I'm on Etsy!

I didn't want to take the spotlight away from the Alaska post so soon but I can wait no longer! I'm on Etsy.com! Here's a link to my shop. I've also added an Etsy-button link on the menu. It goes straight to my shop, too. Please have a look.

I'm selling my Nelly Dolls, and I'm also planning on selling the pattern once I get it copyrighted. Check out the shop and leave feedback if you wish. I would love to know what people think of these simple, sturdy dolls. I'm not pausing for a break now that I've got a few dolls uploaded, either. Check back. I'll be adding things as I make them. :)

Summer vacation in Alaska

Well, this post is a little belated, but I plead innocence on account of the fact that I've been really busy working on other things that will be explained later this month. :)

Our trip began when we drove to Moscow to spend time with our friends during the memorial service for Donald Buzga. That was an emotional, yet uplifting few days. The memory of what a wonderful christian Don was during his short life is an encouraging one.

We drove to Portland, where we hopped on a plane and flew up to Fairbanks, Alaska where we met up with Mom and Dad, who were coming in from CO on a much later flight. The next day all 4 of us were ready to start the adventure. It was great to be back! After three years spent away from the people and the land, it still all has the essence of home about it. What a great place to spend the first few years of our marriage.

The time on the clock is 11:42 pm.

One thing I had forgotten about was the way the whole day/night sequence works up there. It ain't called the land of the midnight sun for nothing! The sun was still up at midnight. I remember now, from living up there, that the experience isn't wearisome at all. The late night sunshine is actually really rejuvenating after so much darkness during the winter. It's hard to get tired during the summer if you don't have blackout shades over your windows to trick your brain into thinking it's actually night time.

We made sure to celebrate Father's Day while up there. :)

Ryan spent the first few days at a conference, so I got to visit and catch up with old friends and their children. Mostly I spent time with the Burtons, who housed us during our stay in Fairbanks, but I got to see many other friends at church. That was a lot of fun. You would think that three years is not a very long span of time. Ha! Those kids had sprouted like weeds! And they were so busy in their own little activities. It was fun to see the results of their discovery of their talents and how they were gaining confidence in their individuality.

Side note: If you're ever in Fairbanks, and you have a craving for the best steaks in the US, you should drive to the town of Fox and go to the Turtle Club.


They are a fantastic steak house. When we went, we decided to get appetizers and I ordered escargot, which to me seems really funny. I never ordered it when I was in France, so I ordered it at a restaurant that specializes in steak, in the tiny town of Fox, Alaska. It tasted good. Don't know if I'd order it again though. Even if I hadn't liked it it still would have been worth it to see the look on Ryan's face as he watched me eat a buttery snail. :)

So, after we tore ourselves away from visiting with good friends, we drove down to Anchorage to ogle all the usual tourist shops and eat seafood at an outdoor restaurant. One shop that was particularly fun to look around in (especially if you like tee shirts) is Once in a Blue Moose, in the Anchorage mall. We also enjoyed looking in The Rusty Harpoon, which had a good assortment of more traditional gifts.

Then it was on to Kenai for a little king salmon fishing. Glee!

It was early and I had trouble not falling asleep in the boat, but we did manage to catch a few salmon.

Dad caught a reasonably big king.

Ryan caught a jack (young king salmon) and a red salmon.

I caught the first fish of the trip, but it was a jack and we were only allowed one king per person, so I threw it back and hoped for a bigger one...that never came. I caught a bunch of trout though. Big trout, but there is no trout season on the Kenai, so I couldn't keep them. :(

In Homer we went halibut fishing and everyone on the boat had better luck there!

It was a 3 hour boat ride out to the fishing grounds and we had nice cushy sofas to snooze on.

Even 3 hours out, we were still pretty close to land.

Look at all those yummy fish!

Big Bear Charters is one I will recommend to anyone who wants a good fishing experience in Homer. There's never any guarantee you'll catch anything, but the captain and the deck hand were good people, and that really counts with me.


Ryan, Dad and I all caught our limit on that trip. We each got a 50+ lb. halibut and a smaller chicken (30 lbs. or less halibut), and we all caught 2 ling cod apiece!

I know there's an "Ugliest Dog" award out there, but if there was ever an ugliest fish contest, this thing would be in the top five at least. Ling cod look like mutant frogs with fins, and they eat anything in front of them, which was handy for us because that makes them so much easier to catch. Example: another person on the boat (the only other girl on board, actually) was reeling in an average size ling cod, when up from the depths came this monster ling cod. It's mouth was so wide I think it could have sucked down a basketball. It was attracted by the thrashing around of the other fish. Anyway, when it started to lose interest, the captain told the girl (I wish I could remember names better) to leave her fish in the water to keep the bigger one interested. Then he stuck his gaff in the water and swished the metal hook around. The fish saw that and you could tell from its reaction that it was thinking something along the lines of, "Ooh. Shiny!" because it swam right up to it and the captain hooked it and threw it in the boat.


When we got back to shore and hung this monster cod up to see how it weighed in we found that it was 57 lbs. and it was around 5 feet long.

