Art Redo Project #2

Here is the second project completed. I found two splattered canvases at the thrift store and primed them and repainted them. My inspiration...vintage fabric prints. Perfect for the thrift store finds, don't you think?

Vintage Floral--Acrylic on Canvas
Chicken Yard--Acrylic on Canvas

Wild Life and Wild Life

Quite the week here on the Eastside of Anchorage.

I thought that when we left the Spenard area we would be in a calmer area. Not quite so, this past week on the Eastside brought about a:

Double Murder--The Killer is now in custody
Pipe Bomb Scare--The road was blocked for around 7 hours and traffic was all backed up our street
Accidental Shooting--A drunk man was playing with his semi-automatic and accidentally shot his wife who was driving him home. She survived and their infant who was in the car is fine.

I am hoping that it was just a bad week.

Our place seems so quiet in comparison to all the hubbub in the neighboorhood. There is a moose who has been hanging out in front of our place. The picture was taken from our front door. We have a little squirrel who has discovered the bird feeder and is spending a lot of time trying to get the food. He is quite the entertaining little fellow.

The Nuthatches have left for the most part and we have all kinds of Hoary Redpolls at the feeders. This is an extra red colored one.

Valentine

ADN Picture

Paul and I celebrated the day by going to the Opera.

We went and saw the Barber of Seville. One of my co-worker is in the chorus and got us a two for one ticket :-)

It was hilarious. So much fun. I did have to ask Paul to stop singing the next day though.

Trash to Treasure--Project #1

I promised pictures so here is project number one.


I saw an incredible recycled wool scarf on Etsy and decided to try to make one of my own. It appeared to be in line with my sewing capabilities--I can turn on the machine and sew a mostly straight line:)

I purchased some wool sweaters at the Salvation Army thrift store and felted them. Three of the sweaters turned out--the thicker ones did not felt for me. I would really like to try this with some cashmere sweaters.

It took a bit of cutting to cut out all of the circles but I got enough to make three scarves. Each scarf is around 100 inches long.

Views from home

Our Ride

Paul and I are now a one vehicle family. That vehicle is: “The Buick”.

While most of the population of Anchorage drives sporty (though dirty) SUV’s and every model of Subaru--we drive The Buick.

The Buick, according to the gear rack maker Yakima is “unyakible”. The Buick though has made up for its lack of sport friendliness by having an extra large back seat where we stow our skis. While other people take their skis off of the roof—we take them out of the back seat.

Of course, The Buick is not in as good of condition as when I drove up the AlCan Hwy in 2003. The shiny dual exhaust system was ripped off as we took a trip over a summertime access only mountain pass. Now it has a much more conservative single exhaust.

Last year the back of the car didn’t quite make it across the intersection before somebody took off and smacked the rear passenger side door in. The Buick then proceeded to repay the purchase price (and all of the maintenance and insurance ever paid) in an insurance settlement that totaled the car. A benefit of not many Buicks in Alaska is that the car costs too much to fix. Part of the proceeds paid for a door that Paul along with our friend and neighbor installed along with a few additional washers. It doesn’t work perfectly but it functions. I didn’t like driving around with a door of a different color and had it painted to match the specialty psychedelic green of the rest of the car.

While other vehicles sport studded tires, The Buick just drives slowly on its all season treads up the hills.

We do spend a lot of time thinking about “the perfect” car and what that would be. But for now, we put our skis in the back seat and Paul brings home pallets and firewood in the trunk.

You have to appreciate a fine car like The Buick.

COFFEE

The best part of waking up is a Paul's Latte in a cup!





Did I mention that Paul is getting to be very good at making the best ever latte?

Here is what I woke up to last weekend...uumm

Paul know the ultimate temperature and why you should use a steel cup for frothing rather than ceramic. He can tell you what temperature the milk should be at for the best frothing and why 1% works better. That is just the milk. The explanation of the coffee is much more extensive. Beans, roast, grind, orgin...

As for me--I enjoy the lattes.

Rumbling Weekend Update

North flank of Mount Redoubt and low-level vapor plume
Picture Date: January 31, 2009
Image Creator: Waythomas, Chris
Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.




Well the volcano has not blown—we keep waiting. There were no earthquakes that we could feel this past weekend but they are still reporting lots of tremors under Redoubt. Paul is very prepared and went out and got extra food and dust masks for us. I am sort of excited. I have never had a volcano day. Snow days are a thing to be treasured—so why not a volcano day? Everyone says though that it is not fun and everything just gets so dirty and scratched. We will see—the Volcano Observatory seems to think that it will blow.

We had some snow over the weekend and had the chance to go skiing. We skied over to a friend’s house for a party on Friday evening. The ice under the snow made skiing a bit more challenging but it was fun and I love seeing fresh snow on the pine trees in the moonlight. Beautiful Winter Night!

Saturday was ½ price day at the local thrift stores. I am working on some art pieces for a fundraiser called “Trash to Treasure” in May. I have $50 to buy things at the thrift store to turn into my treasures. I am working on painting some old canvases that I found and also found a few more glass containers for more terrariums. What fun out bargain hunting! Paul is working on a side table made out of golf clubs. I will post pictures of my before and after upcycled projects (Trash to Treasures) later. As least I will post pics of the projects that turn out ;-0

Moss Terrarium

I enjoy winter but admit that I miss the sight of green.

