Our A2 artist friend, Celibeth Donnelly, aka Celerybreath, turned her funky fabric animal doll concept into a line of notecards and we're thrilled to have them at FOUND! Featuring collaged dogs and cats, some of them traveling the world to exotic locales, these just make me grin! Another Ann Arborite, Laurie Longo, aka StoriesDivinations brought in a big stack of handmade Valentine cards, but I'm on the road and forgot to take photos of them - I'll do a Valentines post and include her cards next week.  In the meantime, here are some other new arrivals from another Ann Arbor company that sells throughout the country, but these cards are made just down the street.   We love robots! Isn't this card great for valentines or just to send a friend?  Check out our recycled typewriter key jewelry - made in Michigan.  Rings, bracelets, earrings and cufflinks in stock.  Think of FOUND the next time you need a card that's a bit different! Regards, Mary       Continue reading

  I love fresh starts. Last week we cleaned and sorted and did inventory (an amazing amount of merchandise went out our door in 2011), then rearranged furniture and started to bring in new things.  The carpet cleaners will come Tuesday night to remove the last of the holiday sparkle glitter dust from the floor.  Besides that, the shop looks fresh and ready for the new year!  Friday night, Paul from Urban Ashes brought in a huge selection of the fabulous picture frames his company makes  from locally cut trees that would traditionally meet their fate in a wood chipper or as firewood.  Each frame is marked with the species and is beautifully finished.  You can read more about Urban Ashes on their website and in this intesting annarbor.com article.  I love the story behind this local Michigan company! Monthly Special:  As our featured local company for January, when you buy an Urban Ashes frame, you'll receive a $5.00 FOUND gift card! Other recent additions to the shop are pottery from New York City based CANVAS, more billiard balls, and a new flock of birds that flew in.       Burlap Boutique's latest recycled coffee bags feature some fun recycled flowers.  Made in Brighton, Michigan. We have a small, but unique selection of cards.  And Laurie from Stories & Divinations delivered more handmade journals crafted from recycled vintage books a couple days ago. Every day next week, we'll be adding more.  Hope to see you soon!     Continue reading

  What a wonderful holiday season we had at FOUND. A heartfelt thanks to all of you who shopped with us and our retail neighbors!  This week we're clearing out all the remaining xmas merchandise - 50-70% off.    Winter hours:  Monday-Friday 10-6:00.  Saturday 9-6:00.  Sunday 11-5:00. Open 9:00-3:00 on New Year's Eve.  Closed New Year's Day. I think I'll take one of these handmade pillows home, and settle in for a winter's nap.....       . Continue reading

 Candles can instantly add a festive touch to your home.  Here are some of the styles available at FOUND this month: Yes, that is real candy!  The Habersham Candy Company makes this colorful pillar and another that has cinnamon sticks. In the fall, we expanded the variety of candles we carry from the Creative Candle Company in Kansas City. Recently, Martha Stewart did a blog post with a series of photos showing the process of handmaking candles.  Martha has featured candles from Creative Candles for years - it's a great quality, made in the USA product.  This holiday season we have a nice selection of pillars, tapers, round ball candles and 10 hour votives in several shades of green, christmas red and ivory. Isn't this multi-armed candelabra a fantastic piece?  Spectacular when filled, but also nice with just a few candles. We also carry footed glass hurricanes.  And clear bobeche for taper candlesticks.   A few simple precautions and remembering to blow them out are important for safety.   An appleberry red bird candle is a fun accent for the holidays.  And at just $8.50 each, these made in USA candles make affordable gifts.   Many folks have stopped to buy Bullfrog candles - not knowing that they closed during the summer. While we were quite disappointed when Charleviox, Michigan-based Bullfrog Light Company announced they were retiring, we wish the former owners all the best.  We hope they spend lots of time sailing  next summer!  Our customers LOVED their unique candles with cut-out snowflakes and simple designs that glowed from top to bottom when they burned.  The last of our final order from Bullfrog is now gone.  That doesn't mean you can't find terrific Michigan-made candles at FOUND.  Our other Michigan based candle company is Green Daffodil from Ferndale.  Their soy candles use pure ingredients and are popular year round.  Packaged in fun little tins, they are quite popular as gifts year round.  We love the new Holiday Tree scent.  Green Daffodil recently started doing larger sized decorative glass jars - great for the holidays!             Continue reading

    UPDATE SUNDAY NIGHT - Marijim Thoene, you are the WINNER! Stop by the shop to pick up your gift card or email me with your mailing address.  Thanks to ALL of you for the wonderful comments! Here's a little FOUND contest with the chance to win a $50 gift card.  All you have to do is comment on the foundgallery blog - when we have 50 comments, we'll randomly select a name from those who have posted. We started the contest a couple days ago, so those of you who commented on the earlier holiday posts are entered - that's 7 entries so far.  Only forty-three to go! Many of you followed the old blog we had on typepad, but we lost you when we switched into this wordpress format. Right now I know that my sister Linda, my mother, a few customers and my shop assistants follow this... I'd like to know who else is out there and encourage others to read. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I needed to include those funny little letter/number thingies for you to copy to avoid spammers, but I hope you'll make the effort.  Then the comment goes to my inbox and I approve them the next time I check email.  Write something you like about the shop - or a  favorite find - or something you make - or anything that fits with what we do at FOUND.  Or just say "hi".  You'll be entered and when the number of comments hits 50, there will be a WINNER! I'm planning a series of contests and  ways to show us what you've done with your FOUND finds in future posts.  We'll start with this simple little contest and hope we can get 50 comments before Christmas!  Regards, Mary     Continue reading

