Good Bye 2012!

Here is a list of significant events in 2012 (good an bad, mostly good) in no significant order:
-Began and finished second and third semester of Dental Hygiene school (oh my God, it is almost over! Just one more semester to survive!).
-Got my hunting license and went hunting with my husband - we have stories to tell to our grandchildren now. :)
-Celebrated two year anniversary with my amazing husband. (And dded a sixth year to our time together. Six years!)
-Visited Russian and Ukrainian family (all not too soon, due to the fact that it was the last time I saw my dear grandpa).
-Our Russian family visited us here in Vegas.
-My beloved grandpa was diagnosed with terminal cancer and passed away.
-The biggest event of the year - my grandpa came to God before passing away, bringing him great relief and joy, and all of us hope!
-I got an iPad and against all odds loved it!
-I started blogging again and this place came to existence.
-We went to Disney Land.
-We went to Brian Head.
-My hair is now officially long! But I want it longer even still!
-We got flooded by our neighbors and the whole wall in our living room got rebuilt.
-I voted in the presidential elections for the first time (four years ago I wasn't a citizen).
-Jenya got his realtor license.
-I started visiting our Friday night crafting club.
-I got stung by a scorpion who crawled in my shoe... Nothing major, I didn't even write about it, but it sure happened, last week. Kinda cool, it is a little bit of an event as I sure felt it! :)
-I started and finished so many crafting projects, I acquired that vintage miniature doll house, and got into miniatures, I also started drawing recently, have read some interesting books too (just finished The Hobbit).
That is all I can remember so far.

This year was eventful and hard working, next year is hopefully when we get to harvest some of the results! I have great hopes for 2013, let that year be great for everyone! On a more political note (which I don't do here very often) let's hope that some things don't happen at all... But at any rate, bring it on and let God be with us every step of the way, the rest is going to fall into place! Happy New Year!

Wish List - books

Update: I ended up buying them all from zulily! Woot! I have mentioned many times before - I am a sucker for good books! I love to read and I hope some day to have a big private library of my own. I am also collecting a little library of crafting books. I can't help myself, their beautiful projects and photos lure me in! Well, my favorite store, Zulili.com has a sale on some great crafting books! They are an awesome source of mostly baby things but anything women like really, with the hottest deals and amazing customer service!I found myself mostly interested in home and family crafts with kids. You can register and check them out here if you would like. Here are a couple I am contemplating on buying, you only get so much time to think about it, since their deals are short...

Sketching a tree

I am trying to draw a little bit every day. I really feel like the biggest part of it is practice. I am trying to achieve two things - understand perspective, shapes and shadows, and practice various strokes.
I also feel like knowledge is part of it too. There are tricks that I am learning, that really help understand the concepts a lot better.
So today I finished my one point perspective drawing... Here is a video that really helped me in this...

I also watched this video by the same author that inspired me to try and draw a tree. I really felt like I did a whole lot better than I ever did! I just drew one from my head and I feel like it was a good practice for shape and shadows.

The third thing I did was just listening to some music and drawing non stop with various strokes. It was fun and I am practicing to have a steady hand.

All of this is baby steps, but I see some progress. Not so long ago, my level of drawing was about third grade, so I've got room for improvement there. Just thought I would share, because I know nothing about drawing and now I am trying to self teach myself a bit. This is to monitor my progress and hopefully to show that anything is possible! :)

One point perspective

I am honest in this space - I don't know how to do anything. But I want to do everything. So I beg my grandmas and mom to teach me whatever they know (knitting, crocheting), and then figure out the rest via books, online, or common sense (doll making, photography, cross stitching, embroidery, miniature making, etc.) So what comes out of that is far from perfect. I attempt it anyways, because this is how you learn! And also, I wouldn't let anyone tell me that I can't do it. I guess my ignorance is my blessing in this case.
So not so long ago, I decided I want to learn how to sketch. I like pencil and I want to be able to sit down and quickly jot down something I see. I have been playing with it in a more or less regular basis. Today I decided to look for some help online and I found these youtube videos about one, two, and three point perspective. So I took a photo of a street in San Francisco that I took a year ago that was one point perspective and began figuring it out. It is hard is all I can say! Seriously I am going to take some classes or something once I am done with dental hygiene school...
Anyways, this is my work in progress, which my husband said looks nothing like San Francisco or one point perspective. Haha! Oh well, I feel pretty good considering it is my first try and I know nothing about it... Actually overwhelmed is a better way to describe my feelings... Maybe the other side of the street will look better...

P.S yeh, I know, the street is completely flat, in reality it is suppose to curve up, but that is beyond my abilities at this point! :)

Kitchen renovation (miniature)

As I have mentioned before, my brother gave me a gift certificate to one of my favorite miniature online stores. Naturally I started looking through endless pages of items I could purchase for my lovely vintage miniature house that I talked about long time ago here, here, and here... It has been a while since I worked on it due to the fact that this hobby of mine requires somewhat big funds which I am reluctant to spend at the moment. So due to the lack of inspiration, I failed to look into even those items that I could make myself.
I usually need a little push to start doing something, especially on a project this big.
Since there are so many things undone in that little house of mine, I had a big choice of directions to take. My first pick was to invest my gift into a lighting kit for the house, but after an extensive research and consulting with my husband, I figured out that it is not that expensive and is not all that simple.
Next direction I was going to take is to buy a kitchen, simply because I found out that I have to work my way from the bottom floor up to arrange the lighting correctly, and the kitchen happens to be on the bottom floor. To my surprise I came to find out that the set of ugly yellow kitchen cabinets that were missing a few doors and needed some love, that came with the house were starting from $45 new, which made me reconsider throwing them away and taking another look at them. When I did, I decided that if I paint them white with black counter tops and replace the faucet and the burners on the gas range, and paint all the appliances stainless steel, they just might work.
So I ordered those parts and began working on what I already have. Here is my plan...

