Category : Around home

219 posts

As I started thinking ahead towards the new year and all it has yet to bring,  I decided it was time for a bit of reflection before letting go of 2015. Briefly my thought was, “Not much happened this year” and then the memories started to filter through.

This year, collectively, our family has had the following…in no particular order:

knee surgery

small kitchen fire

resort vacation

night classes

new driver

honor choir audition

wacky injuries including a 911 call

volleyball camp

computer programing

pneumonia

new (to us) vehicles

job interviews

neighborhood campfires

published article

mother/daughter retreat

choir concerts

deans list

student council

phase 2 braces

and a new teenager(just yesterday)

Whew! That’s quite a list even without the minutia of everyday life and events I’ve likely forgotten or perhaps blocked out. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

So how did I do with my word of the year?

FOCUS | Halle's Hobbies

Not so great, honestly.  I can’t say I entirely failed on my word. I did focus on my family when issues arose throughout the year. I had the intention of focus on myself and what I needed and wanted out of life with this word. But really when I think about it, focus on my family is the reason I am still a stay-at-home mom the majority of the time. I was gifted with a wonderful life and family. One that appreciates the gift it is that I am home most days to take care of the little things. Perhaps my thoughts on my success with focus were a little flawed, My focus was just where it was meant to be last year.

Happy New Year! Be safe.

 

Welcome to the very last T stands for Tuesday of 2015.

T Tuesday : Christmas wrap(up) edition | Halle's Hobbies

We had a lovely Christmas with family. We had my mom over for a big meal at noon. Then I started cooking again for brunch the next day. Getting everything prepped so I’d have an easy morning. We played a board game then watched Home Alone. By that time, I was so exhausted that I told everyone that they had to go to bed otherwise Santa was skipping our house.  ;)

Christmas morning brunch with Mr. G’s side of the family was great…all the hard work the previous day payed off.

I have to show you the gift Mini-me put together for her brother…

T Tuesday : Christmas wrap(up) edition | Halle's Hobbies

She bought him a gift card but wanted a clever way to give it. She used a photo from Pinterest as inspiration. She thought a Mountain Dew reindeer was needed as well.

T Tuesday : Christmas wrap(up) edition | Halle's Hobbies

So darn cute. There is a kit-kat bar under the gift card. Good thing Santa put new toothbrushes in their stockings!!

T Tuesday : Christmas wrap(up) edition | Halle's Hobbies

Big J bought his sister this cute mug and a Minnesota Vikings T shirt. Skol Vikings!

I did make one additional Christmas card this past week.

Christmas card | Halle's Hobbies

I tried out my new water color brush marker to give some dimension.

Today we’ll be shoveling snow and baking a cake for Mini-me’s birthday tomorrow. 13…I can hardly believe it! Now I’ll have two teenagers in the house.

I am also giving some thought to my 2016 word of the year as well as reflecting on 2015.

What are you doing today?

T Tuesday: Christmas rhyme edition | Halle's Hobbies

T’was the Tuesday before Christmas and the day before break,

my mind was a whirl with all I’ve yet to make.

 

The presents are wrapped, all tied up in bows,

 the cookies are baked, but calories? Who knows

 

The tree lights are twinkling and sweet treats abound,

it really makes more sense when there’s snow on the ground.

 

So I looked out the window, and what did I see?

A dusting of snow! I squealed with glee.

 

So funny how quickly my mood turned bright,

and all it took was a light coat of white.

 

Merry Christmas to all my family and friends,

I bid you adieu as my rhyme has reached it’s end.

Merry Christmas from Halle's Hobbies

 

 

I’m not exactly sure why but I’m having a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. It could be that our Minnesota winter has yet to arrive. We’ve had temps well above freezing and even a thunder storm on Monday. Super strange.

Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

Last night and this morning we finally had a little bit of snow…very little. When I stepped outside this morning my first thought was “great…now it’s too cold to snow.”  If your not from around this neck of the woods that last statement doesn’t make a bit of sense. Too cold to snow!! Why yes, yes that is a thing that happens. I was right…the flurries didn’t start until it actually warmed up a little bit and didn’t last anytime at all. I’m pretty sure we will not be having a white Christmas.

Since I’m feeling all Bah Humbug I thought it was a good time to share some postcards I made ages ago for a swap. I wish I had taken better or more high quality scans of these so long ago before passing them along.

Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

These were really fun. Perhaps this will get my snarky muse into gear as long as my regular one is either pouting under the Christmas tree or hibernating.

**** Merry Christmas ****

in case I don’t get another post up before then!!

