not so overnight delivery (and return)

The last post showed you what the weather has been like around here...sort of. When it snows like that it's actually warmer! It's been cold, seriously cold, here. It got up into the 20's for a few days and I was thrilled that the car wouldn't be suffering so much. It's back to a low of 4ish and I'm worrying about the car again. So...I looked up block heaters on line and discovered, much to my joy, a magnetic block heater at J.C. Whitney. Joy because it doesn't involve surgery for the car, just a magnet an an extension cord and the oil is warm when the battery is trying to crank over a cold engine.

If anyone out there has the clue I was missing when I ordered this thing, dance a little dance of saving a load of money on shipping (23 bucks to the foreign country of Alaska) and another little dance of triumph because you KNOW what I forgot.

Long story longer...the 2 day delivery (for 23 bucks) of the product was more like a week but the post office came through and I got the Fed Ex package. Lesson #1 is a good one, you can make UPS and Fed Ex deliver even when they claim they don't even know your community exists, just put both the street address and your box number on the package.

I got the package, I was all excited, I was worried (mechanical stuff ya know) that I might screw it up...I waited til the next day, I bundled up, I dug out under the front of the car so I could mount the little heater on the oil pan where it's supposed to go. (bored yet?) I crawled under the car... the oil pan has a large sheet of plastic to protect it from debris and stuff when rocketing along the highways and by ways. Plastic is not magnetic at all.

Knowing I have trouble with the hood latch on a warm day with out gloves, I went inside to regroup and rebundle. I really hope that those of you that figured out the reality of all this stopped reading at "I got the package" Ok, I figured out the dangity dang hood latch, I propped open the hood, I looked at the little engine packed into the little space and wondered if there's even enough space on the sides to fit the little magnetic (get the problem yet?) heater. I reached, I groped I looked closely at the lovely little grey silver engine. I swore. I came inside and got a 'fridge magnet. It's a Subaru folks, it has an aluminum engine block.

overnight delivery

Between 8 pm and 8 am about a foot and a half of crazy fluffy white snow was delivered to my house! 5 degrees warmer and there's no way I could shovel the stuff, as it is, it was like moving potato flakes or some other sort of movie snow. (not that I've ever shoveled fake potato snow)

When the doggie and I walked this morning, the snow was up over the top of my boots and she had to snort to keep it from going up her nose as she ran through the (potato flakes) snow.

Again with the nature amazement.

lost stuff

Ok, so I have a little "thing" about losing stuff. I'm sure it's related to the childhood trauma of having my dad tell me he had no more key blanks to make any more house keys...if I lost another one I was forever locked out. He was doing some correspondence locksmith course and had essentially created the first lock our front door ever had. I had lost all my keys and run him out of blanks to make any more. digress...

So...I lost 2 things related to printing. Total tech and total non tech. The disk to reboot the printer attached to this fine piece of computing machine and the brayer I need to roll the ink on to a linoleum block to make prints. I friggin ripped the house apart searching low and near, high and far...found the brayer in a shoe box fulla art crap, but still couldn't find the disk. In every crack and cranny...disks to add "You Don't Know Jack" or "June Flowers" or "Zen" mp3 player to my computer but NO friggin printer disk. Ach, I hate the damn all in one printer/scanner/copier thing anyway, but I'm in the middle of close to nowhere, I can't replace it!

Oh. Wait. The old computer, I needed to print the paperwork for this house from the old computer. Oh. Whew.

It's ok, Dad, I found my keys.

winter color

The sun came in and played with the tomatoes one day last week. I couldn't resist the brilliant color when it's so wintry outside.
I keep meaning to make some art or sew some beads, but my feet are firmly planted on my heating pad today. It's so luxurious to have toasty warm feet when it's hovering around 0 degrees outside!

things that make me smile

The cat pretending she has no front legs while she taunts the dog..."I'm in your living room, whatcha going to do about it, dog?" I'm not sure if the cat is pretending to be a seal, or a partial meatloaf...?

The Chilkat mountains in the morning...sun doesn't come up until around 8 these days, I think that was about 1/2 an hour after "sunrise". On the other side of that mountain range is Glacier Bay one of the most magnificent places in Southeast Alaska. Sadly, it's also the mountain range that took the life of a good friend when he was flying here to go to the fair.


