Boreal Witch

Every now and then, the boys get obsessed with something. Oh, they still love their usual obsessions: Legos, books, big trucks; but on occasion, something interesting comes along and for a few weeks, it's all they talk about.

I'm an Alaskan girl.

I can't help it. I was born in Alaska, raised there, and then...I moved.

I won't lie. Sometimes I miss the mountains and the ocean. I miss how warm the people are and the close-knit community I used to live in. (I will admit that Beloit is probably both those things, but I'm still too new to know.) I miss traveling on an airplane and greeting someone I know. I miss having a house and the excitement of painting or tiling a bathroom.

I readily admit that there are some fun things about Wisconsin. We built a real snowman with soft, sticky snow that actually rolled into a ball. Folks, it actually rolled into a ball! Who knew? I seriously thought that was just something that happened in books or movies.

I love the antiques I find but can't afford. (They are ubiquitous here...like cheese and other dairy products.) The other day, the boys and I went to an estate sale and there were so many beautiful pieces of furniture...chests, bed frames, dressers, vanities...it was a dream to look at everything. Old furniture has such a unique, beautiful quality to it. I always feel like touching it. It's always been a dream of mine to have a beautiful home that I'd fill with as many interesting pieces as possible. Living in the Midwest gives me that opportunity. I bought a plant stand and a fun sewing box from that estate sale. Maybe dad will take me to an auction this summer.

Food is so cheap here. We haven't gone over our $100/week budget once. It's a heady feeling to be able to throw extra food into the cart...because I can!

I'm excited to have another (jungle) garden this year and to spend more time at the farm. It will be nice to see the whole family. They'll be coming down to visit in May and June.

I'm thrilled to be able to travel more. Alaska is beautiful, but it is so isolated. Once you start a family it is practically impossible to leave without spending a few thousand dollars in airfare, hotels, and meals. This summer alone, we're planning trips to Niagara Falls, Kansas, and Minnesota...and there will probably be a few spontaneous trips beyond that...but it's so much easier to get around. There are options. My aunt, sisters, and mom have been talking about a Girl's Weekend in Seattle...I would not be able to do that living in Fairbanks.

Speaking of which, I'm going to Kansas for my birthday. Yet another thing I couldn't do living in Alaska.

Arthur has full-day kindergarten, which is so very, very nice. My afternoons are so much more relaxed and I feel as though I accomplish so much more. (Hmmm...maybe that's why I haven't written anything on my blog for a while. I'm so busy finishing projects! Yes, that's it!)

Wisconsin is just so...different. When the Polar Vortex came through, everyone panicked. I just laughed and threw on another quilt. Our heat isn't turned on in our apartment. It's at a comfortable 65 degrees (and sometimes much, much warmer. I have no idea what temperature our neighbors keep their heat, but thank you for keeping us warm through residual heat!).

Maybe the day will come that I'll be cold at 30 degrees (above) and that I'll shrug off the humidity.

But not today.

Still that Alaskan girl.

Blessed be.

This is one of my favorite blog posts. Probably because I can show off some of my creations I've made over the year, but also because it involves one of my loves: quilting.

I started quilting about seven years ago. As with most of my hobbies, I threw myself into it. I didn't bother taking a class, I just cut some squares and triangles and started sewing. Most of my beginning quilts were less than wonderful, but as I kept going, I learned about matching colors, seams, sashing, binding, and even the process of quilting.

Almost all of my quilts are for other people. I haven't made myself a quilt yet (though I hope next year will be the year!). When my grandmother passed, I inherited the quilt I made for her. She never used it because it was "too pretty to use." I wonder what she would think if she knew I use it all the time! 

Even with the big move from Alaska to Wisconsin, I managed to make four quilts and bind and quilt one. I might have gotten one more finished if I had sent it to the quilters about a month earlier. Oh, well. It will be the first quilt finished of the New Year! 

Quilt #1: My Blue Heaven
(You can find the pattern here.) This quilt was for a dear friend of mine from high school. Heather and her husband had been married for two(?) years when I finally finished it. This quilt was monstrous. Normally I try not to make quilts this big because it takes me too long to finish them. I had cut everything out and started sewing it together...and then it sat for a really long time. Finally, I just said, "Screw it!" and made the finished quilt a little smaller. I did keep the extra blocks and will use them for a baby quilt next year. (I just moved to Wisconsin, so I don't know a lot of people, yet I find myself in the process of making three baby quilts!) I chose this quilt because Heather's eyes are blue and her husband's are brown. It was lucky I had a lot of blue and brown scraps. For some reason I must really love blue and brown quilts...



