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Friday, April 15, 2011

Better late than never!

So, Monday was my baby's birthday. She's 8. Like half of 16. Maybe 8 going on 16 would be better put.

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Anyway, I've been super busy. Busier than "normal" which is pretty busy. So, I guess better late than never right!!? My spring/summer/fall is pretty much named, "Busy," "Busier," and "Busiest." Although the Arctic Circle Spring Festival is keeping me BUSIEST right now.

Birthday colors

She had a "rainbow" party. Because rainbow parties are easy to put together! You buy colorful toys and you decorate with all the colors of the rainbow. Easy! Easy is my friend when I'm busy!

girl

The bane of my existence was this skirt. I'll never again try to make something that I saw on TV/Blogs/Etsy, I'll just buy it. It seriously took me like three hours to do all the stupid layers of tulle. Layer upon layer upon layer. But...it's OK cause she was pretty cute in it!

cake

Thankfully I did NOT have to make a cake because we have a talented cake maker/decorator who will take your theme and run with it. It was perfect.

cake colors

Even the inside was perfect!

jello

I did though, make this Broken Glass Jello . It was pretty easy once I got the hang of it. Luckily I have two fridges in my two kitchens so one is always available to do six pans of jello at once!

eskimo bingo

She had a BLAST. Her 28 friends had a blast... (Yes, we made 29 party bags and there was ONE left over!) Shoot, even the parents had a blast watching "Musical Paper" and Eskimo Bingo! We had several Crafts to do as well like painting fingernails,

catchers

Making Suncatchers,

frames

And making Rainbow Picture Frames!

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Happy, Happy 8th Birthday my baby girl! (I'll make sure to write something grand next year!)

Friday, April 8, 2011

Big trees...

My husband and I are in the land of trees. And rain. And totem poles.

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And herring spawn. Mmm, herring spawn smells so good. I mean, it literally smells like shiifishing time at home. Right when the ice breaks and you can smell the salty, fishy ocean air. It's something all NW Eskimo's look forward to. Because that means its spring.

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Sitka is a largely populated city with a small town flair. I love it. We have walked down the street visiting the little shops downtown buying Sterling Silver and Alaskan Fabric. And X-tra Tuffs!

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A few weeks ago Dean came down to help carve a totem pole for the 100 yr celebration of Sitka National Historical Park. The scheduled pole raising was slated for Saturday with 22 dance groups, elders, and a community of people who support Totem Park. We came down a few days early to help with some finishing touches. Dean carving, me painting. In the rain. And wind.

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But, thanks to the government shutdown, our $1,200 plane tickets were in vain. They canceled the raising "until further notice." At least we were able to visit this beautiful town and enjoy the sights while we were here.

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Carvers and Painters: Kenneth White, Gary Lang, Christina Cranston, Tommy Joseph, Donny Varnell, Ashia Lane, and my husband Dean Lukin

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Sometimes...

Sometimes you need some Monkey Bread in your life. Sometimes that's what makes you feel better.

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Monday, April 4, 2011

Noodles...

Not pasta noodles, baby noodles!

rea cake

Remember baby Noodle!? Well, today was her first birthday!

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We had loads of fun stuffing as many people into my mom's house as we could on Sunday!

smash cake

Her auntie Saima let her eat half the rainbow butterfly cake too. Well, technically she smeared half the cake on the table, but still...

yum...

And we had the customary "mom's rainbow jello" that we have at every kids birthday party! Except this time Rea's momma made it. It's the circle of life man...

rainbow jello

A great time was had by all, and by the end of the day, the baby, the momma, the cousins and even the aunties were ready for a bath and a nap.

bathtime

Happiest Birthday Baby Girla!

birthday princess

Friday, April 1, 2011

Hello!

Well hello there.

It's me. I'm doing wonderful. I'm out of the hospital now, and finally back at work!

Yep, had me a stay in the hospital. Man, thank goodness I have Aflac!

rug and cookie

I knew I was better when I started actually dialing the numbers on HSN for that super new crafty sewing machine that I REALLY NEEDED (but don't really need). And when I thought that no-sew glue stuff was the BEST stuff EVER made. Yeah, time to go home where I don't watch HSN.

Anyway, now that I'm out and SEWING again. I found these WONDERFUL little things and now I am desperately OBSESSED.

mug corner

Mug Rugs.

OMG. They are the perfect little complement to your perfect cup of tea and muffin ! Seriously you guys. I have SO MANY fabric scraps that I whipped this red/pink one up during the last 10 minutes of my lunch break so I could bring it to work and rest my soda on it during the board meeting!

rug itself

They are SO easy to make. Just check them all out HERE . Get crafty.

