Winter gear

Craigslist is perfect for kid outdoor gear - I have found some awesome deals over the last year, including lots of clothing and K'Boom skis for Boyd. This pair was barely used and I snagged them for $20! They retail around $60 and are a good starter pair of skis for very little kiddos. We'll save them for next winter when he's old enough to stomp around with them.

So until he can ski or snowshoe on his own, we'll be pulling him around in the chariot or one of his sleds. I purchased a little blue plastic toddler sled at a garage sale for $3 (yeah, love garage sales!) which you've seen in previous photos. And my mom has this L.L. Bean sled at her house, which was generously gifted to Boyd by my boss and her daughter. It works out perfectly to have a sled in both locations. 

For some reason he doesn't mind wearing sunglasses outside. Once we're inside he'll pull them off lickety split! The retro pair (above) was a garage sale find by Uncle Gabe. The pair below (BabyBanz) were a baby shower gift from my friend Susie.

A few weeks ago I bought a Skhoop for myself. They were all 50% off at REI, although most were sold out by them time I got on the site. Mine is a mid-length down skirt in grey. It keeps me so warm - I usually wear it to and from work on blustery days - and I throw it on whether I'm wearing a skirt or pants. There are zips on each side to allow for increased movement, e.g. using the Skhoop while skiing.

 Have any great gear recommendations?

Hold on tight

First BIG BOY ride in a shopping cart!

I couldn't believe how well he did. Usually we take the whole infant car seat and pop it into a stroller frame - it's convenient and the frame is fairly lightweight compared to a big stroller. The downside to this setup is that Boyd is stuck in his hot car seat at an incline for the duration of our shopping trip. And you can only fit so many items into the little basket underneath his seat. Grocery shopping can get difficult if the list is more than a few items long. As an alternative I would put the whole car seat in the main part of the shopping cart, especially at Costco, but then my space for groceries was limited. If we have another kid, I'll just wear the little one in an Ergo carrier and sit Boyd in the cart. 

Lately Boyd has really been struggling to sit up in the car seat, so I didn't even bring the stroller frame on this shopping trip with my mom. We popped him in the cart on top of a blanket and he was good to go! We were in Fred Meyer to purchase 4 bar stools for my mom's breakfast nook (you can see the boxes in our carts below). Her house is slowly coming together and looking great.

Little bit of an Elvis sneer here, I think.

Holding on for safety!

Friday update

Oh geez, sorry for the long delay in posts everyone!

My trip to California was great, if not very short - only 3 days. We ate out at food trucks (the new cool thing!), visited Japantown for fresh mochi, sampled San Jose cuisine, Dad made a couple improvements to Risha's apartment, and of course my sister and I stopped by Ikea for a few essentials. Good times and a wonderful way to spend Father's Day weekend.

It's already July 1st - where did June go? The weather here in Anchorage has fluctuated between glorious 75 degree sunny days and cool, rainy ones. Today is overcast but surprising warm in the 60's. Not quite sure what we're doing for the 4th of July holiday. I just got hit with a nasty cold so that added to my recent sleep issues is making me unbearably cranky today. I'm so tempted to head straight home and hide under the covers for the next 3 days!

The house is looking pretty good - D is working on little maintenance issues here and there. I love the way the lawn looks (and smells!) right after it is mowed. All the deck chairs are out and my flowers are blooming, so the back deck is our favorite place to be on sunny days.

Parties galore

Happy Friday, happy weekend. My workplace holiday party is tonight - 775 people signed up! I'm going to scoot home a little early and then help with setup this evening at the hotel. Our party is so big that we rent all four of the Sheraton's ballrooms. I helped my coworker shop for door prize gifts this week and am crossing my fingers that I will win something because our prizes are seriously awesome (camera, flip video recorder, coffee cards, gift cards, lift tickets, ski resort overnight stays, etc.) D is off the hook for this party and has decided to go snowmachining and critter-hunting up north with a buddy instead. Aren't I a nice wife?

