Yoda

Yoda is so awesome, he gets his own post!
Did you know:

The voice of Yoda was provided by Frank Oz. Who also voiced The Muppets, Miss Piggy and Sesame Streets Grover and Cookie Monster.

Early in production on Episode II, it became clear that the lightsaber battle between Yoda and Dooku could only be carried out with a computer-generated Yoda. The ILM animators took great efforts to reproduce Frank Oz's puppeteering skills. Imperfections, like the constant wiggling of Yoda's rubber ears- which happened when Franks' arm was tired of holding up the puppet wwere such a part of the character that they were added to the computer generated form.

And my favorite factoid is: A picture of Einstein was on the wall behind the Yoda sculptures during development and the wrinkles around Einstein's eyes got worked into the Yoda Design.


EJ and Z with Yoda.

Yoda!

Star Wars

So I've always assumed that every person on the planet must absolutely LOVE Star Wars. Alas, I was wrong. I married a man who is NOT into Star Wars, if you can believe it. However, he LOVES his wife and kids so he took us to the traveling science of Star Wars exhibit at the Anchorage Museum a few weeks ago. I was like a kid in a candy shop, especially with the live action Storm Troopers and a "real" Jawa (much to my youngest sons dismay).

Here are few pics of our time at the Star Wars exhibit. A must see for all lovers of The Force, or geeky homeschool Mom's. The hubby even enjoyed himself despite his lack of adoration.


(Z building his very own R2)

(B talking to a real droid. He played peek a boo and eventually, said to her. "the force is strong with you" and "Luke, I am your Father"...which cracked us all up)

(EJ and General Grievous. Who knew he was so tiny! Much less intimidating in person.)

(The Death Star)

(Luke's Hand, Which totally creeped EJ out.

(The scariest Star Wars monster EVER! Maybe it was my age when the Empire Strikes Back came out, but man o man was I afraid of this guy!)

(A little sign teaching Alaskan's that the world is cold...tee hee)

(A riding on air, fun stuff!)

(C riding on air)

(The hubby enjoying himself!)

Owls!

I came up with the idea for these owls just before Valentine's Day. As a Mommy to 5 kids it's is always a challenge to figure out original homemade gift ideas for special days like Valentines and Easter. I try to save money whenever I can on these days. This year I recycled some wool I had been saving for winter hats and turned them into these adorable owls. I didn't get any made in time to sell at Valentines on Etsy but I made 8. 5 for my kids and 3 to donate to our youth group Valentine's Day Banquet auction. The kids loved them, and all 3 sold at the auction. I really, really enjoy making these. Each one is unique and I find that a lot of fun! I've tried to make sure that each owl has his/her own name that starts with an O...this has proved a little challenging. I recently had a blogger ask to review one for me! I am super excited to read her review and will let you know when it is up. I've given her one to give away too!
Click here to check them out in my shop.

This is Octavius

and Oswald (who went to live in Kauai)

and Odette (for sale in my shop)

and Oliver (my first etsy owl sale)

Dare I say it....I think spring has arrived.

The trees are budding out, the mosquitoes are out and the long winter seems to be at its end. I am thankful for the longer days as we head into summer.




The sun is so addicting, it's as if every fiber of my being is crying out for it. We now have some sort of light from 4:15 am till 11:30. It definitely makes it hard to go to bed early and easy to wake up early.

49th Find

My new etsy shop. I LOVE anything vintage or antique. I'm a history junkie, I really enjoy the stories from history and OLD stuff just really strikes my fancy. I'm also constantly in the local thrift shops (I've got to clothe 7 people on a ministers budget). So I came up with an idea that I could turn my love of hunting for ancient gems into a way to provide a little extra cash-ola. Hey, somebody's got to support this shopping habbit of mine...tee hee.

Here is my new shop and some of my first finds. More to come!

Wowsers! Time Flies.....

Holy Smokes (as Grandpa used to say), I can hardly believe 3 months has gone by since I last blogged. Ok closer to 4 months but who is really counting but me? Here's what I've been up to (in a nut shell of course).

Fall:

We made applesauce out of Alaska's tiny and super tart apples. Because the apples are so small it is best if you cook the whole apple and then press it through a sieve to strain out all of the skins, stems and seeds. Because of the bright color of the apple skin our applesauce was the most amazing pink lemonade like color. We added plenty of sugar so it was nice and sweet too! We processed three 5 gallon buckets of apples and have actually eaten it all already! My tatse buds are eagerly awaiting next years crop.


God's creation is amazing:


When the leaves dropped from the trees around our new house we were in awe of the view that was revealed and the sunrises over the Chugach mountain range were incredible. When you live somewhere with no sunrise or sunset for months on end, you are overwhelmed and in awe of it when it returns. Its my very favorite thing about "heading into the darkness" or the darker season we have here.

We had some fun:You're never too old for dress up! My girls are growing up way too fast for my liking but they still love to dress up and twirl. Thank you Jane Austen!


I made some fun stuff:
To give away: an upcycled Super Lucky Elephant bag for my daughters friend.

To Sell: This super cute corduroy lined sling and many more of course....it WAS the craft bazaar season after all.




To Keep: Upcycled vintage fabric and button cross for my cross collection. I've made a couple more to sell but have not listed them yet.


And ..............


JUST FOR FUN: My crazy pets in funny positions..

What I've been up to.

Creatively this has been an amazing month for me. I had 22 etsy.com sales this month. That's the most sales in one month on etsy for me. I guess my facebook ads are starting to pay off? I'm October will prove just as successful for me.
Here are a couple pics of some new slings I have in my shop. I just ordered red and blue Mexican fabric to go with the purple, yellow and black I already have.