2019 Snowflake to color

Usually I post my yearly snowflakes right about the time of the first snow fall here in Anchorage, AK. It hasn't happened yet.

I do hope you like this year's snowflake! Click the images below for larger versions to print and color.

Small jpg print and color knotwork snowflake:

Large transparent png print and color knotwork snowflake:

Why the Amazing Turnip Girl is Amazing

The Amazing Turnip Girl this evening

My children frequently take me by surprise by how very centered and good they are. The eldest is 22 and still very involved with us, and always has time to shovel his grandpa's walkway.

My youngest, the 17 year old is a mix, at times she seems to be so much older in her quiet maturity. Then she's young and playing. She told me when she was 11 and saw girls her own age wearing make up that she thought it was dumb. "I have 18 years to be a kid and the rest of my life to be a grown up. Coloring on paper is more fun."  It floored me, that she had thought it through that way. But she does that frequently, thinking things through to a finish that comes as a surprise even to the people who know her best.

The other day after a heavy snowfall, she shoveled the driveway before her Dad got home from work completely unasked. Then the next day, she started building a snow TARDIS.

She worked on the base for hours, using a box as a mold for bricks. Then came in when it started getting close to sundown. The next evening she was back out again and got it probably 3/4s of the way done. Her brick mold had fallen apart and she was packing snow into a careful rectangle using gloved hands.

Then after she came in, she decided to tape up one of my Amazon A3 shipping boxes (I use Amazon boxes to mulch if I don't recycle them)- she coated it inside and out with duct tape to use as a sturdier, more water resistant brick mold.

This afternoon, some kids kicked over the TARDIS that was 3/4s of the way done. Her dad was furious.

Now, this is why the Amazing Turnip Girl is amazing- she wasn't mad, she wasn't sad. She had a brand new brick mold and whole new plan anyway. She started building on what was left of the base she had built.

Snow TARDIS

So I asked her "Are you mad about your TARDIS being kicked down?"

She said "Not really. I learned that the snow that is more like snow cone snow sticks better together, and this mold works a lot better."

Snow brick mold

That's why she's my hero. Because I tend to fret when things go wrong, and to dwell on it when they go wrong and it's not my fault. I get angry, resentful and have to make a conscious effort sometimes to let it go and move on. Not all the time, but often enough. She just didn't, she got back to work and had it all built a lot quicker because of what she learned from the first one.

Then she came in and made hot chocolate. 

Snowflake Tree Coloring Page

Happy Solstice! I was planning something different today, but then just got very relaxed creating this, so today is a coloring page! Click on the images below for larger versions to color.

Small jpg version:

Large transparent png version:

In other news- today I got a short message from a childhood friend on FB. It's not the first time, but every time I'm a little startled by this time machine that Facebook can be, people from the past and future friends. Then comes that moment you look at them and think "Gosh, they look so grown up." because it doesn't feel like that much time has gone by, are we all grown ups now? I mean, I know, my son voted in his first presidential election, my husband and I are closer to 20 years than 10 years together. But I don't feel like a grown up, until I see those old friends and realize, YIKES. It has been that long.
Part of it of course is the holidays, you remember past holidays, people you haven't seen in a very long time.
So, old friends and new, I hope your longest night passes safely and happily.

2012 Angel Box

If you've been reading this blog a few years, or for the people who started with me with my first webpage of printables, you know that yearly I do an angel box of some sort. This year's angel uses the same body template as some of the Halloween boxes, but turned into a curly haired angel. I'll probably post the same box with other colors of hair and skin soon. This angel is inspired by my daughter and she gave me lots of tips while I was working on her. She also was the one who decided the gown length. When I said "She'll be standing in snow, won't her feet get cold?" TG replied "She's an ANGEL mom."

Click on the printable box for a larger version, print on card stock, cut out, score, fold, glue.

I'm going to be posting a few money cards like this one over the next few weeks, and I'd love some suggestions for what kinds of designs you'd like to see on the cards.

