Ingenious Ideas

Sometimes, when I come across a simple but original and brilliant idea, I wonder "why didn't I think of that!".   Today's post is about three such ideas that are making me a very happy person.

The first is this incredibly creative idea for garden plant identification markers that I saw on Donna Rae's blog, Flannel Jammies Farm and I absolutely have to use it in our garden.  I have been thinking about what we might create (pondering things made out of wood and carved or painted), but when I saw this, I knew I had met my marker, LOL!

For wine lovers like us this is a perfect repurposing of all those corks we have been collecting over time. Johny bought the forks at a thrift store for 50 cents!  We'll keep collecting forks until we have enough for each crop we have planted.

I love it!

The second is a practical item that I believe will be a much healthier way to spend time (sometimes hours) on my computer working on my blog.  Up to this point, I would sit in my rocking chair at the living room window with my laptop on a lap desk on my lap.  While I enjoy glancing out the window to gaze at the mountains or watch the rain fall from the roof or watch the squirrels come and try to get on the bird feeder (which I then go chase away), or all the birds coming to feed (you're probably wondering how I get any work done if I spend so much time looking out the window!), I don't enjoy sitting for extended periods typing on my lap.  I decided it was time to get a new work station that would allow me to stand while writing, creating, researching, etc. 

It's awesome!  I'm still looking out the same window, but now I'm standing and incorporating a little passive exercise as I work, like pressing my shoulders down (I tend to scrunch them up a little...tension goes there), standing tall like I have an invisible cord stretching my spine upward, tightening my stomach muscles, and switching between ballet and modern dance foot positions and working my turnout as I stand there.  These strategies come from many years of dance training and remembering what great shape I used to be in...why not work on my blog and strengthen my body at the same time!  I know, today is my first day with this new practice, but I'ma gonna do this! 

The passive exercise is the third idea of the day and is my creative contribution to today's ingenious ideas, even though it's not really original.  But I figure why not exercise while standing in place and work on building my blog at the same time...and I have to admit, those infrequently used muscles are already feeling the effect!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise