A Birthday for a Princess

My baby turned 4!

Wow. It's weird to have this little person with fully formed (although not necessarily informed) opinions and preferences and dislikes living here with us... She has told us that she "loves everything that's pink and sparkly and beautiful..." For her birthday she wanted everything 'princessy', so she ended up with a Disney princess themed day, with balloons, a tiara and sparkly shoes.

Since I remember her spitting up everything she ate for the first 3 months of her life, and being purple with black hair when she was first born, it is rather shocking to hear some of the things that come out of her mouth. :) I'm looking forward to seeing who she becomes as she grows up- hoping/praying that she falls in love with Jesus and gives him her heart and life, hoping that she finds something worthwhile and graceful to focus her life's energy on...

Just for Giggles

If you're in need of a good laugh, visit http://www.engrish.com/. It's a website devoted to catching translation bloopers from Chinese or Japanese to English. Absolutely hysterical. I always end up laughing so hard I'm crying when I visit his site.

The best part is that the guy who collects these pictures has lived overseas for many years, loves Asian culture, and is not out to make fun of it... My favorite today was this travel advertisement.

Got to say- if I was looking for a way to get somewhere, I'd see about renting a car...

There are always a few rather risque shots, so if you're not in the mood to be surprised by the titillating content or if you've got your grandmother visiting, I'd recommend passing on the site...

Battlestar Galactica

"There are those who believe... that life here... began out there. Far across the universe. With tribes of humans... who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians... or the Toltecs... or the Mayans... that they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids... or the lost civilizations of Lemuria... or Atlantis... Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man... who even now fight to survive... somewhere beyond the heavens." from the credits on the old Battlestar Galactica

Beth and I have been checking out Battlestar Galactica DVD's from the library. We've been watching them at night while we work on our beading. Here's my sum-up:

Yay! I'm getting to watch old sci-fi! I love it!

Seriously, I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying them. Yes, there's some SHOCKINGLY bad special effects for my very jaded 21st century eye. They're still fun though.

I was suprised at how much I enjoyed the pilot storyline. I really just checked it out on a whim. We didn't have a tv during the time BG ran, and I'm quite sure my mom wouldn't have let us watch it so the only time I ever saw it was at our cousins' houses... Funny to think about all the clandestine things we did with them! Fantasy Island, Love Boat, Battlestar Galactica... Our lives were greatly enriched during those visits. ;) I only saw bits and pieces of them and only had vague images of the series.

I was also surprised at how LONG it was. Good grief, pilots used to be 3 hours long!

There's an amazing amount of stock footage used in these old shows- Cylons marching around, warriors being transported to their ships... I'm so used to the high speed pacing of ER and CSI shows that these late 70's offerings feel S-L-O-W. There's no way I can do any beading when I watch a show now, but there's so much extra footage and TALKING in these episodes that I can easily work and still follow the storyline.

I don't have much to say about these stories except that I'm enjoying them. I'm not sure if I'd enjoy the new series, but it probably doesn't matter since I don't get the sc-fi channel. I might get to check them out like we're doing these though, so I'll probably remain open to the possibility that I might enjoy them. :)

May in Fairbanks

One of my favorite things about May in Fairbanks is it's local slang name: Clean-Up Month.

When all the snow melts around the end of April TONS of trash is revealed. Imagine an entire 6 months of litter spread out on the roadways at one time... It's disgusting.

You'd be shocked at the number of people who get involved in getting Fairbanks all prettied up- we want it to look nice before the tourists start showing up enmasse (the stampede begins around the last two weeks of May). On the highway you'll see groups of twenty bent-over people with yellow trash bags. Or just two. And you'll definitely see sections of the road with piles of yellow bags left every 20 yards or so. And there's one day that everybody focuses on getting it really straightened out- I think it was May 5th this year. I'm not sure 'cuz Beth and I were recovering from our First Friday experience...

My guess is that a good percentage of Fairbanks participates- even if they don't involve themselves in the road clean-up, trash turns up in your own front yard from the snow melt-off. Since the snow is scraped up along the road it can show up half-way up your yard. Rather shocking to find condom wrappers, beer bottles and cigarette butts on your front yard... Not a full party load, mind you, but enough trash to make you wonder what was going on 4 or 5 houses up the road...

I just checked out an article from the local newspaper, The Daily NewsMiner, and these are the facts: more than 5,000 people were signed up for clean up day this year, more than 29 tons of trash was collected, and more than 61 cases of the yellow trash bags were handed out! Go, Fairbanks!!

My other favorite thing about May in Fairbanks is the GREEN. Everything starts budding and growing and it's beautiful.

We also start getting a pretty dramatic increase in sunlight hours, which I love. The sun isn't going down till after 10 now, and coming up around 4. And twilight is lasting pretty much all night now. Yeah. Bring on the sun. Just for fun- this picture was taken at about 8:30 pm tonight. :)

Yikes!

My last post was on April 28th!

Yes, I've been very busy, but I'm sorry I haven't kept up with this... I'm not really apologizing to anyone reading it, more to myself. I really wanted to maintain three posts a week. I guess I'll have to stick in some extra posts in the next couple weeks to make up for my lapse.

We did the first Friday show on May 5th and it went quite well. Beth and I each made just over $100, which is great 'cuz we didn't have to pay for the space or advertising. We also really got along well with the owner of Willow Creek Clothing and are expecting to get to do some other stuff with her- probably the Midnight Sun fair, a big local event downtown on the summer solstice. We'll see how it goes. We'll definitely be doing some other shows at her place. We like her and I think she liked us. Three cheers for JoAnne! Hip, hip hooray! Hip, hip hooray! Hip, hip hooray! Thank you! you are cool!

Abigail's had some yucky virus stuff which involved vomiting, diarrhea, temperatures over 100, coughing, crying and wanting to be held 24/7. My poor baby! She was REALLY sick for about a week, and has had a nasty cold since the virus... The most frightening part of this illness was her refusal to drink anything. Babies generally recover shockingly well from viruses if you can keep them hydrated- if not, they're gonna end up in the hospital. Abigail wouldn't drink juice, water, pedialyte, flat 7up... Anything! We finally crushed up a popsicle and put it in pedialyte and she was persuaded to drink that... Thank you, God.

One of the worst weeks of my mommy hood was spent with Deborah as an 18 month old on an IV in the hospital... The cribs for the little ones look like small monkey cages! They've got bars all around them- sides and tops. She got so dehydrated from the rhodavirus (a real virus that strikes little ones and is NASTY, NASTY, NASTY) that they spent about half an hour trying to get her IV started- I think they did 4 different pokes- and that was with a GOOD phlebotomist. It's so hard to get the little ones- they wiggle and have itty bitty parts... Deborah was so sick she didn't wiggle, she just cried and laid there.

Anyway! Moving on...

Beth and I have been busily working like little bees to fill the order placed by the AK Rag Company- a local shop which will be carrying our jewelry this summer at both of their locations- downtown and in Pioneer Park. I just don't get very much time to work on my stuff except after the girls are in bed, which was the time I was blogging... So the order took precedence over the blogging... Filling the order even took place with keeping up with my email and our jewelry blog photos... (I had over 100 emails when I finally starting paring it down yesterday!) Which means we've both sold some stuff without pictures taken- probably shouldn't be a big deal, but I like being able to look back at the pictures and get inspiration from them... I can work off of something I've done before and do it completely differently.

For example, the very weird fire choker I did? Well, I've gone on to make a water one and am in the process of completing an air one. And I've got to say the water one is beautiful- one of my favorite pieces ever. It's all turquoises and pearly colors with tiny sea shells and little freshwater pearls. It looks like something a mermaid would wear... On the flip side: The air one is one of my least favorite projects. It's just not coming together... I'm trying to capture air moving. How on earth do I do that in something as static and still as beads? I've got some rippling movement going on, but it's just NOT what I pictured in my head. Oh, well. I've set it aside for a while and will come back to it when I'm done with the other stuff...

Anyway, I'm back! I will be posting more regularly, in fact, I hope to get caught up with my promise to myself. Sadly, during the posting break I celebrated my one year blog-iversary. On April 29, 2007 I completed one full year of blogging! YAY for me!

