Get Back To The Basics + Learning to Unplug
It was another good week for staying away from rabbit holes and staying off the internet in general.
We were driving home the other day and we passed a man with a small camera around his neck. It looked so out of place and yet, so right.
I currently have 4,642 pictures on my phone and I have no idea how that happened. Just the idea of having to go through and weed them out is exhausting.
In The Kitchen
Things are going swimmingly with my one hundred dollars a month pantry challenge.
I made a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough, homemade tortillas AND a loaf in my Dutch oven cinnamon raisin bread.
It feels SO GOOD to be back in the kitchen again and making food from scratch. Something I haven’t done a lot of in the last year or two.
Fingers crossed I can keep it. 🙂
This is a photo of my husband washing the dishes. A super rare occurrence. So I thought I’d share. 😉
Kitchen Goals For This Year
- Master the pear frangipane tart from Standard Baking Company.
- Put my Weck jars to use.
- Use two bins of beans.
Rug Hooking
On Friday I listed 10 new rug hooking pieces in my Etsy shop + 3 new patterns/kits. Yee-Haw! This winter has been a productive one so far, that’s for sure.
As much as I love playing in dirt, an abundance of indoor time is nice too. I think so far this year I’ve already made 18 pillows. How crazy is that!?
I’ve been spending my days dyeing wool, drawing patterns and my evenings hooking and listening to audiobooks. Right now I’m listening to Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am by Julia Cooke.
The book is just okay… What are you reading/listening to? Anything good?
I have a bunch of books in my queue, but sometimes it’s just easier to keep something, anything on in the background while you work.
Rug Hooking Goals For This Year
- Finish drawing out all my patterns, making kits, dyeing wool by March 31st.
- Release 10 new rug hooking patterns/kits. {3 down 7 to go}
- Hook 27 of the patterns from the “someday I’ll hook these” bin. {2 down 25 to go}
Go New Places – See New Things
Look at those temps baby! We’re getting up into the 30’s now. Spring can’t be too far behind.
That being said, the HH still wants to hop on a plane and escape to somewhere warm. I’m like, we seriously have 7 weeks to go! Warm weather is on the way.
Suck it up.
Travel Goals For This Year
- Travel someplace {internationally} that I’ve never been before.
- Travel somewhere in Maine {overnight} that I haven’t been before.
Walk And Stretch More
I saw someone out running yesterday and thought they were crazy. Who goes running when it’s 20 degrees out?
How can that possibly be good for your lungs?
I told the HH it’s too cold to go walking. It needs to be at least 40 degrees and sunny before I’ll go. I have standards. Not freezing my face off is one of them.
And really, do I even need to seriously train for the half marathon in May if I’m just going to fast walk it? I’m not worried.
Walking/Stretching Goals For This Year
- Get into some sort of stretching routine
- Fast walk a 5K, 10K, and Half Marathon {signed up for a half marathon}
Garden
I’m not a big fan of roses, but cottage roses are absolutely GORGEOUS! A friend of ours sent a beautiful bouquet and I’ve had a smile on my face ever since.
Don’t you think they’re beautiful? Now I want to plant sweet peas and buy a David Austin cottage rose bush {or a vine}.
Maybe a soft pink or a yellow one?
Garden Goals For This Year
- Rework the driveway and garden areas
- Go crazy and plant a ridiculous amount of flowers
- Step out of my comfort zone and plant some flowers I’ve never planted before.
Paint
And last but not least… I’m making progress on my last Van Gogh paint by number I bought off Etsy. I really like how the yellow sunflower is coming along.
I think the flowers look better with thick, goopy paint. There’s probably a proper name for the style. Does anyone know what type of painting that’s called?
Once I get my last sunflower painting finished I’ll be able to “install” my Van Gogh wall upstairs.
I was thinking about painting the The Roulin Family series for another wall. It might be a good summertime “evening” activity. We’ll see.
How are YOUR goals coming along? Are you making progress? I hope so!!
Have a great day everyone,
~Mavis
Painting Goals For This Year
- The Van Gogh wall
- The gallery wall down stairs
- The captains wall in the hall
- Trim and walls
Kelly RIGGS says
Frozen River and The Correspondent are both wonderful books.
MB says
I agree about The Correspondent (haven’t read Frozen River) and The Briar Club was good too.
Richelle says
I also loved The Correspondent.
Donna F Wilson says
Loved, loved, loved Frozen River! Will have to check out The Correspondent.
Teresa M says
The type of painting of laying paint thickly is called impasto.
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes! That’s it. Thank you.
Christa H. says
I have about 18 roses and several are Davis Austin and they are beautiful. One also makes rose hips.
Impasto is the painting technique you may be thinking of. I do this in a cheaper way than using just a lot of quality paint by mixing equal parts of gel medium and modeling paste. I apply the mixture to the canvas using a palette knife or old credit card where I would want texture. Wait for it to dry and then paint over it. I have used Liquitex or Golden products and over 20 years later they still look fantastic with no cracking. I use the soft brush attachment on my vacuum to dust the canvases.
Shari Harniss says
I love listening to Anthony Trollope. Very quaint, amusing, historical. I always learn a bit about life back in the 1800s, in England.
Susan says
There was a Van Gogh exhibit a year or so ago at the MFA in Boston with paintings of the Roulin family. It was very cool, but I’ll admit that I, and everyone around me, started chuckling at the painting of their family’s baby, Marcelle.
Margo says
Decided to try your pantry challenge starting today. My budget will be a little higher as we are both on different specialty diets, but it seems like a good idea to use up what’s in our freezer and pantry. Also not counting “date day”. That’s too important and will remain in the “entertainment” budget, although we will be as frugal as possible. Thanks for the inspiration.
Rosemary says
The temps are finally going up in northern Florida – finally above freezing! We will have temps in the 70’s this week – woohoo!
I had thousands upon thousands of photos on my laptop – took over a year to go thru them and get them organized and whittled down. Then, I deleted the photos off my phone and copied the organized ones from my laptop onto my phone (kind of a “backup” of sorts). I only copied the last 4 years worth onto the phone since those are the ones that I might “need” when I am out and about. Now, when I take photos, I copy the “good” ones to my laptop and delete the “unwanted” ones from my phone. Hopefully I can keep this up and stay organized.
Jules says
To work on getting my photos off my phone and printed, I set a reminder for every Thursday morning to order photos. My Snapfish app gets me 100 free photos a month. So it might take some time but little by little I’ll get the printed and then into albums.
Ruby says
Have you read Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce? I’m reading it now and it seems like one you might enjoy!
Richelle says
I’m currently enjoying Anthony Hopkins book, “We did okay, kid,” after finishing The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, As You Wish by Cary Elwes, The Book of Sheen by Charlie Sheen, Big Dumb Eyes by Nate Bargatze, A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Adern.
Laura says
Mavis you need to read or listen to Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser. I know you will love it!
Julie G. says
I too enjoyed The Frozen River and LOVED The Correspondent.
Remi says
What type of countertops do you have & do you like them? I’m hoping to do a kitchen remodel this year. . .
Mavis Butterfield says
They are junk. Heavy plastic feeling. Who knows what they are made of. Going to replace them at some point.