Wetzels into the Wild

Sometimes I Make Things

I’ve done a little more crafting lately, and per my mom’s request, I’m sharing it here with you. 

Last week I had a baby shower to attend. Since the only stores on the island are a grocery with exactly 1/2 of one aisle devoted to baby supplies and a hardware store, and since I hadn’t really planned ahead enough to order something, I decided to get crafty. I saw a tutorial on pinterest for a homemade rice heat pack, and I thought expecting mommas and new mommas are probably often sore, and although one can’t buy a bouncy swing at our market, one can buy rice. So, I attempted to create my own. I read this tutorial DIY Heating Pad, and this one Heating Pad Tutorial, and then got to sewing. 

My first attempt was a little rough. I ended up having to rip out a seam, dump some rice, and re-fill it, and at one point I sewed through a grain of rice and snapped my needle in two, but for a beginning try, it looks OK to me.

I decided to keep this one for myself and make another more polished version for the baby shower gift, and a little drawstring bag to keep it in. (There’s no place to buy bags or gift wrap on this island, either.) I forgot to snap a photo of that one before I gave it away, though. 

This week, I decided to take a break from the sewing machine and go back to a hobby of mine I hadn’t touched in years — beads. I used to love beads. In high school I made earrings, bracelets, anklets, even beaded bobby pins for my hair. I was also big into friendship bracelets and macrame… but I think most girls my age were. Anyway, mom had sent up my two big bead boxes and some of my supplies in the fall, and I hadn’t done anything with them yet. This week, I finally cracked the bead kits open, and out came this pretty (and alliterative) braided, beaded bracelet.

I’m fairly happy with it. I think it would have looked better with leather or some sort of cord instead of the fuzzy twine, but that was all I had. 

I’m planning to get back to quilting next, but I’ve got grant deadlines coming one after another for the foreseeable future, so we’ll see what happens. 

P.S. I promise this isn’t turning into a craft blog. It’s still our Alaska blog. There’s just not much going on in our Alaskan lives right now, but when something happens, you’ll all be the first to know.  

Sunshine in Alaska!

Joe and I spent this past weekend in Ketchikan with friends, celebrating a birthday and the Easter holiday. The weather was gorgeous all weekend. We spent a lot of time outdoors and in restaurants, treats we haven’t been very used to back in rain-soaked Met. The beautiful sunny skies inspired our regular Ketchikan Wal-Mart trip, and we came home with this lovely purchase: 

I put it together all by myself today while Joe was at school. Tonight we’re using up some of our October salmon haul (check the archives) and trying this recipe: Ina Garten’s Asian Grilled Salmon. 

I’m pretty excited that it’s FINALLY springtime in southeast Alaska. I plan to soak up every minute of our 52° sunshine I can. The storms could be back any second, so it’s time to get off tumblr and get back outside!  

Feeling Crafty

I promised I would post a picture of my finished quilted cat mat, so here it is. It is definitely not perfect. In fact, the naked eye can find many, many mistakes. It’s drastically crooked, I mis-measured my binding and on the back it looks really strange, I misaligned my patchwork squares so that my checkerboard look for the light purple and light pink is off on two of my edges (two purples and two pinks are next to each other, meaning my two big squares didn’t have the correct edges lined up), and none of my quilt stitching is really in a straight line. But hey, that’s what first tries are for, right? At least Bella likes it. 

I’ve purchased some more fabric and was thinking of doing either a couple place mats or throw pillows for my next quilting project, but in the meantime, I’m working on learning another brand new hobby. When the fantastic Jen and Fred visited, they brought us a boatload of anti-cabin-fever supplies, including a board game, a calligraphy set and an origami book with paper, as well as a couple skeins of yarn and my very own brand new knitting needles! Jen showed me the basics before they split, and I’m working on making something that will hopefully someday look like a scarf. There are already a couple holes and dropped stitches in it, but oh well. 

Jen and Fred’s Alaska Happy Fun Times Visit

Our dear friends Jen and Fred from Bloomington came to Alaska last week to see us! Well, it was probably mostly to see Alaska, but we live here, so it worked out. We had a wonderful time, despite enjoying only a few hours of better-than-horrendous weather in their whole 5 days in the state. Even though they’d been drenched and wind-blown for nearly a week, they look surprisingly happy in this photo from our last morning together. 

