Happy Easter

T-shirts instead of eggs! I bought a 6 pack of white t-shirts at Costco when I was in town...lots of seriously white shirts that needed color. Not so sure about the bright yellow one at the bottom, but maybe I can handle some egg yolky color.

I also did some felt for later beading, but that's not as exciting as a bunch of hippie t-shirts dyed to hide stuff that always gets on the belly of a white shirt.

Bread maker is beeping, a loaf of pre-mixed Bob's 10 grain bread awaits. Hoping it's a decent sandwich bread although I forgot to get sandwich makings today. Tomorrow.

not ready yet!

I planted some seeds two days ago to sprout them indoors the prescribed 4 weeks before the final frost. I thought I was a little late. I mean, it's not getting below freezing that often any more and other folks started seeds a few weeks ago.

It's the broccoli and the spinach that are surprising me. The other side of the tray has some peas that are coming up too but I expect peas to grow quickly, they're like that.



Right next to that shed is where I want to put my little green house. I am not ready yet plants, and neither is the snow! Slow down.

home again home again jiggity jig

I got back day before yesterday on the (state ferry) Taku at about 10:30 at night. I'm done traveling for a while, it's a hell of a lot of money spent to be uncomfortable. Too many people, too much noise, too few moments above the survival level.

I took the ferry to Juneau, caught a plane to Seattle and another one to Vegas then did the same thing in reverse after taking some jewelry making classes there. I still hate that city and am developing a hate for air travel. Don't get me wrong, I love to fly over the land and sea in an airplane. I don't, however, love booger eating children and dehydrated germ laden air. The prices have gone up, the seats have gotten smaller and the whole experience more disturbing. On two of the 4 flying legs of my trip, I got to witness small boys fondling then devouring their own nasal extreta. What the hell parents?

The classes were good, I gained some confidence in using art clay silver and fine silver wire. I felt good about using a torch on the wire and think I'll try carving the clay. The instructor for my beginning class, and Cyn's advanced (carving) class in the art clay silver was Gordon Uyehara from Hawaii. He has a natural affinity for the clay that takes away the frantic 'panic, it's going to dry too fast' attitude and replaces it with calm. Carving the clay changes the whole picture from hurry up and mold it to one of almost all of the work is done when it's dry.

another human conned by the dog

Dog to vet: I'm just here for the drugs, don't try to be my friend. Oh! You have treats. (sit) *crunch crunch* So...what else have you got here? You don't have any really long thermometers do you? Oh! You have treats (sit) *crunch crunch*

Vet observes dog, dog observes vet. Dog sits in front of shelf with jar of treats. Dog looks at vet, looks at jar (ignores me because I don't own the jar). Vet laughs. Vet sits in chair next to treats on shelf. Dog glances at vet, looks at jar, looks at vet. Vet gives dog treat. Dog wins again.

I warned the vet that the dog is...well, her own royal self and humans are just tools with thumbs. We got the drugs, the dog got more treats then she deserved and the vet laughed a lot, it was a good (expensive) 20 minutes.

one day at a time

Day before yesterday it was a close encounter with a moose, yesterday it was a blizzard and today it was cold water coming out of the hot water tap. The moose was dissuaded by a tree, the driveway was mysteriously plowed and the water is getting hot. At least I hope the water is getting hot, I just put the element in a few minutes ago.

Pretty sure I'll be replacing the water heater this year, it's huge and I'm pretty the bottom element is completely corroded, maybe buried in sediment. I'd rather have a smaller more efficient heater...best of all would be an on demand unit, but balancing efficiency with cold water wasted before hot comes out the tap is tough.

A day off that involves plumbing is better than a day at work during a blizzard. The snow was about 2 feet deep after about 8 hours. There's a heli-skiing industry here that brings in extreme skiers and boarders to enjoy our wilderness. Well...they come to pass through our wilderness and if they can't do that they get bored and petulant. The snowstorm kept the helicopters grounded and the boys had no entertainment beyond going to the market. Bored jocks are so much fun! (insert sarcasm, please) I remember acting like that when I was about 12, annoying grocery store clerks by acting up in the aisles, messing with packaging and giggling behind my hand. yuck.

So...the drive home looked like a Subaru commercial with waves of snow flying off the car like a boats wake. The car gamely plowed through the drifts and up the hill to our street... where much to my wondering eyes should appear a nicely plowed road and driveway! What a lovely end to an unlovely day.

Kelly is...

Amazed at how Facebook takes over people's lives so quickly. Rice at Voodoo Cafe posted about the weirdness of constant status updates. I find myself clicking my way over to the collective for no known reason. My sister in law spends a lot of time collecting Groups that Matter there while my sister fights a massive FB war against California's prop. 8. I find myself caring (way too much) when someone I'm "friends" with "friends" someone I don't like. What the f-? How very jr. high of me. I'm going to try no to spend my days playing with my fake Facebook farm: my new sprung-ahead (hate daylight savings much?) resolution.