Today for T stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a bit of my Norwegian heritage.

t tuesday: lefse edition | Halles Hobbies

LEFSE

Lefse is made from potatoes, evaporated milk, butter, flour and a touch of sugar and salt.

It’s a two day process. The first day you boil the potatoes and add everything but the flour. The potatoes then have to sit overnight to cool. I make my mashed potatoes as if I’m going to to be making lefse…that way if there are leftovers and I’m so inclined they are ready to go.

I use my Kitchen Aid mixer to stir in the flour. That mixer was our very first major purchase as a married couple even though we really couldn’t afford it at the time.  I told Mr. G that I was going to need one to be as good of cook as my mom.  I use it all the time!  We’ve definitely gotten our money’s worth out of that machine.

t tuesday: lefse edition | Halles Hobbies

The trick to good lefse is rolling them very thin without using a ton of flour.  Its a balancing act between having the potatoes to wet and sticky and having a dry flavorless lefse.

t tuesday: lefse edition | Halles Hobbies

The thin lefse is rolled onto the turning stick (to the right in the photo) then placed on the grill. I got this grill at an auction almost 20 years ago for $7 and it was brand new still in the box! They retail for well over $100.

The lefse is cooked on each side for 1-2 minutes.

There is nothing low cal, low carb about this treat. I like just butter on mine before rolling and inhaling eating. Many use butter and sugar, some cinnamon sugar. It’s really a personal preference and usually a family traditional way to serve them.

Big J drove me to deliver some to a few special Norwegians around here yesterday afternoon. It’s always nice to see those smiling faces when I hand over this decadent treat. Makes the work totally worth it!

We’ve got freezing drizzle coming down today so I’m likely sticking close to home.

What are you doing today?

Don’t let that title fool you…I’m not yet organized but am working towards making it a habit.

IMG_0715

I’ve seen a lot of talk about bullet journaling lately and am intrigued. Rita @ SoulComfort’s Corner keeps an awesome bullet type journal…so organized. I do like some of the concepts and having it all stay in one place…permanently. In the past I’ve always kept my list on random paper that would get misplaced or recycled before completing the tasks.  I’m only about 10 days into this so far. I did skip this past weekend as we were planning on a very lazy laid back one.

Mini-me loves to organize. She’s got a lot of her dad in her with that one. But she also has a lot of me. She organizes when the mood strikes…otherwise it generally looks like a tornado swept thru her room. I was the same way at her age…at least with the messy room part.

organized

She was inspired to organize our paint drawer. She even weeded out the dried up containers…now there is room for everything! Thanks sweetie!

Last week for T stands for Tuesday, I posted the beginning of an art journal page that used a scrap of junked up paper.

t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

Here’s the completed page….

junked up journal page | Halle's Hobbies

I loved these words and am trying my best to heed them.

junked up journal page | Halle's Hobbies

This also struck me as funny as I was photographing the page.

junked up journal page | Halle's Hobbies

See my name along the edge? I must have used this page to try out my typewriter as well.

I’m going to try and catch up on things here at home today. I had some training yesterday for my job. And with the lazy laid back we just had, I’m definitely behind around here.

What are you doing today??

Here I am, once again, at dark thirty writing my T stands for Tuesday post in between getting kids up and making lunches. Perhaps of these days…weeks…years…I’ll get the habit of preplanning these things. I think it’s my personality though to wait and see where life takes me.

T Tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

Today I wanted to share a couple of things I did this week to repurpose items that would have been thrown away or in this first case, composted.

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making apple cider vinegar. I’ve read numerous posts on this old fashion technique. Usually this time of year we have apples coming out of our ears from our neighbor’s trees. This year happened to be a poor production year with their trees.

Homemade apple cider vinegar t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

I did have a couple organic store bought apples that we’re definitely past their prime. Not wanting to completely waste expensive apples, I decided to experiment. The recipes or tutorials I read used peels and cores but I’m certain that using the whole apple will work just fine. I sterilized my quart mason jar in the dishwasher then filled it with the chopped apples. I used spring water to completely cover the apples. A scrap of cloth was placed under the ring to allow it to breath. I placed it in our basement storage room while it does its magic. Hopefully by Christmas, I’ll have some homemade apple cider vinegar.

The second waste not piece of this post was using a paper scrap in an unexpected way.

t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

The scrap started as a misprinted Christmas letter from last year. Then it protected my journal from paint and sprays, glues and inks.

t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

Now it’s the base of a new art journal page. Who know where this page will take me.

Do you use any “throw away” items in unexpected ways? I’d love to hear about them…

 

 

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