Sunnyside Family Swap Shop and Play Space

Know Your Neighbor – Reunion Apparel

Karen Hery — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:33:35 +0000

When I last wrote about Reunion Apparel Resale in November, Tara and Will were just getting started as young business owners taking on the Portland clothing scene. I’m grateful for their sponsorship of our Roost program and more than happy to spread the word every few months about their hidden little gem of a place near Buckman School.

As you travel down Belmont and it splits in to two one way streets, keep an eye out as you pass 18th street towards downtown. If you blink, you’ll miss the simple black and white sign one shop in from the corner of Morrison on 18th.

If you do find your way there, you’ll be walking into a sweet and eclectic collection of clothing treasures at great prices. When a shop is this small, every piece counts and it’s all about really unique, comfortable and vintage bits of bygone eras.

We may all have to work to find them, but that also means that the rent is low and the prices affordable (while they can still afford to make a living). Every item I’ve fallen in love with so far was less than $20 for great quality clothing that I really love.

Everything started on ETSY for them before they opened a retail shop and you can still read this post at midnight, hop on their ETSY shop www.etsy.com/shop/ReunionShop or the shop-on-line section of their web site and live local on your own schedule.

I have to confess, I’m no good at shopping on line. Gotta see it to really want it.

Truth be told, Will and Tara know they can make more profit just selling on ETSY alone without a storefront, but seeing people get all jazzed about the clothing they are recirculating is half the fun and the most gratifying part of what they do.

If the most gratifying piece for you – when you part with your hard earned dollars – is knowing that you’re helping the fabric of our local economy go full circle . . . please add Reunion Apparel to your circle of clothing resources.

Will does the clothes sourcing too so it’s not just a women’s boutique. If you’ve got a style of guy wear that really suits you, let him know what it is and he’ll probably be able to keep you in great threads all year long.

Brings new meaning to the idea of personal shopper, now doesn’t it?

Know Your Neighbor – Hankins True Value Hardware

Karen Hery — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:46:55 +0000

Too late to run to the hardware store tonight, but if something started dripping, seeping or leaking around your house during this last bout of snow and rain, you may be happy to know what I found out from Lois Hankins (long time owner of Hankins True Value Hardware store on Hawthorne and MLK) this week. . .

Yes, it is a lot easier to stop a leak before it starts but once it starts, it’s good to know I won’t always have to wait until everything dries out to address the new, fantastically inconvenient problem that greets me when I come home from a long day or wake up to when I have plenty of other plans for my morning.

Believe it or not, there is a sealing paint to apply while those walls are actively seeping moisture and a hydraulic cement that you can push right into an active, even gushing, wet spot.

I’m not really sure who thought building so many houses with basements was such a good idea in this climate, but Lois also has all sorts of solutions for bringing rain gutter water much farther from your house before it starts seeking a way underground (and the patience to walk around with you picking out the things that will work best for what you need to do).

I don’t know how your place is faring but this is the rain storm that helped Scott and I discover that the “drain” at the bottom of our cement steps leading down to our outside basement door isn’t really a drain connected to the sewer system. Most likely it’s a very short pipe leading to a drain field that has gotten plenty overwhelmed and it’s only January. It’s not just refusing to drain but has become a really effective conduit for water to come back up and seek a level field in among the stuff stacked in our basement.

Sigh.

If you, like us, are seeking a wet/dry shop vac, call Lois and her staff before you come over. True Value put the $120 model on special for less than $50. She has sold them all and is back ordered until later this week but what she gets in soon will still be a great bargain if you can wait.

The real bargain is people that answer the phone and give great advice, a quick stop close by for most of the things we might need and an order and pick up (with no shipping cost) for the big stuff.

Thank you, Lois, for being a Roost sponsor (she has a soft spot for our teens having helped two grand kids through Sunnyside Environmental School) and a big thank you to all our swap shop members for giving support to great local businesses.

Lots of great, local, community businesses on our web site www.sunnysideswapshop.org and our favorite hardware store at:

Hankins True Value Hardware Store

1720 SE Hawthorne Blvd

M-F: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM; Sat: 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM; Sun: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Second location: 3942 NE M L King Blvd

To call ahead and see if they have what you need: 503-236-2372

On line ordering: http://ww3.truevalue.com/hankinshawthorne/Home.aspx

FYI: When I checked on line, the print-out coupon was buy one get one free deal for getting keys made.

