Long overdue life update

Grab a beverage and get a comfortable chair. It’s been a long time since I have posted…soon you will know why.

A bit of back story first that may explain some of the gaps in my posts…

A bit over a year ago I began a journey of trying to figure out what was up with my left eye. It had been getting a but squinty for about a year but I hadn’t given much thought to it. Then the upper lid near my eyebrow began to swell slightly. I saw so many doctors, had scans, x-rays, was given medicines to try…no luck. It just kept getting worse.

The day after my last post I finally saw the right specialist who ordered the right tests. I was scheduled for a surgical biopsy of a mass in my orbit. Two days later…on our 29th wedding anniversary…I got the news that it was Lymphoma.

I was passed along to oncology. More tests happened then I was told that it was a very slow growing type of lymphoma. This was a relief since I knew I had this for at least two years now looking back at photos.

We made the decision not to share the news with the kids just yet. Mini-me was away at college then was heading to Scotland to study aboard for three weeks.

I started daily radiation treatments the day after she left. I had 15 in all.

We had a family meeting and told the kids what was happening after she returned. The next day I had a follow-up with my oncologist. He said he has no reason to believe that the radiation wasn’t successful since the kind I had is extremely well treated with radiation. Obviously there are still tests ahead for me but I am very optimistic.

I am dealing with some side effects of the treatments such as very dry eye and some redness. All in all very minimal compared to the sheet of possible side effects I was given.

Obviously this is the readers digest version of the tale but whew…that was a lot.

So besides medical stuff…its summer here in Minnesota. The time that makes up for the other 8 months of the year. I’ve been getting out and walking most mornings.


With the exception of the ones ruined by the Canadian wildfire smoke. I had to cut that morning real short.

We finally had the decking and rails replaced on our deck. It was long overdue. Its so pretty!! I’ll be staining it this fall after the mill glaze wears off the cedar.

Marvin is enjoying it almost as much as I am.

My gardens are different this year as I didn’t know how I’d be feeling and also didn’t want pots sitting on the new naked wood on the deck. I just have flowers and herbs in the deck box garden.

And 6 potted tomatoes in the shed garden. I put down cardboard so I wouldn’t have to fight the never ending battle with weeds. It’s not the prettiest but it sure is easy.

One evening after a very hot day followed by a wind storm I found this Mourning Cloak butterfly struggling on the deck. He was so beautiful. I’m not sure if he made it or not…I’d like to imagine that he did.

I have been sewing, making journal covers and other puttering around but nothing substantial to share. Mainly been concentrating on my mental and physical health. Honestly throughout this whole ordeal I haven’t felt bad. A little more tired and an irritated eye but I am not going to complain one bit.

I have to wait 3 months for follow-up diagnostics. So until then I am going with my oncologists word of it should be all gone.

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Junk journal pages from long ago

Technically these aren’t super long ago… but a couple months old. Honestly, with the way this winter is dragging on and on it still feels a bit like January-February. It’s all just a cold white blur.

My wonky junky journal is getting super thick. I’m on the last signature and am trying to be a bit more aware of the thickness of embellishments I am using. 

I hadn’t realized that I never posted any of these pages. Thankfully I was looking through the folders on my laptop and discovered my error.

I love the colors in this one. I was certainly wishing for warmer days when I created this one.

This page has hidden journaling about my baby girl turning 20! What in the world…that just isn’t possible.

Again with this page I am wishing for springtime. How foolish I was to think it was coming anytime soon.

I used a scrap of fabric to make a little fabric flip to hide a bit of journaling.

When I finished this page I realized that my date stamp ended with 2022. I had to improvise. Since then I ordered this new date stamp. My problem is solved until 2032.

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Room refresh

It’s taken me a bit and is far from complete but I have finally starting the transformation of J’s room into a sewing room. The room is very small and we plan to keep the bed in there for now so that leaves less options for layout.

This was my first layout. It was ok but far from ideal.

This is how I currently have it arranged. It’s more functional but looks awkward. I still have issues with the desk space. The only place for a glass is behind the sewing machine. You may be able to see the empty coaster there.

Truth be told, besides the bed, there is still some stuff that J has yet to move. So I am working around that as well.

I have made use of the space though. These are a few journal covers I had rattling around my head. More to come on that as I continue working on them.

Also was making use of scraps I unearthed while rearranging. Years ago I wrote an article for Sew Somerset describing my process for these mini collages. Now the junk journal community calls them clusters. I can get behind the name change but the process is the same.

This bunch took me less than 30 minutes.

I’ve also started work on a paper bag book. I haven’t made one in probably 10 years. I kind of burned out on it. However there is a baby boom around work. I thought I’d try my hand at making a few instead of the typical gift of a cute little outfit that baby fits into for exactly 57 minutes.

As you might be able to guess…we are empty nesting again. We brought Mini-me back to college for Spring semester.

When we walked into her room we were shocked that her cactus had grown with no light for a month. No water wasn’t surprising…but no light?!

I snapped a photo out the window on the most boring part of our drive. There is about an hour of basically this view after you exit the interstate.

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Refreshing habits

In keeping with my word of the year….

