Author : halleday

1729 posts

Junk Journal November challenge

I did it. I committed to a new challenge. Even knowing I’d be behind in the beginning.

I’m over halfway to being caught up.  Not too shabby.

Time Travel 1/30

All the pieces fell right into place for this one. I had the tag premade from another scrap busting project. The clock face is vellum. I have no idea where I got it…I have a small baggie of clock faces and gauges in vellum.

Collage 2/30

I wasn’t sure where I was going with this one…I didn’t really think, just started layering papers. I knew I’d end up with a focal image or words. The fussy cut elephant told me she belonged on the page. I love elephants. One Saturday I spent the afternoon watching documentaries on elephants while cutting fabric. Such a great way to spend a couple of hours.

Old-fashioned 3/30

I’m sure this prompt was meant to be old -fashioned as in a period in time and all that went along with it. My mind went in another direction entirely. I immediately thought about Don Draper of Mad Men. The character had a drink of choice…an Old-Fashioned.

I did my best to mimic a low ball glass with whiskey. I even added ice cubes.

Reduce 4/30

I didn’t particularly care for this prompt so this is what I came up with to get it over with.

Fox 5/30

This one feels a bit too scrapbooky. I journaled about the time we had a sick fox under our deck. It was really gross…we could smell it before we could see it. The police and animal control were in the area looking for it as they feared it had rabies. It ran away before they caught it. I never heard the end of the tale but I have to assume they got it or it crawled in a hole somewhere and died.

Stay tuned for more pages as I get caught up. You can also see them on Instagram if you can’t wait for them to post here.

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T Tuesday: Halloween edition

I sometimes feel guilty about dressing up for Halloween when we skipped the whole works when our kids were young. At the time it made sense due to food allergies. Now with my job, it’s kind of a thing again.

I dressed as a VSCO girl. Those of you who don’t have teenagers won’t get it. but the kids at school loved it! “Oh my gosh Mrs. G…you’re a VSCO girl!” “That is so awesome!”  You can google it if you are super curious…

This was a good chunk of the staff who dressed for the occasion. So fun…and some actual learning took place believe it or not.

Over the weekend I went to a local craft fair and immediately fell in love with this bowl.

Something about it spoke to me. I told the potter that I’d be back…I had to think about it. I quickly made the rounds through the rest of the vendors in the gym and came back with cash in hand.

I LOVE IT!! The potter is a retired orthopedic surgeon. After decades away from the wheel, he started creating again.  I’m certainly happy he did!

I have to show you my view this morning after the time change. Marvin is not a fan. He doesn’t understand why I’m not willing to open the shades @dark 30.

So he waits… giving me the cold shoulder…or rear.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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New junk journal

I can hardly believe it but I’m posting something other than T Tuesday. It’s been a while. I’ve been in a creative slump. Not sure how it happened but never the less it did.

I’ve sat down a couple of times trying to force creativity.

Don’t do it. It’s ugly.

What I did finally decide that I’d like to create was a place to create. A junk journal. I’m sure you’re thinking…hey wait…didn’t she just make one of those. Yep sure did. But that one is for bits of my life, more personal.

This one is for the creative process. Whether that may be art journaling, responding to a prompt or a challenge.

I loved this calendar ephemera my BFF sent in a package. She knew I’d love it as much as the actual gift she sent.

I used some rusted fabric on the inside of the softcover.

The outside is watercolor paper that had been painted and whitewash some time ago. I found it in my stash and knew it would make a nice flexible cover.

I decided to use a 5 hole pamphlet stitch this time instead of my usual go-to of three hole stitch.

This journal has a wide variety of papers that should prove to be a good and challenging launching point for the creative process.

I’m considering joining another junk journal challenge on Instagram as I did in July. I need to decide soon otherwise I might be too far behind.

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T Tuesday: Como Zoo edition

Good Morning! I almost missed another week of blogging. I’ve been really off my game for a couple of weeks.

J came home from college on a 4 day Fall break.
It was fun to see him again so soon and mostly healthy this time. He still has a lingering cough. The evening we picked him up I sat back and watched the fun banter between the kids. It felt more like old times. Warmed this mom’s heart.

On Saturday Mini-me and I went to Como Zoo so she could take photos for a photography class assignment. It was a photojournalism assignment to record a community event. We went to the polar bear talk at the zoo. 

Look at the size of those paws!! It was an interesting presentation. Mini-me got lots of great photos to complete her assignment. Then we were able to walk around and enjoy the rest of the chilly morning.

This lioness was very upset. There was a service dog walking past. She was staring and growling. The dog was whining. It was sad because the family was deaf and wasn’t aware of the dog’s distress right away until it began to act out of sorts…definitely not like a trained service dog. Thankfully for the dog, they immediately left the area when they realized it.

Before heading home we stopped in the gift shop.

We discovered a large selection of tea sets. Who knew?

These cats made me smile.

I was very tempted to purchase this black set. It was so beautiful.

Well kids…I’m off to school. Halloween is Thursday…I’m dressing up again this year…the kids will think it’s pretty funny…I hope.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: canvas edition

I have been all over the place this week with ideas. None of which have actually come to fruition. But ideas are the start, right?

