Author : halleday

1729 posts

T Tuesday: completed journal recap edition

I am finally finished….as in completely finished with another journal. The inside pages have been done for a month or so but I had not been inspired on how to pretty up the outside until now.

As you can see this was a big improvement from the original.

The pretty paper came from a flower Mini-me received at the end of her first campus tour.

They have a cool tradition there that every Friday local florists bring single flowers for the students to purchase and place in each others mailboxes. Since it was a Friday, each of the kids on the tour got a flower. Hers was wrapped in the lovely pink floral kraft paper.

I wanted to keep the original inscription so I used washi tape to adhere the paper like a book jacket. Remember covering textbooks with grocery bags…same concept. Just prettier.

Mini-me and I are both a little obsessed with washi tape. Sometime I’ll show you our collection.

I received some happy mail from a dear friend of mine the other day. She was doing a major purge and thought of me. Yay! Thank you!!

On a recent thrifting excursion I picked up a couple goodies for my stash. The journal is really cute but a little small. Not sure if it would work for me to art journal with as my original thought was for it. I’m always on the lookout for a new book to journal since I don’t work cover to cover in a methodical manner. I tend to jump between several journals. The one I shared today was started Nov 2016 and considering there are only 8 spreads…I definitely jump around.

Mini-me and I had our first taste of Fall with a Pumpkin Iced Crafted Press. So yummy!!

Tuesday we both head back to school. I’m ready for the schedule. I almost feel more productive at home when I’m working.

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

| |

, , , , , , ,

16 Comments

T Tuesday: collage and college edition

Lets start with the collage since this is an art blog after all. I decided to attack my scrap pile and make a few mini collage pieces as card backgrounds.  It’s been a long time since I made any cards.  It was really fun…why did I put it off so long.

I even got out my sewing machine to add a bit of stitching to a few places. I decided to leave all but one of the cards without any sort of greeting or sentiment right now. That way I can add whatever I want when the time comes to fit the personality and appropriate greeting for the recipient.

As expected I missed last weeks edition of T stands for Tuesday. We were on the road bringing J to college. We were up before the crack of dawn to get on the road.

My baby bulldog’s new home.

Shockingly we traveled lighter than some for move in day. We’ve started a bag of stuff to bring on parent weekend in October.

*note the waterbottle in accordance with T stands for Tuesday guidelines*

Then this happened the day after we dropped him off at school.

Today was his first day of classes. He bought his books, made it to all classes and sent me a nice selfie to add to my first day of school photos. It’s a good day. For me I had my first half day back to work. Another half day this week then back full time the following Tuesday. I was super excited when on the third attempt I remembered my locker combo. HA!

We are settling into our new normal. Soon I’ll have my sewing machine set up in the unoccupied bedroom. I have several projects I’ve been thinking about and just some repairs that need attention.

I have a ton more stuff to talk about but we have a big storm rolling in and I’m thinking I may have to shut this computer down for a while. I’ll save it for another post.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

| |

, ,

17 Comments

T Tuesday: eco dye edition

Last week on T stands for Tuesday I had mentioned that I had attempted some eco dyed papers. Today I thought I’d share my results with you.

Last we left off I had bundled my papers and my cooking pot was way too small….

One trip to Goodwill later, I found the perfect size pot in which to cook my paper bundle. 

The bundle wanted to float since it was pine boards that acted as the presser boards. A couple rocks worked well to hold the bundle down in the vinegar and alum spiked water. I boiled on the side burner of our grill for about and hour. Thank goodness I did this outside because it was not pleasant smelling. Also I learned that the pine boards had a lot of sap left in them…what a mess.

After boiling I drained off the cooking water then added cool water which I salted quite heavily. Once everything was cool enough to handle I started the unbundling process.

Then set the pages to dry on the hot concrete. I was surprised at what did and didn’t leave an impression. The marigolds and lemon grass had the greatest color from the experiment.  But that wasn’t my favorite.

It was these….the baby maple trees I pulled from my lawn were lovely ghosted images.

A few freshly turned leaves from our service berry tree gave a slightly rusty, vein like appearance as it’s only impression. Pretty as well but still not holding my interest like those baby maples.

I think I’ll try this again…but perhaps with other sources for dyes. Purple cabbage and onion skins are the first to jump to my mind. I think perhaps I’d get some nice color out of those.

Speaking of color….

I enjoyed a colorful sort of beer this summer. Grain Belt came out with a limited edition Blueberry infused beer. I had to buy some…its local and we like to support our local business. That’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ to it. It was pretty in color and pretty tasty too. Not that you’d really want to drink more than one…too sweet for that.

Anyway…this Tuesday I will be late in visiting…

Next week I may miss all together unless I prepost. We are taking J to college!! Move in day is the 21st. Crazy!!

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

| | | |

, ,

17 Comments

T Tuesday: homework edition

Once again I missed last Tuesday linkup with T stands for Tuesday. Typically I write then post immediately on Monday evening since we have so many folk are at least 6 hrs ahead of me. Last Monday I spent canning and baking since it was slightly cooler in temp.

yummy goodness from the garden and CSA

Check out these super long beans from the CSA

I borrowed the tall jars from my neighbor and gave her one of the finished as payment. These beans will be awesome garnish for Bloody Mary’s.

