Fresh Recylcing for Christmas

Isn't is true that old saying? Everything old is new again. We have only to look at fashion trends to know it's so.

For Christmas, it is truer than one might think. Oh, I know from reading that 44% of children under the age of 10 have a iPad 2 at the top of their Christmas list, but did you also notice this past summer than when Toy Story 3 came out, the new reduxes of old toys flew off the shelves? Who can resist a slinky dog or a Mr. Potato Head? I have Mr. Potato Heads for different seasons.

Think about giving some of these 'old' things new life for gifts & stocking stuffers:

~I don't care how old you are, a new coloring book and a box of 64 crayons (with the sharpener in the back) instantly brings out the kid in all of us.

~Mood rings. Admit it, you see these in stores by the cash register and still check your 'mood'.

~Jacks. The real metal ones. Get down on the floor and see how you can still do 'sixies'.

~Sea Monkeys. Remember when you really believed you could train them to do tricks?

~Razzles. The candy that turns into a gum. The candy part tastes great. I can only last about a minute once it turns to gum, but getting there is the real fun. These have made a real resurgence in the past several years. I think you can get a big container of them at Sams Club, but they are also at Wegmans or places like Cracker Barrel.

~A Lifesavers Story Book. Admittedly, these are nowhere as cool as they used to be when I was a kid and you got 10 assorted packs of Lifesavers, but they still provide a cheap thrill to a stocking.

~Love's Baby Soft. Yes, it still exists. I even saw it at Urban Outfitters. It doesn't smell like funky socks either, so for a retro flashback gift for a girlfriend, this would be serious fun.

Support your local thrift stores. Found recently in thrift or secondhand shops are these nifty things that might make great gifts if I didn't hoard them for myself:

~Cashmere sweaters. That's right, the real deal. They may be missing a button, but I can do that if the sweater is less than $10.

~Vintage milk glass coffee mugs with retro advertising or logos on them. My faves: McDs and Christmas themed ones. Pair this with some great coffee, biscotti and/or chocolate (isn't any gift improved with chocolate?) for a very cool gift.

~Cute little handbags. For grown-up girls, tuck in a vintage hankie, pocket mirror and a great lipgloss or lipbalm (may I suggest Rosebud which is produced a couple of miles up the road from me? It's also Sephora's biggest seller:Rosebud Perfume Co. at Sephora) Even better, for a little girl, you can get candy jewelry, lipstick, etc at the dollar store. Tuck that in with a coin purse full of quarters for an AWESOME gift.

~Some of the best record albums ever made for less than $1. Baby, nowadays some of the covers qualify as bonafide art. If the record is good, you can still play it. If it's scratched, Google directions for making cool bowls with them or use the records as placemats for a fun party.

~Seriously great old books. Sometimes you'll stumble upon a first edition. Sometimes autographed copies. I'll admit, if the cover is pretty without the jacket, I buy it for decoration or to turn into an altered book. Sometimes an old book that is really tattered gets upcycled for gift wrapping, tags, shredded for filler, etc.

Don't forget to take time for yourself though. Doesn't matter how cool or amazing your plans are if you freak yourself right out of the Christmas spirit. You are hereby given permission for at least one guilty pleasure if not two guilty pleasures WITHOUT the guilt. Be it a Starbucks run, a new book (Christmas themed of course!) or a very chick-flick Christmas movie from Lifetime or the Hallmark Channel, go for it. ;-)

That 70's Chair

After a wonderfully amazing weekend at a youth worker's conference in Chicago with 3000 other crazy people, tim and I decided we really need a night of pure, unabashed retail therapy...at Goodwill.

Yes, the Goodwill you donate your old toasters and ugly Christmas sweaters to. :)

We went to the store nearest our home where there was nothin' good to be seen...until we went over to the furniture side. There I saw, sat and briefly noted a chair and then dismissed the idea of it. I couldn't find the price tag and since I was pretty sure that didn't mean the chair was free (always a faint hope, right?), I passed and we went on to the next store.

Tim was incredibly upset to find the most deliciously soft, supple Italian leather shoe.

One.

One shoe.

Either someone donated only one or perhaps a one legged man bought the other shoe. He moped about for a few minutes until I found a milk glass coffee mug for $.48 and his faith in a good bargain was restored.

