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A few weeks ago, the baby turned 2. We spent the day together as a family and celebrated. One of the things we did that day was to venture out to Twin Lakes to go ice skating and sledding.
Yes, ice skating on a lake. I was all kinds of freaked out, but there were lots of others there and it was (and had been) ridiculously cold, so I decided to just relax and go along for the ride.
Sweet birthday boy. Waiting patiently while big brother gets his ice skates all laced up.
Papa helping big brother try out his skates.
Whee!
Little brother was content with being pulled around on the ice from the comfort of the sled.
Time to go sledding!
The gorgeous Chilkat Mountains in the distance.
People always ask us if we see lots of wild animals roaming around. You know, since we live in Alaska and all.
The answer is mostly no. We did see one bear two years ago when we first moved in (and have heard of others from neighbors). The animal we do see more than the usual Raven is the Porcupine.
This guy is enjoying some of our Swiss Chard. He’s lucky I am a chicken and too scared to get close.
No, we didn’t drink all of them. Did a couple of dumpster dives at the recycling center (thanks, honey!) and got a little help from Freecyclers in the seemingly endless quest for empty wine bottles.
Finally done. And am now absurdly considering making new flower beds around the front porch using wine bottles. Please talk me down.
Let’s take a little garden walk, shall we? Oh, one other thing…the mulch…free. Called a local tree company and they delivered a load gratis. Saved so much $ and thrilled to not have 100 or so empty plastic bags.
Ok, let’s go!
Watching the crops grow. Almost as fun as watching paint dry…
A wee little Tickseed plant I picked up at Home Depot
Irises that we got from a Freecycler when we moved into our house in 2008.
I adore Irises
I also adore Rhubarb and Chives. Maybe not together-together, but together in a garden is a beautiful sight.
You can do it, little berries! Grow!
Asiatic Lily, another Home Depot buy
Isn’t the color intense? Hmmm…what can I do with color ideas from flowers?
I know, I am a couple days late in announcing what my craft challenge goals are for the month of May. It was a lovely weekend here in Juneau filled with lots of pantry restocking, sock knitting teaching, fire pit digging and sandbox construction.
Up here, we have to take advantage of good weather…it doesn’t happen as often as we would like. Before we moved to Juneau, I would often read about other Juneau knitters apologizing for not making it to knitting groups, etc. Usually the reason would go something along the lines of, “Sorry I didn’t make it, but the sun came out and I had to get out into my yard!” Short, simple and to the point. Now I understand what they were talking about.
Anyway.
May Craft Challenge Goals:
- (gift) Baby Blanket – Using Knit Picks Comfy worsted yarn. Crocheted. Lots of babies being born this fall, they all need handmade presents.
- (gift) Cowl – Using free pattern found on Ravelry (sorry, can’t link to it because the potential recipient is a knitter). Using my hand dyed yarn.
- (gift) Baby Kicking Sack – Using stashed Socks That Rock yarn and a pattern that I am working out in my head.
- (for me) Freyja Sweater KAL – Get started on my Freyja sweater using Frog Tree Alpaca yarn that is waiting patiently. This is going to be a KAL with my friend, Alli. She will blow me out of the water with her smoking needles. I am thinking that she will be done in just a couple of weeks. It might take me a couple of months.
Unfortunately my main sewing machine, my one true love Emma, is in need of repair. And the closest repair shop is hundreds of miles away. So, that means no sewing for me this month unless it is an emergency job and I use Mom’s old Kenmore- that can’t reverse stitch and has tension issues.
May shall be a yarny month I believe.
And since I can’t go two posts in a row without pictures, I will give you a couple from a baby shower that I recently co-hosted.
Yum! I made the cupcakes! My Aunt in Dallas sent me a Sprinkles Red Velvet cupcake mix as a special favor – the new Mama loves her some Red Velvet cupcakes and these are always a big hit. The powder in the mix turns every surface in my kitchen red for a few days. It is all worth it though.
Living on tropical islands for three years, this Midwestern girl really missed snow. When I found out that we were moving to Alaska last year, I was excited because we were guaranteed to get some snow.
Did we ever! In January 2009 alone, we got just over 75 inches of the white stuff. Thankfully, I am not in charge of the shoveling, DH does that. And he refuses to buy a snowblower (imagine that).
Conn and I have been watching our mountains out back for the snow to be coming down the mountain…as each day passes, the snow gets a little bit lower and lower. So very exciting to an almost 3 year old and his snow loving Mama.
Imagine our surprise when we woke up on Saturday to a nice dusting of snow on the ground!! Yippee! It was a booo-tiful way to start our Halloween day. Too bad it all melted by the end of the day.
Oh well, there is more on the way, that is for certain.
Peace.
