Mr. Wilson

Do you remember the show Dennis the Menace?  More importantly do you remember Mr. Wilson?  You know, the endearingly grumpy old man?  Yep, he lives on our street.  Of course I will not reveal his true identity and will just call him Mr. Wilson....we live in a small town, half the people that read this might now him and God forbid he stumbles across my blog and realizes I'm writing about him.
  Getting to the point, I have three Dennis type children, they occasionally have their moments...okay so their moments are more frequent than I would like but hey, they are mine and I'm quite attached, moments and all.  I have a good feeling we are going to be seeing a lot of Mr. Wilson, he has already clearly stated that if Reuben is found in his yard we can bet our bottom dollar he'll be marching up the drive to chew us out. I can only imagine what he will say when he sees our boys in the back yard with their compound bows and pumpkins left over from Halloween.

On the bright side, I'm sure this will give me plenty of entertaining blog posts. Until that time comes here are some highlights from life in Alaska via my iPhone.

Home Tour

Hey All!
So I have been busy trying to prepare for the Etsy Holiday Mad House Shopping Season, trying to get us all moved in to the new house, and all the while still trying to pump out the orders that have been coming in.  Throw in soccer, football, cub scouts, Dr. appointments, parent teacher conferences, homework, dinners and house cleaning and it's enough to make one throw their hands up and run around like a crazy person. 

So while Mr. Steampunk is making the reading rounds with our kids tonight I thought I would quickly give you a tiny sneak peak of our new home.   I've been told...by numerous neighbors and others that bears love to hang out on our porch and are in the back yard quite often.  I have yet to see them everyone assures me they drop by frequently.

Okay so not everything is hung up on the walls or put where it needs to be but it is starting to come together.

Don't you just LOVE all the natural light?!  It's my very favorite part about this house.

View from the porch and living room...when we first moved to Alaska we had to sell some of our furniture because it would not fit into the house that was available for us...now we don't have enough for this house, gosh what ever shall I do?  Hmmmm....shopping trip anyone? 

My very favorite painting by my very favorite artist.  Meet an original from Ms. Elizabeth Smith.   Seriously, you should see the murals she paints.  One world A-MAZE-ING!

Master bedroom with my favorite quilt from my Mom...I think it's from India...I sort of confiscated it from her.  I've been given strict orders to give it back when she decides she wants it.  Heehee, we moved to Alaska and she is still in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. so I don't think she will be getting it back any time soon;) 

Here are 3 outside shots from the various windows inside the house.  I'm so glad we have so many windows, it should make it much easier to photograph my work in the winter. 
Well reading time is over and now I'm off to finish knitting a hat for my youngest.  Have a great evening!
~Angie~

Termination Dust!

Hi everyone!
So Fall has come and is quickly leaving Juneau.  I have spotted Termination Dust twice now.  Oh what is Termination Dust you ask?  That stinking white stuff that covers the trees and ground when it get's cold enough.  It signifies the end of summer/fall and the quickly approaching winter.

We are almost settled into the new house. There are a few things that still need to be done, hanging pictures, getting things out of boxes and last but surely not least, get the darn garage organized so we can get our cars inside.  It's currently the holding cell for all of our camping gear, coolers, all of my work tools and supplies and then of course Mr. Steampunk's manly saws and power tools (that I use more than he does...but don't tell him that)

I'm beginning to get to urge to bust out my copy of Anne of Green Gables and bake up some ginger bread...if only I had the time. Sadly, the holiday shopping season has hit Steampunk Funk and I'm doing all I can to stay afloat and keep on top of orders.  So until I get that under control there will be  no chick flicks for me.

Well it's time for me to get out into the shop, but before I go I wanted to share this picture I saw on Facebook.

Until next time!
Angie

We are moving!

Hi everyone!
 I know I've been really quiet this past week.  Reason being...we moved, not states or cities, just houses.  Here is a a cell phone picture of our new pad.

My garage/work space is nice and bright so it is an upgrade from the dark, troll like cave I was inhabiting only a week ago:)
I'm off to finish a couple of orders then to clean the old house before we hand it over to another family moving in.
Until next time!
Angie

What A Weekend!

Hi Everyone!

