Over and Out

Photo by burnt_sugar

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

P.S. If you're local, don't forget:

* Last chance to take advantage of the exclusive discount at Atomic Garden.

* Saturday is the final day at Mignonne Oakland, with 30 percent off almost everything.

* Maker Faire!

Mark Your Calendar: Weekend Roundup

* Saturday, May 9, from 10 to 3: Feria Urbana at Pizzaiolo in Oakland

* Saturday and Sunday from 10 to 4: Open Studios and Factory Store Sale at Heath Ceramics in Sausalito

* Opening Saturday at noon at Johansson Projects in Uptown Oakland: Val Britton and Michael Meyers's Echo Fields (the artists' reception for the show is next Saturday, May 16, from 5 to 8 p.m.)

* Saturday from 2 to 4: The First Annual Cupcake Bake-Off at Oakland's Rock Paper Scissors Collective (across the street from Johansson Projects); $4 at the door

* Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m.: The opening reception for Isabel Samaras's Into the Woodz at San Francisco's Shooting Gallery

* And at the same time next door at White Walls Gallery: The opening reception for New Work from Ian Johnson

* Finally, if you're still on the hunt for a Mother's Day gift, don't forget the exclusive discount for More Ways to Waste Time Readers at Atomic Garden in Rockridge.

Deal of the Day: Discount at Atomic Garden

Attention, locals: The lovely ladies at Atomic Garden, the beautiful Rockridge eco-boutique, have generously offered More Ways to Waste Time readers 15 percent off all of the shop's gorgeous, earth-friendly housewares through the month of May.

Whether you need to pick up a unique Mother's Day gift, are looking to subtly and beautifully green up your home, or simply owe yourself a small-but-wonderful treat, the shop has an array of handmade and sustainably produced items from which to choose.

Goods include low-impact ceramics; recycled glassware; organic cotton, linen, and hemp textiles from companies such as Plover, Fog, Transylvanian Images, and Flock Home; pretty, reusable shopping bags and lunch sacks; natural beeswax candles; locals Rebecca Stevens's and Nabil Samadani's eco-printed seasonal soup cookbook; recycled-paper notebooks and stationery; and even salvaged-wood birdhouses by Oakland artist and furniture maker Billy Kroft.

To take advantage of the 15 percent savings, just mention More Ways to Waste Time when you bring your purchases to the register between today and May 31.

Atomic Garden is located at 5453 College Ave. near Kales in Oakland's Rockridge district, and is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

Read more about the shop right here, and feel free to pass along the savings to friends in the area!

How to: Make a Snowflakes-and-Oranges Window Hanging

I'm off to run a bunch of errands this morning. (Ugh -- DMV, anyone?) In the meantime, I'll leave you with a rerun of a fun and simple holiday craft project from last year, in case any of you missed it:

Atomic Garden, one of my favorite shops here in Oakland, has the prettiest window displays. Just like the store itself, they're simple, natural, and lovely.

The eco-friendly housewares-and-clothing boutique's current window candy is a clever and beautiful assemblage of crocheted snowflakes, yarn pom-poms, and dried oranges hung from a gently gnarled tree branch.

Here's how to make one of your own -- perfect for dressing a window for the holidays or simply brightening up the view during the dreary winter days ahead.

You'll need:
* A tree branch measuring three-quarters of an inch or more in diameter and about the width of the window you want to hang it in. (Pick up a fallen branch the next time you're out for a walk or a hike, save one when you trim your trees, or buy one from a floral-supply shop or online.)

* Two to three ceiling hooks for suspending the branch. (You could also slip the branch into wall-mounted curtain brackets.)

* A spool of fine twine, waxed cord, or fishing line.

* A large, sturdy needle, such as an embroidery or darning needle.

* A selection of crocheted snowflakes. (You can create your own if you're especially crafty or simply use cloth doilies -- I spotted several for a couple bucks apiece at my local fabric store yesterday -- paper snowflakes made from medium- to heavyweight paper, or snowflake-shaped ornaments.)

* Fabric starch or craft glue.

* A section of golfball- to tennis-ball-sized pom-poms. (Make your own with yarn, craft them from tissue paper, pick up a bag of fuzzy pom-poms at a craft store, or simply substitute a few white ball ornaments.)

* Dried orange slices. (They're easy to make at home, or you can buy them from a specialty grocer. Dried pineapple slices would also work.)

Instructions:
* Screw the hooks into the ceiling, making sure they're anchored well. Loop lengths of twine, cord, or fishing line over the hooks, tying them securely. Tie the other ends around the tree branch so that it hangs across the top of your window. (Or simply remove the curtain rod from the window and slip the ends of the branch into the curtain brackets.)

* Depending on the width of your branch and how many snowflakes, pom-poms, and oranges you want to hang, tie several lengths of cord around the branch with the ends trailing down. Vary the lengths randomly so that the longest hits the bottom of the window and the others are shorter.

* If you're using cloth snowflakes or doilies, douse them with laundry starch or dab them with craft glue mixed with a bit of water and pin them flat so that they dry stiff.

* Once they're dry, tie the snowflakes onto the cord at varying heights.

* Using your sturdy needle with the cord threaded through, hang the pom-poms at varying heights. If your window is wider than it is tall, one pom-pom per length of cord is fine. If the window is tall and narrow, hang a few pom-poms from each cord, spacing them out randomly and tying the cord beneath each to keep it in place. (If you're using ball ornaments, simply thread the cord through the loop at the top of the ornament and tie it securely.)

* Finally, thread the remaining lengths of cord with orange slices. Poke the threaded needle through the flesh of the orange near the top and tie the cord to hold the orange slices in place.

Enjoy!

