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:

Happy Face Coloring Page

I do hope you like this bit of whimsy. A Happy Smiley Coloring page!

You can click the images below to download it, print and color it.

Small jpg Happy Face coloring page:

Large transparent png Happy Face coloring page:

Affiliate link! Clicking this link will take you to Amazon for purchase, and I'll make a small amount off of that. Also this is one of my books. :) It's inspired by my mother.

If you like this coloring page, I recommend

Bat knot 2019 coloring page

Happy Halloween! I have a lot of bats on this page, including more knotwork ones. Click the bat tag in the tag list to see them all.

I love drawing knots, and love bats. I do hope you like this coloring page as much as I do. Click the images below for full sized versions to print and color. Print on landscape setting.

Bat knot coloring page small jpg version:

Bat knot coloring page large transparent png version:

Knotwork Frame and Hear Coloring Page

Hi! This whole week/month/summer has been super busy and I still need to finish writing about Culture Camp, but took a short break to draw. I hope you enjoy this knotwork frame and heart coloring page.

The frame opening is 7x5 inches, so you can put your favorite photo in there too if you'd like.

Click the images below for larger versions of this free printable coloring page.

Printable knotwork frame and heart coloring page small jpg format:

Printable knotwork frame and heart coloring page large transparent png format:

Culture Camp- Part 1

William and TG at the Alaska Native Heritage Center

This is going to be a few posts because I took a LOT of photos.

Last month, my children and I had a chance to go to a culture camp. If you're not indigenous, culture camps are a way to learn about our heritage from Elders and people who live a traditional life. This one was a mixed culture camp, centering on Traditional Foods for the various indigenous people from Alaska. We were really excited about it.

It took place at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. This is definitely a place you should visit if you're ever in Anchorage. They have a village area set up in the back of the museum with the various building structures used by the tribes up here. The grounds grow a lot of plants that are used traditionally for food and medicines. It's educational and interesting and they focus on creating opportunities for Native peoples. There are young interns who do presentations, and there is dancing and indigenous artists selling beautiful things.

My family is Tanana Athabaskan. We come from the interior, even though my children and I have lived in Anchorage our whole lives. If you have younger children, you may be watching Molly of Denali with them. Molly is Athabaskan too.

The first day of camp, a whole bunch of us were processing salmon for canning. So we went straight to work. TG, William and I were in the classroom a little early, so we helped the teacher set up.

Salmon is preserved in a lot of ways, and canning is a modern one and important. We learned how to pack salmon into jars, why our teacher preferred jars to cans and we cut and packed up a lot of salmon.

TG processing salmon

At the end of the day, I asked TG and William if they had fun. They had worked, listened to a presentation on safe canning methods, and we walked around the museum some. I also got myself a pair of baleen hair sticks from one of the artists on side.

They both agreed it was a whole lot of fun. 

The qaspeq that TG is wearing is one that belonged to her grandmother. It's about 50 years old. You can get my free qaspeq coloing page here-Qaspeq/Kuspuk Coloring Page. 

A couple days later, we got to work on canning the fish. 

The salmon was packed into the jars raw. You can see what it looks like before and after canning in this photo. Canning it cooks it, and the bones soften so much that they can be eaten. A good source calcium!!  Canning can also be used to preserve other meats using a pressure canner. Our local extension service has instructions for canning walrus!! Becky told us how she made her canned moose stew. 

We also had a class on safety procedures. That was good. TG won a water bottle in that class and she was really happy. 

I missed a class on plants because I had an appointment. TG and William took extensive notes and enjoyed the class a lot. They both came home with jars of yarrow salve from that class. 

The plant class I did take, taught by Meda DeWitt was about nettles. We went out and picked some nettles, and stripped them. We learned about how to use the seeds to make a tincture, how to use the leaves for tea and food, and then made a simple hand-spun twine using the fiber. 

Then we got a presentation from Chef Sean Sherman. That was fantastic. If you don't know who Chef Sherman is- he is a James W. Beard award winning chef with a passion and vision for indigenous foods. He is also known as the Sioux Chef. 

I went totally fangirl when I found out he was going to be here! A couple friends of mine from Minnesota who had been to some of his presentations told me how much I was going to enjoy it. 

An Elder gifted him with some muktuk (whale fat and skin) that he shared. It was the first time that my children had tried muktuk. It was not the last time that week they had muktuk. They both loved it. Chef Sherman said it tasted like the sea. 

Chef Sean Sherman sharing muktuk. 

His vision is wonderful. It's about creating new recipes and learning the old recipes. Finding how which foods have been traditionally harvested in various regions, wild foods, foraged foods. He wants to empower indigenous people to set up businesses both for supply and finished products such as restaurants. It is an exciting vision and you can find out more at The Sioux Chef and NATIFS.

If you're interested in Chef Sean Sherman's book, you can buy it using the link below. Amazon affiliate links won't affect your price, and the small commission they pay helps fund this page.

