Friday Fieldtrip::Springtime in the South

I have a lot going on behind the scenes and I’m not quite ready to share as I mentioned in a previous post BUT…I want to share some of what I’ve been doing!  I recently decided to apply to volunteer at Brookgreen Gardens and last Tuesday I was “interviewed” and “oriented” to become a part of that team.  I am so excited, as a Master Gardener in both Maryland and Georgia I’ve been itching to get my hands in the dirt here and begin to learn more about the coastal plants I’m not familiar with.  The Master Gardener program in SC is run through Clemson and I missed the cut off for the first class of the year so while I’m waiting and deciding if I want to continue as a Master Gardener here I opted to jump into the Brookgreen opportunity!  This place is one of my favorite public gardens, anywhere, ever!

Here is the daily display of the flowers in bloom.  This is not a comprehensive display but it represents alot of what’s blooming on any given day.  It’s the sneak peak of goodies to be seen and smelled.

This bottle tree is in the education center garden which includes edible crops such as rice, corn, medicinal herbs, greens and other seasonal crops.  I love the Southern tradition of bottle trees in the garden, they are said to catch evil spirits as they get caught the colorful bottles after being entranced.

Look at all these blooming beauties!  Azaleas, Delphinium, Larkspur, Poppies and many other springtime favorites were in bloom.  With the warm winter and spring we are having, the daffodils were almost done blooming but there were some incredible combinations of flowers not typically in bloom together.  March is typically a “dangerous” month in low country gardens that border marshy areas, snakes and alligators are coming out of hibernation and I was startled by one in an unexpected spot as I was trying to get some shots.  I’ll be learning a lot more about where they like to hang out and I’ll be using extreme caution!  I am typically a pretty fearless gardener but I have a healthy respect for these potentially deadly creatures.  Avoidance will be my main tactic, along with long pants, closed toe shoes and gloves when reaching into hidden areas.

I am thrilled to just be able to go soak in the beauty and contribute to sharing that with all the visitors who come there.  I’m sure you will be hearing and seeing more of my Brookgreen experience over the months to come.  If you ever get to Myrtle Beach or Charleston, it’s worth the little extra drive to visit this garden which also includes a comprehensive sculpture collection and a lot of plantation history.

Silent Saturday::Unplugged

I’ve unplugged from Sunset Friday the 23rd to Sunrise Sunday the 25th…off for a girls weekend away.

Enjoy the silence~

PS I wrote and scheduled this post before unplugging;)

Texture Tuesday::Spring B&W eDition

It’s Spring!  I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way the seasons have shifted.  Two weeks ago it was very windy and chilly on the beach but this week is glorious!  Things have really begun to change at the beach as the seasonal visitors have started to arrive.  This week marks the first spring break for some schools and there are college kids, families and couples enjoying the beach now.  I’ve got to face the fact that along with the nicer weather comes many more visitors, no more solitary beach walks now that spring has arrived!

Texture Tuesday::Solitary Beach Sunset (Kim Klassen Textures-ScratchedMagicJuly, Storm & WonderfulMagic)

I haven’t been here much lately and my posting has been inconsistent and not always focused and I’m sorry for that.  I hope I don’t come across as flaky or too unfocused because I’m pretty clear on my path ahead!  We are very busy as we wrap up our time living at the beach and look for part time jobs and housing as well as prepare to relaunch our businesses down in Charleston soon.   We’ve also been doing some work and spring cleaning around my in-laws to help out and of course tax prep has been underfoot!  This is the time of year I always do a wardrobe switch and even though I have a pretty through inventory of all our boxes in storage, locating summer clothes has been a challenge for me!  There are 2 boxes in there somewhere that contain shorts and casual short sleeve shirts…goodness I hope we don’t have to dig too far back to find them!  Happy Spring!!

Silent Saturday::Bells of Ireland

“May brooks and trees and singing hills join in the chorus too, and every gentle wind that blows send happiness to you.”-Irish Blessing

Related articles

• Floral Friday: Bells of Ireland (robertsandcompanyblog.com)

Wednesday Words::Amazing Alliterations

Alliterations are all over the web these days.  I guess with so much info being thrown at us we need to find ways to more easily remember what interest us.  A lot of the blogs I follow (and many others) use alliterations on certain days of the week to highlight specific themes such as “Makeover Monday”, “Texture Tuesday”, “Wednesday Words”, “Favorites Friday” or “Silent Saturday/Sunday” to name a few.

Sure, I use them too!  I love a good alliteration and I hadn’t realized it runs in my family.

February’s field trip to Florida found family fascinating and fun!

At every meal that my grandparents dine in the dining room in their community they create a short note for their server, written on their check.

Gregarious givers greet glorious “Grands” graciously grazing on grapes.

