November 9, 2015 by Born To Organize

Time to Recover and The Garden Goes Native

Clockwise: prepped for surgery, Lindy snoozing on my elevated pillows, Slinky snuggled in, my cast, Mouse in my arms

If you’re a regular here, you know I went in for surgery last week to repair a torn tendon in my left foot. I have a wonderful doctor who thought my case was “cool” and “different”. Dr. Sheth is the kind of doctor we should all have. She’s funny, smart, kind, thorough, patient and above all, a skilled surgeon.

It’s a mystery to everyone that I wasn’t in more pain and that I walked around for so long with a near-complete tendon tear and encapsulated cyst. Happily, the surgery went well and I’m on the road to recovery. I had a few rough days following the surgery, but I’m feeling much better….as long as I’m sitting down.

Our felines rallied immediately. Like children, I think they sense when things are amiss. They’ve been keeping a close eye on me since I came home. In the “old days” I would have spent the night in a hospital. Instead, I had surgery at a surgical center and was home by noon the same day. Impressive, eh?

Today was my first post-operative appointment, and coincidentally our first thunder-storm of the season. Rain is a sparse commodity around here, and thunderstorms even rarer. It was wonderful to sit back and enjoy the show. It was short-lived, with the skies already clearing by noon, but it was a treat nonetheless.

I’ve been pampered beyond belief with cards in the mail, friends bringing prepared meals every other day, gifts, and a few brief social visits. Mike took the first few days off of work and is now working from home when he can. It will be several weeks before I can drive or put any weight on my foot, but I’m lucky to have a rented knee scooter to help me get from room to room.

Onward.

In other news, the Garden Goes Native project is finally under way. R J Landscape started tearing out the lawn the day before my surgery and continued work through Friday of last week.

landscape revision tools and cleared area

Back Garden: Under Construction

landscape improvements back garden view of circle

Back Garden Under Construction: Alternate View

A crew of four removed what was left of the dead lawn and the existing sprinklers and will soon amend the soil. They prepared an area for gravel and a few paving stones for our garden swing and outlined a small walkway extension in the back garden.

Front Garden: No More Lawn!

landscape improvements removed lawn front garden

Front Garden: Another View

Sleeping on the Job. Sheesh!

The front garden is pretty straight forward: California natives will replace the lawn front and back. I’m pretty excited.

I hope you’re off to a good week.

October 30, 2015 by Born To Organize

Fairy Garden Halloween

Fairy Garden at Dusk

The wall is silence, the grass is sleep,
Tall trees of peace their vigil keep,
And the Fairy of Dreams with moth-wings furled
Plays soft on her flute to the drowsy world.

~Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

Welcome

Please have a seat

We call them faerie. We don’t believe in them. Our loss.

~Charles de Lint

We’re over here. Please come join us.

And as the seasons come and go, here’s something you might like to know.
There are fairies everywhere: under bushes, in the air,
playing games just like you play, singing through their busy day.
So listen, touch, and look around – in the air and on the ground. And if you watch
all nature’s things, you might just see a fairy’s wing

~Author Unknown

We’re playing hide and seek

Is anybody home?

A rustle in the wind reminds us a fairy is near.

~Author Unknown

Do you hear the rustle in the wind?

Happy Halloween

Special thanks to Everything Fairyland for the wonderful compilation of quotes.

October 28, 2015 by Born To Organize

Mad About Pumpkins

We’re mad about pumpkins. We grow them, dress them up and carve them for Halloween. Without further ado, some of my favorite pumpkins from the past decade.

Alys Milner 32 mins · Edited · Our first backyard pumpkin September, 2005

Ad hoc pumpkin patch September, 2005

This pumpkin grew from squirrel feed. Dark orange inside with a pale skin.

Amy Farrah Fowler

What all the well dressed pumpkins are wearing this fall.

