Author: Patty Radish

Documenting, Findings, and Creating…a hot mess!

~ Patty Radish ~ 3 Comments

Last month, Paul and I (and Lily our pup) drove across the upper U.S. to visit our daughter and grandson in North Dakota It was a wonderful trip, and boy do we miss them, but it is so nice to be home!

Almost as soon as we got home it was time for a visit from our son and his wife’s family, so much fun. They booked a house on the lake for the Labor Day weekend…more memory keeping, Yay!

But I digress as per usual, on to the N.D. trip…

Documenting: Organizing Memories in my Happy Planner

This is how I organize memories so that I have a place to refer to when I’m ready to document them into my Pocket Memory albums. (I use Becky Higgins “Project Life” but there are few other choices out there for pocket style memory keeping, Hobby Lobby, Ali Edwards, and a few options on Amazon.)

Anyway, the first thing I do is pick out a few photos of highlights, then I arrange them in a collage in my photo app before printing. I’m not concerned with the quality of the print at this stage, this is only for reference. As you can see I had fun decorating. This is not necessary unless you really need to use up years and years of sticker collecting…guilty! The next step is to fill your pages with as many memories as you can fit into those small spaces. If I run out of room on these weekly page spreads I’ll insert a 3/4 sheet of dot grid paper for more photos and journaling. I use a pdf. I purchased from an Etsy shop, I punch holes with my Happy Planner punch and pop it in. I’ll share more on that process in a future post.

Findings: A garage sale treasure

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I have a slight obsession with ‘Wilhold’ containers. Although this isn’t actually a Wilhold, it’s from the same era…and it was a dollar. I love these vintage plastic containers to hold my craft supplies. The memory that goes along with this is spending the day hanging out with my daughter, something we didn’t have a lot of time for even when we lived in the same town, sigh!

Creating: The “Hot Mess”

Friends, this is not what I imagined when I created this. My vision of how this was going to turn out was completely different; meaning I have a pretty good imagination! I’m not going to spend a lot of time on making excuses, but I will share a short video of how this went down:

Note to Self: Quit when you’re ahead

Not my finest hour, or 60 seconds! I’m thinking about calling this “Collage Compost” Lol! I think I was just having too much fun and got a little carried away…does it show?

Until next time,

Thank you so much for stopping in,

Talk to you soon,

~Patty

(p.s. I have been filling my shoppe back up, so check that out with the link in my sidebar and use the coupon code ‘CUSTOMERLOVE20’ to receive 20% off your purchase.)

Updatings:

~ Patty Radish ~ 8 Comments

I have been spending most of my time over the last couple of months finishing up projects…again! If you have been following me for a while you may be asking yourself “When are you going to be done with this “Project” project?” And I wouldn’t blame you…seriously, wow!

I am happy to say that I am about as close to being finished with old projects as I have ever been…except for Project Life. I’m not sure I will ever be caught up with that. And this seems like a good time to ask, would you would be interested to see how I create P.L. pages? Please let me know in the comments.

On to the latest…

Crochet Projects: Three afghans…check!

One for me, one for my daughter, and one for my grandson. This one is mine, taking photos of blankets is a pain, but you probably get the picture here, tons of color. I create these by tying random lengths of neutral and colorful yarns together, rolling them into balls, and crocheting them into squares. This involves a ton of end weaving, but the end result is super fun!

Using up macrame supplies: Check!

A wall hanging for me and a hanging bed for my daughter’s cat. In my quest to find the right color of cord for my daughter’s wedding decor, I kinda got stuck with with a few skeins that I needed to use or give away. This is a new technique for me so it’s a bit wonky, but the cat bed came out super cute. Here is a link of the inspiration: Cat Bed (Seriously! I could have bought that for $25…doh!)

Hanging pictures and emptying containers: Double check!

A strange assemblage, but this wall needed something, and I needed to hang these or get rid of them. This is in my sewing/craft room so I’m not too terribly worried about the decor, as long as it’s fun and colorful. The gallery wall in our bedroom came out really nice with some midcentury florals. I’ll be working on a gallery wall of family photos in our hallway soon.

Organizing: Keeping the things I love!

I went through my whole sewing/craft room and donated what didn’t bring me “Joy”, clearly I still have a lot of joy left! (please don’t think the rest of our house looks like a thrift shop, just this room…or at least I hope so!).

I have been doing this throughout the house, and slowly it’s starting to feel a lot more relaxing and less cluttered. Almost everything in our house has some sort of sentimental value, things we have owned and loved for years. They all seem to fit together in a way that makes us feel cozy and comfortable in our little mid-century rambler. (Emphasis on little!)

The first page spread I have created in over a month!

I have so many things that I want to get back into now that I have caught up on house/creative projects, like my shoppes, art journaling, making videos, shorts for IG…this blog!

On that note, I have had a giveaway percolating in the background for a while, but we have one more round of family visits coming up, so that will have to stay on the back burner for a bit longer. I will announce that as soon as I get a bit more organized.

As Always,

Thank you so much for visiting,

A grateful Thank You to all my new followers,

Talk to you soon(er),

~Patty

Mood Music…or lack there of

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

These past couple of weeks have been filled with getting stuff done. I finally took a break from non stop doing and actually pulled out my planners and started planning and documenting. There is something about writing things down and getting some perspective on what actually needs to be tackled, the down side is seeing what actually needs to be tackled! Usually, my ToDo lists overwhelm me, but floating from one day to the next without direction makes me wonder what the he#& happened to my week. So, even though I’m retired, I still like having some kind of structure my day, and checking things off feels pretty good.

