Homesteader's Honey

My memories on FB popped up this photo. It's from the 1990s. The man in the photo is my brother and the boy is my son. The handwriting is my mom's and it says "Adam and Wm picking clover and fireweed for me to make honey" The side note says (*Enlarge?)

I may well do just that. It would be a gorgeous print.

She got her recipe from the local cooperative extension service. Here it is:

Homesteader's Honey

6 cups sugar
3 cups boiling water
30 white clover blossoms
18 red clover blossoms
18 fireweed blossoms
Sterilize canning jars and prepare lids. Boil together
sugar and water for 10 minutes; maintain steady
boil on low heat without stirring. Remove from
heat. Add blossoms and let steep for 15 minutes.

Strain mixture through cheesecloth and immediately
pour into hot canning jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace.
Wipe jar rims and add prepared two-piece
lids. Process 5 minutes in a boiling water canner.
Note: Sugar syrup can be tricky. If it crystallizes before
canning, return it to the pan, add 2 tablespoons
water per cup of honey and heat.

My mom used to make so many jars of this as a present.

I hope you enjoy the memory. It made me smile to see it in my memories today.

Suet Pudding and the joy of old recipe cards

You can click on the image above to make it larger.

I'm still going through my parents home, and it's hard choosing what to keep, what to donate but there is also joy. Things like finding a collection of old recipe cards. The card above is hand written by my Great-grandmother- Jane Bradley, and it's from my Great-Aunt's mother-in-law. I'm so grateful to my cousin Jane who was able to identify the handwriting. Now I know what to look for! My grandmother's typewriter and handwriting are easy for me to recognize.

The history just amazes me. It's too good not to share.

Ten Eyck Suet Pudding

1 cup molasses
1 cup sweet milk
1 cup suet chopped fine
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup currants
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda

Salt and season to taste (I'd suggest mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves)

Steam for 1 hour.

I've never tried this recipe, but plan to this summer. Maybe modify it with the berries I have available.

Want more of my family recipes? Some of these have printable recipe cards!

Burnt Cream
Lemon Cups
Lemon Bars
Ball Cookies
Tapioca Pudding and a Salad dressing recipe
Cranberry Bread

Grandma had a sweet tooth and loved lemon. I'll be posting more recipes later!

Heart lock and key printable gift box

I hope you enjoy this heart themed box to print and make. Click on the image for a larger version, print on card stock, cut out, score folds, fold, glue.

So how are we doing? Still hurting. Christmas, William's birthday, Dad's birthday without Dad... it's hard. There is still so much to do at his apartment, and I was working on finishing up a coloring book. Staying busy. We laugh though, laugh at memories, laugh at life. We are treating each other gently, and saying "I love you" an awful lot.

Thomas Wayne MacGuire

From left to right, that's my Dad, Thomas MacGuire, my son, William, my mom, Carolyn Bradley, and my Grandma, Holly Bradley.

Three of them are together again now on the other side, and I keep going back and forth between being happy they are together again, and being sad for us because while they are just a thought away, it feels like a very far distance since we can't be hugged by them, hear their voices except in memory.

On December 22nd, things looked like they were improving for dad. He was in the hospital, but he was clear, coherent, focused on getting better and he was feeling pretty good. He spent the whole day with the grandson who was the light of his life, and they said I love you to each other a whole bunch of times. We also went to visit for a few hours and also said I love you to each other a few times. Then after he went to sleep, his numbers crashed, and he was gone very quickly after that. We had time to call everyone in the family so we could be there to say good bye.

This is really, really hard to write. But it's not going to get any easier is it?

Once upon a time, a social worker was followed into a bathroom at a party by the woman who ran the local Equal Rights Commission. She wasn't the sort of person who did things like that, she was a hippie from comfortable family in California, and had two kids from a previous marriage. But lots of people had tried to fix these two up on a date in the past and she was curious about him. She came to Alaska as VISTA volunteer and fell in love with the state.

He was a slight man with a beard and mustache, and smart blue eyes that flashed with laughter about everything. He had come to Alaska with his mother in 1963, Driving a lot of the highway from California himself. He was a fighter from his birth 3 months premature in 1948. He was a survivor with college degrees in a couple fields dealing with human behavior and psychology.

First, let's get one thing straight, my dad? Was a straight up outlaw. He hated authority figures, and wouldn't eat his vegetables. When I was a kid, he left that straight job. He dealt drugs, his best friends were a pimp and another criminal whose crimes I've never been sure of, but did spend time in prison. They were raucous and loud, they lived for the moment and the moments were fun and chaotic and they loved each other so much. They were utterly loyal to each other, and they watched out for Mom, me and my brother. We were a family. Mom, Dad, Uncle Paul and Uncle Merrill.

Outlaw or not, my mom had notoriously wretched taste in men. My Grandfather's reaction to Mom dating Dad was to tell her, unequivocally, that he was the best relationship she had ever been in. Even then, Dad's guiding principles were honesty, honor, loyalty and love.

Dad said that living on the edges was like living in a foxhole, you had to know who your friends were, and how much you could trust them. He could have trusted them for anything, they could rely on him the same way. But my brother and I didn't know that. We knew our family was different than most. We knew most families didn't have incredibly expensive locks, or parents who were home most of the time and still had money, we knew that most parents didn't get mad when you opened the very heavy privacy drapes in the living room or warn you that the phone might be tapped, but we didn't know WHY our family was different.