I saw one of these on Etsy and decided that I had to try to make one. Our yard has a lot of moss next to trees. So the other weekend I went out and dug around and came up with this! It has been a few weeks and it is still green and looks great as the centerpiece on my dining room table. It is a talisman of spring.

Instructions:

1. Get some small rocks and rinse them with water.
2. Find some moss and gently dig it up--make sure that you leave some moss there to regenerate.
3. Dig some earth up below the moss--this dirt has the right acid blend.
4. Place the rocks into a covered container
5. Cover the rocks with the dirt.
6. Place the moss over the top of the dirt and gently press down. Shape moss as needed to fit into container.

Now the best part--cover and just mist every two to three weeks.

Here is a picture of my Moss Terrarium. I put some snow on it to water it after potting it.

ICE

i LOVE seeing the ice sculptures! My friend Susan and I checked out the sculptures downtown a few weeks ago.

To everyone who's lost someone they love

Last weekend a friend of mine had a potluck at her home where her family and friends gathered. We gathered to talk about our loved ones who have passed away on the anniversary of her parents death. It was a sacred occasion and I felt honored to help her lead it.

We all shared stories and prayed that we may live lives that honor those who have gone on before. Then we wrote on balloons and released them into the sky. It was so peaceful watching them rise.

I still find myself tearing up at inopportune times (I have a fear of tears) as my mind suddenly says goodbye again. My heart hurts but I rejoice in the gift of time that we received.

Paul and I have talked a lot about death and life and I discover more and more how insightful Paul is. I am so thankful to have him by my side as I stumble through my emotions. Even more we relate in that we both lost a man that we loved and that is such a blessing. I remember my Dad talking to me about how he felt that Paul and I were a strong couple. In fact, sometimes I would joke with Paul in that Dad would only want to talk with him.

I have been listening to this song by Third Day, thinking about life and finding peace. The lyrics are (in part):

To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough
when you said goodbye

And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus

Birds

I remember my Grandma coming to visit and how we would joke that as soon as she arrived and started to feed the birds they would just multiply in the matter of a day.

Last year when mom came to visit one of the first things that she did was go and get us a bird feeder. Being a competitive family we all placed bets on how many birds that there would be at the feeder the next morning. There were over 15. It was amazing and Paul and I really enjoyed watching the birds. Titana (the cat) also really watched the birds--with a calculating eye. It reminded me of Grandma's visits.

Now that we are moved into our new home in Anchorage we have hung up the feeders and are getting some little Nuthatches. They are such cute little birds. As I was standing outside contemplating where to hang the feeder one landed on the feeder in my hand.

It is still dark when we leave for work and come home so on weekends we really like to have a later breakfast and watch the birds enjoy their breakfast. I feel that I am carrying on a Stockland tradition.

Tribute to the Eagle Lady

The Eagle Lady passed away this week. Even though I never got to meet her personally, I count my experiences with her eagles as one of my favorite Alaskan winter excursions.

Paul and I first went to visit the infamous Homer Spit for Valentines Day 2004. Homer is a quirky artsy town. It is touristy but rough. I like it! Quirky, is a term of endearment in my vocabulary :)

We camped on the spit the first night and awoke to find eagles atop all of the poles around us. Then we went over (in the truck) to the Eagle Lady's trailer and watched as she fed them frozen fish. Hundreds of eagles gathered around to get the frozen fish handouts. I had never seen eagles so close. AMAZING!

Paul and I returned during the winter numerous times to watch the eagles and were so lucky to have the opportunity to take my mom to the Homer Spit when she visited last winter. She kept trying to count the eagles. There are too many to count but her attempts were cute.

Thank you Jean for some great memories and experiences.

Moose

MARC LESTER / Anchorage Daily News

A moose sports a frosty face while browsing trees along East 68th Avenue in Anchorage on Jan 7, 2009. The temperature there was minus 22 degrees at the time. The other moose pic is from our neighborhood on my way to work.

I think that moose are funny animals. I love seeing them all around Anchorage. We had one sleep outside our house (we just saw his empty nest the next morning) and another scared Paul last weekend when he was outside and the moose snuck up on him. On Saturday, as I was returning from the grocery store I saw a moose waiting in the bus stop next to five lanes of traffic. Moose are funny.

FREEZE Weekend Update

Downtown Anchorage--an ice and snow FREEZE installation.


The cold has broken. Tonight it is supposed to be 20 degrees. That is the low! Yeah. We got out skiing this weekend--it was cold but fun. Our eyelashes were framed with ice. I will post Paul's pic later.

We had a fun weekend just hanging out with friends and having dinner at Ken and Sue's. We went downtown and saw the ice and snow sculptures and then went out for drinks and apps at Simon and Seaforts.

We found out that Chris and Annie are coming to visit in May! We are going to have a lot of visitors this year. Mary Claire, Roger, Chris and Annie, my Mom and Ellen and Dick are all making the AK excursion in 2009. It is a good thing that we have a guest room. It will be a fun summer.