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    2026 Summer wrap up

    September 7, 2026 - By 

    Once again the summer has flown by with hardly a thing crossed off my “school me” list…the list I write during down times at school while longing for the freedom of summer. The “school me” is always more ambitious and has no limitations on herself. She also assumes that the calendar will remain blissfully empty of any sort of appointment or obligation. She is ever the optimist with lofty goals. To be 100% transparent…I can’t even remember what I did with my list. I know it’s somewhere around here.

    With all that said…now I’m trying to decide how I want to go about blogging my summer. Month by month or grouped by some arbitrary system that may only make sense to me.  I feel as if I’m taking you on a journey through my ADHD brain…verbally processing with you whether you like it or not. 🙂

    June

    The beginning of summer break honestly wasn’t the greatest. Mr. G was dealing with some foot and ankle issues so original plans of hiking and other adventures went to the back burner. Thankfully I was off work and able to take over things that typically he would do.

    One of the goals I set for myself was to list some on either ebay or etsy every day. I’m happy with my progress with that even though it wasn’t every day. I made quite a few sales and got rid of some clutter around here.

    Since I knew I’d be hosting over at Art Journal Journey for July, it kicked my creative side into high gear. I had so much fun creating! One of these days I should do a recap of that as well.

    July

    Life began to pick up a bit of speed in July. The garden was really filling out and it had me thinking about preserving, fermenting and such.

    I decided to try my hand at making cottage cheese.

    It turned out pretty well even though its not recommended to make cottage cheese from ultra-processed milk. Since I sometimes get tummy troubles from milk I tried A2 milk and have had better success with dairy.

    I also made Greek yogurt and it was so yummy.

    During this time we had a lot of wildfire smoke so limiting time outdoors was a necessity.

    So one day I grabbed my scraps and made an afternoon of making random bits.

    I ended up with a good pile of cards.

    Mid July we had had tickets to a show about an hour and a half from home. We went to a local brewery for a meal before heading to the venue. It was busy but a good meal. Originally we were going to make a weekend of it with hiking, antiquing and such but Mr. G was still on the mend so we settled on just an evening adventure up and back home.

    Our tickets were for Jim Gaffigan. We really enjoy his comedy…likely because he talks so much about his family.

    The venue is pretty new. It was built in an old granite quarry. They made some lovely views for people to enjoy before the show.

    I did a bit a art journalling unrelated to my theme month on Art Journal Journey just for fun.

    I also got to enjoy some of my sunflowers…although I learned very quickly that they drop a ton of pollen so they aren’t great to bring in the house.

    August

    Ok here is when life really started to accelerate. Things were being thrown onto the calendar faster than I could have even imagined.

    The first weekend in August, Mini-me came home so her and I could go to Wisconsin for a family “Christmas party”. We stopped ay Amnicon Falls since we were too early to our final destination.

    We also made a visit to Duluth since its been a few years since J was in college there. I never get tired of that view.

    During this time we made the decision to have our landscaping in front of the house redone. We were told that things would be 4-6 weeks out…that changed at the drop of a hat and suddenly one week turned into a marathon.

    Before

    After

    There is actually much more but I’m only highlighting my favorite transformation.

    But let me back up a bit and tell you about that week. Monday morning I had my routine physical and got my first Shingles vaccine. Tuesday morning Mr, G messages me and says the landscapers on on their way and I need to move all the pots and such from the front of the house. Any other day…maybe not so bad but I have a fever and feel very flu-like. But I get it done. Wednesday they came back to repair damage to the lawn while I was helping set up for a garage sale at my neighbor’s house…still with a slight fever. Thursday 6am dragging stuff out of the neighbor’s garage…no fever, just sore arm. 8:30am I get a calendar reminder that I’m supposed to be in a meeting (thankfully it was a voluntary one). Friday more garage sale. Saturday up early to drive 3 hours to Mini-me.

    Ah yes…forgot to mention…Mini-me was moving home. Her contract ended and she has moved home to go to do a Masters program. So Saturday we loaded everything up and drove back home and Sunday we loaded all of her furniture and things that won’t fit in our house into a storage unit.

    Since the garden is producing, I’ve been working on canning . I love my outdoor set up.

    It keeps the heat out of the kitchen.

    On this particular day I canned 3 pints of spicy beans, 6 pints of spicy pickles and a jar of pickled eggs.

    With Mini-me living back home and summer winding down it seemed to be adventure time. We went to the Mall of America and IKEA.

    We went to Sea Life while at the mall. We hadn’t been since she was a little girl.

    Our next adventure was to the MN State Fair.

    We tried some new food.

    Saw some animals…including this rabbit that looked so crabby that it was almost comical.

    This was my favorite sign at the fair.

    School started a week earlier than usual around here. So Tuesday begins my second week of school. This year is very different for me…lots of new classes.

