Author : halleday

1729 posts

T Tuesday: I have no idea edition

Wow…I don’t even know where to start. I had effectively checked out of blogland for an extensive period of time. I wasn’t creating, feeling like being creative or even enjoying looking at others creative work. A big old funk is what I’m calling it.

Now perhaps since we are heading into this crazy uncharted waters time of life, I feel the deep need to reach out to my online folk and participate. I hope you will all welcome me back with open arms…because after all…we are maintaining a 6 foot distance.

I don’t mean to sound flippant about the current state of the world at all. I mean it. It’s serious folks. Life as we know it is changing more rapidly everyday. Schools are closing and moving to online learning models. Case in point….I spent all day today typing online curriculum in the event we go to “distance learning” after our extended spring break.

J got the notice today that his college has been moved to online learning for the remainder of the semester. It’s really too bad that we had just traveled to Duluth on Saturday to get his laptop and books along with some clothes…now he needs to move completely out. *sigh*

With all the ever-changing, fluid nature of everyday life we are currently dealing with, it’s nice to be able to share with others some beauty, some stories, some escape. With that in mind I will update you on a few things since I’ve been AFK.

In the art realm, I’ve been a bit stagnant. I did create this journal page which made me happy that I hadn’t completely forgotten how to art journal.retro color quote art journal page

I like the ragged edge on this page. It will eventuality get glued onto a black card stock page in a binder journal.

Over the past few week school and school events have kind of taken a bunch of my time and energy. Our school does a fantastic fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of MN each year. Our students take this very seriously. During the final push classrooms hold garage sales with donated or created items all under $2. Juniper my pet rock

Meet Juniper, my new pet rock. She lives in my locker. Greets me each morning upon arrival to school and makes me smile.snowshoeing

My job as a special education paraprofessional has an extremely varied job description. I go from class to class supporting my learners in whatever it is they are doing. Science, math, reading, home economics, technology etc. This day it included snowshoeing. It was actually really fun and not as physically taxing as I had imagined. We traveled 1.5 miles in about an hour through the woods up and down a ravine. Marvin field trip

Speaking of school…on a workshop day, Marvin went on a little field trip to the high school. Do you see him?cookies

Mini-me and I worked our district archery tournament right after Marvin’s’ field trip. IT was a busy weekend. Mini-me made lots of cookies to sell for concessions. This picture show the ducks and grey ducks….its a MN thing…and the right thing. Duck, duck, grey duck NOT duck, duck, goose.archery tournament

I worked the team registration table so I decided that some signage was needed. It turned out really well so it went in the tournament bin for next year. archery tournament

Mini-me shot her personal best once again. She has been continuing to shoot better each tournament. She shot a 272 out of a possible 300. Now with COVID-19 running rampant, the final tournaments have been canceled. Hopefully they will still grant her varsity letter in archery.painted fingers

Yesterday I snapped this photo…messy painted fingers. They made me so happy.

I have two more days of school…with no children there…until our extended spring break. Then who knows what will happen. Mini-me was supposed to get her wisdom teeth removed over break…again…who knows what is going to happen. I guess we all are learning to be flexible.

 

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: winter chill edition

I did it! I finally got creative in the form of an art journal page.

through flowering gardens art journal page

It took me a few days to get it done but I did it. Ah makes me feel so much better knowing that given enough time, my muse is still there. Maybe she was just frozen.through flowering gardens art journal page

I honestly just kept grabbing things from my scrap bin and gluing them down onto some cardstock to get the ball rolling. Over the top I spread a bit of white paint to mute the wild background. Then I went back with teal and lime green. This combination of colors made me smile and almost forget how dang cold the basement was.through flowering gardens art journal page

This flower was created with layers of die-cut  book pages secured together with a large brad. I used various sprays until reaching the desired color. After it was completely dry I shaped the petals.

through flowering gardens art journal page

I used a little piece of my new Tim Holtz tissue up one side of the page. The butterfly and flower had me thinking spring along with the cheerful background color.

I’m hopeful that I can continue a bit of crafting here and there as the temperature seems to finally be getting warmer. Maybe then the basement won’t be so frigid.

cold early morning coffee x2

This was my Wednesday morning on the way to work. It was so cold. It’s also my early day. I had finished my cup of coffee I brought from home well before arriving at school. I had to stop in an grab a cup to go as well.  A two coffee morning for sure!

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?
Also linking up with Try it on Tuesday for Go Green

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Tuesday: books edition

Welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday. The only post I seem to do lately.

new H mug

One of the teachers I work with surprised me with this H mug last week, It’s so pretty and holds a copious amount of hot beverage.

new H mug

I was admiring the new to me ledger. It will provide me with lots of great background papers and junk journal pages. So cool!

new supplies

Speaking of supplies. I picked up some goodies at Michael’s on clearance. Super excited about my new supplies.

book stack

I have made one crafty item lately…this book stack home decor item. Makes me laugh every time I look at it!

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: many things edition

This post will be a jumble…so many things in so many directions. That’s my life right now. Some days I feel a little more scattered than others. When I’m having a scattered day I am trying to be mindful and prioritize, slow down when possible and forgive myself for not vacuuming.

I finally set up my sewing machine in J’s room. Not really sure what took me so long to get back to it… perhaps lost creative mojo.

Quilting

marvin being helpful

Now that my machine is in a usable space I got out the scrappy quilt top I made before Christmas. I settled on a tie-dye fabric from my stash for the backing. As soon as I laid the quilt on the floor for basting, my helper showed up.

marvin being helpful

Making the bed is pretty much his favorite activity…well maybe eating and sleeping are tied for first then making the bed.  Of course, he doesn’t understand that laying the quilt out nice and flat and smooth, keeping it all inline are an integral part of the process.

