T Tuesday: organized edition

Don’t let that title fool you…I’m not yet organized but am working towards making it a habit.

I’ve seen a lot of talk about bullet journaling lately and am intrigued. Rita @ SoulComfort’s Corner keeps an awesome bullet type journal…so organized. I do like some of the concepts and having it all stay in one place…permanently. In the past I’ve always kept my list on random paper that would get misplaced or recycled before completing the tasks. I’m only about 10 days into this so far. I did skip this past weekend as we were planning on a very ~~lazy~~ laid back one.

Mini-me loves to organize. She’s got a lot of her dad in her with that one. But she also has a lot of me. She organizes when the mood strikes…otherwise it generally looks like a tornado swept thru her room. I was the same way at her age…at least with the messy room part.

She was inspired to organize our paint drawer. She even weeded out the dried up containers…now there is room for everything! Thanks sweetie!

Last week for T stands for Tuesday, I posted the beginning of an art journal page that used a scrap of junked up paper.

Here’s the completed page….

I loved these words and am trying my best to heed them.

This also struck me as funny as I was photographing the page.

See my name along the edge? I must have used this page to try out my typewriter as well.

I’m going to try and catch up on things here at home today. I had some training yesterday for my job. And with the ~~lazy~~ laid back we just had, I’m definitely behind around here.

What are you doing today??

Around home | Art | Blog

art journal, Gypsy journal, recycling, T Tuesday

13 Comments

halleday

201511/10201511/10201511/10

T Tuesday: waste not edition

Here I am, once again, at dark thirty writing my T stands for Tuesday post in between getting kids up and making lunches. Perhaps of these days…weeks…years…I’ll get the habit of preplanning these things. I think it’s my personality though to wait and see where life takes me.

Today I wanted to share a couple of things I did this week to repurpose items that would have been thrown away or in this first case, composted.

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making apple cider vinegar. I’ve read numerous posts on this old fashion technique. Usually this time of year we have apples coming out of our ears from our neighbor’s trees. This year happened to be a poor production year with their trees.

I did have a couple organic store bought apples that we’re definitely past their prime. Not wanting to completely waste expensive apples, I decided to experiment. The recipes or tutorials I read used peels and cores but I’m certain that using the whole apple will work just fine. I sterilized my quart mason jar in the dishwasher then filled it with the chopped apples. I used spring water to completely cover the apples. A scrap of cloth was placed under the ring to allow it to breath. I placed it in our basement storage room while it does its magic. Hopefully by Christmas, I’ll have some homemade apple cider vinegar.

The second waste not piece of this post was using a paper scrap in an unexpected way.

The scrap started as a misprinted Christmas letter from last year. Then it protected my journal from paint and sprays, glues and inks.

t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

Now it’s the base of a new art journal page. Who know where this page will take me.

Do you use any “throw away” items in unexpected ways? I’d love to hear about them…

Art | Blog | Kitchen

art journal, kitchen, scraps, T Tuesday

15 Comments

halleday

201511/07201511/07201511/07

Wishes and dreams

I’ve been very drawn to the multi layered look of journal pages, collage and mixed media of all sorts lately. The more textural, the better. As I sat down to create, I had two things in mind…texture and spray mist color.

I placed masking tape down the spine then layered joint tape randomly in opposite corners of the pages. Next I gave the whole thing a thin coat of gesso. Even with the thin coat of gesso, I got impatient waiting for it to dry so I started spraying sooner than I likely should have.

At this point everything was so wet I had to walk away.

After it was thoroughly dry, I began laying down some texture. I used foreign text from a Brothers Grimm fairy tales book, leftover burlap from my monogram wreath, rusted fabric, a clothing tag and a bit of calico fabric for my layers.

In addition I used a punched square from an old greeting card as a focal image on the left hand page. A sweet little girl blowing a dandelion seed head making a wish.

Which ties into the words I used on the clothing tag. The words are from a Tim Holtz sticker pack. I cut the phrase apart to place on the clothing tag.

I watered down some black craft paint to make splatters but was unhappy with the result so I attempted to soak them up with a cloth.

Lastly I used vintage photo distress ink to stamp a floral vine in opposite corners to give balance to the pages.

I am linking up with Art Journal Journey today. The theme of the month is Inspired by Autumn colors. The warm browns and splash of orange fit into my vision of the Autumn landscape around me.

Art | Blog

art journal, Art Journal Journey, collage, journal, mixed-media

5 Comments

halleday

201511/03201511/03201511/03

T Tuesday: smudge stick edition

During the process of putting the garden to bed for the winter, I drastically trimmed back my herbs. Now I am crossing my fingers that the plants themselves will overwinter.

Anyway I decided to make some smudge sticks as I have heard that burning sage helps deter mosquitoes. Worth a try.

I found a spool of heavy duty cotton button thread in my stash and set to work.

I likely could have made 4 bundles but honestly they were a pain to make. It will be interesting to see if they work next summer.

I’m linking up once again with Elizabeth for T stands for Tuesday…

my beverage is coffee again. Soon with the weather changing I’ll be back to tea to stay warm.

Lots on calendar today including 2 doctor appointments.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Outdoors | Tutorials

gardening, T Tuesday

19 Comments

halleday

201511/02201511/02201511/02

A second look: Creative ADD

This month for Second on the 2nd, I’m sharing a post from February 2012 that still makes me laugh at how all over the place my creativity takes me. Sometimes even in the course of a day. Right now I’m just wishing that creativity would kick back into gear…I’m in a bit of a dry patch on the creativity front.

Join me for a look back…

I’ve been all over the place lately when it comes to creativity.

I think I may have Art ADD (attention deficit disorder).

Ok…some might argue that I have ADD in other areas of my life as well but the Art ADD is self-diagnosed.

I blame the other on Motherhood. Children steal you’re ability to keep a clear running thought in your head. :) But I wouldn’t change a thing.

Anyway…these are the things I’ve done in the past week.

I papered our recycling cabinet to match the fridge.

Knit another dishcloth on the loom…

Knit a cowl on the loom…

Miniature terrain on a recycled CD…

Another terrain piece…

And last night I started another twirly crochet scarf because my elbow was hurting from the repetitive motion of the knitting.

Crochet seems to work my wrist more and doesn’t bother me.

In addition I’ve been washing and ironing my way through a large box of old linens. Deciding what is decent enough to save and use and what I can use in my artwork. Vintage linens and fabric are part of my idea for the Postcard Challenge book.

So, yeah…definitely Art ADD.

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That was a crazy amount of creativity in a short amount of time. It would have been really great to bottle a bit of that enthusiasm for a later date such as now!

On a side note…what do you think of my blog makeover? I was feeling the need for a change. I’m still tweaking things here and there. Please let me know if anything is weird or not functional for you. Thanks!!

Art | Blog | Crafts

crafts, crochet, frugal living, knitting, miniature terrain, Second on the 2nd

9 Comments

halleday

201510/29201510/29201510/29

Pondering art journal page

I started this page at craft club next door. I wasn’t feeling like making cards this time. I prepped the pages with tape down the spine and a thin coat of gesso at home so I’d be ready to play. I brought my gelatos, some pens and baby wipes for my fingers. The baby wipes work really well for both clean up and to get a little moisture on your fingers so the gelato moves more freely.

The next evening I sat watching TV with the unfinished page on my lap. Something came up about pondering and questioning…or perhaps something else triggered that in my mind. I just started free writing my thoughts. I have always been intrigued with the idea of time travel and parallel universe theories. What if there were an alternate timeline some how…some way?

If you could take a peek at your life in that time line the branched from a choice you made…would you look? Or would you be afraid to look?