Life in Southeast Alaska

Our Shop is in the Newspaper

I hope everyone in Juneau is reading their paper today and finding out about this cute little shop in the Airport Mall  :o)  The paper interviewed us the other day and the article is in today's paper!  How cool is that!!!  :o)

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/112609/art_529158665.shtml

The shop is doing okay - made some sales last week and this week.  We have had lots of people stop by and check it out and many great comments on how they like the shop!  We have been getting in new things - we have lots of pottery pieces in now and a couple pieces of log furniture that a local guy does.  We have some bracelets made by a six year old - which we bought from her and give to customers who donate at least $5 to the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council. 

The Public Market is tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.  Carol and I both have spaces there, Jeanne will be working the shop.  Rod helped me get all set up last night, so Friday I just have to show up and today I can cook and relax!  Great feeling!  I am setting my selling goal just over what I did at last year's market....  Hope it all goes well...  I am taking 1000 bars of soap and I hope to sell most of it  :o)

Hope you are all enjoying your Thanksgiving Day - I have so much to be thankful for!  God is good!

Update on our New Shop

Homespun Mercantile will be open for business beginning tomorrow!  We will be a work in process for a few weeks as we get in more merchandise.  Right now we have my soaps and lotions - Carol's rugs, placemats, table runners, cat nappers - Jeanne will have her jewelry in tomorrow - custom teddy bears - pottery - beaded dream catchers, christmas ornaments - walking sticks, fish clubs, and slingshots.   We decided that we have enough now to start selling.  Actually we had one sale on Monday and one sale today.  Here are a few pictures of the shop so far...

I'll post more pictures as things fill up!  :o)

Excited About Monday!

I would never had said that working a regular job :o)  Tomorrow we get the keys to our shop and I just can't wait!  We will be moving some things in and it will be great to finally be in the space and start getting it arranged for our opening in 8 days...

I "worked" this weekend - had a craft fair at the mall.  People were spending money - yea!  I sold 195 bars of soap plus gift sets and lotion bars - my average weekend is about 100 bars, so it was great!  It is my second biggest show ever - first biggest was last year's Public Market.  I am hoping that the Public Market this year is even better.

There is only one problem, I am afraid I didn't make enough soap for these shows though.  Cold process soap takes a month to cure, so I've made all the soap for the shows until Christmas.  I could make some more this week and have it in December.  I am also figuring how much I need to have for inventory in our shop...  That will just take time to see how many I sell per month I think.  So many things to think about right now.  I making lots of lists - and even checking some things off  :o)  There were a few slow times today, so I made my shopping list for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner (same things for both).  Also thought about New Year's Eve and what we want to do.  Began my Chrismas list of what I want to give.  It was fun to think about the upcoming holidays and get down on paper what I want to accomplish since I will be very busy!  Can I just say right now, I love the holidays, but I can't wait until January and everything settles down a bit?

Opening New Shop

It's been a few weeks since I last posted and alot has happened  :o)

We had a great vacation with cool, sunny weather.  We picked apples and plums at Rod's mom's house which was great fun.  I thought Rod was kidding when he said she picked apples by the wheelbarrow, but he wasn't!  We filled every available bucket and box and even used a garbage can!  We brought home a small box of apples and plums to enjoy.

My exciting news is that I will be opening up a shop with two ladies.  Homespun Mercantile will open Nov 16 in the Airport Mall right between Martha's Flowers and Curves.  We are planning it to look like an old-fashioned general store with local handcrafted goods.  One of my parners is a weaver, the other makes jewelry.  Along with our own items, we will be taking other artisan's items on consignment.  We are looking for traditional crafts that will fit in with the theme of our store - pottery, quilts, wood items, stained glass, etc.

Here is the shop "before" - we will get to start moving things in Nov 9.

Looking from the front windows to the back of the shop:

And looking from the back of the shop toward the windows:

For the next couple weeks we will be busy getting things organized, planning, securing display items and finding artist's to participate.  Somewhere in there I will need to make more soap too!  Wish us luck and come on by to see the shop!