Books-April

Yup, these are the April reads... I hope I can get myself together enough to have my May ones up on June 1st!
* * * * *

Mary by Francine Rivers A+
Excellent story. She has taken all the scriptures you know so well and delicately filled in the story. I’ve been rather negative about ‘fictionalized’ scripture. Seems to me that you can really mess up the actual happenings when you ‘expand’ it too much. Rivers does not do that. I understand Mary’s actions much more and really believe this is a God-inspired tale. I’m looking forward to reading other books by her. Caution: This book LOOKS like a woman’s story & not something a man would be interested in… I want to suggest that this was a poor advertising choice. I think that regardless of your gender, this book gives you a better understanding of Mary’s obedience and her relationship to her son, Jesus.

The Sorcerer’s Circle by Michael Silverling D
Ugh. I can’t believe I actually finished this poorly written PI story. I kept thinking, ‘surely it will get better…’

The Beast Within
Well, I started this one and decided in one chapter that I didn’t want to finish it, largely because of how bad The Sorcerer’s Circle was, and how frustrated I was that I wasted so much time on it. I don’t know if this one actually gets any better since I wasn’t willing to try for very long…

The Spelling Knife – Beguilement By Lois McMaster Bujold A+
One of those books I didn’t want to end! I’m so glad this is just part one and I’ll get to spend more time with these characters and this world. Excellent fantasy novel. One of the best ones I’ve read in quite some time.

Esther’s Gift I can't remember the author's name... B
15 minute read. No lie- I don’t know if I’ve ever read such a short little story in hardback! J It was good, and made it’s point quickly. About someone who's been making cakes as her Christmas cakes for years and then figures out how much they actually cost- she's so shocked she decides not to make them this year.

The Traveling Beader D
Lousy instructions, messy designs… Plus you can’t really do most of the designs in the book while you’re traveling or in a waiting room which was her entire reason for writing the book…

Storm Rising, and Storm Warning by Mercedes Lackey A
This trio starts where the Mage Wars ends. These almost cover too much for Lackey. Her style definitely lends itself to smaller, more focused novels and this one is a broad sweeping story-line. Still very good, though.

And the Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers A+
The tale of a pastor and his wife… Very disturbing. Very believable. Absolutely fantastic writing. Told with compassion and honesty. A young pastor is hired to take the place of a retiring older pastor of a dying church. The new guy comes in gung-ho and in love with Jesus and in the course of the book makes terrible, prideful, self-focused choices. We see him fall from a terrible height… Excellent book, but very hard to read.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois Mcmaster Bujold A+
Oh, I do enjoy Bujold’s writing. This is a fantasy set in a low-tech society with wonderful characters and an interesting history. Bujold keeps you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out how on earth she’s going to get rid of the curse.

Born in Death by J.D. Robb B+
Another in her futuristic murder/cop mysteries. Nora Roberts is really the only romance author I read anymore- Yes, there was a time in my life when I read a SHOCKING number of romances. I really haven’t read them since college ‘cept for her books. Fun thing about Roberts- she was the only girl in a family of six kids. I think that experience has made her characters, particularly the guys, more believable. These are good- admittedly getting a little repetitive since this is her 18th or 20th one. But the characters are fun- Eve's (the main character, a cop) crazy singing friend who's been pregnant for the last two offerings in this series finally has her baby

Meloncholy and Confused

I went to a reunion tonight- the UAF theatre department's 50th anniversary of doing theatre. I got to see a play ('Picnic' by William Inge, fantastic acting, good set and lighting and costumes, and BONUS - I liked the play), taste a little wine (a white zinfandel-very good, one of the few wines I've actually liked), see a few people I knew (about 7 of us from the mid 90's), and see a bunch of older people who were reminiscing about the 'good old days'. People flew from outside to come to this event...

And now I'm all meloncholy... I miss doing theatre! I miss plays. I LOVE the smell of stage lights and paint and the dusty storage areas. I miss rehearsals. I miss green rooms. I got to walk on the stage I spent so much time on, and see how little it's changed, and think about how much I've changed.

What on earth am I doing here? Yes, there was a time in my life when all I wanted was to go to NY and try to 'make it'. I didn't care if it was off-off Broadway or some little dive. I just wanted to make a living doing what I loved. I'm not the kind of person who can live off of tuna, and I'd probably make a terrible waiter, but I could be a very good receptionist. Especially if I was able to do what I loved part of the time...

