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    T Tuesday: Christmas is coming edition

    The countdown is on. Christmas will be here before we know it! AHHH! Who had all their shopping done? Nope, not me. And we have a couple birthdays on either side of Christmas too. WHEW…the pressure.

    In reality, I’m not super stressed at all. It all seems to work itself out. I do enjoy gift giving…just more the spontaneous gift giving than the obligatory. Such as I got a sweet gift from a coworker completely unexpectedly. I had complemented her a  her bag and she told me she’d picked it up in the dollar spot at Target( not affiliation). A couple days later she brought me my very own matching bag!

    I like to try to make some gifts…or make gifts for others to give. I was working on a new item I saw a while ago and have wanted to give a whirl. I got all my pieces cut and ready then ….

    this happened.

    Totally not getting anything done. That’s ok because I was still recovering from the weirdest illness I’ve had in recent years. Sore throat, stuff nose, icky tummy and wicked dizziness…like hardly able to walk dizzy. Mini-me got it first then me then Mr. G. Thankfully it only lasted a day.

    Back to the craftiness…

    I made microwave bowl cozies. No more burned fingers. They are microwavable, reversible, washable and downright handy.

    Our school is having another craft sale week long this year.  Its really fun to see what co-workers like to create in their leisure time.I brought some of my old etsy and craft sale stock as well as the new product that I’m trying out. Frankly I don’t care if the bowl cozies sell because I can give them as gifts.

    On other news…my December Daily is ready to go. I will share it in another post. I’m really excited about this project. I keep tucking bits of this and that away each day to slip into my journal. It will be super fun to look back on in the coming years. I still pull out the book I made from my calendar project of 2014.

    The cold weather has me sipping on tea everyday…both to keep the chill off and to sooth my sore throat.

    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Blog - Crafts - Creativity - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: thankful edition

    Welcome to T stands for Tuesday where we share a little about whatever the heck we want along with our beverage of choice. Pretty easy rules, right?!? Here’s my adherence to the rules…

    Since I am finishing up my extended break from work….6 days off… Woohoo!…. I thought I’d share a few highlights.

    Wednesday evening, Mini-me and I went to MOA (Mall of America) not to shop but to pick up J.  So cool that he can take the bus right from campus to home…or relatively close.

    Thursday, we enjoyed a lovely meal at my in-laws. I brought the stuffing aka: dressing as it is unstuffed. I wrapped the dutch oven in newspaper and towels just like my parents taught me when I was a kid.Later my BIL followed us home to extend our visit a bit. We hadn’t seen any family in a couple months which is sad when we are only about 20 minutes drive from one another.

    Friday, we decorated for Christmas….it’s our tradition to decorate the day after Thanksgiving. No Black Friday shopping for us. Only twice in my life have I braved that chaos. No thank you!

    Saturday was so quiet I can’t even remember what we did…or didn’t do.

    Sunday Mini me and I made the first batch of lefse of the season. So yummy.  Of course, later In the day Mr. G and I had to deliver J back to MOA to catch the bus back to college.  Just a few short weeks and we’ll be driving up north to get him for winter break.

    Monday I spent going through some totes in the storage room. I was able to reorganize and purge enough stuff that I have one completely empty tote. Mini-me and I brought a pile of stuff to Goodwill to donate. They always give a 25% off coupon when you donate…so of course we went in to see what they had. Mini-me found some yarn…she’s requesting another cowl.

    I did manage to work on some creative pursuits as well during this long break.  You can check out the previous two posts for my vintage linen remake and art journal page. I also continued work on my personal journal and completed my December Daily journal. It’s all ready to go! I’m thinking I’ll do a video with a flip through perhaps. It has WAY too many pages for photos. WAY more than I need but hey…I’m still learning with this process.

    The current experiment is rose gold tint for Mini-me

    She’s been trying little bits of it all through the break but tonight decided to go all in. I helped her spray it in damp hair…now she’s waiting to rinse.

    I think it will be fun regardless. Besides…it’s temporary. When I go, I go all in with the pink hair…permanent style.

    Tuesday is back to reality for everyone.  All good things come to an end. I do really like my job, so its not all bad. I just miss my free time. My mini-me time. Gosh, it’s going to be really hard when she goes off to college. *sniff*

     

    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Blog - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: missed a week edition

    Last week is a whirlwind in my mind. I’m not even sure why I missed T stands for Tuesday but I did. So this week will be a bit of a catching up….again.

    I think we shall start with Mother’s Day.Mothers day sushi

    Take out sushi from our favorite local sushi resturant. We actually had this on Saturday since we spent Sunday at my in-laws house. Since their health isn’t the best right now, I brought the meal. The boys tackled the spring/summer to-do list for their folks. It was a good day. Staying busy  was good so I didn’t dwell on my first Mother’s day without my mom.last concert

    Last week also brought the last choir concert for J. Its an emotional concert for me…even before having a graduating senior. The last two songs are always the same and they are sung by all members of all choirs. Real tear-jerkers. As they sing the seniors come off stage and bring their parents a rose. Pass the tissues please…..

    senior rose

    They also have a fun slide show of highlights and the guess the baby photo of the senior. So awesome! When we got home it was late and I couldn’t bring myself to dig in the storage room for a bud vase especially when the recycling was so close. A wine bottle works well. And bonus it hits the T stands for Tuesday beverage as well. 🙂paint to paper

    Workspace current view…

    I haven’t really had any creative mojo for the past week or so. I’ve put paint to paper but completed nothing.

    Most of this past weekend was spent outdoors. We scrubbed the deck which was long overdue. We decided that once it was scrubbed the weathered barnwood look was quite appealing so we’ve decided to just re-stain the railings.

    Marvin approves. We used some plywood to provide a temporary gate so he could enjoy the a little sun on the deck with us. Of course he has his own personal greenhouse. Cats and boxes…

    Anyway…we were enjoying the sunshine on the deck after long weekend of toil which also included planting in the garden.

    The shed garden doesn’t look like much yet. Once the seeds sprout the space will quickly fill.

    These onions are a funny story. Last fall I dumped this planter box into the shed garden figuring we’d just use the rototiller to mix in potting soil from containers into the garden. As I was pulling weeds, I noticed that this brick of soil was sprouting onion up from underneath. I tipped it back over and had all these green onions that were curling around the edges seeking sun. I tossed it back in the planter box and watered to see what would happen. Now a week or so later they are wonderful.

    After we took the patio set and chiminea out of the shed and set it up we noticed that the chiminea is on its last summer.

    The crack in the terracotta has grown exponentially. We need to be very careful with how we treat it over summer.

    This week is slightly quieter than last…I think.

    What are you doing today?