Fun Start to Our Vacation

We have been having a great time so far on our road trip.  We've covered lots of ground and I am looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight!

I stayed up way too late Thursday night getting everything packed and getting ready to go.  Only slept a couple hours and it was time to get up already to catch the jet.  We flew in to Seattle and rented a car (off the airport is cheaper than the ones located at the airport - thanks for the tip Merrilee!)  Our plan was to drive across Washington to Spokane and visit with some friends.  It's been a long time since I made that drive, we used to drive it with my Grandparents.  We used to stop at the same place each time for lunch - at Vantage.  It is a beautiful view - Rod and I had to stop to admire it.

When we arrived in Spokane and were trying to find our friends place, a storm rolled in.  There was hail and lightning and dark, dark clouds.  I'm glad Rod was driving!  We found their house and had a great time visiting and talking about when they used to live in Juneau. 

Today we drove to Post Falls, Idaho.  My grandparents used to live there and I lived there for a year when I went to college.  It has been a long time since I was there and it is sure different, bigger.  I managed to find my grandma's place where I rented from her.  Then we drove down to the river where she lived when I was younger.  The house is still there and there is a very nice couple living there now who were kind enough to invite us in.  I wasn't sure when Grandma and Grandpa moved there.  The house was built in 1972 and they had some pictures from then.  I guessed that they could have had it built, but wasn't sure until I found pictures of them in the album - how cool is that!  Also, coincidentally, the guy used to know one of the owners of the company I worked for.  Talk about a small world!  The house was pretty much as I remembered, though they have done many updates - it is just beautiful inside and out.  I just took one picture of it as you see it from the road.

I had told Rod about our trips to Grandmas and that we used to get fish and chips from Rob's.  I was happy to see that Rob's was still open - so we had lunch there - I think it was exactly the same on the inside  :o)

We took off from Post Falls on our way to Orofino.  We drove through Coeur d'Alene and took a scenic road that took us around Lake Coeur d'Alene.  That lake is huge, I hadn't realized how big it was!  We got to a little town called Elk River and pulled over at the camping area to make sure we were on the right track, since the road had turned to gravel.  We were on the right track and followed the dirt road up into the hills, twisting and turning.  We saw lots of cows - and signs that said Watch for Stock - next 15 miles.  It was a relief when we finally hit pavement again.  The views were incredible!  Especially when we got closer to Orofino, looking down into the valley was so beautiful.  The hotel we are at is right on the river.  Tomorrow we will be looking at some property to see what is available around here.  I'll blog next time we have internet  :o)

I'm Now Self Employed :o)

My last day at my job was Friday, so I am now officially self-employed.  So far it just feels like I had the day off...   Ask me next week if it has really set in yet.

I have always wanted to work from home and now I am!  I have been operating my soap business for two years now after work and on the weekends.  This summer with the Juneau Artist's Market, I realized I could really make this business work if I could just spend more time on it.  I won't be making as much money, but will be in control of my schedule and enjoy my job all the time!

Saturday I had a table at the Autumn Festival.  It was my first year attending and it was great.  It started at noon and I was getting nervous at 12:30 when I hadn't made a sale yet.  But after that things picked up.  The shoppers were different people than normally attend the mall craft fairs, so that was good to get more exposure and hopefully more repeat customers.  The shampoo bars were quite popular and people had read about the kitchen soap in the newspaper.  I was happy to sell so much when I really felt my inventory was low and I was out of many scents. 

Sunday I got up early.  Did 3 loads of laundry, dishes, swept, cut 2 batches of soap, lined all the soap molds, went to Wings and packed up my things - had a productive day and went to bed early.  Read one of my craft books for about an hour.