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Know Your Neighbor – Cold weather car care with Hawthorne Auto Clinic

Karen Hery — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:05:19 +0000

What better day to be talking about cold weather car care than the first snowy morning of the season.

Liz and Jim at Hawthorne Auto Clinic are two of my favorite role models for how to run a business and how to take care of a car. I’ll brag about how well they take care of their employees and their shop and their little part of Hawthorne in the 40′s at the end of this email but first and foremost . . . let’s get everybody in and out of our cars in great working order in a cold snap.

If the prudent advice to just stay home (or where ever you are) and enjoy the snow flakes that have already fallen isn’t practical for you, there are a few things to do to save yourself from breaking a key in a lock, wrecking the motor for your windshield wipers or lurching down the road with half frosted windows and flapping chains.

Liz’s first piece of advice seemed so nice and logical but it’s exactly the kind of thing I would do without thinking . . . when the air gets below freezing, she just wants to remind everyone not to hop in the car and turn the windshield wipers on to clear the frost off.

She and Jim like seeing us all of us in their shop but not just because the linkage has broken in our wipers or we’ve burned the wiper motor out. A gentle pull from the blades from outside before you get in will let you know if they are frozen in place or ready to slide.

Her second tip is to be proactive about the chances of car locks getting water in them in Portland rainy weather and then freezing so the key won’t go in or won’t turn.

You can always heat up the key some how with the hope that it will melt through the ice or you could get a long extension cord on that blow dryer and hover it over the lock. Even better to go out to an auto store or well stocked general store and get a little tube of lock de-icer. That way you can put some liquid in on a good day so that it doesn’t freeze up as easily to help keep the water out that could cause a bunch of grief later. Liz keeps tubes of the de-icer for sale if you ask at their counter since she recommended it so much in years past to stranded customers.

And then there’s the simple fact that our cars do a whole lot better with the right kind of engine coolant and windshield washer fluid with some antifreeze built in. Motor oil thickens up in the cold so having the right (ideally synthetic) motor oil is more important for those really cold starts too.

A lot of cars, especially if you plan to do some ski trips or snow trips this year, can benefit from a set of winter wiper blades that are sealed off with rubberized material where regular blades have exposed arched metal that catches too much snow to operate well.

So, if you are due for an oil change anyway, you may want to join me in skipping the quick stop oil change place and make yourself an appointment at Hawthorne Auto Clinic or another full service shop instead.

There won’t be anyone standing outside waving a $10 off today sign in the bitter cold, but the extra money we each spend could find and fix a few weak spots we all want to plan ahead for instead of live through on the way to Mt Hood or grandma’s house.

Oil changes with a full car inspection at Hawthorne Auto Clinic are $65 to $125 depending on the model of car and quarts of oil needed.

Last year I drove my Toyota Sienna into their parking lot right before a big road trip for that oil change, all the right winter coolants, a pre-road trip inspection and a touch of the de-icer in my locks and went on to have a great season of cold weather driving.

If you manage to avoid driving in this storm, Liz highly, highly recommends picking a reasonably warm, sunny afternoon for some practice runs with your car chains before attempting to keep a few kids happy in the back seat and your adult partnership intact while installing them for the first time on the side of a busy road.

One of our members wrote in last year to share some East Coast cold weather survival tips.   When you have the chance to plan ahead, put a sunshade, piece of cardboard or old comforter on the outside of your windshield then simply remove the ice or snow with the covering in the morning- no scraping necessary. And for your locks, cover one lock with duck tape and simply remove it and your key should work, if there was no water to freeze.

The folks at Hawthorne Auto Clinic tried to explain to me the difference between defrosting and de fogging and when to use outside air and when to use recirculated air to help clear windows when a warm car full of people meets a cold car on the move. But, I must confess, I still don’t get it.   So, if anyone reading this has a good way to remember which is needed when, please let the rest of us know.

The bottom line is . . . if your car is a 1990 or newer model and you appreciate a clean, well run shop with staff more interested in knowing you for years than squeezing every dime out of you today, give Liz and Jim a call. They’ll be happy to hear from you. If you need a list of other places you can trust for body work, tire alignment, etc, they’ll share the names with you of all the places they do business with when they send out work to other shops.

One of these days, when I don’t have so many cold car tips to share, I’ll write about the start of their shop which is a really dear story. For now I’ll just say it comes as no surprise to me that they recently were named Civics Rights Champions of the year by the Labor Commission.

Jim and Liz know in their heart of hearts that well treated, well paid employees actually cost a company less (and earn it more) than any short cuts we could all take in the ways we treat each other.

