April 29, 2020 by Born To Organize

Garden Swing Cushions: Version 3.0

Reworking the decorative cushions, along with the cover for our garden swing is now a seasonal tradition.

Let’s stay in bed fingertip towel

The swing sits below an umbrella and the shade of the orange tree but the fabric is still no match for the hot San Jose sun. The swing cover also needs regular reworking as it proves irresistible to the neighborhood squirrels. The cover often ends the season with chew-marks, big and small.

Chewed but still serviceable (former shower curtain)

I’ve reused the same retired bed pillow as a base for several years as it holds up surprisingly well. It’s easily washed and dried and ready for the next season.

I cut the old bed pillow in half and made two smaller cushions for decorative purposes and for impromptu napping.

One year I covered the two pillow halves with a thrift store pillow sham. The color-coordinated cover is also a thrift store find: a cotton shower curtain pictured below. The squirrels enjoyed working them over as well.

A thrift store pillow sham remade it to cushion covers

The next iteration embraced our mischievous squirrel’s personalities.

I enlarged a couple of my squirrel photos and printed them on inkjet fabric sheets designed to pass through a standard printer. I bought a yard of heavy muslin, cut it in half, and made a simple envelope-style pillow cover. I attached the squirrel photo using fusible tape, then ran a piece of trim on either side.

Squirrel Pillow

My garden oasis (note basket of fabric and fluff as an offering in the nearby orange tree) This year’s cover: a bedsheet with some bias trim

The squirrel pillows lasted four years, but the bedsheet, above only lasted for two. Alas, those cute squirrel faces have faded badly. They look more tatty than vintage so off they go.

Now-faded squirrel print

Faded squirrel photo

The good news is that once again, I’m reusing the same bed pillow and I’ve also reused the muslin and trim. I bought a couple of fingertip towels with a clever play on words last year at a fabric store. I gave one as a gift but I saved the other two towels to once again refurbish the swing cushions.

Muslin finger-tip towels: Let’s stay in bed and Talk dirt to me

Spring 2020: Shower curtain swing cover and reworked cushions

Muslin cushions made with finger-tip towels and recycled trim

My 2020 swing cover is a rerun from last summer: a retired cloth shower curtain. My garden-pun, finger-tip-towels turned cushions give it a fresh new look.

The first time I made a cover for my swing, I spent time and dollars buying beautiful garden-themed upholstery and contrasting trim. I made a bias trim for the peplum and covered cording for the edges. We were celebrating my husband’s birthday with a garden party that year and I wanted it to look nice.

My first swing cover made with outdoor upholstery fabric, contrasting bias trim, and covered cording.

Then a squirrel came along and chewed the entire corner to get access to the soft cotton cording inside. How did she know? I thought at first it would be a simple repair, but she returned to gnaw the bottom half of the swing. That squirrel had a super-soft nest that year. In the end, the swing cover was a complete loss.

You can’t outsmart nature and you will *never* outsmart a squirrel. Instead, I find inexpensive ways to revive my little oasis from year to year.

Napping on the swing

January 7, 2019 by Born To Organize

About Those Christmas Lights

The jokes abound about leaving up the outdoor Christmas lights well into January. It’s always more fun to put them up than to take them down (says the woman who does neither). The outdoor lights are my husband’s thing.

That said, I had a vested interest in their removal this year after noticing a small deposit of bird droppings at the corner of the front steps just before Christmas. I looked up hoping to see a bird’s nest but alas, no nest in sight.

I got a jug of warm soapy water, rinsed the steps and carried on with my day.

A few days later the droppings were back, but still no sign of my feathered neighbor.

As luck would have it, we drove up the driveway around 5 pm one evening and I got out of the car to fetch some packages. In the process I startled a small red-breasted bird who is apparently sleeping on the edge of the extension cord used to hang the Christmas lights.

Possibly a house finch, common to the area, and probably male with the red breast

House Finch under the eaves, December 28, 2018

My feathered guest leaves during the day, then returns at dusk for the night. He tucks his head toward the edge of the overhang, perched on the cord, and though it looks inhospitable to me, he’s clearly content. We replaced our Christmas lights several years ago with long-lasting, cool-to-the-touch LED’s so it’s not the heat that attracted him. Why he’s chosen this corner we’ll never know, but when the lights came down yesterday, the extension cord remained.

Still visiting, January 2, 2019

It’s a lovely start to the new year and a softening of the inevitable melancholy that follows when both boys head back to university for another term. I’m immeasurably happy to see this little bird perched there each night, and hope he remains year round.

What’s new in your corner of the world?

Bay Area Birds

October 14, 2014 by Born To Organize

Halloween Traditions: You’ve Been Boo-ed!

Have you been ‘Boo-ed?”

The act of ‘Booing’ also known as ‘Ghosting’ is popular in our neighborhood and it goes something like this: Someone rings your doorbell after dark. (This already sounds ominous, right?) You look out the window and no-one is there. (Scary, still). Your kids get a bit nervous, but when you finally check outside, a Halloween surprise awaits you. Over the years our boys received small toys, candy treats, light-up wands and even Halloween liquid soap.