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?
  • Blog

    T Tuesday: hello again edition

    June 15, 2026 - By 

    It’s been a while since I have participated in T stands for Tuesday. Actually let’s be real…it’s been a while since I have posted ANYTHING on my blog. With that said…this might be a long one. I’ll try to break it up into categories.

    Gardening

    My garden is in full swing. Everything is growing like weeds…especially the weeds. I’m loving having the expanded space in my shed garden.

    The deck box garden is producing snap peas already as well as some yummy herbs. The flags are for whimsey and to deter the deer from munching at my plants.

    I have a few containers in front of the house as well. I’ll do a full garden tour another time.

    We noticed again this year that our large ash tree that sits at the corner of our deck had aphids. Ladybugs to the rescue.

    One bag of 1500 I attached to the affected tree.

    Meanwhile I opened the second bag of 1500 and hand released them all over the yard.

    I’m not seeing many of them in the yard anymore which I hope means that we are low on pests for them to consume.

    Before we switch gears, I had to show you the albino squirrel that is living in our neighborhood. I was lucky enough to catch a good photo when she was snacking in our ash tree. I say she because our neighbor said they saw 3 grey babies running after her one day.

    Life

    Since my last post we celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. I requested going out for a burger so we went to the local American Legion for a beer and burger.

    I also celebrated my birthday. I came home from work to this lovely bouquet of flowers. I bet you might spy Marvin on top of the couch as well. 🙂

    My work friends spoiled me too for my birthday.

    And completely unrelated to my birthday, we had a food truck fundraiser in the parking lot that morning. Our PTO paid for a bag of yummy mini donuts for each staff member. I bought myself an iced coffee.

    Very relatable…

    Projects

    Mr G bought a new gadget to play around with. A laser engraver. These were the first two things he cut out.

    I’ll do a post all about it and the things that have been created another time. I have lots of ideas!!

    Here is a sneak peek at a project you’ll start seeing in July.

    I made a pillow to fit in Marvin’s kennel since he has been having to travel to the vet more often while figuring out his hyperthroidism. I wanted him to be a bit more comfortable. I used all my tiny scraps and strings from various sewing projects to stuff the pillow.

    Marvin approves. The vet tech told me he was the most well behaved cat she’s ever seen for a blood draw. He really is the best boy.

    Summer

    Now that I’m off for the summer, I’m working on my perpetual list. In addition, I’m trying out making things in my kitchen such as Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and sourdough bread instead of store bought. More on that in another post as well.

    The other big things on my list are to organize both my fabric and paper stash. That will be an undertaking! I’ve also set a goal for myself to list at least one thing on ebay or etsy everyday.

    I’m still doing my daily walks and spending as much of the day as possible enjoying our lovely summer here in MN.

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?
  • Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    T Tuesday: two month update

    March 16, 2026 - By 

    My goal is to do a post for T stands for Tuesday monthly… I’m moving in the right direction at least.

    I’m not going chronological this time. I’m starting with a project that I’m thrilled to have finished…and in record time as far as I’m concerned.

    I made a flannel rag quilt. It’s not the first one I’ve made but I think the quickest.

    It wasn’t without some choice words at a couple of times…like when I accidently cut well over half of the flannel squares 1/2 inch larger in two directions than I should have. Better than too small though!!

    I even remembered to add a quilt label to this one. It’s something that I want to do with all my quilts. I hate doing hand embroidery, I don’t have a fancy machine that can do it either so I decided to draw 2026 on a piece of flannel and roughly stitch the year with various stitches and colors. Not ideal but it works.

    I usually leave the Marvin photo for the end of my post but he fits here this time around. He thinks that anytime I lay out quilt blocks to audition a layout that its exclusively for him. Those are 9 inch squares. 🙂

    This is another quilt I’m working on. I’ve actually gotten the entire top joined together now. I’m waiting for the motivation to put the entire quilt sandwich together and start the quilting process. That part is always daunting to me. I actually have another quilt in at the same stage laying on the spare room bed awaiting inspiration.

    All the quilting was somewhat inspired by a cold snap we endured.

    It was so cold that the wildlife were trying to take shelter next to the house.  We had a couple of whitetail deer right off the deck. The doe was shivering…it made me sad to see. The buck stood at the sliding glass door looking longingly at the indoors. He scared Mini-me who was recovering from her knee surgery on the couch. Her surgery went well and was able to return to her place and work right on schedule.

    The cold days made for beautiful sunrises.

    As usual I worked at our districts archery tournament this year. You may notice my obligatory beverage on the table per T stands for Tuesday rules. 🙂

     Shifting back to crafting…I used some itty bitty scraps to embellish a few cards and make some clusters. I love making something out of virtually nothing.

    My last thought for the day is brought to you by some bunnies.

    Today (Monday) was an unexpected day off. We had a blizzard over the weekend but only half the snow that was expected. I was super surprised when I got the text that school was closed. The weather played a part but it was mostly a district-wide phone outage. I’m not complaining, it was a nice bonus day!

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?