• Blog

    Refreshing habits

    January 10, 2023 - By 

    In keeping with my word of the year….

    I am looking at different parts of my life that might need a little help. One of those is health related. Daily walks.

    After my surgery last summer and COVID during my recovery, I had to quit walking as much as I was accustomed to doing daily. I found that this was a really slippery slope for me. It really easy to skip my walk even after I was fully able to do it…I just didn’t want to do it. I made many excuses to myself. “I don’t have time” ” I’ll get sweaty and can’t shower” “The roads are really busy this time of day” …you name it, I likely thought it.

    I have made a shift in my thinking and have been walking before work each morning. I get to work real early and walk laps in the athletic dome.

    It’s usually really cold in there but at least there’s no wind.

    I participate in a workplace challenge with a fun group through our Fitbit app. It’s fun to cheer each other on and get a little good peer pressure to get up and get moving.

    And being the “gold star” girl that I am…getting little motivational badges is nice too.

    I love having a fitness tracker. I know its not for everyone but it works really well for me. In fact. I just bought myself a new Fitbit for Christmas along with a pressure canner. I know, I’m just all kinds of wild and crazy. HA!

    Not too shabby for a day at work. Truth be told, I am on my feet 95% of my day which is just fine with me. It’s sitting that gets me in trouble…

    When I was on the actually Fitbit site on the computer today I noticed some stats that I had never seen before since I mostly just use my phone. I joined Fitbit in 2014 but hadn’t been a consistent user until 2017ish.

    I’m completely blown away that I am approaching 9000 miles. That is crazy. I think I need to buy some new shoes!

     

  • Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    Gnome ornaments

    January 5, 2023 - By 

    I always like to have a little something to give to friends… usually it’s handmade…what else would you expect from me.

    Mini-me brought home a large spool of kitchen twine that she had used in an art installation last year. I wasn’t sure how we were ever going to get through all the yardage until I started making these cute gnome ornaments.

    I was inspired by a Pinterest video. https://pin.it/4wRPmea

    I wrapped the kitchen string around my hand until it felt thick enough. I tied the middle then slipped off my hand and cut the opposite side from the tie. I then tied a loop of bakers twine to serve as the hanger before beginning work on the hat.

     I made a circle template with a bowl then cut it in half. I used scraps of flannel from my stash for the hats. After rolling my half circle of flannel into a cone shape.  I used a hot glue gun to adhere first the hat together then stick the hat to the gnome body being careful to thread the hanger loop through the top of the hat. I then added a coordinating button or two to the hat and a wooden bead tucked up under the rim of the hat for the perfect gnome nose.

    Thankfully I also have a stash of wooden beads to make the noses.

    They turned out so cute and I used up the whole spool! Renew, reuse, recycle. ♻️

  • Blog

    Snow, snow, snow

    January 4, 2023 - By 

    What a wild ride at the beginning and end of my winter break. We’ve had snow storms that bookended the time off.

    Winter break started two hours early with an early release due to weather. Now we are having our second snow day in a row! That just doesn’t happen!! Can’t say I’m sad about two full weeks off.

    Leading up to break we did a couple fun things at school such as winter week theme days, treats and even pancake breakfast cooked by our administrators.

    We each got a mug to fill with treats. I decided to add a my signature flower as well as my name to my mug.

    Our special education team had a week long secret Santa exchange…this was day 1 for me.

    I also made a bunch of Gnome ornaments for work friends. I’ll do a separate post on how I made those.

    Christmas is a favorite time for Marvin. He loves a good box.

    And bows!! Bows are his favorite. We actually save them so he can have some to play with all year long.

    Mini-me got him this very special bow. He LOVES it!

    The whole family was off work between Christmas and New Years. The company Mr. G works for generally closes that week and J took the week off so he could move. Yep you heard me…he moved out. He is living in a house in the neighboring town with one of his buddies from high school. Of course with the crazy horrible weather yesterday, we went and picked him up from work and brought him here for the night. None of the roads were plowed and his little sedan would have never made it. Thank goodness for four wheel drive.

    New Years Eve we went for brunch at Hell’s Kitchen and enjoyed some great live music.

    And a massive Bloody Mary! I couldn’t eat more than a couple bites of my meal after that. Lucky for me, I had a good leftover lunch the next day! 

    I’ve been doing a bit a creating as well such as this card from scraps laying around my desk. There are a few journal pages as well but that will be a different post.