Category: Free Little Library Friday

#TeacherTuesday- My Little Free Library and Poshmark Platform Unite!
Book Suggestions · Free Little Library · Gift Giving · Teacher Tuesday · Thrifting · Upcycle

#TeacherTuesday- My Little Free Library and Poshmark Platform Unite!

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Dear friends! It is day 56 of Quarantine for us over here in sunny San Diego. I recently became a Free Little Library owner in December, and have been happily collecting books for my library.

In addition to plumping up my own stock, I thoroughly enjoy restocking the other libraries in my community. There are a few popular libraries that are underserved, always emptied and sad before I arrive.

One of the most beautiful observations that I have had with this pandemic is that all of our community libraries are FULL! I truly believe that the community is using their libraries, as I am noticing constant movement and rearranging in my own library, and 2 others that I frequently steward. Yay! And so, I have had an excess of 100 books to donate, sitting in my home.

Let’s segway here, as I remind you all that I am a Poshmark Ambassador! I have been running a cute little online shop for over 5 years now. There are tons of acronyms for poshers and online shoppers alike; are you privy to FWP? Free with Purchase Items are one of my favorite things to offer in my shop. Things that aren’t quite profitable enough to sell, things that are used, damaged, or need a new home. You see, the Poshmark shopper pays for 5lbs of shipping costs NO MATTER WHAT. So, when you buy an Anthropologie polka-dot dress from my closet for $14, you pay $6.99 for 5lbs of Priority Mail. Why not add a few things?!

I want Poshers to be curious about reading! And boy, are the Nicholas Sparks books a hit! It has been so fun to see shoppers buy a trinket for themselves, like Nike running shorts, and add a copy of my favorite book to their order for free.

I think I may be the first person to have a FREE LITTLE LIBRARY in my Poshmark shop! I am deeply inspired to share and would love if anyone wanted to replicate something similar in their own shop.

Are you a Poshmark Seller? This is for you!

There are 2 ways to list FWP items. You can:

-List the item as $3 and instruct the buyer to deduct the price from their offer (in the comments section)

-List as 0 dollars (but then is marked as not for sale, and the customer as to personally reach out to see if the book is available still.

I opted for the first option, in bold! (Items cannot be listed as less than $3 in Poshmark due to the $2.95 seller fee)

Happy Poshing!

Find me https://poshmark.com/closet/kellicorder 🙂

Quarantine Crafting Queen Activities – #ThankfulThursday
Beanies · Chair Yoga · Curb Your Anxiety · Free Little Library · Gift Giving · Gluten Free · Handmade · Healing Modalities · Pinecone the Rhodesian Lab · San Diego · Thankful Thursday · Uncategorized · Youtube

Quarantine Crafting Queen Activities – #ThankfulThursday

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Well aren’t I a quarantine crafting queen! What have you been doing to keep busy? I know many have their hands full with working at home and having littles, so I am appreciating the luxury of being able to knit and already having so many extra supplies so that I do not have to spend any money. All situations are different and all are suffering, so I am doing my part and trying to stay sane in the meantime. Aren’t we all?

Some of my favorite crafts that have been keeping us busy:

1. Knitting beanies and plant sleeves with a KNITTING LOOM

2. Finally putting all those puzzles together that have been stacking up in our game cabinet

3. Bake a recipe that requires more than one step- I made cinnamon streusel!

4. Rearrange the entire house to remove stifled and stagnant energy. Bonus points if you are able to bring some of your outdoor plants into the house!

5. Notice things that you haven’t before, like your book titles that are put in upside down in the shelf. Ha- it took being upside down in yoga practice for me to notice this!

6. Check on our free little library! Using safe social distancing and sanitization practices, we have loved being able to walk outside, get some fresh air, and see how many people have been reading a little bit more than they are used to! The collective is appreciative of these libraries as resources because all city libraries are closed

7. Love on your fur babies- letting our dog stay in our bed a little bit more than he usually is allowed. I think he is getting fat!

8. Making and watching YouTube videos- my favorite past time, as I have a few months of catching up to do with Jenna Marbles.

Happy reading and viewing friends! Stop drop and stretch right now!

How’s my Free Lil Library Doing During the Quarantine – #FreeLittleLibraryFriday
Free Little Library · Free Little Library Friday · San Diego

How’s my Free Lil Library Doing During the Quarantine – #FreeLittleLibraryFriday

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Enjoy a few photo updates of our lil library! She is doing great, holding up well during this soggy San Diego weather and well-trafficked and received by our neighbors. I haven’t been going out of the house much, and knew I needed to go on a quick walk with the family to check out the library. I miss long distance walks and chatting with my grandma at the corner, but am honored and humbled to withhold my civic duty of #stayinghome and enjoying the perks of Quarantine life.

Here is a hyperlink to my library’s induction ceremony earlier this year. I am so glad we hosted this February 23rd, before honoring social distance. It has been a great escape, fond memory, and humbling tool to offer my community. San Diego Public Libraries are closed, but our lil doors are open! I am excited to make a photo ‘coffee table book’ of the slowly changing insides.

