• Art - Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: AJJ Houses and Buildings edition

    Welcome to my twofer post…I’m combining T Stands for Tuesday and Art Journal Journey today.

    I was sitting on the deck after my morning walk just enjoying a slow morning.

    While I was sitting listening to the birds I felt inspired to create. I recently unearthed a journal that Elizabeth aka alteredbooklover made for me YEARS ago. The earliest writing in it goes back to March of 2009. Anyway I have been wanting to make another wonky junky journal so when I found this one again I knew I had to play.

    I started with the base page that had some items already stitched down. I was feeling the wonky wild vibe so I purposely chose bold papers to build my house. I added a bit of marker in different places to further sell the idea of a house. I was able to use this bit of found text to complete my vision. Love it when I plan comes together.

    This page is not for AJJ. It just is the adjoining page and the pieces just sort of fell together.

    The pages complement each nicely.

    Linking up with

    Art Journal Journey

    and

     

  • Blog

    T Tuesday: hello again edition

    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.

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

    T Tuesday: two month update

    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!

    What are you doing today?