While we're leaving the store, I suddenly blurt out that we've got to go back to the first store for that chair.

Tim does a double take because he doesn't remember any chair at all, but he dutifully drives us back to the first store while I'm trying to describe the exact color of this chair, how comfortable it is and that I have the perfect place for it.

We get to store where I excitedly lead him to the chair.

"Oh" he says. Not "Oh!" as in cool. Not "Oh" as in wicked awesome. But "Oh" as in "Didn't the 70's do enough damage to our young, impressionable psyches?"

I tell him to sit in it.

"Oh" he says. as in "Oh, thank you Lord for creating an instantly amazing place to snooze, read a novel or watch a game." And in the wink of an eye, we were loading this much too large chair into his much too small trunk and driving home with flashing lights all the way. (when I get really happy, I either chatter away or fall completely silent. this was totally a chatter away ride home. Tim probably wanted to put me in the trunk and let the chair ride up front.)

It does have great lines. And I like the green, just so you know. I think I'll paint the feet black, but for now, I think I'll take a snooze in my new 70's chair. :)

Upcycling En Masse

Elsie Flannigan and Rachel Denbow are about to kick off a year of repurposing, remaking and renewing old, worn or damaged items. In other words, they have tapped into a passion of mine: Upcycling. Join in the effort here...Project ReStyle - A Beautiful Mess

Go against the grain of New Years exclamations of Out with the Old and In with the New. Embrace a new resolution of In with the Old and Who needs the New!

Egg-static, lol

Today we had our first 'real' snow that stuck to the ground. All in all, it was maybe 1/2 inch, but it was enough to cause several accidents and cancel all after school activities.

This also meant the first snow for the City Chick(en)s. I went out to check on them and they were all cowering inside the coop, hovering around their pop door looking out at me.

I meant to tempt them with some sunflower seed and a few brave girls ran out for about 10 seconds to gobble some up before running right back inside the coop and scolding me loudly as if to say "You half-wit woman, can't you see the sky is falling?"

They returned to their vigil of hovering around the pop door and clucking about the end of the world that was surely nigh.

Biology got the best of them and several still layed their lovely little eggs.

We are getting a kick out of giving away fresh eggs to neighbors and friends. I suppose if you had a highly developed palate, you might say "Dayum, these are downright amazing eggs." I'm not one of those people. But I can tell you that their yolks are brighter & sturdier than any store bought egg. I can also say that I've been told because our chicks eat a well-rounded diet that their eggs are healthier than their store bought counterparts.
And, by golly, they are pretty! Each day going to collect eggs is a bit like Christmas morning. Or maybe I'm just incredibly easy to entertain. :)

Egg-citement!

So, no comment on the long, uncomfortable silences on this blog. Same story women have told for ages...

Last weekend, the hubby and I were running around doing errands and it occured to me that Maryland at this time of year is wildly beautiful. The colleges deftly schedule their tours to coincide with the perfect scenery. Numerous fall festivals and craft shows abound. Most importantly, our chickens have started laying!

Yes, the previous freeloaders are slowly beginning to come off scholarship and earn their keep. Surprisingly, the first little layer was Peanut, our black silkie and the tiniest of the flock. Peanut is our youngest daughter's personal chicken, so young daughter is especially proud that her chickie is the chickie who could. (We all need to start refering to Peanut as a she since we've previously called Peanut a he. Our apologies Peanut!)
Peanut lays the cutest, half-size bantam pullet eggs.

The next little chickie on the production line is Duckie, our Buff Orpington and acknowledged chicken public relations ambassador. Duckie is the calmest, most inquisitive little lady who enjoys attention, so she is the one to comfort and reaasure those who view chickens negatively.

And most recently, Patches, our pretty Easter Egger with a funny, floppy comb has begun laying a lovely blue-green egg. She sings her quirky egg song beforehand, arranges the nest box just so and then puffs up before dropping off her contribution to the egg carton.

We do have a mystery layer who hasn't figured out that dropping your eggs willy-nilly in the chicken run isn't so wise. We are hopeful she will watch her chickie sisters and follow their lead.

Most of the others show signs of joining the production line soon including one little white silkie who I was quite sure was a rooster and it now most assuredly a little lady with a really odd comb.

So, soon quiche, omelets and angel food cakes will abound! If it begins to get too crazy, we'll resort to tossing eggs in unlocked cars and leaving them anonymously on neighbors porches (must like our practice with zucchini and tomatoes in the summer).