Speaking of holiday parties, we attended the Carpenters Union event last month and I ended up winning a $50 certificate to Club Paris downtown, which is one of THE BEST places to get a steak in Alaska. It's very Alaskan, which means you can go there and drop $150 on a fancy meal but not feel out of place wearing Carharts and XtraTuffs.

The Carpenters party was held at the Captain Cook and I got a fantastic parking spot just steps away from the hotel (there's my lucky streak again - my friends call me the luckiest girl in Anchorage!). We took a little break from the party to check out the hotel shops and came across an art gallery, Stephan Fine Arts. D and I both fell in love with a gorgeous print by Alaskan artist Charles Gause.

It is HUGE (44" x 14" unframed) but coincidentally we have open wall space above our dining room table that would fit this perfectly. D and I spend a lot of time in Prince William Sound and we both love how this evokes memories of special days spent out there. Isn't it amazing? At the gallery the print was matted beautifully with a thick dark wood frane that matches our home decor. It's a wee bit expensive though - $450 unframed and around $825 framed/matted. Ah well, we can dream.

2009: Year in Review

January
The year started off with 10 to 15 degree below zero weather. D and I finally took our first real joint vacation (after 3.5 years together!) to Mexico and ended up with some bad luck, but had a great time overall. I did manage to come back with bruised ribs. Boo. We all waited for Mt. Redbout to blow.

February
Still waiting for a volcanic eruption. Bought new dining room furniture. Started ordering organic food through Full Circle Farm CSA. Our crazy high gas prices started to come down a bit. D began snowmachining out to a cabin up north and shooting critters.

March
I attended my second BOW (Becoming an Outdoors Woman) weekend. D continued his love affair with his snowmachine. Mt. Redoubt finally blows its top and luckily Anchorage only receives light ashfall. Of course we went to a party that evening and drove my car through the ash cloud. Figures.

April
We had been living in our new house for one year as of April 1st. In that year, D completed MANY home improvement projects (total kitchen remodel, popcorn ceiling scraping, 2 bathroom renovations, painting, etc.) D finished the master bathroom remodel in record time!We participated in a home energy rating in order to get money back from the state. I took a really neat train trip for a work excursion just as the whole swine flu hysteria broke in the US. Breakup hits Alaska -- temps hit 40 degrees and snow starts melting, making for messy streets and cars. We attend the annual Sportsman show and get pumped for fishing season!

May
D, Drift and I take the boat out to Deep Creek for our first trip of the summer. We had amazing weather and 60 degree temperatures, which is extremely abnormal for the beginning of May. D installed a new sliding glass patio door in the dining room and I finally bought a new dishwasher. Towards the end of the month we took a day trip out of Whittier and experienced the most beautiful (and HOT) weather in the Sound ever. The fishing was ok that day, shrimping was great.

June
Summer officially arrives and I get all of our flowers planted outside. D's parents arrive in Alaska after a long drive from Minnesota and the combat fishing season begins in earnest. D turns 35 and I get him the best present ever: a mission style recliner. We replace our 2-car garage door.

July
We continue to have kick-ass warm and sunny weather, and hit summer solstice. The grass grows faster than D can get around to cutting it. In celebrity news, I see Bear Grylls at Humpy's while out for a pint with friends and Sarah Palin resigns the governorship. D fishes every weekend with his parents and I drive down to the Russian and Kenai Rivers when I can. Dipnetting for salmon happens this month too.Oh, I caught a really nice king! We are vacuum-sealing and canning fish like crazy.

August
Best month ever! We celebrated my 32nd birthday, got ENGAGED and I won $1,000 worth of girly gift certificates from a radio contest. Took a wonderful trip to Tennesssee to see my family. Something not so great: one of my cats begins to bring home mice she has caught in the yard.

September
D goes moose and caribou hunting, and comes home with a really nice caribou that may make it into the Pope & Young record book for Alaska! We finally order my engagement ring from Blue Nile online and it is gorgeous. Construction continues on the main feeder road to our house. We take day trip at the end of the month to Lake Louise and Bonnie Lake for some hiking, canoeing and target practice.

