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    T Tuesday: catching up again edition

    Once again I’m playing catch up here on my blog. Spring definitely gets away from me. School gets more demanding as we near the end which leaves me too tired to do anything beyond feeding my family and preparing for the following day.

    This spring we also have the added pressure of Mini-me graduating from high school! Stressing over whether or not there will be a graduation ceremony, a choir concert, grad parties, etc. And if there are…how comfortable do we feel about it. We finally got the answer to a couple of those question marks. There will be a concert but it will be single choirs to limit people and possible exposures. There will be graduation which will look similar to those in the past due to since our governor announced a step down in restrictions taking effect before graduation. This does make me nervous even though we are all vaccinated. Mini-me will not be having a graduation party.

    Last week was an eventful one. Wednesday was my birthday…next year is a big one… I was spoiled by friends and coworkers with kind words and thoughtful gifts.  Thursday, Mini-me and I drove to Duluth to move J home from college for the summer. It was a quick up and back trip.

    We had to take a quick detour into Canal Park before heading to campus…we love Duluth so much. I wish we could have spent more time there.

    If you look closely there are two ships in this photo. The closer one is a “salty” meaning it traveled in from the Atlantic Ocean. The other one on the horizon is one of the Great Lakes fleet of ore boats.

    I did manage to fix my journal. I plan to add some beads along the spine to cover the extra holes but decided that it would make the most sense to wait until the journal is complete.

    Look at all the pretty papers! I can’t wait to start using it. I know my birthday cards and notes are going to have a place right away.

    I have been sewing too..no surprise there. It is so satisfying to be making a major dent in my scraps. I have yet to decide if this will become a bed size quilt or a couple of throws.

    I had to share the mug J bought for me. He said it was a combo b-day and mothers day gift. So sweet.

    This summer appears to be getting more back to normal. Both kids have jobs…thank goodness! Mini-me will actually have two. J currently has two but his school job will end in June obviously and he will be able to put in more time at his internship. It’s so very exciting to see them both taking those next steps in life. Although I’m not even going to pretend to be completely ok with being “empty nesters” next fall.

     

    What are you doing today?
  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    A tale of two pages

    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

     

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: Christmas and catching up edition

    It’s certainly been a while since I have joined in on T stands for Tuesday. So much, yet so little has happened.

    This doodle is from before Winter break. Since I have had the same class over and over, I tend to doodle while waiting  for my small group time to begin. I never realized how often I doodle until distance learning began.

    Winter break started a bit early for me…similar to last year. My back was giving me trouble from all the sitting. UGH! At least we found out that we are going to back to hybrid in-person learning mid-Feb. Since all the sitting is really hard on me I tackled making a new table for the treadmill.

    It still needs a bit of work as it now tilts backward a bit which is kind of uncomfortable to type. But now I have the ability to slowly walk or just stand when I need to and still work. I’ve been working from school some days as well to change things up.

    Christmas was a quiet one. We had a blizzard on the 23rd that lasted into Christmas Eve. Not a big deal when you aren’t going any where. The drifts were crazy in places…these were just cool!

    We had fondue and played a couple board games…a nice and peaceful day.

    Marvin always enjoys posing in front of the tree for me. He’s kind of a diva.

    And what self-respecting cat wouldn’t crawl into a present box. Of course he’s huge and didn’t completely fit.

    Since I hadn’t been creative at all for what seemed like weeks I did a page in an art journal to start off the new year. I don’t love it but that ok. Just trying to start the year off right.

    Speaking of starting off the year right…I have chosen the word Strength for my Word of the Year.

    You can check out the post by clicking on the image in the sidebar.

    And if you were curious how I did with last years word: Mindful…be sure to check out that post as well.

    I’ll leave you with a my breakfast and my fortune from last evening.

    Today has me working from home.
    What are you doing today?