I'm going to Vegas (gods help me) again. It's cheap and easy...so that's where bead conventions are frequently held. This time I'm going to learn how to use PMC and how to make a couple of different kinds of rings. Metal working and precious metals clay manipulation are two of the things I"ve been wanting to learn about so I'll go to the city I hate the most to do it. (I hate LV because it's a windblown waste of water in the desert ) They sent the materials lists for the classes...

It's not a lot, but it's seriously dense and full of stuff TSA will not like so I get to take a checked bag. Might make that a checked box because my usual duffle bags won't stand the weight. I hate to put all my tools in a checked bag at the mercy of a trip with 2 legs and 2 airlines, but it's a risk I guess I have to take. I think I'll mail it back. The tool box on the right weighs about 10 pounds right now.

I hate my very white straight from Home Depot kitchen cupboards, so I've decided to paint up some canvases and stick them to the front of the doors. Usually I don't get all woo woo about what the Muse requests of me...but really, a house fly?


I got all excited about how lovely bugs are when I was doing the wings of the last BJP cuff, thinking I'd bead some beetles or something for the March cuff. Instead it came out as a cupboard painting of a fly. I don't pretend to understand...

more of that small northern town thing...

Doo doo doo lookin' out my back door...

Spring is coming, you can tell because the days are getting longer by leaps and bounds. It's easier to get up early now and sun comes through windows it hasn't touched for months. It's still very white out there so I thought the flower in the header would be a nice addition until some real ones appear.

Interesting dilemma here in the Chilkat valley, in this great big temperate rainforest that we call home. We're running out of dry firewood. The woodcutters were selling the beetle kill trees as dry seasoned firewood and we've run out on the U.S. side of the border. Now they're driving into Canada to harvest the trees killed by the spruce bark beetles up there and bringing that wood back to sell. The price of wood is skyrocketing and there are two major projects in the works to use wood as the primary source of heat for large buildings. What will the small time wood users like me and my neighbors do? Will the price of wood be higher than the price of heating fuel? When I build a fire in my woodstove I wonder if I should switch my thinking to 'conserve wood' instead of 'conserve oil'. Do I have enough wood to buy green wood for the lower price and season it for a year myself? mumble mumble...buy a cord of really expensive Canadian wood and 3 cords of cheaper green wood...and plenty of fuel oil. Thank goodness I have Toyo stoves!

laughing...I just clicked on the picture to biggiefy it: the stove is burning in the yellow zone, according to the gauge on the chimney, so there's no creosote building up. That's what having seasoned dry wood is all about, no build up and no chimney fires.

BJP for February, keeping up with the cuffs

I don't "do" Valentine's day stuff often...single with out Mom to send me the annual heart card makes the day a little not-so-much, ya know. This time around I felt the urge to make something with a heart on it and although I like that typical winged heart image, it's a little over done. I changed that image up a little and came up with this:


That's a bus token from Juneau (the old home town) in the middle. I like the "Good For One Fare" words...take them as you will, I've got a couple of different ideas of what they mean here.

Since the wings extend above and below the line of the cuff, I needed to line it with something that doesn't fray or do some seriously fancy needle turning on fabric. I chose the "doesn't fray" option and went with some nice soft chamois leather ( found in the auto parts store under 'buffing up the shine')

I like this one a lot. I like the bug wings, the breaking of the frame and the sort of super-hero look feel it has when it's worn. The bus token gives it a sort of steam punk touch too.

Weather or Not

Sitting in front of the woodstove thinking about this blog and how I've sort of let it turn in to just where I show my bjp stuff. Thinking about life in a small northern town staring at the flames licking around the wood I realized it gets sort of mundane mid winter. There is a lot going on but it's hard to share my daily 'geez it's beautiful here' with out repeating myself over and over.

The big thought I had was this: (for me at least) Summer weather makes a person while winter weather breaks them. Sort of drastic but here's the rest of it...I can handle a crappy summer as long as the winter isn't totally dark and rainy. A rainy summer is tough, but dark and rainy in the winter is wrist slitting bad. Weather in a small northern town is what we have in common, it's our conversation at the store, it's our answer to "hey, how's it going", it dictates our clothing, the car we drive and the distance we walk each day. We may or may not know what's going on in Washington D.C., but we certainly know which way the wind is blowing...from the southeast brings warm rain from the north (that's Canada!) brings cold sunshine. If there is a high pressure zone over the Yukon, we know it.

Paddling back over to the "big thought" lots of people leave town for the winter, but this winter makes me want to stay here. It doesn't rain as much as Juneau, but there's enough water to go around.

catching up with myself

I got my January Bead Journal cuff done today. People that know me even just a little shouldn't be surprised at the subject, you probably expected a fish sooner than this. I kinda like this one, but the face of the fish is too square and the finishing totally challenged my hand sewing "skills". The inner fabric reminds me of fish eggs even though the dots are the wrong color.

I did a fish because they really matter to Alaska's economy and to me personally (I just really like fish). There are some villages up in northwest Alaska that are having serious hunger and heating problems right now because their fishing season was cut short by regulations and overfishing by big trawlers. They need their salmon season to pay for heating fuel and to provide food for their families.