By the time the evening came about I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated to write. Fast forward to Tuesday morning I realized since Mini-me had to be to work early I could stop by and see my old knitting group. The group is very small now, in fact there were only two gals there that day. It was nice to get caught up on all the news anyway.

When I returned home I tackled a project that has been on the todo list for well over a year. We had a new front door installed by a friend and we told him we’d take care of the painting and trimming of said door. I stained all the wood of the jams of the door and when it was finished it looked really weird without trim covering it.

So I tackled the job that Mr. G had been dreading. I learned a few things from working with my dad as a kid so I was up to the task. While I was still working, I heard a car door slam outside . Mr. G had come home for lunch. I had wanted to surprise him with my handiwork complete. I’m pretty proud of my work. Mr. G was so glad it was done. He joked with me that if he’d know I could do that he’d have encouraged me to do it long ago.

Later that afternoon on the way home from picking up Mini-me we noticed the license plate in front of us. 

It was from Honduras! Over 3100 miles from home. Crazy!!!

I’ve been busy with many other things such as finishing an art journal, collecting and packing stuff for J to take to college in two weeks, eco dye papers and completely smashing my phone. Yep that was an expensive day. Thankfully I’ve got a new one and seem to have everything restored to my liking.

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

| |

, ,

14 Comments

Inspired to Eco Dye

I’ll admit it…I went down the rabbit hole this morning watching eco dye videos on YouTube. although I got nothing physically accomplished during that time I was definitely inspired to give it a whirl myself.

I picked up a pad of 100lb watercolor paper at a garage sale for 50¢. I figured this was good fodder for my experiment.  I walked around the yard picking various leaves, weeds and flowers to give variety since I really have no idea what will work the best. I also searched through the scrap lumber in the shed for wood to sandwich my pages between. 

my bundle is all ready to go…just one problem…

The cooking pot is too small. I fear we got rid of the large one that was in the shed at some point. A trip to Goodwill is in order before I can actually run my experiment.

While in the yard I discovered that my dream catcher did its job and kept the pesky deer from eating my tiger lily blossoms.

So pretty! Love the bright orange.

 

| | |

, ,

4 Comments

T Tuesday: outdoor goodness edition

The summer is flying by. I’m so thankful to be enjoying some of it outdoors. My garden is thriving with the abundant rain, heat and humidity.

This is the first year I’ve had any luck with cucumbers…they are nearly taking over the garden!!  So far I’ve picked only two. I’m hoping there will be many more for all the space the vines are taking up. My green beans are producing like crazy. Unfortunately I bought the wrong seeds. These are the ones with a bit of a texture on the bean..sort of like a peach. Blech….we like to eat our green beans raw from the garden. The texture just doesn’t work for me. I’ll be making these into canned spicy beans.

My yellow pear tomatoes are big but not producing much. Makes me kind of sad. Hopefully they are just a little slow this year.

We have been getting our weekly CSA box in addition to our garden. We are really enjoying this again this year. So many fresh veggies. I’ve even done a bit of juicing. Trying to use the veggies in a different way. 

This was beet, carrot, apple and ginger. It was SO GOOD!!!!!!

And pretty too! Speaking of pretty…did you spy my freshly stained deck rails? They were so bad…basically down to raw wood. It was a couple labor intensive mornings. I’d have to stop each day when the temp climbed over 90°F.

The great outdoors has so much to offer us. I’ve heard it said and couldn’t agree more that Minnesotans are all about spending as much time outside as possible. We endure extremes in temperature and several different kinds of weather in one day isn’t uncommon. 

As you can see by my crazy tan lines…I spend a bit of time walking in my sandals. LOL  Marvin even gets to occasionally visits to the great outdoors under close supervision. And yes, he really is that big…no trick of the lens. FYI—I wear a size US 9 (40 EU).

T stands for Tuesday

Tuesday holds a visit to my friend in her “new” house. I’m super excited to see it and her!!

What are you doing today?

 

| | |

,

16 Comments

Yes I loved it

Today’s art journal page was all about me wanting to play with some of our new washi tape.

Mini-me and I picked out 12 rolls at Michael’s the other day when we stopped in to pick up some twirly sticks for my planters along the front walk. Yes I know summer is half over but I still wanted them.

Anyway..back to the journal page.  I simply love the look of dress pattern paper over text so I knew I had to leave a good portion of that revealed on my page. I loosely framed the page first with paint then with washi over the top. Some of the wider washi tapes I tend to tear into thinner pieces and apply in a slightly random fashion.

A clothing tag serves as both a backdrop for the first part of my sentence and the date stamp. I think I may need a new Staz-on pad…that stamping didn’t turn out very well.

I used a needle tipped bottle with thinned white paint to create this heart. After it was somewhat dry I laid the washi over the middle. And true as the statement across it…I loved it.

This page put a smile on my face. Yet another reason I keep creating. Just for me, just art for art’s sake.

 

Art Journal Journey

| |

, , , ,

6 Comments

PAGE TOP

© 2007-2024 Halle's Hobbies All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright