Category : Blog

1716 posts

201605/17

T Tuesday : Syttende Mai edition

Happy Syttende Mai!

That’s Norwegian for Happy Seventeenth of May which is Norway’s Constitution Day. Even though I’m an American, I’m a 100% Norwegian American and do celebrate with my Norwegian friends and family.

I have a traditional Bunad such as the one on this cup….although it no longer fits me. It was definitely from the pre-childbirth days.

I still fit into these sølje though. *grin*

Sølje, which translates roughly to spoons, are traditional brooches women wore at the collar of their white bunad shirt. Mine are shamefully tarnished.

I even bought a bunad for mini-me when she was about 2. She was very unhappy with me when I put it on her to get a photo before she outgrew it.

Oh how the time has gone!! Speaking of which… J got his drivers licence yesterday! Wowsers!!

Errands are on my list today and a couple projects that are works in progress.

What are you doing today?

Blog

Holidays, T Tuesday

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201605/11

The lost art of bartering

I don’t know about you but I love it when I am able to barter for something. It truly is becoming a lost art. People now days just go buy or hire someone when they need something. I feel it stems from our lack of community. People don’t know their neighbors. They come home, park in the garage and never step into their yard except to perhaps finely manicure the grass. We are lucky here as we DO know our neighbors and have a good sense of community at least on our block.

So with that in mind, a friend is finishing off their basement and is starting to buy accessories to match the rustic style of the decor they’ve chosen. She’d been telling me about wanting feed sack pillows for the couch but was overwhelmed by the price on Etsy. She purchased feed sacks at an antique store but then was stuck. She was afraid to cut them plus she didn’t have a sewing machine. I told her to bring them on over and we’d get it figured out.

Marvin decided he really needed to “help”.

After getting him interested in some toys we were able to cut them down and stuff the pillow forms inside. I left the hand stitching to my friend to do at home.

Look how awesome they look!!

So what does this have to do with bartering…well they had leftover stone veneer from their fireplace. I got to take it home.

I’m hoping that I’ll have enough to build a fire pit. The rain is supposed to clear out tomorrow so then I can lay things out to make sure before buying the materials to complete my project.

Around home | Blog | Crafts | Outdoors

T Tuesday: post birthday week edition

Welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday.

Last week I was lucky enough to stretch my birthday celebration out over several days. On Tuesday (which is one of the reasons I missed last week) I was treated to lunch with friends. We actually celebrated two birthdays. We had a great time although I never snapped any photos. I did receive this wonderful violet from the other birthday girl.

On my actual birthday. May 5th, I was running errands in the morning and picked up my free drink from Caribou…the best chain coffee shop in my humble opinion. (not affiliation…just a very happy customer)

Since it was a hot day, I decided on a cold press coffee with room for cream.

Mr. G surprised me by not only coming home early that day but also with a lovely bouquet of flowers. I have no idea what the orange ones are but they are so cool! I was really worried Marvin wouldn’t be able to resist them but he was surprisingly restrained after a few initial attempts to get to them.

The look of innocence.

I did see a very strange sight during the week as well. I was taking J to the eye doctor when we saw the Mystery Machine from the Scooby Doo cartoon.

Stranger yet was the very old police car ahead of it. It was as if it had rolled off a movie set or something. I’d guess late 1950’s classic black and white with a single cherry light on top. When I shared this photo on FB, my cousin suggested that perhaps they were on the way out to Paisley Park which was just another mile up the road. No clue…just one of those things that really makes you do a double take. Glad I had J to quick snap a photo for me.

On Saturday, Mini-me and I went shopping using some of the birthday coupons and specials I had received then picked up yummy sushi to bring home. It was a really nice cap to a great week of celebration.

I actually have done a bit of crafting…

I used a skein of cotton yarn to make 4 small dish cloths. I like them small so they can fit down inside skinny glassware more easily.

I’m also continuing work on the commissioned scrapbook album. I’m half done with the pages. Eventually I’ll show another little peek at it. It’s always a tough endeavor to show a scrapbook without showing photos.

I’ve got an outdoor project in mind with some leftover fireplace stone veneer I was given. Hopefully I have enough to do my plan. When the rain stops, I’ll have to lay things out and see.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Crafts

crochet, Marvin, T Tuesday, yarn

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halleday

201605/07

Hazy day

After record breaking heat yesterday, I awoke about 1:00 am to the strong smell of smoke. We’d left our bedroom window open since the weather reports said a cool front was going to be blowing through. The wind blew in the smoke from both the Canadian wildfires and some in Northern MN.

I jumped out of bed worried that something close by was one fire. As I looked out the window, all I saw was thick smoke in the low light from the street lights. I wish I could have taken a photo but I know the light was too low.

This morning, before the sun crested over the neighboring houses, all we could see was a thick haze of smoke.

As the sun appeared over the houses we saw the orange glow of the sun filtering through the smoke.

There is this special weather statement for much of Minnesota today.

Yard work was on the list for today but we’ll postpone for health sake. Mini-me and I are going shopping today though and picking up birthday/Mother’s Day sushi for a late lunch. Can’t wait!!

Lets keep all the families and firefighters in our thoughts as the fires still rage.

Spring photography

It’s finally here!! Spring! Warm temps. Green grass. Trees budding and flowering. This is why we all stick around Minnesota through the harsh winters. We can enjoy the great outdoors in all it’s glory.

Between the sweet smell of the blossoms and the light drone of the bees, it was hard to get myself to come back inside.

If you look closely you can see all the bees busy pollinating.

T Tuesday: camp edition

We’re back from our 4th annual Mother Daughter retreat in Northern MN.

It was another great weekend.

We had a really cool cabin that we shared with approx 50 mothers and daughters. I think I heard there were around 250 of us total this weekend.

The weekend was filled with lots of activities such as hay rides,

archery

farm animals

and of course, horse back riding.

Mini me had a horse named Patches

and mine was Quilta. It hard to tell without a frame of reference but this is a very tall horse but just a sweetheart to ride.

We also did some craft projects. Two projects came home unfinished as there just wasn’t enough time.

We did complete our fairy garden.

and a couple of stamped leather pieces.

We had a great time, over-indulged on treats, laughed, got soaked in the rain, walked countless miles up and down the hills at camp and slept very little.

Sounds like a blast huh?

Now that life has returned to normal, I’m trying to get back to eating healthy again.

I’ll start with this green monster smoothie. I have plans to walk with friends later this week. If it warms up enough today, I may walk or ride my bike over to Paisley Park to pay my respects.

What are you doing today?

Catching up…again

I feel like I’m always behind in posting lately. Not sure why that is but it happens all too often in my opinion.

Last time at craft club, I was trying to replicate this card that I had found many years ago in my dad’s room at the nursing home. It was such a sweet card with a clever design. I knew one day I wanted to try it for myself.

I decided to use a pack of cards from Michael’s that were color-coordinated as my base.

Of course this is just a start.

I’ve also started work on a commission. I’m making a scrapbook album from a children’s board book.

I started by ripping the printed images off all the pages.

So far I’ve only gotten the outside background papers in place. I realize that I can’t force it…either I’m feeling creative or I’m not. Evidently I’m not feeling scrapbooky right now. :)

Mini-me and I were out of town this past weekend for our annual mother daughter retreat. More on that tomorrow.

Blog | Crafts | Creativity

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Halle's Hobbies

A peek into my eclectic life

Category : Blog

T Tuesday : Syttende Mai edition

The lost art of bartering

T Tuesday: post birthday week edition

Hazy day

Spring photography

T Tuesday: camp edition

Catching up…again