Classic Alaskan Russian Tea Mix Recipe

Russian tea mix, tea and cookies

I asked my daughter where we should stage this photo. She really loves this rock in our yard for photos for how much sun is in that area.

There are a lot of lasting influences of Russian colonization in Alaska. One of them is an enjoyment of hot fruity teas.

One of the most popular Russian teas is to add jam made from berries collected over the fall to brewed black tea.

The most popular though, hands down, is made with various drink mixes and spices and used as an instant tea.

My mother was a jam in tea sort, so the first time I had the drink mix kind was in summer camp as child. I loved it and came home with the recipe. My mother, the hippie, was absolutely appalled. The only other time I saw her that shocked over my tastes was when I came home from a slumber party insisting the other young woman's mother had made the best mac and cheese ever. Mom called for the recipe and found out it was Kraft.

Anyway, this is my recipe. It's less sweet and more tea then a lot of the mix recipes. I hope you enjoy it.

American measurements used. The parenthesis are the product I used and link to Amazon**.

Russian Tea Mix Recipe

• 1 cup instant tea (Lipton, unsweetened, unflavored, decaffeinated)
• 2 cups sweetened orange drink mix (Tang)
• 1 packet *unsweetened* lemonade mix (Kool-Aid)
• 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ground cloves

Mix ingredients well, put into a pretty jar.

To mix, start with 3 Tbsp of mix. My coffee cups are mostly 10 oz. Put in the mix, top with hot or boiling water. Let cool enough to taste, add more mix or sugar

to taste.

As a gift, include a note with mixing instructions.

I do plan to re-do this post later with pretty  printable recipes and tags.

There are stories about this kind of tea being served to musher's on the Iditarod trail. Tang is so popular that to make a recipe that was actually measured out and not just me doing it by eye meant going to 3 stores and finding the one can left on the shelf in the back of the shelf at the last store.

As an adult, I prefer jam in tea, but TG and William both really like this version for it's convenience.

**this post contains Amazon affliate links which pay me a small commission when you use them to make purchases. **

You Are Worth Loving coloring page

This wasn't what I was planning on drawing, but when I got stuck on another project, drawing swirly things to relax seemed like a good idea.

I hope you enjoy this coloring page. You are worthy of being loved. Every single one of you.

Click the images below to download the blank versions to color.

If you'd like to see more coloring pages like this, please leave a comment or leave a comment on my FB page- Don't Eat The Paste on Facebook


Small jpg version of "You are worth loving" coloring page:

Large transparent png version of "You are worth loving" coloring page:

Geometric effect heart coloring page

This coloring page is based off of a recent technique I've been playing with for fabric designs. If it seems a little different than my usual style for this page, it's because of that. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

I think this effect looks better with some negative space in it. There are 2 versions of this design. The other one has a lot of heavy black in it, and it's better for playing with area affects.

Please let me know if you like it, and if you'd like more coloring pages in this style, and if you'd like a finer pages with smaller triangles. 

Click the images below for larger versions to print and color. 

Outline geometric heart coloring page in jpg version:

Outline geometric heart coloring page in transparent png version:

Heavy line geometric heart coloring page in jpg version:

Heavy line geometric heart coloring page in transparent png version:

Brontosaurus Coloring Page

I've never even tried drawing a dinosaur before, but Spoonflower has a contest going on and the them inspired me to try. I'd really appreciate a vote on my design, but there are a lot of great designs in the contest and you can vote for more than one. I'll put that information at the end of this post.

When I was a child studying dinosaurs in school, my teacher told the class when we were coloring them "Dinosaurs lived long before people, and all we have now is fossils. Nobody knows what colors they were, if they were patterned or not. They might  have had fur or feathers. There is no wrong way to color a dinosaur!"

I loved that. All my dinosaurs were polka dotted or striped and in the brightest colors possible.

Here are the blank pages. Click on the image for a larger version, print and color!

Small jpg dinosaur coloring page:

Large transparent png dinosaur coloring page:

If you'd like to vote on the Spoonflower contest before July 9, 2019- this is my design in that contest-

Click here---> Spoonflower Boy Wonder fabric design contest! 

Arctic Valley- photo post

As we are getting closer to berry picking season (yay!), we are checking out some of our favorite spots for berries. Some of them I won't show pictures of because they are secret places my family goes to, but others, like Arctic Valley, are well-known enough that I'm happy to show pictures.

Arctic Valley has a lot of kinds of berries available, but what we plan to go there specifically for is crowberries. In a lot of the books I have, it says that aren't choice berries. Well, that's what the books say.  The Elders I've spoken to love them and my family will eat them out of hand as well as using them for jam and pies. Not that we will turn down other berries! Of course we will pick what's available. Obligatory warning: NEVER EVER EAT A BERRY OR MUSHROOM YOU AREN'T CERTAIN OF IN YOUR IDENTIFICATION.