Today I slept in until 7:30.  Fed the dog, let the chickens out and got them water, then got ready for work - course now that consists of putting my hair in a ponytail and going to the kitchen in my sweats!  :o)  Well, I guess I did brush my teeth too...  By 8:30 I was making soap and by noon I had made 6 batches!  I made lunch, did some cleaning, then went to the valley to run errands.  I'll need to be more careful to consolidate my trips to town - maybe make it just one or two days per week.  That will sure save on gas!

Rod gets back from Skagway on Wednesday - can't wait!!!  I want the house to be nice when he gets home.  Right now the living room looks like we had a tornado - all my soap stuff is everywhere - my canopy, the walls, baskets, checkout counter, tables, totes full of soap and everything for my craft booth.  I need to get organized - or I need to get a bigger house.  I was thinking of taking over at least a drawer in the kitchen to keep soap making supplies in.  I have a drawer we don't use much that I think I will convert.  Maybe I could take over a cupboard also...we'll see.  It would be nice to put away the pots and bowls in between soaping sessions.  I also have 11 batches of soap on the kitchen table waiting to be cut.  Well, at least I won't be bored working from home!

Sealed the Deck

We have had rainy weather since the deck was finished three weeks ago.  But yesterday we had little wet stuff and the deck dried out.  I checked the forecast and we should be dry for a couple days.  Had to use the opportunity to apply the sealer to the deck since I might not get another chance before winter.  I rushed home after work and got everything ready and went to it.  I used a pump up sprayer (like for fertilizers) to apply the sealer and then rolled over with a paint roller on a stick.  Worked very well when I had the sprayer pumped up enough and it sprayed right  :o)  I'm liking how it turned out - it has a very pretty color to it - although the sealer is clear, it is definitely darker.  I'll have to see how it looks after it has dried.

Juneau Farmer's Market 2009

Saturday was the Juneau Farmer's Market - here was my table just before it opened at 9am:

I had a bunch of different stuff this year: blueberry muffins made with fresh eggs, wild blueberries and fresh ground wheat; spiced blueberry jam with wild blueberries; rhubarb jelly from the garden; red current jelly from the garden; raspberry jam from the garden; kitchen soap; fresh eggs; wheat bread with fresh ground wheat; sage and mint; potatoes, zucchini, beets and rhubarb from the garden.  Things sold quite quickly - the beets were the first to go, then the eggs, then the bread.  All the produce was gone within an hour.  I was down to just soap at noon.  We closed the table at 1:00.  It was good to see what people were willing to buy and how much they would pay - you know, for future planning  :o) 

Wednesday night I let the chickens out to roam the yard while I picked the rest of the red currents.  I let them pick the ones on the lower branches.  They were having fun.  One was standing in the aisle and jumping up to get the berries - they sure are entertaining!

Tonight I dug the rest of the potatoes (yukon gold) from the first bed and all from the second bed.  The chickens helped tonight too - they harvested all the worms they could find.  The total pounds from the first bed was 41, the second bed had 26.  I planted the second bed later and fewer potatoes went in, but it had the biggest ones.  It also had a layer of chicken manure under the dirt/sand mixture - I think that made a big difference.  Here is the haul:

Deck Project - Complete!

We finished up the construction of the deck - it looks so great!  I will be painting the treated lumber and sealing the cedar with a clear sealant, but it began raining on Thursday, so I have to wait until things dry out again.  John was able to go fishing yesterday, so he got to take back some halibut and sockeye with him.

Dad helping with cleanup - getting rid of the sawdust with the leaf blower :o)

Deck Project - Day 5

Not quite done with everything, but very, very close.  We completed the steps up to the front door and the steps from the ground to the deck.  We started the back steps and just have the treads to complete.  John wants to do some fishing before he leaves on Sunday, so we have to get this project completed  :o)

Charity and her kids came over, so we put them right to work!

Here we got the timber buried for the bottom of the steps.

Here we have buried the timber for the back steps.

