Tag : T Tuesday

346 posts

T Tuesday: collage and college edition

Lets start with the collage since this is an art blog after all. I decided to attack my scrap pile and make a few mini collage pieces as card backgrounds.  It’s been a long time since I made any cards.  It was really fun…why did I put it off so long.

I even got out my sewing machine to add a bit of stitching to a few places. I decided to leave all but one of the cards without any sort of greeting or sentiment right now. That way I can add whatever I want when the time comes to fit the personality and appropriate greeting for the recipient.

As expected I missed last weeks edition of T stands for Tuesday. We were on the road bringing J to college. We were up before the crack of dawn to get on the road.

My baby bulldog’s new home.

Shockingly we traveled lighter than some for move in day. We’ve started a bag of stuff to bring on parent weekend in October.

*note the waterbottle in accordance with T stands for Tuesday guidelines*

Then this happened the day after we dropped him off at school.

Today was his first day of classes. He bought his books, made it to all classes and sent me a nice selfie to add to my first day of school photos. It’s a good day. For me I had my first half day back to work. Another half day this week then back full time the following Tuesday. I was super excited when on the third attempt I remembered my locker combo. HA!

We are settling into our new normal. Soon I’ll have my sewing machine set up in the unoccupied bedroom. I have several projects I’ve been thinking about and just some repairs that need attention.

I have a ton more stuff to talk about but we have a big storm rolling in and I’m thinking I may have to shut this computer down for a while. I’ll save it for another post.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: eco dye edition

Last week on T stands for Tuesday I had mentioned that I had attempted some eco dyed papers. Today I thought I’d share my results with you.

Last we left off I had bundled my papers and my cooking pot was way too small….

One trip to Goodwill later, I found the perfect size pot in which to cook my paper bundle. 

The bundle wanted to float since it was pine boards that acted as the presser boards. A couple rocks worked well to hold the bundle down in the vinegar and alum spiked water. I boiled on the side burner of our grill for about and hour. Thank goodness I did this outside because it was not pleasant smelling. Also I learned that the pine boards had a lot of sap left in them…what a mess.

After boiling I drained off the cooking water then added cool water which I salted quite heavily. Once everything was cool enough to handle I started the unbundling process.

Then set the pages to dry on the hot concrete. I was surprised at what did and didn’t leave an impression. The marigolds and lemon grass had the greatest color from the experiment.  But that wasn’t my favorite.

It was these….the baby maple trees I pulled from my lawn were lovely ghosted images.

A few freshly turned leaves from our service berry tree gave a slightly rusty, vein like appearance as it’s only impression. Pretty as well but still not holding my interest like those baby maples.

I think I’ll try this again…but perhaps with other sources for dyes. Purple cabbage and onion skins are the first to jump to my mind. I think perhaps I’d get some nice color out of those.

Speaking of color….

I enjoyed a colorful sort of beer this summer. Grain Belt came out with a limited edition Blueberry infused beer. I had to buy some…its local and we like to support our local business. That’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ to it. It was pretty in color and pretty tasty too. Not that you’d really want to drink more than one…too sweet for that.

Anyway…this Tuesday I will be late in visiting…

Next week I may miss all together unless I prepost. We are taking J to college!! Move in day is the 21st. Crazy!!

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: homework edition

Once again I missed last Tuesday linkup with T stands for Tuesday. Typically I write then post immediately on Monday evening since we have so many folk are at least 6 hrs ahead of me. Last Monday I spent canning and baking since it was slightly cooler in temp.

yummy goodness from the garden and CSA

Check out these super long beans from the CSA

I borrowed the tall jars from my neighbor and gave her one of the finished as payment. These beans will be awesome garnish for Bloody Mary’s.

By the time the evening came about I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated to write. Fast forward to Tuesday morning I realized since Mini-me had to be to work early I could stop by and see my old knitting group. The group is very small now, in fact there were only two gals there that day. It was nice to get caught up on all the news anyway.

