• 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?
  • Around home - Blog

    T Tuesday: seeing red edition

    September 17, 2018 - By 

    Mini-me and I are continuing to redo her new room aka J’s old room. Since he won’t be using his 9 months of the year, his stuff and my sewing machine have taken up residence in there. Sewing machine is only temporary. 🙂

    Speaking of the sewing machine reminds me that I posted about my handmade journal yesterday. I even made a video of a flip through of the journal…check it out.

    Back to the room makeover. Mini-me has lots of black and white accessories with splashes of red such as this painting she claimed.

    As you can see it doesn’t look great on the blue walls.

    So she is auditioning some paint colors.  Oh and check out the candelabra. I picked it up at a rummage sale a while back. It was in need of a bit of sprucing up. I removed the dangling beads and sprayed everything…including the beads and faux crystals black. They turned out really good!

    I had also picked up a white vinyl cushioned vanity stool a while back. It evidently was so ugly I didn’t take a “before” photo.

    I removed the cushion and upholstered it with that splash of red she was looking for.

    And these great vintage buttons from my mom’s sewing box.

    Doesn’t look great now with a fresh coat of black paint and the new cushion!?!!

    The room seems to be coming together. The paint will be the biggest thing to contend with. Time is always a factor. She also wants fairy lights for soft lighting to hangout in. When it done I’ll have to take some more photos.

    dark coffee or coffee in the dark

    And of course since this is T stands for Tuesday I am sharing my morning cup with you…

    T stands for Tuesday

    What are you doing today?