is drawing near for everyone to look through. This is the best time of year to add anything you have that could be shared for Halloween with other families.

Happy Haunting to all! Thank you Heidi for all you do for our co-op and for being a Roost Sponsor for our youth.

Heidi Witte

www.etsy.com/shop/humbleluna

Custom costume orders:

humbleluna©gmail•com  (humbleluna©gmail•com)  

971-222-9994

Swap Shop arts and crafts meet up: Wednesdays 3:30-4:30

See all our cool and fabulous local business sponsors here.

Audrey, the dental hygienist at [...]]]> The world is divided up into lots of different types of people. This isn’t the biggest or most important distinction between people by a long shot – but there are definitely those of us that really, really like to shop and those of us that shop only for the “necessities.”

Audrey, the dental hygienist at Belmont Family Dentistry, I’m going to guess, loves to shop. I got my first teeth cleaning with her this week (nice and painless) and it came with unsolicited gushing praise for her long time favorite store on Belmont: Noun: A Person’s Place for Things – conveniently just as I was getting ready to write Noun up as our latest Roost local business sponsor.

Having two kids and being a big kid at heart, I’ve bought my share of St. Cupcakes but, not being the biggest of shoppers, up until now, I’ve only just glanced at everything Stephanie Shelton, owner of Noun has gathered together in the well decorated space she shares with all those frosted cupcakes across from Zupans at 33rd and Belmont. Ever wondered why the combination of cupcakes with another store? Jami, the founder of St Cupcakes, and Stephanie, the creator of Noun, are best friends from Ohio that moved out to Portland together right out of college.

Since not every one of us was born to shop, I feel obligated to share about Noun in such a way that speaks to all of us even though decorative items for purchase make some of us dream in Technicolor and others of us can easily walk by unaffected by the lure of beautiful things.

The best thing I knew to do for a fair review is to stroll into Noun: A Person’s Place for Things one afternoon (right past the display of St. Cupcakes) with an open mind, a big heart and the kind of bubbling-from-your-belly curiosity that could just choke nine lives out of a cat.

And before you know it, not being the decorating or shop-for-pleasure type myself, I’d fallen in love. Not only with the store (although if you read about it on Yelp, there’s a great big love fest going on in cyber space about this place), not just with the idea of how cool it could be to be Stephanie Sheldon (Noun’s creator and owner who is really talented at picking out great looking things). It’s bigger than that. I’ve fallen in love with Portland all over again, just like the first time I came to visit from the heart of corporate Silicon Valley and discovered that Portland is a place where you can chat with the restaurant owner who really cares about his food, his friends and his customers.

Living in Portland is about food and friends and, in small or large ways, being customers of what we believe in so our money makes some change in the world.

Call it a need, a desire or anything else you want to call it, but I’m a believer now that Noun holds an important place in our corner of the universe. Get to know Stephanie just a bit and you’ll understand how some vintage furniture, sweet, locally made jewelry, stacks of cards doubling as art and funky old purple refrigerators can put smiles on people’s faces while waging a stealth campaign for sustainability.

First there’s the reuse and recycle aspect of what Stephanie is doing. Her time is split between being behind the counter in her store (which she loves) and going out, mostly to estate sales, to pick up local, long held treasures – old sets of glasses, surprisingly popular manual typewriters and odd collections of this and that.

Then there’s the direct support of our local economy. All the jewelry for sale at Noun comes from local artisans. Much of the art for her cards is locally made and produced too.

What I really love about Stephanie’s way of life is that she’s taken the time to ask herself, not just once but a bunch of times until she has worked out the answer . . . how much is enough?

How much is enough to charge for an old fashioned calligraphy pen? Stephanie smiles when ever someone points out that she’d be “better off” running her shop on the west side where her $18 item would easily sell for $50. She smiles a little more when someone tells her she’d get more traffic if her store was over on Hawthorne. She smiles the most when she goes home at the end of the day, having greeted every customer, chatted with her favorite regular shoppers and really gotten to know someone new to town instead of running around trying to get bigger and bigger and sell more and more.

She’s not stressed. She’s not frazzled. She’s not making a fortune but she’s also not needing to spend a fortune or a good chunk of her life energy chasing the next elusive level of success.

Happily, inner southeast Portland is a place where Stephanie and all the rest of us have a really fair chance of leveling out – living comfortably somewhere between underdone and over-the-top. It feels good (even to an only moderate shopper like me) to look around in Noun surrounded by an eclectic gathering of things that, thanks to Stephanie’s fun eye for objects, all look like they belong in our neighborhood: new things, old things, and odd things, all reasonably priced for what they are – considering the work that went into getting them there for all of us to share.

There are baskets of things for just a dollar scattered around so you can bring your kids to shop with you (if you can get past the cupcakes in the front lobby.) While there are a few pieces of jewelry and pieces of furniture that sell for hundreds of dollars, the majority of what you will walk around and see won’t break the bank and will bring some whimsy and spunk to your home or to the ones you love.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: in my perfect, more sustainable world, there will still be a place for the Fred Meyers and Targets and IKEAs of the world (we can’t recycle and reuse what we already have forever) but that space will be much smaller and we’ll be way more connected to people like Stephanie at Noun on 33rd and Belmont and Lisa, the new owner at the kids and maternity consignment/resale shop: Small Wonders on 80th and Foster.

Looking first to the objects and items we already have in our co-op and in local resale stores is a great way to support each other, support local businesses and support a simpler, more social way of life.

Cupcake or no cupcake, stop in and say hi to Stephanie when you are walking along Belmont and do take a trip out Foster Road to Small Wonders to see how Lisa is doing. Real sustainability is about figuring out what sustains us without over taxing our planetary resources, our bank account or our day-to-day.

Lucky for us that people like Stephanie and Lisa like southeast Portland so much. We’re glad to have you in the neighborhood, or in Lisa’s case, nearby the neighborhood.

You can check out all our local business Roost sponsors on our web site, add your favorite business recommendations to the growing data base on our Yahoo list and Yelp away about all sorts of places including our co-op thanks to a new posting by co-op member Carissa Martos.

Thanks Carissa for reaching out and thank you to everyone who networks through our co-op for better connections and resources. I know I feel richer for it and I hope you do too.

Stephanie Sheldon
Noun: A Person’s Place for Things
3300 SE Belmont
Tues – Sat 10-7, Sunday 10 – 5, closed Mondays
(503) 235-0078
Corner of 33rd and Belmont across from Zupans

Lisa Knudson
Small Wonders
7979 SE Foster Road
Tue-Fri 10am-6pm; Sat and Sun 10am-4pm, closed Mondays.
(503) 772-1920

On your left as you are driving up Foster just before the Fred Meyer parking lot
Or, on your right just past the Fred Meyer parking lot if you coming down from 82nd

When Swap Shop and Roost board members and I [...]]]>