Today, I left two books and took two books! One of the lovely perks of having your own library to check on is the ample books you get to choose from day to day. Perhaps you have taken a book from my library, and it brought you to this page! Welcome! You can click here to read more about my bookmarks, stewardess mission and collective that I own with my husband and really cute pupper, Pinecone.

Reading has been such a healing part of my life, and I have been having a hard time focusing and carving time out for me to jump into a new book. I will never take a good book for granted! What are you reading these days? More time to read and more time to worry; aren’t we all just doing our best…

Have a great day OMies, and do try to stretch while sitting at your desk today! Chair yoga for the win- I included a link below if you need a familiar face to guide you through it.

Doing it all on Ione – #FreeLittleLibraryFriday
Free Little Library · Free Little Library Friday · Upcycle

Doing it all on Ione – #FreeLittleLibraryFriday

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Ione Washington

A completely upcycled and suspended free library in Ione, Washington

This week’s Free Little Library feature has been sent to me by a dear friend here in San Diego! Her and her husband own a property in Ione, WA, and decided to install a library using materials that they already have.

I absolutely love that this is attached to a tree stump, suspended, and made with repurposed scraps and wood! It is efficiently water-proofed, well thought out, and unique. And so, I feature her here! Thanks for joining me, as this is my first feature of a library outside of California. Bonus points- it has three shelves! This allows space for some serious reading material, and I am a fan.

Cute!

Ordering a Plaque- Preventing a Heart Attack #FreeLittleLibrary Fridays
Free Little Library · Free Little Library Friday · Gift Giving · Handmade · San Diego

Ordering a Plaque- Preventing a Heart Attack #FreeLittleLibrary Fridays

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Picture taken a la ME in 2017, San Diego CA!

I love to customize! I love how this plaque added a name, DJ, and that they also added a positive mantra, always keep believing! For this week’s FLL post, I thought I would set a few things straight:

1. It technically is not Free Little Libraries, but rather, LITTLEFREELIBRARY.ORG. Whether it rolls off the tongue better, is due to my dyslexia, or my lack of awareness, I truly have no idea 🙂 But just so you have all the facts, know the difference between FLL > LFL

2. You do not have to register your free little library. That’s right, you can go rogue and stay off the map!

I decided to register my first free little library because I wanted to see what it is all about. For about $42, I was able to register my library, become a member and stewardess for life, and have a plaque mailed to me. I say, this is worth it! 🙂 However, you don’t need a plaque in order to acknowledge your awesomeness. There were a few speedbumps, so enjoy my humor.

Pro tips:

-Ordering a plaque and sponsoring a library makes an excellent gift. My stepdad made me a free little library for my 29th birthday, and my mama ordered me the plaque. It is only of my favorite gifts OF ALL TIME! I hope to gift-give as wonderfully as they gift-gave!

-Learn, read, educate, and then register your library through HERE

-Grant yourself patience. The plaque took less than week to arrive, which was awesome. However, after you install your library, you have to register its location with pictures, information, and GPS coordinates. You cannot enter this information until after you have paid for, and received, your plaque in the mail. So, if you wanted to register your library online and put it on a business card before your library launch party (cough cough), you have to wait until the actual plaque comes into the mail to know the #, and another 2 weeks before it is listed on the website.

-After I registered my library, it was entered incorrectly on the site. I had to enter a new petition to have my library added. This added about 10 business days to my journey, but like I said, I granted myself patience FIRST and was able to handle these tasks with ease 🙂

-You must enter GPS coordinates. When applying, the site will ask for the address OR the GPS coordinates. I obviously opted for the address, as I don’t have the GPS coordinates of my grandmother’s house in my back pocket- ha. However, a few days after submitting my registration with an address (remember, first I paid, then I got the plaque, then I registered it, then they did it wrong, then they needed the GPS coordinates, then I wondered if this was worth all the effort)- The site admin sent me directions on how to…drumroll….

-Type in the house address on google maps and find the GPS coordinates, and reply to the site admin’s email with the result of my research. You couldn’t do that on your own, BOO?

-I digress. I think my library is now live on the site. I gave up! There’s always tomorrow, and I’ll link our library at the top of our FLL page (scroll to the top of our homepage)

In summation- I will absolutely do it again, with all the time in the world and the GPS coordinates of my library in my back pocket 🙂 Oh, and a catchy phrase to add to my customization!

Stewardess Refill #2 – Free Little Library Fridays
Aparigraha · Free Little Library · Free Little Library Friday · Gift Giving · Seva

Stewardess Refill #2 – Free Little Library Fridays

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The only books inside of the library when I arrived. These 3 were NOT in the library when I first stocked its shelves a week ago, meaning that people are truly participating the mantra, take a book, leave a book!
Thank you, Sabrina, for the 100+ book donation! I am thrilled to share these books with the community, and to have kept a few for myself (for now!!!)
My second stewardess refill at this library!

Greeting, family!

On this week’s free little library feature, I decided to revisit a library in my neighborhood that is well underserved.

