• Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    T Tuesday: Christmas is coming edition

    The countdown is on. Christmas will be here before we know it! AHHH! Who had all their shopping done? Nope, not me. And we have a couple birthdays on either side of Christmas too. WHEW…the pressure.

    In reality, I’m not super stressed at all. It all seems to work itself out. I do enjoy gift giving…just more the spontaneous gift giving than the obligatory. Such as I got a sweet gift from a coworker completely unexpectedly. I had complemented her a  her bag and she told me she’d picked it up in the dollar spot at Target( not affiliation). A couple days later she brought me my very own matching bag!

    I like to try to make some gifts…or make gifts for others to give. I was working on a new item I saw a while ago and have wanted to give a whirl. I got all my pieces cut and ready then ….

    this happened.

    Totally not getting anything done. That’s ok because I was still recovering from the weirdest illness I’ve had in recent years. Sore throat, stuff nose, icky tummy and wicked dizziness…like hardly able to walk dizzy. Mini-me got it first then me then Mr. G. Thankfully it only lasted a day.

    Back to the craftiness…

    I made microwave bowl cozies. No more burned fingers. They are microwavable, reversible, washable and downright handy.

    Our school is having another craft sale week long this year.  Its really fun to see what co-workers like to create in their leisure time.I brought some of my old etsy and craft sale stock as well as the new product that I’m trying out. Frankly I don’t care if the bowl cozies sell because I can give them as gifts.

    On other news…my December Daily is ready to go. I will share it in another post. I’m really excited about this project. I keep tucking bits of this and that away each day to slip into my journal. It will be super fun to look back on in the coming years. I still pull out the book I made from my calendar project of 2014.

    The cold weather has me sipping on tea everyday…both to keep the chill off and to sooth my sore throat.

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

    T Tuesday: this and that edition

    Once again I’m sitting at my keyboard wondering where the time went last week and what do I have to show for it.

    I have continued to use my personal handmade journal. It’s fun adding interesting bits to pages. I’m thinking I want to start another for old photos and memories of the kids. I have lots of random photos printed that would work perfect in that sort of journal.

    I’ve been browsing Pinterest looking for sewing projects. There is something about Fall weather that makes me want to sew. I came across some easy fabric coaster/mug rug projects that I decided to give a whirl since I had some squares pre-cut from a long forgotten project.

    This was the tutorial I used. Of course, I didn’t have the exact sizes but I figured it didn’t really matter. I turned out slightly larger than I would have wanted. Then I noticed some half square triangles in my stash. I had started making pinwheels and abandoned that project decades ago.

    They do make cute coasters though!! I’ll likely make more of these…at least as many as I can with the quilt pieces that are ready to go. Another prime example of not throwing anything away….it pays off.

    Volleyball still rules our evenings (and some weekends)…at least for another week or so. Like last week…two evening games, two practices, a parade and an early morning tournament… I cannot wait until Mini-me has her drivers license. 

    I’m not holding out much hope for a peaceful week. Tuesday morning Mini-me has a 7AM ortho appointment…ugh. I have picture day at school. I’m not banking on that being a great photo since I’ll have little to no time to get ready. Oh well.

    What are you doing today?
  • Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: journal edition

    I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have thought about and even started a personal diary or journal only to abandon it within a week after basically forgetting about it after day 2.  I would either think I had nothing to say, be paranoid about someone stumbling across my inner thoughts or perhaps just was intimidated by the hundreds of stark white pages ahead of me.

    So l started actually using my newly created personal journal. I’ve discovered that it is much more inviting to write in than a blank page for me. I actually want to sit down to write. I even think during the day about remembering to write something down later. I’m rather excited about this new phase in my creative journey.

    Watching the growing community of Hobonichi users was very inspiring as well as generous journal folk who share their videos on YouTube. So many ideas to put to use. I feel as if I pulled together the things that will work for me from the plethora of information I’ve absorbed. That being said, its important to me that I am authentic in what I do…not just copy ideas verbatim. What fun is that!? Besides this is my personal journal…if I can’t be real on those pages, there is really little hope.

    I think I might do another video after a while to share some progress and interesting tidbits or techniques I’ve used in the journal.

    I did a little before school refashion for Mini-me last week as well. We’d picked up this sweater at Goodwill but she didn’t like the length it was on her…she’s very petite aka short. So she asked me if I could do something about it…15 mins before we left for school. What do you think?!

    Last week simply flew by. Volleyball games during the week, a tournament that both Mini-me and I worked at then a short trip to a small apple orchard with friends. I finally tried a couple of varieties of apples that were developed by the University of Minnesota; honey crisp and sweet tango. Both were so good! The orchard also had a few pear trees. I’ve never been a fan of pears but I took a slice when offered since it was the polite thing to do. I was actually surprised at the difference in taste than typical grocery store pears.

    Thank goodness we got some nice apples because I really need those. You know the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”… well, I am fighting a cold. I was hoping it was just allergies but I fear it is a cold. Those darn germ covered kids and surfaces at school. Just can’t seem to avoid it. So my beverage today is an immune boosting drink. Fingers crossed that it does the trick.

    Work and volleyball still dominate our schedule.

    What are you doing today?