Creative! Inspiring! Inventive! Delightful!
Friday photo: I Ching No. 56 Wanderer
21 Aug
Travel from Zürich
What a blessing to have spacious accommodations after a red-eye flight!
I Ching No. 56 discusses “The Wanderer”. The contemporary translation is travel.
Gardening with aroma
18 Aug
Last week’s post featured catnip. We also indulge our senses with sage, parsley, basil, oregano, lemon balm, mint and lavender.
Friday Photo: I Ching No. 1
14 Aug
Shrine Room, Indiana War Memorial
The contemporary translation of the first hexagram is “force” (or creative)…for that I have a photo of a catapult on the grounds of the Tower of London, which misses the intention. Getting back to the early translations, this photo in the Shrine Room feels more like “heaven above heaven” based upon the paired trigrams which make hexagram No. 1.
Fun fact: To take this photo I laid on a “cool” marble slab bench.
Happy Cat!
11 AugTime to harvest catnip!
Catnip in background, attracts bees and finches, even one hummingbird siting
Heliopsis in foreground
Catnip spilling over retaining wall
Catnip blooms drying
Eve is not happy.
She thinks wearing a shawl makes her an old lady.
We have had fresh catnip all season….sprigs upstairs and downstairs.
Life is good.
Spoonflower
4 AugDreamed of creating custom fabrics? Checkout spoonflower.com
I first read about Spoonflower in 2010, uploaded images, ordered swatches….outstanding!
They have been very busy over the years adding fabric options. This is the short list: Cotton ultra, Satin 100% polyester, Performance knits, Jersey, Light weight canvas, Twill, Faux suede…the latest product introduction is Sport Lycra.
They also offer opportunities to create custom wall paper and gift wrap.
What would look good in “bark”?
Friday Photos: IChing No. 63 and 64
31 JulI Ching No. 63 After Completion
The Elf in Elfcroft has the sewing machine humming making functional gift bags. These gift bags are also known as shower caddies to be given to the women residents of Wheeler Mission this Christmas. I used outdoor fabric (water and mildew resistant) from www.fabricguru.com. Four outer pockets surround the center opening. 25 yards (54″width) made 75 shower caddies.
Ready for delivery
I Ching No. 64 Before Completion
The last two years we filled back packs with socks, gloves, scarves, etc. Several years before that we filled tote bags. Our choice this year are these homemade bags. Bath products to fill the shower caddies will be provided by friends and coworkers.
I read a comment that there was an error. “Before Completion” should be 63 and “After Completion” should be 64. This is not an error. Completion refers to work. The interesting concept is that work-in-process (WIP) has multiple completions. I could have chosen to show rolls of fabric for “Before” and the finished shower caddies as “After”. BOLO for a future post with the empty caddies as the “Before” and filled with gifts “After.
It started when
28 JulI put away the recipe for Impossible Vegetable Pie. Pause. Ah ha. Half of my modest cookbook collection is just taking up counter space. Now those unused cookbooks are headed to a public library book sale. But not before…I’m on a roll…before scrutinizing the nine shelves behind the couch. In 2010, the nine shelf solution was progress. Some of the books I have had 50 years. The thermodynamics text book…40 years. Blah, blah, blah. Since then, I have read dozens of ibooks.
Before
The first sort of about 300 books is complete with everything left in place and hot pink stickers on spines of books to donate. The subjects range from travel, gardening, fiction, non-fiction, business…even organizing…I stopped to scan that one. The goal of the 2010 effort was to fill the shelves to keep “Office Assistant” Eve from napping between books. There is no Dewey decimal system in place.
Sort with Hot pink tags
Donation_first 50, followed by 27
After
A week has come and gone since I started this project. Results:
- Extra foot of countertop space in kitchen
- Empty file drawer
- Extra shelf available on desk
- Bottom three shelves have new purpose
- Memorabilia storage
- Stationery, cards, Christmas cards
- Board games
- Book groupings arranged for next phase…
Eve still naps under the potted plant 🙂
Snooooze
I choose to keep the six shelves filled: (2) for favorites, (1) for travel, (1) for business/government, (1) for youth and finally…..miscellaneous!
What is your story?
elfcroft 