One of the things on my ToDo list is to get at least three page spreads done a week. This way I have something to share here and on the IG’s. It may seem like an odd ToDo, but reaching out on social media is part of my self care and mental wellbeing. Sharing and seeing what other people are sharing has become an important part of my world.

Then there’s this!

Sometimes clearing a space and getting more crap out feels like more work than it’s worth. So I will put something on to entertaining while I’m trying to motivate myself to get down to it. Well, when I was working on this I was watching a podcast by a couple of guys just talking about random funny stuff…and this is the result.

Now it’s not the worst page spread I’ve ever done. It’s whimsical and colorful, and I’m using up random bits, but it’s pretty reflective of what I was listening to!

Now this is more like it!

I put some inspiring music into my head phones and just created. It’s still whimsical and fun, but the feelings it invokes when I look at it are very different.

I am happy to say that my box of randomness is getting pretty empty and I’m starting to get into some of my better quality ephemera again. I guess I could just throw stuff away instead of trying to find ways to use it, but I l clearly enjoy a challenge!

Getting better still!

After trying the same technique here, something still seemed to be missing, so I softened the edges by finger painting on a little gesso then stenciling over that. I finished off with just a couple of images, and called it good.

All three of these were done in a two hour session and you can really see the progression by just changing what I was feeding my brain with. In other words, there is a time and a place silliness, but if I want to create something inspiring I need to listen to something inspiring.

Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear from you!

Until next time,

Have a great week

Thank you for stopping by,

~Patty

Just Relax!

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

This morning I pulled myself away from my growing To Do list to get in a little creative time.

I have to say that I’ve really been enjoying getting a little more organized, de-cluttered, and clean(er), but as I told my husband “We need to take some time off from getting things done and relax!”, so we took our little boat out this week for a spin around the lake.

I consider using up years worth of junk journal supplies, and finishing up journals, as part of my de-clutter project. (If you have any theories on why I can’t throw small bits of paper away, please leave a comment below!) So to me, I’m accomplishing something when I finish a page spread.

But why do I need an excuse to arrange small bits on pages? Is there a way to get rid of that small voice that keeps reminding me of all the things that need doing?

I think it’s because every time I get out supplies and start creating I hear a little voice telling me there is something else I should be doing…

It just happened!

“Honey, did you want to re-hang those mirrors right now?”

Shoot! It’s not a little voice, it’s my husband!

(seriously, this just happened while writing this blog post!)

Ya, so not getting rid of the small voice, he’s kinda cute!

Until next time,

Thank you for stopping in,

Take some time for you,

~Patty

(un)Realistic Expectations

~ Patty Radish ~ 9 Comments

The latest happenings at Casa de Radish is a kitchen remodel, and I am happy to say that it is almost finished, Monday should be the last day. Three weeks without a kitchen is quite a challenge, but it was actually fun not cooking (just not doing dishes in the bathroom sink!). So, we did a lot of barbecuing with ready made sides and relaxed in the backyard.

I knew not having a kitchen for a couple of weeks was going to be stressful, so I decided to cut myself some slack and take a little vacation from obligations to see what happened. It actually gave me enough space to see that I had over committed myself once again.

Busy work.

When the remodel started, I hid in my room with our elderly pooch and listened to audio books, art journaled, and posted, posted, posted, but after a while even that got a little tedious. I had joined the #100dayproject in an effort to get some of my art journals finished up, and it worked out pretty well in the beginning, but falling behind then playing “catch up” took too much time and energy, so I dropped out. Taking photos and posting on Instagram became more time consuming than it was worth.

Making adjustments.

I had also joined an online art journaling group hoping that it would inspire me to dig in and get some journals done, but it actually just felt like another obligation. To be honest, I think I have had a hard time adjusting to retirement and taking care of a family, so I keep looking for things to feel relevant and social media filled the bill for a while. I also thought that when my daughter and grandson moved out of state I would have a lot more free time to spend on ramping up my shoppe and social media presence. It definitely helped me refocus my grief, but now that I am on the other side of adjusting to their leaving, I’m finding lots of other things to keep me busy!

Going “small”.

Sometimes I wonder if I should let go of any kind of social media presence because popular opinions say that if your not “killing it” you’re wasting your time, It’s a lot of work to stay relevant in today’s social media world and I used to dream of being a “big deal” online…but now I’m over it. A couple of people that I was having a great time following have dropped out, and I’m actually pretty sad about it. It makes me wonder if they felt like even having a small presence wasn’t worth the time. I hate to see them go, but they have to make decisions that’s best for them.

Still sticking around.

I have to say that I have been enjoying taking a small break from posting on social media all the time and I’m going to post here when the mood strikes, (along with YouTube and Instagram (Facebook is long retired) because I don’t feel like retiring yet, I just want to take things a little more easy and give that little voice that nags me to post more often the “heave ho!”.

I have a lot of creative things I’m working on and I will definitely share here as much as possible, but not on any schedule, just as the mood hits me.

So, until next time,

Thank you for the visit,

Have a great week!

~Patty

(p.s. I want to do a downsizing giveaway, so look for that sometime soon!)