Category : Crafts

148 posts

T Tuesday: November into December edition

I can’t believe we are into December already!! I think its because we have no snow that I’m having a hard time wrapping my brain around it.  Although that is supposed to change in the next couple hours as I write this. I am happy to say that we at least have the tree up and the house decorated…as much as we do. We aren’t outside light people. I admire those who do…it’s just not us.

Last year after the holidays I bought a tree on clearance at our grocery store of all places….totally sight unseen. All I knew was it was pre-lit with white lights. It was such a steal that I couldn’t pass it up especially since out old pre-lit tree had a band of dead lights smack in the middle.Isn’t it pretty!?!? Not bad for $34.

Mini-me put together some new hanging decor for a bare corner of the livingroom.  I gave her a little springboard idea and she ran with it while I was busy. It turned out really cute.

Last Friday I had the privilege of supporting a couple of students on a field trip to Orchestra Hall. I hadn’t been there since Mini-me was in preschool.

It is so unique inside…and beautiful, not that my quick phone picture really captured the beauty.

I spent a good share of Saturday trying to decide between designing a photo card and writing a Christmas letter to send out this year. Who knows…I may do both.

Oh that’s right…I need to update you with my photos to finish out the November photo a day.

22. A favorite thing…..Marvin, of course

23. I made this! ……fabric star ornament (shared the tutorial links last week)

24. I need to do this! ……put all this crap away…just keepin’ it real folks.

25. Time……clock I made over a decade ago….likely should change the battery one of these days.

26. Wall…….my favorite wall especially this time of year.

27. I’m thankful for this…… Love

28. Black…….J’s school chrome book

29. So, this happened…..inflation of the new activity dome outside my school (it’s truly immense)

30. I bought this! ……not telling what’s inside though.

And with that…November is done.

This is my new challenge for December. I followed an old version of the October challenge by this same site. I’m enjoying the creative challenge of these photo a day prompts especially since most days this is my only creative outlet.

Want to see what I’ve already gotten for December?

What are you doing today?

 

T stands for Tuesday

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T Tuesday: still full edition

I swear I’m still full from Thanksgiving dinner! Ok…that’s a bit of a stretch but geesh. Too much leftovers and too many days off. Making me soft(er).

I’ll start with a little catch-up on my Photo a day challenge. I got several days behind but have gotten caught up now.

13. Letters….just one important one. UMD acceptance letter for J.

14. For me….just a little treat of apples in caramel dip. YUM!!

15. Hot + Cold…sometimes I’m a two-fisted drinker. :)

16. After…after a long day at work it’s nice to put my feet up a bit.

17. Cooking…I unexpectedly cooked Thanksgiving dinner this year.

18. I love this…Grandma’s dishes.

19. Whole….it was a whole pie….a whole lotta yummy. :)

20. Bright….the setting sun through my window.

21. Shoes….I have a love/hate relationship with these. I love them (so cute) but my feet hate me when I wear them all day at work.

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I discovered mt latest obsession craft on Pinterest yesterday. 

Fabric star ornaments. I found the link to the original tutorial but it was in Dutch I believe. It had great photos but I was missing something in my understanding. Then I found the tutorial by Betz White that finally cleared things up for me.

I’m considering putting a button on both sides with either hot glue or tied through with embroidery thread.  Not sure but I do know I’ll be making more.

The school I work at is having a holiday boutique for staff so I’ll be bringing my crafts in. I’m so excited both to make a little Christmas cash and to see what crafts my coworkers like to do.

My baby girl starts drivers ed Tuesday…I can hardly fathom it. She’ll get her classroom instruction done just before her 15th birthday but she’ll have to wait until the New Year to take her permit test. That girl is ready to get behind the wheel….me, not so much.

Tuesday holds work of course and a choir concert…at my school. Mini-me’s choir is singing at the middle school. I think they send the high school choirs to perform periodically to keep the younger ones interested in continuing through their school career.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: laughter, tears and knitting edition

It’s been an eventful week around here. so I think I’ll recap a few of the highlights.

