Tiny Kuspuks!!

 

A nurse that I work with asked me to make kuspuks for American Girl dolls.  My girls have 4 of the dolls and I have several patterns that I used for them.  I altered a pullover top and made a new pocket and ruffle to match the kuspuk style.  I bought tiny ricrac and used this cute fabric with tiny pink flowers on it.  It was a lot of work but really fun too.  I love Alaska and the beautiful culture here.  Now my girls want me to make one for each of their dolls for a remembrance from living here!!  I guess I am off to sew some more!!

Homemade costumes and Halloween Fun!

I am not too into Halloween these days but the girls still love to dress up!!  The young women in our church planned the fall carnival so the girls were way into it this year.  I have had material for Rebecca to be a gypsy for a couple of years so I added some things to my fabric collection for this costume last time I was out of Bethel.  We have very few options here and it is difficult and not timely to order things sometimes.  JoAnn orders take 3-4 weeks to get here!!  So, for Alicia we had this old pattern for a grim reaper and some red fabric, voila, she was red riding hood.  She prefers to call it red in the hood which makes us all laugh!! Chelsea mad the red in the hood costume and part of the gypsy costume because I was sick.  I did the detail work on Saturday before the carnival.  They are lucky to have such a great sister!! They looked so cute and had fun at the carnival.  Alicia did a haunted room and Rebecca did face painting!!  These kids will forever enhance my life!!

Bethel Car Wash

We live in a very dirty and muddy place that does not have a car wash.  A native friend of mine told me to go down to the river to wash my car.  It worked pretty good.  It is probably the cleanest my car has been since it left the showroom!!

Cranberries and homemade jam and rolls!

Chelsea and I picked these berries and added strawberries to make homemade jam.  We had to have a vehicle for the jam so rolls were an obvious choice!

Alicia's Senior Photos

My third child started her Senior year today.  I can't believe how grown up my kids are!!  Alicia is so beautiful, funny, creative, protective and just all around amazing!!  She is also talented, she made this skirt for a church project.  I hope her Senior year is a great year to remember for the rest of her life!!

 

 
















We live in rural Alaska so I had to take these pictures myself and I am working on perfecting them with photoshop!  I hope they come out as good as she deserves.  I am so proud to be her mom.  I cannot believe I had anything to do with creating such a beautiful girl!!

Berry Picking, Muffins and Cutting Salmon

I went berry picking the other day with a friend from work.  We did not have a lot of luck getting too many berries but it was very fun.  I had never been on the tundra before and it was an interesting experience.  It is very soft and squishy and grows many different plants.  It was a great work out to walk around on the tundra for a couple of hours. Rebecca made the muffins and they were amazing!!  My daughter Chelsea and I went out again and boy did we look cute in our out fits.  I don't think the berries or the tundra cared!!  It was fun but it is a lot of hard work!  This same friend gave us some silver salmon that they caught on the Kuskokwim river.  We had no idea how to cut them so a friend from church had my son Tyler over and taught him how to fillet and how to make steaks!!  It was both fun and gross!! Bethel has been a great experience so far!!

Chelsea is in Alaska!!!

This is my beautiful daughter Chelsea!  This picture was taken  in Spokane Washington before she headed up to Alaska.  She is truly a joy to my life and I am so grateful for her!!  It is so nice to have our whole family together again!!  Our family is complete again until January when she returns to school!!  I will enjoy it while she is here!!  She is funny, talented and helpful!!  I am so blessed to have her!

Chelsea is writing to her friend who is on his mission in Georgia.  We decided to make him a couple of cards!  I told her she can just tell her friend that her mom is crazy and had to make themed cards!!  It was very fun to hang out and do some crafting together!!