Don't even ask hubby how much that first egg cost!

A Product of Their Times

Yes, yes, yes, this blog has been collecting dust for months. Sorry if you sneeze! No promises that it'll get any better, but who knows?

I was on a forum the other day and there was a discussion of products our mothers bought (or prepared) when we were children that we now despise. I remember my mom used to buy imitation chocolate chips for her cookies. Not only that, but she would double the cookie recipe without doubling the chips! Not just one crime, but two; especially to unwavering chocolate lovers like me. I don't know that they even make those chips anymore or perhaps that my eyes refuse to register them on the shelf.

That wasn't the only bizarre food choice in our household when I was growing up. When my mom was expecting my little sister, she craved sardine sandwiches with mustard. Guess what we had for lunch a lot? A whole lot.

Sometime in the late 70s or early 80s (I think) was when generic foods came into existence. There was a warehouse store that was totally foreign to me. You bought these enormous boxes of food, but all the packaging looked the same; either white or yellow with a checkmark and plain black font. Duh, all the food tasted the same too; like crusty sock fungus or remarkably like the cardboard boxes they were packaged in. I know several store brand foods are quite alright now, but back then, it was social death to have a friend glimpse into your cabinets to see a flash of plain boxed puffed rice insta-dinner.

Now, if I go further back a generation as it related to me, I remember the meals my grandparents made and their attitudes towards food. My maternal grandparents had a large garden each year (and still do though they are both well seasoned in years) and canned many, many vegetables, fruits, jams & jellies. Prize winning cans in fact. My mom has groused on more than one occasion that Nana cooked the vegetables to mush (true a lot of times), but at least Nana knew where they were grown, what they were grown with and what they were grown without. Though her cinnamon squash will go down in infamy (because it most certainly did not go down my gullet), Nana and Papa approached food in the same way they were raised with food.

Surely they've all grown. Nana now buys store bought pies and several convenience foods. My parents are once again growing much of their own food and have farm fresh eggs from their motley crew of chickens.

What am I a product of? Pretty much an unhealthy amalgam of what was first taught to me in school as the 4 food groups. Now it's the food pyramid. And a lot of the food on the shelves in the grocery come with ingredients lists that are longer than the ingredients list on my eye shadow. Now that's freaky. And I can't pronounce the ingredients either.

We've swung back and forth between low-fat/no-fat, sugar free, high fiber, no carbs, good carbs, omega-3s, whatchapeas, etc to the point where frankly I think most of us are more confused than not about healthy eating.

The author Michael Pollan tells us it might help if we shop the aisles of our local grocery and only buy things our great-grandmother would recognize. That would pretty much cut out all the interior aisles. Not to go label crazy, but if my Great Grandma Rae wouldn't buy it, then I should think about leaving it on the shelf myself.

As Richard Dreyfuss tells Bill Murray in "What About Bob", baby steps. What are my baby steps right now?

Today I picked fresh peppers, cherry tomatoes, my first 'big' tomato (a Cherokee Purple), burgundy okra, basil and Italian flatleaf parsley. I also dug up all the sweet onions.

Oh, and I fed these little girls watermelon rinds which they gobbled right up. Should be weeks though before they are off 'scholarship' and start earning their keep by laying eggs.

The first girl is LaVerne (we have a Shirley too). She's a Silkie bantam which means she's like a miniature poodle prissy poodle chicken. The second girl is Cream Puff who has a lovely feather pattern of a red head cascading into silvery blue tail feathers. She's an Araucana (or Easter Egger), so she'll lay blue or green eggs.

Baby Boo

Fall is usually my favorite season, but I haven't been able to throw my energy into it this year. The kids have noticed the distinct lack of Halloween decor & kind of freaked. Did this mean there wasn't going to be any Halloween themed sugar product in the house? What horrors!

So I spent a couple of hours making them a card...

Plain white cardstock, ancient Creative Memories circle cutting system, old Hero Arts stamps (one a Christmas stamp), Distress Inks, embossing powders, old paper, a bit of free hand cutting and the use of an embossing gun to 'burn' the edges of the skull. Not exactly frightful, but he's got a little bit of personality, eh?
Then, I have a couple of fellow Fright Loving Fiends, er, I mean, Friends, who are really into the holiday, so I had to make them something right ?