Since we are a co-op full of families that live out the fact that the way we treat each other makes our lives and the lives of our children all that much better, I am proud to count these great business owners as co-workers in our community building efforts.

Hawthorne Auto Clinic is at 4307 SE Hawthorne Blvd open Mon-Fri, 7:30 AM to 6 PM (Early drop-off & after-hours pickup available)   Call (503)234-2119 to make an appointment.

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Know Your Neighbor – Good health with a little help from my friends

scott — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:31:28 +0000

I don’t know which is more common: making New Year’s resolutions or breaking them. When I look back at the major changes I’ve been able to make over the years, every success I’ve had has been with some really key support along the way.

Let’s face it, if we could easily make the change we need all on our own . . . we already would have done it.

So I rely on friends to see me through. I think most of you reading this could agree that I have a very broad definition of friend which has served me well and I hope, by the end of this email, will be serving you well too.

In the eat better, exercise more, hurt less and enjoy our lives to the fullest effort, there are no shortage of ways to get there . . . just a shortage of hours in the day and dollars in the bank to help get us there.

Whether you need an affordable place to work out, massage, accupuncture and medical care that is as effective as it is frugal, a great source for healthy food that stretches your food budget, or even a path to fertility that doesn’t match up with college tuitions . . . this is a well rounded list of Roost Sponsors who have become great friends along the way for many of us.

I’ve enjoyed celebrating the one year anniversary with Dan Caplan, the man behind our super local health club, the Green Micro Gym. Tucked between the Side Street Tavern and a little clothing store just off Belmont on 34th, his main floor of weight machines and loft full of cardio equipment is in it’s second winter. Everything’s going great and, thankfully, still not crowded even in the peak of the January exercise fever.

There is no slick advertising campaign going on to drive up the cost for those of us already lifting, spinning and treading. Sponsoring teens at The Roost and good old fashion word of mouth is all Dan has used to fill this “club for the rest of us” as he likes to call it. This is a get right to business gym. He knows we don’t have all afternoon or evening to socialize at our health club like we maybe used to B.K. (before kids). This is the kind of place you can come and go at your own pace with great support from him as the owner and a long time personal trainer.

Want to see a certain piece of equipment added to the mix . . . ask. Need to adjust your workout to some new needs you didn’t used to have, he’ll understand and have suggestions. If you need a personal trainer to stay motivated- there are five great ones to chose from and surely one who is going to be a good match for you.

The $100 joining fee can be shared by two people (paying on the same card) and monthly contributions are $36 for one person, $66 for two. Tread around long enough on the cardio equipment (most of which feeds electricity back into the grid) and you can earn some of that back in $10 gift certificates (no additional purchase necessary) for some great businesses on or near Belmont.

My only request is that you stay off the rowing machine while I’m there because our Roost sponsor masseuse, Dana Buhl, and I fight over it every time we get there at the same time. But the nice thing about our tug-of-war is . . . when Dan isn’t there to show me how to best row . . . Dana is. She’s been my “body mechanic” for several years now. If you need someone to really listen to what hurts and gently get you back to a better place, I can’t think of a better person to recommend. She has discounted rates for Swap Shop families and for anyone who walks or rides to her top of the Victorian house studio on 30th between Belmont and Hawthorne. If our current weather pattern holds, you might even get some vitamin D on the way.

If you time it all just right, you can get out of your massage appointment and just keep walking to Brion Oliver’s front porch on Salmon and 24th to pick up your monthly assortment of well sourced organic food at better than grocery store prices. Anybody reading this who is guilty of bad snacking habits (like me) may find that Our Community Pantry food orders are a great cure for bad calories. Brion takes the time to figure out where the freshest organic nuts, dried fruits, easy grains, quick snacks of seaweed and more are all around the planet and goes out of his way to support local providers and vendors. The locally made ready-to-eat beans are my favorite – heated up faster than kids can start whining and one of the quickest, healthiest lunches I eat. They are available weekly and the rest once a month in quantities you can munch on all month long and still have a few bites left by the time his next email comes in to remind you it’s order time again.

We have Brion’s passion for well sourced food to thank for the fact that our money is going more directly to small growers and producers, less to buidings, overhead and food conglomerates so you can get better food from well treated people at lower costs. If you are ready to give something new a try, On-line orders for this month are due by noon this upcoming Friday. Whether you delight in good food stewardship or just need to get business done . . .it’s shopping you can do from your computer late at night and a bag of groceries you can pick up with your kids still in the car.

