Small Biz Saturday!!!

Okay, seriously?  It's been since February since my last post?  And I was going to blame it on the fact that my camera died a slow and agonizing death.....  but, that happened in June.  Well, let's just say that it is difficult to blog and run a business.  I vow to do better in the coming year!  In the meantime, here's a post that does not require me to take any new photos!

Support your favorite small business.

Today, November 24th,  is Small Business Saturday®, a day to celebrate and support the local small businesses that boost the economy and invigorate neighborhoods across the country.

The Mad Moose & Mad Moose Home & Garden are proud to take part in Small Business Saturday, and we’re encouraging everyone to Shop Small® here on November 24th.

Plus, we’re having a special Small Business Saturday offer! Come in to the Home & Garden store on November 24th and you’ll get an EXTRA 25% off ALL Red Tag items!

Most importantly, get out there, Shop Small, and let’s make this November 24th the biggest day of the year for small business.

To learn more, visit ShopSmall.com.

To be honest, last years SBS did not make a bit of difference in our bottom line.  But I think it's all about awareness.  Each year successive year, more shoppers become aware of how important it is to support small business and keep that money in their own community! 

So here is part of my vow to blog better in 2013, I will be spending at least part of my blogging time dedicated to promoting that awareness all year!

There will be big announcements about the stores coming soon and lots of new posts about new products I'm making just as soon as I can figure out how to take a decent picture of them without my old camera (sad face), so stay tuned!!

I will leave you today, with this video of our bobcat couple who came to hang out on Thanksgiving!

Well That Took Longer Than I Thought It Was Going To.

Today's title refers to a joke between the hubby and I.  In 18 years, we have never undertaken any project where that sentence was not uttered by one of us at the finish line!  Obviously today, it refers to the length of time since my last post.  Now I can finally spare a few moments to blog again.  The decorations are finally put away.  Yes, our tree was still up as of last week, but is now outside providing shelter for small wildlife.  And, speaking of small wildlife, our bunnies are here and providing us much entertainment, but that will have to wait for another post!

My most recent obsession with upcycling is in full swing, fueled by my love of all things old.  I have to thank my dear, departed mother for instilling my love of antiques and cottage style.  She was probably the most prominent of my style influences.  My sister's style is quite different, however, I also find great inspiration from her as well.  I guess if you combined the two, you end up with my style, if you can call shabby-cottage-minimalist-lodge a style!  And, I really don't believe you can.  I digress… my mother was an original upcycler.  She wasn't nearly the hoarder that I am, but she did tuck things away to breath new life into someday.  She turned baskets and cigar boxes into purses; constantly rehabbing furniture....  from her, I learned to look at  objects with a repurposeful eye (yeah, I know that's not a real word.  Neither was upcycle; a word which spell check wants to change to epicycle - I don't even know what that is… I'll have to look it up). 

Most of my current projects seem to revolve around books.  I'm constantly on the prowl in the thrift stores for old hardbound books to use in my store displays.  Stacked up, they provide the varied heights needed to properly display merchandise.  I had the idea to turn one of them into a box.  I googled for some basic instructions and found a treasure trove of ideas for upcycling books.  Now I can't seem to stop myself!  I haven't even gotten around to the box yet!  Maybe later today…

It started with the flowers.  We receive at least 30 thick, full color catalogs every year from our vendors.  I've always felt pretty horrible about throwing them away, and they make the trash soooo heavy.  But what to do with them?  Flowers!  Tons of them.  The leaves are also repurposed!  It is ribbon used to tie sets of napkin rings together.  When we receive the product, we untie them and sell them individually.  I've saved hundreds of these ribbons over the years!  I knew I would find a purpose someday and they are the perfect color for rose leaves.  Ta da!  

Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.  Here's a link to Patty Scheaffer's blog, where I got the idea.  There is also a reference on her blog to a tutorial if you want to try to  make some of these.  http://pattyschaffer.typepad.com/capture_the_details/2011/02/paper-rosesspring-branches.html

She attached a bunch to real branches like beautiful spring buds.  I love that idea - that will be next!  And maybe a wreath… who knows?

