• Blog

    Surreal week

    May 31, 2020 - By 

    I don’t know if I even have words to create this post. As if 2020 hasn’t been horrible enough…

    This past week has been one filled with tragedy. I’m sure most of you have heard of the senseless murder of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis and the ensuing riots.  Our city is burning….destroying itself.  I don’t live in the city proper but I live in the Twin Cities metro. Not more than a 20 min drive from the epicenter. I have friends and family that live in the city. I fear for them. The past 2 nights I feared for us as well. Hate groups meaning to cause anarchy (not effect to change) were said to be moving out into the suburbs in order to avoid the National Guard troops that have been deployed into the city.

    I grieve for George Floyd. For his family. I can’t imagine that this is what he would have wanted to happen in his name….meaning the destruction of the city. Yes…raise our voices. Demand change. Rage against an unjust system that targets people based upon the color of their skin, ethnic group or religion. It hurts my heart. It makes me cry for them.

    I grew up attending an inner-city church in a rough neighborhood of Minneapolis not very far from the riots. There were drug deals, prostitution, and violence surrounding the church yet we welcomed all. It was a place of refuge. Of love. Of faith. No judgement.

    We are not born to hate…that is taught.

    I choose love.

  • Around home - Blog - Kitchen - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: Memorial weekend edition

    May 25, 2020 - By 

    A long holiday weekend always seems to involve a lot of food. This was no exception. But first lets work up an appetite with a few projects around the house….technically outside the house.

    I finally got all my containers potted and this group is looking good.  I decided to set the pots on ceramic tiles since we had them laying around. This should help keep them from rotting the wood of the deck.

    Next I took some seed coasters my neighbor had given me a few years ago. She thought I’d likely craft with them. Since I was lacking on these type of seeds I decided to try to grow them instead.

    We have basil, chives parley and thyme. I planted them in alphabetical order so I could remember what was what. 🙂

    There is just all kinds of wrong with this photo. The socks with the sandals. The billion green ash seeds in the rock landscaping. And the pathetic condition of the rock in the first place.  Oh well…it is what it is this year. We plan to get this front section of the house re-landscaped and new steps poured but with the craziness in the world right now, we have decided to wait. That being said I’m putting forth zero effort to make these rocks look nice. I didn’t include a photo of the coasters covered with dirt because…why? it’s just dirt.

    On to the food…lets do dessert first…since it was served up on Friday evening anyway. It’s a Fireball whiskey cake.

    We brought it over to the neighbors for a little social distance bonfire in the driveway.

    Saturday morning I got up early to get these ribs in the crockpot. It was supposed to rain much of the day so grilling was out of the question.

    Don’t they look good? I also made coleslaw and twice baked potatoes from scratch. Just call me Halle Homemaker.

    I’ve made a ton of cards over the past week. You can see some of them in my previous post. I have yet to photograph the batch I made today. Or the postcards either. I need to get to it since I have work tomorrow. I’m actually going to the building to help clean out lockers. Considering there are over 900 students at my school its going to take a while to bag and tag everything.

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

    Building a card stash

    May 25, 2020 - By 

    As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been sending more cards. This, in turn, depletes my stash. Over the past week, I’ve been having fun creating some new designs using some scraps as well as previously created card bases.

    I have an index card box full of precut layering pieces for cards. This comes in handy for quick card making. I also have a wooden cigar box filled with mini collages for cards or journal pages. Doing some of the mindless prep work ahead of time leaves more time for the creative process and doesn’t interrupt the flow of ideas.

    I am also starting to pre-make some sentiment pieces. I grabbed my tag and mason jar punches to start. The mason jar is so darn cute. The punch itself is a bit finicky. It jams almost every single time. UGH!!!!

    I am willing to put up with it though because…look how cute this is!!!! After I stamped the pale seafoam green I realized that it was beginning to look like an old-fashioned blue mason. I used a cosmetic sponge to shade in two colors of blue dye-based ink. Then rubbed the top of the jar on a gray pigment ink pad to act as the zinc lid.

    I used foam tape to lift it off the page so I could add some sticker flowers to the jar. So fun!

    I can 100% guarantee that you’ll be seeing more cards and postcards. They are really quite addictive to create.