Then God said, 'NO'. Very loudly and very clearly. (If you've never heard Him, I promise you- when He speaks, you know it's Him. There's very little uncertainty. I wish He chose to do it that way all the time...) And He sent me off to seminary...

What on earth was He thinking? Did He know where I'd be right now?? What a waste of a good education. (as our last pastor said, and what a waste of an education on a woman...) What a ridiculous amount of debt I racked up in my time in Fort Worth. I wish I could see some of what He saw when He sent me there...

I saw some folks tonight who are doing it. They've been in movies, in Broadway productions, in paid gigs doing professional theatre... I didn't want to take that away from them, but I wish I knew what I WAS doing.

God, I'm so tired of waiting. I feel like I've been waiting for the last four years. Please direct us to Your plan. I know you've got one. It's just so hard right now. I will trust You. I will choose Your plan over my own. I know You are doing something in my life and in Jake's life. Please continue Your work- Just don't leave us like this forever... It's hard to wait on you without hope. Please fill us with Your hope.

Exciting News!

So many exciting things have happened to us this last week that it's hard for me to not think of them as one great big cool thing. :) But I'm going to try. These come in no particular order. They are all fantastic in their own way:

Local Shop Carrying our Jewelry
A local business has made an agreement with us to carry our stuff on consignment. The Alaska Rag Company has two locations, one is in the downtown shopping district and the other one is in Pioneer Park, a wonderful tourist trap. Pioneer Park has little tiny shops with Alaskan-made items, a steamboat, a big fish fry dinner, The Palace Saloon- an Alaskan silly musical, a park for kids to play... It used to be called Alaskaland and all the locals still refer to it as such. We are excited and already working hard to make enough product to meet their request... Our stuff will be in front of the public year round instead of just at bazaars!!!!

Tax Return
We got our tax return money and have actually come to an agreement on how it is to be dispersed. (which is cool all on it's own - the agreement I mean) So, some fun things have happened around here in the way of- Jake has new work shoes which he BADLY needed; I'll have new shoes by the end of the day which I needed; The girl's clothes are in a new dresser instead of plastic tubs in a book shelf; and etc.

New Car
Jake found someone at work who was selling their car for a very good price, and that's where the largest chunk of the tax return went. We had all been sharing my mom's SUV since our little Dodge Omni died about a year and a half ago. Very annoying. Now I don't have to get up and take Jake to work! He gets to go on his own!

Church
We are joining a church- Friends Community Church. It's a LARGE (means around 600, very big for Fairbanks) non-denom based loosely on the purpose driven church model... (purpose driven church- a completely different discussion which I will NOT have at this time- there are good things about it and bad things about it- they seem to be maximizing the good and minimizing the bad) Of course it's not perfect- we're all just messed up sinners. But we are both excited about the possibilities. Good music, good preaching, focus on small groups and reaching the lost around us. We'll be looking for a small group of our own, which will be a challenge, but now that Jake's getting off at a decent time it will be possible. Deborah LOVES the Kids Church program.

Exhibition
The First Friday Jewelry show, which I've already blogged about. This will take place May 4th, and we are working like crazy to make it happen.

Water
Okay, this one's silly and personal. There's been something wrong with our pipes for about 4 months. The pressure for the hot water has been all messed up and we've had to hand wash all the dishes and take these really sad showers. Today someone is coming to fix it! Yay!

Washer
Our clothes washer's been on the fritz since January. The repairman has been here three times trying to fix it and determine the actual problem and if it's worth us repairing it rather than replacing it. Ridiculously, the stupid thing was only 3 years old, but that also meant that it was still under warranty. Two weeks ago, the repairman finally got it all taken care of! We have clean clothes!!

So, thank you, God for all the good things you've blessed us with in the last 2 or 3 weeks. You've been very kind to us.

And, because I will be so busy with the show and getting stuff ready for Alaska Rag Company, I don't know when i'll get back to my blog... I'm sure I'll get a chance to drop in, but I don't know when...