While in Homer we also had a lot of fun looking at all the really interesting gift shops. There were pottery shops and sweater shops and everything else you can imagine, from traditional native art carved in whale and walrus bone, to hemp necklaces and postcards.

And along with all those shops was the very aptly named waiting bench. :)

For anyone who is a fan of "Deadliest Catch," this will be a treat. We saw the official little gift shop for the Time Bandit and we found out that that ship is docked in Homer, Alaska while it's not in use. Neat, huh?

After Homer we went back to Anchorage for a pit stop and recoup from all that fishing. I could barely use my arms the day after halibut fishing. I've pulled in 300 lb. salmon shark, and this 50 lb. halibut almost got the best of me! Sheesh.

From Anchorage we drove to Denali. That was amazing. We stayed at this roadhouse that was situated 90 miles inside the park, and the only way to get there was to take a tour bus because they don't let people take their personal vehicles any more than 20 or 30 miles into the park to cut down on human invasion of the natural landscape.

Saw this quilt at an info center and thought it was pretty amazing.


Here's the explanation by the artist.

The roadhouse we stayed at.

The drive into the park was outstanding. It took around 7 hours because we would stop and take pictures every time someone saw an animal.

Ryan's favorite grizzly picture.

My favorite grizzly picture.

We saw grizzlies, caribou, grizzlies with babies, dall's sheep, a moose in a pond and more grizzlies. At the road house we got to learn about the Iditarod from the son of Emmitt Peters. That is an amazing story. I should have recorded his talk. My camera does have a video option, but I just didn't think about it at the time. Argh!

Park ingenuity.

On the drive out of the park we finally saw a wolf! It was so wonderful to see such an elusive animal in a setting where we could actually take pictures of it. That was great, but the best part of that day by far was getting to see the mountain itself. On the drive in there was too much smoke from forest fires to see any of the mountains, but on the drive out the sky was reasonably clear and we were able to get some really good pictures.


It's funny, but in the 4 years we lived up in AK we never really got a good look at Denali (the mountain, not the park). The word "Denali" is Athabaskan for "Great One." I think that's a far better option than calling it "Mt. McKinley" after someone who never even set foot in Alaska. Politics!

After Denali we spent one last night in Fairbanks, and then we flew out the next day. In Portland Ryan and his Dad did some scouting for their September hunt and I got to spend quality time with Julie and Linda. Yay! Then we drove back to Moscow for a really fun camping trip with Chris and Jeannette. That was a blast, but I think I'll give it its own post, as this one is already way longer than I expected.

Crafting like crazy!

I have been a crazy sewing fiend these last few weeks! I don't know what got into me but I just had this incredible urge to create. I guess that's a good thing. Unfortunately, it means that Ryan had to put up with the sewing machine on the breakfast table for a while.

I tend to take over the living room as well, whenever I get on one of these creative binges.

On the positive side, the lane chest certainly has an abundance of cute on it now! :)

I followed a clothing pattern for the first time recently and here's the result. (Simplicity Pattern #2931 if you're interested.) I'm very happy with it. The fabric was a $2/yard bargain from the Jo-Ann's clearance isle. I figured that it would be less frustrating if I made a mistake on $2/yard fabric than on $4-6/yard fabric. But I didn't mess up. Hooray! It's a really comfy, billowy shirt--my favorite type because it's more kind to your figure after a big meal than some little tight thing would be. ;)

As you can see, I made another critter from the free patterns at Revoluzzza and my little monster got a bunny for a friend.


After that I was just smacked by inspiration (it snuck up and ambushed me!) and drew out this doll pattern.


The process of translating a 2-D drawing into a 3-D fabric doll was really fun. I think it turned out rather well, too. I think I'll name her Nelly.


This is the original one. I've since made a second one that I gave to Tessa. I wanted to see how sturdy a toy it was and Tessa obliged by immediately throwing it around and whacking everything in sight with it. :)

Last but not least, I used a pattern mailed to me by Aunt Linda. The original pattern was for this funky little oddly shaped critter. I gave it a more symmetrical look so that it could sit on the lane chest without falling over (the, um, backside was extremely asymmetrical). I also decided to make it a butterfly and gave her crocheted legs and antenna with some yarn that I've had since high school. Yes, I own that I'm a pack rat...but sometimes it comes in handy.

I think this butterfly is so adorable. The pattern was easy and quick. Even with the extras of arms and wings, etc. I was able to finish it in an hour or so. Ryan is going to laugh when he sees this. Thank you for the pattern, Aunt Linda!

Well, that was a lot of fun--and surprising Ryan with my latest cute creation at the end of the day was great!--but I think I'll take a break and let the living room be a living room again...at least for a little while. Oh! Who am I kidding? I'll probably unpack the sewing machine again next week! I love creating and it makes me feel good to take advantage of my talent. God blesses so many people in so many ways. I am very thankful for the artistic mind that I received.

Now if I could just find a way to be creative without burying the house in fabric, straight pins and thread, life would be just peachy.