Apple and pear are made from paperback books.  Old, trashy romance novels and other cast-offs that no one really wants to read!  They were usually printed on really cheap paper that has aged nicely.  You have to choose carefully, though.  Many old paperbacks have turned brittle and you can't bend the spine without the pages falling out.  A touch of paint along the edges and a stick for a stem!   I've made a cute little mushroom too, but can't seem to find that photo.  It will have to wait for the bunny post.  The little heart garland is made from the leftover paperback pages.

The book page flowers are from an old German book that was in unsalvageable condition.  I grabbed it at a garage sale because of the beautiful type.  It's perfect for these flowers.  The pages are quite yellowed, but I aged the edges with a pigment ink pad after the flowers were made.  So pretty!  I'll take a close-up shot today when I go in to work.  Thrift store terra-cotta pot has a nice patina, but I need to find instructions on how to get that minerally-mossy, used look on a pot that doesn't have it yet… other than planting something in it and letting it age… anyone?  

Until next time..... which I promise will be soon!

Needs More Salt

Whew!  The holidays are over and inventory is finally done, freeing me up to blog again!  The uncertainty of the past few months has cleared somewhat with the knowledge that there is a buyer for the mall in which our 2nd store is located.  They are hopefully going to make some nice improvements.  This should help if we choose to remain in the mall.  This December was the worst in our history.  Unexpectedly so, considering that we've been creeping back up (albeit in very tiny increments) over the last several years since the recession first hit.  I think I attribute this to too much big box shopping, since they are all claiming record sales!  Small business Saturday did not have a good showing here, but I am encouraged by the trending mind-set.  This kind of promotion may yet pay off in the long run.

At home, (where I have not been spending much time yet) all our holiday decorations remain.  We vowed to keep the tree up until our new babies come home for good.  Yes, we're adopting!  Bunnies, that is.  A bonded pair.  Lot's of preparation going on.  We've cleared out a major section of our family room downstairs where it stays consistently cool all year.  Now I'm hard at work creating a bunny condo with the grid panels that we used to use in the kid's rooms for storing all their toys!  I'll post more about that later, with some photos.  We go down Sunday to meet and get matched with our rabbits.  They are currently residing at a House Rabbit Society bunny rescue.   http://www.coloradohrs.com/

Once we get all our bunny prep done, I'll have some time to get back to my pine needles.  Cal informs me that he's had customers complaining that I don't have enough miniatures in my inventory!  I sell my baskets at the original Mad Moose since there is better foot traffic there, and at the moment, I really don't have enough inventory to split up.  Here's a miniature I made several years ago.  With any luck, I'll have some photos of new ones to post soon.

I've been dealing with an abundance of winter squash lately, donated from a friend who found herself with more than she could use.  Baked up a bunch and when I got a little tired of the old butter and s&p routine, I made this awesome soup. 

I googled several recipes to which I did not have all the ingredients, and decided to wing it.  I sauteed some chopped onion in butter, and then I dumped the cooked squash into the food processor and processed in batches with the onion, evaporated milk, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg.  Heated, with some additional salt, it all added up to big ol' yummmmmm!  And probably much lower in fat and calories than all the recipes calling for 8 oz of cream cheese!  Yikes!  Sorry I can't give exact quantities.  I just threw some stuff in and hoped for the best.  I'll definitely make this again... who knows if it will turn out the same. 

Until next time… 

My Thrifty, Green Christmas

I ran across this idea several weeks ago. I can't even remember whether it was in a magazine or on-line, so I can't give proper credit. But, when I was unearthing the holiday decos I set these old bulbs aside with this in mind. Yesterday, I finally dug out some glass bowls to put this together.

I had 2 kinds of bulbs, clear and opaque, so I sorted them out and did 2 bowls. Looks like candy, doesn't it? I especially like the unique flame shaped (and flame colored) bulbs. I inherited all of these from my in-laws. Since we don't use these big lights anymore, and I'm pretty iffy about the safety factor of older light strands, I thought this was a fun & practical way to give them new life! Plus, I can recycle the wiring at Home Depot and get a coupon for $4 off a new Martha Stewart LED strand! How green is that?

On slightly less green note, I've had a few requests for a photo of our oversized Christmas tree! Unfortunately, the thing is SO enormous that I actually cannot back up far enough to get the whole tree in the frame! Yes, it is tied to the loft railing so it doesn't kill us.

