Between the Goal Posts

Tonight's Sunset

A Peek Back: Family Outing

Look what I found in my archives! Photos from our family geocaching outing on Jeanne's and my birthday at the end of last November. This was a fun and lovely day together, tootling around the countryside, learning more about the Eugene area, and finding treasures. 

Oregon is gorgeous in the Fall. Our trip took us around Clear Lake

Jodie found a painted rock nestled in the leaves along the main path.

While Jodie babysat me with my bum knee, Dale and Jeanne took a walk to a cache further down the trail.

We didn't find the cache at this spot, but we found the historical marker tucked in some brush at the side of the road. Neat! You can learn a lot while caching.

Dale logs a cache as the sun goes down. This was a tricky find, but Jeanne nabbed it.

Last cache of the day. Jodie's 500th cache find!

Jeanne and I think this was an ideal way to spend our joint birthday. I so love geocaching! It gives me a high every time.

Flash Craft: Heart Ornaments

Our house is decorated for Valentine's Day now. Each year I like to add another little som'thin'-som'thin' to the decor. For the base of today's Flash Craft,* I used this decoration left over from our 30th wedding anniversary last year. 

I cut apart some of the hearts, punched a hole, added a pink-and-white baker's twine hanger

and decorated the tabletop tree in our entryway.

It's a simply idea that took less than two hours, and used only supplies from my stash.

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*Flash Craft: a project that catches my attention one day, which I will go out of my way to execute within five days. The idea is to do rather than simply dream and plan.

The Last

Dale's final retirement celebration was at our house. Our local offspring were here in person, with a call-in from the Idaho contingent.

Dale put up with quite a bit of falderol, and was a great sport. We celebrated every stop along his career path, from logging with his dad to his data analysis days at the credit union.

Our celebration was topped off with shish kebobs, rice, cheesecake, and the 3-D version of the movie Up!

Now, there's a peace in the house and the real retirement begins.

Valentine Afterglow

Last week, I decorated for Valentine's Day. As Dale and I headed out the front door for our late afternoon walk ...

the sunlight kissed us.

Retired!

My Dale retired today. His team gave him a really lovely send-off. Folks that used to work with him at the credit union stopped by on Zoom to wish him well. (It was REALLY good to see those old familiar faces!) I love that he is respected and appreciated at work as much as he is at home.

The times, they are a-changin'.

Fungi Formations

 This landscape of mushrooms found a home in a toppled tree at the far edge of an old cemetery.

Click for larger image

Sundown Over Clear Lake

Jeanne, Dale, Jodie and I ended our late November geocaching birthday celebration by finding our last cache on top of the dam at Clear Lake. 

Click for larger image

Wow! What a view!

One of the very best aspects of geocaching is the amazing spots you stumble upon during the quest.

Greeting Card Display Wreath

Last Christmas, I came up with a new way to display our Christmas cards. I used to pin them on long ribbons, or stack them in a fancy basket. This time I wanted to find a way to display and enjoy them that took very little effort.

In my Studio, I pulled out this huge wire wreath form. It's 24 inches in diameter. (I found it at a thrift store for a song!)

I simply used mini 1.5 inch long clothespins to clip the cards to the wire. That's it! (I happened to purchase these at a thrift store, too).

My clothespins were already "dressed" with green ribbons for Christmas, which was a nice added touch. I'd previously used them on a St. Patrick's Day wreath!

So why post about a Christmas Card display wreath at the beginning of February? Because this same idea can be used with Valentine cards that you receive (or collect). For Valentine's Day, choose a heart-shaped wreath form!

Now ... time for me to buy a heart-shaped wreath form. My other two are in use. One is covered in pompoms:

The other is covered in roses:

Clutter Clearing

Look who I had the pleasure of spending a day with! My Jodie!

[In her honor, every sentence will end in an exclamation point!]

She invited me over to her house to do what she terms, clearing out "small hoards!" I usually call these boxes of indecision!! It's a box used to temporarily move things out of sight when there is some other pressing matter at hand, and you just need to conceal and containerize the stuff to have some breathing room! Unfortunately, it's not unusual for these boxes to succumb to "Out of sight, out of mind!" Jodie has several of these boxes to process!

This kind of activity may sound like work to some, but we turn almost any kind of task into a game! To assist, I took along my sorting bins! The idea is to do a quick sort into one of these three bins, trying not to think too hard about it! Once a bin gets full, you deal with its contents before sorting any more! Then return to the quick sort!

