Since it’s been a hot minute since I last posted, I thought it would be most efficient to do a month in review.

Work has been tiring of course but when I have had the energy or inspiration; I’ve been mostly obsessed with my sewing machine. Whether its fabric or paper or a combination of the two…I’m running it through my machine with reckless abandon.

I’ve started work on a few new journal covers. This one has me stepping outside my comfort zone with the bold floral print as well as bright colors. Definitely not my usual but perhaps the shake up will act as inspiration or a challenge. I created two more but evidently forgot to snap a picture.

Making cards is always a relaxing activity for me. I had punched a ton of circles one day sitting in front of the TV watching who knows what. I like to have my hands busy so I don’t find myself snacking. But I digress… I sat down at my sewing machine with a couple different piles of scraps. Fabric and paper as well as the afore mentioned circles. I have mentioned lately how much I love circles!! I do, trust me.

Now I have a large stack of cards ready to go when an occasion arises. Just add a sentiment or even just a note on the inside.

The kids came home from college for Thanksgiving break. It was great to see them in person again. Just a couple more weeks and they’ll be home for a month between semesters. Marvin was very excites when Mini-me came through the door. He thought it was me coming home from work but it was his girl. She said that he yelled excitedly. Of course that never lasts too long…the comfort of napping on the “grandma blanket” always wins out.

Mini-me sent me this one day. The thrill of seeing your own work (or your offspring’s) never gets old.

Mini-me helped me make our first batch of lefse of the season. We were definitely a bit out of practice…it had been almost two years since I made any. We made a small batch…just enough for Mini-me to bring some back to share with her friends at college and of course, for us to have a few.

Lastly I’ve been continuing to sew my random scraps together. I decided on 9.5 inch blocks. I just keep stitching and ironing and stitching and ironing…until I have a big enough piece to cut my square. I decided on 9.5 inches mostly because I have a square quilting ruler that size.

I don’t have a plan in particular for these blocks. I assume I’ll put sashing between the blocks to give the eye a place to rest. But for now I’m just creating a very colorful stack of blocks.

I’m certainly not promising that I will be posting more often but it does feel good to get my words on the page.

Happy T day everyone!

Months ago I mentioned working at scrap management for my fabric collection. Yes, I said collection…let’s be honest…buying crafting supplies ends up being collecting sometimes.

I really knocked the scraps down to some key sizes that would work for other projects.

With that in mind I came up with a “pattern” or maybe pattern concept since the pieces really fit together in so many ways.

This is a pile of chain pieced scraps. Its really relaxing to sit and sew…then once I have a really large pile of pieces I go sit in front of the TV and snip them all apart then sort them for ironing. So much ironing but so worth it.

Since I’ve starting making a few more masks I had to buy some more fabric….I had to…I really did. That’s me trying to convince myself too.

My neighbor brought me to a wonderful little quilt shop in a nearby small town. I ended up buying a stack of fabric with a few projects in mind. The two floral fabrics were just because I absolutely fell in love with them.

I’ve also found some fabrics at rummage sales. So fun…but now I have some more scrap management to handle. It really never ends…

The start to the school year has been a bit rocky…stress levels are up. I’m hoping everything is settling down now. My most recent posts seem to have been mostly about gardening. This one will touch on that as well.

Additionally, I have taken a little time to be creative. Some cards and a few journal pages.

I can safely say that my gardening days this season are numbered. I pulled up the shed garden and amended the soil with the compost from the bin. Yay, free! I’ve also started emptying pots and composting the spent plants for future compost.

I pulled up half of my carrots. They are small but mighty good. I’m just impressed that I successfully grew carrots…they were not looking good all summer.

Marvin is in the display case at school for our “pet show”. I wish I had taken a wide shot…there are over half a dozen photos of named chickens as well…makes me smile and giggle a bit.

Blogging seems to be getting harder for me even though I REALLY love it. The problem seems to be that I am not scheduling time for it. I sit down and before I realize it,  I have squandered hours of time on idle pursuits…down the proverbial rabbit hole on Pinterest or YouTube. Or bingeing a series on Netflix. I know I am not the only person who struggles with this…those platforms would not be as successful as they are without the continual audience. 

I know some of my struggle is learning what my new normal feels like. What I have time for, what I should be doing vs what I want to do vs what actually needs to be done. Look at me, verbally processing with you…. 

I literally have pages of notes and ideas of content for the blog. Some are just rough ideas.  Others are plans for projects not yet started or works in progress.  Additional ideas for reworking of old content…so many things. I feel as if I have analysis paralysis. I can’t decide what to do, so I do nothing.

Does that ever happen to you?

Today was my first day back to work but I’m not here to talk about that…I’m talkin’ tomatoes. I have an abundance between the CSA box and my own plants.

This was one morning’s harvest. Crazy right!?! Especially since I really don’t have that big of space.

I saw a recipe from our CSA farm that was called September soup which as a roasted tomato soup. I decided to do my own take on the soup with the fresh produce I had on hand.

I used several kinds of tomatoes including cherry size, sweet peppers, garlic, onion and one very hot jalapeno. I seasoned with oil, salt and pepper. I roasted the tray for about an hour I think. I actually had to stop and start partway through for some reason I can’t even remember now…

I dumped the tray of veggies into a stock pot and covered with water. I cooked it down for another 45 mins or so. Then I took my immersion blender and pureed the whole works.

I ended up with a quart and a half of some really rich tomato soup. Its a little on the spicy side so I’ll likely mix some milk or cream into it when I heat it for soup. I’m just going to freeze the soup.

Or maybe I’ll sample it as Bloody Mary mix…

That was a yummy taste test this weekend! It needed to be thinned out some but good flavor. Here in the Midwest (at least in Minnesota and Wisconsin) a “snit” or beer chaser is always served with a Bloody Mary. Is that a thing where you live?