Alaskan Christmas Tree

So what do you do when you live in Alaska and you need a Christmas tree? Well...you can go the artificial route (but it's just not the same to me), you can buy one from the boyscouts (boring) OR you can hike into the Tongass National Rainforest and cut one down.



We actually pondered this one for a minute...but in the end we decided to do what we came here to do LIVE BIG. So we drove to Bear Mountain, trudged through the snow, picked a tree, sunk in the snow getting to the tree, cut down the tree, dragged the tree back to the car, tied it on top the car, carried it inside the house, realized it was 5 feet too tall, cut off the bottom, stood it up and.....laughed. It is the scraggliest Charlie Brown looking tree you ever did see. (apparently we cut off the wrong 5 feet!)




But so what, right? We had a blast, we got to play in the snow, we got to feel in touch with nature...and in touch with our lives. I can't even compare it with last year (we picked it up at the Kroger on the way home one night)...not comparable at all.

It's the best Christmas tree ever...as long as you don't look at it too closely.

Cushion Re-Cover-y

Time to recover those hideous Rooms-to-go couch cushions that came with our couch. And while I'm on the topic WHY ON EARTH do they have to make couch cushions so ugly? Unless you can afford to buy your couch at Ethan Allen or Pottery Barn you are destined for ugly hotel lobby pillows. I have 11 pillows to re-cover (though recover is appropriate as well...as in recover from the hideous ugly disease they were inflicted with)

Four of them I will be doing something like this...(from pillowhappy on ETSY)



But here is some more ETSY ispiration for my pillows...





I should have enough fabric to do them for free, I have a bunch of natural canvas we bought when we were working on the reno-house in Georgia...so that will do at least 6 of the pillows. Free is good...though I was tempted by some batik fabric at the store with native fish symbols. The native symbols are everywhere here, and I really love the block print feel of them. Like these...




In the end I'm just going to start working on them and see how they come out...wish me luck! I will be posting soon with the cushion recovery as well as dining room chair reulpholstering (for $1!!!)

I wish I wish with all my might to craft like this...

You make something new, and you start feeling good about yourself...then you see something like this and realize you have a long way to go.

All I can say is WOW.

Just to be clear I did not make these. They are from an ETSY store called Indra's Ideas. But here is the deal...if I could craft like this already what would I be working towards?

Mitten War: Me vs. the Double Pointed Needles

I saw the most beautiful mittens at a little boutique here in town, but for $27 I couldn't swallow the price for the nominal amount of yarn. I needed to learn how to make them. So I got a couple of books from the library with mitten patterns. I'm already bad with patterns...but come on! You could could write an entire book just on how to make a mitten...with lots of helpful pictures and hints. But no, the beginners books had one pattern each, both were 2 pages. (No how-two pics included) My first attempt I didn't use a pattern, I just played around. Luke has claimed this one as his own and loves the additional hole that he can stick his finger through.



On my second attempt I wrote my own pattern based on what I learned from my first attempt and then I combined the two patterns into something I thought was more reasonable. I added a ruffle on the bottom (because the ones I loved had a simple ruffle), and ribbed the wrist section. These came out more reasonably. But wow...this is not a simple project. At one point I had all 5 DPNs in use. Though, I have to say I prefer them to a circular needles. They can be a little tricky to maneuver around, but I hate using stitch markers, so instead I can place the DPNs in such a way that they are the stitch markers.



I am not to the level to make the ones from the store yet, but in a few more tries I think I will. This week I will finish the other mitten and then I'm moving onto pillow covers. Our new couch came with the most hideous pillows (truly unless you buy your sofa at Ethan Allen or Pottery Barn they're going to be ugly). So I'm going to cover a few with knitted pillow cases in various shades of teal and turquoise, and the rest I will cover in unbleached canvas with appliqued letters that will spell out different words. I can't wait...with company coming for Christmas I want to get cracking on the finishing touches of decor...you know like making a bed for Luke...and me...and unpacking all the boxes...and making pillow case covers. 3 weeks...NO PROBLEM!!

On a strange sidenote...when I made the ugly mitten I kept thinking to myself that the thumb portion reminded me of a dragon from some movie...I kept thinking through all the movies with strange creatures...I finally put my finger on it...Willow. The strange bloated thumb reminds me of the dragon from Willow. Am I crazy or do you see it? (granted I can see it in 3D, it might not look so much the same in 2D)

Purple Starfish and Glow Dancing

The weather held out this weekend giving us a chance to explore our new home a little more. We went out to Settlers Cove on Saturday and hiked and explored the beach. We found the most beautiful starfish, the first was a color of purple that my camera couldn't capture well enough to do it justice. We also had some seals playing in the water right behind us the whole time we were playing at the beach. Saturday night I promised the kids we could have a glow party. So we set off all the glow sticks and danced our hearts out.



Sunday we went to Rotary Beach and collected sea glass, explored and collected driftwood for the fire. Now that we're heating exclusively with wood we are going through our wood supply much faster than we expected, supplementing with driftwood keeps us from "burning through it" too quickly.



I think I was made for the Pacific Northwest. While I wish there was a little more sun, a little less rain and a little more snow...I really can't complain. So far since moving here we hike more, explore more, bake more, read more...etc etc. That is exactly why we moved here, to be the kind of family we just didn't seem to have time for in Atlanta. There are so few distractions here, I get to just hang out with my family. I get to workout everyday, I get to knit everyday...I even get to watch network television after the kids go to bed. I am a happy woman.

Beautiful Sun

I have learned to take advantage of the sun here in Ketchikan. There is this overwhelming feeling that you need to drop everything and go outside when the sun is shining. And so we do. When the sun is shining after school we stop at Rotary Beach on the way home. Luke likes to climb the rocks and Laurel likes to comb the beach for sea glass and shells. These are the kind of days you realize why people dream of visiting Alaska.

Halloween 2011