For those of you that don’t know, Jen is a Biology and Spanish teacher, and was a classmate of Joe’s in his Transition to Teaching program. They commuted the the daily two-hour trip to their student teaching assignment in Paoli, Indiana together. Fred is her husband. We spent a lot of time with them our last year in Bloomington, and wish we’d become friends sooner! They’re pretty awesome folks. 

Our visitors arrived in Ketchikan bright and early Wednesday morning after an exhausting cross-country flight and a sleepless night in the Seattle airport. They were troupers though, and made it through an entire day of exploration around Ketchikan before crashing hard that evening. After a leisurely breakfast at the Landing, we drove out to the end of the road on the south side of Ketchikan, passed the town of Saxman, and hiked a short distance of trail up a mountain. It was quiet, snow-covered and beautiful. Joe and I had a snowball throwing contest, while Jen and Fred looked for owls. (They’re birders, and we did a lot of bird watching during their visit. More on that later.) Little did we know, that was some of the best weather we would have all week. 

 

After the trail, we drove back towards town slowly, stopping at spots for good birding opportunities along the way. We saw the Saxman totem park, lots of bald eagles, Herring Cove, some very cute seals, and several foggy views of the inside passage. Jen used her trusty scope, guidebooks, and binoculars, and Joe and I began creating our Life Bird List. Then, to get Jen and Fred a real taste of Alaska, we ate lunch at the Ocean View restaurant, Ketchikan’s Mexican/Italian/Greek hybrid where you sift through a 40-page menu while you munch on chips with salsa that tastes remarkably like marinara sauce. It’s a gem. The rest of Wednesday involved some mellow downtown Ketchikan exploring.

Then came the weather. On Thursday, we woke up to a brief hotel power outage, torrential rain, and howling wind. We holed up in the room that morning drinking chai tea and streaming the IU/Penn State game on Joe’s laptop, and then finally worked up the courage to brave the storm. We first fueled up with Burger Queen (bar far the best eatery in Ketchikan, even though it looks like a complete dump from the outside). Then Joe, Fred, Jen, Ruthie and I drove north to explore Settler’s Cove, Totem Bight, and Ward Cove. I had a terrible cold (because it wouldn’t be vacation if Rachel wasn’t sick… it’s a curse I carry), but I’m so glad I decided to rally and join this excursion because we saw some amazing stuff! My favorite moment was our close encounter with a playful sea lion at Settler’s cove. Seals and porpoises I’d seen since August, but this was my first sea lion. He was pretty awesome. I wish I had a picture to share, but unfortunately the rain was coming down way too hard to get out a camera. 

On Friday, we stocked up at Safeway, filled up our gas tank (FOR $3.01 A GALLON! We got a whole dollar off because of all of my Safeway rewards!), and then boarded the ferry for Met. Jen and Fred’s time on our Alaskan island was spent exploring, hiking, playing games, meeting some of our local friends, and relaxing near the space heaters. They even attempted some off-season fishing, but weren’t very successful.

The weather was far too wet for picture taking most of their time here, but I did get some nice shots from the float plane dock and a drive on the new road yesterday, just before they boarded the ferry for home. Hopefully these photos will remind Jen and Fred of the beauty of our little northern paradise when we try to convince them for the millionth time to apply at our district and join us here. 

In which I Finally Work up The Motivation to do Something Other Than Substitute Teach or Lose Staring Contests With our Cat

I got a job! As of this week, I am the Annette Island School District’s new Grant Writer. I have never written a grant before, but I have written. Also, apparently the skills of a bar-certified attorney are mildly applicable to the field of grant writing, what with all the nitty-gritty application requirements and research and deadline following and whatnot. I’m pretty excited about this new career development for me, and also pretty terrified. I’ve decided that subbing doesn’t really count, and as such, this is my first big-girl job. On the positive side of things, I get to work on my own time, continue subbing if I feel like it, and I don’t have to wear a suit, heels, or pantyhose. On the negative side, I have little direction and no experience, and a school district full of needy children depending on my success. But hey, a little pressure never hurt anyone.

Wish me luck!