T Tuesday: ice tea edition

Last week was very hot and humid around here. Friday night or very early Saturday morning would be more accurate, we had a batch of crazy weather blow through. Lucky for us we had no real damage…just lots of small dead branches blown from our trees. There was a tornado about 20 miles west of us that overturned cars. Again…very thankful that didn’t come through here!

Since I was drinking so much water all week, I decided to change it up a bit and make some “iced tea”. Honestly I think it’s more of a tea flavored water. I brewed three different teas in 2 cups of water added 1/2 tsp of raw honey then filled the pitcher with water. 20150717_8255 It was actually quite tasty and a nice change from plain old water.

During the extreme heat the deer decided that it would be much easier to forage close to the house…they ate my beans and flowers.

So we had to take drastic action with the gardens….

Seriously tall fencing around both gardens. But just look how full that garden is!!! This is what it looked like June 1st…

Yes I know it has been 50 days but wow! Those babies were started from tiny little seeds. Nature never fails to amaze me!

We were outside chatting about the garden and talked about possibly expanding into another space.

The space is next to the garage…totally unused and a southern exposure. Perfect for a garden. We could double our current gardening space and still leave room for a wood pile for the fire pit!

Did I mention I canned some spicy beans yesterday straight from the garden?

I love having a garden!!

Now that the weather has cooled down…for the time being at least, we’ve been enjoying some of the wonderful parts of living in Minnesota.

Relaxing on the patio….

Windows and doors open with a fan blowing in the nice cool air…

Like my cool vintage fan?

It’s from the 50’s…it been around.

Oh so punny…don’t blame me for both…Little J had a hand in one pun. :)

This photo is for Denise…We visited one of the libraries on her list yesterday. It also happens to be the library…ok technically this is the new location…but the library that issued my very first library card. This reader beaver was donated to the library somewhere around that same time.

Are you tired of reading my ramblings yet??

I have one last thing to share…the beginnings of a journal page.

Not exactly sure where this one is going but I’ll be sure to share it when it’s done.

Today is filled with appts for the kids. Gotta get those appts in while they are out of school. Only 42 days left..not that I’m counting. *wink*

What are you doing today?

Blog

15 Comments

halleday

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SOC 5: week 6

I’m sad…it’s over…The Summer of Color hosted by Kristin of Twinkle, Twinkle is really done with this last set of colors.

1 orange+ 1 orange + 1 blue

I know the Golden color says red oxide but it is totally orange.

Just look how dark orange it is!!

I decided on some very Dr. Suess like flowers in blue for this weeks journal page. I used a Prismacolor watercolor pencil to draw the basic shape then went in with a water brush to give them movement and dimension.

My found text came last…although once auditioning the text on the page I realized it really needed a bit of white splatters so the text wouldn’t be so stark.

Once again thank you to Kristen for her hard work and dedication to the yearly challenge!

Art | Blog

art journal, SOC5

13 Comments

halleday

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T Tuesday: exploring edition

Today for T stands for Tuesday I’m sharing a little snippet of a local outing the kids and went on last week.

We went to the arboretum. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny but not hot.After walking around, snapping photos for a couple hours we headed off for lunch. We decided to try a place that we’d been very disappointed with in the past. Why would we do that? Well previously it was a dinner and it was at least 5 years ago. Why not try again?

Little J and I really liked our meals. Big J was indifferent. His food was kind of tasteless without the specialty sauces that came with it…which he didn’t care for.

Overall it was a good experience that I’m glad we tried again…other than the price tag. Yikes! Oh well…we don’t go out that much and it’s summer. Gotta have a little fun.

I’m off to drop one at volleyball and do driving lessons with the other. I’ll be back to check in with my T stands for Tuesday friends as soon as I am able.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Photography

photography, T Tuesday

11 Comments

halleday

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Where this blogger creates

For several years I’ve wanted to join in with Karen of My Desert Cottage for her annual blog party but have missed it due to busy schedules. This year I finally made it!

So without further ado….Welcome to Halle’s Hobbies!

I’d like to introduce myself for you first time visitors. I’m Halle, which is pronounced Holly. I know..it’s different. I’m am a self taught mixed-media artist from Minnesota. I’ve been crafting since I was a kid. Over the years I had played around with a little bit of everything…plastic canvas, embroidery, painting plaster ornaments, quilting and even tried scrapbooking when I had my first child. It wasn’t until I discovered altered art in 2005 that I realized I had a passion for art. I started blogging in April of 2007 on Blogger then eventually purchased my own domain and moved my blog to WordPress. So here we are today.