October
We take another day trip, but go down south this time to Seward/Moose Pass to look at possible wedding locations and hike out to Carter Lake. I hit the one-year anniversary of my blog! We start wedding planning in earnest; setting the date and location, hiring a caterer, dj and photographer. Still no snow on the ground, which is odd. I work a lot of Saturdays because of health fairs. I help babysit triplets and realize that I do not want triplets.

November
I visit Texas for my 10-year college reunion. We fiinally get snow on the ground back home and have a snowy Thanksgiving. It's cold.

December
Ice fog hits Anchorage and my sister arrives for her yearly visit. D and I decide to go low-key for Christmas and not do presents. Without discussing it, we end up buying ourselves a big gift anyway! Kindle for me, chainsaw and snowmachine bibs for D. Our wedding save-the-dates finally go out in the mail. Risha and I go wedding dress shopping. Winter solstice means we have the lowest amount of daylight all year. We go x-c skiing one last time before the new year.

Gift idea

If you love Marimekko stuff as much as I do, scoot on over to Avon and grab yourself a Crusade Tote:

The bags are only $10 each and the net profits go towards breast cancer. I bought two and ended up giving one away during a Chinese (or white elephant) gift exchange. The tote is way super cute and I've already had strangers ask me where I got it. Mostly I use it tote paperwork or my lunch from work to home, and it's holding up pretty well.

Tennessee 4: Atlanta & Korean Market

We took one day to visit the city of Atlanta (about 3.5 hours away) -- well to be honest, we hit up a mall, the Korean market and a sushi restaurant. No sightseeing or visiting museums or anything like that - we had priorities!

Apparently a large contingent of Korean people live in Atlanta, because this whole grocery store was dedicated to Korean and Asian food/products. I've only seen a bigger market in California.

Yum, yum...kimchi!

I was really debating on whether to get this neat fish pan -- ended up not buying it. Cute though, huh?

Gabe (Risha's boyfriend) took this photo of us as we waited for dinner. What a nice guy.

Me and my gorgeous mom.

I'm not exactly sure what is being accomplished in this photo...but they have some utensil skillz, yo!

Some appetizer dishes, served Asian style: kimchi, pickled turnip, spicy greens, bean sprouts.

My mom ordered her entree' and the dish was seriously 3x the size of her head.

Breaking News - Beer!

I just found out that the Alaskan Brewing Company, located in Juneau, has released a brand new beer -- Alaskan White Ale!

It sounds delish: "Alaskan White Ale has a soft, slightly sweet base with the unique spice aroma of coriander and crisp, citrus finish of orange peel. A light and effervescent body combined with the smooth palate creates a complex and delicate beer that is deliciously refreshing in any season. "

I'm a sucker for the wheat-y and Belgian style beers. Can't wait to find it at our local shops.

Sham WOW!

I forgot to mention that at the Sportsmans Show, I finally broke down and purchased some of those damn ShamWow towels. It really is amazing to see the live demo -- especially the part where the towel slurps up the cola spilled onto carpet.




We're putting a couple in the kitchen and bathrooms, while the other set is going on the boat and to use as scent lures for fishing (another tip gleaned from a seminar at the show).

On a related note, D heard that the annoying ShamWow tv sales guy was arrested for canoodling with a "lady of negotiable affection" in a hotel room recently. ShamNO!

Weekend fun

This past weekend was filled with more bathroom remodel excitement (the last little touches are being done now). We're so close!

On Sunday, D and I hit up the annual Sportsmans Show at the sports arena. Lots of fun stuff to see and do -- we sat through a couple seminars and browsed our little hearts out.

The Bird Treatment & Learning Center (one of my clients back in my ad agency days) was there and this volunteer was displaying a live little owl. He was so very cute. Bird TLC rehabilitates sick, injured and orphaned birds (owls, raptors, eagles, etc). The ones that can be released are set back into the wild -- the others are kept for public education purposes. A very, very worthwhile organization.