My 2014 Doppelganger

Spooky pumpkins

The roaring twenties pumpkin

Ahoy Matey Pumpkin

Creepy Crawly Pumpkin

Elvis is alive and well

Signature Pumpkin

Snail Hotel: Mollusks Welcome

haunted pumpkin

Under the sea pumpkin

Ratatouille pumpkin

Last year’s late-season crop

B is for Boomdee

Virginia Tech Pumpkin

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown My lone, volunteer pumpkin this year, 2015

Ready for holidays pumpkin

Delicious pumpkin

Our largest pumpkins ever (46 – 64 pounds)

Photo Bombing Pumpkins When M was 12

Dracula pumpkin

Oh yes, quite delicious thank you.

Crowned Kitty Pumpkin

The Scholarly Pumpkin

Yes, it’s me again.

Bewitched Pumpkin

The Sailor Pumpkin, Mike’s True Passion

I’m a Mac Pumpkin

Snail Hotel: Checking in

A Stack ‘O Pumpkins (M’s treasures)

Resident Carver Extraordinaire Michael Francini.

Collection of Pumpkins

An enterprising snail created a private entrance

Mike’s Carving Wonder

Lindy investigates

Flower Vase Pumpkin

We grew this crowd one year

Rock, Paper, Scissors Pumpkin

Smooch!

Mike’s collection of carvings

Deadly Diva

Pretty Kitty

Our “Haunted Yard” one year

Hanging out with Laura at Bob’s Farm

When pumpkins were still bigger than he was

I grew this gorgeous green pumpkin from seed. One of my favorites. They’re native to Australia.

Welcome Pumpkin This is a Candy Cane Pumpkin, also grown from seed

Lifting Pumpkins is great exercise

You win some, you lose a lot. The joy of gardening

A joyous crop, pre-drought and pre-squash bug infestation.

Admired by many, carved by Michael.

Glowing Pumpkins

My Year of Trash costume hat pumpkin

Velvet pumpkins

When a whole pumpkin just won’t do.

Mike builds a bonfire

The woeful tale of Frank and Shelley

Gardening Nirvana Pumpkin

October 26, 2015 by Born To Organize

Lemons on my Mind

Dwarf lemon tree sits on our property line

As life in the garden prepares to rest, the lemons are coming into their own. Our dwarf lemon grows along the side of the house, so I see the changes whenever I come up the drive.

April, 2015 Baby dinosaur?

The fruit formed earlier this year, slowly growing to full size. Doesn’t it look like a baby dinosaur? As the temperatures cool and the days grow shorter, dark green gives way to yellow.

Lemons with potential

This pair of lemons hides a spider’s web

I prune the tree a couple of times a year to keep it compact. Otherwise it grows into our respective walkways that separate the two homes. I was initially concerned that all this pruning would be hard on the tree, but I’ve since read that keeping it compact will help maintain a manageable harvest. Now I’m completely at peace with my pruning regime.

I’ve fallen out of the habit of drinking lemon water each day, so as I write this I’m reminded of a good habit I need to resume.

According to Why You Should Start Your Day With Lemon Water:

it has myriad health benefits, from helping your immune system to offering an antioxidant boost, explains Amy Myers, MD, author of The Autoimmune Solution ($21, amazon.com)

“Lemon is packed with vitamin C, which can help boost the immune system,” Myers tells Health. “It’s refreshing, and it tastes good,” she says.

On top of that, “lemons are very high in bioflavonoids that destroy harmful free radicals that damage blood vessels and cause inflammation,” osteopath Vicky Vlachonis, author of The Body Doesn’t Lie ($20, amazon.com), tells Health. “Plus, the invigorating smell just wakes you up.”

Soon I’ll be able to harvest my own lemons at home. I’ll pick up some lemons at the market till the harvest comes in.

This one didn’t make it…

Sometimes lemons split on the tree. Factors include temperature fluctuations, humidity, heavy rainfall, dry soil though over-watering is more harmful than a drought

…but these are right on track for a brilliant yellow harvest.

Turning yellow

October 20, 2015 by Born To Organize

California’s Subtle Fall Show

The New England states are known for their color this time of year. Vibrant reds and golds brighten the skylines and bring tourists near and far. I love it there, and long to visit every year.

California on the other hand puts on a subtle show.

Here’s a peek from my backyard as the garden folds up shop for the approaching winter.

The Fringe Flower is covered in fuchsia blooms this time of year. They remind me of miniature pom-poms. I love their brilliant color.

