• Art - Blog - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: waste not edition

    Here I am, once again, at dark thirty writing my T stands for Tuesday post in between getting kids up and making lunches. Perhaps of these days…weeks…years…I’ll get the habit of preplanning these things. I think it’s my personality though to wait and see where life takes me.

    T Tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    Today I wanted to share a couple of things I did this week to repurpose items that would have been thrown away or in this first case, composted.

    I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making apple cider vinegar. I’ve read numerous posts on this old fashion technique. Usually this time of year we have apples coming out of our ears from our neighbor’s trees. This year happened to be a poor production year with their trees.

    Homemade apple cider vinegar t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    I did have a couple organic store bought apples that we’re definitely past their prime. Not wanting to completely waste expensive apples, I decided to experiment. The recipes or tutorials I read used peels and cores but I’m certain that using the whole apple will work just fine. I sterilized my quart mason jar in the dishwasher then filled it with the chopped apples. I used spring water to completely cover the apples. A scrap of cloth was placed under the ring to allow it to breath. I placed it in our basement storage room while it does its magic. Hopefully by Christmas, I’ll have some homemade apple cider vinegar.

    The second waste not piece of this post was using a paper scrap in an unexpected way.

    t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    The scrap started as a misprinted Christmas letter from last year. Then it protected my journal from paint and sprays, glues and inks.

    t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    Now it’s the base of a new art journal page. Who know where this page will take me.

    Do you use any “throw away” items in unexpected ways? I’d love to hear about them…

     

     

  • Art - Blog

    Wishes and dreams

    I’ve been very drawn to the multi layered look of journal pages, collage and mixed media of all sorts lately. The more textural, the better. As I sat down to create, I had two things in mind…texture and spray mist color.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    I placed masking tape down the spine then layered joint tape randomly in opposite corners of the pages. Next I gave the whole thing a thin coat of gesso.  Even with the thin coat of gesso, I got impatient waiting for it to dry so I started spraying sooner than I likely should have.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    At this point everything was so wet I had to walk away.

    After it was thoroughly dry, I began laying down some texture.  I used foreign text from a Brothers Grimm fairy tales book, leftover burlap from my monogram wreath, rusted fabric, a clothing tag and a bit of calico fabric for my layers.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    In addition I used a punched square from an old greeting card as a focal image on the left hand page. A sweet little girl blowing a dandelion seed head making a wish.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    Which ties into the words I used on the clothing tag. The words are from a Tim Holtz sticker pack.  I cut the phrase apart to place on the clothing tag.

    I watered down some black craft paint to make splatters but was unhappy with the result so I attempted to soak them up with a cloth.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    Lastly I used vintage photo distress ink to stamp a floral vine in opposite corners to give balance to the pages.

    Art Journal Journey

    I am linking up with Art Journal Journey today. The theme of the  month is Inspired by Autumn colors. The warm browns and splash of orange fit into my vision of the Autumn landscape around me.

  • Blog - Outdoors - Tutorials

    T Tuesday: smudge stick edition

    During the process of putting the garden to bed for the winter, I drastically trimmed back my herbs. Now I am crossing my fingers that the plants themselves will overwinter.

    Anyway I decided to make some smudge sticks as I have heard that burning sage helps deter mosquitoes.  Worth a try.

    IMG_0619

    I found a spool of heavy duty cotton button thread in my stash and set to work.

    Smudge sticks

    I likely could have made 4 bundles but honestly they were a pain to make. It will be interesting to see if they work next summer.

    I’m linking up once again with Elizabeth for T stands for Tuesday

    vintage look tea

    my beverage is coffee again. Soon with the weather changing I’ll be back to tea to stay warm.

    Lots on calendar today including 2 doctor appointments.

    What are you doing today?