The dog on the couch...need I say more?

fish in the city

I went down to Juneau, the big city in southeast Alaska, this past weekend. I was raised there, it's all of 35,000 people, less than most stadiums...but after you've lived in Haines for a while, it's a metropolis! I love when something I've known all my life becomes shiny and new. Big stores! Movie theaters! Restaurants open year 'round! Sushi! Music! (and best of all) good friends!

Juneau has had a full year of truly crappy weather, people used to living in a rainforest are leaving town or taking anti-depressants. The record rainfall shows on the sides of houses where green stuff is creeping up the sides and on the faces of normally happy people where smiles aren't creeping in as often. I'm glad I don't live there, but so very glad I got to visit again.

I stayed with my former landlords who're also old friends of my folks. They were getting ready for a concert the first night I was there, so I got to hear free music, then they were relaxing after the concert the last night I was there...more music! There was some foot stomping mandolin whanging guitar banging music Sunday night. wow. (glancing over at neglected banjo...)

I had to catch the early ferry Monday, the normally nocturnal F got up to say good bye and tell me "see you at Christmas". Stopped at a drive through coffee stand (Big City love), the ATM and the gas station ($1 less in the city) then got out to the terminal early, but they were loading cars anyway. No time for the dog to get a leg stretch, but she's a veteran ferry rider and just deals with it by barking at anyone she can see outside her car.

Haines is beautiful of course, I'm glad to see the cat and the house, butthe reality of work settled in before I got off the ferry when a coworker gave me a dead eyed stare when I smiled at her. Haines wins the beauty contest, but Juneau gets Miss Congeniality any day.

The snow is insanely deep after a full on blizzard that arrived minutes after I did...we actually had one of those EBS warnings that said "Blizzard". I've heard plenty of Emergency Broadcast System storm and wind warnings, but Blizzard is serious. Shovel time this morning.

proof of life

I used to paint with my watercolors all the time, little sketches of life large and small. I put them aside for beads and fabric, sort of forgetting the small joys. I've been struggling a bit learning about making fabric do what I want, though beads are fairly cooperative. I sort of lost sight of my former artistic life.



I was determined to not go directly to computer and coffee this morning and let myself get distracted by potential collage on a cigar box when I came across some of the paintings...made me really happy to see them. I don't feel quite so artistically adrift now.

a couch

I went to the furniture store thinking I might buy an overstuffed chair to sit and knit or sit and read or sit and contemplate the internet. I didn't realize that an overstuffed chair might cost the same as a couch! ...so I wandered the store until I saw this:


I just love the wood, and the oak leaf pattern and I didn't even sit on it until they delivered it! I spent a load of money on something I think is pretty, so unlike my pragmatic miserly self.

A friend said he believes that if a person has the right couch, the rest will fall in to place. It makes a house homey. I hope this is that couch. (I think it might be)


The reality of the couch...

stitching the days together

Dark most of the time. Must add color to days. Can't just play word games on Facebook all day. Must DO something. Must create.

So...I have lots of small projects going to keep from focusing on the number of hours until the solstice.

This is my first attempt at french knots, thanks to a tutorial on Purl Bee a terrific sewing and knitting and generally thready site. Does that look vaguely like a chrysanthemum to you?


The wee little afghan was one of those projects started some other winter and put away for a couple of months...it gained that weird voodoo that put away projects sometimes get where they seem to have grown more difficult by being stored. When I took it out of the cedar box, it wasn't messed up! It hadn't grown more difficult or crooked or weird, it was fine thank you.


Last night, I accidentally made only three sets of crochet in the middle of this one...didn't even notice until I got to the dark purple! I kind of like it. I'm going to try to add a line of triangles to the fine thank you afghan.

art for coffee

When I want a cup of (free!) coffee at work and my favorite barista is there, I illustrate my request. I've drawn giant cups rising like the morning sun over the mountains, a zombie chasing the cup, a cup with a woman diving in to it, a glow in the dark cup, a cup with a sort of Venus on the half shell figure and so on...all on scraps of register tape. I decided I should paint a cup portrait to end the scraps of paper art...but I like the doodles. I think I'll keep the paint cup.

Messing with the black gesso is fun, the colors were fun and coffee cups are fun...so there ya go (Bob's yer uncle, as T. would say)
I took a photo on the diagonal, cropped and rotated it to see what blogger would do with the rotated drawing, yuck. I was hoping the yellow would not show up, it's the default 'there's nothing here' background of psp. The wall is actually light blue so the colors in the top photo are washed out by the flash, but that's better than yuck yellow.