Quilt #2: Simple Hourglass
To be honest, I can't remember where I found this pattern, but it is super simple to put together. It only took me a day to complete. I made this for Ginny, one of the other IAC board members who was having her baby at the end of January.

Anyone else notice that I really seem to like scrap quilts?

(I think they are far more interesting than quilts with the same fabrics.) 



Quilt #3: Block-Within-A-Block
I did not sew this quilt. My friend Amanda made it for Balin's birthday. She had sewn everything together and had tied it with yarn, but couldn't figure out how to put the binding on. I offered to put it on for her since it probably would have sat at her house for months if I hadn't. (And there's no shame in that...my projects tend to sit for months at a time, too!) I ended up taking the yarn out and quilting before putting the binding on. It's a cute little quilt. I love the colors.


Quilt #4: Rails
I'm going to have to start making better notes about each of the quilts I make. I made this in February and it is now December. I'm embarrassed to admit (again) that I've forgotten where I got this pattern.

I made this quilt for the Boys and Girls Club Auction. I don't make a lot of red quilts, but I think I'm going to start. They are absolutely beautiful.


Quilt #5: Bento Box
I finished this for a friend who got married last November. When I told her it was a custom of mine to make quilts for weddings, she told me that she'd like a wall hanging instead.

Emily spent a year teaching in Japan and I thought the Bento Box pattern would be perfect. She had told me that her favorite colors were blue and green. I machine quilted it myself and am very proud to say that I am getting pretty darn good at machine quilting!

I expect to finish at least two wedding quilts and three baby quilts, but there is always the possibility of more, more, more!

Blessings in the New Year, dear readers!

Blessed be.

Yule is one of my favorite holidays. Actually, we have so many traditions that all of December seems like one big holiday.

Since we are living in an apartment again, we had to do things differently this year.

We don't have a fireplace, so our Yule celebration didn't include a bonfire this year.  We had some  sparklers that I picked up from a garage sale this summer and lit those instead. The boys had a blast. We also had a delicious dinner with the most amazing salad I've ever eaten (recipe here) and a caramel/butterscotch fondue for dessert. Sadly, Robinson was sick with strep throat and was unable to enjoy the food as much as he would have if he was well.

Our lease says that we cannot have a real Christmas tree, so we bought a large wreath to hang all of our ornaments and lights on. It was a bit crowded, but the boys enjoyed the novelty.

Their ornaments turned out great, too. Arthur chose to commemorate his holiday program; Balin, his time on the farm, Robinson, his journey down the Al-Can; and I chose to celebrate my new-found love of biking. 


We did, however, continue a few of our favorite traditions. Our gingerbread "house" this year was actually an AT-AT. There's a Lego Luke Skywalker on top (that was Arthur's idea). We had a tough time with it. Its first and second heads were too heavy and broke off, so we decided that this would be one of the AT-ATs that had fallen in the battle on Hoth. It took forever to finish this thing (mostly because of the combination of winter break and Robinson's illness), but the boys had a blast decorating it. Next year we're going to shoot for an X-Wing!

My friend Andrea made a special trip to visit us. She went to UPS with me and lived just down the hall freshman year. She's in Minnesota now. We haven't seen each other in (I kid you not) about twelve years, so it was wonderful to catch up. We also caught each other up on some of the things other UPS friends have been doing and worked on some wedding presents for our friend Rin, who got married February. There are plans in the works to visit her this summer...the boys were utterly fascinated and smitten by her. Isn't it funny how you can get together with old friends and everything's just like old times?

Our families are very generous and the boys received all kinds of gifts: toys, books, clothes. They spent most of the morning putting their new Lego kits together, with Arthur helping Balin.

I'm not sure where Balin's interest in fire fighters came from (he was a fireman for Halloween - maybe that's part of it?), but he got a lot of fire fighting gifts, including two pairs of pajamas and the Lego firetruck. (I didn't notice until now, but he's also sporting his fire truck t-shirt!)

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Blessed be.

My boys love dogs.

They love, love, love dogs.

Especially Arthur. Whenever there's a dog out walking with its owner, Arthur almost always asks if he can pet it. He loves his Uncle Johnny's dogs. He often speaks of wanting a dog.

