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    T Tuesday: dream catcher, deer deterrent edition

    July 9, 2018 - By 

    Its been a busy week with the Independence day holiday smack in the middle. Lots of time off for everyone. A wedding, drivers training, a parade then cookout followed by local fireworks.

    First the wedding…it was lovely and sweet. The crazy thing is I used to do before school care for the groom. Yikes…making me feel old. 

    We did the traditional parade and cookout with the neighbors. Mini-me brought a friend this time. After we returned home about a dozen of J’s friends came over and braved the heat of the garage to play board games and hang out until fireworks. A large game of Nerf Wars eventually broke out. I’m still finding Nerf darts in the yard.

    The next morning I got out of bed and literally hobbled to the bathroom. I couldn’t figure out why my feet hurt so much….

     

    Then I saw this. I walked just a little bit on the 4th. Good thing I was wearing my walking sandals.

    So I bet you are wondering if I’m ever going to get to the dream catcher, deer deterrent portion of this post.

    I made this dream catcher one day basically just as a test. One to see if I could follow directions and two to see if using a non perfect circle would make things weird.  I also wanted to see how to adding beads to the webbing.

    My grand experiment taught me several things. I decided I like the asymmetrical  look of the webbing. I also like the organic look of the bent tree branch I used for the frame. I decided to hang it from our service berry tree right over my Tiger Lilies in hopes of scaring the deer away. They have already stolen the tops of two of the stems. The remaining ones are full of buds. Fingers crossed that it works!

    I can always dream right?!?

    T stands for Tuesday

    What are you doing today?

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    Art for art’s sake

    July 3, 2018 - By 

    Early Sunday morning I sat down to create. Getting my fingers full of paint and glue rejuvenates me. I used what was at hand.

     Scrapbook paper, magazine cuttings, ribbon and washi tape just to name a few.

    After creating this page I notice that the current theme for July on Art Journal Journey is Art for Art’s Sake hosted by Chris of Pearshapedcrafting. Don’t you just love it when things fall into place. It doesn’t always happen that so when it does…woohoo!

    Art Journal Journey

     

  • Blog - Photography

    T Tuesday: Chinese garden edition

    July 3, 2018 - By 

    Last Friday Mini-me had the day off of work…yes, my little baby girl has a job. How does this happen?!?  The forecast had nothing good to say. Hot and humid with extreme heat warnings. So we figured the best course of action would be to go walking at the MN Landscape Arboretum. Yeah…good choices did not prevail. But that’s ok…all’s well that ends well as the old saying goes.

    We headed out early for a little fuel in the form of Chick-Fil-A biscuits and iced coffee.

    The Arboretum recently opened a new Chinese garden that we had completely forgotten about until we happened upon it on our 3 mile walk…technically its a drive but biking and walking are welcome.

    As you enter you pass under a lovely arch…this is it from the back of the garden.

    This plaque greeted us as we passed through the archway.

    In the distance we could see large interesting art pieces drawing us further into the garden.

    As well as the geometric red fencing that was the perfect perch for several birds as they sang their beautiful songs over the pond.

    The area is quite sparse at this point. That may be purposeful. All I know is that by this point in our trek we were very overheated.

    Mini-me caught a bit of breeze in the shade of a pagoda.

     Ahead of us on the crushed gravel pathway was this gorgeous dragon.

    He looks very fierce. The detail of the work that the artist was able to create on the large scale using metal intrigues me. Evidently he is just on loan to the Arboretum. I wonder when and if they will have more permanent installations in that garden.

    We will definitely be making more visits to the Arboretum as summer continues. We like to walk, take photos and chat together. Its nice having grown up conversations with my kids. Ones that don’t involve nagging about chores, homework or how much time they spend staring at screens. (as I sit here staring at my screen)

    Today has a list as usual for me. It keeps me on track. In fact a friend and I are texting a photo of our list each morning to each other and then again in the evening to hold us accountable for checking stuff off that list. So far, so good. Of course this week with the Independence Day holiday things are a little wonky but stuff still needs to get done.

     

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?