Showing posts with label urban homesteading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label urban homesteading. Show all posts

Tuesday Trends - Urban Homesteading

Basically urban homesteading is about finding a level of self-sufficiency no matter where we live.

This is alot more than a trend, but lifestyles create trends and this is a lifestyle that is definitely catching on with designers in a big way!

When I had a buyer at Pool ask me to design her an urban homesteading necklace and my sister told me about her many friends and neighbors in Portland beginning to raise chickens I knew this lifestyle was becoming a design trend we might want to start thinking about.

**** a true chicken tale ****

(Once upon a time we had a chicken named Lucy. She appeared in our yard one day and kept trying to get into our house by flying into the windows - unopened windows...ouch, poor Lucy! - my generous hubby would walk around the yard with Lucy at his feet looking under rocks for crickets.

This next part gets a little gross. He would toss the cricket on the ground to stun it and then Lucy would gobble it up - hey the girl had to eat!

She would jump into our laps when we sat on the patio and nibble on our toes when we ignored her. Our dog Hershey would chase her around the yard and she would fly atop the patio umbrella to get away.

When fall came - and the chicken clean up got a little too much- chickens require a lot of clean up, if you know what I mean - we took Lucy to a farmer down the street named Junebug where she lived happily ever after with other chickens and one lucky rooster, laying a gazillion eggs for farmer Junebug)

Anyhoo, think pitchforks and chickens, cows, goats, llamas, canning, think farming with or without the overalls!

How and if you might want to incorporate this trend into your own work is up to you. Here's what some Etsy peeps are doing:

1. Mason jar lamp from Lamp Goods
2. Canning labels by Starbee
3. Vintage garden tools at BrightWallVintage
4. DIY Cheese Kit from UrbanCheeseCraft
5. Organic tomatilla shirt at Goga
6. Cow pendant by LuckyDuct
7. Mrs. Cow tote at StrandRedesign

And my own piece. This is a new style of cork necklace that I introduced at Pool- I think every city needs some chickens!