A Very Crafty Hodgepodge Wednesday on a Thursday

Hodgepodge Wednesdays with Joyce was yesterday but rather than post two posts in one day I decided to post my hodgepodge a day late.  

1. Are you feeling more reset, restart, or full speed ahead as we move into May? Tell us why. 

Full speed ahead as we have a very busy week or two with lots of things going on. 

 

2. Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, cinema, theatre, music...what's your favorite form of art? Elaborate.  

 

While I really do enjoy all of these if pressed I'd probably say painting is my favorite since it's the one I do myself.  

 

 

senior year of high school-- this was one of my independent study projects

Though I do love going to the theater and, of course, I read like crazy and while I would have said I'm not a huge music person I had SO MUCH fun at the concerts Evan's persuaded me to go to that I think he's converted me there. 

 

concert 2

concert 1

 

wicked was the last theater show we saw 

 

I've already gushed so much about the architecture of the Biltmore but I love touring old houses of all kinds because of the architecture. 

 

Bellamy mansion- Wilmington North Carolina

Biltmore-- Asheville North Carolina

Kingscote-- Newport Rhode Island

3. What time is dinner at your house? How do you feel about leftovers? 

Dinner is almost always at 5:30 when my husband gets home from work-- though we often eat a bit later in summer when he cooks on the grill. We all enjoy leftovers and it's really become a first come first serve kind of thing... they rarely last 24 hours as 3 of us often pick leftovers for breakfast over traditional breakfast food (myself included).   

4.What's the last thing you fell down a rabbit hole investigating? 

Oh gosh, what don't I? The ladies at my gym laugh that I'm the Google queen as I am ALWAYS looking up lots of things. This week alone I fell down a rabbit hole reading about Oldsmobile cars when I saw an old one on the road that reminded me of my grandmother and the car my husband bought me when we go married. Looking up when the company started, when it ended, the different cars they made, etc. 

Then Tuesday and Wednesday I got sucked into a deep search about CT Property taxes and taxes in general. I was so surprised to learn that CT is the 3rd highest state as far as property taxes go... why I'm not sure because honestly we pay a fortune. If we paid what they say the median payment was on this clip I'd be over the moon thrilled; heck I'd be happy to pay New Jersey's median payment (and that's not including what we pay for our vehicles either). They've always been high but I just kind of assumed they were high everywhere.

I also learned CT is consistently in the top 5 for highest overall taxes as well because we also, of course, pay taxes on the things we buy, the income we make, the gas we buy, etc. Most sites rank us as 3rd highest but we definitely fall in the top 5. 

 

I knew that some states have no income tax but I had no idea that 15 different states have a flat income tax where each person/family pays a certain percentage of what they make each year regardless of amount. Ct has a variable rate depending on income much like the federal government. 

 

And now I completely understand why all the financial planners we talk to say do not stay in CT for your retirement! As we are ranked pretty high for electric rates and are one of the top 10 most expensive states to live in.

 

I bet you're wishing Joyce hadn't asked this question! LOL

5. And now for a question from the book Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me...

At what are you 'self-taught?' 

I feel like I am self-taught at quite a lot of things. I do crafts of all sorts-- papercrafting (card making/scrapbooking),  wreath making/fake floral arranging, vinyl/ Cricut crafts, jewelry making, etc.. and mostly I've taught myself all of these. I read books or watch tutorials and then give it a go myself

 

I'd also say I'm somewhat self-taught when it comes to cooking/baking. I mean my mom taught me the basics like how to measure and read a recipe but no one else in my family growing up really enjoying cooking or baking and rarely tried out new recipes like I do. I began cooking when I was quite young and by high school had completely taken over making the family dinner (not the actual meal planning as that was more my mother's job and completely dependent upon whatever was on sale at the grocery store that week). By the time my husband and I had our own place I was making up recipes of my own. 

Along that same line I definitely taught myself how to decorate cakes! My mother in law found some decorating tips through a friend of hers that was cleaning house and I decided to start using them when the boys were small and dabbled with cake decorating.  

Ian's skateboard cake

Lion cake/cupcake for my sister's baby shower

 

These photos of photos aren't so great but were taken pre-blog/ pre-social media:

 

pirate ship cake

treasure chest cake

 

fish bowl cake

 

Phineas and Ferb cake made using a homemade buttercream transfer I taught myself (like in this tutorial)

I also taught myself how to blog! I went in completely blind and just gave it a go; Googling how to do things when I couldn't figure it out on my own.  

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm not sure how your weather has been but I feel like most blogs I'm reading lately are talking about their crazy changeable weather with far more dramatic highs and lows than typical during these seasons of spring/fall (depending on what part of the globe you're situated). Well, did you know these crazy weather changes are synonymous with a huge uptick in pollen/allergies?

My middle son learned in his plant cultivation class that dramatic swings in temperature cause plants to release more pollen which leads to earlier, longer, and more intense allergy seasons. These longer, earlier, and more intense pollen seasons has seen an uptick in pollen of over 20% in the last 50 years.