We also knew we were wanted, we were LOVED. That's important. I never knew until adulthood how important that was. My closest friends grew up in more traditional families but never had that absolute certainty they were wanted and loved. My dad went proudly to my dance recitals with my mom and uncles. If they scared the other parents, they didn't care. They were there to see me, not to impress or make friends. They paid attention to the things I wanted, the things I needed.

When Dad decided to get out of that life, Paul had moved to take care of someone who was in trouble, and Uncle Merrill was out of state I think or in prison? I don't recall which exactly. But he and mom got on methadone, and kicked their habits. It was a pretty huge transition. We went from having money to spare to being very broke. We moved out of our home into a series of apartments. But my parents were there in a way they hadn't been before. Sure, we weren't riding snow machines for fun anymore, but my parents were very consistently there. They needed to be at that point. I was getting sick a lot. Somehow we all made it through.

So, you can see by my description, that my parents were flawed. Funny, wild, unpredictable, loving and they always tried their best in their own unique ways.

Then something happened.
William was born. My darling, beautiful first born child.

My parents fell in love, and settled into a team whose first priority was that baby boy. When he was 3, I made the decision to give up my son to my parents because they loved each other so much. It seemed like the best thing for all of them. It hurt of course, but it was the best choice.

It really, really was. My parents loved him so much. They changed for him, mellowing, they weren't as wild. Mom would take walks with William to wishing wells and let him spend rolls of pennies. Dad would do anything for his boy.

When Mom died, my grandmother (her mother), told me fiercely "I know you can take William back, don't you do it. You leave him with his grandfather. You have Emily and Michael. They (William and Dad) need each other."

Dad loved Grandma like she was his own mother, and she loved him like a son. She also told him never to cut his hair and he never did. Grandma followed mom after just couple months. Dad was devastated.

The single thing that pulled him through the other side was William. William nagging him to eat, William having things to show his Papa. William's need after losing the grandma he loved so much while he was also trying to take care of his Papa.

Dad and I got very close after Mom was gone. I made the point of talking to him daily. We got to know each other a lot better. We talked about all sorts of things.

Now, to be honest, my taste in men was pretty bad too. But Dad LIKED Michael from the first time he met him. That like turned into genuine love. Dad respected Michael and Michael felt the same way about him. Michael truly fit into my nutty family like he was always supposed to be there. Even though Michael was so straight and "normal".

Back to honesty, honor, love and loyalty. See, those were never just words to Dad. they were the guiding principles of his life his whole life. If you couldn't be honest, he couldn't be your friend. If you didn't stand for something, he had no respect for you, but if he loved you, he was absolutely loyal and expected the same in return. That's the common ground that Michael and Dad had, and it was the basis for a relationship that turned into one like Dad's and Grandma's. Dad was our Dad, he loved Michael like a son.

We had such fun, we made the point of doing it. Of doing things as a family, going to museum exhibits, trick or treating with the kids together, we did a lot in the following years as the children grew.

The photo above was taken this last July at a summer fair.

The last month since Dad's diagnosis with cancer, to Dad dying has been really, really hard. It's had some good moments, and we have a lifetime of memories and love.

I need for everyone to understand one thing, that crazy, flawed, wild, incredibly good, generous, kind man? He was the BEST dad I could have had. His relationship with William was something so special, so wonderful. The love he gave to all of us.... he gave us the best of him, and in the last few weeks has said over and over how lucky he was to have this family. Not just a family, but this family specifically. All of us. We will miss him so much.

But we won't forget how very lucky and blessed we were to have him.

See, family isn't about blood. It's about love and commitment. He never told people I was his step-daughter. We were just all his kids.

I love you Dad. Thank you.

A printable quote about faith

This quote is from Charlie Chaplin's auto-biography.

I believe that faith is a precursor of all our ideas.Without faith, there never could have evolved hypothesis, theory, science or mathematics.I believe that faith is an extension of the mind. It is the key that negates the impossible. To deny faith is to refute oneself and the spirit that generates all our creative forces. My faith is in the unknown,in all that we do not understand by reason; I believe that what is beyond our comprehension is a simple fact in other dimensions, and that in the realm of the unknown there is an infinite power for good.

-Charlie Chaplin

Click the image below for a printable version.

I'm trying very hard to hold on to faith. This cancer my dad has, it is beatable, but it's also very, very scary. He's going to be starting chemo-radiation very soon.

He's worried about being bald. I told him some of my friends would make him hats. If you want to make him a hat, his head is 20 inches around- youth patterns will work well. He likes skulls, Batman,  aliens, all sorts of things. Any extras we get or hats he won't wear will be donated.
Email me at shala at donteatthepaste DOT com if you want an address.

And if you just want to say a prayer, light a candle or think really good thoughts, I'd be very happy for that too.

Christmas was lovely

The last few weeks, between being sick and then trying to get caught up on this coloring book, the holidays and pretty much everything else got away from me. My kids have been cooking gorgeous meals. My husband has been calling to remind me to take a break and there have been insane amounts of coffee drank.