Loropetalum chinense or Chinese Fringe Flower

Polka dot plants are commonly grown indoors. I bought a few for my fairy garden three summers ago, then transplanted them when they got too large for the area. Little did I know that they would come back year after year, bigger and better than the last. In mid-October they start producing these tiny purple flowers. They’re hard to photograph against the busy background, but they catch my eye in the morning, autumn sun.

Polka dot plants (Hypoestes phyllostachya)

These brilliant white anemones produced a fraction of their usual blooms this year. They tolerate a lot of conditions, but they don’t like droughts. They generally bloom profusely in August, yet here they are blooming in mid-October doing their best to survive.

Anemone hupehensis sports a visitor

That’s an Orb Weaver spider, hanging out on the flower. He’s bathed in the traditional fall colors but that’s nothing new. He’s the same color year round, but seems to show up in our garden around this time. He’s not camouflaging at all, but I guess if you’re the biggest spider on the block, you can show off on the tip of a white bloom whenever you want to.

Orb Weaver Spider

Our Japanese Maple Acer produces rich red seed pods and variations of amber leaves. It’s one of two deciduous trees in our yard. I look forward to the color changes every year.

Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ or Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple Acer palmatum

And finally, here are my raspberry vines, dying back for the winter. I missed those warm, fresh berries straight from the vine this year, along with fresh tomatoes, sunflowers and summer annuals.

Raspberry vines dying back

Some of you are heading into fall this month, and others are ushering in spring. What color heralds the arrival of your new season?

October 15, 2015 by Born To Organize

The Lone Pumpkin

Isn’t she a beauty?

The Lone Pumpkin, 2015

This humble pumpkin grew from a single plant, self-seeded in a dry patch of dirt in our drought-parched state. Annuals are generally thirsty plants, with shallow roots drying quickly under a hot sun. I watched this plant wilt at the end of each day, only to revive the following morning with seemingly nothing to draw from but a bit of morning dew.

Please don’t laugh, but I’m easily attached to the things that grow in my garden. Each plant, flower and tree touches me in some way. So when that humble pumpkin plant first appeared, I tried to turn a cold eye to the possibility that it would not survive the season. As our reservoirs drop further and further, I can no longer casually open the bib of a hose. We make every drop count. Once or twice I poured a glass of water at the roots, then stopped. If the plant had made it this far without my help, I reasoned, then I would just step back and let nature sort things out.

Of course me being me, I could only ignore this humble plant for so long. It formed fruit, only to be snapped clean from the vine a few days later by a rat or squirrel. Oh well, I sighed.

My humble plant was not deterred. She formed another piece of fruit, this time surrounded by a ring of volunteer tomato plants. I whispered on the air for the squirrels and rats to eat the tomatoes first. I started checking for nasty squash bugs. They show up when the fruit forms and quickly lay waste to the crop. No sign of them anywhere.

The lone pumpkin grew to a modest size, nestled in the care-taking arms of those tomatoes. Firm and dark green, she grew to her full size.

A ring of all volunteer tomato plants surround the loan pumpkin. That’s Slinky in the background

The vines started to show the tell-tale signs of the season’s end. The hollow stems yellowed and the leaves turned ashy and crisp. If you hold a dried pumpkin leaf in your hand it crushes into a powdery dust. They let you know that Autumn descends and our job here is done.

Pumpkin leaves decay as the plants energy goes to the fruit

I saw orange! My lone pumpkin turned orange. Little bits of color appeared and the pumpkin continued to thrive unmolested. Somewhere in time, I’d fallen head over heals in love with her. Now fully vested in her complete fruition, I did what any self-respecting gardener would do: I drove to the local drug store and bought a pair of extra-large pantyhose.

Pumpkin safely ensconced in pantyhose

Why?

Rumor has it that rats and squirrels don’t like the texture. I can’t say that I blame them. It worked.

I quietly harvested the pumpkin in September and let it harden off for three days under my watchful eye. Once indoors, free from the protective hosiery, I gave it a quick polish and a quiet welcome. You made it, humble pumpkin. Thank you for your lessons and gifts.