On with the tour…

I have a couple of creative areas in our house. I’m am very lucky that the family puts up with my creative chaos.

I’ll start with my art space.

It’s not fancy or sweetly decorated but it’s mine! Although I do share my space with the laundry, deep freeze and utility room. Don’t get me wrong….I’m not complaining. I’m lucky because I have room to spread out and bonus, I have a sink to wash hands and brushes! I also have tons of storage for all my bits of this and that. Somehow I still find that I’m running out of room!

This is the view to the left of the previous shot. I keep my guillotine cutter on the clothes dryer. It happens to be a perfect height. The top of the file cabinet and the deep freeze have become storage spots as well. I’ve been organizing and purging bit by bit. Slowly but surely I’ll get it finished.

Remember I mentioned my family being patient with my creative chaos…

This is my sewing table that resides in a tiny corner in our family room. I tend to sew a lot so having a space that is constantly at the ready is key. Beyond creating and repairing basic utilitarian objects, sewing finds it’s way into my art as well. Currently, I have a feature article in Sew Somerset where I share my technique for collage cards.

And where would a blogger be without her computer…I love my big monitor. It makes photo editing a dream!

My “office area” sits in a nice little nook in the game area of our family room.

Truth be told, my desk is usually covered with papers. It’s just how I work best. I can’t explain it but it works for me unfortunately it drives Mr. G crazy. Thankfully he is tolerant.

Thanks for coming along on this little tour with me. I hope you’ll stop by again.

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T Tuesday: week in review edition

We had a busy week leading up to the July 4th holiday weekend. I barely touched my computer for days… I totally missed 2nd on the Second that Elizabeth our T stands for Tuesday also hosts. I didn’t even realize I missed it until the 5th. How’s that for being out of touch!

Lets start back on Tuesday of last week…

after writing my T post, we headed off to my inlaws to check out the damage to the garden and their house. The garden was a wreck. Leaves and plants ripped to shreds and beaten into the mud. I cleaned up as much as I could and will just hope for the best. At least we have a thriving garden here at home as well.

Wednesday and Thursday were a blur… I can’t even remember what we did.

Friday evening was spent at the carnival in town. The kids had a great time. I had a great time too. I wasn’t looking forward to going this year but I’m glad I did.

I don’t know if you can tell from the photo (upper left side) but we’ve been effected by smoke from the Canadian wild fires here. The sun at times is just a red glow in the sky. Yesterday after our heavy rains ended it was so hazy and the air smelled really bad. I found out later that we were under an air quality warning. Our air quality was worse than Beijing, China yesterday. Thankfully today it has cleared out.

EDIT: I can still smell the smoke but at least the sky is clear.

On to Independence day…

Before the parade I walked over to the hockey rink at the Elementary school to check out the chalk drawing contest entries now that they were complete. Amazing work! The girl who drew Uncle Sam was 14 yrs old! Wow!

And now parade time….

The annual flyover by a T6 Texan squadron announces the start of the parade. Then we have another good 30 minutes before the parade reaches our seats. That’s ok…we sit with a group of about 55 people in a friends back yard along the parade route. Can’t beat that!

It was a hot and steamy day…my drink of choice…

Ok I didn’t get that fancy that day…I had to take one for the team yesterday for dramatic effect on the post. *grin*

After the sticky day it was time for a dip in the neighbors pool.

And then some fireworks…

We are back to a normal schedule I think. Errands, hopefully knitting and visiting my T friends are on the list for today.

What are you doing?

Blog | Outdoors

gardening, Holidays, T Tuesday

13 Comments

halleday

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SOC 5: week 5

What?!?!? How is it week 5 of The Summer of Color hosted by Kristin of Twinkle, Twinkle. Seriously…time goes by way too quickly!

This weeks colors are…

1 green+ 1 green + 1 pink

I went very basic this week. I spread some thinned out light green along the bottom edge of the book then sprayed with water. I then tipped the book to get a good flow going in an upward motion to simulate foliage in the background.

I almost feel like I want to do another page in these colors…something abstract. But this was where my mind was at this morning as the rain poured down outside. Dreaming.

Art | Blog

art journal, SOC5

33 Comments

halleday

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SOC 5: week 4

I was very slow to get a clue with these colors for this Week 4 of The Summer of Color hosted by Kristin of Twinkle, Twinkle. Between that and a busy holiday week I just didn’t get anything accomplished.

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