I never seem to remember that this exists

All summer I decided that crafting would take a backseat to all the more important summery things to do in Alaska!  I hiked, biked, canoed, camped, took road trips, visited with family, enjoyed the fair, planted and harvested my first garden, soaked up the many days of sun, played at the Alaska Raceway Park and just forgot that I knew how to do anything with my hands other than fish, eat, and hold a paddle or an alcoholic beverage on occasion!

Now winter has set in, and boy has it ever.  The snow hit and stayed, a first in the many years I have lived here.  The bitter cold has already gotten us down to -20 and its not even December yet! I really wonder what our new year will bring if this is how our winter has begun.

As for crafting, I have several things going on right now.  I feel defunct I guess.  I have a caliormetry in Noro going, a sweater in Valley Yarns grey merino wool (when I realized it would be huge on me, I set it aside), a nylon corded purse in black but it is a bit misshapen and hence must be frogged, some socks that I think I will have to pick up again, and some cotton dishcloths.  I have plans to do some sewing, but right now my house projects are taking up a bit of my downtime. 

Instead of spring cleaning I am winter cleaning.  I did my living room, and have cleaned out and rearranged every cupboard in my kitchen.  The pantry and storage under the stairs I will save for later.  My room and bathroom and walk in closet are the biggest project.  I bought red paint, its delicious! for the living room, I plan on a plum/eggplant type paint for the kitchen... I want to paint leaves, trees and birds against the crimson in a pecan/light taupe/tan color in the living room, I am redoing an old mirror we found at the thrift store, that turns out to be oak for above the mantle of the fireplace.  I want to paint ravens and ribbons and stars in my kitchen, and I have plans for a Native blue/purple tone bathroom with symbols and bear tracks on the walls.

My room, I want to paint red as well.  My bathroom upstairs I am not sure of the color scheme I want to go with, but plans exist to redo that and the girls bathroom as well as their rooms.

I have Christmas looming on the horizon, but never seem to be able to sit long enough to knit anything.  Time used to be that I would be knitting all the time, in the car, in line anywhere, sitting at an office, at a friends house...waiting at the restaurant... my husband thought I was crazy... made me leave it in the car once, and when we got in the bar/lounge, a woman was knitting AT THE BAR! I eagerly pointed that out to him... haha.

Well, I really want to keep this blog up, I dropped my Olympus camera on the edge of Cooper Lake this summer when we were canoeing/exploring... it was supposed to be shock proof but the rock proved the claims wrong! So I don't quite have the ability to take pictures until I buy a new camera at some point.