Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Catching up to Myself

First I'll start with a giveaway that I won from Fanciful Devices whose work I totally admire.
Even her packaging has that special quality to it.

I can definitely see rocking these with the new kimono I scored at the thrift shop in Bisbee.

This kimono is 100% silk shibori  tie dye with miniscule gathers throughout the piece.
In the background you can see a portion of the shed that I'm in the process of turning into a little gift shop for the Alaska Highway travelers coming through.

Oh, did I mention this was only $19!
That's 11.73 British Pounds
or 17.98 AUS or
13.86 Euros!

I thought I'd fill you in on a few scenes from our road trip home last month.
A shot of my sister's place by Greenlake  area Seattle



The ferry trip home

Folks camp on deck  or sleep on lawn chairs in the solarium but we opted not too because we forgot camp pads, Instead we spent three nights on cushioned benches in the aft lounge which unfortunately had lights on night and day, We saved some money by not getting a cabin though.



"We beave" said the beavers on the Alaskan Highway


I kind of liked this shot of our jam packed truck on the last day of our journey.

And for the excitement of the week, this is the jeweler's bench that our neighbor just
GAVE me!
Now I can tappity tap, punch and drill without getting into my glass area.

This post was a lesson in patience on a low pressure/low energy day that  sent me to a cup of Typhoo (yes caffeinated) tea which is the first I've had in over a month and a half.
In the hour it's taken me to upload photos the sun has since broken out and beckoned me outside and we're enjoying a most glorious spring and advent of summer here with a rapid greenup and temps that promise to be in the high 70's ( that's 26 degrees C)
To top that off it stays that way well into the evening since the midnight sun shines ever into the late hours. I absolutely adore that about summertime here.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Where have I been?

Well, I guess I should start back when we hit the road from Arizona to Alaska.
I feel as though I have been woefully out of touch with sporadic jump into the interwebs but not quite long enough to connect as I prefer.
I think I was abducted by aliens after I posed for this picture here.

or Jenglots 

I even kind of missed out on the Blogger Meltdown that's how out of it I've been.

Actually it started with a visit in Las Vegas, a place I'd never been.
(maybe it stayed in Las Vegas, you know what they say!)
We had a most lovely visit with my blog friend Leslie from
We met for the first time at a Mexican restaurant and she even treated us to dinner!
We caught up in real time and shared stories and quite possibly could have gone on for hours but we had road miles to make ahead of us.
The huz then took me on a drive-by tour of down Las Vegas before we headed out on the mostly barren trip through what is known as the Great Basin from northern Nevada to southern Oregon... hundreds of miles of not a lot to look at.

except this in some town whose name I don't recall.

A curious building in Brothers, Oregon


Since I've been back home in Alaska I've been to Anchorage to do a show and have found my familiar place back at our Farmer's Market in Fairbanks just a 100 mile drive from home every Saturday.
It is nice to see the response to some of my newer work, It's uncanny how people seem to gravitate toward my freshest work... and satisfying too since it reinforces that the direction I'm heading in is the right path.

Now it's back to work in my studio and it promises to be an interesting summer since my husband will be absent for 12 day stretches all summer with just a few days in between.
There was a time in my life that I could have never lived out in the boonies as we do now, I was hard pressed to even spend an entire day at home in my younger days, now I mostly crave it.
It will, however, be different in the evenings being in this solitude for extended periods of time.
Added to that is my no coffee, no alcohol resolve which would be what I would probably want to reach for  to break up the long days. We do have really long days too, I am no longer seeing darkness at this latitude although it may be occurring at 1:00 or  2:00 AM, not sure really because I've been asleep.

With my most reliable form of internet at the library I have to schedule trips to Delta to get in some posts. I've already been in the library paring lot over an hour and a half just catching up and trying to post and the solar gain through the window is starting to cook.
Just wanted to say I've missed the interaction and hope to be back in full swing somehow.
XOXO Kim



Thursday, May 5, 2011

made it!

Well the good news is that we made it home from one edge of then US to the other.
2700 miles of driving from southern Arizona and a three day ferry ride landed us back in Alaska.

Funny thing is that we made it to the town of Tok (pronounced "toke") a mere two hours from home at midnight. We opted for a night in a hotel as wiped out as we were.
We started the next morning fresh for the restt of the journey. Would you believe we got a flat tire just 5 miles from our house! so glad we didn't have to deal with that at 2:00 AM.

There's some other good news too. It seems that I have some internet coverage with my little iPad if I go to the upper reaches of my Garaj Mahal studio since the only other option is some woefully slow dial -up. So I can view blogs with this device. but I can't post pics until I figure out which blogger app I need to do that. I can't seem to view anything with the dial-up on my mac this year which may have something to do with never being able to update my browser. Next project is to haul it to someone that has high speed and get my overdue updates.

Between the updating and the apps I just may be back in business with blogging and Etsy again. If all else fails I can live at the library to attend to all of my internet needs...
Yes they qualify as needs now!
With the price of gas at almost $4.40 a gallon with a 15 mile round trip I may have to limit those sprees too. Hmmmm, I may have to familiarize myself a little better with the ol' 4 wheeler and be a real Alaskan woman, depending on that for transportation. I think I need to find a helmet first.

I am looking forward to reconnecting to the blog world and give you some better updates with pics soon.

Many thanks to you new followers, I'll be back with more soon.
xoxo Kim