Still behind on that. But slowly starting to catch. Today though we took a break for Christmas.

If you've lost someone you love very much, you know the holidays can be hard. So for everyone out there who was missing someone this holiday season- I hope your memories bought you more joy than sadness, more laughter than tears and more blessings than pain.

My family spoiled each other. My daughter finger knitted bracelets for all of us. I asked her if she would be willing to do an instructional video later to show how she made them. They are soft and fun.

Everybody except my dad and I got something game related- and the only reason he didn't was because William couldn't find the game he wanted to get him! They all loved them.

The stand out gifts?

My dad and son gave me a pair of Wonder Woman sneakers from Journeys.
My husband got me THIS!

Oh yes. There will be foams in the future. I will do foamy light microwave cakes, then top them with whipped yogurt. I will foam all sorts of things because it's shiny and new and wonderful.

My husband got his gifts early because they were things he needed for work. But last month I was sent a video game to review and he was certain he wouldn't like it, but was willing to try it to give me his opinion as well.

From my Amazon review-
 It's like reading a book and being able to put it down after a chapter to get other things done. My son thinks the mini games are too simple and prefers more rpg based games. My daughter likes it for an hour at a time then switches to something with a faster pace and more action.

My husband was the person in my family who was most convinced he probably wasn't going to like it much. Then he started playing. To use that same book comparison- this is the book you stay up all night to read and spend the next day bleary eyed, drinking coffee to come back home and read some more.


I don't recommend it for anyone who has issues with profanities or violence, but he loves it. So Dad and William gave him more of the AC games to try out.
The Amazing Turnip Girl- being the perfect geek got and loved a SuperWhoLock gift set The Geek Studio on Etsy (currently on hiatus until after the New Year). The set includes a laser cut necklace inspired by each show. For Sherlock it's a silhouette of his head inscribed with the words "I believe in Sherlock Holmes", Supernatural it's Rule #1, and a TARDIS for Doctor Who. It also has 4 silicone bracelets, 1 that says SuperWhoLock and the other 3 inspired by the shows and 6 buttons for each show. She was thrilled and showed them off quite happily.
William loves his Threadless shirts. He wants to have as big a collection as mine. He got one with Tesla and Lovecraft on it, and one that's book themed.
Dad was happy with his tool set and happy that I didn't forget the chocolate kiss that's been his traditional gift every year since I was 8. He counts on that great big piece of chocolate.
It's never about the stuff though is it? It's about time with family. 
And I love my impossibly geeky, incredibly funny and always interesting bunch of left-handed geeks! 

Family, love and DIY very basic raised beds for gardening

My husband has been working absolutely insane hours for a few months now. So when he knew he was getting 2 days off in a row and the weather was more than decent, we spent the time working on various projects.

Mostly in my yard. On May 17th it snowed, then we had several days of freezing rains and rain/snow then all the sudden, it got BEAUTIFUL! Just in time for my husband to have those days off and for me to get the rest of my seeds in the ground.

Monday we went and borrowed my dad's truck to pick up soil and lumber for 2 very basic raised beds. The beds are built to my specifications, which means I can sit comfortably on the ground out of side of them and not have to bend to reach. That way it's less likely that gardening will cause strain on my back and knees. They are long and narrow. After some consideration, he decided very simple boxes that he could dissemble in fall made the most sense. So each bed took 2 10 foot long 6x2s and 2 feet worth of 2x2s.

Quick tips if you want to build similar easy beds- we found the 2x2s in the scrap wood section of our local hardware store, one at a 47 inch length was enough for 2 beds and only 50 cents. Remember that a 6x2 isn't actually 6 inches wide. It's actually 5.5 inches. You can also get the lumber rough cut when you buy it, since these are very quick raised beds and nothing fancy, rough cut worked out just fine and meant they went together very quickly once we got home. Adjust measurements as needed for your own beds.

So we got 2 feet cut off of each 2 x 6, and had the 2x2 cut into 5.5 inch lengths (the 2x2, if your curious, is actually 1.5 x 1.5 inches) and that gave us the pieces we needed for each bed.

 Then it was time to put them together. He started by using the impact driver and long screws to create the frame with the 2x6s, then he reinforced each corner with the 2x2s, screwing through the boards into the 2x2s.

Each of these 8x2 feet beds takes 6 cubic feet of soil. We laid down newspaper first to help prevent the grass from coming through in an eco-friendly way. The 3 layers of newspaper will decompose over the summer so roots can go through it if necessary.

Then William, TG and I seeded both beds with annuals. Carrots, peas, lettuce, spinach, various herbs, and several kinds of radishes! We built trellises for the peas using dowels to create tripods, then wrapping those with a very open mesh.

Check out this happy robin who was enjoying the sun as much as we were.

My husband also dug up a couple of the smaller offshoots from the big wild rose bush on the wooded vacant lot near our house to plant them in front of our place for me, and he grilled asparagus, mushrooms and cod for dinner last night. YUM YUM!

The day we went out for the wood, we stopped by Arctic Roadrunner for lunch, they are an Anchorage institution and I recommend them if you are in the area if you like burgers and milkshakes. They have 2 locations, and one of them is right on Campbell Creek, so if you eat outside, you can see the creek as you eat.

