• 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?
  • Art - Creativity - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: mixed media edition

    April 13, 2020 - By 

    Who knew that inspiration could strike while randomly gluing bits and pieces of paper from the scrap bin. Seriously…this is too weird. I was feeling the need to craft something…anything. I had watched a couple of YouTube videos of folks making these insanely beautiful collaged papers. Of course, the bits and pieces that they used were amazing. Pieces that I wouldn’t be “just trying to use up”. But this thought got me to put paper and glue together.serendipity background beginnings

    I started with a double-page spread from a children’s music book. I added bits of paper from my scrap bin until I was pleased or in this case…just “done” with this process.serendipity background

    Not bad right…not super but workable. I added some washi tape, stamping, and stickers.

    Next, I took the sheet to my guillotine cutter and needed to decide how to chop this up.

    serendipity background

    I decided on three postcards and several tags or perhaps journal cards.

    I added some paint and embellishments to the postcards before adhering them to plain paper. I then ran them through the sewing machine to make sure everything stayed firmly together.

    serendipity postcard

    serendipity postcard

    serendipity postcard

    Super fun!serendipity background

    These are the completed pieces that are ready to use. The gaps are still WIP. Not sure what I’ll do with them but that’s ok.

    I had so much fun with this process that I made another collage sheet.serendipity background

    I have 5 postcards and 2 tags with a fun springtime vibe.

    I made this sheet on Saturday…before this happened on Sunday.Merry Eastergiving

    SNOW!! What a crazy weather day. Mini-me and I decided that we should say “Merry Eastergiving” since the outside said Christmas, I was making a Thanksgiving style meal with turkey, all on Easter Sunday for just the 4 of us.

    The card in the collage above was made by a sweet friend of mine.  She is a tremendous card maker. I’ve been sending more cards lately. A card in the mailbox is a tiny bit of joy I can send someone. Just getting a handwritten card by a real person these days is nearly cause for celebration. We need that these days.

    Distance learning continues at our house…both on the teaching and learning ends of things. chromebook styleMy school issued Chromebook is getting a workout. Stickers optional but fun indeed.

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Blog - Creativity - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: adjusting edition

    March 24, 2020 - By 

    I’m sure most of you are in the same position we are here. Adjusting to the new normal. Everyone home trying to do school and work. We had a family meeting on Sunday to set some ground rules and expectations.

    So far it’s just J that has specific class times. Mini-me and I are still on spring break. Next week will be an even bigger adjustment. Mini-me and I will most likely be in “distance learning” mode. She will have online classes and I will be…well they aren’t really sure what our role will be at this time. Perhaps making videos to support learning, reading, typing curriculum…what ever is needed really.STOP work in progress sign

    I quickly whipped up a couple of these signs for when the kids are working in there bedrooms. It’s not pretty but it is effective.

    Mr. G is still working but in a remote location for now. There are just two of them getting an industrial printer running. I think it’s only a matter of days before he’ll be working from home as well. casually bored Marvin

    Marvin is confused. His routine of morning snack, morning nap, bird watching, more napping and so on is really getting messed up by his humans constantly going from room to room making noise.dried apples

    All this time at home has had me using my dehydrator and even attempting to make hamburger buns. The key word there is attempting. They are a little dense…ok a lot dense. Not too bad cut in half and toasted though.

    I’ve been doing a bit more journaling as well. Both just writing and art journaling. This writing journal sometimes gets a bit of both.

    IMG_20200324_092636148

    This page started as a mind dump. Grievances and complaints but then something shifted. Maybe it was because I was able to rid my mind of all the clutter and garbage floating around in there. I became more mindful of things to celebrate and be thankful for.

    gratitude journalling

    I continued onto the next page. I was able to go to bed and actually sleep after all of this. Perhaps this mind dump will become a habit that will help me be more mindful each day.coffee for two

    Today has three of us home working on chores and little projects. Trying to stay active. Keeping physically distant from others while maintaining social connections.

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?