I’ve gotten back in the groove of being creative on a semi-regular basis. First of which is some more work on the stocking hat I’m knitting.

Trust me…one day it will be a hat.

I also made a patchwork infinity scarf.

My original intention was to make something red, white and blue for our Veteran’s Day program at school but these colors spoke to me instead.

Speaking of the Veteran’s Day program. It was amazing! I cried all of my eye makeup off. It was very moving. I hadn’t been witness to a 21 gun salute or the playing of taps since my dad’s internment. Needless to say, I was a mess. I seriously am a fairly stoic person but that got me…as well as the Lee Greenwood song, God Bless the USA….gets me every time…especially when all those vets stood up as the line says “And I gladly stand up
Next to you and defend her still today”. The tears were rolling.

I started a journal page…well at least I threw some color at the tissue paper I glued into my journal. It’s a start right!?!

Here’s the next collection of November photo a day pictures.

7. on the floor….me, Marvin and the toy…a little view from his side of things.

8. a place…DQ of course. love that place and its a braizer so it doesn’t close for winter….yes many Dairy Queen stores close over winter around here.

9. Heck yes! …….saw this sign at school  “Make your life story so amazing that unicorns have trouble believing it is true.”

10. I do this every day….make and drink coffee.  Bam! got my tea Tuesday reference in as well. :)

11. A set…my fiestaware of course.

12. normal….my knitting looks normal at least so far.

T stands for Tuesday

In other exciting news… J got an acceptance letter from UMD today!! So exciting!!!

What are you doing today??

 

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T Tuesday: ending October, begining November edition

Last week I wrapped up my first ever daily photo challenge. I stayed on track and was only more than 24 hrs late with a prompt once. That one I missed for days before realizing my mistake. Here are the last four prompts of the month.

28. Pimp it up…not sure what that meant so I shared my freshly decorated coffee table.

29. Costume…I was a cowgirl for work….yes, we were asked to dress up for school.

30. Treats….our bowl of goodies ready for the kiddos.

31. Halloween…our neighbor out having fun along with the kids

This is the challenge I’m doing this month. It appears that FatMumSlim does her challenges in a Facebook group now but I’m still going to do them on Instagram daily and share them in groups here. In fact here are the first 6.

1. Something blue….handmade bowl J made in school.

2. I saw this!….brand new choir sweatshirt lost or abandoned one day after receiving them.

3. Weather….snow before we got the outdoor stuff put away for winter.

4. Can’t live without….my morning coffee. (got my T Tuesday beverage in)

5. 8 o’clock…that was 8AM for Marvin

6. Made me smile today…wearing my late mom’s necklace to work

Over the weekend I was inspired to pick up my knitting needles again. I’ve been helping the past two weeks in a FACS (Family and Consumer Science) class in a couple of intro to knitting sessions. The kids are using pencils as knitting needles. It’s been really fun watching them struggle through and have it click all of a sudden. We’ve had several boys in the class as well. Nice to see them trying something new. 

I’m trying to follow a pattern for a stocking hat.  The pattern is in a very old knitting magazine I found in my mom’s craft bin. She never, ever knit so I’m not sure were it came from but what the heck…I’ll give it a shot. I’m using a self striping yarn…or at least that’s what I believe it to be. Like I said…giving it a shot. I do think I need to be using longer needles. I can’t remember where I put the rest of mine though…hmmm.

T stands for Tuesday
The days this week are all pretty much the same but I’m looking forward to Friday this when our school spends the morning honoring Veterans Day. I have heard so many wonderful things about it that I can’t wait to experience it myself.
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: summer wrap up edition

These last few weeks of summer have us trying to squeeze every bit of summer fun and activities that we can. We’ve already started the school ramp up. Orientation yesterday…during the second half of the eclipse…nice timing people. At least it was raining like crazy at that time so no one cared.