This was the sign there. (I'll post this to my Facebook page so you can share it)

Happiness!

Why the Amazing Turnip Girl is Amazing

The Amazing Turnip Girl this evening

My children frequently take me by surprise by how very centered and good they are. The eldest is 22 and still very involved with us, and always has time to shovel his grandpa's walkway.

My youngest, the 17 year old is a mix, at times she seems to be so much older in her quiet maturity. Then she's young and playing. She told me when she was 11 and saw girls her own age wearing make up that she thought it was dumb. "I have 18 years to be a kid and the rest of my life to be a grown up. Coloring on paper is more fun."  It floored me, that she had thought it through that way. But she does that frequently, thinking things through to a finish that comes as a surprise even to the people who know her best.

The other day after a heavy snowfall, she shoveled the driveway before her Dad got home from work completely unasked. Then the next day, she started building a snow TARDIS.

She worked on the base for hours, using a box as a mold for bricks. Then came in when it started getting close to sundown. The next evening she was back out again and got it probably 3/4s of the way done. Her brick mold had fallen apart and she was packing snow into a careful rectangle using gloved hands.

Then after she came in, she decided to tape up one of my Amazon A3 shipping boxes (I use Amazon boxes to mulch if I don't recycle them)- she coated it inside and out with duct tape to use as a sturdier, more water resistant brick mold.

This afternoon, some kids kicked over the TARDIS that was 3/4s of the way done. Her dad was furious.

Now, this is why the Amazing Turnip Girl is amazing- she wasn't mad, she wasn't sad. She had a brand new brick mold and whole new plan anyway. She started building on what was left of the base she had built.

Snow TARDIS

So I asked her "Are you mad about your TARDIS being kicked down?"

She said "Not really. I learned that the snow that is more like snow cone snow sticks better together, and this mold works a lot better."

Snow brick mold

That's why she's my hero. Because I tend to fret when things go wrong, and to dwell on it when they go wrong and it's not my fault. I get angry, resentful and have to make a conscious effort sometimes to let it go and move on. Not all the time, but often enough. She just didn't, she got back to work and had it all built a lot quicker because of what she learned from the first one.

Then she came in and made hot chocolate. 

Oil rigs, scarves and anniversaries

My husband has been working an insane amount of hours lately because of the Kulluk, an oil rig that went aground in Kodiak. He's working at one of the hotels that very occupied with the people overseeing and fixing the problem. They were on winter hours for the employees, and he knew he'd have to work on New Year's Day, and planned to take a different day off. Since it happened New Year's Eve, it's going to be at least another week before he'll get a day off probably.

So we didn't get to celebrate our anniversary the way we wanted, but it still happened. 17 years together! A few days before that he told me that he's more in love with me now than ever before. Because now we know each other so much better, there is so much more to love. I feel the same way towards him. The more I know him, the more history we share, the more I love him. Someone asked me what the trick to being very in love after 17 years is, and I'm not sure there's a trick. There is honesty, communication, shared experiences, a shared life. A dedication to the idea of our partnership and being conscious of it in how we talk and relate to each other and how we face the world.

Currently I'm working on a crocheted scarf. It's a very simple pattern, and I'll be posting it probably tomorrow. Ran short of yarn last night so need to go out and pick up some more. It's done in a very chunky yarn with a great big plastic hook so it works up fairly fast. It's January, and generally we get a cold snap in February that's just frigid. The yarn chosen is Michaels Loops and Threads Cozy Wool yarn. If you've never worked with it before it's a 50/50 wool/acrylic blend with a bit of the shine of acrylic and a nice even spin in a lofty, cushy yarn. My daughter took a scrap yesterday and tied it around her wrist as a bracelet because it's very, very soft. Since Loops and Threads yarn goes on sale frequently, this might be a new favorite for winter and chunky effects with lots of stitch definition. The wool will provide the warmth necessary for our cold winters. Because TG likes it so much, I'm also going to pick her up a couple balls tonight.

Yesterday I splurged with some of my winnings from the Duck Tape contest to buy my husband a new laptop. His is older and having all sorts of issues. After careful consideration, we decided on this one.


 The reason we picked this one was because there are a few things he needs in a laptop, a reasonable graphics card- the one in this computer is a mid-range card that's fairly fast. It won't handle huge graphic intensive games with a real high frame rate, but for the Dungeons and Dragons Online that he plays, it will be more then sufficient, a large hard drive, a good amount of ram and good build quality. He also didn't want anything too expensive, this wound up being a bit more than he wanted to spend. Not too much more, but for that extra 100 dollars, it's the better machine for how he'll use it. He's pretty excited about it, and it will be arriving Wednesday.

I hope your holidays were wonderful!

Yesterday, after a week of incredibly cold temperatures, it warmed up enough to snow. My daughter tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

I hope your holidays were wonderful!

Ours were very low-key. Just our little family and Dad.
TG asked for, and got more Doctor Who shirts for her mammoth collection (seriously, I think she has 20 or 30 Doctor Who shirts now!) as well as a Kindle of her own to read Sherlock Holmes and other things she loves.