November cuff

Here's my November BJP offering. The footprints are based on my dog's prints as we walked across a snowy field. Last month, I declared I wouldn't do any more light blue beading...guess what color a dog print in the snow is? Uh huh, light blue. So I decided she could walk across the midnight sky...this is Sirius' Journey Across the Midnight Sky.

The fabric on the inside has cosmic swirls and a few stars. I already used my best star fabric on the inside of the clouds cuff...excuses to buy more fabric!

it's the little things

I have a pencil sharpener, a real one with a crank handle and different sized holes for different sized pencils. It makes me so happy! This one was mounted on the wall at our house in Juneau for years, sharpening pencils for homework, artwork and for Dad to carry around in his shirt pocket to write notes in his little lined notebook. It was so satisfying to attach it to my new messy art area table, I sharpened all the pencils with in reach and a few of them that were out here waiting.

Why I live where Starbucks isn't

Yesterday's sunrise fading from the Chilkat mountains. It was a beautiful morning dog walk! It's about 25 degrees during the day this time of year when it's clear and sunny. Well worth putting on the layers of long underwear to get to see this kind of sunrise.

facebook

I've been assimilated. I am part of the faceborg collective. ...and so are many folks I haven't heard from in years! It's still all very new to me, and sort of fun...kind of a work or school reunion with out having to put on my shoes and go out the door.

I was scanning a profile photo for the collective when I found this hiding on the scanner: the leaf that I had displayed in the show at the bead shop just before I left Anchorage.

messy art

After I shoveled the latest snow storm off my driveway I took the trash to the transfer station (9:54) then went to the grocery store where I got the essentials of black olives, mayo and lorna doon cookies (must be winter) and then was at the bank by 10:15...there must be more than one time zone in Haines! Either that or superman was doing that earth going backwards thing again.

After the chores were done, I skated over to the Market for my free coffee and to the library for a stack of books and magazines. Then it happened....

I was suddenly overwhelmed by a need for a messy art space. I got a couple of two by fours at Lutak Lumber...great all around hardware store if you need one when you're here visiting. Then home to drill a million holes in the walls looking for the ever elusive stud to hang up my table braces. The walls are built on 16 inch centers, but the window isn't near a stud nor is that interior wall, whutever. Anyway.... I now have a Messy Art Area. Paint and dye and printmaking and....
maybe some soldering or metal pounding or...who knows! Over on the left is the cousin of the address fish, it is probably destined to be a gift.

the vote

I voted absentee in person today because I have to turn in a questioned ballot due to various address changes. I checked my "answers" at least 3 times before I gave them the ballot...we're all about the fill in the bubble paper ballots here, none of that voting machine or hanging chad stuff.

This is a picture of the governor's mansion in Juneau Alaska, where Sarah Palin spends very little of her time... See the wee little sign between the columns on the front porch?

No matter what your choice is, please vote tomorrow...it matters.

next day

The view out the same window as before... just 24 hours later. There was about a foot or more of snow before it started to rain.
Her royal highness in a section that I'd shoveled just the night before. She isn't as miserable as she looks, just peeved that she has to be on her leash while I shovel. She likes to attack the snow as I throw it on the pile, then wander off to see what the neighbors are doing with their snow.

it's time

Let's see...got shovels, fire wood, stove oil, chains for the car, plenty of art supplies (list not in order of importance), and nice warm boots. I should be all set. Plenty of food for cat/dog and me...probably not enough chocolate, beer or wine, but I have to go in to work today so that's taken o.k.

I took 10 gallons of stove oil over to the liquor dude's cabin. He wasn't there, but I heard a compressor and a nail gun over near the house he's building, maybe they got the roof up today. Building a house in Alaska with out taking out a loan is a long and arduous road. His wife might be able to come home next month if immigration is kind to them, I hope so, they deserve a break.View from my computer window looks out across the neighbor's yard. Past that small tree and down that lane is where the horse was staked out. The pizza lady tells me it's being taken care of at the other end of town now. I hope it's in a shelter today.

october cuff

This one ended up to be a blue sky memories cuff...it rained a lot this month. Today was a fitting day to finish though, it was absolutely beautiful with a dusting of snow and blue blue skies. I'm pretty much done with the light blue though, September's offering was full of light blue beads too.

