What I'm working on - March edition

Going to take a quick break from Hawaii photos...back to those later this week.

With our boost in daylight hours from daylight saving time (5 minutes, 44 seconds today!) everyone has been feeling the benefit of the longer days. I definitely have spring fever and can't wait for the season to really start here in Alaska. My annual "wash every sheet, blanket, comforter and pillow" extravaganza will happen sometime in April so here are the other things keeping me busy in the meantime...

This lovely blue pussywillow canvas caught my eye in IKEA years ago and my sister managed to track one down using San Jose Craigslist for a quarter of the cost. Her boyfriend Gabe removed it from the wood frame and mailed it in a tube to Anchorage. I figured it was time to rescue it from dustbunny purgatory under the bed. I had an old canvas that I removed from its frame and stretched this one over instead. It was larger than the frame but I just cut the excess and used my staple gun with gusto! If you don't have a staple gun, you are MISSING OUT on fun craft projects!



Not sure where to hang it yet, but it's nice and big.



My sister and I have a little shop on Etsy: Sumie & Sukie Boutique. It's a bit sparse now but I've been working on some new jewelry pieces and fun clothespins.

Necklace pendants. I love working with pretty paper.

Colorful clothespins.

I have lots and lots of pretty jewelry - but it's never enough, right ladies? I needed a better storage solution for my dangly earrings and came up with this framed option. The mesh is an old black screen that I cut up and framed. I'm on the lookout for a nice wooden version that I can paint and then staple mesh onto. My post earrings still live in my jewelry box since there's no way to affix them right now.

One of my very good friends at work is having her third baby (and she's only 32!). We're all so happy for her but she's been having some tough times lately, so our supper club is hosting a very special baby shower for her in 2 weeks. I've been working on a "diaper cake"- basically it's a structure created from diapers and decorated to look like a cake. And I have ordered a bunch of items from her gift registry for all of us to chip in for. I'm so excited!

My diaper cake creation. The diapers are hidden under the patterned the tissue paper overlay. Still needs some finishing touches.

Nine months is a long time between a wedding and ordering photos but what can I say, I got busy and it was a rough fall and winter, to say the least. So I finally sat down a couple weeks ago to upload most of our wedding images to Adoramapix.com (recommended by my wonderful photographer brother-in-law Doug). The prints arrived very quickly and look really great. I could not believe how affordable it was compared to the printing costs from our wedding photographer (Chugach Peaks) - although I did order prints from Chugach as well since we had some free ones as part of our package.

The photos look great in the frames I got on sale from Michaels, Joann Fabrics and Kohls. Now it's time to figure out which images will go in which frames. To my mom & Mim - I have prints to send you both too!



Ok - I'm on my way to craft night with the ladies. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Warning, shameless plug ahead

My sister Risha and I have opened up an online store to feature some of our handcrafted items. The storefront is hosted by Etsy - a place for independent crafters to show off their wares. Be sure to poke around and check out the other stores...there are TONS of fun goodies!

Sumie & Sukie Boutique can be found here: http://www.sumieandsukie.etsy.com -- there's also a link to the store on the left-hand side of this blog.

Our items are also selling in stores in Alaska, California, Nevada and Tennessee. We welcome custom and wholesale orders. Thanks for your support and for checking out the site!