Category : Blog

1716 posts

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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12 Comments

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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A second look: Summer of Love ATC swap

Because it’s January I start to think about summer. You always want what you can’t have..right?

So let’s have a Second on the 2nd look at the summer of love swap

9/27/2009 Summer of Love ATC swap

 

These were so fun to make!!

I started with an 8.5×11 sheet of periwinkle cardstock. With an old credit card, I spread out some orange and yellow craft paints.

After that was dry, I used rubber stamps, more paint, markers, and stencils to create lots of background interest.

When I was happy with it I cut 9 ATC’s from my full sheet of cardstock.

I freehanded a VW bug to make a template then cut little bugs out of discarded book pages. Paint and marker were applied in a very loose manner.

I punched wheels from black “handmade paper” …I put that in quotes since it was actually store-bought. I then used little flower sticker for some fun hubcaps.

The part that I love the most is the genuine VW key attached to each one. I grew up with tons of Volkswagons. My dad and his friend would buy them cheap, fix them up and resell. Sometimes they would just part them out. Dad never threw out anything so I had just enough VW keys laying around to give these ATC’s just a little extra punch!

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Won’t you going me in linking up with Second on the 2nd?

Second on the 2nd

 

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New Year…New Word

Each year I select a word to be my guide throughout the year. Some years I do better than others to keep my word in the forefront.

This year I chose Mindful.

Being mindful has a place in all aspects of life.

Mindful of the products I bring into our home.

Mindful of the words I choose to use.

Mindful of the impact I have on others and others have on me.

Taking time to be mindful of how much I consume, meaning both internally and externally. It all has an impact.

Mindful of the legacy I leave.

Give mindful thought before making commitments.

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The end of the year…the decade…it should give us all pause. Time to think back on the past decade…the good, the bad and the ugly. Of course, things are already set but think of what could we do better, do more of, do less of? What has changed…10 years is a long time especially when you have kids. I came into this decade with kids in the single digits…now I have an adult, nearly 20, and another, close to adulthood.

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