Snowflakes Gift Boxes

You may recognize the background here from the snowflake coloring page I posted recently. I liked the way that looked and decided it would make a cute box. So here's the box in 3 different colors. There will be gift tags later to match.

Click on the images for larger versions, print on card stock, cut out, score, fold, glue!

Still waiting to see who won the Duck Tape MyDesign contest. Thank you everyone for your kind comments, votes, encouragement and support. This has been a crazy week full of wild hoping and happiness.

First Snowfall 2012

Yesterday morning was the first snow in Anchorage, AK.

SNOW. In September.

While on our way to the last Spenard Farmer Market and the Alaska Women's Show, we spotted some geese who were taking it in stride.

Look at those cold feet. BRR.

It was just a light dusting, it last through the day in the shade, but when the sun came out, and it did! It melted and made puddles.

So that's the earliest first snow in quite a few years. I grumbled a bit at this sign fall was ending quickly. Dad just said with his 50 years of experience in Anchorage "I knew it would snow. It was cold enough, and raining, Plus you could smell the snow on the air."
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The Alaska Women's Show is a typical sort of big show with a theme. Local businesses and other businesses with a strong focus on women's products and services were there. My daughter loves these shows, we pick up ball point pens for the whole year, pads of paper, she likes spinning all the prize wheels she can. We sample products and just have fun! It takes place at the Sullivan Arena, and my husband usually finds a seat on the mezzanine and just waits listening to music on his iPod. He abhors the crowds at these things. TG spun one wheel and won a coffee cup which made her day. Her favorite part was stopping at the Superstar Pastry Booth for a cup cake. They use a European cake recipe and an Italian butter cream frosting. You can choose your cake, filling, frosting and toppings. My favorite is a super vanilla concoction of  vanilla cupcake, Bavarian cream filling and vanilla butter cream. She gets creative, and it's always chocolate.

 We also picked up some reindeer sausage from a local company I've always liked.

After that, we went to the last day of the Spenard Market. We have a lot of summer farmers markets, and a few winter ones that sell mostly root veggies, meats and eggs through out the year. The Spenard Market is my favorite though, it has this strong indie community vibe. We went mostly because it was the last day, but also in hopes a local soapmaker I like was there. They sell very inexpensive soap ends and we use soap ends for most of our day to day soap needs. They were, and we bought the last bag of soap ends they have, a couple bars of soap, and some "Manly Man Elbow Grease", it's an all natural salve with a woodsy scent. I got it both for the psoriasis my husband has and more for my ankles. A lot of the time that I'm online or reading a book, I tuck my feet up under me, and my ankles have rough patches of skin because of it. They get better if I use the right kinds of salves on them and I have high hopes for this one. We also got some of their shampoo bars to try and found out where we can buy their soap ends through the winter. Then TG who wasn't sweeted out yet tried some gourmet marshmallows and got herself a package of Key Lime marshmallows to have later. Yum! Fresh marshmallows without the time it takes to make them!

Then we came home, and I worked on some beading for awhile. It was a very nice, very busy day with a lot of walking. And there was SNOW!

Walking on a very gray day- Photos!

Raven in flight

There are always ravens it seems like. I like ravens quite a bit, they are revered by most of the tribes up here. Today we drove out down by the airport to hike and look for owls. The ravens were flying everywhere, conversing in warbles, chuckles and lots of other sounds that definitely weren't caws. It looked like they were playing aerial tag. I also saw a pair of eagles in air. Click on images for larger versions.

Snowy woods by the coastal trail in Anchorage,AK

This path seemed like a good place to take a photo of TG, who had a new purse she wanted to make sure got photographed to post to the craft boards she is on. It's all hand-stitched. She knows how to use a sewing machine, but prefers hand-stitching for a lot of things.

