LEWISTON — Carrie Larochelle beams with pride when talking about friends and strangers who take time to talk and admire her gardens on Summer Street. Some go out of their way to see what she has added.

It’s a labor of love and much-needed therapy that helps her unplug and unwind, she said.

“It gets me out of myself,” she said. “It helps me focus on something positive and beautiful instead of relapsing.

She is proud to be 14 years clean from drugs and admits focusing on her home and creativity has been her saving grace.

Carrie Larochelle tends one of her tiny lending libraries Tuesday morning in her yard on Summer Street in Lewiston  as her dog, Lilly, stands nearby. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Larochelle, a longtime server at Gippers Sports Grill in Auburn, said, “I love talking with my regulars and meeting new people, but when I come home I just need to unwind, decompress and have my alone time in the garden or workshop” as she weeded gardens Tuesday and added books to two little lending library kiosks she artfully created in her front yard.

“We have lots of neighborhood kids and their parents come to take out books,” Larochelle said. “Some leave with a handful after bringing back the ones they finished, but that’s not required. I have books coming out of my ears!”

She loves to watch children, often accompanied by a parent, sit on the bench and read a bit before deciding which book to take. She has watched a few reading as they ride their bikes down the street.

“I have stacks of books in the house as my friends and neighbors have donated a ton, so I don’t mind replacing them once in a while,” she said.

An avid gardener, Larochelle is also a collector who finds artful uses for just about anything. Her creations surround her house and her decorations for holidays are beautiful, mostly. She admits to pushing the envelope a bit with some of those decorations during Halloween, like the lifelike and bound corpse she hangs upside down in her garage with visible blood splatters and drippings, along with other ghoulish props. Many people have taken selfies with her goblins, especially the one that sits on the bench during Halloween.

Carrie Larochelle has a “thing” for mushrooms, creating them with discarded materials she finds and painting and decorating them for her home on Summer Street in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Many of her creations are pieces of junk repurposed into something beautiful.

She found a plastic cover from a child’s sandbox and painted it different colors while adding a base with plans to adorn it with a frog. Cake molds, funnels, light fixtures and other “junk” are turned into art.

With an abundance of energy and creativity, she stays focused on things that are meaningful to her while bringing joy to others.