Addendum:

After clearing the dead vines, I asked Mike to dig down in the area to see if the plant was accessing some ground water. He hit hard-pan! Not a drop to be found.

Cleared pumpkin patch, digging for signs of water

September 29, 2015 by Born To Organize

The Reveal: Teen Bedroom to Restful Guestroom in Ten Days

In case you missed yesterday’s post, you can catch up here.

I’ve been turning my teenage son’s bedroom into a guest room over the past ten days. He’s away at college and Boomdee is coming to town.

Boomdee’s needs are simple: coffee, toast, and a sea of aqua. I’m pretty sure she’ll love this room since she unwittingly helped decorate it. If you’re a regular around here, you’ll recognize several small touches as well. It’s a bit of a bloggers hall of fame.

Without further ado, here’s the reveal.

Completed Guest Room

Guest Room Alternate View

Touches of green, blue and pink worked well with the existing yellow walls. It’s a cheerful room. William Morris says “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” I share this advice with my clients and try to live it day-to-day. As I pulled items from different rooms it all came together seamlessly.

The benefit of an adjustable closet system is that it’s easily reconfigured when needs change. Growing up, the boys needed shelves to store games, books and toys. To covert the closet for guests, I simply removed the shelves and reinstalled a hanging bar. The back of the closet needs a bit of TLC but I didn’t have time to paint. Instead I papered the damaged wall with a roll of gift wrap.

Closet: Shelves removed exposing damaged wall

Transformed closet

This simple solution, though cheap, proved to be more challenging. The narrow opening of the closet and the cramped quarters inside made it a challenge. I used 3M spray adhesive and regret it. It’s too sticky to use on thin paper and made re-positioning nearly impossible. We used one roll for the top 80%, and an entire second roll just trying to align the pattern for the bottom 20%. Lessons learned. That said, I like the way it turned out. I just don’t think I’ll do it again.

Blogger Hall of Fame

The spirit of blogging touches almost every room in our home. It was fun bringing all my treasures together in one room. Here’s the line up:

A: Photo album of our blogging trip to DC (Life on the Bike)
B: Dear Opl by Shelley Sackier
C: Play In the Garden by Sarah O’Neil and The Good Life, also by Sarah O’Neil (Sarah the Gardener)
D: Vintage mannequin a gift from Marlene at In Search of It All
E: Craft it Forward heart pin from Diane at Garden Sunshine
F: Boomdee, Boomdee, Boomdee
G: Postcards of Pauline King’s original art (The Contented Crafter)
H: Postcard from Julia at Defeat Despair
I: Crafting goodness from Petals at Boomdeeadda
J: Creatively clever doodle art calendar by Robin Gott of The Forsyth Sagas

Before and After view from the window

gurest room facing door view before and after

Before and after view from the closet

Guest room closet details

A bit of vintage

One of the many things we have in common is our love of vintage. I picked up a handful of vintage air mail envelopes from my friend Donna’s Greenhouse Supply booth at Antique Row. I wonder if Boomdee will write a letter and send it back in time?

Shopping bag decor: whimsical decorating for a song

I picked up a couple of aqua gift bags, then added photos and ephemera. The postcard is a gift from Julia at Defeat Despair. It’s a collage of photos from our blogging get-together earlier this year in DC.

How could I resist? An aqua trash can in the shape of a petal.

An aqua-colored, petal shaped trash can. Be still my heart. The chess board does a great job hiding old phone lines that one day must go.

Customized train case, a birthday gift from Boomdee.

The little bird is actually a pen, nesting in a small ceramic bowl a classroom art project from my youngest son.

Ikea bench covered with a charming tea towel, also a gift from Boomdee.

Another Boomdee Treasure: I covered this worn IKEA bench with a bird motif tea towel, then tacked the corners to keep it in place.

I trimmed these IKEA lamp shades with postage stamp Washi tape from my stash. The stamps work well with the travel motif.

Foot warmer

Never mind that the heat wave continues. The mornings are cool so a gal needs a place to warm her toes as she slips out of the bed to rustle up some coffee and toast.

I added Washi tape to the top and bottom of the lamp shade. The bird quote is a page from the same calendar used for the bunting/banner

You guessed it: another gift from Boomdee.