P.S. Thanks for all the well wishes, I feel like a NEW person. Except I can't eat spicy food. Or walk up too many stairs. Or...nevermind, I feel great. Thanks again!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Time.

Gosh, people have so much time on their hands.

I look like I do lots of "stuff," (well I DO do lots of stuff) I have nothing but time these past two days. I am stuck on the couch. The only thing I can do is sit here, read, surf the net, eat applesauce, and sleep. I feel like time is standing still, except that everything around me is still mvoing at lightening speed. My niece's FIRST birthday is next week. Like as in, NEXT MONDAY. And I'm all about birthday parties, so this is a BIG thing. But I'm still stuck on the couch.

The weather has been absolutely beautiful up in these parts. Spring is here and in full bloom. Except our Bloom is different from your bloom. When I say Bloom I mean Ptarmigan are changing colors, rabbits are changing colors and the Shiifish have arrived. We are still buried with 12 feet of hard packed snow, but our sunny days start out at 6am and don't end until 11pm.

When the sun comes back, everyone is excited. And I'm stuck on the couch.

Sometimes I think this is a sign from above that I need to SLOW DOWN. I work full-time and rush home, cook dinner, make sure homework is done then pack my younger kids off to do something. Sledding, Fishing 30 miles away, community meetings, potlucks, etc. Anything to get them involved as much as I am. Anything to get out of the house. AND I sew almost every night. Skin sewing, cloth sewing, doll sewing, mukluk patching, pattern making, headband making (with Duct Tape!), etc.

But I've been sitting on the couch for two days with a secondary reaction to Strep Throat that is attacking my joints and immobilizing me from doing the simplest skin sewing. Yes, I can still type. I could type when I had blisters too, one finger works, I can still type! Now, to add icing to the cake of life, my son is sick. I swear that kid has inherited EVERYTHING bad from me. When we get sick, we get SICK. We don't get a cold, we get Pneumonia. We don't have sore muscles, we get flesh eating bacteria. We don't have normal blisters, we get those that cover our hands entirely. We don't have normal headaches, we get debilitating migraines.

I will admit, this might be the first time I've had Strep Throat, I might have had it before, it's a sucky thing. But my throat hurting isn't hurting as much as my joints are. I was super worried at the hospital wondering if I was getting early onset arthritis, but they assured me that thanks to my steroid use a couple of weeks ago from recurring blisters, that it was just the reaction to Strep that was doing that. Great.

I wonder if taking a Sauna would help... Makes me want to go to camp. But I can't cause I'm sick. Random thought, I want a 3,500 HP Generator for camp...WITH remote start! (My car doesn't even have remote start) A generator at CAMP with remote start would be livin' large!

So, I know this post is full of unfun stuff, but sometimes life is not fun. Sometimes you just have to sit on the couch and surf the internet at crafty blogs making mental notes about what you can do for your daughter's birthday that's in, OH CRAP, less than two weeks.

I think I could probably become famous if I didn't have to work. Seriously, I can look at a "Dessert Table" and recreate the entire thing. I can make and decorate cakes like a professional. I can bake just about anything. I can sew anything I see in stores with my own pattern. I can make mukluks and mittens and parka's with the best of them. I like to cut up seals and caribou and I love to go fishing.

Priorities I guess...I'd rather work and take care of my family full time and craft/blog/sew part time. I guess that works for me.

Don't get me wrong. If I won a lottery, I'd be gone from my job at least right after I trained someone else to do it. But only because I'd own a coffee shop/skin sewing business/outdoor store/B&B, and be super busy with that. :)

Laid up...

or Down? I don't know.

All I know is that I'm so sick that I can't even sew. Not machine sew, not skin sew. As a matter of fact, this post has already taken me a while to write. But, that's OK. I owe it to my faithful readers! (just kidding, I actually had a funny story from last night!)

Anyway, I did go to the hospital and was diagnosed with Strep Throat with a secondary reaction that's attacking my joints. I guess due to steroid use from last week thanks to recurring blisters . So, some day I'm going to have a regular sickness. A regular cold. Regular Strep Throat. Etc.

Here's what my entire day/evening looked like:

evening

Jodi Picoult's new book, Sing me home. Started and finished it yesterday. My "Best of the Best from Alaska" cookbook to peruse for things to make when I'm well again. Empty saltine cracker sleeve and empty Applesauce containers. My medication that hopefully works. AND $40 that we got from Kaisa's jacket pocket.

Yes, she was stashing $40 in her jacket. She pulled from each of four pockets: $5, $5, $10 and $20 bills. When we asked her how she got all this money she said, quite simply, "I saved it. I'm a good saver."