I guess all the work today made Clover all tuckered out  :o)

Deck Project - Day 4

Moving right along on the deck.  Sorry I didn't get pics up until this morning - it got too late last night  :o)

Our goal was to get all the decking down - which we did.  And John started building the steps up to the doorway.  So today we will finish those and build the stairs up to the deck by the door and off the back toward the garden.  So close!  Then I will need to seal everything while we are still having good weather.

Deck Project - Day 3

Moving right along on the project - here is the progress today.

The angle here is where the back steps will be.  John had to alter the foundation to accommodate the load here.

Our goal tomorrow is to complete the rest of the decking...  we will see!  :o)

Deck Project - Day 2

We put in a full day on the deck today and I can't believe how different it looks already.  We finished positioning all the pier blocks - that was the hard part.  Then we cut and nailed the beams and 3/4 of the joists.  But it got too dark, so we had to call it a day.  Can't wait to see how much we get done tomorrow!

Deck Project - Day 1

Here is the progress we made Saturday on the deck.  It is not attached to the house, so we are building it on pier blocks.  We marked out where each block would be and used John's new level to determine how much to dig or add to make each block at the same height.  We got 6 of the 27 blocks into position.  Pretty good progress for a half day!  Poor Clover was confused about why we moved the stairs to the front door  :o)

Deck Project - Before Pics

My wonderful little brother is flying up to build me a deck this week.  I am taking off work and am not doing the Artists Market this weekend.  Rod and I have been thinking about this since we bought the new house, and we are finally going to do it.  We also want to have it covered, but we still need to agree on how to do that...

The lumber yard just delivered the lumber and the cedar boards smell so good!  My brother arrives at noon today - can't wait!

I'll try to take pictures of the progress as we go - so Rod can see what he is missing out on :o)

Garden Update

The garden is doing well this year.  I have been picking lettuce, beet greens (and baby beets), pea pods (yummy!), small green peppers, radishes and zucchini.  The root maggots are getting the best of my onions again - argh!  The vines are dying back in one of the potato beds - seems early...  The other bed just bloomed but were planted much later.  The strawberries were looking great, then it rained for a week, so many of the berries rotted  :o(  But the red currents survived and are ripe now.  My beets are starting to bolt, but only have little beets on them.  We have been having spells of hot weather - in the 80's - breaking records.

Here is one of the big zucchinis.  I've picked 5 more this size!  I fixed it in a casserole which was very good - sliced the zucchini and boiled for 10 minutes.  Then put in a casserole dish and covered with a mixture of mayo, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, and a little worchestershire sauce.  Topped with seasoned bread crumbs and baked at 375 for 10 minutes or until the cheese was melted and bubbly.

Juneau Artists Market

This weekend was the first Juneau Artists Market - and my first outside show - it was very fun!

There were about 8 vendors, but should grow in coming weekends - goes through the end of August.

Homegrown Dinner

I made a yummy salad tonight from the garden.  It had green onions, red sails lettuce, swiss chard and beet greens.  I made up some ranch dressing from scratch and threw in some chives.  I had a few leftover cooked shrimp that Rod had caught and sent down for me.  Fresh shrimp are SO good!  This is the first time I've had swiss chard and I really like it!

Tonight I started moving dirt into the last two garden beds.  I filled up the skinny one first to satisfy that part of me that needs to have immediate gratification.  Then I hauled a few loads into the big bed - I have a ways to go on that one. 

Once the skinny bed was full, I planted eight of the red currant bushes that I rooted from thinnings this spring.  I just had them in water to see if they would get roots - which they did!  I have 18 more of them that I think I will plant in pots for now until I decide where they should go.