When I returned home I tackled a project that has been on the todo list for well over a year. We had a new front door installed by a friend and we told him we’d take care of the painting and trimming of said door. I stained all the wood of the jams of the door and when it was finished it looked really weird without trim covering it.

So I tackled the job that Mr. G had been dreading. I learned a few things from working with my dad as a kid so I was up to the task. While I was still working, I heard a car door slam outside . Mr. G had come home for lunch. I had wanted to surprise him with my handiwork complete. I’m pretty proud of my work. Mr. G was so glad it was done. He joked with me that if he’d know I could do that he’d have encouraged me to do it long ago.

Later that afternoon on the way home from picking up Mini-me we noticed the license plate in front of us. 

It was from Honduras! Over 3100 miles from home. Crazy!!!

I’ve been busy with many other things such as finishing an art journal, collecting and packing stuff for J to take to college in two weeks, eco dye papers and completely smashing my phone. Yep that was an expensive day. Thankfully I’ve got a new one and seem to have everything restored to my liking.

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: outdoor goodness edition

The summer is flying by. I’m so thankful to be enjoying some of it outdoors. My garden is thriving with the abundant rain, heat and humidity.

This is the first year I’ve had any luck with cucumbers…they are nearly taking over the garden!!  So far I’ve picked only two. I’m hoping there will be many more for all the space the vines are taking up. My green beans are producing like crazy. Unfortunately I bought the wrong seeds. These are the ones with a bit of a texture on the bean..sort of like a peach. Blech….we like to eat our green beans raw from the garden. The texture just doesn’t work for me. I’ll be making these into canned spicy beans.

My yellow pear tomatoes are big but not producing much. Makes me kind of sad. Hopefully they are just a little slow this year.

We have been getting our weekly CSA box in addition to our garden. We are really enjoying this again this year. So many fresh veggies. I’ve even done a bit of juicing. Trying to use the veggies in a different way. 

This was beet, carrot, apple and ginger. It was SO GOOD!!!!!!

And pretty too! Speaking of pretty…did you spy my freshly stained deck rails? They were so bad…basically down to raw wood. It was a couple labor intensive mornings. I’d have to stop each day when the temp climbed over 90°F.

The great outdoors has so much to offer us. I’ve heard it said and couldn’t agree more that Minnesotans are all about spending as much time outside as possible. We endure extremes in temperature and several different kinds of weather in one day isn’t uncommon. 

As you can see by my crazy tan lines…I spend a bit of time walking in my sandals. LOL  Marvin even gets to occasionally visits to the great outdoors under close supervision. And yes, he really is that big…no trick of the lens. FYI—I wear a size US 9 (40 EU).

T stands for Tuesday

Tuesday holds a visit to my friend in her “new” house. I’m super excited to see it and her!!

What are you doing today?

 

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T Tuesday: dream catcher, deer deterrent edition

Its been a busy week with the Independence day holiday smack in the middle. Lots of time off for everyone. A wedding, drivers training, a parade then cookout followed by local fireworks.

First the wedding…it was lovely and sweet. The crazy thing is I used to do before school care for the groom. Yikes…making me feel old. 

We did the traditional parade and cookout with the neighbors. Mini-me brought a friend this time. After we returned home about a dozen of J’s friends came over and braved the heat of the garage to play board games and hang out until fireworks. A large game of Nerf Wars eventually broke out. I’m still finding Nerf darts in the yard.

The next morning I got out of bed and literally hobbled to the bathroom. I couldn’t figure out why my feet hurt so much….

 

Then I saw this. I walked just a little bit on the 4th. Good thing I was wearing my walking sandals.

So I bet you are wondering if I’m ever going to get to the dream catcher, deer deterrent portion of this post.

I made this dream catcher one day basically just as a test. One to see if I could follow directions and two to see if using a non perfect circle would make things weird.  I also wanted to see how to adding beads to the webbing.

My grand experiment taught me several things. I decided I like the asymmetrical  look of the webbing. I also like the organic look of the bent tree branch I used for the frame. I decided to hang it from our service berry tree right over my Tiger Lilies in hopes of scaring the deer away. They have already stolen the tops of two of the stems. The remaining ones are full of buds. Fingers crossed that it works!