The Amazing Turnip Girl and her new purse

Yes. Her shirt does say "You never forget your first Doctor" and yes, her pins are Doctor pins. More info about them here. I'm almost willing to bet she has PG Tips tea bags in her purse. 

More snowy woods!

Isn't that pretty? The path in that area was just tromped down snow. I sat down rather abruptly at one point. Or fell, depends on how you want to look at it. I'm going with "sat down rather abruptly".

That's just barely a path through the snow.

All that snow! You can tell, looking at the solid white sky more snow wants to fall. It was coming down just a bit, but it needs to warm up 5 degrees to really start falling.

Bald Eagle in Anchorage, Alaska

Bald Eagles! Definitely not owls. It was hard photographing the pair because there were trees in the way. The other eagle was tagged.

Tagged Bald Eagle- 77!

And yes. I spotted one owl.

Photos from a very snowy day (eagles!)

Last night, my husband and I went out to visit with my friend Sam to play Plutocracy. Every time we do this, the weather gets crazy. The first time, there were bad ice conditions, the second, it was well sub-zero and just freezing (photos from that outing here). This time, it was a snow storm with low visibility.

It was a very slow drive. Every time a drive pulled ahead of us and hit the snow on the road, things went white.
But on the list of things you see more often in Alaska than you do in other places...

Dog sleds on a truck outfitted for carrying dogs.

When we got out to Eagle River, we saw an eagle flying fairly low over the road, then off to one side, we saw this. All photos after this are uploaded at full size, so click to see the detail!

Yes. That's a tree full of bald eagles. 

This one made me smile, the branches look almost like it's make up, pretending to be The Crow!

Then a half block down, there was another tree that had both eagles and ravens in it!

Juvenile bald eagle and a raven.

We had fun playing our game for a few hours, then drove back into town. 

Currently, I'm trying to figure out what I can sell on Etsy to help make a bit of extra money to get a swatch collection printed at Spoonflower. My husband quit his job at the beginning of the month, and while he's looking for a new one, we are budgeting carefully. I'm thinking maybe an e-book of knotwork designs to color, or possibly post a bunch more blank templates for sale. 

Comments locked. 

A half dozen snowflakes to color

A half dozen 8x8 inch snowflakes to color, use as digital stamps for scrapbooking, embroider or cut out very carefully to use as negative stencils. I hope you like them. Click on the images for larger versions.

From my whole family, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
Merry Christmas!

Photos from this past month

Earlier this month, we stayed at the hotel my husband works at for the weekend. I took some photos that weekend. Click on the images to see more detail.

Alaska's flag. I flipped this photo to show it with the North Star in the upper right hand like it's supposed to be. Alaska's flag against all that snowy white!

This handsome raven was just perched up there yelling for attention. So I took a bunch of photos! 

Thanks to one of the people on my Facebook friends list, I know this is a a gray-crowned rosy finch. The little sweetie also seemed to love the camera.  I took a bunch of photos, and really love the contrast between the bird's coloring and warmth and the frost on the tree. It was munching those berries like a frozen treat!

If you ever come to Anchorage, on the corner of 4th and Barrow is a used book store that's been there since I was a kid. The owner, Cathy, has told me she's not going anywhere because she doesn't want to leave her books. The books! 300,000 or so books in this shop that's been there for so long. They are on shelves with narrow paths between them, in boxes next to the shelves and just stacked by the shelves. Stacks of books surround the front counter area, piled on, behind and in front of the counter. You have to reach across these piles of books to pay her, and she's always ready to talk to anyone who comes in. It's called C&M Used Books, and it is the very definition of used book store in my mind. It's the prototype. 

Other than the signs, one old, one new that say C&M Used Books,  look for ravens and magpies. She and her assistants toss out their leftovers for the birds, and there are lots of fat, happy ravens and magpies around the store waiting for treats.

These two photos weren't taken that weekend, but I wanted to share them anyway.

Sunset, at about 3:30 in the afternoon!

Trees all lit up at Anchorage Town Square.