Michael was hard, but I got him a hex impact driver which he's loving and gave it to him early. I also got him 2 Firefly shirts, and a shirt by a Juneau based artist/screenprinter who does great stuff in our fandoms. You can see her work on Etsy HERE. I also crocheted him a hat. This wound up being very challenging. He's been wanting me to make him a hat, but it had to be something very plain. No spike stitches, no fun textures, no ribbing, cables or any of the other techniques that are so much fun. Originally he wanted it in just one color. After I came to the conclusion that even a quick to finish hat was going to take me *forever* in just one stitch, in just one color (BORING!), we re-visited that.

So it's all in single crochet, with a stripe pattern that was fun to work out. This hat was made to fit his largish head, but I will post the pattern later. He asked if I was going to post the photo to crop it to just the hat. You get just the hat and his pretty brown eyes! It's in an alpaca/wool blend, so it should be very warm for cold Alaskan mornings.

William of course was the challenge. I did a lot of research and found out a watch of the quality that I wanted to get him was prohibitively expensive. I did find a mechanical skeleton pocket watch that was a lot more affordable and just the style he liked, very steampunk. It has a wooden bezel around it, and is encased in a glass globe instead of a hinged pocket watch case. He was thrilled. We also got him a soldering kit, Michael is going to teach him more about electronics, and he and I will do slide pendants together.

What did I get? Well, TG made me a new doll for my huge collection of original dolls from her. This one has a thread sketched face, not embroidery thread, but sewing thread instead, and is as usual, made from scraps and completely designed on the fly. She might make patterns for individual dolls, but never reuses a pattern and never uses other people's patterns.

It's Dean from Supernatural. Under the teeshirt is the anti-possession tattoo! This one is cookie cutter style and entirely too cute. I love the big green eyes!
Michael got me enameled cast iron cookware, William and Dad gave me embossing folders. TG knit for everyone else, Michael got a Deadpool Neko, Dad got a coffee cup cozy, and William got a necktie. William and Dad gave TG and Michael each video games.

We went out to eat at a local Chinese buffet restaurant. They served traditional dinner as well as there usual great layout of Chinese, Korean and Japanese food. It was pleasant, laid back and if it wasn't my mom's full out Christmas blitz, it does suit the 5 of us quite well.

Regular postings will start again soon!

Coconuts, Christmas and Eggnog

Apparently I'm hard to shop for. There are tons of things that I want, but when it gets down to the holidays or birthdays none of the men in my family can remember any of them. They peer over my shoulder to see what I'm looking at online, they look at my Amazon wishlist, and they check out my bookmarks. Then they ask "What do you *want* for Christmas?"

I want my family to be happy and healthy.
I want NOT to have to do dishes or hours of cooking (Yay! Chinese buffet is becoming a family tradition!)
I want to turn on the news and see nothing but goodness and happiness, but also realize how unlikely that is
This year, I want grace and healing for all the victims of the tragedies that have happened in 2012.

Some of those things are doable, others are just wishes that lots of people are working towards. It's also not at all what they mean.

They wound up going to the craft store. Apparently, when in doubt, go to Michaels!

While they were there, TG and I went out for soup and tea at the mall. A small, locally owned restaurant. We talked of all sorts of things, then met back up with my husband and son and went to the grocery store.
William decided he wanted a coconut. So we got one.

Now, I love coconut, but don't get it often. William started opening it but couldn't find the ice pick, and asked Michael to use one of his screwdrivers, instead, Michael came over with his impact driver. Because you know, any excuse to use power tools. William drained out the water and asked if any of us wanted some. Then it was time to start on the coconut. He asked for a hammer. So Michael played "Can't Touch This" before giving him a hammer. STOP! HAMMERTIME!
As we were all enjoying the coconut, I looked at them both and said "If coconuts are going to be a power tool using, song and dance production, we don't need to have them often." They both looked at each other and laughed.

Today TG and I are making eggnog following a recipe that I got as a kid. It was simply the best eggnog I'd ever had as a kid, so we will see how it compares now. Michael and I will probably put a spot of rum in ours. If it turns out as good as I recall, I'll share the recipe tomorrow.

A long, exciting week

The photo above is of one of the Superballs I set free in the wild. That's what my family calls it. Occasionally I buy handfuls of them from vending machines, then leave them in odd, unexpected places for other people to find, to play with. I took that photo a couple years ago.

This week has been full of "Superballs". Random good things, surprises and interesting moments. Maybe it hasn't been exciting by a lot of people's standards, my excitement is generally pretty quiet stuff. But it's been good.

The big thing of course, the Duck Tape contest. Still waiting to find out who won, and all week I was pretty obsessed with it, I want to win it so much, but now voting is done, there is nothing more I can do, and feel pretty good about at least making it into the finals. Winning would be a great thing for this little blog, because Duck Tape said they might post a URL to the winner's webpage.

I'm getting a Fiskars Fuse Creativity System! YAY! It will be here tomorrow and it's really too nifty! If you haven't heard of them yet, it's a upper end home crafting die cut system that will emboss, letter press and cut. You can buy an adapter kit to use dies and folders from other systems with it, and it has a very large area so it will work with larger dies like the Big Shot dies. I've been wanting one since they came out, so it's pretty nifty. I've been looking at information about making my own letter press plates using photo polymer plates, and talking to my husband about building a small breakdown portable exposure unit to burn the plates.

