• Around home - Blog - Kitchen - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: I ♥ plants edition

    Hello and welcome once again to T stands for Tuesday. This week I’m taking a break from sharing my #junkjournaljuly updates to share the wealth of plants around me.

    The abundance of rain has yielded huge plants! This morning I picked these beauties.

    Fresh produce from the garden is the best. Especially since we aren’t getting a CSA box this year.

    As I was trimming the flowers off my herbs, I realized that they are quite pretty and could be used as a base in a bouquet. I wandered around the yard and came up with a sweet little jar of flowers to brighten my kitchen.

    When my neighbor saw me picking flowers she offered up her daylilies. 

    They are lovely on my table. Thank you, neighbor!

    My tea even had some plants in it. A little sprig of mint in my Darjeeling tea.

    This one takes the cake though…I happened to notice my compost bin had some tall things in it. Since I knew I hadn’t thrown anything in there lately myself I walked down to investigate.

    I have 2 tomato plants and 3 zucchini or ?? volunteers in the compost pile. I guess the organic soil is doing pretty well.  This is a better place for this sign. Time will tell as to what I’m growing.

    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Art - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: #junkjournaljuly edition

    Hello again! Welcome back to T stands for Tuesday!

    Last week was a busy one with the Independence Day Holiday. Lots of activities including a parade, cookout, fireworks but not many photos to document them.

    I thought it would be fun to share my #junkjournaljuly challenge pages here as well as Instagram. Here I can get a little more in-depth and frankly it’s easier for me to edit and organize.

    Day1: Introductions

      I decided to introduce the journal and project…not myself.

    I am using this journal in order even though I’ll have to add a couple of pages before the end.

    I have most pages documented before as well as after but I know I did miss at least one set such as this next set…

    Day 2: create a collage

    This page I almost completely changed for the original.

    Day 3: Use a tag

    It was kismet that this page already had a tag on it. I added the sunflower paper and lace to fit with my vision. A package of old rub-ons came in handy as well.  I thought this page was the perfect place to document this old, well-loved photo.

    Day 4: very vintage

    This page is basically completely covered with pieces of a 1968 map of Hawaii.

    I honestly loved the original page spread…but it wasn’t going to work.

    Day 5: favorite color

    You know it had to be pink! With a splash of orange…I do love orange too!

    The only little bits of the original page showing through is the math text and the stems of the flowers. I don’t love those tissue flowers but they worked to cover the yellow without once again completely covering the page.

    I’ll be posting more sets of these pages as I go along…not sure of the schedule but likely not waiting until T Tuesday either.

    I do have to tell you about my garden pests once again…you won’t even believe it!!!! You may remember last week my garden was looking lovely…my green beans were lush and full of leaves…

    Not so much any more. UGH!!! I found full grown deer tracks in the garden. Keep in mind this garden is maybe 5′ x 8′ and has a fence almost 6′ high around all but a 2′ wide gap where the gate is.

    Well not anymore…it’s not pretty but it is functional. I’m hoping Mr. G will build me a proper full height gate before next growing season but for now, this will have to do.

    Today has household chores in store…super exciting I know.

    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors - Photography

    A second look: summer photography wrap up

    I haven’t been using my “big camera” (my DSLR) all that much lately.

    Its a shame really since I love photography. Over the past couple weeks when the weather has cooperated, I’ve tried to get in the habit of using it again. I really need to keep up on my skills…I’ll be taking Senior pictures for Mini-me NEXT summer. Geesh…the time certainly flies.

    Take a look…

     

    9/23/2016

    2016 Summertime Photo Scavenger hunt wrap-up

    The summer has ended and so has the hunt for photos. I like to wrap things up with a recap of the old and any newly snapped photos. This year I only missed one on the list but got an alternative to takes it’s place. In the past I’ve gotten every single one including the alternates.

    1. A “wild heart” – a naturally occurring heart (like the rock above, but it doesn’t have to be a rock)summer photo huntHostas in my backyard

    2. A footprint or pawprint

    paw-print

    Husky paw print

    3. A skeleton, bone or x-ray

    bones-collageAt the orthopedist

    4. A book or magazine read during 2016

    books

    Lots of books…can’t stop reading…

    5. A porch or deck

    deck collage

    Trex Deck at the MN landscape Arboretum

    6. A camper (caravan)

    summer photo hunt

    Camper trailer

    7. A family gatheringsummer photo hunt

    Independence day gathering

    8. A drawing, art project, artistic photograph, scrapbook page, greeting card, or art journal page created by you.summer photo huntObviously this isn’t my only creation of the summer…if you’d like to see more just browse around the blog. 🙂

    9. Someone playing with, in, or around water.summer photo hunt4th of July waterfight….a tradition

    10. A bicyclebikeAt a parking lot next to a state bike trail.

    11. Fresh producesummer photo huntBeans from my garden and CSA box

    12. A windowwindowThe broken remains of my drivers side window…you can read about it here.

    13. The moonsummer photo huntLucky low light shot of the moon over the house.

    14. A buffet of foodsummer photo hunt4th of July gather again…

    15. A team logoteamsSome of our beloved local teams…current and former.

    16. A map showing a trip taken during the time period

    map

    Mini-me and I traveled to Alexandria over the summer for a girls weekend.

    map-2This close-up map has both lakes that we stayed on…if you look closely you can see my reflection.

    17. Twinssummer photo huntI took a bit of liberty with this one just because it made me laugh.

    18. A supermarket cart, basket or trolley full of groceries cart

    Back to school stock up at Target

    19. A seasonal cocktail or beveragesummer drinkMoscow Mule…favorite summer drink!!

    20. Someone laughing

    This is the one I didn’t get mostly because I don’t show faces on my blog if at all possible.

    21. A photograph of you with a newspaper or calendar page from the time period covered in the Hunt. Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.

    timely-photoI believe this one is self explanatory

    Alternatives – if you’re having trouble finding any of the above, you may substitute from this list (but you may not substitute for item #21):
    alternative 1: a lighthouse

    No lighthouse either

    alternative 2: a baby (human or animal)

    alt-baby

    Can you see the baby? Cute little “O”.

    That about wraps it up. I’m not sure what happened to Rinda’s blog as it hasn’t been updated since June but I do know that the Facebook group has been active so I’ll be posting there. I do hope to continue with photo scavenger hunts…they are really fun and a real challenge at times to get creative and think outside the box.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Thanks for stopping by for Second on the 2nd.