Oh My Goodness, what a weekend it was.  First of all it was GORGEOUS weather the entire time.  On Saturday after putting in a few hours in the shop we decided to head up Thunder Mountain.  We had never climbed that trail and figured what the heck we will drag our 3 little Steampunks along with us. Hmmm....yep, looking back that was not the brightest idea we have ever had.

We hiked for a couple of hours up a mountain through sludge, mud and muck before we came to a clearing.  Would think looking at the pictures that it was a dry field, something you would see on Little House On The Prairie....but this was no prairie.

Nope this was all wetlands.  We were beginning to cross a stream to head into the trees and farther up the mountain when our littlest Steampunk ran in front of us (like usual) and went straight up to his waist in a mud bog.  I think it's the first time I've seen true panic all over his little face.  It scared our middle Steampunk so badly that she started crying.  I was fortunately next to him on dry ground and pulled him out. 

We quickly came up with a plan of action because at this point we were at least 2 hours hiking from the truck.  We stripped him down to his undies and cleaned his clothes off in the creek then hung them up to dry for a little while.

While he waited he put on Mr. Steampunk's Fleece and had some snacks.

Reuben also had a great time while we waited. 

Seriously, he could do ads for Wonder Dog.  We finally started to head down the mountain while the light was quickly fading.  We bush whacked our way down to the truck because some how we managed to take a wrong turn. Not to worry, we could hear the road traffic at that point and knew that where ever we came out we would be able to find the truck, it was just a matter of how far were we going to have to walk to get there. 

The past few days have been sunny and we have loved being outside.  Up for next weekend...our big move to the new house!  We are so excited :) 
Until then!
Angie

I missed this one

Here is a screen shot of my Etsy front page last night.  Yesterday was a long day and I was disappointed that the Cowboys lost their first game...not that I'm a Cowboys fan, I'm just a huge football fan and had decided that was who I wanted to win.   I will say it was a great, down to the last seconds game.

I have some fun stories to tell you guys about from our weekend adventures that I will post shortly after this. 
 Until then!
Angie

Some Etsy Love

My barn nail cuff made front page while I was sleeping at 2 am our time...6 east coast time.  That's always a nice email to wake up to.  For all you Etsians out there if you go to Stasty Featurator and plug in your shop name it will notify you when you have made the front page.

Red At Night

Hi everyone,
Last night was gorgeous!  I mean the whole afternoon/evening was perfect.  The sun came out in Juneau yesterday morning and all day I thought, "We are headed to the beach for tide pooling and dinner."  And we got the most beautiful show with dinner.  The pictures don't do the sunset we watched any justice but I just had to try to  capture it:)

The evening couldn't have been more perfect, sea lions were in the cove nearby, the hot dogs were pretty stinking great and the marshmallows were just the icing on the cake.  I hope all you Juneau folks were able to get out and enjoy the night.
Until next time!
Angie

A Fish Graveyard

This weekend we decided it had been far too long since we went fishing.  So we hiked out to one of our favorite spots...I should state that it is usually one of our favorite spots.  I have officially black listed it for the end of Aug. beginning of Sept. from here on out.  First of all it was a swamp just getting there.

And second (which happens to be the biggest reason) was by the time we got to the river the overwhelming stench was enough to make me not eat until 8 that night.  It was the grossest thing I have ever experienced.   First you need to know, I lived in Cairo, Egypt for 7 years. Many of the smells there were really bad...Garbage City comes to mind, but nothing compared to this smell.  There were dead fish all over.  I started looking beyond just my feet and realized we were walking through a fish graveyard.

The only thing that made it tolerable were the seals out where the river meets the ocean. They were so stinking cute and extremely curious.  Our oldest little Steampunk had a blast catching fish with his bare hands (mind you they were on the verge of death.)

You just can't beat that smile.  It's very rare that he let's me photograph him, and even more rare that he gives a genuine smile so these snapshots are one's I will have to keep and remind myself that he does in fact like hanging out with us...he just doesn't realize it yet. 

I did take some "no dead fish" pictures that I thought I would save for last...to sort of end on a happy note;) 

Even though the smell was putrid and the sight was a little nauseating, our experience was just that, an experience.  And the best part was we were all together, all 5 of us roughing it together. I couldn't ask for anything more. 

Until next time!
Angie