The perfect nightstand.

I found this table at an import store for under $90. It’s lightweight, easily movable and slides over the top of the bed, the perfect table for this cramped space.

I’m hoping for a chance to dance in the rain this winter

I’m ready. I’m ready to dance in the rain. Truly.

Room with a view: succulents line the fence

Boomdee arrives midday tomorrow. Her room is ready. Crazy fun times lie ahead.

September 28, 2015 by Born To Organize

Ten Day Challenge: Teen Room to Guest Room

I’m a fool for home redecorating and makeovers. For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed the “before and after” transformations offered up in magazines, home design shows and even in my neighborhood. Then I joined the blogging world and found an even bigger neighborhood. Oh my goodness. I’m having so much fun.

What’s even more inspiring is seeing transformations unfold from do-it-yourself bloggers. In most cases they have a small budget, big ideas and a can-do attitude.

I discovered Serena’s blog through Leilani’s blog via Boomdee’s blog and so it goes around here. It’s like a never-ending game of telephone where someone whispers in your ear, then you turn and whisper in someone else’s ear, and before you know it you’re trying to keep up with dozens of amazing bloggers.

Serena and Leilani inspired me to dip my toe into a ten-day room challenge of my own.

The goal: Turn my son’s teen room into a guest room by the end of September.

The motivation: Boomdee’s coming to town.

The challenge: One cranky left foot (you can read about that here) and my busy life.

The catch: Since my son’s move to the dorms is seasonal, I assured him that any changes would be temporary.

With that in mind, I’ve left the three main pieces of furniture in place. I can easily remove the decorative items and bring the room back to neutral.

I’ve been teary off and on since my son moved out. Spending time in his room is helping me connect to his youth, honoring it and letting go. I discovered forgotten treasures including photos, snippets of writing and a box of smashed pennies from family vacations. Lindy’s been keeping me company. I’m sure she’s wondering where he went.

First up, the big clean. Moving out is messy business. New items arrived for weeks, destined for the dorms: by mail a heavy box of textbooks and an extra-long mattress pad specific to dormitory beds. We picked up a desk lamp, laundry supplies, school supplies and extra socks for those busy weeks when he can’t do laundry. Here it is, piled up on moving day. It looks like cleaning my kitchen counter was a low priority that day.

My college-bound son left a pile of things he no longer wants, so I’ve been having fun passing them on through my Buy Nothing Cambrian group. One happy six-year-old is now the proud owner of a Star Wars wallet. I love that.

I sorted, cleaned and recycled my way through the room.

Mike flipped the mattress so I could vacuum the bed frame which also needed a quick repair. Once it was all back together, I added a mattress topper and covered the bed with our king-sized duvet cover.

Bed frame cleaned and repaired

The duvet cover has all the colors I wanted to feature in the room, and it’s large enough to act as a bed spread for the queen-sized bed. I found a turquoise pillow at an import shop on end-of-summer clearance. It’s the perfect color to pull together the blanket and spread.

Duvet cover and velveteen pillow

My son is a minimalist, so his walls were spare; he had a piece of artwork from middle school and a poster passed on from a friend. I rolled them up, put them in the closet and pondered ideas for quick and affordable decor. Somehow it all fell in place. Serendipity!

I decorated all three walls for about forty dollars. The packet of decals came from our local Target. They were originally destined for the long wall next to the bed, but it wasn’t large enough to fill the space. Instead Mike carefully laid it out on the wall above the desk. This is wear the bum foot became a drag. I really wanted to put up that decal, but instead sat back and [impatiently] watched while he expertly put it on the wall. It looks shiny in the photo, but in person it looks great.

Wall decal from Target

The bird print above the bed and to the right of the lamp was a happy find. While waiting out my phone repair appointment, I wandered into a little shop called Azuca. There it was: a lightweight, wood panel with this charming print and the quote We are birds of a feather.

Washi tape, wall calendar page and wooden art

Before I fully realized it, the room was taking shape. It has a sense of travel and flight, with birds figuring prominently. The colors complement my premier guest, the delightful and sophisticated Edmonton blogger nicknamed Boomdee. Little did she know that so many of her gifts would later help decorate a future guest room. Wait till you see all the treasures!