Teaset pincushion

Since this desk overlooks the front yard, it’s a perfect spot for Marvin to do a bit of bird watching. With that in mind, I decided that the standard tomato pincushion wasn’t the right choice…looks a little too much like a ball.

teacup pin cushion

I made this teacup pincushion a while back and have finally put it to use. I love that the cup sits slightly off-center on the saucer. When I first noticed this mistake I was upset but now I realize that this is a good thing. The off-center placement allows for more useful space for sewing tools at the ready.

Week of appreciation

para appreciation week

Last week was declared Paraprofessional appreciation week by Governer Walz. Our school went all out making us feel appreciated in so many ways. Puny gifts, signs on our lockers, cards, and breakfast but honestly, the most meaningful one was drawing and note from a student that I wasn’t sure I was making an impact with.

Archery

Archery season is upon us. I love this season even with the distance we travel most Saturdays. It gives Mini-me and I some quality time in the car.

Birthday Boy

reading to friends

J turned 20 years old today!! TWENTY!! So crazy. It was hard not to be with him today. I was very distracted with thoughts of him throughout the day. I just wanted to hop in the van and drive to Duluth. I’ll be calling him shortly when his class is over…but it’s just not the same.

What else…oh yeah…I dyed my hair…mostly the underside…purple. Well…technically eggplant. Yep…totally went for it. It’s really fun and I love it. The family had a bit of a hard time getting used to it but I think they have now. If you take a peek at my about me page, you will see the new look.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: card crazy edition

Another week that has flown by. Not sure how it happens that I don’t even touch my blog for a week at a time. That being said, I have been working on creative pursuits whenever possible. Well that’s not exactly accurate…I did waste a bunch of time one day on YouTube watching other people exploring the great outdoors when we were cooped up inside. somewhat organized space

Getting organized has been a priority for me over the last few months. Trust me…I’m just scratching the surface. I’m sort of an organized chaos type of person. I want to change that so I’m working in baby steps.

scrap bin

I’ve gathered my paper scraps into this bin to make them more usable and visible.

scrap bin

But along with getting organized I trip myself up… I hate waste. Throwing stuff out really bothers me which is why I always seem to have a mountain of scraps.

creative space

With that in mind, I’m continuing my efforts to use scraps in creative ways. Mini-collages for cards and journal pages mostly.

organized sentiment stamps

Now that I have my sentiment stamps all in one spot, I have an easier time finding the words I want to use.

dark 30 coffee

I wasn’t sure I was going to get this posted when I started to write, find and edit photos etc yesterday. But I guess my brain had other ideas. I woke super early this morning soI was able to sit and finish my post with my first cup of coffee before getting ready for work.

 

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: changes edition

This week is one of change. J heads back to college for the Spring semester. Our school is having its final week of the semester. Next week brings new classes for me and Mini-me, just to name a few.  With J heading back to college I’ll once again be expanding my crafty space to include the desk in his room. Perhaps then I’ll catch up with a couple of projects that have hit the back burner over the last month.

New projects

I’m creating an embellishment storage booklet. I was inspired by Gayle Agostinelli. So far I only have one page of the booklet completed. It’s not pretty but that wasn’t my purpose. I’m using up papers and extras that I’ll never use. It’s strictly utilitarian. Waste not, want not.embellishment booklet

I slipped a few random paper pieces in the pockets so they’d actually show up…

embellishment booklet

It will make better sense when it’s all put together but basically I want to have a book or booklet with all my small or fussy cut embellishments at the ready instead of searching through half a dozen places for just the right piece I know I own.

Another new project is actually an old one that I never started. The sketchbook project that I purchased over the summer. Of course, at the time the due date seemed so far away…now its only weeks away.sketchbook project page

sketchbook project page

I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of these pages in the weeks to come. My only disappointment is that the pages are so thin…any wet media really soaks through very quickly. I definitely have to keep this in mind instead of just intuitively creating as I prefer.

Last weekend we finally put away all the Christmas decor. I snapped this late even photo the night before for my obligatory T Tuesday beverage reference. T Tuesday obligatory photo

Something fun that just came in the mail that I had to share was our “free” Marvin puzzle.

Marvin puzzle

I say “free” because for the puzzle itself we had a coupon code making it $0 but then the shipping seemed a bit overpriced so they definitely were making their money somehow.

I snapped this pretty sky photo when I got to work this morning. The sun was behind a veil of thin clouds…it was a perfect orange disk. The view almost made up for the slick driving conditions from the overnight snow. Almost.snowy morning sky

Such a bummer…we’re getting snow again right now…in fact, we are getting snow basically every day this week during one or both commutes. Not fun.

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

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Mindful habit making

Since choosing my Word of the Year for 2020, I have been working at keeping that word in the forefront. You could say I have been MINDFUL of my word.

One of my goals in this coming year…and basically every year previous is to make healthier choices. I don’t want this to fall to the wayside at my first slip-up as has happened so many times in the past. I decided to take a cue from some of the successful behavior modification programs I’ve been a part of with students. I’m focusing on the positives…not the negatives.

Often students will have a sticker chart or a ticket system to earn breaks, trinkets or game time. I thought this could work with myself as well after realizing how much the silly achievement badges from Fitbit actually motivated me.

I wanted to get a planner to record my achievements in but haven’t had the chance. I decided not to let that stop me and grabbed a journal/notebook that I’ve been using for random bits.

I set myself up with a box of supplies so it is at the ready when I am to sit down and record. It’s not pretty or even neatly planned but sometimes life isn’t either.

I feel that setting myself up to be successful will enable me to create this mindful habit of celebrating life’s little achievements instead of beating myself up about my shortcomings.

It’s said that it only takes 21 days to create a habit…looks like I’m on my way.

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