This card didn't take nearly as long, but I think it is a great deal more macabre than Mr. Skully Card. When hubby and I went to Paris, one of the places we visited was the Paris Catacombs where the remains from several Paris cemeteries were moved, 'artfully' arranged and are now a tourist attraction. The remains of several famous people of the French Revolution are stored in the Catacombs, including, Robespierre and possibly Marie Antoinette.Simple yes, but freaky fun. I used Sepia Glossy Accents to highlight the skulls and brown crackle paint around the edges to convey the dark, dank atmosphere of the catacombs. The glossy accents really make the skulls pop out of the photo.

Hubby and I were recently able to take in a little spirited fun. A couple of weeks ago, we went to an early showing of the movie, Paranormal Activity. I like to be on the edge of my seat for a good scary movie, but not slasher films. This is right up there in my top 3 Fright Flicks ever now. The others being The Changeling with George C. Scott and a toss up between The Ring or The Descent. Check out the trailer for Paranormal here: Paranormal Activity

Go see it and then lose some sleep like I did when hubby went out of town for a few days. You'd never imagine how many things so bump in the night when you're lying wide awake at 2:30 a.m. Bwahahahahaha....

The Flat Screened Elephant In The Room

Mid-summer last year, I was innocently shopping with my oldest son, when he stops me short in the middle of the aisle in my local discount superwarehouse. He had spotted several HDTVs being put on clearance as former display models. Since he is our resident expert in all things digital, technical, loud and visual; I had asked him to be on the lookout for a 27-32" tv (or so) since ours was over 20 years old and dying. That was about what would fit in our current tv cabinet. We didn't watch that much television, but the thought of being without completely brought stress frowns from the whole family (except DH who watches NO tv{I know! Freaky, eh?}. Me, I need to destress my brain every once in a while with some Food Network or HGTV or my late, beloved Pushing Daisies).

After much discussion on the cell phone with DH while he checks reviews on consumer websites and my son's wild gestures as people begin to snap these televisions up, I finally decided on a model that was much larger than I had planned on, paid the piper and toted it home.

Once home though, the men in the family wanted to flip our dining room and living room, thus creating a manly, dark entertainment Man Cave to better showcase the television. Plus, our living room was all windows which worried DH that robbers would see us watching Barefoot Contessa, get greedy and make off with our new toy some night when we're out. After initial resistance on my part, I relented and my son helped me flip the rooms.

Two ginormous sofas crowd the space. I had petitioned for a love seat or two chairs when we got our sofas, but DH felt the more butt-space, the better. Well, we have plenty of butt space, but not much room to scoot your bootie around the furniture. I also had to jettison my round coffee table since it was way too big for the room and made the traffic flow even more miserable. Fortunately, the coffee table had been a $5 buy from Goodwill which we painted and when I dropped it off to donate it back, I picked up a $3 rectangular coffee table with good lines which we then painted.

But, still, we live in an old house. Most of our household furniture and decor reflects a vintage style. Suddenly we had this bohemoth television glaring at us like Mork if he had landed at Laura Ingall's house. Sure, we loved feeling like we were in our own little movie theater, but it looked weirdly disjointed.

The question was how to tie the television in with the rest of the house. Instead of disguising it behind closed doors or turning our living room ultra modern, I tried to strike a balance that would pull together in a cohesive, pleasing layout.

I'm liking it so far. Not sure I'm finished, but the living room seems more settled and finished for now.
I picked up some prints at Chartreuse and Co. for $1.00 each that had at some point been publicity posters for a theater in the '60s. We also had an old frame lying about and another larger one from we'd picked up from Goodwill. I get mercilessly teased about painting everything white, but since I was trying to meld a super modern tv and a super old house, I went with glossy black and metallic silver paint for the frames. The paint updated them; one old, the other newer, but plain. I had picked up an oval mirror at Target several months back and had hoped to work it into the plan. Whaddya know, it worked!
I order the bejeweled chandelier and frame wall decals from House of Three. These are super easy to work with and a great bargain compared to similar wall decals from various suppliers & companies.
The cabinet the television sits upon was originally our dining room sideboard. It's been pressed into service for the cable box, game systems (yes, plural) and dusty fitness equipment. In an ideal world, it would be painted, but we haven't gotten there yet. Baby steps.