In response to the generous service given in the dining room the guest are encouraged to interact with their server and since my grandparents love to write so they make it fun by writing an alliterative note using the first name of their server to start it off.  One might go something a little like this:

Sandy’s smiling soul serves sweet sensations.

I found it a ton of fun and it’s had me thinking of more creative alliterations to use in my daily life.

This lovely poem by Robert Frost uses Alliteration.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Watch wonderful words as they wisely work wonders!

Do you write for fun using alliteration or other forms of word play? It’s fun, it’s everywhere and not just for kids so give it a try!

Related articles

• Poems for Alliteration – Shel Silverstein (brighthub.com)

Silent Sunday::Sweet Strawberry Season…

Has arrived in SC!

 

Wednesday Wellness::Intentions for your Wealth

I’ve been following along with Danielle LaPort’s blog for a couple years now and I love how she gets to the meat of a topic with poetic and direct wording.  Recently she has begun a weekly series called The Burning Question.  A recent question really caught my attention:

what’s your purpose for money?

I’ve set my intentions in so many areas of my life and I often set my intentions for money and wealth as I sit down to balance my checkbook, pay bills etc.  Her question and some of the responses posted really shifted my awareness to my own intentions around money.  Without consciously realizing it I have many intentions surrounding my wealth and perception of wealth and money.   Not all of them have been positive but right here and now I’m shifting my intentions around my personal wealth! 

With My $$ I will…

• Support local sustainable food production
• Purchase art and hand crafted products made with loving hands
• Broaden my awareness and education (through books I read, coaching series, therapy, workshops, classes etc)
• Travel to new places to experience new cultures, meet new people and see the beauty of the world
• Volunteer and donate to others less fortunate or causes that I love and feel passionate about
• Own a beautiful comfortable home with a pool, garden and an art studio with a view of the water
• Spoil my friends and family with my generosity
• Care for many pets and animals (including beekeeping, chickens, cats, dogs and possibly a sheep or goat someday?)
• Live in comfort and security knowing I never have to worry about the future
• Collaborate with other creative souls by cultivating creative, sustainable design and organizing solutions!
• Create beauty…
• Share the love!

What are your intentions around wealth and money?  How do your conscious or unconscious thoughts steer your financial future?

I invite you to make a conscious shift to define your wealth by setting your intentions around the money that flows in and out of your life.

Makeover Monday: Home office remodel

This was a fun project that I started about a month ago.  This client recently began working from a home office and although the design of the room and built in desk are quite beautiful there were some issues with functionality.  The clients punch list was part design and remodel and part organization and efficiency.  At our first meeting I took an assessment that included the following:

• Purchase a new larger monitor (which wouldn’t fit on the original desk top)
• Re-arrange & relocate artwork
• Rebuild or bring in a new/different desk
• Purchase paper shredder
• Eliminate clutter and create more desktop space
• Keyboard tray/desktop had no room for use of mouse
• More leg room
• TV viewing in room -better positioned seating
• Crowded (too much clutter)
• Inadequate lighting
• Space to store supplies
• Storage for important archival documents
• Implement/redesign filing system

Desk area before

Office before

Upon my return last week we discussed this “Punch list” and the client had made some decisions with some close advisement of family, myself and a contractor (in this case my husband who had done previous work for this client).  They purchased a new computer, all in one printer and shredder, we redesigned the desk and had it remodeled to fit their needs exactly and re-arranged furniture and implemented new storage/filing solutions.  Some furniture and other items were removed from the room or stored away, we brought in a second desk, relocated the sofa and additional seating opposite the TV and added lighting (on artwork, in the bookshelf/desk and an additional lamp).  We sorted through paperwork and created storage for archival documents, cleared out unneeded papers and equipment, installed a binder filing system (more on this type of system to follow in a separate post) and used existing storage and furniture to store items needed in the office.

Office in progress

As usual for any organizing project there came a point mid way through where the room looked worse than when we began.  In the photo above you can see the papers, boxes and clutter floating homeless in the room but at this point the furniture had been re-arranged to fit their needs and the desk was in the midst of being remodeled.  This project was done in about 4-5 days.  Part of the fun of this was that my husband and I worked as a team and he did the remodeling, lighting installation assisted with installation of all the new technology (computer, relocating phones/modems, printer etc).  In fact we worked so well together that we are thinking of trying more projects as a team in the future.  The results speak for them self (I think:)

Office-second desk with printer after

Desk after

Office desk after

Office after

It’s not every project that comes together so quickly and efficiently.  We had a successful week and I’ll be following up (as I always do with my clients) to be sure that the new space and systems we installed are working well.  I’m not only proud of how beautiful this room is (which I certainly can’t take total credit for!) but also how well it will now function but customizing and thinking through all this clients needs. 

Great Design is all about Form + Function!

Do you balance form and function as you design your spaces or do you lean more heavily towards one or the other?