It is a real tree that we cut ourselves, however, we try to find an area where the trees are crowding each other so our "thinning" of the tree will actually be beneficial for the forest. When we finally drag the tree back out, we toss it out in the woods to season for a few years before it will become fuel to keep us warm. See? Kinda green. For the record, our lovely little mountain town accepts spent Christmas trees and shreds them for mulch, which they then give away. I think I will be leaving this one up until February! I'm dreading trying to get it back out of the house! Although the space it takes up may cause me to shove it out the door come December 26th. It is beautiful, though. So you'll just have to wait and see what happens! 

Happy last shopping weekend! Don't forget you can shop on-line at www.madmoose.com

Christmas Cards & Backcountry Bliss

It is Saturday and I'm still sore from a ski trek on Wednesday.  Yikes.  We needed to test the hubby's repaired knee to find out whether he was ready to ski this winter or not.  It went well and we climbed farther than we had originally planned.  It was the coming down that reminded us we have not been resort skiing yet, and our legs weren't quite ready for the descent!  There were a whole lotta leg breaks, but we had fun and gained some confidence that we're not too old and broken to do so!  We continue to be inspired by this die-hard tele skier we see out there almost every time we go.  He looks to be in his 70's or older, and is on oxygen.  He just straps on his tank and goes!  Ya gotta love that!

This is right before our descent.  It was a beautiful sunny day, a bit crusty at the top, but we found some decent powder in the trees toward the bottom.  

I've spent the last several days working on our Christmas cards, both at home and at the store.  I took the idea from the Martha Stewart website.  I really liked the design.  I used a branch that fell off of our Christmas tree and several chunks of juniper from around our house. 

I laid the sprigs over gray-blue cardstock and sprayed over the card with white spray paint.  After they dried, I removed the sprigs and added glitter "berries".  Under the NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF ALL INVENTION category, I called a fresh pencil eraser into service to stamp a perfect circle for the glitter.  Worked like a charm, and the eraser still erases! 

Some of the finished product.  

Now I just have to write in them and get them in the mail!

So, here I am again. Gonna give this blogging thing another try. I last tried to blog in 2008 while we were building a house. I posted once. Just once. Fabulous. Yay me.

This new blog is tied to my business, The Mad Moose. We have 2 stores: The Mad Moose Fine Mountain Furniture and Accessories and The Mad Moose Home & Garden. I will mostly blog about the latter as that is "my" store. The former being "my husband's store". Believe me, we are involved in both stores nearly equally, but the Home & Garden store is my baby.

The first store is very lodgy and sportsman oriented. We carry log (mostly aspen, some hickory) furniture, and taxidermy. Our kitchen, bed, and bath decor items feature a lot of moose, bear, and elk. The second store is more garden oriented, with an emphasis on cottage style & country chic. I guess you could say it is more feminine. We still have a few moose & bear items, but no taxidermy.

When we opened the 2nd store this summer, my goal was to incorporate some furniture rehabs and upcycled items into the inventory to help show customers how to achieve a shabby chic, cottage style in their own home using our products. Unfortunately, just starting up a 2nd store really stole most of my time. Now that we're in the off season, I hope to spend some more time on my rehabbing and upcycling. The plan is that I will blog about it here, and you can follow the progress of each item from find/pick to it's eventual arrival in the showroom! Some picks go right into the showroom so there won't be much to see! I am in the middle of a rehab project with 2 small matching tables right now. I'll try to post about them soon.

I spent the summer refining my buying and deciding what stays and what goes. We have limited space in the H&G store so we can't waste an inch of it! I really only had one major dog this year which turned out to be the rubber floor mat bases and the interchangeable inserts. They are actually a great product, but since most of my customers are tourists, I think they were just too heavy and bulky for them to take with them. The mats also take up a lot of real estate, so they are ON SALE NOW! Got to get them outta here and make room for something else!

Another thing I have not had the time for this summer that I need to get busy with, is posting H&G items on our website. This too will be coming soon.... I hope.

I hope all of our customers, friends, and countless complete strangers will find some small measure of enjoyment in this blog!

Moosie