T Tuesday: National Coffee Day edition

I’m quickly linking up with Elizabeth and Bleubeard this morning.

Coffee for T stands for Tuesday works for me!

Before I head off for another action packed Tuesday I had to share with you my colorful carrots…

Look what happened to the purple ones when I peeled them!!

I’m not sure how often I’ll be participating with T stands for Tuesday in the coming months. Tuesdays are super hard for me if I want to do more than post and run. I hope you’ll still stop by from time to time…I’ll do the same for you…

Blog | Kitchen

coffee, kitchen, T Tuesday

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201509/27

Without haste

This journal page has been in various states of creation for, at the very least, a week. I just haven’t “felt it” every time I went to create. In addition, I was sick for a couple of days.

without haste art journal page| Halle's Hobbies I find it amazing how quickly we can get out of a good habit, especially since picking up a new “bad” or unhealthy one is so easy.

Today I set my mind free of an end product and just created without constraint.

I was impulsive and carefree…

It was glorious!

Art | Blog

art journal, collage, Gypsy journal, journal, paint, scraps

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201509/16

Only darkness

I’m linking up today with Art Journal Journey. This month’s theme is Through My Window.

I wasn’t sure I was going to play along with the theme this month. It didn’t really speak to me. But as I was searching through my bin of found text, this sentence appeared at my finger tips.

Generally I don’t work backward like this. Usually I create the spread then finish with words.

I began with a crazy paint splattered background that was super ugly. To many colors that didn’t quite mesh. But this often lends itself to depth in a page when adding layers.

I had intended on only using paint for the page but It became clear to me that having more texture would be the way to go.

Since I was going all in with texture I decided to keep my color palette small.

I’m glad I decided to play along. Challenges have a wonderful way of drawing me out of my comfort zone. It’s strange really that sometimes those are the pieces I’m most proud of at the end of the day.

Art | Blog

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

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201509/15

T Tuesday: end of season edition

Ah here we are…the end of summer. Gardening is all but done. Leaves are turning and falling at a rapid pace around here. The birds and critters are frantically storing food for the long winter.

I ripped out the plants from the home gardens yesterday. I still have plants in my in-laws garden that will come out next weekend.I’ve been canning like crazy. More spicy beans and salsa. I’m really looking forward to breaking into those jars come the dead of winter!!

I also have to share my colorful carrots.

Aren’t they pretty!! I sampled a couple and they are quite tasty. These are going in my next beef roast dinner. YUM!

My important phone call I mentioned last week came but not with the results I had hoped for. Such a bummer!!! I really thought I had that job! I even had gotten a tour of “my work space” at the end of the interview.

BAH!! Anyway…moving on…

Since I don’t have a regular gig to go to, I’ll continue to do my on-call subbing. At least that leaves time for art!

I’ve actually done a bit of creating! Will wonders never cease! I completed one art journal page and just need to put the final touches on a second. Waiting for paint and glue to dry. The above page isn’t my favorite but I was just happy that I still had the drive to create.

I’ll be meeting with some friends for breakfast today…real casual. Likely head there after working out…seriously casual. :) Not exactly sure what the rest of the day holds for me…other than a shower. HA!

What are you doing today?

Art | Blog | Kitchen | Outdoors

art journal, gardening, kitchen, T Tuesday

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201509/07

T Tuesday: birthday edition

For this Labor Day, we hosted a gathering to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday. Of course there was more than plenty of food, wine and dessert. I have a hard time scaling back the menu.

I didn’t remember to nab a photo of the before…only this small after shot of empty wine glasses so I could keep up appearance here with T stands for Tuesday. I won’t scare you with the rest of the dirty dishes. I love hosting…I just wish there were fairies or elves that would clean up while I slept.

Anyway, back to the celebration. My FIL and I have a long standing joke that gets played out each year on his birthday. He made fun of me taking photos of “weeds” during some downtime at one of Big J’s lacrosse games several years ago. I said they were wildflowers but he saw weeds. So in response to his teasing, each year I give him a handmade card with a photo of a weed on it for his birthday.

Mr. G helped me with the words this year.

OH how we love puns.

I’ll be mowing today…hopefully pop by knitting and *fingers crossed* receive a very important phone call. More on that one next week.

What are you doing today?

PS….mom’s cataract surgery went well! She got a bit mixed up with the drops the first day but I made her a new chart which made things much easier for her. She’s had two follow-up appts and she can now see 20/40 with no glasses and passed her drivers license eye test with flying colors.

Blog | Crafts

greeting card, T Tuesday

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201509/02

A second look: Asian theme altered book

I decided to dig deep in the blog history for Second on the 2nd this month.

I’ve been scattered lately when it comes to art…a big part of me thinks that the “old days” when I participated in many more swaps and round robins….before postage got too out of hand…I was forced out of my comfort zone and in the process grew as an artist.

This post was definitely from those days. Have a look…

I completed my pages for the latest book I received in my current round robin.

The original drawings from the book were hand-painted by me with watercolor crayons. The chopsticks were shorten by breaking then shaping them in a pencil sharpener before a slight bit of whittling and sanding.

The bamboo was drawn then painted by yours truly. The fortune reads “The luck that is ordained for you will be coveted by others”

I’ve never done any Asian themed art before…at least not consciously. I did do a mixed-media painting a while back that ended up having an Asian flare.

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

Hope you enjoyed this second look at my post from January 2008

Art | Blog | Creativity

Altered book, round robin, Second on the 2nd, swap

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201509/01

2015 Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt wrap up

Here we are at the end of summer…well, at least the end of the 2015 Summer photo Scavenger hunt hosted by Rinda.

At my last check in I had over half of the items on the list as well as the alternates.

I am so happy to say that I have completed the list!! Hooray! I love being able to check something off a list. In fact…secret coming…I write stuff on my to-do list after doing it just so I can cross it off. Yeah…I have a problem.

The remainder of the items are as follows….

4. People playing a board game or card game

a rousing game of Scattergories Categories

6. A metal bridge

This first photo was taken while passing a company that builds metal bridges. We passed it at least three times so on the last time I had passed of my phone off for someone to snap the photo at my direction.

I think this may have been one from that same company in real world use.

8. Someone “plugged in” to social media

Sad but true…computer in the van.

11. A cellular tower or television satellite dish

Along the interstate…

14. A traffic signal

Rural central Minnesota gas station with really old pumps and the craziest items for sale in a convenience store I’ve ever seen. It was like an episode of Hoarders with price tags complete with a literal path to the “customers only” restroom. Yikes!

15. A flag pole with at least three flags on it

Ok I’m taking a little liberty with this one…but it was REALLY HARD to find.

18. An overloaded truck, car, bicycle or other vehicle

Two examples on the interstate…The first some big piece of farm equipment

And this one was just crazy and freaked me out when it came into view. I saw this white truck in my lane ahead of me suddenly. AWH!!!! But it was being towed by another truck piggy backing on the lead truck. WHAT?!?! I’ve never seen anything like that before.

Photos taken while on the road were taken by my kids…thanks you two!! Safety first. :)

21. A photograph of you with a sign reading “2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt”. Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.

This was great fun! I’m already looking forward to playing along next year! Special thanks to Rinda for once again hosting this great summer challenge.

Blog | Photography

2015 photo hunt, challenge, photography

5 Comments

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