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    T Tuesday: missed a week edition

    Last week is a whirlwind in my mind. I’m not even sure why I missed T stands for Tuesday but I did. So this week will be a bit of a catching up….again.

    I think we shall start with Mother’s Day.Mothers day sushi

    Take out sushi from our favorite local sushi resturant. We actually had this on Saturday since we spent Sunday at my in-laws house. Since their health isn’t the best right now, I brought the meal. The boys tackled the spring/summer to-do list for their folks. It was a good day. Staying busy  was good so I didn’t dwell on my first Mother’s day without my mom.last concert

    Last week also brought the last choir concert for J. Its an emotional concert for me…even before having a graduating senior. The last two songs are always the same and they are sung by all members of all choirs. Real tear-jerkers. As they sing the seniors come off stage and bring their parents a rose. Pass the tissues please…..

    senior rose

    They also have a fun slide show of highlights and the guess the baby photo of the senior. So awesome! When we got home it was late and I couldn’t bring myself to dig in the storage room for a bud vase especially when the recycling was so close. A wine bottle works well. And bonus it hits the T stands for Tuesday beverage as well. 🙂paint to paper

    Workspace current view…

    I haven’t really had any creative mojo for the past week or so. I’ve put paint to paper but completed nothing.

    Most of this past weekend was spent outdoors. We scrubbed the deck which was long overdue. We decided that once it was scrubbed the weathered barnwood look was quite appealing so we’ve decided to just re-stain the railings.

    Marvin approves. We used some plywood to provide a temporary gate so he could enjoy the a little sun on the deck with us. Of course he has his own personal greenhouse. Cats and boxes…

    Anyway…we were enjoying the sunshine on the deck after long weekend of toil which also included planting in the garden.

    The shed garden doesn’t look like much yet. Once the seeds sprout the space will quickly fill.

    These onions are a funny story. Last fall I dumped this planter box into the shed garden figuring we’d just use the rototiller to mix in potting soil from containers into the garden. As I was pulling weeds, I noticed that this brick of soil was sprouting onion up from underneath. I tipped it back over and had all these green onions that were curling around the edges seeking sun. I tossed it back in the planter box and watered to see what would happen. Now a week or so later they are wonderful.

    After we took the patio set and chiminea out of the shed and set it up we noticed that the chiminea is on its last summer.

    The crack in the terracotta has grown exponentially. We need to be very careful with how we treat it over summer.

    This week is slightly quieter than last…I think.

    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Art - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: handmade journal edition

    It’s been a weird week…or two weeks. I missed T stands for Tuesday last week. It just wasn’t in the cards to get something posted or even attempt to make the rounds to my fellow Tuesday bloggers…or anywhere else for that matter. So moving on…

    The next weirdness was the crazy weekend blizzard the weather folks were hyping up.  Well there weren’t wrong!! We got 16.2 inches of snow here.

    And guess what…school went on here as scheduled Monday. 

    As I walked in the building this is what I saw to my right. 

    Here’s the drift that reached the roof that was to my left as I walked into the building! Crazy! We have more snow in the forecast for Wednesday. UGH! But then 60°F by the weekend. So weird. Mother Nature has lost her mind!!

    Ok…I know you are tired of hearing me complain so on with the creativity.

    Last week I sat down with an idea in mind. Creating a scrappy, handmade, hand bound journal. After creating my signatures I needed to come up with a sturdy yet pretty way to bind this journal.

    This was my idea. It’s very fine plastic canvas…like needle point size grid. I used a Japanese screw punch to make the holes to stitch my signatures through then glued it to the lace panel with E6000.

    I don’t think I exactly follow the hand binding rules but…don’t care..it’s the way that works for me. I’ve been doing it this same way for over 11 years!

    I decided to use this book cover, covering the inside with scrapbook paper before gluing the lace bound signatures down.

    I’m pleased with this little book. I’m planning to use it for random thoughts and quotes along the way.

    Last weekend…or I guess that would be the previous weekend when we could actually leave the house…Mini-me and I treated ourselves to coffee.

    These Minnesota-isms just don”t seem to get old especially when we have feet of snow on the ground.

    This week holds a solo/ensemble contest for Mini-me and getting ready for the end of the school year wrapping up. I was told that there are 38 school days left. YIKES! That kind of freaks me out. There is so much to do!!!!
    What are you don’t today??
  • Art - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: spring break edition

    The calendar says its Spring but I think Mother Nature needs her head examined. It’s cold and snowy. So since the weather isn’t cooperating I figured I’d create something that would brighten the gloomy day.imagine spring

    I pulled bits together from my scrap bucket.

    imagine spring

    I even briefly set up my sewing machine on my workspace to get some stitching onto the page. I sewed this scrap directly into the book.

    imagine spring

    This piece was stitched together before gluing into place. Gosh I’ve missed using my machine! For some reason it inspires me.imagine spring

    Lastly I added the word imagine. I was trying to imagine what Spring should feel like. I’m linking up with AJJ for Spring.

    Art Journal Journey
    With it being spring break so many people are traveling. Mini-me and I did as well. It wasn’t a tropical destination. It was 4 hours NORTH of here for the state archery tournament. caribou
    We drove up on Friday and spent the night in a hotel since she didn’t shoot until Saturday. A snow storm was expected anyway so might as well go early. Thankfully we never did get any snow…just a cold wind.paul bunyan
    We had to do the usual tourist things…amazingly enough there was others venturing into the frigid wind off the lake for a photo op that were nice enough to take a picture of us. That may look like standing water under Babe the Blue Ox but its solid ice.
    After the tournament (at which she beat her personal best score by 24 points!) we headed for home but took a slight detour since we were that far north to visit Itasca State Park. Itasca state park
    As we turned in we quickly realized that we probably wouldn’t get to see the headwaters of the Mississippi as we had wanted. Some of the roads weren’t even plowed. Instead we just took a photo of the map on went on our merry way.Itasca state park
    I really wanted her to be able to jump across the Mississippi as I had when I was a kid…heck, I wanted to do it again now! Oh well…maybe another trip.
    This is typically when I share my photo challenge but I’m woefully behind. I will get caught up though and share them next week as well as the next months challenge.