I can always dream right?!?

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: Chinese garden edition

Last Friday Mini-me had the day off of work…yes, my little baby girl has a job. How does this happen?!?  The forecast had nothing good to say. Hot and humid with extreme heat warnings. So we figured the best course of action would be to go walking at the MN Landscape Arboretum. Yeah…good choices did not prevail. But that’s ok…all’s well that ends well as the old saying goes.

We headed out early for a little fuel in the form of Chick-Fil-A biscuits and iced coffee.

The Arboretum recently opened a new Chinese garden that we had completely forgotten about until we happened upon it on our 3 mile walk…technically its a drive but biking and walking are welcome.

As you enter you pass under a lovely arch…this is it from the back of the garden.

This plaque greeted us as we passed through the archway.

In the distance we could see large interesting art pieces drawing us further into the garden.

As well as the geometric red fencing that was the perfect perch for several birds as they sang their beautiful songs over the pond.

The area is quite sparse at this point. That may be purposeful. All I know is that by this point in our trek we were very overheated.

Mini-me caught a bit of breeze in the shade of a pagoda.

 Ahead of us on the crushed gravel pathway was this gorgeous dragon.

He looks very fierce. The detail of the work that the artist was able to create on the large scale using metal intrigues me. Evidently he is just on loan to the Arboretum. I wonder when and if they will have more permanent installations in that garden.

We will definitely be making more visits to the Arboretum as summer continues. We like to walk, take photos and chat together. Its nice having grown up conversations with my kids. Ones that don’t involve nagging about chores, homework or how much time they spend staring at screens. (as I sit here staring at my screen)

Today has a list as usual for me. It keeps me on track. In fact a friend and I are texting a photo of our list each morning to each other and then again in the evening to hold us accountable for checking stuff off that list. So far, so good. Of course this week with the Independence Day holiday things are a little wonky but stuff still needs to get done.

 

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: the return edition

Hello…I’m back. Hopefully without a long break again. The break started benign enough. I had a busy schedule with the end of school and just was going to take a week off from T stands for Tuesday. My brain had a whole other idea.

I ended up in the ER after experiencing a visual disturbance much like looking through a prism followed by the worst headache I’ve ever had. I honestly thought I might be having a stroke or aneurysm. Blood work and three types of MRI showed that I wasn’t having either of my worst fears happening but I did have blood on my brain…old blood. A next day appointment was made to see a neurologist. More tests were ordered to make sure I wasn’t having seizures or had a skull fracture from a blow to the head from a basketball a little over a month before. Everything came back good other than the mystery blood which is irritating my brain causing weird things to happen. So circling back around…the basketball hit appears to be the culprit. Basically a concussion that caused a small bleed that I wasn’t even aware of until later.

I’m still experiencing headaches and get a pain on the top of my head at times that is separate from the headache pain. I can drive now so that’s a good thing! I go back in September to be rescanned and follow up with neurology. What a crazy thing!!

In the meantime my garden has been growing and growing!

All the rain and neglect evidently has done wonders.

I even spied my very first cucumber today. It’s so cute!

The deck box garden is doing well too but notice anything funny about my flags….? 

I caught a red squirrel…well I saw him…didn’t try to physically catch him…stealing my flags. He took a big section and ran with them. I can only assume it was nest building material. Unless they were having some sort of decorating contest which, clearly, he won. LOL

I have done a tiny bit of creating. A journal page and a half complete dream catcher. I’ll share those another time. I do have one other project I’m just getting started on. Hopefully I’ll get it done as quickly as time demands. Nothing like getting a few weeks behind. Although truth be told, I only thought about it recently. So cryptic I know. It’s a gift and I have no idea if the recipient reads my blog.

Tomorrows list is long but I’m trying very hard each day to get most things checked off. Having a health scare and subsequent recovery really makes you realize that putting stuff off isn’t the best idea. You may not be ABLE to do it tomorrow.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

16 Comments

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