Category : Around home

219 posts

Trying something new for this edition of T stands for Tuesday. Mini-me helped make the first batch of lefse for the season. I took a series of photos and linked them as a slideshow. Fingers crossed that this works.

[KGVID]http://www.halleshobbies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/lefseday.mp4[/KGVID]

It’s been a busy, weird week that has included but not limited to:

~an overnight dog visit that went reasonably well with Marvin the dog hater cat

~two turkey dinners

~precipitation of all kinds and in all directions: rain, snow, sleet and hail

~one panicky ER visit which turned out very benign

~one partially dislocated jaw (unrelated to the above)

~all four of us on vacation for 5 overlapping days plus extras on both ends

~late night scratch made brownies

~4 teen boys Black Friday shopping (for themselves)

~one Christmas tree set up and was still standing in the morning (amazing!)

I’m absolutely positive there was more but that is all I am able to wrap my mind around at the moment.

Kids go back to school after a 6 day break…and a mountain of laundry awaits. Living the dream boys and girls. Actually, that is serious! Yes, we all love to complain about the pesky chores of life but I am so thankful for every day that I am able to be home caring for my family.

What are you doing today?

Neighborhood that is.  Over the weekend one of our neighbors hosted a chili cook off.  Eight years ago the same family hosted a similar get together but our numbers have drastically changed in that time period. The majority of the kids are either gone off to college or working now…although we have added to the adult total with new families.

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My white turkey chili was not the winner but I’m not at all sad. It was a fun day!

A couple days previous to the party I returned a scoring plate that I had borrowed form my crafty next door neighbor.  One of these days I actually finish the card I started using the board. Anyway…I never come away empty handed from her house. She has a vast network of folk that are always looking out for each other and trading this and that.

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She had a huge bag of stamps for me to look through, bottle caps from a former co-worker that saves them for me and some tea her DIL didn’t want. Look at the awesome stamps! Can’t wait to play in an art journal with them. The Passion tea by Tazo is a favorite of mine. The Calm I’ll likely use for tea dyeing as I don’t care for chamomile but I do enjoy lemon!!

I’ve also been working on a couple…well, three, oh maybe four projects over the past couple of days. As soon as they come together I’ll be sure to share. To my T Tuesday gals…sorry I never made it around last week…Tuesday got away from me with numerous things including these….

busy-night

Mini-me’s first season of competitive volleyball is done with the exception of the end of season banquet. Choir concert season has just begun for J. The concert was wonderful.  Did I mention they will be traveling to Manhattan in the spring to sing at Carnegie Hall!?!  So excited for them.

Today’s schedule has yet to be determined for me. It’s kind of nice to have a fairly blank slate for a change.

What are you doing today?

Happy Tuesday everyone! This past weekend is one I both love and hate each year. It’s the weekend we help pick apples at our neighbors house. They have 5 trees that are HUGE!! As in you need an extension ladder huge.

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(This is just a 6 foot ladder…)

Some of their family comes over as well as several of us neighbors. We spend  the morning picking then bring our bags of apples home and usually the afternoon or next day processing.

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This year we didn’t make time for processing over the weekend. Everyone was going here and there it seemed. Sleepover, Manhattan choir fundraiser, fabricating and 3D printing in the garage and of course, leaving time to watch our Vikings play the Packers (the big border battle) in the inaugural game in the new stadium…SKOL Vikings! Our Vikings won-BTW!!!

On to Monday…this was my morning view complete with coffee as fuel for the day ahead….

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Normally I process in the garage for more room but since I was doing it solo I brought the garage can inside.

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After hours of peeling I had every extra large container I own full of sliced apples.

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As well as a stock pot full cooking down to sauce. And the dehydrator with 6 trays loaded.

I ended up with 7 quarts that I canned…

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The rest went into gallon freezer bags to be made into sauce at a later date.

apple days

As you can see by this photo it was now after 3pm and I was exhausted,

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I also managed to get two loads of laundry washed during that time.

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So my grand total for the day was: 7 quarts apple sauce canned, 2 quarts in fridge, 4 gallon bags of prepped apples in freezer, and a quart bag of dehydrated slices.

So like I said when I started…apple days…I have  a love/hate relationship with them.