I, however, know that getting a dog now would be like welcoming the flu or some other contagious disease with open arms: a disaster. See, the boys would be excited about said dog for a day or two and then I would be the one walking it, feeding it, cleaning up after it...oh, no, no, no, no, NO.

I like dogs as much as the next person, but if the boys ever got one, they would be the ones taking care of it. End. Of. Story.

Robinson's brother, John-Charles, and his partner, Hugo, live in Ohio. I've mentioned to several people that this is fairly close to us and they look at me like I'm nuts. I guess I've lived in Alaska way too long when I consider a seven-hour drive "close."

Anyway, we invited them to Thanksgiving. They accepted.

And they brought their dog, Patches.

Now, by my tone you probably think I'm some kind of dog-hater. I'm really not, although there are some dogs that are a little too much for me. I like low-key, non-hyper dogs. Growing up, my family only owned one dog and that was a long-haired Dachshund named Schatzi. She was an older dog, so she was pretty mellow, but she was a little dog which meant that whenever anyone came over, she'd bark at the door for about 15 minutes, and even after our guest entered. 

Patches is about 15 years old, which is quite ancient in dog years, but this dog has the sweetest disposition I have ever had the pleasure of being acquainted with. The boys loved her. They loved watching her chase squirrels. They loved watching her eat. They loved sneaking her food (yes, they did...so sorry, John-Charles and Hugo!). They loved petting her. And they loved all the doggie kisses she gave them. They want to see her again. And soon.

While we're hoping for a trip next summer, we'll still be waiting on a dog for our family.

Someday, boys, I promise.

Blessed be.

Who out there doesn't like Thanksgiving leftovers?

Me, for one.

I know, it's positively un-American.

You should know by now, my dear readers, that I'm not a big fan of leftovers in general. Thanksgiving leftovers generally become new meals: stuffing is put into meatloaf, deviled eggs become egg salad, and turkey is usually added to soup.

Robinson was very, very sad to see the turkey meat go into this delightfully delicious filling, but I wasn't. These sandwiches are heavenly. And, if you eat this filling between a leftover roll, you'll be killing two birds with one stone!

One the Menu: BBQ Turkey Sandwiches
5-6 cups cooked, shredded turkey
1 onion, finely chopped*
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1/2 pepper (your choice of color), finely chopped
1 tbs olive oil (or oil of your choice)
2-3 cups of BBQ sauce (any kind), about 1 standard sized bottle
Leftover rolls or buns

Saute vegetables until soft, about five minutes. Add turkey and BBQ sauce. Heat through, then serve on rolls.

* I'm not sure how your family does Thanksgiving, but mine always had a vegetable plate. Always. For this meal, I just chopped up leftover veggies and threw them in this dish. If you don't have these particular vegetables, try something else or omit them all together.

Blessed be.

I've been meaning to write. I have, really. One of my boys is now in school and the other still naps in the afternoon, which (one would think) would give me lots of time to blog and catch up on other things.

October has flown by. The month was full of candy and parties and costumes. Arthur was Luke Skywalker and Balin chose to be a fireman. Would you believe that I had to make his jacket because I couldn't find one anywhere? Costumes for both boys cost a whopping $20. I was a bit overwhelmed with everything going on this year, so I didn't make a new costume. Maybe next year. 

Provided that I come up with a really good idea.

And if, of course, I'm feeling ambitious.

We bought our pumpkin from the Farmer's Market this year - the typical orange variety. I tried to spice things up by convincing them we should get a warty one. That was a resounding "NO!" They did, however, like the smooth white ones, so maybe next year we'll be able to convince them that we should get one of those.

Their idea of cool changes on a whim, so they might like the warty ones next year.

Arthur loved pulling the pumpkin guts out. Balin was a little less interested, but he liked the end result. Arthur designed the face after one of the Halloween luminaries we saw at Shopko.

There were also the customary cut cookies. As you can see, dear readers, both boys have frosting on their lips. After they plastered their cookies with frosting, they decided to devour the remainder.

Really, there's no other way to do it.

We ended up going to Carter and Anders's house for dinner the night of Halloween. We were hopeful that the weather on the boys' first actual night of trick-or-treating would be nice, but it poured. The boys played with their friends while Robinson and I hung out with their parents. All in all a nice evening, though not the one we had planned. 

Hope your Halloween was a blessed one. I thought about my grandmother and Karen all day.

Blessed be.