Category: Sketches

Helping others.

Doing good ~ Cans for Comments
Candice at The New Modern Momma is participating in Cans for Comments.

For every comment on her blog, Candice will donate 1 can of food to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
We, Botanical Beauties & Beasties,  found out about this from  I {heart} Rhody. Way to go Candice, “Girl Power!” What a great and super easy way to help out. Please help Candice help others.
This got me to thinking…and I googled “holiday giving.” A bit down the page I found this group. “The Philanthropy Journal is an independent voice and champion for nonprofits and their supporters…Through a daily website and free, weekly email bulletin, we deliver nonprofit news, resources, announcements and job listings…The Philanthropy Journal is a program of the Institute for Nonprofits at NC State University in Raleigh, N.C.”
According to these guys there is actually good news.  A summary…
“The giving spirit has struck Americans, with 71 percent of people surveyed by the American Red Cross saying they plan to donate the same amount or more to charity this holiday season than last, a new poll says…only 26 percent say they will donate less this year than last, says the Red Cross’ Holiday Giving Poll, which was conducted by phone in September and October and generated 1,020 responses…82 percent Americans say helping others is an important holiday tradition, and 68 percent believe it is even more important this year because of the ailing economy…” read the whole story here.
Way to go Americans!  Happy Giving/Helping to others and the earth. 

Pinterest

Gordy_Pinterest
Gordy wants to share our new fun!

Since Gordy is the Artist and Art Journalist he wants to tell you all about our latest  greatest “AMUSEMENT”… It is our Pinterest site (http://pinterest.com/botanicalbb/ ) We are just beginning but we are hooked! It is fun. It is helpful. It is interesting. It is a great way to find amazing new ideas. It is a great agent for sharing.

What is Pinterest you say? Well, according to the source itself of Pinterest:  “Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests….People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes. (We use to for { i.e. we “pin” } Design ideas, finding all sorts of great new ideas, things we want to “save” and to be able to find easily, & things we want to share!) A pin is an image added to Pinterest. A pin can be added from a website using the Pin It button, or you can upload images from your computer. Each pin added using the Pin It button links back to the site it came from….You can Add the PIN-IT button to your BookMark Bar…Once installed in your browser, the “Pin It” button lets you grab an image from any website and add it to one of your pinboards. When you pin from a website, the Pinterest team automatically grab the source link so we can credit the original creator.”

Pinterest says its MISSION is : “Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.” http://pinterest.com/about/

Interested? Want to know how to sign up?: Pinterest is currently invite-only. You can request an invite from Pinterest or you can be invited by someone who is already a part of Pinterest, like us at Botanical Beauties & Beasties! We would love to invite you if you want, just drop us a line, make sure you give us a correct email address to use, and consider it done! (FYI, just so you understand, I do not invite you for any other reason than I am enjoying Pinterest. I receive no “personal gains” in any way other than sharing a new tool and some fun.)

When you receive an invite, you can register via Facebook Connect or connect through Twitter.

 “Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, and other popular services like Instagram, Foursquare, Tumblr and Quora, are what former Pinterest designer Sahil Lavingia calls “self-expression engines.” Pinterest lets users express their creativity by providing an easy way to visually bookmark items they come across online.” -TechCrunch

Books and their gilded covers. E-Pub or physical book?

Ron with Books
Which do you prefer? (ps you can see my winter reading list as well on the table top!)

In this gift giving season, we here at BBB3 think books are always a great gift idea….E-Pub is eco-friendly, but holding a book is still an experience we like.

“If e-books are about ease and expedience, the publishers reason, then print books need to be about physical beauty and the pleasures of owning, not just reading.”…

“When people do beautiful books, they’re noticed more,” said Robert S. Miller, the publisher of Workman Publishing. “It’s like sending a thank-you note written on nice paper when we’re in an era of e-mail correspondence.”…

“For publishers, the strategy has a clear payoff: to increase the value of print books and build a healthy, diverse marketplace that includes brick-and-mortar bookstores and is not dominated by Amazon and e-books.”…

To showcase books with special design elements, booksellers at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., created a display of lushly embroidered Penguin classics with a sign reading, “Give classical beauty this holiday season.”

read the New York Times article here...

What do you think?

Holiday sing along..

What we expect, and at this point even want…
“Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! ”
…but it’s not-it was a record-breaking 67˚ in Boston on Tuesday, can you say ODD? Do you think cyclical weird? Climate issues? Hard not to.

~ regardless ~

Julia is getting ready, baking and cooking up a storm. (pun intended – ha ha, fa la)
She has her magic elf boots and Xmas cactus cap on, there’s nothing she can’t do now!
Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa or whatever your winter celebration may be, they are all right in front of us now. One more day and it is December. That too is amazing.

Julia in a Holiday mode
Julia in Holiday mode… magic hat and boots, she’s ready to go!

That’s Figgie pudding she is holding… more about that on Fun Food Friday!