Sometimes a good workout, a paid or gifted massage and some healthy food just aren’t enough. The fear of a down-the-road trip to the ER or even the cost of a basic doctor’s visit to sort it all out is financially daunting. The most accessible and flexible option I’ve found for everything from that issue that just cropped up to the really chronic stuff is the combination of services at The Herb Shoppe on Hawthorne. If this is the year that you are determined to grow your own knowledge of herbs for you and your family, hop on line to find out about their free evening lectures that go on almost every week in the back of the shop.

For what ever ails you, just 5 minutes talking to their staff in person or on the phone and you can have options for all sorts of medicinal teas, tinctures, salves and capsules patiently prepared - not only for your unique symptoms but also for the most likely ways for you to take your medicine. Dr. JJ Purcell and our own co-op member Dr. Jeniffer Curtiss are full service medical providers with traditional and alternative forms of treatment to offer in full hour appointments (not 15 minute fly bys) for very reasonable rates.

Sometimes we need something so unique, we don’t even know where to start looking. Whether the word fertility inspires you to read on or makes you think the next paragraph coming up is not for you . . . there is one thing for all of us in the description below for co-op member Reyni Racklin’s upcoming fertility yoga series. Just take the words yoga, fertility and reproduction out of her class description, insert you most pressing life issue instead and ask yourself how many of the things being offered would make a difference in your life. In our most trying times we aren’t so sure someone else will really understand and we can’t always see how a journal page or a bit of seaweed or that weird funky stretch or a room full of other people chatting is going make it all better. The best thing I’ve learned to do is try something new each year long enough for it to sink in and shift my life around.

So here is is . . . the fertility yoga class description for a March – April class. May you find your next life step in it. . .

Yoga can be a powerful and transformative practice. Whether you are trying to conceive naturally, through Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), or with the assistance of third party reproduction, this six week series will support you physically, emotionally, and spiritually along your path. The benefits of yoga for fertility include: stress reduction, increased blood flow to the reproductive organs; energy, hormone, and mood balancing; release of emotional tensions and toxins, and social support. We will come together using asanas (poses), breath work, meditation, journaling, and art to create a safe and nurturing space for healing and fertility enhancement. Please bring a journal or notebook to the first class. Art supplies will be provided.

If you are curious about fertility yoga, you can find Reyni to ask her about it at our monthly general co-op yoga class this Friday 11:15-12:15 in the parlor room down the hall from the swap shop or read about registration at PureHeart Yoga. All our other health enhancing sponsors are listed below and on our web site: www.sunnysideswapshop.org

May 2012 be a year of health and balance and (for the sustainability of our co-op) lots of fertility.

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The Herb Shoppe:
3327 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, OR 97214
503-234-7801
theherbshoppe©gmail•com (theherbshoppe©gmail•com)

Shop hours:
Monday-Friday 11-7pm, Saturday 10-6pm
Sunday 12-5pmDoctor’s visits by appointment.

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Our Community Pantry
Real Food Purchased Together
www.ourcommunitypantry.com for orders by this Friday at noon
brion©ourcommunitypantry•com (brion©ourcommunitypantry•com) for getting on the email newsletter list

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Dana Buhl, LMT
1128 SE 30th Ave. (just 5 blocks from the Swap Shop)

(503) 807 6697

danabuhl©gmail•com (danabuhl©gmail•com)

Dana has afternoon and evening appointments on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Morning and afternoon appointments are available on Fridays.

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The Green Microgym
Daniel Caplan
828 SE 34th Avenue, Suite B

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A Thanksgiving Thank-you Letter

Karen Hery — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:23:39 +0000

A THANKSGIVING THANK YOU LETTER:

I get to hear so many great things from our families and our sponsors every month, it was delightful to open my email on Thanksgiving to this post that sums up so many of the sentiments I get to be a witness to every day. Hope it warms your heart like it warmed mine . . .

On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 9:08 AM, Helena Reid wrote:

Dear Swapshop Community,

I wanted to send a short but heartfelt message about how grateful I am for the SwapShop Community and every good thing that it brings to my life. I tried to think of all the people that make the Swap Shop possible, from Karen and the board members to the countless unseen volunteers and then I also thought of all the people, businesses and community members that donate time, materials and services to keep the building alive and working. It’s truly overwhelming – thanks to all who make this wonderful place possible.

