Erik's book

Erik's book is called: "Moments from the nature, 2007-2008" . It contains 75 pages of photos about wild animals and some birds.

Christmas card designs - Vol III

These snowmen-cards are Kert's favourites. I made many of them, and they went to my close relatives (like my parents, my aunt etc) as well as some dear penpals (Heike, Martina etc). Those cards are one of my favourites. I had many versions of them as well, some with English text and some with Estonian text. I sent them to Pauline, Birgit, Anna, to Erik's sister's family, to our neighbours...

Those two funny cards were for Pille and for Eva:

This card went to Iceland - to Svana and her family:

And this arrived to Portugal - to my dear friend Marta:

Christmas card designs - Vol II

I hope all of my friends have enjoyed the quiet Christmas time... Some of them with a bigger family than the years before (for instance Marta, Annette - congratulations for her newborn son! - , my brother), which has certainly been very special... Now, when Christmas is over and I hope my friends have received the cards I made, I can show some more of them.
The first one is for Erik's sister Helen and her family + to my Finnish friend Minna (I made two similar ones):
This card (with snowflakes and a candle ) had two versions, but I show only one of them here. I gave them to Erik's grandmother and to one of my colleagues (Elviira):
This a bit of a children-card went to my friend Anzelika who has 2 small kids at home:

And this card was for my ex-boss Anu:

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Photo by Karin, November 2008, Harju county, Estonia.

Christmas card designs - Vol I

Each year, I've made my own Christmas cards - at least some of them. I thought that this year, I won't have time for it. But one evening, together with my neighbour Aune, we gathered together and started to make cards - just for fun. I was happy she had this idea, because I continued with it also next evening/night, and made quite a lot of cards :)
I will show 4 cards here since I know that all of them have already reached their destination and I won't ruin anyone's surprise.
The first card is the dearest because it was the most time-consuming card. It has the silver ribbon for the tree and it took some time to glue it, but the most work went to make the small gifts + the star (actually Aune made the star, also from the ribbon + silver glitter glue). This card stayed in my family - it means I sent it to my brother and his family.

The second card was also time-consuming. The bows were not very easy to do. But I was happy with the result :). This card's owner is now my best friend Kristi.

Two angel-cards are for Eda and for Marju.

Emily and Anna - 2: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Photo by Helen Ilumets
Our nieces Emily and Anna will turn 2 years old tomorrow. They are having their big birthday party already today afternoon. I'm sure it will be fun! We all wish them a very happy birthday!

This is the card I drew for them:

Muffins

Yesterday, we had a small party with our neighbours and I thought I'd make some muffins. I did two different kinds of - cherry-cappuccino muffins and banana-chocolate muffins. I'd like to share the recipe of the first ones. They were not as sweet as the banana-chocolate ones and therefore, my favourites!

Cherry-cappuccino muffins
2 dl cherries (can be canned)
3 dl flour
2 teapoons of baking powder
5 small bags of cappuccino powder
7 tablespoons of hot water
2 eggs
130 gramms of sugar
80 ml oil
2 dl natural yogurth (with no sugar or flavour)

Heat the owen to 180 degrees. Drain the cherries (if they are canned). In one bole, mix the flour and baking powder. In another, dissolve the cappuccino powder in hot water. Then, cream the eggs, sugar, oil, yogurth and cappuccino mass. After that, add the flour and the cherries and mix everything. Fill the muffin holes of the cake tin and bake for about 20 minutes.

Drawn by Kert

Like most boys at his age, Kert is found of cars. And his new hobby is drawing them. All sorts of cars... hundreds of them... He draws with ballpoint pen or with normal pen, sometimes both of them. I've photographed a few of them, and those are already "old" models - this week, he has drawn many new ones... This is my particular favourite:

And some others...

Soon ready!

Since some time, Erik has been renovating our shower room and sauna. It's the main project in our house this year. Erik has been doing everything on his own (he doesn't trust anyone else:)) - starting with founding the floors and installing the ceramic plates ending with all finishing staff. My only duty has been a few calculations and choosing some of the colours and materials... Our budget is quite small, so when thinking how little we could spend on it, I think the result is very nice. The shower room is now ready, we are only waiting a glass between the washing machine and shower to arrive, and we haven't bought the shelves, yet.
Photo: Before and after: I decided to pick up the green colour for the shower room... I'm not that big fan of green actually, but since our walls in the hall are of the same colour, I thought it will match well. And I liked those ceramic plates with small modest flowers a lot.

The renovating process

At first, Erik took everything out and made the new basic wall:

Later he installed the ceramic plates to the wall:

He also founded the floor with right tilts:
And installed mosaic floor:

And it was time to buy the water mixer and shower, too:

So the difference is like that:

Sauna

Erik started to renovate sauna just a few days ago. So far, he has made the wall of natural mosaic stones and also the rigs for the curved ceiling. Now, he's installing wooden planks to the wall. Then, it's time to do the same with the ceiling, then the bathhouse platform... We need to buy a new heater as well. But we hope to have our first sauna steam for the New Year :)

Photo: The walls with mosaic stones.

Photo: The metal rigs for the curved ceiling.