The Most Proud Mother! Alice in the Underground

"Alice in the Underground"

by Cassidy Phillips

Some of his art for the backdrop.

About the program. 

Fairbanks Counseling and Adoption

 SOAP 

Street Outreach Advocacy Program

I had been hearing about a play that my son was writing in conjunction with his Americorp position with the local street team outreach program for homeless youth. This is his first play ever that he's written.

Last night I was able to attend the performance and WAS TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY! (yes, I'm yelling!!!!, well more like trumpeting actually) by the writing and performance. I couldn't have been more proud to say I was his mother. Talk about art that makes a difference! I was so impressed with the entire team from the teens that performed, volunteer actors, light, sound and costume contributors that made it such a faceted dramatic, funny and heart-wrenching production. A true team effort that will bring awareness to the issue of homeless teens.

I recommend  reading this more detailed review in the Daily News Miner,  our local newspaper in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Launching into the summer season

A bit of snow in the Northland.

A different mood  with a picture of wild blueberry picking last summer.

Well things are much better since my last post. I've been shuffling, mucking around and trying to organize my studio space, revisiting old stashes of supplies, making room for new ones.

Good news is that I made two etsy sales. Haven't made any or tried to make any since before Christmas. It seems that the vintage letters I acquired have been wildly popular. I still have a few more that I need to post.

I also won two giveaways this week! More on those later when I get the goods. 

The sun came out and I had some deck time on the second storey of the Garaj Mahal sorting and re-bagging seed beads and dipping my mandrels in bead release for my lampworking.

Packing up for the first Farmers market of the year. Now that I live 100 miles away from the market I'm having to get up at 5:00AM for the trip but it usually proves to be worthwhile.

We had a snowy Cinco de Mayo which turned out to be the most snow this area had gotten in the last two months.

Good news too, We have thawed water lines now after a week without running water!

Warning- My first ever whiny butt blog post!

This is the most gray picture I could find in my archives. 

I didn't expect to feel like this when I returned to our Alaskan home. I'm sure the mood will be fleeting but after blossoming flowers, fabulously hot days and the high barometric pressure of the high desert, I'm afraid I'm experiencing a temporary letdown with my return home.

It was great of course to reconnect with old friends and family  but the weather is just gray and wet and nary a bud showing on the trees yet here. I was plopped down in Fairbanks, my home of over 30 years while my husband ran 100 miles home to open up the house which we let freeze solid for the months we were gone. Unfortunately with a low snow year our water pipe to the well lost some of the insulating properties of  the ground cover of the snow and we are stuck with a frozen line. Life is going to be a bit rustic for a few days until we get that thawed out.

Also since we live in the boonies now, I've had to return to paleo dial-up which is quite frustrating after half a year of lightning speed wireless. In those last six months I had ramped up my blog following to a mighty degree. My blog was in its infancy when we left last winter and I hadn't yet started following and commenting as I feel the need to do so now.

It takes up to five minutes for some blogs to load and it seems that the ability to comment is not loading for me at all. Maybe the computer got too frozen this winter! Maybe I'll ramp off of my addiction to checking the internet every hour too and get loads more creative work done.

My apologies if I'm going to seem like the silent type on your blogs. I'm going to have to drive or ride my bike 7 miles to town to utilize the library's wifi  in order to enjoy the pleasure of interacting with blogs now. ( I may even start using my husband's 4 wheeler for the trip, won't that be fun!)

My cell phone just barely works with an antenna if I sit really close to a window, and our landline, while fine for out of state is inexplicably more expensive for in state calls. You might say that we're somewhere in the 90's as far as technology goes now.

I know that the weather will clear and we'll be enjoying the midnight sun soon but I so wanted to share my current funk with you all because that's the kind of friends you all are.

Please bear with me, It's a transitional funk I'm sure. I promise I'll be back to my old self with plenty of light to share soon.

And thank you for your comments on the loss of my old friend, I really appreciate it.

Too soon to blog about this but it's on my mind

Caleb, I know that you were supposed to go to the Jesse Colin Young concert tonight with our dearest old friends from high school. I was sorry that I couldn't be there to join you.

Now I hear that you can't be there either, that you passed away on Tuesday.

Thanks for being my very first boyfriend and that we kept our friendship till the end (despite my fickleness, dumping you at 16) And thanks for making it to the wedding in Alaska. It meant so much to me. Give my love to Beans wherever you guys travel from here.

Candace Goes to Boston

Candace is excited to go on a train but gets a bit TOO enthusiastic.

Don't walk on the rails, Candace!

Candace at the historical North Church in Boston by the infamous "Two if by land, One if by sea" window.

Candace, once again showing her trashy side.

In the company of some really fast runner women getting ready for the Boston Marathon.

With her Auntie Betsy at the finish line. Betsy finished the marathon!

Getting her beauty sleep with Auntie Betsy.

Hanging out in a REALLY OLD graveyard.

Candace took a plane trip to Boston with her Auntie Betsy and Uncle Matt to watch Betsy run the Boston Marathon. My excuse that my sister runs marathons and I don't is that SHE IS SEVEN YEARS YOUNGER THAN ME!. (so there!) I'm pretty proud of her actually.

I agreed that she could go on another adventure with them as long as they kept her out of harms way. She does seem to have some narrow brushes with danger with them.