T Tuesday: canvas edition

I have been all over the place this week with ideas. None of which have actually come to fruition. But ideas are the start, right?

I am thinking of making a few seasonal canvas paintings. While digging through my canvas stash I found this one. I feel like it needs some words.

On these canvases, I threw some color down on the background to cover the previous paintings. I picked these two canvases out of a free bin at a garage sale over the summer. No idea where I’m headed with these…or if this is even a remote representation of the background colors….it was just a coverup.

My journal keeps getting more things tucked inside without any actual placement or journaling. One of these days…

The same goes for my travel journal. Although I did get photos printed, so I’m a little closer.

In art class this week the kids are working with clay. One of my students wanted to make a creeper from Minecraft. On the day I missed, it was decided that he’d make a mug. I helped him assemble the pieces and create the signature face. This week it’s all about adding textures and interest. I’ve been assisting in the assembly a few other students’ projects as well…I love playing with clay. It would be so fun to make a project myself too. :)

This weekend brought us an unwelcome visitor…snow. As you can clearly see, we are nowhere ready for winter. Thankfully it was short-lived and we made it above 50°F today.

On Saturday we also had welcome visitors. They brought over this hard cider,

It was really quite good. I didn’t think I’d like it as most hard ciders are too sweet. This was not…it was almost like a dry white wine in flavor.

And I promised photos of all the assembled furniture…the white pieces are Mini-me’s and the dark brown is in J’s room.

We have a choir concert tonight for Mini-me. She is in two choirs this year…she and a couple of other girls are helping to lend more voice to the small freshmen girls choir. This means a change of clothes for them…floor-length dresses to choir robes.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Creativity

junk journal, painting, T Tuesday

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T Tuesday: assembly edition

This week’s post is brought to you by IKEA…well, not officially. It’s just what the past three days and counting were all about. Building new pieces for the kids’ rooms. Truly not the entire time but it certainly felt like it. And I’m still at it!!

My weekend actually started a day early. J was feeling really cruddy and just wanted to come home to rest. He caught the 6:45 am bus from college. I knew he was definitely ill when he voluntarily got up that early. I took the day off so I could meet the bus at MOA.

It was good to see him a few weeks earlier than expected…just a bummer that he was so sick. Nasty virus. I didn’t even hug him until he was leaving….sad but true. He pretty much spent the weekend in bed or in a steaming hot shower trying to clear his congestion.

So I mentioned IKEA…in the above picture if I had panned right 90° right, you’d see IKEA. Of course, at this moment in time, we hadn’t decided to purchase anything new. SO off to home we drove.

The next morning we made the decision to buy two new dressers and a desk from IKEA…back across the city we went. Mini-me and I started by putting together her new dresser. It went wonderfully. Then we open the desk box….DAMAGED GOODS! UGH!

I was not about to drive back there again on the same day since we’d be heading back on Sunday to drop J off at the bus. When we returned we got a new desk and another storage unit. Yep…4 pieces of furniture to assemble. Oh goodie…

This is the current state of things. I’m on the last piece. Four drawers left to assemble on J’s new dresser. I can tell you one thing…my body doesn’t like me sitting on the floor that long.

I promise I’ll share photos of the new pieces…but for now. My water is empty and I need to shower because it’s picture day at school tomorrow! Remember the stress of picture day? It’s funny…not quite as stressful for me these days. I know for sure no picture I take can be as bad as the ones I took during my middle school years! LOL

What are you doing today?

Around home | Blog

not art at all, T Tuesday

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T Tuesday: junk journal and more edition

Last Tuesday had me very introspective with my post. Throwing the words down and wading through them really helped me through what I was feeling. Your comments were also inspiring…so thank you for that!

Mindset

At school, we often talk about growth vs fixed mindset. I think perhaps those lessons are rubbing off on me as well. Setting goals, developing a plan and not giving up when life throws a curveball. Honestly, these are things I have done in the past but I didn’t think critically about them until now.

So last week I talked myself through making a plan to set aside time to create. Guess what? I did!

I had the bones of this junk journal project set aside…I just needed the time, drive and a few little tidbits to make it happen. Now that it’s done…I love it. I’m planning to use it for bits and piece from everyday life, quotes, thoughts, etc. I want to do a flip through at some point. What I really need to do is figure out YouTube and publish videos there and embed them in my posts. I think it would honestly be easier than the way I’ve been doing it.

In addition to making this junk journal, we had a flurry of activity on Saturday. Mini-me and I went to a local church rummage sale for bag day as we try to do each year. We spent a total of $16.50. Mini-me filled one reusable grocery bag mostly with clothes…$4. I filled one with clothes, craft supplies, and potential Halloween costumes…$4. The third bag was filled with books…$4. In addition, we bought one super old arithmetic primer…$1 and a print for Mini-me’s room….$3.50

I only took photos of my lovely new crafty items. Look at that amazing box of trims!!

Saturday evening Mr. G’s brother messaged him saying that he was playing a gig in our neck of the woods. We quickly grabbed our things and headed out to hear him play the mandolin with the Roe Family Singers. It was a lovely but slightly chilly evening sitting on hay bales enjoying some bluegrass music.

Their aging corgi, Daisey, even made the trip. A good time was had by all.

We invited them back to our house after where I whipped together a few snacks and drinks since we haven’t seen them in a while. Sometimes the unplanned things are the most fun things!!

What are you doing today?

