Tag : T Tuesday

334 posts

201606/14

T Tuesday: progress edition

Welcome to T stands for Tuesday…grab a your favorite cup and stay a while.

This summer I’ve been tackling projects and items long overdue on the to-do list. I’m drowning in half finished goals. It’s really beginning to drive me a bit crazy. I start my morning or my 3am bout of insomnia with thoughts of how my day is going to go and then BAM…I get hit with a curve ball or worse yet, am distracted and start another project. I haven’t even finished a pot of coffee lately, which is totally out of character for me. (Ah ha…just there….see how I worked in a beverage reference) :)

But seriously, the frustration with myself is mounting. Every “not used daily” surface has something in progress all over it and that’s not even mentioning the outdoors. I think I have too many ideas and unfortunately have enough stuff around to get started but either run out of steam, ideas or gumption to continue. I even totally blew up my blog over the weekend and am still working on fixing it. UGH! The blog backup I used definitely didn’t work the way I thought it did….I could not recover what I lost.

I am feeling a bit of accomplishment with both a personal project and a household one.

I completed the cover on my heART journal just yesterday.

Here are the inside pages. The earliest page was from Feb 2014. Good grief…talk about taking a long time to to 6 pages.

Mini-me and I did get her room painted. Here’s an old before and the after side by side.

What a difference. She’s had the green and stamped flowers since we moved in 13 years ago. It had just been painted so we just left it as is. Definitely time for a change.

We’re slowly going to be replacing the accessories such as the fabric bins in the cubbies. Mini-me had yet to decide what color she wants for her accent color.

It’s definitely more sophisticated already. Agh…my baby is growing up!

So today…I’m going to try my best to finish a thing or two I’ve started. Wish me luck!

What are you doing today?

Around home | Art | Blog | Creativity

art journal, heART journal, painting, T Tuesday

12 Comments

halleday

201605/31

T Tuesday: coffee stained edition

Welcome to another rousing edition of T stands for Tuesday where we grab a cup a and share what we’ve been up to. I’m taking a bit of liberty with that rule this week and I know our wonderful host, Elizabeth, won’t mind a bit.

Before we begin I must apologize for the poorly lit photos. My laundry room/craft room has both florescent and incandescent lighting. Choosing the right filter for proper lighting is nearly impossible.

Now on with the show…

As I was cleaning out the school supply shelf which holds both new and partially used supplies, I happened upon a spiral bound sketch book from one of the kids elementary school days. The cover and drawings were long since gone, the spirals smashed and many pages crumpled. I decided to salvage what I could before the whole thing ended up I the recycle bin.

So now what. I thought binding them into a journal would be a good choice but boring white pages have never made me want to use them them. Aged pages always draw me in.

This technique isn’t new, I’ve used it myself on many occasions. The one thing that really appeals to me is the randomness of dyeing or staining. You never know exactly what your going to get.

Since I had a large stack of papers I wanted to make sure that there was irregularity of staining throughout the pages. I sprinkled instant coffee grounds every few pages in the stack.

I used a spray bottle to gently wet the coffee to start the staining process.

After letting it sit for a while I poured in more water and used a second container filled with water to keep the papers submerged.

I left the pages for a day…perhaps a little longer.

Now I had a stack of really soggy papers. Since I don’t have the room to lay each out individually I had to come up with a quick and easy solution.

I used old shower rings through the wire shelving to hold a metal knitting needle. They were able to drip dry over the laundry sink. Worked perfectly.

Just look at those yummy pages…the color and texture really make me happy!

Now that I’ve got them all folded I have to decide what sort of book I want to make. The last book I made with coffee stained pages really turned out well. I cut up a suede jacket for the covers. I’m pretty sure I used all of the suede while making some Ren Fest pouches. It is garage sale season though so I might just get lucky and find something that speaks to me. Until then I will set these aside.

This should be my last really busy Tuesday for a while since most things are winding down for the summer break. I may start back with my knitting group occasionally which is Tuesday mornings. Of course.

