December 23, 2014 by Born To Organize

I Got It! I Got to Have a Gott!

If you follow Shelley Sackier’s weekly musings at Peak Perspective you’ll know why I’m excited. If you don’t, go take a peek. You’re in for a treat.

Shelley writes brilliant and entertaining prose with wit and charm.The equally talented Robin Gott provides the doodles. They collaborate across a continent, producing weekly gems that make you smile and think. I want to be like them when I grow up.

As readers, we voted each month for our favorite doodle. The best of the best made it into his 2015 calendar.

Robin Gott: The Clever Doodler

On November 22nd Shelley published Gotta Have a Gott announcing

“the grand unveiling of the crackerjack cartoon collection of Peak Perspective’s illustrator extraordinaire—Robin Gott. We’ve been ballyhooing this exciting event for ten months, and have decided that for this first year Rob will create and put FIFTY calendars up for sale.”

Gotta Have A Gott!!!

Rob studied art in London, but currently lives in Sweden. He says:

“I’ve more or less escaped from the production line process of animation, and I’m just having fun drawing for my own amusement.”

Lucky for us, I say!

Shelley’s bio includes this gem:

“My experiences are prolific, my hopes still abundant and my realizations wishfully profound. It is what we make it.”

She makes you glad you stopped by.

Happy places to visit:

Robin Gott: Doodles, Scribbles and the Alexander Technique

Shelley Sackier: Peak Perspective

Things to do when your calendar is through

November 29, 2013 by Born To Organize

Green Friday: Repurposing in and out of the Garden

Re-purposing was common practice during the Depression era. It’s still common in developing countries where nothing goes to waste. I’m a huge fan of giving new life to items that might otherwise be discarded. There is an entire movement afoot, people reusing items in clever and original ways.

So, in honor of Green Friday, check out these fun ideas.

Greenhouse Made from old windows
Between Naps on the Porch

Lovely old chair breathes new life
Sweet Magnolia Farm

Umbrella Bean Trellis from Dirt du Jour

Light fixture bird bath from Indulgy

I wish I had 100 hours a week to read all the fascinating blogs out there. Here’s a small sample:

Dishfunctional Designs: Creative Things To Make With Old (I love the clever title)

Indulgy.com: Light fixtures live again

Denim Do Over: giving new life to old denim

Pinterest: Set the timer or you’ll never get anything done.

Facebook: Re-purposed, Recycled, Reused, Reclaimed, Restored

I like to re-purpose my wall calendar each year. I reuse the pages to make envelopes, bookmarks, gift tags, small stickers, gift-card holders and other small paper items.

Last year I made a wreath for our front door using scraps of tissue paper, candy wrappers (ahem) , a dry-cleaning bag and the plastic sleeve from the newspaper.

Katherine, over at Pillows a-la- Mode recently refashioned an old sweater into the most adorable teddy bear you’ve ever seen.

Diary of a Mad Woman uses a similar sweater to make Christmas stockings.

I hope you have as much fun as I did, visiting all these fun sites. Please share your own re-fashions, links or blogs in the comments below.

January 9, 2013 by Born To Organize

Garden Calendar Lives Another Day

Have you hung up your 2013 wall calendar? Do you love a new calendar as much as I do?

My sister gave me The Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Calendar this year. It’s always been one of my favorites. The pages are beautifully illustrated with helpful notations and interesting quotes. Here’s one:

Benjamin Franklin introduced kohlrabi to colonial America.The vegetable’s German name originated from the Italian words cavolo rapa, meaning “cabbage turnip.”

You learn something new every day! 😉

It’s fun turning over a new page to a new month and a fresh beginning. Conversely, I removed my 2012 gardening calendar with great anticipation. In the past few years I’ve been re-purposing the beautifully designed pages into envelopes and stickers, tags and the odd bookmark.

This year I’ve challenged myself to use all of last year’s garden calendar in new and different ways. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Gift Card Holder

This design simply evolved based on the pattern of the flower. The gift card holder folds into thirds and is held in place by a sleeve. When the sleeve is in place, the butterfly keeps the top flap from opening.

Gift Card Holder (cutaway with sleeve)

Gift Card Holder (closed)

Desk Top Organizer

I’ve always loved little boxes, and this one is no exception. It arrived with some unexpected treasures from a dear friend. Rather than pack it away with the Christmas gear, I covered the box with four different calendar pages. I used the stiffer cardstock from the front of the calendar to make a pair of dividers. Now I can easily get my hands on what I need.

Christmas gift box from a dear friend

Desk Top Organizer

Dividers

Box Lining

Napkin Rings

Once folded in half and glued together, the pages are quite sturdy. I cut them into strips, formed a ring, and stitched them together with a scrap of raffia. Now I’m all set for Thanksgiving.

Napkin Rings (8 for next fall)

Envelopes, gift tags and stickers

Assorted gift tags and stickers

Envelope

Wine Tag

Postcards from the Edge

I used the only bit of white from the calendar to create a writing space. The reverse side of the postcard has a quote.

