Category : Creativity

612 posts

My spring break was spent quietly at home catching up on projects and knocking items off the perpetual to-do list. Not very exciting but that’s ok.

My first major accomplishment was tackling all the scraps that had been piling up. Truth be told there are still more but these were the ones that were really bugging me as well as the ones that required no ironing before cutting.

I also went through my wardrobe and got rid of two grocery bags of clothes that no longer fit. This is a nice problem to have. I’ve lost over 25 lbs now and decided it was time to purge the old to make room for a few new things I’ve purchased.

As I mentioned last week I’m super excited about gardening season. The garlic I planted last fall is poking through the leaf mulch. My seedlings are doing well. I even planted carrots, radishes and beets straight into my garden box since they are cool weather crops. I’m hoping they do better this way…although it was 87°F today…crazy! We had snow flakes in the air just last week. 

I was inspired to create a little diorama with a coworker in mind after finding some of her favorite characters at the dollar store. I’ll share the completed piece along with process photos in another post after I give it to her.

Today’s hot weather and the first day back to school called for a nice cold one after dinner.

I’ll leave you with Marvin making sure the newly delivered box of toilet paper didn’t get up and walk away.

What are you doing today?

Well, that month went by really quickly. I had planned to blog several times, even wrote down an outline during my lunch one day. Never happened. Such is life some times.

There is no way I’ll be able to keep this in chronological order so I’m going to be random like my brain works.

I have been creating a bit…not as much as I have been thinking about creating. Dumb, right!?!?

There are days when all I can get myself to do is look at art and think about what I’d like to do instead of going downstairs and actually doing it.

Like this piece I saved from the trash. I keep thinking about what I want to do with it. Journal covers most likely but I can’t get myself to commit.

One day that I did make it to the craft room, I made these little fairy chairs. They are both fun and frustrating to create. The champagne cage wire is stiff and uncooperative.

This week is my spring break. I’m using my time to tackle some projects such as sorting through all of my fabric and sewing supplies. I want to get them organized in a way that makes sense and makes it easy to find and use.

I’m cutting small pieces into usable scraps that are ready to go. Yes, this is an ongoing project. I think I started it in February. Truth be told…I haven’t touched it in a few weeks.

I did get some of my seeds started which makes me so happy. I still have more seeds to start this week. I feel like I need to put a shelf in my cart and add another light. Hmmm…another potential project.

I’m fully vaccinated! Technically they say you aren’t totally covered until two weeks after the second shot but I’m so excited. The side effects I got from each shot were very manageable. Nothing major and nothing to take me completely out of commission like some people. Mr G gets his second shot next week and Mini-me gets her first this week. J hasn’t lucked out yet on getting his shot. He’ll likely have to wait until he comes back home for summer.

Mini-me had yet another of her “lasts” a couple weeks ago. She had her last archery tournament. And technically her only one this season. It was a virtual tournament meaning they shot at “home” and turned their scores in. They were lucky enough to be able to continue with the tournament because they are Varsity. All non-varsity sports were paused due to an outbreak of a new COVID variant linked to some of the sports teams (not archery).

I usually only brag about my kids but this really made my day. A slideshow was created at school with each of our names on a slide. The directions were to take 10 mins and let some of the people you work with know why they matter. Its cool that its anonymous but not going to lie…I wish I knew who wrote these wonderful things.

I’ll leave you with two of my four new mugs. They were part of a silent auction at school to benefit LLS. There were actually 8 mugs in the set. The gal who won them thought for sure I was going to outbid her. She lamented that she really didn’t need 8 mugs. I suggested that we split them. Perfect! We each get a set of these beautiful mugs.

The potters name is Peter Potter…which just makes me smile.

Before sitting down to write this post, I was pulling out papers to make a new journal. I have been squirreling away all kids of bits of paper and treasures that I want to add to a more personal journal. The last one I created like this filled up super quickly. I’m going to try my best not to put too many pages in each signature so that there is still room to add bulky things to the pages. More to come on that.

I was looking back through my blog and realized that some of the blog challenges I participated in helped shape my style…or at least my typical go-to style. That’s one thing I really love about having a blog…looking back at the massive number of creations over time.

This post was the one that really made me realize my “style” had become a thing for me.
Take a look…

SOC: Charcoal Grey & Pale Pink

7/2/2013

20130702_2348 20130702_2350 20130702_2349So here we are at week 4 of The Summer of Color with Charcoal Grey & Pale Pink. A much easier set of colors for me.

I had a bit of a hard time getting the right grey until I read on Elizabeth’s post that she puts a little purple into her grey’s to give it more intense color. It worked!! So happy….thanks E!

I’ve been doing a lot with splattering paint and inks lately. It seems  to add the texture I’m seeking.

I have to admit that this shot with those colors makes me think 1980’s…”like totally“. There are parts of the 1980’s worth reliving…

I’m also loving the texture I pressed into the grey. I was actually trying to stamp some black texture into it but the paint was still too wet. I decided to run with it.

I had some “help” taking my photos this morning…

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Sorry for the wonky formatting…I was trying something new with my blog at the time. I honestly could have fixed it before reposting today but what the heck…that’s the way it actually was in 2013.

I’m not really sure where to start so I think it would be best to start with a fan favorite…

Marvin being Marvin.

Taking up the most amount of space in the most inconvenient place at the most inconvenient time. Good thing we love him so much because he’s kind of a pain in the @$$.

Creating routine

I’m slowly starting to get a minimal routine of crafting/creating. It seems to happen during laundry time since I’m in that zone anyway. Whatever works right?!?!

I thought the word sticker was perfect for a journal page…especially one that I actually wrote some thoughts down upon.