Since this was a show for hunters (among others), we saw mounts galore! This one of a mama moose defending her calf was HUGE.

Did you know that black bears can bowhunt too? The Alaska Bowhunters Association had this display. I entered into a raffle for a free bow -- didn't get a call so apparently I didn't win. Poop.

Last year I bought my snazzy new waders from the Sportsmans Show -- can't wait to get them out again!

Here I am, ready to flip for reds (sockeye) on the Russian and Kenai Rivers. Speaking of, we have a new fly to try out this year...secret info gleaned from a seminar at the Show!

Free photo book

This is a great offer from Shutterfly: a free 20-page 8x8 photo book!

It's a $29.99 value, but FREE for you if you enter coupon code PHOTOBOOKS when checking out. Good until March 10, 2009.

I haven't ordered Shutterfly's photo books before, but friends have and the quality is pretty good. Plus you can't beat free, peoples...

Hammered jewelry

Attending college in San Antonio was a great time in my life for a number of reasons: fabulous education, beautiful year-round weather (for the most part), finding lifelong friends (yay Slee and Em!) and of course, the abundant shopping opportunities not found in AK.

One of my favorite jewelry stores originated from the Texas Hill Country -- James Avery. This stuff is handcrafted and so classy -- really timeless stuff. My sorority provided me with my first piece. And I still wear it today, along with matching earrings and a necklace that my parents purchased for me.

I'm really liking these hammered pieces:

Dining like adults

After daily phone calls to Target, I finally received word yesterday that my dining set was available and ready for pickup. However I did go in somewhat pessimistically this time because I already dragged D there once (after calling to check on stock) and there was NOTHING! I even tried to get the salesguy to sell me the display set and he said nope.

D met me at the store (all the way on east side of town, very near my old high school as it turns out). After having the manager check on the status he tells me that they're not getting anymore in and that the only set left is the display. Geez -- so I say I'll take the whole display: table, 4 chairs and bench. The whole set was already 30% off -- good, but not enough. I pointed out a few scratches on the pieces and negotiated another 10% off the discount price. Woot! Overall I saved about $350.

D does not seem to be as in love with the swoon-worthy set, but he did admit that it was better than our old set and he likes that it is made of heavy, real wood. Peoples, that is high praise coming from my man.

Monday update

D and a friend of his went off snowmachining this past weekend and came back very happy. They were able to "shoot some varmints" and D came home with a fox and lynx.

While he was gone I scooted off to Target to scope out the Home Design Event, where selected items are 30% off. And eureka! I found the dining set of my dreams...


The color of the set I want is a dark dark brown, almost black. I love that the table has some weight to it and feels sturdy. It also features the shaker/amish style that I'm really into. The sales guy told me he sold the last in-stock table the day prior, so I'm waiting (not so) patiently for more to come in. Our current dining set is the one I brought with me from the condo -- white farmhouse-style in wobbly shape.

I also scored a good work sweater for $2.57...yahoo! And D almost killed himself recently in the slippery tub, so I snagged one of these swanky pebble bath mats too.

In other news, my ribs are still sore -- I can only sleep in one position comfortably. I've been feeling flabby so I did a very light workout on the elliptical. That was probably a bad idea but today my ribs don't feel any worse than they have on previous days.

I like my cards sassy

From Offensive + Delightful:

Help the economy...shop

Not too much going on here -- the weather is warmer, thank goodness, and my sister is town until the 15th. Santa Claus is coming to my workplace on Saturday so I've been tapped to serve as the photography elf. It's pretty funny to see the different reactions children have to Santa -- some will run up to him and say "do you remember me?" and others will totally FREAK OUT. These kids are happy and smiling as they walk through the door, and then the level of their meltdown is directly proportional to how close they are to Santa. Poor kiddos. :-)

As a holiday offering, I wanted to share a site that comes in handy for finding good deals: The Bargainist. It's painful for me to pay full price on anything, so I also check these sites for coupon codes: Current Codes, Coupon Mountain, and Slickdeals. Happy shopping!

