Month: March 2011

Gorgeous Boxes and a More Realistic Option

Another post in the never-ending arts and craft storage organization saga…

If money were no object, I would immediately snatch up these beautiful, handmade Serena and Lily boxes for our arts and craft storage:

Alas, $88 for a set of three (on sale!) seems pretty steep for a budget organization project, especially when I’d need several sets. Besides, I like the patterns now, but I may not care so much for them in a couple years. I don’t know about you, but my taste changes over time. And those are some crazy, vivid patterns.

In the meantime, these more affordable boxes from IKEA are growing on me:

I was hoping for something other than cardboard (thank you all for your fantastic storage tin suggestions!). Unfortunately after several (unsuccessful) trips to various container stores, I’m slowly reconciling myself to the idea of cardboard storage boxes. I especially like this green color and the various size options. I’m concerned about the construction and how they’ll hold up over time. I also think they look, well, cheap.

I prefer these PVC-free scrapbook storage boxes from Amazon, but I am not sure the sage green color will match the IKEA boxes and these Amazon ones only come in one size (that I can find):

Maybe we can make this size work. I think we’ll need a bunch of them though. We have a lot of art supplies.

Updated to add: Be still my heart! I found them in other sizes (though they are still on the small side). Finding the boxes in the sage green color (without paying outrageous shipping costs) may prove to be a challenge though. Is it worth it?

To shake things up even more, I saw this garden storage cart in the April issue of Country Living magazine:

I love the re-purposed wooden crates with the chalkboard painted sides. I even have chalkboard paint in the garage waiting to be used. I didn’t have any luck finding the crates at the thrift store today; maybe I’ll have better luck at a flea market. I like the idea of spray painting them turquoise too.

I actually like the idea of incorporating both types of boxes — mixing and matching the green archival boxes with the charming (bright blue!) wooden crates.

What do you think I should do?

A Winged Visitor

One of the benefits in living close to a large wetland is the extraordinary wildlife that visits our front yard. This beautiful egret was a recent early morning visitor.

“Mom, what is that?”

“An egret.”

“Oh, he belongs in water.” (We drove past a group of SEVEN egrets last week standing in shallow water on the way home from the grocery store. The girl remembers EVERYTHING.)

Well, it’s pretty darn wet out there.

In most parts of North America “April showers bring May flowers.” Here in Sonoma County it rains consistently from November through April and then we (typically) have a dry summer. Only a few weeks more of this rain and then our spring will really begin…

Move More, Eat Less


All photos in this post were taken on my evening walks with my camera phone.

In an effort to be more healthy, I am trying to become more fit and lose some weight.

The internet is a wonderful place for all types of inspiration and encouragement. I like this post of Nicole’s talking about how she aimed to lose two pounds a week and used this graph to keep track of her progress (and dictate how much she ate). I like this idea of Cathy’s to move more and eat less. Doesn’t her phrasing make it sound easy? No grand gestures are required. Anyone can move more and eat less.

Last summer after our daughter weaned herself and I saw the numbers creep up on the scale, I focused on eating better, watched my calories, walked more, and I lost fifteen pounds in three months. For the past seven months I haven’t exercised as much, yet I have managed to keep that weight off. But I haven’t lost any more and I really need to. Plus, I haven’t been as active as I’d like to be. I need to set a good example for our daughter.

A few weeks ago I had this realization that if I want to lose 22 more pounds and could lose two pounds a week, then I would be at my goal weight in eleven weeks. After that I could focus on maintaining. Eleven weeks?! I can do just about anything for eleven weeks.

Here’s the graph I created:

After a week and a half, I have lost three and a half pounds.

May this downward weight trend continue… I’m gonna need your support.

Reading Up For the Spring Season

We have two weeks until April when the spring gardening really begins here in Northern California.

Time to say goodbye to the winter garden:

And get ready to plant for spring.

In that vein, we’ve started reading a number of fantastic gardening books. Here’s a glimpse of some of our favorites from this week:





Shown above:
+ Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert (vibrant illustrations and a simple story depicting the process of planning, planting, and picking flowers in a garden that children can easily relate to)
+ My Garden by Kevin Henkes (an imaginative tale about what a little girl would have in her very own garden, such as morning glories that stayed open all night, jellybean trees, flowers that grew back as soon as you picked them (above), and all carrots would be invisible because “I don’t like carrots.”)
+ Gardening with Children by Brooklyn Botanic Garden (a must-read book for family gardeners, full of gardening activities introducing nature’s cycles and earth’s ecology)
+ Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z (not directly about gardening per se but a beautifully illustrated alphabet book about fruits and vegetables; great inspiration for deciding what to plant in the garden!)