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?

| |

, , , ,

14 Comments

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.

4 Comments

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

Second on the 2nd

 

|

, , ,

5 Comments

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

,

2 Comments

Trust: 2019 word in review

Last year I picked the word Trust for my Word of the Year. One word to guide, to remember as the moments tick by.

This is so difficult to measure. It’s very personal.

One thing that I know I learned this year was to Trust that things will work out in the end.  Sometimes things are out of your control and worry is just worshipping the problem so that’s where Trust comes in.

Have a Happy New Year!

,

2 Comments

T Tuesday: Christmas wrap(up) edition

Hello and welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday! You may have noticed that I’ve been gone a while. I talked about my back saga in the previous post so we are moving on to something more festive and fun!

Since we were hosting Christmas (because I love it!) I had to lean on the rest of the family to do all of the heavy and not so heavy lifting.

Even the simple things like getting a cake in and out of the oven.

The past few years I’ve made a rum cake for Christmas but this time I went for a Fireball Whiskey cake. It was so good. I forgot to take a photo of it with the icing…likely because it wasn’t very pretty.

We had overnight guests on Christmas eve…Mini-me gave up her bed and slept on the couch. Of course, this meant that she was up even earlier than she usually is. She is my early bird kid.

It was a long wait…even with me making all kinds of noise in the kitchen.

This was my favorite present under the tree…it’s hard to wrap arrows. Mini-me needed a new set for archery season which is just days away.

Marvin had to be a part of the chaos…bows are his favorite.

I suppose the whiskey cake could have been my “beverage” for T stands for Tuesday but instead, I thought I’d share the tiniest cocktail I’ve ever seen. My BIL brought this over. It wasn’t anything I cared for but the can sure was cute.

I’ve been working on purging my rubber stamps. I was so frustrated digging through them trying desperately to find a Happy Anniversary stamp since I had promised my MIL that I’d make her some cards. I had a bunch of bases completed they just needed a sentiment and the also requested “shiny butterflies”. Thankfully I have a very crafty neighbor who is willing to share. Thanks, KW!

The “shiny butterflies” have the big wow factor but are pretty easy to make. I stamped each butterfly on white card stock with black Staz-on ink. I used watercolor paint to colorize each. After completely dry, I fussy cut each and placed on a non-stick surface. I coated each one with Diamond glaze. As they dry a slight curl happens quite naturally giving them an even more “lifelike” appearance.

I have now looked through every single one of my stamps and alas…I never even had a Happy Anniversary stamp. ugh. Well, now I do…I bought a set of sentiments at Michaels. I’m sure you’ll be seeing some cards in the near future with these words.

Today is Mini-me’s 17th birthday. I can hardly believe it. 

I was planning to go out and get her favorite meal… Chipotle…but we are getting a snowstorm. It remains to be seen if we venture out or not.

Speaking of crazy storms and slippery conditions….have you seen this video?

The video was taken a few miles from our house. Mini-me had friends on that bus heading to a girls’ hockey tournament.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

| | | |

, , , , ,

13 Comments

Where I’ve been….

Hello!! I bet you thought I forgot all about blogging. December has been full of highs and lows….none of which had me racing to the keyboard to share. Since my last completed post was December 3rd, we have a great deal of catching up to do.

December 10th I actually had a partial post written for T Tuesday wrapping up November.

T Tuesday: November wrap-up edition

I’m a little slow on the draw lately. I’m finally wrapping up November. Technically, I’m not fully wrapped up since I haven’t completed the #junkjournalnov19 prompts. But just go with me on this.

11/30 Zodiac sign

12/30 Autumn evening

14/30 Dress

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you can see I never finished the post including missing one of the days. That’s ok…I’m learning to embrace imperfection.

December really was a whirlwind. Lots of activities, snowstorms, J coming home for winter break, shopping, cooking, sewing, shoveling, cleaning, decorating and a little bit of creating.

Everything came to a screeching halt when I threw my back out on December 12th….the morning of Mini-me’s holiday choir concert…also a Thursday. This was really unfortunate because my chiropractor doesn’t work on Thursday! I always seem to break on a Thursday!

The last 2 weeks have been painful and scary at times. I’ve had an urgent care visit, 2 ER visits, 2 injections, 5 medications, an MRI, 7 days of missed work and numerous chiropractor visits…including one today.

In the end, I’m doing much better. Diagnostic tests came back good, the healing process is moving forward. My back still is easily fatigued and a bit fragile but something really positive came out of this. I’m learning to ask for help, let others do, letting go of things I can’t change and embrace the chaos.

| | |

, , , , ,

4 Comments

© 2007-2025 Halle's Hobbies All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright

StatCounter - Free Web Tracker and Counter