I journaled about getting my first COVID-19 vaccine dose, creating and doing our taxes. Can you guess how I’d rank those from best to worst?

One of these was in order at the end of a productive weekend that also included some shoveling. I was super impressed that my arm wasn’t that sore after my shot. I did heard from co-workers that had their second dose (of the same vaccine I got) that it has some definite side effects, good news, they are short lived and bonus…you know that its working…your immune system is fighting! Not going to lie…it makes me a little scared but not enough to skip it.

New growth

Lets not leave it with the big ugly, loud noisy, unwelcome elephant in the room…lets talk about new growth.

Sorry for the awful photos…I originally took these to show a couple friends what the heck I was talking about. instead of trying to capture my sprouted avocado seeds in better light I got lazy.

I’m so impressed that they are actually growing roots. I cannot even tell you how may times I have tried unsuccessfully to sprout an avocado pit. Some days it’s the little victories! My goal is to put these together in a low vessel like a console bowl to set on the coffee table. Time will tell if I succeed.

I have my typical Tuesday ahead of me…
What are you doing today?

You know what that means…I’m linking up with Elizabeth and the gang to share a bit about my week…or weeks as the case may be.

Worst quilt ever

I’ll just rip the bandage off quickly…this is the worst quilt I have ever made. At first glance it’s not terrible but if you keep looking you begin to see all the issues. And boy are there a lot of them.

The one thing that I do love is the no holds barred scrappiness of the quilt. No negative space or even plain solid to let your eye rest.  That was my intention. It’s the back that set the multitude of issues into play.

Oh it’s like a trainwreck…so many things went wrong. But I just wanted to finish this dang thing. I was like Dory from Finding Nemo…

Except it was just keep sewing, just keep sewing…

It’s not beautiful but it will still keep me warm and snuggly on the couch so it does have a bit of a redeeming quality.

I had to share the clever display case at school welcoming the kids back. So fun. There are signs all over the school letting the kids know how happy we are to have them back. I think they are really happy too! Today we welcomed back the second group of students as we are still in a hybrid learning model. So fun to see all those kids!  We did not get to go snowshoeing yet but I am still hopeful

My COVID vaccine that was scheduled for Saturday was delayed until next weekend due to weather affecting the supply chain. The weather has been absolutely insane everywhere it seems.

I leave you with my Bulldog mom mug. My bulldog is not coming home for Spring break. They only have two days off instead of a week. I’m not sure I’ll see him until he moves back home. *sniff*

I just realized I’m going to need a new mug next fall… That one will make me a cougar mom. Hmmm…that sounds a little funny. LOL

What are you doing today?

After day in which my ADD was in high gear, I settled down to create late in the evening. Past my bedtime, for sure. Evidently I was still cruising from the whirlwind of activity earlier…Mini-me even commented on the fact that I had half a dozen things going at once and I was jumping between them in crazy succession. Not sure what’s up with that but I’m not here for therapy.

wonky junky journal page

This journal had not seen any love for quite some time. I grabbed the wood grain papers without any plan and glued them down to the flimsy pages underneath.  Then added  a chunk of equally flimsy black paper to the left side. It was way to dark so I smeared some peachy, flesh tone with my fingers. Over the top I added floral washi sticker. This side was now starting to inspire me.

I used a previously made paper cluster meant for a greeting card to break up the wood grain. While digging through a small bin of saved bits I put together a little collage of punches and a yogi tea tag. After adding a bit of stamping to each side I completed the page with the words love yourself first

I was so happy with how this page turned out that I grabbed another journal to create a bit more.

Ivanhoe journal page

Layering papers has been a go-to of mine lately. I am finally convincing myself that I need to tear into those papers instead of hoarding them because they are so pretty. It’s a work in progress.

On the right side of the spread I placed this tag I have had in my stash for a while. I thought the colors complemented that page very well. I love that there is a tag on the tag.

I decided to use a wide variety of paper patterns for this spread. Things you likely wouldn’t see together, The jumble of colors and styles along with variety of textures inspired the words… everything has beauty

 

Two weeks in a row…can you believe it?!?! I really shouldn’t be that excited about that accomplishment.

I thought I’d jump in right away and show my crazy bad embroidery skill on my quilt label. Let me preface by saying this was completely freehand. I didn’t even draw with a pencil…just winged it…and frankly, it shows.

I decided to embroider directly on the backing piece so it was imperative that I did it before the putting the “quilt sandwich” together and quilting. Every time I get the backing, batting and quilt top out to square up on the floor and baste, my least helpful resident has to come be a pest. Needless to say I have not gotten it put together yet. Good thing I love that cat because he’s kind of a jerk sometimes.

My secondary workspace is beginning to be more cluttered, I need to work on that. You can see a small stack of fabrics that have been cut 2 x 3.5 inches. I’m still thinking that is too small to want to deal with. Time will tell. I have seen a couple really cute scrappy patterns using that size pieces. Maybe it’s just the cutting that is driving me crazy. So small…such a pain but I think it definitely could be worth the effort in the end.

Using my tea set pincushion as my drink reference for the day.

You may also notice another stack of cards…

I am still plugging away at my paper scraps as well. I did sort through and toss some junk though. I really thought I’d have made a bigger dent in it by now. I guess the takeaway there is I have a lot of stuff.

This week has us in a polar vortex. The week is packed with nose hair freezing, the air hurts my face, ice on the wall, tell me again why I live here kind of weather. The following week should be better. I’m looking forward to going snowshoeing in PE with the kids when they return to in-person learning. I’m probably more excited than they are. I love snowshoeing! So yeah…I guess I know why I live here…I love the seasons…all of them!

What are you doing today?
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