Since I've been considering self-publishing a zine full of dandelion recipes, I can do a letter pressed cover for it! It will be a small run at this point, but I'll also do it in e-book format. That's something I plan to start working on seriously as soon as dandelions come up in spring. My son said he would help with it.

Yesterday was my best friend's birthday. It's hard to believe it's been over a year since she passed. I miss her daily. Last year for her birthday, when it was still all very raw, we donated food to our local soup kitchen. This year we did the same thing, checking their website for the wishlist and buying them stuff off of that.
After we dropped that off, we went to a local craft show. I managed mostly to stick to my plan. One new cup from one of my favorite local potters, Hot and Spicy Reindeer Sausage from Indian Valley Meats and a few other little things.
Then we met Dad and William at Peggy's for pie. Peggy's is an Anchorage institution, it's been there since the 40s, and they make the best pie. We had lunch and pie, and watched planes and helicopters landing and taking off from Merrill Field, a small private plane airport.

There were a lot of little moments of happiness and joy this whole week, and the total excitement of the Duck Tape contest. I think they will probably announce the winner tomorrow.

Berry Picking- Photo post

Last night, a friend called, and asked "Do you want to go pick currants tomorrow evening?"

Who could possibly turn down a chance to go berry picking with a friend? A friend of hers had invited her out to her property to pick berries. I asked TG, and she was super enthused about the idea too.

Some of these photos are a little hazy, because at some point, I smudged my camera lens and didn't notice until getting the photos off my camera. Whoops! Probably smudged it with berry juice. Click on the images for larger versions.

Cat's friend lives out in the Palmer area. About an hour from Anchorage. Since Cat got off work at 6, and Michael had to be at work at 11, that did limit our time a bit. The drive, as always, was incredible. The weather was also very cooperative. We all wore pants and long sleeves to help prevent mosquito bites.

When we got there, Cat's friend, Mary Ann was waiting with her dogs. She was a marvelous hostess, she gave us a tour of the paths around her cabin. There were currants, cranberries, watermelon berries and roses gone to rose hips. The currants and watermelon berries were ready to pick. TG and I were there for currants!

Mary Ann walked us to a spot with a log to sit on, surrounded by bushes just dripping, heavy with berries. TG had made berry buckets the night before with empty milk jugs.

We picked and picked and picked.

Michael, who had just woken up, sat on a bench and took photos, soaking in the incredible view of the river and mountains. 

One of the photos he took.

TG had lots of fun! (after the lens got smudged unfortunately)

When it started getting close to time, we walked around a bit more with Mary Ann. She and TG went up ahead, and Mary Ann was showing her berries.

She got along well with the dogs as well.

Check out this amazing view! From left to right, the silhouettes are TG, Mary Ann, and Cat.

Just for fun, this a tree out there, it's a dead tree, with a great, Halloween reaching shape. Mary Ann decided it needed a face.

Yes. It really is that pretty out there. There are also cranberries ripening, and she invited us back out. A really nice lady, a good time with a friend, and a lovely way to spend an evening!

Life lately- the eyes have it

Click on the image above for the larger version if you would like to print it out.

Last month, my glasses fell apart. A loose screw, easily replaced. But I knew that I need new glasses, and since my last exam had been a couple years ago, I needed an eye exam as well. It went normally enough, until they spotted something a little odd about my optic nerves.
It's most likely something easily fixed and not too dangerous, but because it can be a symptom of much more serious problems, I've been seeing a neurologist to rule out the major possibilities.
They started by booking me with an ophthalmology neurologist to get a closer look. He booked me for a CT scan as soon as possible. As soon as possible turned out to be within a couple of days, then another day to get the results analysed. That was to rule out brain tumors. It was a scary few days. My husband was super stressed, and my daughter was jumping every time the phone rang. Fortunately, the ct scan came back clean.


Today I had something called a Visually Evoked Response Test, or VER, also known as Visually Evoked Potential or VEP. That tests for specific damage to the optic nerve or for possible multiple sclerosis by measuring the path it takes for something you see to hit the back of your brain where it's interpreted (this is not exact, I have no technical training or medical training, it's how it was explained to me).  This test meant going to the hospital while very alert and awake. You have to go with clean hair and scalp with no product or conditioner that might interfere. The technician used a tape measure and placed 3 small marks on my scalp, one at the hair line, one on top of my head, and one on the back of my head. Then he attached small electrodes to my head. He had me cover one eye, then the other for the test. I sat in a comfy chair, and stared at a rectangle in the center of a screen while a checkerboard around it switched colors back and forth. I was told the test would take about an hour, but it actually only took about 20 minutes. Apparently the hour is because there are people who have real problems just focusing on that little square. He removed the electrodes and wiped off most of the conductive gel/cream. Still waiting for the results from that.


Truth is though, I'm not too worried. It's not that I'm discounting the possibility of MS, but those couple of days of waiting to see if I had brain tumors were so scary.

Next phase is another vision test, this one pretty straight forward and one I've done before. The field of vision test. They are also talking about a spinal tap soon.

Puts our money problems in perspective. The fact we are tight and needing to catch up on bills that accumulated while my husband was out of work is a really minor thing. We can deal with that. My family is just very grateful that I have good medical coverage. So many people don't, and if things were just a little different, we wouldn't. We are also grateful I don't have brain tumors.

