Category : Around home

219 posts

Three days…that’s the long and short of it.

Three days until I’m done with work until late August. But also three days until my oldest is done with high school. Technically he has already graduated since everything is checked off and he has his “card” but he must still attend school until the end. The actual “walk” is on Friday. Yep…getting my tissues ready now.

For me this last week off school is chaotic which can sway from “easy breezy” to “smack you in the face difficult” to “wait, what just happened?” all in one class period. So needless to say, in that respect, the days are long.

Outside of school days, I’ve been keeping busy with little mini projects and helping a friend with the monumental task of cleaning out her parents house now that is sold. I know how hard it is and I wish I could lend a greater hand but timing on these things isn’t always the best.

My first mini project was making a pair of glasses for a co-workers wedding cake topper. She had mentioned that she ordered some Barbie glasses off the internet. I told her I doubted they’d fit and mentioned that I’d made a pair of glasses for a Gnome a couple years back.

The glasses made the gnome a dead ringer for the neighbor kid…err…adult now. Too funny!


Long story short…the Barbie glasses were WAY to small for the would be groom so I was given the challenge of creating a suitable pair.

I think they turned out pretty good. I sent a photo to the bride and she approves.

Over the weekend, my rows of beans and snow peas popped out of the ground. It’s amazing how quickly that happens. I swear if you had all day you could watch them wiggle their way through the soil and unfurl their leaves in a splendid little dance.

 I made another bunting this time for the deck garden. Since I still need to stain the deck rails I decided to try out something new with the bunting.

I used some bamboo to act as mini flag poles suspending the bunting at the front of the garden. The hope is that the flutter of the flags might deter the deer from munching on the plants. This wasn’t my original plan so I’ll need to make a little extension so it can reach all the way around.

Anyone notice my after dinner beer in accordance with the T Stands for Tuesday guidelines?  I’m trying to be a good kid and follow the rules….sometimes it is difficult. :) I forget. It happens.

 

I’ve worked a bit on some journal spilling. Creating a background then quickly with a very free hand (aka messy) spilling my thoughts of the moment. I may leave things as is or I may use my writing as a part of the background. Not sure, so it sits.

I brought home a little basket of treasures from my friends house. Mostly spools of thread, a few vintage dress patterns and some double pointed knitting needles. You should have seen me walking home with my little basket under my arm. I felt like Little Red Riding Hood. I even saw a large critter on the way home. Only it wasn’t a wolf…it was its slightly small cousin a coyote. Its crazy! We’ve noticed a big jump in sightings lately. I have seen 4 in the past 2 weeks. But seeing one while out walking only 2.5 blocks from we was a little disconcerting.

Its the last Tuesday of the school year for me…. but what are you doing today?

This Memorial day marks one year since I lost my mom. She was on my mind all day. Half way through my first cup of coffee I made the decision not to be sad but to reflect and remember the good things, The funny memories. The things that make me smile.

As I walked around the yard watering before it got too hot, I thought about her green thumb. She had flowers galore and a big garden. Houseplants too. I guess I’ve taking after her in that way. I love spending time tending to the garden. Making it beautiful and productive,

My newly sewn and strung garden bunting made me smile. Mom was no seamstress. In fact she hated sewing. She was so happy when I learned how to sew in school and gladly passed all of her supplies on to 13 yr old me.  I’ve never stopped sewing since!

After finishing the outdoor chores I headed inside to do a bit of art journaling. I was really feeling inspired by nature.

The background colors I laid down didn’t scream nature. They were the colors that spoke to me though. Sort of a hard edge along with nature.

Layers upon layers stacked. This fussy cut stamped birds nest was the perfect way to embrace nature. I used watercolor crayons to color the robin eggs then used diamond glaze over top to add dimension. The addition of the thread help sell the idea of the nest for me.

I added the skeleton leaf for balance.  As soon as I added the leaf, the words “live gently upon the earth” jumped out at me.  This page made me smile.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Flora and Fauna

Art Journal Journey
as well as T stands for Tuesday today.
Eight days of school left. Whoop, whoop!
What are you doing today?

 

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?

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??

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.

Last week was awesome! Busy but awesome. I’ve been continuing to do pour painting when ever I have the chance. I did get my step by step process written and posted. You can check that out in the previous postacrylic pour walk through

The kids had their Spring concert Thursday.

It’s the second to the last for J. The next one will be sad for me. He’s been in choir since the 4th grade. He plans to sing in college but I won’t be necessarily seeing those performances. His choir sang such a cool song with movement. I wish I had know so I could have recorded it.

This is the video that they learned the movements to the song from.

I must say that our choir with the kids in the robes looked much cooler when their arms were swinging to the music.

The weather has been amazing…so beautiful on Saturday that the neighbor had the first bonfire of the year on St. Patrick’s Day.  Some adult beverages were consumed. One neighbor even put green food coloring in his beer to be super festive. 

As the sun began to shade the driveway and get chilly even with the fire the decision was made to move the party across the street to a sunny spot. Yep…portable fire. Us Minnesotans are dedicated to being outdoors!!

The week wouldn’t wouldn’t be complete with my photo challenge update.

10. Savory…. sausage dip tastes so much better than it looks.

11. Iconic

12. Pastel

13. Ha!

14. Clouds

15. Blue & White

It’s off to work for me. Three days left before Spring Break!!!!

What are you doing today?

 

I am super late getting this posted. Yesterday was a scheduled day off for school although it’s highly likely that school would have been released early due to the blizzard that rolled through.  On the bright side…Mini-me took her knowledge test and got her learners permit yesterday. I let her drive a bit in a parking lot on our way home. It was crazy slippery already at 11am.

(fyi…this will be a photo heavy post)

Lets back up a bit….last week I was super excited about the Vikings playing for a spot in the Super Bowl. Yep…they lost. By a lot. It was almost as if they didn’t show up. Don’t get me wrong…I’m still a fan. Always a fan but I’m not going to lie it was disappointing.

Me circa 1976 sporting a Vikings Fan club button.

The game was so stressful to watch that I kept myself busy knitting Little Hats for Big Hearts

When I switched to crochet the pattern got away from me. Not really sure what this might end up as…certainly not a hat.

I’ve continued with the January photo challenge…this month is going really well and a fun challenge to think outside the box at times.

13) floral

14) faceless portrait….faceless portrait of a Vikings fan

15) new….my new Vikings shirt

16) wall….local tribute to Prince

17) thoughtful

18) cool

19) paper….embarrassed to say only part of my collection

20) reflection

21) day off

22) scenic…out for a drive at the start of the blizzard

Last night we waited and waited and waited for the plow to go through so we could clear the driveway. The snow just kept coming getting deeper and deeper. Finally we heard it come barreling down the street at about 8:30. The four of us suited up and began to dig out.

Fast forward to this morning…I get the call that school is delayed by 2 hours! Hooray! In the meantime Mr. G leaves for work.  Then I get an email to district staff telling us that school is now closed for the day. The kids were screaming for joy and passing the news along to their friends since the automated call had not come through yet. The joy was lost a bit when they realized the chore we still had in front of us….moving a ton more snow.

The drifting sure looks pretty but makes crazy mounds of snow in other places.

My garden is in the deep snow.

The kids worked hard shoveling while I pulled the drifted snow off the roof.

The struggle was real. We got a foot (30 mm) of snow in total that drifted in crazy ways.

Since we were all tired and hungry I took the kids to breakfast. I had buckwheat pancakes. They were so good!! I was so hungry I almost forgot to snap my photo for T stands for Tuesday!

What are you doing today?
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