Today I’m meeting girlfriends for a birthday lunch. Gosh, lots of May birthdays. It’s the last little hurrah before school is out on Thursday.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Crafts | Creativity

bookbinding, coffee, journal, T Tuesday

16 Comments

halleday

201605/24

T Tuesday: planting edition

Yesterday morning before the impending rainfall I hurried up and planted my garden. I had planned to plant over the weekend but when Mr. G went to rototill the garden we discovered millions of ants and larvae under a stepping stone smack in the middle of the garden! Crud! I grabbed a flat shovel and scooped off all the larvae and hoards of ants and threw them away. YUCK! they were crawling all over us.

While Mr. G went to work with the rototiller, I went inside to look up garden safe solutions to my ant problem. I made a concoction of water, borax and sugar, then soaked some cotton balls in it and placed them in a plastic lid in the freshly tilled garden. I never actually saw any ants drinking my mix. I think it was the heat of the blazing sun that drove them away…that and the search for the larvae. Fingers crossed that they are gone for good.

In the big garden I have the usual fair…although I am trying cucumbers in this garden again. In previous years I haven’t had good luck with them but this year I purchased some really nice healthy looking plants instead of starting seeds. I planted them close to the fence so they can crawl right up.

Some of you may remember last fall that I decided to just leave my herbs in the garden and see what happened. Well the rosemary died as many told me it would but the sage and thyme are flourishing, I cut back some of the thyme just to make room for a tomato plant. I’m drying a couple of bundles…it smells so heavenly.

I made a last minute addition of a jalapeno plant near the gate. I was planning to put it in the deck box garden but changed my mind. Do you see my plant stakes I’m using as row markers?? A pink teapot and a purple butterfly. I think the teapot works for beverage related post…right?

My deck box garden has just two things…our favorite little yellow pear tomatoes and the horseradish plant I tried to eradicate last fall. Guess it didn’t work. :) My worm tower is definitely looking weathered like the rest of the garden. After it rains again I’m going to try and find some more worms to live in the bin. I fear some of red wigglers perished over winter as the scraps in the tower aren’t going down as quickly as before.

The deck boxes have flower, herbs and onions. I grew green onions from seed in half egg shells this year. Just an experiment. Likely won’t do it again unless these turn out amazing. The shells were hard to crush before planting without crushing the fragile onions. I did find two volunteer onions in the big garden so I moved them to be with their friends.

In addition to the onion volunteers, I found some dill and thyme growing from the dirt I had dumped from the pots last fall. Mother Nature can be very persistent.

I still have 3 tomato plants that I plan to put in my in-laws garden plus whatever seeds I have left.

We also purchased a CSA share this year. We had joined a different one a few years ago and liked the produce but the cost vs amount we received just didn’t make sense or maybe that should be cents. *grin* Our neighbor has been using this CSA for 7 years now and I’ve been able to see first hand the wonderful boxes of farm fresh veggies they get each week. So excited for it to start. Just a couple more weeks! I’ll be sure to share with you our bounty.

Playing taxi driver for my mom today unless her plans have changed

What are you doing today?

Blog | Outdoors

CSA, gardening, T Tuesday

11 Comments

halleday

201605/17

T Tuesday : Syttende Mai edition

Happy Syttende Mai!

That’s Norwegian for Happy Seventeenth of May which is Norway’s Constitution Day. Even though I’m an American, I’m a 100% Norwegian American and do celebrate with my Norwegian friends and family.

I have a traditional Bunad such as the one on this cup….although it no longer fits me. It was definitely from the pre-childbirth days.

I still fit into these sølje though. *grin*

Sølje, which translates roughly to spoons, are traditional brooches women wore at the collar of their white bunad shirt. Mine are shamefully tarnished.

I even bought a bunad for mini-me when she was about 2. She was very unhappy with me when I put it on her to get a photo before she outgrew it.

Oh how the time has gone!! Speaking of which… J got his drivers licence yesterday! Wowsers!!

Errands are on my list today and a couple projects that are works in progress.

What are you doing today?