Finishing on this went faster and worked out better, I used what I call a baseball stitch, entering the cloth and felt both from the inside of the seam. I can control the stitch size and spacing a lot better that way than with a typical whip stitch.

fires

As you well know from all the 'firewood' posts, I use a wood stove to heat this place...it's not my only heat, but I want it to be the major source. Heating oil is still $5 a gallon and precious. My wood stove was put in as somewhat of an after thought, relegated to living on the porch really. It keeps that porch really warm, but there's a small wall that blocks a lot of heat from the rest of the living area...
So I fixed it. I took a hammer to that wall and removed its heat blocking self! I don't really know exactly what's next...but the heat gets through instead of building up in the porch. One less wall I have to tile or cover with metal.

This on the other hand is my neighbors' fire... they bar-b-que on their porch so they don't have to go out in the rain to tend the fire. If you look closely, there's a can of lighter fluid on the hand rail. The fire is very kindly pointing at that can of flammable fluid. Seconds after I took this picture (if you follow the Yarn Harlot, I Kinneared my neighbors' porch) the guy came out and moved the whole rig about 6 inches to the left. I hope that place has a second entrance!

head cosy

This is my version of Fiber Trends' Swirls Hat. It's a really fun pattern to knit...fast and slightly technical with that very cool braid. The braid is just a twisted purl stitch, one row where you make the twist go one direction by pulling the yarn from below and then the next row twist the other direction by pulling from above. It's slow going but the results are so satisfying!
I think I might be on a little hat kick, sort of like my mitten kick a few years ago. Maybe the next one will have ear flaps... I might change the way I do the decreases in the top to avoid that little barb of yellow poking into the fuchsia. (dang that word is hard to spell)

when the weather gets icky, make warm stuff

With the help of my lovely assistant, seen above helping with the design stage, I embarked on yet another "ooh let's make something new" adventure. My old wool slippers are gradually falling apart so I decided to make a new pair.
I started with some wool/rayon felt that I'd washed and dyed. The washing made it too thick and fuzzy for beading but the dye made it rich and beautiful. I made a paper bag pattern for the uppers and traced some felt insoles for the bottom.
I wanted them really thick so they both have two layers, but since the felt is hand dyed...no two pieces are alike. You can barely see the industrial gray of the insoles inside. They're thick wooly insoles that we put in our Xtra tuffs (rubber boots) up here in rain world.
The safety inspector reminds me that I've left quite a few pins and one needle in the left slipper and to please remove the pokey things before wearing. Payment to the inspector is to be made in the form of small bone shaped biscuits, thank you very much.

Shhhh don't tell the dog

Last night (it was a dark and stormy night) something jumped up on my bed and started purring like a mad thing when I touched it. Yup, Biscuit (aka Bela) snuck in for hours of snuggling! The dog woke up and shifted around and mumbled a little but she didn't get curious about the purring sounds. For her part, the cat was so impressed with her discovery of the big warm bed full of human she didn't let me sleep much. There was a lot of cat balancing on the highest point of human alternating with stomping on the softest parts of human. How do they know where your bladder is located?

The cat has a sanctuary in my bead room but I'm hoping that some day soon I'll be able to move the dog blockade and allow free trade for both species.

a couple of things including a market moment

It's getting chilly here, snow is creeping down the mountains, snow falling across the channel yesterday and the frost was still on the leaves in the shade at noon. Every morning when the dog and I walk, we pass a horse that is staked out in a yard, no blanket and no shelter available. I called the police non-emergency number and reported the horse alone in a field apparently left there to mow the grass. (here's the market moment...) The woman on the other end said "Kelly that works at Mountain Market?" She recognized my voice...so even though Heather Lende doesn't know my name, someone does! Miz Lende wrote a book called (something along the lines of) If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name. My brother claims since she doesn't know my name I must not live here. Hmph.

