"When it is dark you can see the stars... open your heart.

...MY heart is full...

There is a man

I was privileged honored, and oh so moved to meet last night.

A true king among men.

He has dedicated a good part of his humble life

on a quest to address poverty...

educate girls...

and overcome cultural divides

in the craggy, often unforgiving

and remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Where girls are often not allowed to go to school...

where the illiteracy rate of females is 58%.

"Educate a boy, and your educate an individual. Educate a girl,

and you educate a community. "

~African proverb

He is a gentle man with strength and hope abundant.

Who believes that
our best hope for a peaceful and prosperous world ...

lies in the education of all the world’s children...Especially the girls.

It is the girls who will become the mothers,

who will not allow their

boys to choose death over life.

Replacing guns with pencils,

rhetoric with reading.

He helps build the schools with the community...

one stone at a time.

It is a slow process,

humbling and dangerous.

But he is welcomed into each community.

building relationships...slowly, surely.

The tribe invests in each school...each student.

poor and malnourished, but all eager to learn and get educated.

They carry the burden and the benefit...

on their shoulders...

They do it for their future.

it's proof that one ordinary person,

with the right combination of character and determination,

really can change the world.

Godspeed Greg Mortenson.

Have an extra penny....send it here. Pennies have built schools for girls. Many.

Want to be inspired to move?

to change?

to help?

read the book :

Three Cups of Tea,One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace—One School at a Time.

Peace.

...In the land of squat...

I thought this TV stand was quite creative and inventive,

Cleverly re-purposed.

My husband calls it stupid.

Yep. That's what he said.

Something about picture perfomance and tilting...whaa wha wha wha

cue Charlie Brown's teachers voice

I found it on House Beautiful's website,

showcasing Newell Turner's re-do of a lovely Catskill farmhouse.

He has a great blog where he chronicles his farmhouse reno he calls Twighlight Field.

Check it out here.

Another Easel re-use... from M-Group designs.

I do like it better in the country house, though...

And here Danny Seo tries his talented hand at it...

I still like it. And while I love My husband and his amazing

technical expertise....sometimes he don't know squat...

when it comes to design.

Harumph.