So we were checking out how it looks this year. It's still early, but we decided we would have 2 days of specifically picking for Elders. One of those days will be crowberries.

The drive up is one of those typically Alaskan gorgeous drives. There's a lot of it that is dirt roads, with a few pull outs to take in the scenery. In one of those pull outs, Michael spotted a rabbit.

William and The Amazing Turnip Girl love it up there.

A lot of the photos I took are for a project I'm working on to help my family identify berries in all stages of growth. I will be putting that together in e-book form as well, with recipes. Today I also took photos of some flowers. I hope you enjoy them. 

 Lots of robins up there singing, it was a very nice time.

Printable frame with a leadership quote

It's been a while since I did a printable frame quote. I hope you enjoy this one. I like printing out these quotes on Astrobrights paper, but for people who like intricate coloring, they could certainly be colored in by hand.

"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves it's amazing what they can accomplish."

-Sam Walton

Click the images below for large versions to print.

Small jpg version outstanding leader quote:

Large transparent png version:

Eating Weeds: Dandelions

I was just asked on Facebook about eating dandelions.

The answer deserves it's own blog post, not just a reply to a comment.

Dandelions are one of those superfoods in every way. Every part of a dandelion is edible. My family doesn't eat the stems, because they take some preparation and can cause stomach upset. But the rest of it we do. Fortunately, when my children were little they blew lots of dandelions and my lawn is not chemically treated.

First thing: Make sure your dandelions come from places that are not treated with chemicals or close to busier roads with exhaust particulates that will fall on the dandelion. You don't want to eat those things.

Okay, have a safe place to harvest?

In the spring, young green leaf rosettes can be pulled up or cut off at the base. Rinse them, pat them dry, and fry them in a tempura batter for a nice treat.

Later in spring, start looking for buds close to the ground, the buds should be tightly closed and sort of squared off at the top. A tapering bud like formation is after blooming but before going to seed. A new bud tapers down to a rounded end at the stem and has a flat wide top in comparison to the base. (I'll post a picture here later). The buds can fermented like pickles to use as a substitute for capers. I have some fermenting now! You'll use a basic salt brine, plus seasonings you like. Mine have garlic, red pepper, onions and peppercorns in them. A basic salt brine is 2 Tablespoons of salt to 1 qt of water. Clean all your ingredients, chop your onions if you're using them, and put them in the brine. Weight it down using either specially made weights, a smaller jar full of brine or a small zip bag full of brine. Make sure all your vegetables are completely submerged. Put the top on the jar finger tip tight and put it in a warm but not too warm part of your house. Check every day to make sure that it's not building up too much pressure. You'll see bubbles forming, that's normal. If the button on the top of the jar won't press down, relieve the pressure by carefully opening it just a little. After two weeks, check the tartness and if it's where you want it, put it in the fridge to slow (not stop) the fermenting. Eat within a couple months. If you want it more sour, let it ferment longer. Watch for mold, but as long as everything is properly submerged, there shouldn't be any.

Also in spring, young leaves can be used in salads. They are delicious, and considered a bitter.

Dandelion blossoms can also be fried, made into jelly or made into wine. A quick internet search will turn up a lot of recipes for dandelion wine.
My Dandelion Jelly Recipe
My Fried Dandelion Recipe 

You can rinse and freeze dandelion blossoms for later use in wines or jellies. Rinse, use a salad spinner to extract excess water or even squeeze it dry, freeze in single layers, then put in a labelled bag in your freezer to make the jelly when you have time.

For fried dandelion blossoms, any basic tempura batter works just fine though.

Older but not huge leaves can be boiled as any other vegetable, then used in soup. Discard the boiling water. Boiling helps get rid of some of the oxalates.

The bigger they get, the more bitter they get, so there is a point where you won't want to eat them.

The seeds can be collected, and threshing them lightly in a paper bag then using a fan to blow away the fluffs makes for a free seed that you can use to grow microgreens in the winter. Just sow as you would any other seed. They can also be sprouted, but I find microgreens a more effective use of time, plus if you miss some fluff, it won't matter with microgreens which you are cropping.

Dandelions are high in vitamins A, C, K and a good source of dietary fiber.

In the late fall, you can dig up the roots, cut them up and let them dry to hard, roast them either in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or toast them in a cast iron skillet. Store in an airtight jar. A decoction made by simmering the root in water makes a tasty non-caffeine coffee substitute.

More dandelions on this site include:

Dandelion Printable Recipe page

Dandelion and Bee coloring page

Dandelion Lined Paper Printable

Feather Coloring Page- intricate!

I haven't done anything this intricate in a while. I hope you all enjoy it!! I'll be posting a less complex variation in the next few days.

This is inspired by those amazing beadwork wings that Billy Porter wore to the Met Gala event.

Click the images below for larger versions to print and color and sharpen your pencils!!

Small jpg version of feathers coloring page:

Large transparent png version of feathers coloring page: