May's mostly men projects.

Life has surely continue attacking me. I have gone and come back to Washington state, planted some few vegetable when the snow was finally off the ground last week, have had company, a birthday party, and all in all, homeschooling is finally done for this year!
(Sigh), and I am still alive ;o)  ,but recovering slowly.

I have not been able to spend a lot of time on crafts last month or this one,  so I do not have a picture of every project we made in April. I will just forget about trying to post what we did then and go on with life.

So, here I have a peek of what I have prepared for the May's class...  Since this Sunday is Father's Day, I mostly designed cards for guys.
I hope to post a picture of every individual project, but that will be after Thursday.

Hugs until next post.

Susana

February and March 2013

Here are the pictures from February's stamping class, that I never had time to post last month, and I am adding the ones from this month.

Life has attacked me lately  .....  My Mom came for a month and a half to see us. She took care of the boys for 10 days all by herself, while my husband and I had a little vacation. We came back, and she had to go back to Chile. I had the stamping class, celebrated Jonathan's seven birthday with a sleep over, having 3 extra boys! And now we have a car trip to Fairbanks to see my husband's sister. Time flies when you are having fun!!

No more to add for now. Here are the stamping projects.

February's Projects:

March Projects:

It is almost 11:30, and the boys are way past their bed time, so better let it be for now.
Hugs until the next post.

Susana

More peeks

Here there are 2 more peeks at cards that I will bring to the February workshop.
I hope you like them! I will post a whole picture after the class, for those interested in buying these items.

 This is another Valentine card. I got inspired by 2 different cards with cute owls that I saw on the internet. Owls are in fashion lately, and these are the ones I came up with.

This is a peek of the sheep's fluffy wool and a piece of knitted yarn. They are very cute!!! Especially for those knitters around us. Knitted projects are "the flowers of winter"*... since we can not dig our hand on good earth, we dig in beautiful, cozy yarn.

Thank you for stoping by!

Hugs.

Susana
* By Susan Stout.

January '13 Class

Hi There
 I had a wonderful time with the ladies at my last workshop!!!
Thanks goodness for fun times with lovely ladies in this long Alaskan winter!!
Here are the cards and projects we made, I hope you like them, as well.


This is such a fun stamp!!! I could not but help to make a card of it!! You all ladies should understand the feeling and experience. My husband had got a good laugh out of it. He said I do not have PMS, but I have to live with someone with it!!! It is then when I mostly exercise "The power of a girl".

This is meant for a man card. But it also can be a special event in life, I even sent it as a baby congratulating greeting!

This one is preparing for Valentine. Give something sweet and lovely to a Valentine this years.

For a girl.

For a boy.  ..... None of my boys would have appreciated a heart in pink, lol!!

Our little one/children card, to be prepared with loads of fun blowing the pin wheels!! The bottom of the card has been corrugated for the effect of wind!!!

A square card made from a recycled craft store 'specials' cards .... It is hard to find square envelopes, so trying this size of card can be tricky ... but suddenly it is easy when you recycle!!  and we got a beautiful second chance with a twist and elegant looking card!

Again, anticipating Valentine!! It is not too girly, so it is easy to give it to the "sweet heart" of your life!! Living with 5 men, let me tell you, it is hard to find just some pink stuff that is not frowned upon, lol.

I have liked very much, making a wreath made out of pretty printed paper, little jewels, eyelets and stamps......  It is going to be our Easy project for this month.... I am glad that the workshop is held in the beginning of the month, so we can enjoy this project for at least 2 weeks before Valentine's day.   Well, I like Valentine's celebration, so I will decorate my house with this wreath all month of February!! Here is a peek to entice you to come to the workshop..... :o)

I have not come out with this months cards yet, but as I make them I will try to post a peek of it.

The boys are swimming at the Y, and I can enjoy time in the sauna and swimming a bit for exercising  twice a week, while they swim! Since I do not enjoy as much to walk in the cold and slippery outdoors, it is good for me to get well warmed up and sweaty, then go in the swimming pool and move the old joints with the help of buoyancy........ My older boy helped me with editing; at this paragraph, he reminded me that "girls" have more buoyancy than boys....... more |EF|, |Ay|, |Te| .... hahaha

As I type, sited by the window, I can see large snow flakes falling slowly and making the surrounding trees heavy laden with snow. Yesterday, someone told us to be content in life, even as this time of the years life seems a bit dormant and we began to have cabin fever .... 
Hope you encourage yourself to be content in all experiences...... I am at it!!!

If you stop by, please leave me message. Hugs for now, until next post.

Susana

It is the end of the year!

I can hardly believe it, but it is here, the end of the year and the new year..... sigh...... I will try to quickly summarize since my last posting....

The boys are doing very well in school, the chickens are doing well even with this very cold winter... which make me think that  my beautiful peonies most likely will die from the cold and no snow to insulate them.. sniff, sniff...   Sister Moka (the dog) is getting old and I am back making stamping classes!!

I have had a terribly busy last two or three weeks with filling in for my husband at the office, Christmas gifts and small company party, boys' piano recital, visiting employee and client that got in an car accident, company at home, and a birthday party!...... Today, after I gave breakfast to the boys, I went back to bed until about 1 pm..... (smile). I had accumulated lack of sleep and relaxation.

And with it all, I am planning to make my January 2013 Stamping class in less that a week! ... I started a stamping workshop in December and all by myself..... For about 2 years, a lady and I used to have a workshop a month at the Hearts and Hands building, but since last February we cancelled it. This Fall a  dear lady asked me to start classes again, so I send a letter to see if there will be more than one lady interested in, and it happens that there is more than 10!!! That is a wonderful star for me for which I am grateful...

January 3rd is going to be the second workshop all by myself.  I am delighted that all the ladies that attended the December class seemed very pleased with the projects we made!!

Here are the pictures of those projects.... hope you also like them as well as they did!

This is a little tag for a wrapped Giradheli chocolate. A small, fast and easy project. We used the crimper at the end, giving the gift a "like from factory look"!

 Our "man" project... a bit of Alaska style... those are salmon swimming by in the Pacific, getting ready for a guy to catch them this coming summer!

 A close up of the next card. The main image has been raised for dimension, and glittered for extra beauty.

 Our "girl" card... flowers in winter are very much appreciated when we can not dig in the garden!

 This is a "get well, sympathy, etc". The birch trees are from a die, and the background made with strait to the paper technique!

 I love this winter tree with this almost like Aurora Borealis background.

This is not exactly what we made, but very similar... the most interesting part is the inside; a bunch of standing balloons in the middle of the card as it opens.

Well, that is all folks (smile). There is lots of stuff that has gone under the bridge in my life but that might make for another post...

Hope you have enjoyed this holidays thinking of the miracle of life, and your heart have new springs of gratitude for all that is yours today!!

Hugs,

Susana

Hello at the end of September

Now, I am trying to figure it out how to put pics on here from my iPad...

My darling little boys!

Hmmm, well ... that's not working, so my darling Hubby uploaded a picture from the iMac. This was taken last summer here in beautiful AK.

Well, since I am here, better update the posts.

Summer went and school year began. The boys are doing well and so is my Darling. I have not had much time for card-making classes, but here and there I've made a few. I will upload them soon.

I am making knitted and crocheted scarfs, hand warmers and head bands for a bazaar called "Make it Alaska"... soon to happen.

The chickens are doing well, though we are at the end of a "leg scales mites" epidemic.... LOL.  It has been so rainy this year that to keep the chickens dry I put some wood chips on the ground. Well, some old wood chips that I had must have been infested with mites, which produced growths on the chickens' legs, between the flesh and the scales.  They're all doing better, but the one that was looking worse I treated with too much tea tree oil, and it seemed like it burned the skin and she had two small cuts that were bleeding. Her name is Bob (that's another story), and she is spending a couple of nights in a box in our living-room. She is very docile and sweet, eats lettuce from our hands and stays in the box without complaint... I am sure she would rather perch, but she just lays in the straw patiently waiting until we let her out for a few hours during the day. The big boys have been real troopers and have done the  soaking, scrubbing, cleaning and dressing of the legs and feet of the affected chickens, in the garage. 

Schooling is going very well. We got several computer and iPad programs and they are sailing away through their lesson with very little nagging on my part Yay!

My Darling and I, we had our 15th anniversary last week. A friend came and stayed with the boys, so we had a nice little date!!!

Well, that will be for it for now.... 

Summer in Alaska, 3rd part

About the fishing, Jonathan and Benjamin had their first catch this summer. Jonathan had 2 fishes in his first net. He was just sitting on a small stool, when the net began to vibrate, he began to pull the long handle out and behold there were 2 reds!! Benjamin got 3 or 4 total, good for their first year. Nikolas was fighting some allergies, so he caught just a few this year~ I feel bad now,  I was really hard on him, because of not wanting to keep a net in the water, but his strength was not there, but I realized this toward the end of the trip.... Alexander was our hard worker, he and father did most of the fishing! It has began like a tradition that I go to the beach alone with the boys, and then Dad arrives late that day or next. I put a whole production of a house,  not only the tent with air mattresses, sleeping bags, extra clothe etc, but also a canopy with a kitchen area, and resting-shelter like area, camping chairs, were we warm up if the day is rainy. I do most of the cleaning of the fish. We bring wood, and keep a fire most of the day. Nikolas and Alexander's are in charge of making the fire!! 10 and 12 years old only!! They boys have such fun when we are not fishing... and when we fish too, of course. They make boats, dams, castles, new friends, they do not clean up much at all for about 3 days!, bonk fish, play with fish guts, make fish heads talk, eyes come out, etc. ~Family works together and have fun together~ 

School is approaching with giantic steps, and I do not know what to do yet. Homeschooling is what all they want to do, but Jonathan! Dennis and I are worry that I might not be able to keep up with it. I have been depressed for a couple of years, and last winter had been the worst, so though, I have been seeing a doctor and I feel better now, for about month and a half, this is summer only, so the worst is often to come in the winter... ~School or not to school, to be or not to be~  

Business is busy too, and successful, so we are not moving out of beautiful Alaska this year or next... I think-hope. 
Home is being fixed of some more old age sicknesses lol. Our house was built in 1950 or so, I like my old home, it is comfortable, quiet, away from the city, children - boys friendly. Dennis has his garage, my Mom have a little cabin to come and stay in; a little place to shelter friends  anytime. Lots of to do lists, that I seem never to catch up with. ~Normal life, good life.~

Well, now that I have almost catch up with updating my blog, I must add up some pictures... next in my list to do. You might want to come back and visit again in a few day, and see how tall these boys are growing!!

In all things we are to prove what it means to be One. One couple, One family, One focus, One End.  And in all things to prove our great calling: to be One with the One that love us best. Hope you are enjoying your summer too.