Which brings me to the third wall. I’ve been saving my gorgeous 2014 wall calendar, featuring the artwork of Katie Daisy. I love turning calendars into new treasures. After removing the coils with a pair of tin snips, I punched holes in the top of the pages and threaded them with vintage seam binding. The colors work beautifully in the room and each saying warms and uplifts. I used one of the pages as a compliment to the bird panel.

Katie Daisy calendar wall bunting/banner

Please stop by tomorrow for the “reveal.” Gosh that’s fun to say.

Meanwhile, if you love makeovers as much as I do, then you’re in for a treat. Check out:

Keeping Up With Mrs. Smith: Sewing Room Makeover Reveal
Thrift Diving: Sneak Peek: My Sunny Family Room
The Contented Crafter: A Very Blue Room

September 10, 2015 by Born To Organize

A Walk Through the Garden: The Drought Addition

It’s hard gardening in a drought.

It’s equally hard writing a blog about it without sounding all gloom and doom. (I’m saving my gloom and doom posts for Halloween).

Since we’ve all had it up to here with the drought, the heat, the save-the-air alerts and the raging fires here in California, writing about it seems as drab as my former lawn.

Bougainvillea love the dry heat. Lush lawns are a thing of the past.

Today, I’m shaking things up a bit with a garden video show and tell.

I created the video tour using my mobile phone with my family’s help. Mike followed me around the garden and took video, and my son, Mac edited the clips for the final production.

Instead of tidying up before the guests arrive, I present to you my unadulterated, much-loved, brown around the edges garden.

Without further ado, Gardening Nirvana: The Drought Addition

August 26, 2015 by Born To Organize

Falling for Halloween

Monday is August 31st.

Guess what that means?

Halloween is only two months away! October 31st heralds the arrival of wee trick-or-treaters and the heady, intoxicating fall air.

I’m ready.

If you’ve been hanging out with me for a while you’ll know that autumn is my favorite time of year. I love growing and decorating with pumpkins, planning or attending costume parties, helping my son “spookify” the front yard and tossing treats into wee little bags on Halloween night. The changing of the seasons is more of a slow burn in California. The days shorten and the stale summer air finally gives way to the smog-free version I long for. By the calendar, autumn arrives in late September, but it’s not till mid-October that we start to notice the difference.

In the garden, the signs are everywhere.

Lone Pumpkin Turns Orange

The pantyhose trick is keeping teeth-gnashers at bay while nature takes care of the rest.

Pumpkin protected by pantyhose

Did you know that pumpkins turn orange for the same reason leaves do? As the days grow shorter, “the green pigment, necessary for photosynthesis, degrades and the carotenoids are revealed, causing the pumpkin to change color to shades of orange, red and yellow.”¹

Pretty cool, eh?

Pumpkin Shell Survives Composting

It’s true! A few small, late season pumpkins avoided last season’s squash bug onslaught. They were too hard to carve, so I lined them up on the paved wall instead. They remained a point of interest for many months, subject to occasional rearranging by the neighborhood day care kids. It was months before the snails showed up. Then one by one they started to rot. I tossed this one in the compost bin assuming it would also turn to mush.

Small pumpkin shell survives the compost pile

When I upended the compost for my sheet mulching project, out rolled the shell. I’ve dusted it off, checked for invading bugs, and brought it indoors. The decorating possibilities are endless and simply looking at it makes me smile.

A (Not so Itsy) Spider Weaves a Wondrous Web

Nothing says Halloween better than a scary-looking spider web.

I’m glad I found this web with my camera and not my face

Spider web in profile

Am I right?

You can buy fake ones at the local Halloween store, or you might get lucky and have one custom-built in the garden.

My hat is off to the photographers of the world that capture beautiful shots of spiders in webs. I could focus on the spider or the web but never both. There is a good chance I’ve offended her, since she took down her web by early afternoon when I wasn’t looking.

Beware.

Halloween is coming soon. I. Can’t. Wait!

¹Source: Children’s Museum Indianapolis