Tag : T Tuesday

333 posts

Once again a month has passed. Crazy how that happens.

Since my last post I’ve been dealing with some health issues. The most debilitating of which was a case of cellulitis. I had never even heard of it until a couple years ago. Thankfully I did learn about it so I went in and got checked out. Steroids and antibiotics did the trick. Although I learned that I will never take Prednisone again unless it is a life or death situation. Uff Da. That is some wicked stuff.

Now that I am feeling better I have been inspired to create a bit.

I created a selection of journal covers from leftovers in my stash. The inside is a heavyweight poster that I have recycled to act as book board that was then machine stitched to the fabric covers. This creates a nice folio type booklet for a single signature of around 15 pages. Small books such as these make great gratitude journals, everyday thoughts, lists and so on.master board covers

Here’s another stack of them in progress. I do get obsessed and can’t stop once I get going.mixer cover

Another project I tackled a few weeks ago was creating a pattern for a KitchenAid mixer cover. Yes I could have purchased a pattern but I enjoy the creative process and truth be told… like being able to say that I made it, me, completely from my own brain. The above photo is my mock up cover. A co-worker purchased it from me after I made my pattern templet. Now ask me if I have made the one for myself….umm…no. Soon…very soon.

One of the things on my list for my Spring break is to go through and reorganized my supplies. Yesterday I organized this entire drawer of trims while watching Yellowstone. I am not an organized person but this was oddly satisfyingly.

My list of to-dos for Spring break is lengthy but then again, it always is. The weeks leading up to it were kinda crazy.

My BFF sent me this and it was very relatable. :)

Mini-me was home for her Spring break a couple weeks ago. It was great to see her. She sent me this photo the other day that another friend had snapped as they stopped to pet the horses.

Mini-me said that they often stop by the barn to pet the horses. Pretty cool that they are able to do that right on campus.

Kombucha has been my friend since the round of antibiotics. Trying to rebuild that gut flora. I’ve also got a crockpot full of soup bones simmering for bone broth…another good thing for gut health.

Tuesday has me working on my list….phone calls, bills, taxes…such fun stuff.

What are you doing today?

Since it’s been a hot minute since I last posted, I thought it would be most efficient to do a month in review.

Work has been tiring of course but when I have had the energy or inspiration; I’ve been mostly obsessed with my sewing machine. Whether its fabric or paper or a combination of the two…I’m running it through my machine with reckless abandon.

I’ve started work on a few new journal covers. This one has me stepping outside my comfort zone with the bold floral print as well as bright colors. Definitely not my usual but perhaps the shake up will act as inspiration or a challenge. I created two more but evidently forgot to snap a picture.

Making cards is always a relaxing activity for me. I had punched a ton of circles one day sitting in front of the TV watching who knows what. I like to have my hands busy so I don’t find myself snacking. But I digress… I sat down at my sewing machine with a couple different piles of scraps. Fabric and paper as well as the afore mentioned circles. I have mentioned lately how much I love circles!! I do, trust me.

Now I have a large stack of cards ready to go when an occasion arises. Just add a sentiment or even just a note on the inside.

The kids came home from college for Thanksgiving break. It was great to see them in person again. Just a couple more weeks and they’ll be home for a month between semesters. Marvin was very excites when Mini-me came through the door. He thought it was me coming home from work but it was his girl. She said that he yelled excitedly. Of course that never lasts too long…the comfort of napping on the “grandma blanket” always wins out.

Mini-me sent me this one day. The thrill of seeing your own work (or your offspring’s) never gets old.

Mini-me helped me make our first batch of lefse of the season. We were definitely a bit out of practice…it had been almost two years since I made any. We made a small batch…just enough for Mini-me to bring some back to share with her friends at college and of course, for us to have a few.

Lastly I’ve been continuing to sew my random scraps together. I decided on 9.5 inch blocks. I just keep stitching and ironing and stitching and ironing…until I have a big enough piece to cut my square. I decided on 9.5 inches mostly because I have a square quilting ruler that size.

I don’t have a plan in particular for these blocks. I assume I’ll put sashing between the blocks to give the eye a place to rest. But for now I’m just creating a very colorful stack of blocks.

I’m certainly not promising that I will be posting more often but it does feel good to get my words on the page.

Happy T day everyone!

Months ago I mentioned working at scrap management for my fabric collection. Yes, I said collection…let’s be honest…buying crafting supplies ends up being collecting sometimes.

I really knocked the scraps down to some key sizes that would work for other projects.

With that in mind I came up with a “pattern” or maybe pattern concept since the pieces really fit together in so many ways.

This is a pile of chain pieced scraps. Its really relaxing to sit and sew…then once I have a really large pile of pieces I go sit in front of the TV and snip them all apart then sort them for ironing. So much ironing but so worth it.

Since I’ve starting making a few more masks I had to buy some more fabric….I had to…I really did. That’s me trying to convince myself too.

My neighbor brought me to a wonderful little quilt shop in a nearby small town. I ended up buying a stack of fabric with a few projects in mind. The two floral fabrics were just because I absolutely fell in love with them.

I’ve also found some fabrics at rummage sales. So fun…but now I have some more scrap management to handle. It really never ends…

The start to the school year has been a bit rocky…stress levels are up. I’m hoping everything is settling down now. My most recent posts seem to have been mostly about gardening. This one will touch on that as well.

Additionally, I have taken a little time to be creative. Some cards and a few journal pages.