We filled the "Give Away" bin twice, and the others once in the morning! After a yummy lunch prepared by son-in-law Kenny, Jodie and I took time to put everything away immediately, exactly where it belonged (or at least one step closer to its final home)! The "Throw Away" bin is the easiest! Then we took a road trip to give away the other items! Some small kitchen appliances found a great new home in an after-school program where kids learn to cook!

In the process of finding places for the "Put Away" items, we washed some vintage Pyrex bakeware, cleared out three shelves in the kitchen pantry, and two large storage shelves in the garage! By the end of the day, we'd cleared two boxes of items that had previously lost their homes!

My sorting bins are a nice size: 22 inches high x 14.5" wide x 14.5" deep and a true extravagance!!  They are pretty and bright, and using them helps the job feel less like drudgery and more like an adventure! But plain ol' boxes with the same labels will do for a quick sort!

Job well done!!!!!

With work done, we spent the rest of the afternoon planning a family gathering! More fun to come soon! 

It was a fantastic way to spend one-on-one time with my daughter!!! It happens all too rarely during this pandemic!!!!!

Valentines for My Little Bugs

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I've got hearts on my mind (again ... still!) I saw this sweet idea on nontoygifts' Instagram account this week. The Valentines totally captured my attention. Know what that means?

Flash Craft!

I made the bee for Melody, and the ladybug for Annie. Each bug has a personal message under their wings, along with a hidden heart on their chest.

And googly eyes, of course!

The construction paper valentines are oversized, so I made custom envelopes for them. Each envelope measures 8.5" x 6.75" and was made from two pieces of printer paper cut to size and adhered together with double-sided tape.

I even found these 1/2" square heart stickers in my stash that look like tiny postage stamps.

These cards will be added to our grandkids' Valentine gift box and mailed to Idaho at the beginning of February.

With Flash Crafts, I need to remind myself that "done is better than good." I can take some shortcuts to get to the end so that my brain can get a blast of serotonin. Perfection is not the name of the game.

I got to have a happy dance, and the entire project -- from idea to clean-up -- took about two hours. I had all the supplies on hand, so there was no out-of-pocket costs.

The Pirates of St. Augustine

This is the last of the puzzles I completed in August. (Dale was in Idaho. I had a lot of time on my hands).

I enjoy putting puzzles together that have so many fun details.

This wonderful illustration is by Anthony Kleem.

Let's check out some of the details. The pirate cat sail:

The fire-breathing dragon sail:

A pirate skull-and-crossbones hot air balloon!

Ah, for swarthy pirates, they do look like a happy bunch of young 'uns.

Sweet, too. Check out the hearts on either side of the skull.

Together

A finish! A finish!

It appears that I started this stitchery last February. Maybe earlier. I wanted to finish it by April 13th to give it to Dale for our 30th wedding anniversary. That came and went.

Then I wanted to finish it for Dale's birthday in May. That came and went. 

Then I just wanted to get it finished. The stitching has been completed for ages. I even had the background fabric picked out, washed, and pressed. But it sat around for month because I lost my creativity mojo last year.

But look! I got it done and gave it to him for Christmas!

I just love it.

"Together" by Heart in Hand
copyright 2010

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Jodie and I saw this pretty woodpecker while we were out geocaching last Fall. We were allowed to get fairly close -- this with my phone's camera.

Tissue Paper Heart Collage

A couple weekends ago daughter Jeanne stopped by for a Crafternoon. I wanted to try this neat idea I'd found on TikToc. It's a craft that's good for preschoolers, so I figured we could handle it.

We first cut 7 different heart shapes out of cardboard. Then we cut about six of each shape from tissue paper: red, yellow, blue, green, purple, and pink.

For the backing, we tried two different surfaces. One is a canvas on a board. The other is a canvas stretched on a frame. All three are 8" x 10".

We made two on the board pieces, one for each of our grandkids/nieces. We made one with the frame for me to keep. (Jeanne said she doesn't decorate for Valentine's Day).

We started by "painting" water on a spot on the canvas, then placing a heart on top. Then dab on a little more water to help it stay in place. Once the hearts are where we wanted them, we painted on some Mod Podge. Watered-down glue also works. Then let it dry on a wire rack. We speeded up the drying process by using a heat gun.

Here are the two board pieces, finished and framed for the Littles. We signed and dated the artwork on the back. Jeanne was the primary crafter on Melody's art. I was the primary crafter on Annie's. But we both worked on each other's.

This is the piece made on the canvas frame. It's hanging near our front door as our first Valentine decoration of the year.

The entire three piece project -- all the supplies, including the frames -- cost a total of $7.00!