Art | Blog | Creativity

handmade journal, junk journal, supplies, T Tuesday, thrifted treasures

16 Comments

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That pumpkin time of year

The other morning I just couldn’t help myself. I had to create. Everywhere I turn there are pumpkins. My emails are filled with fall decor and pumpkin spice lattes.

I ended up working on this page until moments before I had to leave for work. It just had to be done.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for POLKA-DOTS, STRIPES, PLAIDs or PATTERNS. I think this qualifies…

Blog

art journal, Art Journal Journey, challenge, found text, paint

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T Tuesday: losing time edition

The days and weeks are flying by faster each day it seems. My creative energy burst from a few weeks ago has waned. The half-done projects remain just that – half done. Not enough progress to share.

Finding balance

I’m once again struggling with balance in life, work, home, and creativity. It happens every year. I should expect it, but here we are struggling. Questioning if I should take a blog break. Then questioning if I do – will I be more motivated later or less. Questioning if have enough interesting things to share so I’m not boring my audience week after week to the point of losing them.

I have discovered something about myself recently. I am not a multitasker. I have always considered myself good at this…but I am not.

This realization is a good thing. I just now need to figure out how to work with this new mindset. I’m thinking that I need to set certain days aside for certain things. Maybe not particular days such as Tuesday is sewing day and Wednesday is laundry day but penciling in time for the things I love as well as the things I must do.

T stands for Tuesday is one of those things that I do love to do and is time-sensitive. I’ve never been one to pre-schedule posts…honestly, it’s only happened a handful of times over the last decade. I am not saying that there is one single thing wrong with scheduled posts…the most successful bloggers do precisely that. It just has never been my style…mainly because I always had the time. This photo (without preplanning it) demonstrates me being divided between home and work life.

Moving forward

No, I am not quitting blogging. Nor am I quitting creating…or my job. I could really do with the housework but that’s not happening anytime soon. On the bright side, I am getting more help with those pesky household chores.

I am going to prioritize items on my need to/want to list. Figure out how to give time to each. Learn to let some things go. That even means some supplies. I have decided that I’m not making soap anymore. I’ve reached out to a friend who has a friend that makes soap. I’m hoping we can reach a barter of sorts. Finished soap for supplies. Today I glanced and saw all the yarn I have pressed against the wall of the plastic tote in which it resides. I think that just may be my next supply purge.

It’s all about the shoes

You know I have a long-standing self-imposed rule about not sharing photos featuring faces of family on my blog. And no I am not breaking that rule…I have strategically blocked out Mini-me’s face because I have to show you her amazing outfit for the Homecoming dance at school.

She was convinced by friends to go two days before the dance. She borrowed the dress which happened to fit her perfectly.

Check out those shoes!!! We went shopping the morning of the dance to a local outlet store that carries high-end clothing and shoes at fabulous prices if you can find your size. Lucky for Mini-me…she has tiny feet. The selection is vast and varied. She first found a pair of rose gold sparkly heels that would have looked lovely…in fact we bought them, Then she found these beauties. Since the two pair together would only cost $42 we went for it. As we were talking accessories I told her that she could totally pull those bold shoes off with the right accessories. She was skeptical at first but then I made her think about the color wheel and that the teal and red-orange are complentary colors. She looked amazing. Have I overused the word amazing?!? Nope. Never.

This week has me keepin’ on, keepin’ on. Working toward that elusive balance.

What are you doing today? Or this week?

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T Tuesday: art class edition

What a quick week! I have no idea where it went or how it flew by so incredibly fast other than school, school and more school.

Today’s post actually does tie into school. I’m supporting a handful of students in a required Intro to Art class this semester. I’m finding the class very informative. Putting words to the techniques I’ve self-taught over the last decade or so. Such as the elements and principles of art….the actually words and definitions behind drawing technique. The students in the class are creating a Zentangle in which they need to show the 13 elements and principles of art. It made me go back and look at the one larger scale Zentangle I created years ago to see if I could pick out these key components.

I’m not sure I hit all 13 in this Zentangle. It’s funny because I created this in 2006…this page is officially older than the children in that class. :)

Today I was able to play around with watercolor pencils.

Again…so much fun. I was able to work alongside one of my students as they wanted to practice their technique.

I’m having some ice water while I write this post. The temperature and humidity have ramped back up around here as you can see by the condensation on my glass.

It was much nicer over the weekend when Mini-me and a few choir friends sang the national anthem at the boy’s varsity soccer game on Saturday evening.

They sang from the booth…not on the field. So proud of those girls!

ME…I’m still sewing when I can…I’m trying to get caught up on some household chores that have been piling up…emhem…laundry.

What are you doing today?

Art | Blog | Creativity

T Tuesday

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T Tuesday: all things crafty edition

Since heading back to school I think perhaps I’ve done more crafting than I did all of August. It always works that way. What’s that saying?… “Busy people get things done.” There is whole lot of truth in that statement. Grab a cup of coffee or whatever and stay awhile…I’ve got lots to share.

I think I’ll start with the travel journal I made with ephemera from our trip. It’s still a work in progress but here’s a sneak peek at the journal with some of the goodies tucked inside.

I’m still sewing like there’s no tomorrow.

In fact this photo was taken 10 mins before I had to leave for my first day back to work.

No games will be played at the game table anytime soon. I’ve kind of temporarily taken over. I’m nearly done with the paper foundation stitching on all the blocks…at least I think so. Once I start doing the layout I’ll know for sure.

I also did a bit more cleaning and organizing in my art zone. I wish I could call it a studio but that would be like putting lipstick on a pig. It’s functional…just not pretty.