(Thanks to Jamie and Erin at Atomic Garden for walking me through this.)

Readers: If you have a simple DIY project to share, send me photos and instructions and I'll be happy to feature it here!

Mark Your Calendar: Holiday Weekend Sales

This one's for you locals: Two great Oakland independent stores are celebrating Presidents Day Weekend -- and getting ready for spring -- with steep discounts on their winter wares.

Uptown Oakland's funky housewares shop and art gallery, Industrielle (shown above), is having a special one-day-only blowout with 40 percent off of its merchandise on Monday, February 18 from noon to 4 p.m. (While you're there, don't miss the Back to Basics photo exhibit.)

And Atomic Garden, the housewares and clothing eco-boutique in Rockridge, has marked down all of its fall goods by 30 to 60 percent.

Happy shopping!

Mark Your Calendar: East Bay Bargains

If you're local and you're in the market for some minty MCM furniture or modern accessories and other wares, make a point to stop in at Rockridge's Form Vintage Modern during the next week. Everything in the store will be 20 percent off Saturday, November 10 through Saturday, November 18.

(And after you're done scoping out the deals at Form, be sure to bop across the street to check out Rockridge's new, chic eco-boutique, Atomic Garden.)

Over in Berkeley, the swanky HighCotton Living at 1820 Solano Avenue is selling floor-sample sofas, chairs, chaise lounges, dining chairs, tables, dressers, artwork, and lighting at up to 75 percent off.

Also in Berkeley, Sue Johnson Custom Lamps & Shades at 1745 Solano is having a three-day sale Friday, November 9 through Sunday, November 11. If you're looking for a beautiful and unique handmade light fixture or lampshade for your Berkeley brown shingle or Craftsman bungalow, Sue Johnson is the place to go.

Happy shopping!

(HighCotton Living photo by Katy Raddatz for the San Francisco Chronicle.)

Retail Therapy: Atomic Garden

We all know that shopping "green" is a good thing -- but that doesn’t mean it’s always a fun thing. Happily, doing your part isn’t a chore at Atomic Garden, the brand-new green boutique in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood, where practically everything is sustainable, recycled, salvaged, organic, or handmade.

Business partners Jamie Kidson (a clothing designer who co-owns the Berkeley and South Park Jeremy’s shops as well) and Adrienne Armstrong (the wife of Green Day frontman Billie Joe and owner of the Adeline Street clothing company and Adeline Records music label) have created a gift, home goods, and clothing store that’s as pretty and fresh as it is eco-friendly and community minded.

The walls and floors are glazed bright white and the airy, high-ceilinged space is outfitted with beautiful reclaimed-wood shelves and display stands salvaged from the family farm of the carpenter who constructed them. Indeed, the most striking thing about the shop’s well-edited selection of ecological and socially conscious goods isn’t how virtuous it all is -- but just how lovely, and how hard it is to leave without taking all of it home with you. This is conscientious consumerism that doesn’t bludgeon you with its own righteousness.

“We try not to shout about the fact that we’re 'green,'" Kidson says. "We hope people will buy things here because they truly love them -- and if they also happen to have a positive impact on the environment and the community, all the better.” And while sustainable goods often come with price tags that can seem like a cruel joke to anyone on a budget, most everything at Atomic Garden is reasonably priced and much of it is downright affordable.

Among the items artfully displayed throughout the shop:

Sweetly simple art and textiles from Alena Hennessy ($20 and up) and handmade organic soaps, salves, and other potions redolent of fragrant botanicals and zesty citrus ($5.50 and up) from companies like Filthy Farmgirl and Farmaesthetics

Linen notebooks and pillows from Paper Cloud ($38 and $68) and cloth-covered journals made from vintage library books ($28) by Secret Leaves

Handscreened wall art from FluffyCo. ($35), Perch! ceramics, and recycled-glass bud vases by Couronne ($6)

Beeswax candles ($6 and up) from BeesWork, vessels made from repurposed beer bottles ($26) by the Green Glass Co., and brightly colored and surprisingly soft recycled plastic totes from Gypsystyle ($33)

Screenprinted hemp pillows from Emeryville’s Sharon Spain ($76)

Handmade letterpress cards ($2.50 and up) by the Paper Princess, Satsuma Press, Seraph, and others, more Alena Hennessy pillows, and hooked rugs ($179) from Be Sweet

Organic block-printed bedding from Les Indiennes ($65 to $582)

Winsome baby bedding by Pixel Organics ($59) and crocheted plushie by La Bête Handmade

Handmade, low-impact pottery from Perch! ($36 to $72)

Kidson and Armstrong will soon be adding items of their own design as well: blankets created from discarded cashmere sweaters, beeswax candles poured into vintage china cups, and organic cotton, fair-trade market bags ($19), gauze produce bags ($12), and 100-percent-recycled paper journals imprinted with the shop’s pretty bird-and-branch logo (using soy-based inks, of course).

What’s more, many of Atomic Garden’s wares are produced by women’s cooperatives around the world, who use the proceeds to better the lives of their members. There are sari-fabric pajamas ($28) from the International Princess Project, which works to help women and girls escape forced prostitution in India; sweet knitted critters (above, $23) from Kenana Knitters, a group of rural Kenyan women who spin the yarn on bicycle wheels and use their knitting skills to earn independent income; and bags and rugs from Be Sweet, which funds educational and job-creation programs for disadvantaged women in South Africa.

As Kidson says, "We want it to be a place that makes you feel good." That it does -- in more ways than one.

Atomic Garden is located at 5453 College Avenue in Oakland, and is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and from noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

P.S. Click here for a "How To" on making a D.I.Y. snowflakes-and-oranges hanging like the beautiful one in Atomic Garden's front window.