Today I’m going to have coffee with some friends then likely come home and can a few pints of diced tomatoes…or else pull up the garden and do the tomatoes tomorrow before the next round of rain.

What are you doing today?

Last week for T stands for Tuesday I had wanted to share a video with you. I am 99% sure it will work but first I want to give you a little back story.

We have a stray cat that keeps coming around. It’s really friendly to a point…such as it rubs itself all over you but if you pet it “improperly to its standards” it will spit at you. I have yet to figure out if its a boy or girl or if it still has front claws. Close inspection is definitely not allowed with this one.

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Look at it’s funny tail. It’s curly like a pug dog. So weird and cute at the same time. We’ve taken to calling it Pumpkin for the gender neutral name. We do feed and water Pumpkin when he visits usually once a week. It comes when I call to it so it makes me think that it has a home but for goodness sake…keep it inside then.

Marvin is an inside only cat so these two have only met through the window screen. I think Pumpkin wants to be friends….

[KGVID]http://www.halleshobbies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/catmeeting.mp4[/KGVID]

We’re thinking about building some sort of shelter for it as we are not sure if this cat has a safe and warm place to overwinter. Since Pumpkin is quite feral and possibly belongs to someone we hesitate to bring him in as well as the fact that we know nothing about his health.

We are in search of another kitten though. We’ve visited a few and fell in love more than once. Who can resist a fluffy, playful kitten?!?

I’m battling a sore throat currently…more tea with honey and lemon is in order.

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What are you doing today?

Hello there…you came back for yet another edition of T stands for Tuesday! Thank you! For those of you who are new to my blog, WELCOME and let me tell you a little about T stands for Tuesday. Elizabeth aka alteredbooklover hosts a weekly link up or virtual tea party, if you will, where we share what ever the heck we want for the week as long as we can somehow tie a beverage or beverage related item into the mix. Pretty simple huh? So lets get on with it, shall we…

This week I’ve been a mix of artsy and domestic. I’ve previously posted a couple of artsy things so now you get to see some of my domesticity. Last week…no, two weeks ago (geez where does the time go) I shared our “new” hutch for T stands for Tuesday. I mentioned that I need to make a curtain to cover the wine rack shelf. I went searching through a box of vintage linens and found the perfect solution.

vintage linen

Simple beauty. These were my Grandma’s as well. Or perhaps her sisters…a cousin of mine just told me a story that my grandma talked her sister out of a bunch of linens saying that she needed them more in the parsonage than her sister did on the farm.  Hmmm…

vintage linen

I’m guessing these were purchased by my grandparents in Minneapolis if the stickers are to be believed. Dayton’s became a upscale department store here in the midwest and started the discount chain Target.

After ironically running to Target to pick up a tension rod, I realized that I wouldn’t even have to cut these linens. I folded them in half and ran a straight line of stitching an inch from the fold.

vintage linen curtain

This gave me a double layer of fabric providing more light blocking which was exactly what I was going for with this project.

vintage linen curtain The linen curtain makes this piece feel more Scandinavian. Marvin still loves his spot by the door and really could care less about the curtain.

canning

I did a bit of canning and baking as well when the weather cooled down.

spicy beans

I made spicy beans, zucchini bread and pumpkin bread. I like having a little bit of baked goods in the freezer just in case we are suddenly having company and I was completely out.

I also have to share a day that Mini-me  and I had about a month ago. I keep meaning to share but it just hasn’t worked out. She’s been wanting to dye her hair…not all of it but some. A streak or some underneath. She just couldn’t decided so we waited. She finally decided, so we did it.


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It’s faded now quite a bit so we are going to redo it likely in the next couple weeks before school starts.

We went out to eat at Old Chicago to celebrate her fun new hair. It’s one of her favorite restaurants.

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Well that’s it for today. I’ve got another busy Tuesday ahead of me but I’ll be around eventually to visit.

What are you doing today?

I guess I should actually say an eventful week and a half, both good and bad. I’ll start my tale at the bad beginning…

Two Friday’s ago we awoke to a flooded basement. Completely soaked carpet and over half the basement wet. It could have been much worse…it was our water softener that caused the mess so relatively clean water. I didn’t mention my mess on the blog last Tuesday as we were celebrating the 3rd anniversary of T stands for Tuesday!