Jewelry Show

It's official! We really are having a show of our jewelry for the First Friday Tour on May 4th from about 4 to about 8. Yay!!!!

Our jewelry show will be downtown at the Willow Creek Clothing Store on 12th avenue. The easiest way to find it is to turn off Airport Way onto Noble and go down two streets. Then take a left onto 12th and Willow Creek Clothing is about in the middle of the block. Coming the other way, 12th is a little bit past Tanana Valley Clinic, and you take a right onto it.

We are excited and nervous and completely overwhelmed with all we have to do... We need to create a flyer and a mailer and some different display methods... (all her display surfaces are up high and all our display stuff is for a low table.) We also have a couple pieces we want to complete... So I shall be VERY busy for the next two weeks...

We are praying that stuff sells, but really the idea is to get people to look at it and talk about it and recognize our stuff and our faces...

Anyway, Thank you, God!!!

Daddy's dead tree

Not the best picture of his painting, I admit...

This painting is pretty high up and the only way to get it down is to drag a ladder into the stairwell, so it's not gonna happen any time soon...

This is an example of one of my Daddy's eery paintings. I like this one very much, but I admit the tree looks very unfriendly... Like I wouldn't want to be around if it got hungry.

Reaching a New Generation

Typically, a church notices it is getting older and missing a generation or two in its midst. So begins a new, full-fledged, worship gathering designed for ‘young adults’ ages 18 to 35. The strategy is that these ‘young adults’ will eventually phase over into the ‘main’ worship gathering in the church as they get older. Instead, almost without exception, something happens after a few years that causes church leaders to rethink a few things again. As the community in an emerging worship gathering ages, its older members don’t outgrow their preference for worship style and approach to worship and spiritual formation. When they get to the age they need to leave, it’s not something most want to do. People don’t change their expression of worship when they turn 35. -Dan Kimball

What I keep coming back to is that the alternative (of not starting a new worship service and ministry) is unthinkable. For anybody to sit idly by and watch one-third or 40 percent of the congregation disappear, it is unconscionable… You can’t do nothing. Whatever it is that you try, at least you will be able to stand before Christ one day and say we gave it our best shot… We never quite figured it out, but we certainly did try! -Bill Hybels

Quotes from Emerging Worship, by Dan Kimball

Busy Week

Every night when Jake comes home he hops on the computer and works on his myspace... So, I'm not getting much time to keep up with my blog. Kind of frustrating. Although I am glad he's got something he's enjoying so much.

He just got a new job/promotion. He's been moved up to the purchaser for the sports department and he loves it. Steady hours (6-3) every day, steady responsibilities and no more blue line (when they grab the clerks and stick them on the registers because of the amount of people waiting to check out- and he HATES working registers up front), plus he has the whole weekend off! Yay! Now he has Saturday and Sunday off almost every weekend, before he had Sunday off and then whatever day they didn't need him.

This week has been very busy. I don't know why exactly- the change in Jake's schedule, getting the girls outside every day, taking walks, Deborah's had another ear infection... It's more like a bunch of things together.

Happy Easter! from the Sirevaag family

Easter Finery


Deborah celebrating her very princessy Easter basket


Abigail showing off her new bunny ears

Snow in April! Melting snow!

Spring is coming
The snow is melting
Joy can be found
Puddling over the ground

Snow is going
Warm air is blowing
Trees are greening
Time for Spring cleaning

Yay for the running water!
Yay for the puddling snow!
Yay for the dripping ice!
Watch the snow go!



Deborah playing in the snow




Puddles on the road in front of our house- Most of the footprints are from Deborah playing

200 Posts!

I've passed the 200 posts mark! Woo-hoo. I must be a REAL blogger now. :)
I'm also quite close to a full year... Just waiting until the end of the month.

Daddy's Tiger Lilies

I said I'd post some of my Daddy's paintings. Here's one of the ones we have hanging in the house. He painted this in 1998, while he was pursuing his B.A. in Fine Art from UAF.

My Dad was a botanist/forester who worked for the BLM for about 20 years. He truly loved his job and would have kept doing it forever, but at 65 they basically forced him to retire. For the next year he drove us all CRAZY! He'd always had jobs where he traveled a lot and never really been home all that much. He had no clue what to do with himself...