T Tuesday: post birthday week edition

Welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday.

Last week I was lucky enough to stretch my birthday celebration out over several days. On Tuesday (which is one of the reasons I missed last week) I was treated to lunch with friends. We actually celebrated two birthdays. We had a great time although I never snapped any photos. I did receive this wonderful violet from the other birthday girl.

On my actual birthday. May 5th, I was running errands in the morning and picked up my free drink from Caribou…the best chain coffee shop in my humble opinion. (not affiliation…just a very happy customer)

Since it was a hot day, I decided on a cold press coffee with room for cream.

Mr. G surprised me by not only coming home early that day but also with a lovely bouquet of flowers. I have no idea what the orange ones are but they are so cool! I was really worried Marvin wouldn’t be able to resist them but he was surprisingly restrained after a few initial attempts to get to them.

The look of innocence.

I did see a very strange sight during the week as well. I was taking J to the eye doctor when we saw the Mystery Machine from the Scooby Doo cartoon.

Stranger yet was the very old police car ahead of it. It was as if it had rolled off a movie set or something. I’d guess late 1950’s classic black and white with a single cherry light on top. When I shared this photo on FB, my cousin suggested that perhaps they were on the way out to Paisley Park which was just another mile up the road. No clue…just one of those things that really makes you do a double take. Glad I had J to quick snap a photo for me.

On Saturday, Mini-me and I went shopping using some of the birthday coupons and specials I had received then picked up yummy sushi to bring home. It was a really nice cap to a great week of celebration.

I actually have done a bit of crafting…

I used a skein of cotton yarn to make 4 small dish cloths. I like them small so they can fit down inside skinny glassware more easily.

I’m also continuing work on the commissioned scrapbook album. I’m half done with the pages. Eventually I’ll show another little peek at it. It’s always a tough endeavor to show a scrapbook without showing photos.

I’ve got an outdoor project in mind with some leftover fireplace stone veneer I was given. Hopefully I have enough to do my plan. When the rain stops, I’ll have to lay things out and see.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Crafts

crochet, Marvin, T Tuesday, yarn

13 Comments

halleday

201604/26

T Tuesday: camp edition

We’re back from our 4th annual Mother Daughter retreat in Northern MN.

It was another great weekend.

We had a really cool cabin that we shared with approx 50 mothers and daughters. I think I heard there were around 250 of us total this weekend.

The weekend was filled with lots of activities such as hay rides,

archery

farm animals

and of course, horse back riding.

Mini me had a horse named Patches

and mine was Quilta. It hard to tell without a frame of reference but this is a very tall horse but just a sweetheart to ride.

We also did some craft projects. Two projects came home unfinished as there just wasn’t enough time.

We did complete our fairy garden.

and a couple of stamped leather pieces.

We had a great time, over-indulged on treats, laughed, got soaked in the rain, walked countless miles up and down the hills at camp and slept very little.

Sounds like a blast huh?

Now that life has returned to normal, I’m trying to get back to eating healthy again.

I’ll start with this green monster smoothie. I have plans to walk with friends later this week. If it warms up enough today, I may walk or ride my bike over to Paisley Park to pay my respects.

What are you doing today?

T Tuesday: updates edition

Welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday hosted by Elizabeth.

When I took this photo last week I was intending to show you both my Indian/Mexican fusion breakfast and my new journal. Turns out the journal is no longer mine. Mini-me came home and asked if Micheal’s had more like this one but with a J monogram. Lucky for her a whole alphabet of monogram letters came in the back of the journal. Looks like I’m out of a journal.

You may have noticed my announcement on the main page that I’m working on my site. I’m attempting to make it more user friendly with category pages as well as the main front page to find the newest content. I know I have some readers who could care diddly squat about my garden but came to see crafty projects. Hopefully this change will happen as I imagine.

Speaking of gardens…

my seedlings are coming along quite nicely even with the late start they got. I have them in a large plastic bin with a clear top so that Marvin can’t get to them but they still get the grow light and sunshine from the patio door.