On Tuesday I mentioned that we’d be out and about like usual for our Tuesday. We were heading to my inlaws (where incidentally we were planning to go to flood Friday) when something hit my drivers side window and it exploded in on me. I was in the inner lane driving 50mph in traffic.  This is where my school bus driving days had me at an advantage with sheer experience on the road. I was able to pull over and figure out what I was going to do. I ended up driving back home after stopping at a hardware store to get something to at least clean the glass off me and my seat.

T Tuesday eventful week edition

I had some small cuts on my arm and embedded glass under my leg that I must have ground in as I drove. Adrenaline…never felt it until later although Mini-me did get out the first aid kit and cleaned up the blood a bit as I scooped glass from the van. Mini-me had a couple tiny pieces in her leg as well…small enough that we used duct tape to remove them. J was spared as he was in the passenger seat of the minivan. Again…things could have been much worse! I could have lost control and gotten into a wreck.

This is were my tale turns for the better… My neighbor decided last minute to have a garage sale so I was going through the house trying to dig up some things to sell.  We did ok but ended up spending most of our profits on a new hutch…well, new to us. Our neighbors just remodeled their kitchen. We took it home thinking we could use it for storage in our game area.

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Looked pretty good there…

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and Marvin also approved. Then overnight Mr. G had a bout of insomnia and realized that perhaps the hutch would be better served in our dining room. So we moved it again….back up the stairs it had come down….

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This way we are able to actually see the beautiful set of dishes from my paternal Grandma.

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As I age I am looking more and more like her, at least in my opinion.

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I feel as if I’m at Downton Abbey when I open these doors. I think it’s the big soup tureen that gives me that feeling. Love, love, love these dishes! Notice all the tea cups… full set of 12. Anyone want to join me for tea? As a kid my mom had them out only on holidays or when we had “fancy” company. These are certainly not my everyday dishes but we do try to use them occasionally because otherwise…what’s the point?!

T Tuesday eventful week edition

We decided to take the door off the one side and just use open shelving.  It’s amazing how much more open it feels with that simple subtraction of the door. Marvin went back to his favorite spot next to the door…that way he can keep track of everyone’s comings and goings.

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He’s just so dang cute! I’m planning to put a little curtain across the wine rack area to keep them in the dark. I was thinking it might be fun to use a vintage table cloth  as my fabric. Perhaps I’ll make a matching mixer cover at the same time.

Our new hutch took the place of our old buffet. The buffet now resides in the game area.

T Tuesday eventful week edition

It really looks nice there and holds a ton of games. So after all the heavy lifting and switching things around we sat down and played a family game and got thoroughly trounced by Mini-me.

Thanks for sticking with me through my long post.  I have no idea what Tuesday has in store for me…other than I feel as if perhaps I should just stay home.

What are you doing today?

For several weeks I’ve been meaning to share a little garden art piece. Last week I didn’t even make it for T stands for Tuesday.  In my defense, last Tuesday didn’t even seem like Tuesday since Monday was the Independence Day holiday. Enough with the excuses and on with the project.

I used a strand of memory wire, beads and a fishing swivel to create this whimsical edition to my flower garden. I started out with a wildly random color assortment but didn’t love it. After some thought, I decided on blue, white and silver. I felt this combo would contrast nicely with the surrounding greenery.

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I was really hoping the fishing swivel would make it twirl in the wind. So far it hasn’t seemed to spin. Perhaps if there were something flat or paddle shaped at the end instead of a faceted bead it would have enough wind resistance to spin. Oh well….

I must also mention this was a stash busting project. Absolutely no cost. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

It’s a good thing to since I was saving my pennies to buy a set of these pretty copper mugs for our new favorite summer drink.

Moscow mule

So pretty and the customary vessel for a Moscow mule. By keeping the copper mugs in the freezer they retain the cold for much longer.  You have to be careful with this vodka and ginger beer concoction though….they go down quick but sneak up on you. Don’t even ask how I know that one.

I have errands on my list this morning but I’ll be around to check in with the rest of the T stands for Tuesday gang later.

What are you doing today?

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