• Around home - Blog - Crafts - Creativity - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: domestically inclined edition

    Hello there…you came back for yet another edition of T stands for Tuesday! Thank you! For those of you who are new to my blog, WELCOME and let me tell you a little about T stands for Tuesday. Elizabeth aka alteredbooklover hosts a weekly link up or virtual tea party, if you will, where we share what ever the heck we want for the week as long as we can somehow tie a beverage or beverage related item into the mix. Pretty simple huh? So lets get on with it, shall we…

    This week I’ve been a mix of artsy and domestic. I’ve previously posted a couple of artsy things so now you get to see some of my domesticity. Last week…no, two weeks ago (geez where does the time go) I shared our “new” hutch for T stands for Tuesday. I mentioned that I need to make a curtain to cover the wine rack shelf. I went searching through a box of vintage linens and found the perfect solution.

    vintage linen

    Simple beauty. These were my Grandma’s as well. Or perhaps her sisters…a cousin of mine just told me a story that my grandma talked her sister out of a bunch of linens saying that she needed them more in the parsonage than her sister did on the farm.  Hmmm…

    vintage linen

    I’m guessing these were purchased by my grandparents in Minneapolis if the stickers are to be believed. Dayton’s became a upscale department store here in the midwest and started the discount chain Target.

    After ironically running to Target to pick up a tension rod, I realized that I wouldn’t even have to cut these linens. I folded them in half and ran a straight line of stitching an inch from the fold.

    vintage linen curtain

    This gave me a double layer of fabric providing more light blocking which was exactly what I was going for with this project.

    vintage linen curtain The linen curtain makes this piece feel more Scandinavian. Marvin still loves his spot by the door and really could care less about the curtain.

    canning

    I did a bit of canning and baking as well when the weather cooled down.

    spicy beans

    I made spicy beans, zucchini bread and pumpkin bread. I like having a little bit of baked goods in the freezer just in case we are suddenly having company and I was completely out.

    I also have to share a day that Mini-me  and I had about a month ago. I keep meaning to share but it just hasn’t worked out. She’s been wanting to dye her hair…not all of it but some. A streak or some underneath. She just couldn’t decided so we waited. She finally decided, so we did it.


    IMG_1210

    IMG_1211

    It’s faded now quite a bit so we are going to redo it likely in the next couple weeks before school starts.

    We went out to eat at Old Chicago to celebrate her fun new hair. It’s one of her favorite restaurants.

    20160723_9733

    Well that’s it for today. I’ve got another busy Tuesday ahead of me but I’ll be around eventually to visit.

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: eventful week edition

    I guess I should actually say an eventful week and a half, both good and bad. I’ll start my tale at the bad beginning…

    Two Friday’s ago we awoke to a flooded basement. Completely soaked carpet and over half the basement wet. It could have been much worse…it was our water softener that caused the mess so relatively clean water. I didn’t mention my mess on the blog last Tuesday as we were celebrating the 3rd anniversary of T stands for Tuesday!

    On Tuesday I mentioned that we’d be out and about like usual for our Tuesday. We were heading to my inlaws (where incidentally we were planning to go to flood Friday) when something hit my drivers side window and it exploded in on me. I was in the inner lane driving 50mph in traffic.  This is where my school bus driving days had me at an advantage with sheer experience on the road. I was able to pull over and figure out what I was going to do. I ended up driving back home after stopping at a hardware store to get something to at least clean the glass off me and my seat.

    T Tuesday eventful week edition

    I had some small cuts on my arm and embedded glass under my leg that I must have ground in as I drove. Adrenaline…never felt it until later although Mini-me did get out the first aid kit and cleaned up the blood a bit as I scooped glass from the van. Mini-me had a couple tiny pieces in her leg as well…small enough that we used duct tape to remove them. J was spared as he was in the passenger seat of the minivan. Again…things could have been much worse! I could have lost control and gotten into a wreck.

    This is were my tale turns for the better… My neighbor decided last minute to have a garage sale so I was going through the house trying to dig up some things to sell.  We did ok but ended up spending most of our profits on a new hutch…well, new to us. Our neighbors just remodeled their kitchen. We took it home thinking we could use it for storage in our game area.

    T Tuesday eventful week edition

    Looked pretty good there…

    T Tuesday eventful week edition

    and Marvin also approved. Then overnight Mr. G had a bout of insomnia and realized that perhaps the hutch would be better served in our dining room. So we moved it again….back up the stairs it had come down….

    T Tuesday eventful week edition

    This way we are able to actually see the beautiful set of dishes from my paternal Grandma.

    hulda

    As I age I am looking more and more like her, at least in my opinion.

    T Tuesday eventful week edition

    I feel as if I’m at Downton Abbey when I open these doors. I think it’s the big soup tureen that gives me that feeling. Love, love, love these dishes! Notice all the tea cups… full set of 12. Anyone want to join me for tea? As a kid my mom had them out only on holidays or when we had “fancy” company. These are certainly not my everyday dishes but we do try to use them occasionally because otherwise…what’s the point?!

    T Tuesday eventful week edition

    We decided to take the door off the one side and just use open shelving.  It’s amazing how much more open it feels with that simple subtraction of the door. Marvin went back to his favorite spot next to the door…that way he can keep track of everyone’s comings and goings.

    T Tuesday eventful week edition

    He’s just so dang cute! I’m planning to put a little curtain across the wine rack area to keep them in the dark. I was thinking it might be fun to use a vintage table cloth  as my fabric. Perhaps I’ll make a matching mixer cover at the same time.

    Our new hutch took the place of our old buffet. The buffet now resides in the game area.

    T Tuesday eventful week edition

    It really looks nice there and holds a ton of games. So after all the heavy lifting and switching things around we sat down and played a family game and got thoroughly trounced by Mini-me.

    Thanks for sticking with me through my long post.  I have no idea what Tuesday has in store for me…other than I feel as if perhaps I should just stay home.

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Blog - Kitchen - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: CSA edition

    Last week we received our first box of produce from our CSA. What a bounty!

    All of that came from the 3/4 bushel box on the table.

    Loon Organics CSA week 1

    Another really cool feature is a “swap box” at the pickup site. If you see something in the box you’d rather have, you can swap it out for something in your box. That’s how I ended up with 2 bunches of radishes. I swapped the second bunch for a bag of arugula.

    Carrots, beets, bok choy, garlic scapes, mixed spring greens, spinach and radishes all in week one! AND the basil plant in my deck box. I knew from seeing the boxes last year that we’d likely get one so I didn’t bother planting any…just left a spot for it instead.

    CSA basil plant

    Between the CSA, our home garden and the garden space at my in-laws, we should be eating super healthy this summer!

    I’ll update you on my gardens next week. They are growing like crazy. I’m so happy to walk out there every morning to see the growth. I don’t even mind having to pull a few weeds and use the watering can to hand water the spaces with our collected rain water.

    I hadn’t realized until just a few days ago how much my focus changes to the outdoors in the summer. Likely because our winters are so long and sometimes harsh that we tend to spend as much time as possible outdoors.

    Mini-me and I are off for a small adventure today since J is at work!! He got his first job and is at his second day of training today.

    What are you doing today?