First Snowfall 2012

Yesterday morning was the first snow in Anchorage, AK.

SNOW. In September.

While on our way to the last Spenard Farmer Market and the Alaska Women's Show, we spotted some geese who were taking it in stride.

Look at those cold feet. BRR.

It was just a light dusting, it last through the day in the shade, but when the sun came out, and it did! It melted and made puddles.

So that's the earliest first snow in quite a few years. I grumbled a bit at this sign fall was ending quickly. Dad just said with his 50 years of experience in Anchorage "I knew it would snow. It was cold enough, and raining, Plus you could smell the snow on the air."
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The Alaska Women's Show is a typical sort of big show with a theme. Local businesses and other businesses with a strong focus on women's products and services were there. My daughter loves these shows, we pick up ball point pens for the whole year, pads of paper, she likes spinning all the prize wheels she can. We sample products and just have fun! It takes place at the Sullivan Arena, and my husband usually finds a seat on the mezzanine and just waits listening to music on his iPod. He abhors the crowds at these things. TG spun one wheel and won a coffee cup which made her day. Her favorite part was stopping at the Superstar Pastry Booth for a cup cake. They use a European cake recipe and an Italian butter cream frosting. You can choose your cake, filling, frosting and toppings. My favorite is a super vanilla concoction of  vanilla cupcake, Bavarian cream filling and vanilla butter cream. She gets creative, and it's always chocolate.

 We also picked up some reindeer sausage from a local company I've always liked.

After that, we went to the last day of the Spenard Market. We have a lot of summer farmers markets, and a few winter ones that sell mostly root veggies, meats and eggs through out the year. The Spenard Market is my favorite though, it has this strong indie community vibe. We went mostly because it was the last day, but also in hopes a local soapmaker I like was there. They sell very inexpensive soap ends and we use soap ends for most of our day to day soap needs. They were, and we bought the last bag of soap ends they have, a couple bars of soap, and some "Manly Man Elbow Grease", it's an all natural salve with a woodsy scent. I got it both for the psoriasis my husband has and more for my ankles. A lot of the time that I'm online or reading a book, I tuck my feet up under me, and my ankles have rough patches of skin because of it. They get better if I use the right kinds of salves on them and I have high hopes for this one. We also got some of their shampoo bars to try and found out where we can buy their soap ends through the winter. Then TG who wasn't sweeted out yet tried some gourmet marshmallows and got herself a package of Key Lime marshmallows to have later. Yum! Fresh marshmallows without the time it takes to make them!

Then we came home, and I worked on some beading for awhile. It was a very nice, very busy day with a lot of walking. And there was SNOW!

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.