• Blog

    Plants and scraps

    July 26, 2022 - By 

    Each and every morning I head out to the garden to check on my plants. Gardening brings me so much joy. Going from seed to harvest is a gift.

    This season I did not start my own seeds instead I purchased starts through a coworker. I have learned that sometimes you can’t do it all and there is no shame in that.

    The beans are finally starting to produce. I’m hoping to harvest enough to can some spicy beans again this year. If not, I still have a stash of jars from last season.

    My neighbor once again allowed me to cut her daylilies before the deer had them for a midnight snack. Aren’t they gorgeous?!?

    During my time of forced relaxation, I played around with a bag of scraps I purchased quite some time ago from the thrift store. It was a great challenge to pull together cards from a limited palette.

    Using only what I had in front of me gave me the opportunity to combine colors and patterns that I typically would not have tried. I simply love the results! This entire pile it ready to go complete with sentiments.

    And a whole other giant pile of cards ready for the right words or time.

    I’m still working on my journals….really slowly. I’m spending as much time outdoors or with Mini-me, so crafting definitely takes a back seat. Mini-me leaves for college in about a month. It goes so fast.

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

    Mid summer update

    July 5, 2022 - By 

    It’s been a long couple weeks. Last time I posted I was a couple days out from having surgery. Everything went as expected with no complications. Hooray!

    The hiccup happened 8 days into my recovery when I started feeling sick…flu like. Of course I was worried that it was something crazy going on internally…nothing like jumping to the worst possible conclusion. Nope, that wasn’t it…it was COVID. Seriously, I have been exposed literally dozens of times at school over the past two years and have never gotten it. The only thing I can think is that my immune system was overloaded healing from surgery that it just couldn’t fight the ‘rona too. No one else in the house got it. Again, crazy!

    While I was isolating myself from the rest of the family I decided to do a bit of lap crafting on the deck. I’m working on the travel journal/scrapbook from our 2019 trip. It was fun and a good challenge to use limited supplies.

    Marvin loved the time on the deck with me. So many sights and smells.

    Speaking of sights….Look at that lovely radish. There is more than one I promise. The most I’ve ever successfully grown. They usually bolt before producing anything for me.

    This morning I was finally able to weed the garden and mulch. It was pretty pathetic looking after a couple weeks of neglect.

    My tomato plants are all thriving. So pleased with the growth. Now if they produce as well as I hope I’ll be all smiles.

    I did get an art journal page created over the weekend. I really struggled to get this one to come together. I think it was created over the course of several days.

    I don’t love the washi flower sticker on the right side of the page but I knew if I tried to pull it back up I’d pull paint from the fragile page.

    Summer is flying by. It always does. I have so many things I want to do before the school bell rings again. Time to make that list and start crossing things off!

     

  • Blog

    School’s out for summer

    June 14, 2022 - By 

    I’m pretty sure I was as excited for the last day of school as the kids were this year.  It was a LONG year.

    The last couple weeks, all I could think about was getting outside and playing in the dirt. I picked this arrangement from the yard. The Irises were laying on the ground because their stems were too long and spindly. I thought that was a shame so I cut them off and gathered some greenery to fill the space.

    I also got my garden planted. I’m really late this year but I’m sure it will be fine.

    The deck box garden has radishes, carrots and herbs. I also planted a few flower seeds this morning.

    This view has green bean, wax beans and snap peas….along with a bunch of weeds…mostly grass.

    Over in this side of the shed garden I have cucumbers as well as some zucchini and summer squash that will hopefully germinate.

    I’m growing my tomatoes in pots again this year since I had really good luck last year.  I also have a couple jalapeno plants growing in this same manner. Right now all the plants are pretty small and frankly not that interesting to look at.

    Before leaving school for the last time, we had to clean out our room and the two storage rooms inside our space. None of the stuff in the storage rooms belonged to us so as items were found they were given new homes.

     

     

    Such as all the movie theatre cardboard cutouts.

    The media center was the perfect place for these gems.

    You should have seen all the kids…and adults…taking selfies and filming silly videos with the props.

    It made the lame task of cleaning out a closet so much more enjoyable. Next fall we will have brand new flooring. They are finally tearing up and replacing the old asbestos tiles. Its taking a while but eventually our 60+ year old building will reach the 21st century.

    As for me this week I’m trying to get as many things crossed off my list as I can. I have a same day surgery on Thursday that will put me out of commission for a while. Hopefully the family will remember to water the garden for me while I recuperate.

    I’m also kicking myself…I gave a journal to one of the teachers at school who is leaving to teach in another district. I totally forgot to take any photos. GAH! I love to document my creations not just for the blog but for me. Oh well not the end of the world.

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?