Along with the kids loot are instructions to ‘Boo’ two more neighbors within two nights, and the tradition carries on. Our boys loved receiving the surprise at the door year after year, and they were equally delighted to ring and run when it was our turn.

As our neighborhood ages and small ones become teenagers we see fewer and fewer little ones on our street. Rather than abandon the tradition, someone in the hood added a new twist. A friend posted a photo on Facebook of a plate of home-made cupcakes and a bottle of wine along with the ‘You’ve been Boo-ed’ sign. I guess you can’t keep a fun tradition down.

I’ve created my own small tradition revolving around fairy gardens. A few times a year, at Halloween and at Christmas, I put together a small bag of fairy garden treasures for two little girls across the way. Only their mom knows its me. She graciously shares photos so I get a little window into their joy. This weekend I made a couple of pumpkin cards using tag board. I added ink and vintage pages from a small book about a Faerie Queen. I stamped a pumpkin on a couple of cotton treat bags, added beads, and filled them with origami paper, foam pumpkins, erasers and other small items to use in their garden. I hope it continues to bring them the joy that it brings me.

Fairy Garden Halloween Treasures

Traditions might be fun but they can also be taxing. I know that more than one mom on our street dreaded the idea of ‘one more thing to do’ this time of year. I read something similar in an article as well.

I think it’s fun making up your own traditions, removing all expectations with an established goal of having fun. Do you have family traditions that are uniquely your own?

No-Candy Countdown:

Yes, folks, the gardener remains candy-free.

Candy-free Countdown

Under-the-sea Costume Update:

Mike bought a helmet to go with his guardian of the sea costume. The crescent on the top is reminiscent of a wave. I regret not taking ‘before’ photos, but we’re having fun modifying it from its original state.

I save and re-purpose my wall calendars every year, but this is the first time I’ve used one on a costume. I took a page from last year’s sailing calendar, and tore the edges to suggest waves.

Guardian of the Sea Helmet

It’s a photograph of a sailboat in dark seas. I tore a few layers, glued them to the helmet crest, then sanded the paper for a textured look. I added a bit of dark green ink, and in a happy accident, realized the glue dots, once sanded, looked like bolts. We’ve more to add in the way of seashells and a bit of glitter shimmer. It is under the sea after all.

Pumpkins on Parade:

Aloha! Today’s pumpkin is ready for a tall, cool drink under a palm tree. Her grass skirt is nearby when the music begins. She’s kicked off her sandals for a walk in the cool grass.

Aloha Pumpkin

Please hold my calls

She’ll be back tomorrow, refreshed and contemplating the latest wardrobe change. We hope to see you then.

October 6, 2012 by Born To Organize

Pumpkins: Just the Facts, Ma’am

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Pumpkins are so entrenched in our North American culture this time of year, that it’s easy to forget they’re not equally popular the world over. They’re native to Central America and Mexico, but they’ve been grown in North America for five thousand years.

Bob’s Pumpkin Farm, Half Moon Bay

Pilgrims learned to cultivate, grow and store pumpkins from the Native Americans. Without them, they would have starved in those early 1600s winters. Pumpkin pie is traditionally served at the Thanksgiving meal. It’s easy to forget what a significant role it played in the early Pilgrim’s lives.

Thanksgiving flower arrangement

We have a number of pumpkin festivals and pumpkin “patches” in our community. We attended many of them when our boys were young, and were sorry when a few closed to make room for development.

The immensely popular Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, dubbed the World Pumpkin Capital celebrates 42 years in 2012. The festival highlight for those of us serious about pumpkins, is the great pumpkin weigh-off. Last year’s winning pumpkin tipped the scales at a mind-boggling 1,704 pounds. Unfortunately, the festival has grown so popular that it can take upwards of an hour to get to the center of town. We joined friends for an off weekend last year, so we could drive through Half Moon Bay and along the beautiful coast, while avoiding the traffic nightmare.

Lifting Weights at Bob’s Pumpkin Farm

I dream of growing our own “Atlantic Giant,” out back, but lack the stamina and will power of the serious growers. It’s fun to read about the efforts the hard-core growers employ, and to see the amazing results. It was quite the thrill growing a 62 pound beauty this year.

I can’t wait to see what the seeds and flesh are like inside. My husband lovingly carves our pumpkins year after year. We dry and store seeds for the following season and the cycle begins anew.

2011 Pumpkin Crop

Pumpkin Facts

Pumpkins are a member of the gourd family, which includes cucumbers, honeydew melons, cantaloupe, watermelons and zucchini.
The largest pumpkin pie ever baked was in 2005 and weighed 2,020 pounds.
In 1584, after French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence region of North America, he reported finding “gros melons.” The name was translated into English as “pompions,” which has since evolved into the modern “pumpkin.”
Pumpkins are low in calories, fat, and sodium and high in fiber. They are good sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, potassium, protein, and iron.
The heaviest pumpkin weighed 1,810 lb 8 oz and was presented by Chris Stevens at the Stillwater Harvest Fest in Stillwater, Minnesota, in October 2010.
Pumpkin seeds should be planted between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow and are picked in October when they are bright orange in color. Their seeds can be saved to grow new pumpkins the next year.

U.S. Census Bureau and the Guinness Book of World Records