Last night I potted up some strawberry starts.  The runners take over the garden paths pretty quickly - I and just hate to pulll them up and throw them in the compost, seems like such a waste.  So I dig up the ones that really have roots and plant them in little 3" pots.  I also try to pot as many extra runners as I can.  I set out a bunch of little pots on a bench at the end of the strawberry bed.  I picked up some runners that had little plants starting and put one in each pot, using a rock to hold the runner down until the plant establishes some roots.  Once the plant is secure, I will cut it from the runner.  Then I will start again with more pots.  Strawberry plants make a good barter item  :o)

I've been thinking about trying to propagate some blueberry bushes.  There are some really productive ones over by one of the storage buildings.  I have some powdered rooting hormone that I could use, or I may trim some willow branches from the tree across the street and try that.  Maybe I should try both and see which one works best.  There are blueberry bushes everywhere along the side of the road, but it would be nice to have a good, productive patch of my own.  Then I won't have to worry about someone else finding my favorite picking spot  :o)

Things look pretty good in the garden.  The red currants are just starting to turn pink.  I have two baby zucchini.  The potato plants look good.  I pulled up some radishes and green onions and sent up to Rod in Skagway.  The strawberries are loaded with unripe berries and more blossoms.  The raspberry patch is buzzing - lots of bumble bees on the blossoms.  The new rhubarb patch looks great - I think the plants must have reached down into the layer of chicken manure I put in that bed - they have really taken off in the last week.  In the greenhouse, I have one little green pepper and a bunch more babies just starting to form.  Nothing on the cucumbers yet, but they are getting bigger - I need to put up a trellis for them.  The 3 tomato plants are getting huge - there are 6 little fruits forming now.  I notice though that some of the leaves are turning yellow, brown and dry on the ends.  I need to look that up and see what is going on with them - must be something about being too cold, too much water, or not enough ventilation is my guess.  I picked some mint leaves and calendula blossoms and dehydrated them to use in my soaps.  The chickens are doing good - getting only 3 or 4 eggs per day though.  If they don't pick up soon, we will be putting them in the freezer.

Soap Business

I spent some time this weekend working on my website for my soap business - Homesteaders Cache.  I redesigned the entire site and am pleased with how it turned out.  I reserved a few more names also and they all point to the same site - juneausoap.com, alaskahandmadesoap.com, and alaskansoaps.com.  My goal is to improve my listings with the search engines and hopefully attract more visitors - and buyers  :o)

I have added more soaps to my store.  They are all listed except the new one I made recently - White Ginger - that matches the solid lotion bar.

I reserved a spot July 11 & 12 at the Nugget Mall for the Christmas in July Arts & Crafts Fair.  Between now and then I'll make up some fresh lotion bars.  I also want to have a sign with my logo and business name - but that will depend on how much free time I have.

Cherry Pie Filling

My first canning project of the season was cherry pie filling.  I wish I could say the cherries were from my tree, but they weren't.  They were on a great sale though - only $1.28 per pound!

I used the recipe from The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest.  I made this recipe once before and my notes said I used 8 pounds to make 15 pints.  The original recipe is for 2 pints - I multiplied everything by 8. 

Cherry Pie Filling - makes about 15 pints

8 pounds cherries
Ascorbic acid
8 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups Clearjel (regular, not instant)
10 2/3 cups water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla (or almond extract)
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons lemon juice

1.  Wash and pit fresh cherries and use ascorbic acid dip to prevent darkening.

2.  Place cherries in boiling water.  Boil 1 minute after water returns to a boil.  Drain, but keep fruit hot and covered.

3.  Combine sugar and Clearjel in a large saucepan and add water.

4.  Add cinnamon and vanilla.  Stir over medium heat until mixture thickens.  (I had to turn to high to get it to thicken, but once it starts to thicken - watch out!  :o)  It happens really fast.)

5.  Add lemon juice and boil mixture 1 minute stirring constantly.

6.  Fold in the cherries.

7.  Fill jars with hot fruit mixture leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Put on lids and rings.

8.  Process in a boiling water bath canner for 30 minutes.

Here are the jars after processing - the liquid changed color from light goopy pink to a nice red  :o)

I like to use a can or two in the bottom of a pie plate and top with a mixture of butter, flour and oatmeal to make a quick crisp - also good with peach pie filling or blueberry pie filling.

Cherries are on sale all week - while supplies last - so I may go back and get more and make something else...  :o)