In my not so long life for reasons that I won’t go into, I moved a lot and have lived in many different communities. Portland is my 12th city in 4 different States plus 3 different countries abroad and about as many continents. I wasn’t an army brat but might as well have been one. My husband and I visited some 7-10 other cities and researched countless others to find the right place for us. Barring the usual unforeseen circumstances that make up the fabric of life, we are finally home.

Thanks Swap Shop!

Road to Tibet

Karen Hery — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:48:21 +0000

I’m guessing that Yeshi’s life sounds much more romantic in the telling than it does in the living of it but she’s a little living miracle right in the heart of the Hawthorne shopping district. Her shop – Road to Tibet – is sometimes open, sometimes closed in the rhythm of her balancing act between sharing Buddhist items and South East Asian clothing and gift items with the rest of us while tending to her aging parents, teenage daughters and preschool son. If the open sign is in the window when you pass by, duck in and be transported. There is no web site to share with you. The address is 3335 SE Hawthorne. It’s right next to the Herb Shoppe so I go in every time I’m getting the latest treatment or tincture to help me in my journey to wellness. Yeshi want you to call 503-753-2257 if you want to make sure she is open when you come by.

I’m fascinated by the felted slippers and assured by an impartial third party that they are as great as they look. She’s started carrying belly dancing clothes right along with the inspiring wall hangings with words of wisdom from the Dali Lama. It’s a sweet combination. The sweaters from Nepal, I’m pretty sure could keep you warm in the arctic and all your clothes will have the sweet smell of incense for days just from stopping by.

If you really want an interesting story, ask her about her life in Nepal and the six different languages she speaks – one of which is Norwegian.

She doesn’t have a web site but you can find her on Face Book as Road to Tibet Imports.

Reunion Apparel

Karen Hery — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:10:04 +0000

If you have any memory left of life before kids when you were super young and in love and ready to take on the world on a shoestring budget, you’ll already know everything you need to know about Reunion apparel resale. William and Tara have a little spot about the size of your average inner SE bedroom on 18th just off Morrison sandwiched between a record store and a one seat hair salon. I only found it because I was parking around the corner from Zafiro’s house for her open house of her four-child, at-home toddler day care (which is very sweet). Search for Zafiro in your past Swap Shop emails and you can read all about it.

Either Tara or William will be behind the counter at Reunion noon – 7 Tuesday – Saturday while the other one is turning up Portland for funky and fashionable vintage men’s and women’s clothes. The store is full of the kind of comfy, beautiful things you can wear with grace in your home town and, at the same time, torture your brother in suburban businessland with as a gag gift. Plaid shirts for men . . . got ‘em. Sweaters from the 80′s . . . of course. That dress for your holiday event that you are confident no one else will have . . . there’s a darn good chance. Other than slogging through the bins yourself or waiting for your wonder outfit to arrive at the swap shop, it won’t get more affordable. That velvet, flowing long dress that both my daughter and I can swirl around it beautifully cost me $14. Remember, this is a young couple with simple needs. If you want to shop for the pure joy of it, help them make their rent and, as is their goal: reunite a classic bit of clothing with an appreciative new owner . . . this is your own little hidden treasure. Hunt it down and tell them you heard about their romance at Evergreen College that landed them in Portland from the swap shop.

Halloween Candy Swap

Karen Hery — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:07:03 +0000

HALLOWEEN CANDY/TOY SWAP NEXT MONDAY NIGHT:
This is a super fun co-op tradition. Just remember to include us in your trick or treating route if you are going out. Come to the top of the main Yamhill church building stairs on Halloween night from 6:30-8:30 and get some trick or treat candy and a chance to come in the main lobby to trade any and all candy you already have for different candy or toys. Kids 3 and older have an absolute blast doing this (and parents of babies and toddlers can trade what you’ve been given for things you really want.) One person’s least favorite candy is someone else’s treasure and you can swing your kids away from their sugar and into some lower calorie plastic which you can turn around a few months from now and donate back for the Winter Carnival.

Swap Shop featured in NW Kids Magazine

Karen Hery — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:26:41 +0000

NW Kids Magazine featured the Swap Shop and our local Swap n’ Plays in this month’s issue.

Winter Open House January 7th and 21st

Karen Hery — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:43:57 +0000

Swap Shop open houses are a great time to play for the day, tour all our play spaces and fill out paperwork to become a member.

Our two Winter open houses will be:

Saturday January 7th and 21st, 10 am – 4 pm

Click on the Play Pass Schedule for other dates to play for the day and take a tour of the Swap Shop.