Speaking of the eclipse…did anyone see it? I built a couple boxes in case the clouds cleared. We got peeks at it as it was eclipsing.

The clouds rolled in thick enough to obscure our view minutes before the greatest point of totality in our region. It was very strange though….the temperature suddenly dropped and the crickets started chirping. So awesome…just wish we could have seen as well as felt it.

The eclipse reminds me that I should show you my still work in progress of the acrylic pour project.

Somehow I seem to have lost the chipboard 3 overnight….I’m guessing Marvin had something to do with that.  I think I’m going to paint the numbers either white or black…leaning towards white. Then seal the whole works before attaching the clock parts.

I’ve also been playing around with my button collection again…

I have some ideas for projects. More button stacks. I just love how they look.

Over the weekend we had an evening that was just perfect for a fire. Hot dogs for dinner anyone?

As I waited for the fire to get going I checked out the garden. Late summer has done a number on some of the plants.

Such as the pumpkin  plant..totally dead and gone.

The green beans have totally taken over. I’m surprised since they were really poor early in the season….which is completely opposite of the last few years. I’ll definitely have some spicy beans to can.

And diced tomatoes as well.

Since the thick humidity, as seen here over the weekend, has finally cleared out. I’ll likely tackle the canning today in between playing taxi driver of course.

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

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Interpretive crochet

That’s what I decided to call my near inability to follow a pattern. I’ve decided that I’m ok with that. I crochet mainly for myself making dishcloths. My stemware really doesn’t care if I have too many or too few stitches. Why should I?interpretive crochet

Honestly, I can and have followed a pattern…once for sure.  The green hexagonal dishcloth proves it. I’m pretty sure the purple one is correct as well. The rest of them..not so much.

interpretive crochet

I tend to crochet when I’m waiting or watching TV. I think its the TV that screws me up with the whole pattern thing. OH well. They are pretty and will certainly clean dishes so that’s all that matters.

Incidentally…the purple yarn is the last of my cabbage dyed yarn.

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T Tuesday: returning edition

Hello!! I am still here. It’s been a while.

Gosh, that sounds like the beginning to a song… I’m awful with names of songs/singers/authors/actors/movies/etc…so if it is one…sorry, I’m just not going to be able to commit any brain cells to that information. I have WAY too much other pointless trivia floating around in there.

So I took a bit of a blog hiatus after mom’s passing and funeral. I just wasn’t able to “find my voice” for the blog. I think my bout of laryngitis is over now.

During my break we traveled to north to do another college visit. This one was University of Minnesota Duluth. I completely forgot to take any photos on campus likely because our tour remained inside all but one brief walk outside as a shortcut. The awesome thing about UMD is that all the buildings are connected by tunnels and concourses. You literally don’t have to step outside if you don’t want to all winter long. I’d be blissfully happy if that’s where either kid decided to go to school.

Mini-me and I did our traditional sea glass hunting. The view is lovely…

and we always manage to find treasures.

The kids and I walked down to Grandma’s (host of Grandma’s marathon that had been run just the day or two before we got there)

Both times we’ve eaten there, we’ve been seated right by this sign. Too funny! I didn’t take the obligatory beverage photo but rest assured it was there and it was of the adult variety. Why not…we were walking!

Back at home I’ve been keeping busy with gardening, driving back and forth to the high school for volleyball and some volunteer work I picked up. The choir director put out a call for anyone with sewing skills to mend the robes before they are dry cleaned to save the program some money. So far I’ve mended 20 robes. 

It’s mostly split sleeves but there have been some zippers and collars as well.

It’s all hand stitching and the stitches need to be hidden. Thank you Mrs. Wilwerding for teaching me how to sew in the 8th grade. My kid’s high school also thanks you for indirectly saving them lots of money. I’m hoping when I drop off this latest batch of 6 robes that at least some will have been taken by the others to mend.

I have been a little creative as well. Here’s a little sneak…

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

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