Author: Born To Organize

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Goofing Off

selfie

Selfie with Silicon Valley in the background

It’s a holiday in the US today, more specifically President’s Day.  The boys are out of school, Mike’s home from work and the sun is shining.

We desperately, desperately, desperately need the rain and this is the month we get the most of it.  That said, it’s hard not to enjoy such a clear, bright warm day.

We hiked at Almaden Quicksilver, and enjoyed the bits of green along the trails edge thanks to some recent rain.  The California Poppies are up as well.  We hiked mid-day, a terrible time for decent photos, but I hope to go back soon to snap some shots while the poppies are still in bloom.

In case you think I’m a complete deadbeat, I did a lot of digging, pruning, weeding and planning over the weekend and will share more with you later in the week.

See you then!

orange poppies

California Poppies (October 2013)

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My Red Hot Garden

“Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally…”

― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.”

-J. Krishnamurti

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart…pursue those.” – Michael Nolan

“Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts; don’t put up with those that are reckless with yours.” – Mary Schmich

“Have a strong mind and a soft heart.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo

Lindy-Lu

Warm cat, happy heart. – Alys Milner

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Love Shack

What do you think?

love shack

♫ ♪Love Shack, that’s where it’s at) ♫

It’s my desk-top, love shack.  I’ve been smiling and humming the song all week.

The lovely fairies on Quinto Way left a tiny treasure on my doorstep last October. It sat on my desk for a while before I knocked it to the floor and broke it. [Insert sad face here].

Thankfully it was a clean break. Mike used his magic glue and now the mushroom looks as good as new.  Today it stars in the Love Shack debut. Isn’t it adorable? Those Quinto Way fairies are the best.

fairy card

This sweet card came with the pink mushroom

Build it and They Will Come

I started with an old eyeglass case. I lined the inside with bits of leftover crafting grass and moss then added a tiny silver mirror.  The mushroom rests on a wooden block once intended for a rubber stamp. It needed some extra height.

I cozied up the place with a shiny red heart from my friend Bunny. A piece of coral adds interest.  The coral has been showing up in various places around the house for years, but no one knows where it came from. Perhaps a fairy left it on her journey.

The X.O.X.O banner was a gift last year from the crafty goddess of goodness at Boomdeeada.  It too travels around the house and brings cheer wherever it goes.

Love Shack Collage

Love Shack Collage

Quality control, aka  Mouse the ‘neighbor’s kitty’ did an up-close inspection. All systems go.

I love the B-52’s and enjoyed seeing them in concert many years ago. I hope you enjoy this upbeat, nostalgic video performance as much as I do. ♥

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Little Free Library: Books and Maps

Exciting news this week.

First up, the Little Free Library has a new addition thanks to the lovely Julia at Defeat Despair.  She belongs to Paper Back Swap, a site for exchanging books. She ordered a copy of the beloved children’s book Charlotte’s Web and asked them to ship it here instead.

Charlotte's Web

Book Dedication

The book arrived over the weekend with a flood of memories.  My grade school teacher read it aloud to us after lunch each day, along with the other E.B. White classic, Stuart Little. Julia says:

I am excited about some family having access to this wonderful tale through your library. What a fun way to spread the joy of reading!

Thank you, Julia!

We’re on the Map

Our Little Free Library is on the official map.  It’s now searchable directly from the LFL site.  Here is a screen shot, complete with coordinates. What would the great explorers of the world think of that?

little free library screen capture

We’re on the map

I can’t tell you how happy I am when I see people stop and browse the library.  I surreptitiously watched twin girls pick out a book this weekend.  Monday I saw a pair of pre-teen girls drop off a few books. What joy.

In case you are new to this blog, or to the Little Free Library movement, you can catch up at the links below.

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Valentine’s Day Giveaway: The Winner Is…

Special thanks to everyone who entered my Valentine’s Day Giveaway last week.

I wrote the entrants names on pink hearts, then tossed them into my world globe. It seemed like the perfect vessel given the number of countries represented from around the world.

Global Hearts

Global Hearts

pink hearts

Pink Hearts: There’s a winner here

Representing the pink hearts were:

♥Australia

♥Canada

♥France

♥New Zealand

♥United States

Congratulations Mary Elizabeth! You won the random drawing for the“exploding circle book” featuring Pink Paislee’s Secret Crush.

winning heart

Congratulations Mary Elizabeth!