I am looking at different parts of my life that might need a little help. One of those is health related. Daily walks.

After my surgery last summer and COVID during my recovery, I had to quit walking as much as I was accustomed to doing daily. I found that this was a really slippery slope for me. It really easy to skip my walk even after I was fully able to do it…I just didn’t want to do it. I made many excuses to myself. “I don’t have time” ” I’ll get sweaty and can’t shower” “The roads are really busy this time of day” …you name it, I likely thought it.

I have made a shift in my thinking and have been walking before work each morning. I get to work real early and walk laps in the athletic dome.

It’s usually really cold in there but at least there’s no wind.

I participate in a workplace challenge with a fun group through our Fitbit app. It’s fun to cheer each other on and get a little good peer pressure to get up and get moving.

And being the “gold star” girl that I am…getting little motivational badges is nice too.

I love having a fitness tracker. I know its not for everyone but it works really well for me. In fact. I just bought myself a new Fitbit for Christmas along with a pressure canner. I know, I’m just all kinds of wild and crazy. HA!

Not too shabby for a day at work. Truth be told, I am on my feet 95% of my day which is just fine with me. It’s sitting that gets me in trouble…

When I was on the actually Fitbit site on the computer today I noticed some stats that I had never seen before since I mostly just use my phone. I joined Fitbit in 2014 but hadn’t been a consistent user until 2017ish.

I’m completely blown away that I am approaching 9000 miles. That is crazy. I think I need to buy some new shoes!

 

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Gnome ornaments

I always like to have a little something to give to friends… usually it’s handmade…what else would you expect from me.

Mini-me brought home a large spool of kitchen twine that she had used in an art installation last year. I wasn’t sure how we were ever going to get through all the yardage until I started making these cute gnome ornaments.

I was inspired by a Pinterest video. https://pin.it/4wRPmea

I wrapped the kitchen string around my hand until it felt thick enough. I tied the middle then slipped off my hand and cut the opposite side from the tie. I then tied a loop of bakers twine to serve as the hanger before beginning work on the hat.

 I made a circle template with a bowl then cut it in half. I used scraps of flannel from my stash for the hats. After rolling my half circle of flannel into a cone shape.  I used a hot glue gun to adhere first the hat together then stick the hat to the gnome body being careful to thread the hanger loop through the top of the hat. I then added a coordinating button or two to the hat and a wooden bead tucked up under the rim of the hat for the perfect gnome nose.

Thankfully I also have a stash of wooden beads to make the noses.

They turned out so cute and I used up the whole spool! Renew, reuse, recycle. ♻️

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Snow, snow, snow

What a wild ride at the beginning and end of my winter break. We’ve had snow storms that bookended the time off.

Winter break started two hours early with an early release due to weather. Now we are having our second snow day in a row! That just doesn’t happen!! Can’t say I’m sad about two full weeks off.

Leading up to break we did a couple fun things at school such as winter week theme days, treats and even pancake breakfast cooked by our administrators.

We each got a mug to fill with treats. I decided to add a my signature flower as well as my name to my mug.

Our special education team had a week long secret Santa exchange…this was day 1 for me.

I also made a bunch of Gnome ornaments for work friends. I’ll do a separate post on how I made those.

Christmas is a favorite time for Marvin. He loves a good box.

And bows!! Bows are his favorite. We actually save them so he can have some to play with all year long.

Mini-me got him this very special bow. He LOVES it!

The whole family was off work between Christmas and New Years. The company Mr. G works for generally closes that week and J took the week off so he could move. Yep you heard me…he moved out. He is living in a house in the neighboring town with one of his buddies from high school. Of course with the crazy horrible weather yesterday, we went and picked him up from work and brought him here for the night. None of the roads were plowed and his little sedan would have never made it. Thank goodness for four wheel drive.

New Years Eve we went for brunch at Hell’s Kitchen and enjoyed some great live music.

And a massive Bloody Mary! I couldn’t eat more than a couple bites of my meal after that. Lucky for me, I had a good leftover lunch the next day! 

I’ve been doing a bit a creating as well such as this card from scraps laying around my desk. There are a few journal pages as well but that will be a different post.

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Happy New Year!

Another year is in the books as they say…but really who are “they”?

Yesterday I started thinking about my Word of the Year…realizing I hadn’t picked a new one or reflected on my WOTY for 2022.

So lets look back at 2022 first… My word was treasure.

I took time to treasure time with family and friends. Treasure memories of those no longer with us. While doing this I realized that some of the things I had that I treasured were more about the memory associated with it than the object itself. This has been quite freeing. Not that I have become a minimalist by any stretch of the imagination. I’m an artist and maker…we collect stuff.

And now for my word to help guide me in 2023…

I am all about refreshing things in my life this year. Refreshing spaces, personal goals, attitude, and mindset just to name a few.

I honestly almost used renew again for my WOTY but that was my word for 2017. However refresh is a similar word. Reset was also on my mind. It is really hard to pick one word. I like to think of it having a broad meaning yet being something I can measure.

As the year goes by I will touch on ways refresh is guiding my choices.

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