AK crafts

Fall in Alaska means it's craft show time! In the past I've done a few shows but lately the work schedule for my real job has been so busy that I don't even try to do craft fairs anymore. I do miss being able to sell crafty stuff and interact with people at the booth, but hey, my day job pays the bills.

That being said, my friend Cindy and I hit up a BIG show at the new convention center downtown, the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center (D worked construction on this building -- I used to watch him on the web cam). This place is quite large, smack in the middle of downtown -- me and pretty much all of Anchorage are relieved that it's finished since traffic was a nightmare for over a year during construction.

Back to the craft show, vendors were everywhere in the Dena'ina Center and I finally broke down and purchased an "ak starfish" hoodie in brown:

I LOVE it -- it's soft, but not bulky like regular hoodies at all. The owner of the company imprints her designs on American Apparel clothing, so they're made in the U.S. -- yay! I've been eyeing the merchandise for a couple years now and am happy to have finally made a purchase.

M.I.A.

Oh my, I've been derelict in my posting duties. That's what a nice vacation and the subsequent busy time at work will do to a blogger. Apologies all around, peoples.

A lot of websites have gotten their hands on the Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) sales ads and I've been perusing them for good deals. I'm currently in the market for an elliptical workout machine and once again my love of in-depth research is making it hard to narrow the choices down to just one lucky winner. So the search continues. I will probably get a NordicTrack elliptical that will be on sale at Sears on Black Friday, with an extended warranty. I don't need to be lugging a big heavy machine back to store if it breaks down. Those suckers can come to my house and fix it for me!

Last year we got up crazy early to visit Home Depot on Black Friday. It wasn't busy by any means but the under cabinet mounted microwaves we wanted were pretty much flying off the showroom floor. We got one for the house and one for the condo (which I sold last year). That was a really great deal, but I haven't seen anything too amazing this year.

3 Cool Things - 11/14/08

Tiny Prints -- we just used this company for some holiday invites here at work and they turned out really, really nice. The cost was reasonable as well.

Here's a coupon if you would like to try them out: Save 10% of one future purchase of $40 or more at Tiny Prints. Enter the promo code TPWINTER at checkout. Offer expires February 1, 2009.

---

Do you have questions? Metafilter has the answers!

Ask Metafilter!

If anything, it's entertaining to read people's responses...

---

Free online polaroid image maker:

The site creates polaroid-like images from your digital photos. Bittersweet because Polaroid has discontinued the original cameras -- no one needs them anymore since the digital format has taken over the world...

3 Cool Things - 11/7/08

I'm out town but have scheduled this post to pop up on Friday - so as not to disappoint my scores of blog readers. :-) So many cool things, so little time...

---

Video game cupcakes -- via CakeWrecks:

---

External hard drive - back up your computer now! My old computer was a desktop version and when it started to die I scrambled to transfer all my precious files to cd's. It took a while and not everything made it. (RIP mp3's) This time around I learned my lesson and have routinely backed up my laptop. Send files to your hotmail or gmail account, pay for storage online or get an external hard drive. I chose the latter -- it's super small (3"x5"), lightweight and easy to transfer files:

---

SmartWool -- this stuff is A-MAZ-ING. It's 100% top quality wool but: 1) is washable and able to be thrown into the dryer without shrinkage; 2) is wearable for DAYS before it starts to stink; 3) feels just like cotton; and 4) wicks away moisture (aka icky sweat). Hallelujah! I've been wearing this stuff for the last year or so and it has made such a difference when skiing, snowshoeing or out on the boat. It's my favorite of the tech wools: Icebreaker, Ibex and Swobo.

My friends with babies swear by these SmartWool booties -- apparently they are the only footwear that manages to stay on a little one's foot. And they have traction on the bottom.