Happy 2025! Yes, I know I’m late but that’s kind of how I roll lately.

I’m starting to write this before work, bright and early Monday morning in hopes that it will get published in a reasonable amount of time.

I’ve been working a bit in my sewing room, organizing and crafting.

It seems as if I’ve been doing more collecting of supplies than using them lately. I want/need to remedy that.

I’ve been playing mostly with fabric but not always in a traditional sense. Fabric journal covers have been one of my recent endeavors.

I’ve been having fun using my stash and creating “sets” if you will. Everything coordinates.

I’m undecided if I’m going to open a new Etsy shop or not. There is a big, frustrating issue on the back end of things and I am no longer able to accept payments since my online bank I used was purchased. Etsy is not being very helpful or accommodating. In the meantime I keep creating without an end goal in mind. Honestly it’s really nice doing things that way.

Since I was sorting through fabric I decided to pull out my Christmas fabrics and make some Scandinavian star ornaments.

Several years ago I made a handful of them but had to look up the tutorial again to refresh my memory. I’ll share the completed ones at a later date.

I’ve been writing lists of crafty things I want to try…so many ideas, so little time.

One of my co-workers brought back these beautiful treats from her trip to India to share with our team.

They are Kaju sweets made with cashews, sugar, ghee and cardamom. The two I tried tasted as good as they looked.

I’m still unsettled on my WOTY for 2025. I loved brave so much, I hesitate to move on. I have a short list of words I may go with or I might just hang onto brave for another year. I don’t think there is any hard fast rule…and if there were I’d likely not follow it. :)

I have put together a full journal that I’m having fun making pockets, tags and other ephemera to include in and on the pages. It really is a lot of fun!

I can’t leave you today without an image of my best buddy Marvin.

Here he was watching an episode of Yellowstone with me. What I goofy cat!!!

I have a before school committee meeting Tuesday morning. No walk for me.

What are you doing today?

Just checking in again after a 2 month hiatus. Life happens but blogging doesn’t. :)

Last time I posted Mini-me and I had just gotten back from our cabin adventure. We were trying to get in as much as we could while she was job searching and I had the impending back to school dates looming ahead.

I was happy to get something canned this summer since my garden wasn’t super prolific this year. I was able to harvest enough hot peppers to make some cowboy candy aka candied jalapenos. I don’t need to make very much as I’m the only one who really enjoys it.

I’ve also been slowly working on using the supplies that I have accumulated. It does no one any good sitting collecting dust. I used the better part of a paper pad from my stash to create gift sets of blank notecards. It’s always nice to have some gifts on hand…and bonus that they are handmade!

Mini-me suggested that we go to the MN state fair on opening day this year. I’ve rarely turn her down when she wants to go somewhere since she tends to be a bit of a homebody. Wowsers was it busy! That day set an attendance record with 138,875 people!

We couldn’t leave without getting a bucket of these! We didn’t eat them all there. Only enough to jam the lid on the bucket after using some elite tetris skills. I froze cookies in small batches to enjoy for the future. In fact, I ate the last two cookies today.

On the bus ride to the fair, Mini-me got a phone call that she got the job she’d interviewed for a couple days previous. This was amazing news! Now she needed to find a place to live in and start work in 12 days. Yikes! It was a whirlwind… She is an admissions counselor for her alma mater. So cool! The only trouble she had was trying to find someplace to live in a small town at the beginning of the academic year. Everything is scooped up! However, between her heavy travel schedule on the college fair circuit and some temporary housing, it all worked out and she got an apartment after a couple weeks.

I had fun finding some furniture for her like this amazing vintage table and chairs at a garage sale!

Her place isn’t ideal but it’ll do for now. She’s hoping to get a roommate since she has a 3 bedroom all to herself. Again…that was all that was available!

So now we are really empty nesters. It’s so strange converting your children’s rooms to another use because its even more sad walking past an empty room. The smallest bedroom has become a sewing room, craft room. And now we have a guest room as well. So strange.

Another good update was that my most recent scans show no recurrence of lymphoma! Remission is a wonderful word!

I continue to walk in the morning before school as much as I can. The sunrise over the new parking lot pavement is lovely.

Last week was only three days which was great. I travelled to see Mini-me for a bit. I’m soaking up all the moments I can since I know they are fewer and farther between. Unfortunately my breaks from K-12 school only mean a busy time for her since that’s when people want to visit the university.

We went out a couple times in the brief time I was there. This place had really awesome coffee and a darn good Reuben sandwich. Eat local.

I’ll leave you with Marvin enjoying the “new” vintage quilt on the spare bed. I brought the comforter up to Mini-me so I’d have some blankets on the airbed. :)

Today had me back to work with an early meeting. No walk before school. :(

Mini-me and I went on our “annual” girls trip last week. We really try to do one each year. This year we were able to stay at my cousin’s cabin in what is sometimes referred to as “lake country”. I grew up at this cabin…it’s a huge part of my childhood. I love being able to share it with my daughter.

The area had gotten significant rain the day before so the gravel road we took in the cabin was not a good choice. We made it but it was not a fun drive. The mud and gravel was really caked up under the van.

We had a good laugh later after the adrenaline wore off about on our Montana girls trip where we really did get stuck in the mud.

When we arrived the lake was like glass…virtually no wind. We immediately changed into our swimsuits to get as much time in the water as possible knowing that the weather wasn’t supposed to hold out for us.

We had a great time on the standup paddle boards. Neither one of us fell into the water. We left our glasses on shore just in case though and wore lifejackets.

Because of all the rain we’ve had this summer the lake is really high…as you can see we had to wade out about knee deep to get onto the dock.  As I waded into the water I noticed all the minnows swimming in the shallows just like when I was a kid. So many memories.

A campfire reheated hotdog was a perfect end to our first day.

Our second day was a rainy one. We decided to drive into town. Mini-me was interested in a used book store which happened to be on the same block as a couple antique stores. We both found some treasures.

After eating lunch at a favorite place alongside a lake, we stopped by 22 Northmen to pick up a 4 pack of my favorite summer beer.

I brought a bag of crafting supplies since we knew the weather wasn’t going to be perfect. I’ve been on a card making kick lately.

I managed to create 20 blank cards ready for sentiments. I love working with scraps and challenging myself to use what I have on hand.

The following day was very windy. Also not great to water sports so we decided to go hiking. Inspiration Peak isn’t too far from the cabin, so that was our destination.

The hike is fairly short but steep. The view was gorgeous.

Since it was still early, we checked out surrounding area map for another destination. We found a state park we’d never been to before.  We did a bit more hiking there before returning to the cabin to enjoy a relaxing afternoon.

We had a wonderful time quietly enjoying each others company. I’m so thankful my cousin let us use the cabin.

Today has boring household chores on the agenda as well as some shopping for interview clothes for Mini-me. She has a second interview on Thursday…this one is in person.