Two-sided postcard (back side has quotation)

Bunting

For the Fairy Garden…of course. 🙂

Drawer Liners and a Poster

Drawer Liners (My husband swears we need all these remotes)

Poster (back of guest bath door)

Check this out:

Katherine at Pillows a-la-Mode likes to re-fashion or re-purpose clothing in a similar fashion. She held a contest a few months back. The lucky winner mailed her a beautiful embroidered jacket (that not longer fit), and Katherine turned it into a tote bag, a tissue holder, a pillow and more. You can check out the contest winner and lots of other fun ideas at Pillows a-la-Mode.

December 22, 2012 by Born To Organize

Winter Solstice: Near Miss

I guess I missed it.

I’ve been referring to my wall calendar all week and according to the cute little box with the number 22, winter solstice occurred at 6:12 am EST today, December 22nd, 2012. With all the “end of the world” talk this week, I somehow failed to connect the winter solstice and the end of the world on the same day. My calendar was plain wrong.

December 22nd, 2012

It’s no small irony that the calendar producer is a company called Sounds True.

Sounds True Calendar

The rest of the calendar entries were correct this year, so you can appreciate why I missed it. Remaining dates are in good working order as well: Christmas, December 25th. Check. Boxing Day, December 26th. Check. And finally, New Year’s Eve, December 31st.

Here’s is what National Geographic has to say about the solstice:

During the winter solstice the sun hugs closer to the horizon than at any other time during the year, yielding the least amount of daylight annually. On the bright side, the day after the winter solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days leading up to the summer solstice.

“Solstice” is derived from the Latin phrase for “sun stands still.” That’s because—after months of growing shorter and lower since the summer solstice—the sun’s arc through the sky appears to stabilize, with the sun seeming to rise and set in the same two places for several days. Then the arc begins growing longer and higher in the sky, reaching its peak at the summer solstice.

The solstices occur twice a year (around December 21 and June 21) because Earth is tilted by an average of 23.5 degrees as it orbits the sun—the same phenomenon that drives the seasons.

During the warmer half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted toward the sun. The northern winter solstice occurs when the “top” half of Earth is tilted away from the sun at its most extreme angle of the year.

Please join me in counting down to the first day of spring; the Vernal Equinox. For those of us that long to get our hands in the dirt, that’s a date we don’t want to miss. And for all you computer experts who know that the internet is always right, please help me understand why my countdown calendar (right sidebar) it teasing me when it says March 20th is in two months?

November 10, 2012 by Born To Organize

Garden Calendars: Pretty and Practical

We have a calendar-giving tradition in our immediate family. Each Christmas I choose a wall calendar for the boys, based on current interests and trends. I usually buy my husband a sailing-themed calendar or to mix things up a bit, lighthouses. It will come as no shock to you that yours truly likes gardening calendars. Since the men in the house aren’t big shoppers, I’m free to choose my own.

I suppose in some ways, wall calendars are quaint. I’m a big technology fan, and rely on Outlook and an iPhone to keep track of personal, professional and family appointments. There is something reassuring, however, about a calendar hanging on the wall. I like to glance over at the date, or flip through the months looking for a holiday or the next full moon. The photographs or illustrations are always beautiful, a miniature piece of art that changes monthly.

Calender to Envelope

In the past few years, I’ve re-purposed the prior years calendar. I like making envelopes, stickers and bookmarks, as well as gift tags to drop over a bottle of wine. It’s fun coming up with different ways to use the art.

Here are a few of my favorites for 2013:

The Secret Garden Wall Calendar

“Hidden away from well-traveled paths, the secret garden possesses magical powers of restoration and rejuvenation. With a year of lush and luxurious retreats, The Secret Garden Calendar offers serenity with every glance.”

Who can resist a secret garden? Not me! What a great place to rest my eyes when I’m taking a break from the computer. These calendar pages will make great envelopes too when the year is over. It’s good to plan ahead.

Old Farmer’s Almanac Calendar

“For everyone who is going or growing “green”! Original full-color illustrations dominate each monthly spread and are complemented by useful and entertaining gardening lore, timely advice, and fun facts. Plus, a region-specific chart identifies the best days and Moon phases for planting vegetables.”

I’ve purchased this calendar in the past and love it. It’s filled with useful tips and wonderful illustrations. For me, it harkens back to a seemingly simple time. Love it!

A Cat in the Garden

“Gardens and felines have a natural rapport. The cat’s stature brings it face-to-face with long-stemmed blooms, within easy pouncing distance of breeze-blown ornamental grasses, and a short hop from sun-warmed deck chairs. Weaving delicately through the potted plants or waiting in ambush for an unsuspecting bug, the household cat lives in regal symbiosis with backyard flora. Photographer Del Greger presents twelve new portraits of cats and flora in this calendar, each one paired with a cat-centric quotation.