Then, the same year I started university, he started taking a class or two in painting. He'd done it before and really liked it, but never had time or money for it. We've still got one or two paintings he did way back in college. Remember, my dad is much older than you might think... He was 49 when I was born, so he remembers some of the depression and he fought in WWII. He was a navigator for the army aircorp. He knew that he couldn't do something 'frivolous' like painting for a living. He had to have a 'real job' and support a family. So, he tried a couple of things (medicine, engineering) and ended up studying botany and forestry, which he loved.

(He was one of those amazing scientist types who had studied science deeply, yet still saw all of it as reflecting the glory of God. All the evolution and monkey stuff just never fazed him. He was able to talk to me about it when I was in high school & college and explain scientific reasons why it was obvious to him that God was in control. He was able to refute the main premises of evolution so quickly and easily that it was literally never an issue for me.)

When he started painting his love for the natural world came through. He mostly painted plants and landscapes. But-- most of them have this 'Alice in Wonderland'/Dr. Seussian/fairy-tale quality to them. The plants and hills kind of look like they're alive and aware of you- some of them are friendly, but many of them look like they might just eat you... I tried to talk to him about it and he kind of took it as a negative thing, but I thought it was cool.

Anyway, this painting is rather benign. The Tiger Lilies do appear rather like they're looking at you, but not so much that they're just freaky. Some of his paintings are not really appropriate for rooms you want to be in for long periods of time....

Marriage, isn't it bliss?

Well, yes and no... He is the one person I can yell at and then go to bed with... :)
That aside... We are having some major conflict right now regarding, you guessed it, money.

We will be getting a good tax return and Jake wants to use the money to get us into an apartment of our own. (I do like the idea, I'm not insane! Yes, I want my own space BADLY. As much as I love my mom and sister, I'm tired of the whole situation, and would really prefer to be queen of my castle.) However, we have some old big bills that we could pay off instead, which would then give us freedom in the future... That's what I'd like to do. So there's the first part of the conflict...

We've been sort of talking about moving out of Alaska this summer, too, which I WANT. Underline that. Highlight it. Bold and capitalize it. I WANT OUT OF ALASKA!!! (Isn't it funny that I'm from here, and Jake loves it... ) However, Jake just got this REALLY good promotion and if we'd stick around for a while it would open some good job possibilities, either in the whole Kroger conglomeration or out of it. So, it makes sense to stick around another winter.

But AAAAARGH!!! I don't want another Winter- I want out so bad I'm having dreams about U-Hauls..

So, do we stay or do we go now? Well, it makes sense to stay another winter (although it's making my blood turn to ice to say it.) So, I'm pretty much slowly accepting that we will be staying here next winter, and there are some good things about that...

But, do we get our own place or save money one more year? That's the big conflict now... And there are so MANY parts to this. Jake really doesn't make enough money for us to live on our own, but I'm feeling pretty strongly about raising my own kids. There are several parts to be a 'homemaker' that I HATE, but the girls need me right now. I think I'm willing to do a part time job, but I don't know.

Also, it looks like the whole beading gig thing may actually start to be returning money, and it would be cool to hang around another year and see if it starts happening. (which would be nice, 'cuz so far it's been pretty much a giant sucking money hole- a lot of fun, but certainly not income).

I do not want another year without a strong church base, too. I need those relationships. I need to be growing in Bible study. I need koinonia. I need to be serving. My girls need Sunday School and Bible stories and church friends... Jake needs all this, too. And I don't want to go without it. We've been 'attending' this non-denominational church, which means we go about 3 out of every 4 services, and we kinda like it... Deborah & Abigail LOVE it. They've got great kids programs and Deborah's in a class with just 3 year olds. She has good lessons and comes out talking about her class and their crafts and songs. Abigail gets to play with and beside other 1 1/2 year olds. But the church is sizeable for Fairbanks, about 600, with 3 different services and you can easily go and never really get to know anybody, which is what we need. So, do we commit here and join a Bible study home group? Or do we find a smaller church where we get to do stuff with the worship and youth? What do we do? Hard to decide right now when we're both still feeling battered.