I am thinking of making a few seasonal canvas paintings. While digging through my canvas stash I found this one. I feel like it needs some words.

On these canvases, I threw some color down on the background to cover the previous paintings. I picked these two canvases out of a free bin at a garage sale over the summer. No idea where I’m headed with these…or if this is even a remote representation of the background colors….it was just a coverup.

My journal keeps getting more things tucked inside without any actual placement or journaling. One of these days…

The same goes for my travel journal. Although I did get photos printed, so I’m a little closer.

In art class this week the kids are working with clay. One of my students wanted to make a creeper from Minecraft. On the day I missed, it was decided that he’d make a mug. I helped him assemble the pieces and create the signature face. This week it’s all about adding textures and interest.  I’ve been assisting in the assembly a few other students’ projects as well…I love playing with clay. It would be so fun to make a project myself too. :)

This weekend brought us an unwelcome visitor…snow. As you can clearly see, we are nowhere ready for winter. Thankfully it was short-lived and we made it above 50°F today.

On Saturday we also had welcome visitors. They brought over this hard cider,

It was really quite good. I didn’t think I’d like it as most hard ciders are too sweet. This was not…it was almost like a dry white wine in flavor.

And I promised photos of all the assembled furniture…the white pieces are Mini-me’s and the dark brown is in J’s room.

We have a choir concert tonight for Mini-me. She is in two choirs this year…she and a couple of other girls are helping to lend more voice to the small freshmen girls choir. This means a change of clothes for them…floor-length dresses to choir robes.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: assembly edition

This week’s post is brought to you by IKEA…well, not officially. It’s just what the past three days and counting were all about. Building new pieces for the kids’ rooms. Truly not the entire time but it certainly felt like it. And I’m still at it!!

My weekend actually started a day early. J was feeling really cruddy and just wanted to come home to rest. He caught the 6:45 am bus from college. I knew he was definitely ill when he voluntarily got up that early. I took the day off so I could meet the bus at MOA.

It was good to see him a few weeks earlier than expected…just a bummer that he was so sick. Nasty virus. I didn’t even hug him until he was leaving….sad but true. He pretty much spent the weekend in bed or in a steaming hot shower trying to clear his congestion.

So I mentioned IKEA…in the above picture if I had panned right 90° right, you’d see IKEA. Of course, at this moment in time, we hadn’t decided to purchase anything new. SO off to home we drove.

The next morning we made the decision to buy two new dressers and a desk from IKEA…back across the city we went.  Mini-me and I started by putting together her new dresser. It went wonderfully. Then we open the desk box….DAMAGED GOODS! UGH!

I was not about to drive back there again on the same day since we’d be heading back on Sunday to drop J off at the bus. When we returned we got a new desk and another storage unit. Yep…4 pieces of furniture to assemble. Oh goodie…

This is the current state of things. I’m on the last piece. Four drawers left to assemble on J’s new dresser. I can tell you one thing…my body doesn’t like me sitting on the floor that long.

I promise I’ll share photos of the new pieces…but for now. My water is empty and I need to shower because it’s picture day at school tomorrow! Remember the stress of picture day? It’s funny…not quite as stressful for me these days. I know for sure no picture I take can be as bad as the ones I took during my middle school years! LOL

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: junk journal and more edition

Last Tuesday had me very introspective with my post. Throwing the words down and wading through them really helped me through what I was feeling. Your comments were also inspiring…so thank you for that!

Mindset

At school, we often talk about growth vs fixed mindset. I think perhaps those lessons are rubbing off on me as well. Setting goals, developing a plan and not giving up when life throws a curveball. Honestly, these are things I have done in the past but I didn’t think critically about them until now.

So last week I talked myself through making a plan to set aside time to create. Guess what?  I did!

I had the bones of this junk journal project set aside…I just needed the time, drive and a few little tidbits to make it happen. Now that it’s done…I love it.  I’m planning to use it for bits and piece from everyday life, quotes, thoughts, etc.  I want to do a flip through at some point. What I really need to do is figure out YouTube and publish videos there and embed them in my posts. I think it would honestly be easier than the way I’ve been doing it.

In addition to making this junk journal, we had a flurry of activity on Saturday. Mini-me and I went to a local church rummage sale for bag day as we try to do each year. We spent a total of $16.50. Mini-me filled one reusable grocery bag mostly with clothes…$4. I filled one with clothes, craft supplies, and potential Halloween costumes…$4. The third bag was filled with books…$4.  In addition, we bought one super old arithmetic primer…$1 and a print for Mini-me’s room….$3.50

I only took photos of my lovely new crafty items. Look at that amazing box of trims!!

Saturday evening Mr. G’s brother messaged him saying that he was playing a gig in our neck of the woods. We quickly grabbed our things and headed out to hear him play the mandolin with the Roe Family Singers. It was a lovely but slightly chilly evening sitting on hay bales enjoying some bluegrass music.

Their aging corgi, Daisey, even made the trip. A good time was had by all.

We invited them back to our house after where I whipped together a few snacks and drinks since we haven’t seen them in a while. Sometimes the unplanned things are the most fun things!!

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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