With the most foot traffic of all of the free little libraries around, I have made it a priority to stop by this location about once a week. Thank you, everyone, who continues to donate books to my favorite cause, as this does not go unnoticed.

With two trips to the car and a smile on my face, I continued to refill this library. I have noticed that this library does splendid in the rain, is energetically magnetic, and I am looking forward to stopping by again today or tomorrow, as I have truck-load of refills for this prettylilthang.

Want to read about my first refill at this sacred station? Click here.

Stumped- This Week’s #FreeLittleLibraryFriday
Free Little Library · Free Little Library Friday · San Diego

Stumped- This Week’s #FreeLittleLibraryFriday

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IMG_6406This week’s featured Free Little Library Friday is pulled from my 2017 nannying archive. As I logged 3-5 daily miles nannying a newborn in South Park, I was gifted with the pleasure of ample libraries. Gorgeous, frequent, well-stocked libraries! I love this area of San Diego.

I took- The Poisonwood Bible 

I love that the library is attached to a stump! Hello, cactus friend. This library faces the sidewalk, not the street. Taking notes, friends!

Happy Reading ❤

Seva for my Alma Mater – #WellReadWednesday
Free Little Library · Handmade · Seva · Upcycle · Well Read Wednesday

Seva for my Alma Mater – #WellReadWednesday

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Last week, I had the pleasure of installing a classroom Free Little Library to my high school Alma Mater!
As a stewardess of libraries, I have been avidly collecting books from friends and family so that I can stop, drop, and SEVA. I love visiting these libraries, and now I am able to refill them when needed. My high school English teacher knew of my efforts with our own Free Little Library (link to post here), and we concluded that her classroom absolutely needed a full shelf of books!(Picture of the bookshelf BEFORE)(Picture of the bookshelf after!)

Seva is a Sanskrit word that describes the act of selfless service. Its meaning is said to be embodied by the root words saha, meaning “with that,” and eva, meaning “too,” which together mean “together with.” (taken from yogapedia.com)

Meet my favorite high school English teacher! 🙂 In each of her classes, she reserves time, every time, for independent reading! Out of books and looking to enrich the high schoolers, she has been actively encouraging the students to bring their own books from home and keep them on the classroom shelf for sharing and availability.

Meanwhile, I have been collecting books like a banshee! All of my friends, family and coworkers have been so supportive of our Corder Collective efforts to be stewards of access. With two rolling suitcases and a pep in my step, these two teachers had a great time filling shelves with books. As we looked through the pages of the magical books that were donated to this effort, we crooned when we found a book from her own class 15 years ago. Inside of the cover of Great Expectations was scrawled, Mrs. Favela’s 9th Grade English. These universe winks remind us that we are exactly where we need to be!Book cover painted by a student. I am so inspired! Thank you for the ideas that came from seeing such magnificent, one of a kind art.

I am still avidly collecting books and need to refill 3 this week! If you live in the San Diego effort and are moved by our efforts, email me for a book drop-off: cordercollective@yahoo.com

Keep reading!

Stewardess Refill- #FreeLittleLibraryFridays
Aparigraha · Free Little Library · Free Little Library Friday · Gift Giving · San Diego · Upcycle

Stewardess Refill- #FreeLittleLibraryFridays

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On this week’s very special feature, I am pleased to introduce the COMMUNITY MINI LIBRARY  of Clairemont! Located in an extremely public place (on a corner of a busy intersection, near a church, bus stop, and apartment complex), this library is one of the most accessible here in San Diego.

Unregistered, you can tell this cute little punk rocker was made with love by a cOMmunity of like-minded people.I love the apple knob! Are you kidding me? Heart eyes. There were only 2 books in this library when we met one another. I immediately refilled, and inbetween trips to the car, someone came and took the Insurgent series! I was happy to offload so many books and completely restock this library.

Update: 4 days later, library has half of its books remaining. I am honored to serve, community! I just know they are going to the right place. Most of the libraries I visit get little foot traffic and books will stay put inside for months at a time. I don’t take it personally, but my very own gets about 1 hit a week! This library, in comparison, will need weekly filling. I am honored to serve as a secret stewardess. Peep the pineapple in the background, a good omen indeed!

In case you need a little chair yoga and want to flow with me…

The Carpet Matches the Drapes – #FreeLittleLibraryFridays
Free Little Library Friday · San Diego

The Carpet Matches the Drapes – #FreeLittleLibraryFridays

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Last week, when Josh was on the way to the dentist, he discovered a Free Little Library in the midst of being installed!
Speaking my total love language, he then took me to visit it 🙂 Wowowow, I was not disappointed! This lovely, hobbitlike, elfin house totally matches the house behind it. I love the green accents, the slanted roof, and the magic that this library brings! I will absolutely post an update when it is officially open and will be sure to add a book, take a book.

To my lovely OMie neighbors, thanks for letting me paparazzi your yard and enjoy every minute of it! You totally inspire me!
Daydreaming of San Diego Free Little Library tours…
Kelli Corder