I can safely say that my gardening days this season are numbered. I pulled up the shed garden and amended the soil with the compost from the bin. Yay, free! I’ve also started emptying pots and composting the spent plants for future compost.

I pulled up half of my carrots. They are small but mighty good. I’m just impressed that I successfully grew carrots…they were not looking good all summer.

Marvin is in the display case at school for our “pet show”. I wish I had taken a wide shot…there are over half a dozen photos of named chickens as well…makes me smile and giggle a bit.

Blogging seems to be getting harder for me even though I REALLY love it. The problem seems to be that I am not scheduling time for it. I sit down and before I realize it,  I have squandered hours of time on idle pursuits…down the proverbial rabbit hole on Pinterest or YouTube. Or bingeing a series on Netflix. I know I am not the only person who struggles with this…those platforms would not be as successful as they are without the continual audience. 

I know some of my struggle is learning what my new normal feels like. What I have time for, what I should be doing vs what I want to do vs what actually needs to be done. Look at me, verbally processing with you…. 

I literally have pages of notes and ideas of content for the blog. Some are just rough ideas.  Others are plans for projects not yet started or works in progress.  Additional ideas for reworking of old content…so many things. I feel as if I have analysis paralysis. I can’t decide what to do, so I do nothing.

Does that ever happen to you?

Today was my first day back to work but I’m not here to talk about that…I’m talkin’ tomatoes. I have an abundance between the CSA box and my own plants.

This was one morning’s harvest. Crazy right!?! Especially since I really don’t have that big of space.

I saw a recipe from our CSA farm that was called September soup which as a roasted tomato soup. I decided to do my own take on the soup with the fresh produce I had on hand.

I used several kinds of tomatoes including cherry size, sweet peppers, garlic, onion and one very hot jalapeno. I seasoned with oil, salt and pepper. I roasted the tray for about an hour I think. I actually had to stop and start partway through for some reason I can’t even remember now…

I dumped the tray of veggies into a stock pot and covered with water. I cooked it down for another 45 mins or so. Then I took my immersion blender and pureed the whole works.

I ended up with a quart and a half of some really rich tomato soup. Its a little on the spicy side so I’ll likely mix some milk or cream into it when I heat it for soup. I’m just going to freeze the soup.

Or maybe I’ll sample it as Bloody Mary mix…

That was a yummy taste test this weekend! It needed to be thinned out some but good flavor. Here in the Midwest (at least in Minnesota and Wisconsin) a “snit” or beer chaser is always served with a Bloody Mary. Is that a thing where you live?

What are you doing today?

Here we are in late August…things changing as they always do this time of year.

The garden and CSA box are providing beautiful produce to eat fresh and preserve for winter. I like to freeze bags of chopped onions, peppers and celery as a start to a few different recipes. Its a quick grab and get cooking after work. And aren’t these so pretty!!

The garden is beginning to look a bit tired…August marks the beginning of the end for the garden. Soon I’ll be pulling up the plants, covering the garden in compost and start the composting process all over again with those spent plants.

This was the beginning of the pile for Mini-me. We moved her to college on Friday. No tears. Lots of sweat… It was over 90°F, nearly 100% humidity (it was thunderstorming on and off), 3rd floor, no elevator and no A/C. We got it done though. She’s been busy with welcome week activities and starts classes tomorrow.

The pile for J starts today…he moves to campus this weekend for his senior year.

Marvin seems a bit confused, a bit needy.

Check out the cool art deco bowl I picked up at an occasional shop on Saturday.

I absolutely love it…the colors and design.  I picked up a few other things but this is my favorite.

It’s raining here this morning which is very welcome. The thunder is rumbling as I write my list for the day. I do love a good thunderstorm as long as its not damaging.

 

What are you doing today?

The clock is ticking on the kids leaving for college. Mini-me goes in a week and a half, J is the week after. The piles of supplies are beginning. Last minute orders and trips to the stores, doctor appts, new glasses just to name a few items on the list. But slowly, we are making progress.

To add to the busy time…the garden is also producing like crazy.

That means that I need to preserve the harvest.

I’ve canned 7 pints of spicy beans and 3 pints diced tomatoes.

Air drying herbs as well as trying to dehydrate some.

Mini-me seemed to have an allergic reaction to the herbs in the dehydrator so after we finally figured out why her nose was running like a faucet, I shut it down and got it out of the house. Poor kid.

I was attempting to dry some of this mint as well. Its really growing like crazy. Since the dehydrator seems out of the question, at least until she leaves the nest for college, I tried making some tea with fresh mint and nasturtium blossoms.

It was ok. Not bad but not very flavorful…which is not surprising. I know herb flavors concentrate after drying.

I may try to dry some but I am not holding out a lot of hope that I will enjoy the end product so therefore I am not super committed to the process.

One day last week, Mini-me and I took a quick drive over to IKEA and the Mall of America. We were able to get a few items on her list for college ay IKEA. Obviously a lot of other people had the same idea before us since several of the things on her want list were sold out. We decided to go into MOA since it is literally across the street from IKEA.

I quickly snapped this photo of a few of the truly massive Lego creations that sit atop the Legoland.

And Nickelodeon Universe. The mall was really not busy at all which was very refreshing. I don’t think we would have stayed if it had been busy.

I’m posting this on Monday evening because I have an eye appt in the morning. I know she will dilate my eyes so I won’t be able to see much of anything for several hours. I’m not a fan of it but I know its to check eye health so I will do it begrudgingly.

 

What are you doing today?
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