I did order new glasses. I'll probably be writing about them later, they should arrive today or tomorrow.

The eye art included in this update is done by me in the last few days. It's just for fun, but if you really like it, I'll be happy to put it on a printable box.

Dreams, possibilities and birthdays

Friday was my daughter's 17th birthday. After considering her options, she decided the best way to spend it was with her family at her favorite fair after I cooked her one of her favorite meals. So we matched up our different schedules, and went to the fair. She had a blast, riding lots of rides. We have a tradition, since we usually wind up buying blocks of tickets and wind up with a few leftover. Instead of buying extra tickets for one more ride, she'll give the extra tickets to a family with small children so they can get just one more ride. Dinner was chicken and bowties alfredo with her smoothies for dessert. She makes truly awesome smoothies. Michael and I gave her a pocket watch (The Master's pocket watch from Doctor Who) and her brother gave her a Doctor Who set she didn't have (2nd Doctor) and her grandfather gave her two Pixar films she didn't yet have. While we were at the fair, we ran into one of my cousins, whose wife is pregnant with twins. She's still very early, glowing and happy about it.

Earlier today, I was looking at a photo one of my oldest and dearest friends posted on FB, it didn't show up though, and there wasn't even a red x. Just what looked like a blank white image. It was captioned "Dare to dream". Before I reloaded, I thought that was the image, that blank canvas, ready for dreams, ready for imagination. The idea tickled me greatly. It's the sort of thing she would have posted because she's a big believer in dreams and she has a quirky sense of humor.
What do you fill your blank page with? What dreams, what possibilities? Until you start filling it in, anything is possible. The possibility is just so vast and wonderful. It was a happy accident, the glitch that kept the image from showing, because until it did show, it could have been anything.
My daughter is all about those blank canvases, she makes so many things. She's willing to dare, and she's a fearless non-conformist. She's a constant inspiration and a blessing.

Joy, Family and Shasta Daisies (with a printable quote)

The small version above will be available at Don't Eat the Paste Quotes for sharing. 

Today I got the results back from my CT scan, it was clean. So whatever the issue is, it's not a tumor or an aneurysm. My husband let out a deep sigh of relief. He's been very scared and very angry the last few days while waiting to find out. Being pretty sure isn't the same thing as being certain and that uncertainty was very hard on all of us, but especially on him. There will be a lot more neurological tests over the next couple of months, but the big, scary things have been ruled out. He's finally sleeping well and soundly. My daughter, who has been jumping every time the phone rings is super happy and said "I don't need anything for my birthday, I got what I wanted." (well, she's still getting The Master's Pocket Watch as well. It's a Who thing)

PNG- click for large version:

Today's quote is from Arthur Dobrin, an ethics professor who served in the Peace Corp in Kenya during the 60s. His specialty is applied ethics with a good amount of philosophy. Check out what he wrote about empathy here. 

When you express your gratitude, you will bring joy to others' lives.When others know joy, your life will be filled with happiness.

Comments recently on various things I've posted, from a lady who uses one of my scrubbie patterns as missionary donations to the very enthusiastic response for the comic book Mod Podge bracelet and the outpouring of support during this challenging week,  I'm grateful. To all of you, my regular readers, the people who find my blog through referrals or searches. Thank you all for the continued encouragement and kindness.

Shasta daisies are the most common types of daisies up here. Instead of fields of field daisies, we have Shasta daisys every where with their spiral button centers and 21 petals each. The printable quote has 21 petals.

 

Farmer's Market and Photo Jewelry

This European photo bead bracelet has 4 photos each of my children. It was so easy to put together and you can find more information on BellaOnline Beadwork.

The Spenard Farmer's Market-
We have a lot of local farmer's markets on Saturdays. So many that I know we haven't made it to all of them yet. Out of the local markets we have been to, my favorite is the one in Spenard.

It takes place on Saturdays in the summer here in Anchorage, under the windmill that's in the parking lot of what is arguably Alaska's most well known bar. Saturday nights the place is jumping with young adults all dressed up to party and dance. Saturday during the day it's laid out with tents and tables for various vendors. I've seen this market grow a lot in the last few years.

The reason it's my favorite is the vibe. Each market has it's own feeling. The Spenard market feels like a neighborhood party. There's a hippy feel to it in some ways too. Lots of crafters have tables and booths. You can buy starts for your garden, cheese, honey, and all sorts of things.

When we got there, the first thing we did was get TG a bottle of blueberry kombucha. I would have taken a photo of her drinking it, but by the time I was going to, it was gone. She loves kombucha.

Then we ran into John, who owns Bosco's Comic Book store in Spenard. Since it was kid's day, he was there with leftover Free Comic Day comics and a big Death Star to destroy.

While TG was destroying the Death Star, Michael and I hit up Denali Dreams Soap Company. My daughter had pointed out we were out of soap. William, TG and I all use locally made soaps all the time. My husband uses Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Liquid Soap. So we've been using his soap for the last week. Since we are still pretty tightly budgeted, we bought bags of soap ends from them. Soap ends are the end cuts that just aren't as pretty. They bag them up and sell them for less than half of the cost of their full bars per ounce of soap. They also had a newer product. Soap shreds, the fine trimmings from bars, like a colorful soap confetti. The bags of these were 1.00 a bag, and we picked up 4 bags to use for soap crafting. Since they were giving away samples, TG picked up a blueberry one for herself.