We're NOT looking for the perfect church. There's no such thing. We're not looking for a church that 'feels right'. That's pretty self-focused. We're not looking for a church with a great band and fantastic worship, although we do care about those things... We're looking for the church where God wants us. And feeling confused about that. Anyway, that's another part of the conflict... Which church does God want us in?

So, Jake and I have to come to some kind of an agreement... And right now I don't know how that's gonna happen. I'm glad God does!! I know He's still sovereign, and He's still got a plan for our lives, and that He's making us more like Him.

Artist Statement

Officially we are doing a First Friday show! So, we had to come up with an 'artist statement' for Willow Creek Clothing to use in their publicity for next month. And it's gonna be in the paper! (yes, Fairbanks is 'small town'). Woo-hoo! We get to be all fancy.

Anyway, here it is- If anybody has words of wisdom, we'll listen. We don't promise to change it, but we will listen. :)

Two Sisters Beading
Uncommon Jewelry
Two Sisters is the creative outlet of long-time Fairbanksans Beth Emery and Rebecca Emery-Sirevaag. We’ve been in love with beads for a combined total of 26 years and our passion only keeps growing. Our goal is to make unique and wearable works of bead art.

Here is the major complication for the show: We went tonight and saw the show for this month's First Friday and all of the display areas are up high... Really lame for us, 'cuz for display we've found all these fun glass, wood and pottery containers at Value Village and Salvation Army that we fill with rice or black gravel and then lay our pieces on them... Definitely not appropriate for up-high display space. We're gonna have to figure out some different display methods and we haven't got much money to go and change everything we've been doing... Pray for us!

Sidenote: I think this is funny- in the combined total of 26 years of working with beads, my part is only 5 years! Yup, my sis is cool!

Jake's MySpace

Jake goes through interests rather rapidly- I think he's ADD, for numerous reasons aside from this, but his quick turnover on obsessions is definitely one of the reasons I'm suspicious... (Sidenote: since I taught so many ADD kids in Seattle, I've actually got some pretty good reasons for suspecting this, and it's no insult. Some pretty important people were probably ADD.)

Last month it was lockpicking. He bought a set of lock picks and was trying them out on any lock he could get his hands on. He got pretty good, too. At least with the locks he practiced on...

Two months ago it was spy stuff and he was reading about the poisoning of the Russian spy and checking daily on MSNBC for the latest details on the culprit, and researching ways to detect somone following you, and getting really obsessive about our safety- me, Deborah & Abigail.

In the time I've known him, he's gone through html, digital cameras, astronomy, drawing, psychology, sound equipment, counseling, admin assistant stuff, guns, and technical gadgets and do-dads galore... Before I knew him he went through photography, hiking, mechanical engineering, spelunking, motorcycles... I'm quite sure I've left out several other interests.

Right now, he's into blogging on his My Space account. He's got a pretty good story over there about his 'alien experience' just in case anybody is interested... Don't know how long he'll keep up with it, but you can enjoy it while he's focused.

I've finally got his shortcut working accurately on my side bar, so you can get to his blog that way or this way: http://www.myspace.com/latenightcaller

Oh, and the reason he ended up with latenightcaller was that everything he liked and tried to get for over an HOUR was taken. Finally, without thinking about it he typed in latenightcaller and it took... Now, he's really annoyed with what came out of his fingers when he got frustrated with the amount of time it was taking... Kinda freaky name. Sounds like some sick and twisted fella.

Our Jewelry

We are currently in the midst of talking to two store owners here in town about carrying our stuff in their store. We've spoken on the phone to one, and she wants to do a 'First Friday' with us. (a local program where art galleries and others showcase a collection on the first friday of the month and people drive around to the different places. There's food, drink, artists and art. A very good way to deal with the cold Winters.) She was really nice, but very nervous about carrying our stuff in her shop...

We have an official meeting with the other owner next Tuesday, and they have a LOT of experience with carrying jewelry, paintings, fiber art, you name it. She started throwing out all sorts of technical stuff and we felt a little lost with her language... She definitely knows what she's talking about and we don't.

It's all a big mess right now, but we're both pretty hopeful about how it will turn out. They're talking wholesale and gross prices and changing our prices and artist statements and it's a little overwhelming. Will update when I have more concrete stuff.