Cori Kindred's Journal

the sound of the unlocking and the lift away

cori kindred — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:49:44 -0800

wanted to share the goodies i found estate sale-ing / thrifting this weekend. since it's pretty much my job now, friday and saturday mornings are set aside for estate sales and i go thrifting... any time i need an excuse to get out of the house!

top pic: vintage toiletry bag, a pretty little potted plant, a stack of mismatched doilies (including a few pretty plastic ones), vintage perpetual calender, colander (*love* those cut out shapes) and the cutest little bird salt and pepper shakers.

4th pic: gold-embroidered blue and green towel to add to my collection, a fancy aqua dish towel, "i love you this much" pad of paper, vintage rack-o (my favorite game!), the fanciest deviled egg plate ever, plastic doily-shaped coasters, and a pretty little toothpick holder / mirror.

whew! a lot of this stuff will end up in mushroom & moss vintage this coming week. and then it's time to do it all over again. yay for weekly treasure hunts!

feathers falling from drapes fold her into pieces tied up and lace

cori kindred — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:10:47 -0800

hopefully i'm not starting to sound like a broken record, but i *love* living in portland, especially in the winter. i know, people moan and groan about the rain and the cold (after 30 sub-zero midwestern winters, 45 degrees feels pretty nice to me) and the lack of sun but i think winter is one of the most beautiful seasons of the northwest: inch thick layers of moss dripping off trees and carpeting the forest, ferns shooting out of the ground like fireworks... ok i actually love all the seasons here but since it's winter now that's the one i'm currently in love with.

(photos taken last weekend at the hoyt arboretum)

ps - caught a few of the rare but gorgeous winter sunsets here

in the firelight your eyes are stars of summer

cori kindred — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:03:07 -0800

just did a *big* mushroom & moss vintage shop update, including the cutest tea kettle *ever* (seriously), a box of pretty vintage pastels, and an amazing french arabic vocabulary book from 1849 (!).

and guess what?! mushroom & moss is nominated for a poppytalk poppies award in the vintage shop category! quite an honor :)

thanks to everyone who purchased one of my 12 things i love about you mini books. i sold them all! hoping to get some time soon to make a few more before valentine's day is here.

for now it's time for a break from the computer ~ plus there's scalloped potatoes and "ham" in the crock pot calling my name. have a wonderful week!

i never held emotion in the palm of my hand or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree

cori kindred — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:29:04 -0800

feeling very lucky today. last night i had some fun crafty girls over to make these (and eat cupcakes of course). i feel so blessed to be living in not only the most gorgeous place (i am *totally* a moss, ferns and waterfalls type of girl - and year round?! yes please!) but the craftiest, most inspirational city as well. plus i get to hang out with these people on a regular basis?!? seriously my dream.

add to that the fact that people actually pay me to do what i love: go treasure hunting at thrift stores and estates sales, take pictures with my cute old camera and play with pretty old papers. and it's seriously such an honor that they want my little finds / photos / art in their homes. see? i'm a very lucky girl.

i was able to participate in poppytalk's wedding & valentines online craft fair going on right now ~ you can see my little table here.

and i got some cute new stuff up just in time for valentine's day, including these 12 things i love about you mini books made from vintage papers. so freaking cute (in my humble opinion).

what else... oh yes! chelsea did the loveliest post at her blog frolic! (another one of those inspirational pdx girlies i'm so lucky to know). also thanks to victoria and isis for including 3 of my polaroids in the lastest flickr curator - so exciting to be part of such a lovely collection!

i'm off to play with pinecones - hopefully will have a pretty new piece of art to show soon. have a wonderful week!

ps - if you're a fan of pretty old vintage stuff, check out this gorgeous post abby did this morning ~ *swoon*

it pleases me this memory has swollen up with age

cori kindred — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:37:02 -0800

happy monday! i had a great, productive weekend: estate sales, badminton (and yes, i'm sore. don't laugh at me), and a big mushroom and moss vintage shop update (some fun stuff: an amazing japanese architecture book, the cutest be-feathered fedora and yes even tiny toilet salt and pepper shakers (?!).

