• Around home - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: Spring break edition

    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?
  • Around home - Art - Blog - Crafts - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: March in review edition

    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.

  • Around home - Blog - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: preserving the harvest edition

    Despite the lingering snow, late season canning and preserving is still happening around here.

    In addition to our garden, we purchased a farm share or CSA again this season. However, it was through a different farm than we had used in the past. Unfortunately the CSA we used wasn’t the best. Even though it was disappointing, I was able to do quite a bit of canning. One of the main reasons was lack of variety. The standard family cannot eat a dozen jalapeno peppers in a week. But a large amount is good for canning as well as jams and sauces.  So thankfully it wasn’t a complete waste of money.

    I’m also drying some herbs right in the kitchen. In the past I hung them in the storage room but that area is honestly a little chaotic right now. I just used some bread twist ties to attached to the hanging fruit basket…ta-da. Once the herbs are good and dry, I’ll remove them from the stems and store in jars.

    I thought I’d share this book I finally purchased from my Amazon wish list. It’s been on the list for a couple years. I’m thrilled with all the recipes and ideas its gives me for items I had never even thought about. 

    My mom had always canned quarts of whole tomatoes when I was a kid…so of course when I started gardening I did the same. Turns out my family doesn’t care for the recipes in which she used those canned tomatoes. So for years I’d mainly used our garden for fresh, eat it now veggies and hadn’t given much thought to preservation.  Over the past 5 or so years my thoughts and interest has changed on gardening. It’s not just a fresh veggie patch, its food and seasonings for the coming year. Back to those “old-timey” skills. 

    My school life continues to consume most of my energy. The weekends are spent catching up on household chores. Perhaps as winter settles in and the outdoor chores are at a minimum, I will regain some creative momentum.

    I keep making lists of things I want to try, ideas for projects, etc. I just need the time and energy to align.

    What are you doing today?