The grand total for the wall decorations was less than $50, but the visual impact really helps the television to blend into our vintage decor as well as keeping the vintage style of our home from being too precious.
This little composition notebook was done for a challenge at Opus Gluei which was at least 2 weeks ago. I've been swallowed up by graduation activities and company, so I'm running behind. The challenge was to work with colors that put you off or what you wouldn't ordinarily work with. I like purple okay, but it's nowhere in my house or clothes or art. Maybe it's the years of being forced to wear purple & gold for school colors. The purple paper from Basic Grey's Lucky line is a bit masculine when paired with the rest of the Lucky line, but I tried to girl it up with scallops, silver leafing, sparkly stuff (who can resist shiny?). The "B" monogram stands for a certain graduate. Not my own, but a friend of the family. I'll give it to her this weekend at a grad party. If I don't decide I like the purple-yellow combo so much that I keep it to my greedy little self!

My Stimulus Package and a Rule(r) to live by

(I know, 2 posts in 1 day! Crazy, right?)

Doesn't include tax breaks, incentives or a free coffee from Dunkin Donuts. It does include yummy fun that I couldn't pass up when I was out shopping with Rosemary.

I came home with this sweet, chippy, swirly frame and turned it into a bulletin board. Sorry about the shadowy light. My studio is in my basement, hence, no natural light, just OTTs & an old chandelier and this baby is too big to lug upstairs and photograph (before I've had copious amounts of caffeine).

The 'Bloom' banner is keeping it company. I saw the cute 'Spring' banners on House of 3 and decided to improvise my own with some Heidi Swapp stash I'd been hoarding. I think it was hiding behind a family size bag of Cadbury mini eggs. Ate those yummies and voila, I saw a whole new stash! Cut the circles for it with my old friend, a CM circle cutter. That was probably one of the first purchases that sucked me into scrapbooking.

Here is the rest of my stimulus package. Most all of it has found a home, but I've yet to hang up the green shelf. Isn't there something like this in most of our grandmother's bathrooms? They usually aren't painted a bright lime green though. Can't wait to hang this in the studio and overrun it with goodies. I also loved the silvery, dove grey of this hat. I have a huge head. HUGE. Hats never fit me. This one worked. And it's vintage. And perty. So I adopted it. It was meant to be. I also brought home sparklies that were labeled 'Table Confetti'. Hmmmph, right. Sozo, the princess cat, would eat that confetti straight away and while it my be a shinier job to clean the litter box for the next few weeks, I can see these faux gems getting used in loads of projects instead! The black bead trim was found in the barn at Chartreuse and while I have no idea how I'll be using it, it was pretty and had to come home with me. Yes, it did.

Confessing also that I am easy prey for cute packaging, hence the Mocha Rose lip balm found its way into my grubby paws. It's made by the Rosebud Perfume Company which is literally 2 miles up the road from my house. They make Rosebud Salve which is one of Sephora's biggest sellers. Run over to Sephora and support my local peeps! (BTW, the Mocha Rose balm is so very good)

Not from Chartreuse, but a continuation of the tweaking of the studio:

Ignore the paint, glitter and copious clutter. Yes, this is pretty much how it ALWAYS is. I've had this inkling in the back of my head for a long time and have particularly seen it put to use on seamstress tables. When I was at the antique mall last month, I picked up these vintage yardsticks, almost got them, but changed my mind at the last minute. Not sure why.

Well, I found out. It was because they hadn't yet been marked down! I picked up 4 on sale; 2 of them from our local paper. A quick treatment with a handsaw, staple gun and hammer did the trick. Now my countertops are rimmed by an old yardstick edging that is not only useful, it's pretty cool looking if I do say so myself. (To me anyway. My Pottery Barn friends are probably agog with horror) I was checking out at the antique store and this lady starts asking me about my plans for them. When I told her, she picks them up and starts fondling MY yardsticks, getting that greedy, grabby, I'm gonna steal your Cabbage Patch look in her eye. I nearly whacked her with a stick to get them back. Go find your own sticks chickie (well, that's what I was thinking!)

Upcycling: The Pin-Ups

I lurve Jenni Bowlin something fierce. Her simple, graphic, vintage style adapts well to so many artsy occasions. She's just introduced these cute as a bug chipboard buttons at winter CHA that have storybook graphics or text on them. Very, very cool.