Then TG and I decided it was lunch time. There were a lot more options than last year! I decided on Hawaiian BBQ.

Yum! My husband said he wasn't hungry, I think he took a look at all that food and knew I'd never finish!

I also grabbed a musubi roll for William which is in the fridge now until he comes over later.

TG decided on tacos. Her tacos were messy and tasty. Meat, cilantro, onions and tomatoes.

There was a bowl of sidewalk chalk on the table. Nobody had done any drawing yet, but she grabbed a piece. Michael said "I know what she's going to do."

He was right.

The last thing we got before we left was quail eggs. If you haven't cooked with quail eggs before, they are incredibly beautiful and tiny.

Snails, yarn and other things

This is my entry in the current Spoonflower contest, What is the new owl? What do you think the next animal to be as popular as owls is going to be? The page above can be enlarged and printed to use for paper crafting purposes. There are a lot of great entries if you want to go peek and vote here.

Other than that, Lion Brand is having a story contest, the instructions were to explain about the meaningful handmade gift you ever received or gave in 500 words or less. It was easy to choose mine.

Grandma's Coat Yarn

My family always made things. My grandmother knitted, painted, crocheted and beaded and a lot of my very favorite things are things she made.

The best handmade gift I ever got was from her.

My grandfather passed away in 1977. Before he died, he got Grandma yarn for a coat she wanted to make. He bought entirely too much yarn and after he passed, Grandma couldn’t stand to work with that yarn. It sat in her closet for years. A gift of love and memory.

She developed glaucoma and started losing her vision. Before it was too far gone, she decided to make my brother and I blankets with that yarn. She knit them gorgeously in a wave lace pattern. That blanket would be the best handmade gift except for what came next. 

When the blankets were done, there was a bit of yarn left. Then I found out I was pregnant with my son. 

The very last thing she knitted, before her vision was too bad to knit was a baby blanket, using the white yarn that was bought to use a trim on that coat that never got made. It’s incredibly precious, and it’s packed safely away now until I can give it to my grandchildren. The yarn from my grandfather, the blanket from my grandmother’s so talented hands. It’s a blanket full of love and family memories.

That contest is currently voting on Facebook here. You can vote daily and I would really appreciate your vote. The grand prize is 500 dollars to spend on the Lion Brand site, which would be used partly to make hats for the homeless this summer and partly just for fun by my daughter and I.

In other news, Michael has two job interviews and a job starting this week. Things are still pretty tight for us financially since he's been out of work for so long, but it's looking up!

Spontaneous trip to the museum...

Today I was planning to crochet, bead and work on some other projects. Then on my newsfeed on Facebook, Bosco's Comics and Games posted
"Come see us at the Anchorage Museum. It's Hobby Day. Goes 'till 4pm. Free admission and free comics and cards from BOSCO'S."

Free comics, free admission to the museum and hobbies? I asked TG if it sounded like fun to her and she was dashing into her room for a sweater before I could blink twice. 

The hobbies included model railroads of which I didn't get photos. William came over and told TG "There's one that has the Umbrella Corporation logo on it."

I don't play video games. Everyone else in my family does, frequently. But I don't follow them or play them. Figure I'm doing good knowing who Snake is, but that's only because Michael, TG and William were ALL hooked on Metal Gear Solid last summer. So when I walked over and heard the model railroader say "This car will be filled with bodies." I said "Oh, that's pleasant." at the same time my darling princess was saying "Oh COOL!" 

In hobbies that interested me but not so much the rest of my family, Debra Jo Hardman was there with some of her crazy quilt wall hangings. That's a whole post for tomorrow, but here's a sneak peek.

Debra's raven wall hanging with lots of sparklies. Even the quilting thread shimmers.

There were building blocks, and my nearly adult children became a lot younger once they spotted those.

The Amazing Turnip Girl getting ready to build a double decker bus. Because there were no blue blocks to build a TARDIS.

I went to the beading table and made myself a simple name necklace.

We decided that I just couldn't walk enough to really explore the museum today, so we just picked one area to explore. Everyone loves the hands on science part of our local museum. It's where the planetarium is, as well as geological models, kinetic models, sea life and other joys.

TG building mountains

There is a kinetics of jumping exhibit in life science, this is the screen as TG walked off.

The top image is William trying to put a bubble dome over a bubble dome.

Here's William again, on infrared. 

Starfish! Always very wonderful.

I also decided to take a photo of myself on the infrared. I think my glasses look so much cooler this way!

Also going on at the museum is a toy exhibit from last month. We were all charmed by this G-man sparking pistol.

And seriously creeped out by the circus exhibit of antique toys that included some very creepy looking clowns.

It was a lot of fun, worth sweeping the 8 inches of snow off the car and going downtown.

And Bosco's? They were handing out comics from previous Free Comic Book Day and 20% off one item coupons. So both William and TG were absolutely thrilled. I think William would spend his entire paycheck there if it didn't mean eating nothing but ramen.

(I think I'm going to have nightmares about that clown)