It's time for another YouTube video!  Sewing for a cause is a good feeling.  You'll see below:

Confessions of a serial crafter today!  I just like to make things and I just like to try new things!  Nothing wrong with that, unless you are wanting to weed out the many things in the house that make it full and harder to live a minimalish lifestyle!  Maybe that could be my new thing for YouTube -- Mininmalish Mania!
But, back to the crafting collective!  I'm trying to think of my personal history of crafting.  Here's what comes to mind:  sewing, knitting, a wee bit of crochet, embroidery, crewel embroidery, soapmaking, candlemaking, papermaking, cake decorating, photography, beads for all sorts of stuff, making doll clothes, fabric painting (remember those puffy paints?!), block printing and then there's the supplies for drawing/painting that I've been picking up here and there but haven't really done anything with yet!
There's an untested craft that hasn't made the list. I know, strange!  It's called Diamond Painting, at least I think that's right.  I heard about it at a retreat 3 or 4 years ago from someone working on it.  I really didn't get the allure at the time.
Fast forward to January 2021.  I'm getting some thread or something from a JoAnn store.  On the way down the aisle, I see a display for Diamond Dotz Painting kits.  Out of curiousity, I took a look so I could see what something like that cost to do.  I don't know, maybe I was hoping it would be real crystals and way too spendy to even dabble in.  I could see that it really wouldn't break the bank to try it, but all of the pictures ringing any bells for me, except for way down on the bottom, I spied a box of greeting cards that could be blinged up with Diamond Dotz.  Among those cards, there was exactly one that really spoke to me and that's what you see below.

I just missed getting this into the Golden Globes!

Not trying to be a Negative Nelly here, but I thought maybe I could share some of what goes on during our real life as real humans!  Bob and I hoped for so long that we would one day be able to step away from the workforce and be able to carry on for as long as possible doing the things we had put off doing.  It seemed like such a pie-in-the-sky sort of lifestyle!  What would we do? Would we be healthy? Would we even like retirement? What if one of us got sick? What if one of us was left alone? And on....

One of our most hoped-for goals was to have the time to go places for more than a week or 10 days at a time.  We have never had high paying jobs and that's ok.  We knew how to live within our means and carried on.  We knew that retirement was not going to bring a big pot of money with it!  So the only real way we could travel much was to do it on our terms, which means economically!  That's what led to our choice to get ourselves a comfortable home on wheels and see what develops.  And it's still developing, and we're having a good time.  But in the interest of transparency, I'll clue you in that there are little bumps along the road, too!  Things happen, and you change. 
​Just like this agave plant in Arizona, growing all happy in its spot until a wildfire comes along and changes things!  Hopefully there will probably be some new growth on this guy, but only time will tell.

If you live in the American Southwest, you probably are so accustomed to the desert landscape that it sometimes just becomes the background to your life.  Just like the prairies and lakes and forests of Minnesota can become so everyday that they are unappreciated.  But, when this Minnesota person encounters the desert, the landscape is front and center in my mind.  I've enjoyed taking some pictures along the way and I've created a collection to share with you.  I especially like the curious vegetation and the sunsets over mountains, so you will see those.  Some I can identify, but not always.  And my identifications are not guaranteed to be correct, so bear that in mind!  Several plant pictures still need to be identified, and I'm working on that! 
​Enjoy a visit to southern Arizona, especially my friends and family from the tundra back home!  Wish you were here!

Hello!  I'm back!  And I have finally created a new project that was a challenge that has been waiting on the back burner for a good time to come to life.  2021 is the time!
​I have admired the ability of people, other people, to create a different kind of art with textiles.  I have been intrigued by the collage look in paper, mixed media and fabric.  I'm now dabbling in some fabric collage, and after making one picture that isn't even done yet, I've learned a bunch!  I thought it only appropriate to share this new vast knowledge with you!
I thought long and hard about this project before even getting any materials ready!  It just had to percolate in my mind for a bit!  I've done the majority of the work on this, but it is unfinished, so I will follow up on this in the future when it's all completed and framed.  This will be a wallhanging for my home down the road - literally, down the road!  I'm in Arizona for some warmer weather, and this might just get finished when I am back there and have some more of my quilting tools handy.  Click "Read More" for the rest of the story!

I’ve had a chance to make a few changes to our Airstream, since it’s taking a break from the road, just like we are. The plain off-white stock curtains are perfectly good, and tailor made to fit the windows. There are little tabs attached to run in a track, both top and bottom. I didn’t really want to invest the time it would take to design and make entirely new curtains. I liked the fact that they blocked the light very well, except at the edges.
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So, I put on my thinking cap, and came up with approach that turned out to successful. I just put a new front on the existing curtains. I did have to remove and reattach the Velcro fasteners to bring the sections together. But, I did not have to mess with the slider tabs at all.

I'm not sure how I got back on the sprout train, after about 39 years off the train!  I think I can blame it on Facebook and one of those adds they send your way.  Probably because I watched a YouTube video about growing microgreens.  I wanted to know the difference between microgreens and sprouts.  Turns out they are a lot of the same stuff, except microgreens are grown in dirt or "planting medium", a made up name for dirt!  Sprouts, on the other hand, are grown just like I remember from 1979!  Using a jar with ventilation, and fresh water rinses, sprouts can be grown easily indoors.  I know, the question is WHY.  Because they do taste good and are really tasty and pretty on a sandwich or salad, and I just like watching those little seeds develop!
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I quickly became determined to grow sprouts again!  I've made a slide show of the growth process.  If you click the "See More" below, I've also included some sources for your convenience if you want to join my sprouting revolution!

I've been away from home, traveling due to necessity, during this time we all need to stay home.  Now, I'm back home, and self-quarantining for 2 weeks, and reacquainting myself with the house and yard.  It seems like we're living in our own little world.  It's a glorious time of year here in central Minnesota.  Everything is very green, we've had an average amount of rainfall, although the lawn is brown in some spots.  We do not keep a manicured lawn!  We have some "mowed green space" and we try to keep the surrounding trees and brush and weeds from encroaching.  More than half of our lot is still wild.  And we like it that way!

We both have spent quite a few hours outdoors the last few days, as we are preparing for the construction of a detached 2 car garage.  Bob has done a lot of heavy lifting, hauling, tossing, demolishing, chain sawing and burning.  Sounds like a real rough and ready guy, don't you think?!  I've been involved in most of that, although I don't want to take on the chain saw!  I've also been pulling lots of weeds, both out in the newly cleared area, plus in our flower beds.  I guess when I'm gone, those weeds think they can just take over!  Bob did keep the garden really cleaned up, thank goodness, during the times when he was home.