I have these clear buttons that I bought way back when I was working part time in my local scrapbook store (where I fully spent each and every paycheck on whatever came in each week). I think Junkitz or 7Gypsies made them. We all just had to have them, in vast quantities.

Only, duh, I have barely touched them.

I have all this old sheet music, atlases and pages from old books.

And I hoard it all, barely touching it.

So, seeing Jenni's new chipboard buttons, I got to thinking. And what I got to thinking was nothing new or particularly original, but it was a way for me to upcycle supplies I already have on hand and actually PUT THEM TO USE dagnabbit!

And here are my upcycled buttons recreated as push-pins...All ready to hang artsy creations on an inspiration board or in my case, the wall of my studio where I am free to poke holes into the drywall willy nilly. Or I could bundle up some on cardboard squares as cool gifties.

Here you can see a few of my precision instruments, most notably, the toothpicks. I find this to be the easiest, least fussy way to apply the E6000 glue to bond the thumb tacks and buttons. What's missing is the adhesive I used to glue the paper onto the buttons. In my case, I used Club Scrap's bookbinding adhesive, but Mod Podge, K&Co craft glue or any favorite adhesive should work just fine. What is also missing is the sandpaper I used to sand excess paper off after I roughly cut around the papered buttons. For added embellishment, more buttons can be glue on in layers. This is also a great way to winnow down a stash of a bazillion buttons. (like the little cards of push pins in this post: Little packages )I also have a nice little supply of ready made buttons that will be great embellishments for future projects. They'll wait in this pink dish beside my bowl of glittered chipboard. (Now have I racked up enough recycling points to go ahead and buy all that Jenni Bowlin stuff I'm dying to have?)

Confessions of a Reforming Shopaholic?

If you like free swag, before you read this, go to the post below and leave a comment for my itty bitty giveaway. It's not massive, but happy mail is always good mail, right? Is there a woman out there who hasn't read Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella yet? And the rest of the novels (so far)? And who is going to see the movie that comes out in a few weeks?

I must confess that I have read every last novel, drooling over the shopping escapades of one Becky Bloomwood and cringing as I wondered how she was going to dig herself out of debt. She always manages to rise to the occasion, but not before I almost get heartburn in angst over it. And it's a fiction series!!!

Even though I'm a thrifty, flea market girl at heart, I have my full retail habits. Under my favorite websites I have saved, there is an entire section for make up and skincare. Hubbie worries when he hears the associates at Sephora call me by name. I'm trying to save my pennies until mid-February for when MAC Cosmetics releases their Hello Kitty line because I want it almost as much for the cute packaging as the make up. I'll skimp on butter to save a buck, but my skin is priceless. I wasn't born blessed with dewy, poreless skin. I'm not going to add insult to skin injury by bargaining with it.

And CHA starts tomorrow. I've said it before, I have NO business even considering purchasing any art supplies that aren't staples, but I'm feeling that frisson of excitement with each email containing a spoiler alert for new product. My inner Becky Bloomwood is making a list and planning to purchase as soon as it hits the stores.

But, I'm trying to be more conscious of my spending habits.

I'm really curious to know if anyone else looks to the era of the 40's when people were planting Victory Gardens, using ration books and repurposing everything with a bit of admirable envy?

Does anyone else worry that our consumer driven society has crippled us as we live through this time of recession? Do we still have that can-do spirit?

I'd like to hope that we can and will rise to the occasion.

Now, why do I have no business buying any art supplies? I have a room that is bursting at the seams with lovely things that rarely see the light of the work table. I've been making an effort to use it up. Tossing an empty package into the wastebasket is a most satisfying feeling. And really, when the creative session is over, I don't feel the least bit deprived for not working with the latest releases, but I do feel the satisfaction of creating AND utilizing my older, but still gorgeous stash. Now that puts a big Cheshire Cat grin on my face (you know, the face with pores big enough to drive a Hummer into?).

This is one of 6 Valentine's cards from old supplies....

All old stash: old cardstock, patterned paper, rub-ons, ooooooooooooooooold...The rub-ons for the sentiments are 5 years old! And they still went on like buttah...

Punched those tiny hearts out with the very first incarnation of the Quickutz. Yes, I still have an original handle. Still works!