• Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    T Tuesday: this and that edition

    October 8, 2018 - By 

    Once again I’m sitting at my keyboard wondering where the time went last week and what do I have to show for it.

    I have continued to use my personal handmade journal. It’s fun adding interesting bits to pages. I’m thinking I want to start another for old photos and memories of the kids. I have lots of random photos printed that would work perfect in that sort of journal.

    I’ve been browsing Pinterest looking for sewing projects. There is something about Fall weather that makes me want to sew. I came across some easy fabric coaster/mug rug projects that I decided to give a whirl since I had some squares pre-cut from a long forgotten project.

    This was the tutorial I used. Of course, I didn’t have the exact sizes but I figured it didn’t really matter. I turned out slightly larger than I would have wanted. Then I noticed some half square triangles in my stash. I had started making pinwheels and abandoned that project decades ago.

    They do make cute coasters though!! I’ll likely make more of these…at least as many as I can with the quilt pieces that are ready to go. Another prime example of not throwing anything away….it pays off.

    Volleyball still rules our evenings (and some weekends)…at least for another week or so. Like last week…two evening games, two practices, a parade and an early morning tournament… I cannot wait until Mini-me has her drivers license. 

    I’m not holding out much hope for a peaceful week. Tuesday morning Mini-me has a 7AM ortho appointment…ugh. I have picture day at school. I’m not banking on that being a great photo since I’ll have little to no time to get ready. Oh well.

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

    T Tuesday: posts collide edition

    October 1, 2018 - By 

    Last week the cold won…it got me…although I didn’t miss any work. Wished I had but I made it there each and every day. Wasn’t good for much else though. I never made it around to any T Tuesday posts. Sorry about that. I’ll do better this week.

    Today I’m doing a twofer with my posts. One because they fall on the same day and two because I’m ill-prepared to post anything else. How’s that for brutal honesty. Besides…I really like the graphic I created for the twofer post way back when…

    Take a look….

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

    Two posts are colliding this week as T stands for Tuesday and Second on the 2nd fall on the same day.

    collage

    Thankfully Elizabeth gave a little heads up at the end of her post that reminded me before I finished writing up my post. Time to switch gears.

    We’ll start with the fun packages in my mailbox from two fellow T stands for Tuesday bloggers.  So fun to get mail…friend mail, not so much on the bills or junk mail. A little while back I had commented on Krisha’s blog about the winery she had visited. She was so kind to offer me some extra wine labels they picked up as collage fodder. I was so delighted to see an envelope in my PO Box the other day. Look at the great craft fodder and lovely card. Really love that card!

    happy mail day

    This package helped inspire this journal page.

    beginning to blossom

    Thank you Krisha!

    I also received a box of goodies along with a 3rd anniversary ATC for T stands for Tuesday from Patty @ Magpie’s Nest.

    happy mail day

    She knows my love of bottle caps.

    happy mail day

    So many fun bottle caps and a bunch I’ve never seen. Too fun. Patty also included some bits of collage fodder as well. Can you see the beautiful ATC that precipitated the package in the first place?

    happy mail day- patty's atc

    Isn’t she lovely?!?  So many tiny details. I keep noticing more and more little things that I didn’t see the first time around.  Thank you Patty!

    And now for the Second on the 2nd portion of today’s post.

    Three years ago I took a quick photo of a hostess gift I was bringing to our annual Independence Day gathering. Little did I know this post would eventually become the most visited post on my blog. (More on the at the end.)

    Take a look…eyes

    July 5, 2013

    We spent Independence Day, as we have the past several years, at a friend’s house along the parade route in town. It’s always a great time.

    I wanted to do a little something extra for our hostess who puts so much time and effort into making sure everyone has a good time. She’s a big fan of Rum and Coke. It ended up being a centerpiece on the buffet table.

    Rum and coke

    “““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““`

    I’ve seen over the years that the re-pins of this image on Pinterest have multiplying but it wasn’t until an update in their software did I notice that all of the re-pins now count up on the original. Check out this screen shot I took last night.

    run and coke cake

    Amazing! When I look at my blog analytics it definitely shows that people are visiting from that pin as well.  Not 24,000 pages loads but a significant amount especially given the fact that this is a 3 year old post.

    For today I’m going to try and stay cool while running an errand or two. I really need to do some baking and canning but…ugh…not in this heat!

    What are you doing today?

  • Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: journal edition

    September 24, 2018 - By 

    I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have thought about and even started a personal diary or journal only to abandon it within a week after basically forgetting about it after day 2.  I would either think I had nothing to say, be paranoid about someone stumbling across my inner thoughts or perhaps just was intimidated by the hundreds of stark white pages ahead of me.

    So l started actually using my newly created personal journal. I’ve discovered that it is much more inviting to write in than a blank page for me. I actually want to sit down to write. I even think during the day about remembering to write something down later. I’m rather excited about this new phase in my creative journey.

    Watching the growing community of Hobonichi users was very inspiring as well as generous journal folk who share their videos on YouTube. So many ideas to put to use. I feel as if I pulled together the things that will work for me from the plethora of information I’ve absorbed. That being said, its important to me that I am authentic in what I do…not just copy ideas verbatim. What fun is that!? Besides this is my personal journal…if I can’t be real on those pages, there is really little hope.

    I think I might do another video after a while to share some progress and interesting tidbits or techniques I’ve used in the journal.

    I did a little before school refashion for Mini-me last week as well. We’d picked up this sweater at Goodwill but she didn’t like the length it was on her…she’s very petite aka short. So she asked me if I could do something about it…15 mins before we left for school. What do you think?!

    Last week simply flew by. Volleyball games during the week, a tournament that both Mini-me and I worked at then a short trip to a small apple orchard with friends. I finally tried a couple of varieties of apples that were developed by the University of Minnesota; honey crisp and sweet tango. Both were so good! The orchard also had a few pear trees. I’ve never been a fan of pears but I took a slice when offered since it was the polite thing to do. I was actually surprised at the difference in taste than typical grocery store pears.

    Thank goodness we got some nice apples because I really need those. You know the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”… well, I am fighting a cold. I was hoping it was just allergies but I fear it is a cold. Those darn germ covered kids and surfaces at school. Just can’t seem to avoid it. So my beverage today is an immune boosting drink. Fingers crossed that it does the trick.

    Work and volleyball still dominate our schedule.

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?