i also finally (after 2.5 years!) got over to the gorgeous lan su chinese garden. i can't wait to go back in the spring and see how different it looks. this week i'll be concentrating on making some pretty new valentine's day stuff for my handmade shop. thanks so much for all of the design*sponge camera love from the last post, i *really* *really* appreciated it. i know i shouldn't take them personally, but damn, some of those comments were harsh! and since this was such a personal project, with so much thought and love put into it, it's hard not to (take it personally). so thanks again :)

anyway, time to get to work. have a great week!

i never did believe in the ways of magic but i'm beginning to wonder why

cori kindred — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:26:29 -0800

my cute polaroid camera makeover is featured on design*sponge today - what a lovely thing to wake up to! and yes, i did see the not-so-nice comment before it got deleted.

thankfully for me my sx-70 is so much more than a collector's item. it's the camera i use every day (all of the photos in this post, as well as nearly all of these were taken using this camera) so as far as "ruining it's value," it's already priceless to me as a tool of my art. in fact, i actually saw this project as a little expression of affection towards one of the absolute favorite things i own. it literally never leaves my side. anyway! thanks for all of the positive feedback as well as the concern, i appreciate almost any conversation that involves polaroid - and thanks to the impossible project hopefully these conversations will continue for much longer than we thought they might :)

on that note, if you're interested in purchasing any of my polaroid photographs as prints feel free to drop me a note or visit my shop. today i'll be taking a ton of pics of fun new vintage stuff to put up on mushroom and moss vintage (i see sun! better take advantage).

thanks for visiting, and hopefully that little rant wasn't too much. thanks again to grace, and have a wonderful week!

bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky

cori kindred — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:20:27 -0800

speaking of inspiring, creative people, yesterday i went on a little picture-taking field trip to cathedral park (under the st john's bridge in ne portland) with my dear friend abby. it's so fun to see how we each have our own distinct style of photography yet we are totally able to play off of each other. love it.

you can read her gorgeous post about our outing here.

also, abby has started a great little blog about her favorite portland places, and trust me she would be the one to turn to.

one last thing: my friend summer from design is mine was kind enough to list one of my photos as one of her top ten of 2009. what an honor. thanks summer!

ps - just a reminder that any of my prints are available for purchase. the umbrella shot is available here, or contact me for details.

reaching out to touch a stranger, electric eyes are everywhere

cori kindred — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:35:01 -0800

i'm back! from gorgeous ventura, california and the loveliest house right on the beach. and even though we had to drive over 2500 miles to get there and back, i feel like a lucky, lucky girl. and i'm so excited for 2010.

one thing i want to do this year is get together with other creative folks on a regular basis, to share inspiration and also to motivate myself to get out of my crafty box. thankfully this town is chock full of just those kinds of people!

eventually i'd love to have certain themes or have those who are talented in certain areas teach a little tutorial or share their expertise (for example, have a photography night where we would all bring our fun cameras and talk about techniques, etc). for the first one in a few weeks i'll be making my heart flag garlands (i want to get a bunch up in my shop before valentine's day) and whoever comes is welcome to as well.

i would *love* to do this along with anyone else in the blogosphere who needs an excuse to be more crafty this year: commit to monthly get-togethers and then write / post photos about it. we can encourage each other!

here's to a productive, creative 2010!!

ps - you can see more ventura pics here

we're here tonight and that's enough

cori kindred — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:10:46 -0800

just wanted to wish everyone a beautiful, stress-free holiday in whatever way you choose to celebrate. tonight i'll be eating fondue with friends, then getting ready for a looong road trip to see my family (well 1/2 of my family, which is better than none of my family even though i'll miss the absent half so so much!).

happy holidays!!!

now's the time to look and look again at what you see

cori kindred — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:33:33 -0800

i decided to take a little break from finding / making presents for other people and do something for myself i've been wanting to do for a while now - and can i just say i could not be more in love with my "new" camera!!! seriously, i can't stop looking at it. ohmygosh, so cute.

pretty simple: found the gorgeous vintage wallpaper at this etsy shop, cut out the 5 pieces and glued them on with golden gel medium. voila! the cutest sx-70 i've *ever* seen! now i just need to make a pretty little case so it doesn't get beat up. happy holidays to me!!

ps - i ended up covering the paper with mod podge to seal it, and it actually made the color even more vibrant (plus i'm not so worried about it getting damaged).

*** a huge thank you to grace at design*sponge for posting about my camera!! ***