Brooklyn Wedding

This outdoor wedding in Brooklyn was set in a bit of green space between two warehouse buildings.

  

  

Simple flowers and tea lights - and am amazing cilantro sauce.

Nothing says wedding light a white tent with lights.

Organizing Jewelry, unusual spaces

A spare wooden ladder becomes a jewelry holder.


I had a loft which needed a ladder to get up to it. I found a ladder which was meant for a bunk bed at a thrift store and thought I had all of my problems solved. Unfortunately, the ladder is too tall and is now taking up space. It has hooks at the top that fit nicely over a door.

The back of the closet door has about the same amount of space as the thickness of the ladder and it hooks over this closet door. Because stairs to the ladder now angle down, I couldn't use the ladder as a regular shelf, but it can be used to hold jewelry! At the moment I have just a few necklaces on it, but with a few hooks, nearly all of my jewelry can be arranged so that it is visible when needed, but hidden away behind the closet door. See my unique solution to the all of my bulky bracelets

U define Beauty

This graffiti/message was seen on my walk to one of the local parks.

I am volunteering to rate the parks in the city I live in. There are at least 350 some parks that need to be viewed and rated for ambiance, sporting ability, cleanliness, safety among other factors. A doctors group will be using these rated parks, along with how you can get to them with public transportation as "'scripts" to prescribe a patient to spend time outside, along with their other doctors orders. This is a pilot study, but I do think it will have a great public health impact. Not only an ongoing log of what the city has to offer, but a medical provider checking in with how a person is doing beyond their medications. I hope this small program finds a way to be used across the city amongst a variety of health care providers. I feel fortunate to be able to get the ball rolling with a fair assessment of these parks.

Cargo bike

Cargo bike

Organizing Reusable Shopping Bags

If you are like me, I have had in my possession many, many reusable shopping bags. These are one of the only interchangeable, transferable items among friends that you don't mind losing because you know you'll get another one soon enough. Whether you bring things over for a dinner and leave the bag, or your friends leave three at your house after a dinner party, these reusable bags seem to pile up and they don't store easily.

I am also of the opinion that these cheap-to-make bags that are given as free give-aways at every event you can think of are going to be the new forbidden plastic bags of the 2020's since we probably already have too many in the world for our own needs...they are going to pile up in landfills just like today's plastic bags.

With the piles at my feet and a nice sturdy basket/bag, I created a nice space to keep our reusable bags organized, in one central location and tidy...and at the front door!

We had another bag that is rather cute that holds it's shape and it is now hanging right next to the front door. I have rolled up each of the bags into tight rolls. They key is to teach everyone in the household how to roll the bag so they keep wanting to put them back inside the cute holder by the door.

Starting from the bottom, roll the bag toward the handles. The handles can be pulled around the tight roll to keep the roll secure. We have removed most of the semi-rigid plastic bottoms of these reusable bags...mostly since they are well used, but I have also out of concern that foods particles might sit inside the bag - like meat juices or other gross things you don't want sitting in a dark space. 

Reusable Shopping Bag Storage Solution Solved!
What are your thoughts on this? Have you come up with other helpful solutions to the reusable-shopping-bag-storage dilemma?

Car Camping Packing List

Here is a nice list of camping supplies to have on hand when heading to a weekend of car-camping.


Wine bottle opener
Can Opener
Headlamp
Pillow
Air Mattress or Camping Pad
Tent
Tent footprint or tarp for below the tent
Camping stove
Propane for the stove
Tongs
Pan
Pot
Spatula
Sponge
Soap
Hand-wipes (baby wipes)
Paper towels
Hand towel
Beach towel
Camping/Folding Chairs
Matches and/or lighter
Cooler
plastic cups or reusable cups
mugs
reusable plates and utensils
Bug spray
Long Pants
Sweatshirt
After-bite (post bug bite spray/lotion)
Ibuprofen
ear plugs
sleeping bag or sheets/blankets
Water!
Aluminum Foil
knives & cutting board
garbage bags
rope

DIY Jewelry Organizer

I've seen homemade holders for necklaces out there, but I have been struggling with what to do with my bulky beaded bracelets. They have stayed piled up in a way that I don't see them and then don't access them as often as I should.

I also have discovered that my umbrella needs to be updated (i.e. I was getting rained on under my umbrella), but I didn't want to just throw the thing into the garbage. I came up with a solution to recycle the umbrella into something more useful, since it was doing a terrible job keeping the rain out.

This is a small pocket umbrella that I removed the fabric from with a small cutting blade.

Closed umbrella with assorted beaded bracelets.

I added one bracelet to each prong, with the the narrow bracelets stacking together on one prong. 

Open Umbrella with access to bracelets.

This can hang nicely in the closet, or on a door handle, or on any hook in the bedroom.