The work is already in progress, I started painting, but I want to wait until I get the stainless steel faucet and the range so that I can show the whole thing.
Before I started painting, I separated the counter top from the rest of the counters, so I can paint it black...

I was so excited to find a date inside the counters!

This kitchen came with the house, so it safe to assume that the house is over thirty years old! That is so amazing to me, that I can renovate something older than myself and maybe my children will play with it some day!
So this is what I am up to now. I am so glad to feel inspired to work on this house again! I also final visited Hobby Lobby, which has a little miniature section, and I got some flooring there and tiles for the kitchen! So hopefully soon, I will be able to produce a before and after...

Brian Head photos

If I would have had that adapter, that I got for Christmas today, when we went to Brian Head I would have shared these on the spot, but since I didn't here are some bits and pieces from our snowy trip 2012!

Christmas morning

Every Christmas morning Jenya and I come to mom and dad's house to open presents all together. This year was no different. I sipped on mom's great coffee, as we one by one ran to the tree to grab a present and open it. This is one of my favorite parts of the whole year! It is cozy and warm, and so much fun!
I got everything I could hope for and more - my hubby got me a hard drive to back up the thousands of photos I have and a new car remote, my brother gave me a gift certificate to a miniature store and an easel, my parents gave me that polaroid camera I have put on my wish list, a pink bike (that I drove before, but now it's mine), an adapter to transfer photos from my camera to my ipad - all are such thoughtful and amazing gifts! Now I can take instant photos, blog on the go using photos from my camera, sleep well knowing that three years of photos are going to be safe, and start learning to draw! Thank you everyone! I am so blessed!
After we opened our presents my dad made us waffles with his new waffle maker and we stuffed ourselves with all kinds of good food. After, we watched Home Alone and spent more quality family time together! I love Christmas so much and am so happy that we are able to gather with the family to celebrate!

The candle light service

Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!

Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Hallelujah
Christ the Saviour is born!
Christ the Saviour is born!

Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas traditions

We have a tradition that kinda took place on its own: I make a dinner for Christmas eve, after we eat and have some fun we go to our church's candle light service, where we sing Christmas carols and join the sea of candle lights - thousands of people (it is absolutely beautiful!), then in the morning we put our pajamas on, grab all of our presents and go to my mom's and dad's where they are waiting (in pjs too) to open presents and have Christmas brunch. It is so much fun and we love out traditions!
My own little tradition is I listen to the christian carols all day long while cooking and getting ready for the dinner.
So today was full of cooking (I used some of my favorite cook books, some of the dishes included chicken pot pie, beef roast, various salads, corn biscuits, baked apples and ice cream for desert), cuddling with my husband, fun with my family, wrapping the presents (a little late this year), and to top it all off - beautiful carol singing and thousands of candle lights all to glorify the birth of our Hope, our Light, our only Chance, our Teacher, our Baby Boy!

And now I a off to sleep, tomorrow morning is one of my favorite days this whole year!

Date night with my handsome husband

Today it finally happened - I took my Jenya on a date. It was planed about a week ago, but we kept putting it off for other things. So today I made reservations and after last Christmas shopping, we went straight to our date. It was a surprise for him, although he was driving, I just told him where to go. We ate sushi and then went to the movie theatre to watch the Hobbit. It was so nice to talk and eat and then watch a movie together, and most of all just spend time together. My husband is so handsome and so fun to be with, I am a lucky girl!
I didn't take my camera with me so the only camera we had was Jenya's phone. We are silly on this photo, granted, it's not one of our best ones, but I love it because it is a reminder of the greate time we spent together.

The end of the world

We spent our last day on this earth sliding down the slope on a tube, drinking hot drinks in the snow, playing board games, and enjoying the cold weather outside. Not a bad last day if you ask me. But since my dear beloved husband had to work today and couldn't be with us, I am happy we get to live a little more so that we can repeat this fun with him and then it will be perfect!
It is three days till Christmas! I am to make a Christmas eve dinner and we are going to have so much fun! I can't wait!

Every part of the journey is a pleasure

I can't explain why, but one of my favorite things about traveling is a long drive in the car. I like every aspect of it - the changing sene outside the window, the conversations you get to have, how warm it is no matter how much snow there is outside. And right now there is plenty of snow, Birdy is playing in my ears, and I am writing this post, periodically looking at the little town we are passing. I like looking at the lights in the houses and imagine who could live there. It is especially fun to do now that almost every house has a beautiful Christmas tree twinkling through each window... The snow, the music, the lights, the mountains - everything is setting the mood for a promising adventure...
We are almost there...

Done!

It has been a while since I made something for myself. I have a dream to some day acquire a collection of decorations for each season, because I love the four seasons and well... we don't really experience them here in Vegas as much as I wish we would. 

My collection will have a cross stitch piece in every season (probably more than one...), and Christmas being my favorite holiday, of course started this collection. I have mentioned this project of mine before - a nativity seen from my grandma's old magazine. Then my mommy and I stopped by one of my favorite stores and I saw this picture frame and thought it would fit the project perfectly! So here it is!