I’ll confirm your address, and then I’ll pop it into the mail to you this week.

exploding circle book

The winner receives this pop up scrapbook

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Bloglovin’ and that Strange Post

I signed up for bloglovin on Sunday. It’s a simple and uncluttered way to follow all the blogs that I love. WordPress has a reader, but it only works for WordPress blogs. Other platforms, like Blogger, BlogHer, TypePad, etc. show up in different places, via email or in an RSS reader.

In order to “claim my blog”, I had to send a short post with code, hence the strange post.

Here is the scoop from the bloglovin site:

Why did you build bloglovin’?

We started building websites in a garage in Täby, Sweden, and before we started bloglovin´, we were working on our second failed web project: a fashion-community. To get feedback on that idea, we got help from three fashion-bloggers — one of them was Carolina Engman. Somewhere between discussions and coffee breaks, she checked if any of her favorite blogs had updated. So she picked up a laptop and started typing in their web-addresses. A bunch of new windows flew up in her web-browser. Some blogs were updated and others weren’t. It. Was. Chaos.

Here was an opportunity for improvement. Wouldn’t it be sweet if you had one site that notified you every time one of your favorite bloggers had written something new?

We scrapped the fashion-community and started over from scratch. Two weeks later, we had our first, somewhat rusty, version of bloglovin´ up and running. One week later, over 1000 people had signed up.

Sure, there were other blog readers out there, but they were technical, boring, and cluttered with features. We wanted to build something for the rest of us. For everyone who doesn’t care about the technology behind it. For everyone who just wants things to work.

Check it out when you have the time. It was quick and easy to set up.  It’s also free! Happy reading.

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Bloglovin

<a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4767443/?claim=k8ckgvnf4ky”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

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Fairy Garden Valentine

cake and flowers

Cake and flowers await

brick wall

“Brick Wall” ribbon

tiny fountain

Tiny fountain made from small colored pebbles and candle holders

tiny deer

Darling Deer from Boomdee

While pulling weeds in the garden, I bent my ear to the earth. I heard the faintest whisper.  Garden fairy voices carry with the wind. You have to listen intently to hear what they are saying.

“We love Valentine’s Day,” they breathed.

You don’t have to tell me twice.  I got to work on the fairy garden with little time to spare.  The day of whimsy is in one week. February 14th is also a full snow moon so I’m expecting magical happenings in the world of imagination.

I’ve dedicated one of my kitchen drawers to fairy garden building materials. To the uneducated eye, it looks like a drawer full of junk. Look again and you’ll see tiny fencing material, tables and chairs, a small fountain and a dance floor.  Magical trees, hearts and flowers live in that drawer, too.  When time and inspiration strike, I forage through plastic lids, discarded wrappers and pieces of ribbon and then I get to work.

I challenge myself to use materials on hand, pulling together a bit of this and that. I’m never sure how things will turn out, but always have a great time with the process.

valentine fairy garden

Fairy’s eye view

Fairy Garden Frivolity

I’ve dedicated a page on my blog to fairy gardens.  You can see seasonal versions by clicking here.

Valentine’s Day Giveaway

There is still time to enter the Valentine’s Day Giveway. Simply follow this link and leave a comment there including the word ENTER. Deadline is midnight Sunday, February 9th.

Valentine's Day Giveaway

Valentine’s Day Giveaway

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There Goes the Lawn

Jessica at ‘Growing Up in the Garden’ did a beautiful job conveying much of what I feel about maintaining a lawn in semi-arid California. Enjoy!

Jessica Y's avatarGrowing Up in the Garden

IMG_3741

I have always secretly, or not so secretly, wanted to do away with the lawn in our backyard. This is not to say I have not enjoyed it over the years. It has served as a good picnic location, a runway for leaping over sprinklers, and as a soft place to land while practicing cartwheels. But, alas, it is so hard to justify in Southern California’s semi-arid climate. Now, with the a severe drought looming, it seems almost absurd.

View original post 337 more words

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Valentine’s Day Giveaway

Who doesn’t like a bit of pink on Valentine’s Day?

If you agree, please enter for a chance to win this “exploding circle book” featuring Pink Paislee’s Secret Crush.

Scrapbook Island offered these kits last year, but when I went back to buy one they were sold-out. No surprises there, but guess what?  They special ordered one for me.
exploding circle book

I loved putting this together. It will be even more fun giving it away.

Entering is easy: simply leave the word ENTER in the comment section below.  All names will go into a random drawing.  I’ll announce the winner on Monday, February 10th.

Circle book cover

Circle book cover

Open book

Open book

Here is the boring fine print: eligible to anyone entering a comment on this post, excluding family members. Deadline for comments is midnight, February 9th based on this blog’s date stamp. The winner will be selected by random drawing on February 10th.