...but I do live here, see? The fish sign is on the woodshed at MY house. I decided to put it on the woodshed instead of the actual house because it just looks better against the raw wood instead of the painted white porch rails.

house numbers

I redid the numbers on this 3 times before I was satisfied. They were crooked, they were funny looking they were just not right until I finally traced some pre made numbers. I need to put some sort of clear coat on it before I hang it outside. I usually use some clear krylon or spray verathane to seal stuff, wonder why I didn't get some at the hardware store today...dork.

september cuff revisited

Here's the chickadee made into an actual cuff. I want to finish each piece each month so I don't have to go back and do a bunch of fiddly stuff at the end of the year. We'll see how that works out, but for now...
I used narrow grosgrain ribbon for the loops and sewed some hand-dyed cotton fabric on the inside to hide the stitches and make it more comfortable for wearing. Issues that will be a problem: my handsewing abilities are limited (messy) and I don't have access to a ribbon store, so I need to plan ahead on the fasteners.

mountain market moment III

So...I have been with out hot water for about a week now. There was a leak that needed to be cut out and pipe replaced...I started the project but was soon in over my head because the pipe had frozen at some point and was swollen to about 5/8" instead of the standard 1/2 inch which means it wouldn't fit in the fitting. I figured I'd just call a plumber, get some professional (not mental, sheesh) help and be done. Nary a plumber in sight was available, all busy, not interested in such a small job or phone disconnected.

Then my market moment today...guy walks up to the register and orders coffee, I write it down and ask his name so they can tell him his order is ready. Gene. We chat. He says "did you buy a place here?" I says yes, up on Piedad. He says "are you Kelly?" I says yes. He says I was just going to call you, I can fix that pipe today. I have HOT water! (cue hallelujah chorus).

Bead Journal Project 1

I've joined the Bead Journal Project for 2008/2009...I'll be making 12 cuff bracelets, one for each month of the project. Here's September, nearly finished except for fabric to cover the back and two loops to go with the buttons as a clasp.


Size 15 beads for detail, wool felt cloth (to be backed with cotton for comfort) and mother of pearl buttons. I wasn't able to capture the energy of a chickadee, but they're pretty lively little birds!

foster to adopt

I went to the shelter today and got a new buddy! Her name is Bela, at least that's the name they've given her and I think I'll leave it in honor of Bela Fleck the banjo player.

She's still in the hide behind things mode, so at the edges of the picture you see parts of shelves and boxes. She lets me pet her when I reach in her hidey hole, so I think we'll do fine. The dog is a little worried, and kept a close eye on her at first. With any luck, we'll all be hanging out by the woodstove together soon.

another market moment

...customer digging in bag for money, glances at phone: "no message from Fabulous Firewood". Yup, the same folks that brought you my full woodshed hadn't called these customers yet. I didn't totally brag, but I said I got my wood, and that Fab. Firewood will call them, they're reliable but had some bad employees. I am SO glad I got my wood.

Big fall storm yesterday and last night, clearish today...classic September here. Weather that beats the leaves out of the trees then apologizes and acts all sweet. Warm and sweet right now...ahhh.

life in a northern town

The rest of the wood came today right after the lady down the road finished mowing the front lawn.

ok...lemme set the scene. The grass is thick and lush, the mist is thickening to rain and the grass is cut. The woman that cut the grass lives about 1/2 a block away and also teaches a painting class in Juneau... classic Alaska, she does about 10 different things in order to live the quiet life here in small town AK. I'm glad to pay her to mow my 'lawn' because some day she might buy some of my art...get it?

So...as she's leaving she yells out her car window "are you expecting some wood?" as the wood truck pulls up the road. Yup. It's the other cord of my wood...an extra half cord because they were having technical difficulties and my other load arrived late and short. Turns out the wood cutter had a bad employee that was actually breaking equipment so he could have time away from physical labor to fix stuff. He actually broke equipment while working for the wood cutter, the wood cutter had provided him with a cabin and fed him meals AND payed him well. Wood cutter comes by my place and gives me an extra 1/2 cord of wood for my patience. This, folks, is why I moved back to Southeast Alaska...if you say thank you and mean it, and pay it forward, you will benefit. If wood cutter ever wanted a piece of bead art for his wife's Christmas or birthday, you bet your hiney, I'd charge him way less than market value...or better yet, I'd say drop off some wood and it's yours.

welcome to my warm house

I had to paint the door red, it's supposed to be welcoming to people as well as to good energy. ..and I really like this particular red paint, it's so bright! I painted it while waiting for wood...and now wood is here, timing not red door magic. I think I'll paint the other door too, but maybe blue or yellow so people are more drawn to the red one.

Before...

...and after. There are two layers of wood on the right, one on the left wall that you can't see and 1.5 on the long back wall! (and another cord on the way) Yippeee for pre purchased warmth! Each day I'll split a few of the big pieces so they dry and are ready for me when the snow is deep and cold.