This holiday season, FOUND has a fun selection of jewelry for gifting!  The clever cuff bracelets above are made by 3 Sisters, using recycled license plates - and are very affordable at only $14 each.    Our friend Katina sent in more of her popular woven bracelets (shown below) which sell for $12 - $18. The artist making our recycled wine cork jewelry incorporates her handmade pottery hearts and swirls into many of the necklaces.   Wonder how many friends it takes to supply her with all those corks... Also made in the USA, the peace sign necklaces below features 4 interchangable disks that fit into the magnetized base - giving you 4 different colors for the price of 1. Button jewelry by 3 local artists are always favorites - this year is no exception.   Laura at Bottled Up Designs has a new "cage" style with recycled bottle chips in it.  On her labels, she always includes the bottle history.  In the case of this red glass, it came from ruby red beer bottles that Schlitz used at one point.  Laura is also turning bottoms of bottles into votive candle holders (shown below with earrings in them) and melting complete bottles to form flat bottle-shaped cheese or hor'douvre trays.   Who knew paper could be made into such lovely jewelry?  These from Flying Paper Designs are made with maps and sheet music - with some silver mixed in. If you prefer to make your own jewelry - we can help you with that, too!  Check out our selection of blank rings that you can use as a base to create your something special. Browse through this blog for more gift ideas.  Then hurry on over to FOUND!  If you see something you like, but it's not listed for sale on the website and you live far away - give us a call and we'd be happy to ship it to you.  734-302-3060.     Continue reading

Here's a selection from a Michigan TV show that did a feature on Kerrytown.  Here's the link: Under the Radar Michigan in Kerrytown There are just a couple images of our windows...the main businesses featured are our neighbors Spice Merchants and Monahan's Fish Market.  And the Kerrytown bells.  They did a great job!         Continue reading

  Once again this year, FOUND is offering "Merry Multiples", our season long special for those of you who need a half dozen of something we carry.  Pay for 5 of an item, and get a 6th one absolutely FREE! Here are just a few of the things people have been buying as "Merry Multiples" during the past week:  Funny little owl ornaments, tiny sheep & snowflakes & long-john snowmen for little feather trees. Placemats from Kriss Lecoq.  Featuring the words "be merry" or "sit. eat", these are a great addition to your table with machine washable, casual style.  Other things for a Christmas time table that people are buying in sets of 6:  candles, candleholders, candle rings (which double as napkin rings) and sweet little stockings that are nice size to tuck silverware and napkin into for a festive look.  Snowflakes and birds of many types have been flying out by the half dozen!       But by far, the most popular items to get 6 of are the CHOCOLATE-filled peppermint candy canes.  YUMmmm... Have a delicious week!   Continue reading

  Some of my favorite ornaments at FOUND are ones that are handmade, right here in Michigan.  Deanne Nieburger, aka Deets, is an Ann Arbor artist who makes wonderful little ornaments incorporating recycled vacuum tubes (once used in TVs, radios, speakers and electronics of all sorts).   Above is a robot.  Below are her new style penguin ornament and a snowman ornament.  Each tiny sculpted face has its own personality!  She brought in dozens last week - some with old Christmas light bulbs instead of the electronics tube. I love the quirky expressions.  And the adorable little scarves that Deanne makes for each of them.  The Au Gres Sheep Factory, located in Au Gres, Michigan, provides us with fabulous felted wool ornaments each year.  They mainly produce wool and roving for weavers and knitters, but we're really glad they take time out to make these wooly white polar bears! We carry wooly little Au Gres lambs and sheep year round.  For Christmas, we ordered red wool cardinals and these fox ornaments. The Au Gres animals are $18.50 each.  The ornaments by Deets are $16 each.  If you're looking for extra special ornaments, handmade in Michigan, these 2 makers are our top picks. In addition to these, we stock dozens of styles of imported ornaments and a nice collection of vintage ornaments at prices from $3 to $10 each.     Continue reading

 Register to win a roll of Santa/Believe ribbon by posting a comment below.   Things in your garage can be transformed into holiday decorations with very little effort (or money).   For this project, we started with a rusty shovel, cleaned it up a bit clear Briwax -  then made a simple bow using inexpensive burlap ribbon and a cute Santa ribbon we carry at FOUND.  Some berries are wired behind the bow to give it a bit more interest.  What do you have in your garage that could become a holiday decoration?  Comment on this post for your chance to win a roll of the Santa ribbon!  Note: you won't see your comment immediately.  I needed to put in controls ie those crazy  words that are hard to decipher  as a roadblock to the nasty little trolls that roam the web.  I love it when real people comment though and will push the approve button when I go online to check. Regards, Mary     Continue reading