It snowed everyday while we were in Alaska this winter. While I did love it, the constant snowfall made for some challenging driving conditions on our trip to Fairbanks, a city six hours north of Anchorage. Thankfully we all made it there and back in one piece, and with a bunch of great stories and photos to share.
Our main reason for going to Fairbanks was to see the northern lights. They didn’t feel like showing themselves while we were there, but we still had an awesome time.
Upon arriving in Fairbanks we checked into our hotel, Wedgewood Resorts (which was more of an apartment than a hotel) and my mom cooked up some delicious Korean BBQ. As soon as we finished eating, we drove another one and a half hours to Chena Hot Springs Resort and headed to the Ice Museum.
Absolutely everything in the building was made of ice - the floor, the walls, stairs, entire hotel rooms, chandeliers and more. They had incredible ice sculptures and an ice chapel, where dozens of couples get married every year. Ian and I pretended to get married again and my sister officiated it :).
We drank $15 appletinis in ice martini glasses while sitting on ice stools at the ice bar - definitely worth it.
We then headed to the infamous natural hot springs. After changing into our swimsuits in the less-than-glamorous locker room, we followed the signs to the hot springs. We passed the indoor swimming pool and discovered a nearly-frozen door to the outside - to the hot springs. We had to walk in the -30ºF weather (I kid you not) wearing nothing but our swimsuits through a dark tunnel of an unknown length to reach the springs. After only about thirty feet, we stepped into glorious 105ºF water - it was absolutely amazing.
After a couple hours of relaxing in the hot springs, we got out and drove on the icy roads back to Fairbanks. The next morning, we made a quick detour to North Pole, AK, “where the spirit of Christmas lives year ‘round”, to see the decor and the gigantic Santa Claus. It was not worth it, but at least I can say I’ve been to “the” North Pole.
Our trip to Alaska ended with a sweet Lez Zeppelin (all-female Led Zeppelin cover band) concert at the Alyeska Resort.
We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day, but I was still super ecstatic when I got this in the mail from my mom. She is so sweet and romantic!
Ian and I spent Valentine’s Day getting cheap, delicious and unhealthy burgers from Brunch Box.
(The burger on the right is my favorite burger ever and it’s called the YouCanHasCheeseburger - a cheeseburger between two texas-toast grilled cheese sandwiches.)
It was a good day for my belly.
Ian and I made pie last week. It was amazing. Try this recipe. You won’t regret it.
I substituted tapioca for the cornstarch and topped off the pie with some homemade Cardamom-Vanilla Whipped Cream. Delish!
I’m so excited to share a new item we have in our shop! (A large portion of that excitement is probably due to a caffeine overdose this morning.) BUT the other portion is from the fact that we finished a design for custom Save the Dates, which is now on sale at the shop. Check them out if you’re planning on sending some out or if you just want to take a peek.
It’s a bit late, but I’ve finally gotten around to posting about our trip to Alaska:
For the past three years, we’ve spent Christmas and New Years with my mom in Alaska. Having been there three times before during the winter, you’d think I would have seen snow fall…a ton, however, that wasn’t the case. I had only seen snow fall once - it was very light and it was right as I was leaving for the airport to go back home. It’s a very depressing story, I know.
This year, however, when we stepped out of the Ted Stevens International Airport our nose hairs immediately started freezing and it was snowing! I was so giddy.
When we got home from the airport, my mom and I ran around in the snow. As you can probably tell, I was very excited.
Christmas Day:
I got my brother and Ian snoflings as a stocking stuffer. These things allow you to make snowballs and throw them really far without ever touching the snow. I was trying to encourage the classic snow ball fight that usually occurs between Ian and my brother every year. I ended up playing with it more than them.
We ate lunch at my mom’s restaurant, Wasabi Garden, and went to church for Christmas service.
We also made some delicious eggnog from scratch. It was taking way too long to cool in the fridge (37ºF), so we ended up leaving it outside (1ºF) because it was 36 degrees cooler. Crazy!
The next day, my siblings, Ian and I went snowshoeing at the Eagle River Nature Center in Chugach State Park with our rented snowshoes from REI. It was a beautiful yet painful hike because of the cold 0ºF weather that we hadn’t yet acclimated to.
It was so cold, that our hair and eyelashes were freezing - making it difficult to blink.
For our ceremony backdrop, we had seafoam, gray and pale red fabric streamers.
For the fabric, I used an old white bedsheet and bought a few white flat sheets from IKEA for only $3.99 each - way cheaper than buying fabric.
I used Jacquared iDye in Silver Grey to dye one of the sheets gray by following the simple instructions for the washing machine.
The seafoam and pale red dye were a bit tougher, because I wasn’t able to find specific dyes for these colors. So, I bought a small bottle of liquid dye called Jacquard Dye-na-Flow in Emerald Green (seafoam) and Salmon (pale red). For each of the colors, I filled a 5 gallon bucket with a couple tablespoons of the dye, added water and tested the dye with a small strip of the bedsheet. I added more water and/or dye until I got the color I desired and dunked the whole sheet inside the bucket and swished it around until the it was an even color.
I took them out of the bucket, wrung the sheets and hung them to dry. The pale red came out more pink then red, but by that time it was over 90˙F out and I was too hot and lazy to fix it.
After the sheets were dry, I ironed them and cut them up into strips about 3 inches wide (this step was the most painstaking part of the project).
Lastly, I tied them in random order to some thick jute I found at a craft store and then we stapled the ends to the bark of the trees.
(last photo by Stone Crandall Photography)
Now, back to the wedding…
For our second round of engagement pictures (first one is here), we went to Ames Bookstore in Grass Valley, CA. This bookstore is absolutely amazing. If you ever find yourself in the area - you need to go here.
They have tons and tons of used books in every genre imaginable.
I got my vintage ~1950s dress on Etsy.
Carol here, guest posting on one of the DIYs we did for the New Year’s Eve party.
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With the new year and all the January organization and shelving sales, I was determined to organize the office loft in my apartment. I received a shelving unit the week before our party and the best part, besides being able to organize my closet, was the large cardboard box it came in.
When Christine arrived the morning of the party, we stared at the box, wondering how we could reuse it to create an amazing piece of decor.
- A coffee table covered with a linen?
- A fort or cardboard box house?
- Or maybe…an awesome backdrop?
Materials:
- 3 packs of gold fringe ($7.99/pack at Party City)
- Double-sided tape
- ~ 5’ x 6’ cardboard (we used a shipping box taken apart and taped to create a flat rectangle)
- Fishing line
- 3-4 large picture hooks from Ikea
1. Lay your cardboard box out and tape to create a rectangle.
2. Using double-sided tape, tape the gold fringe to the cardboard, starting at the bottom and moving up. Instead of doing straight rows (which could end up looking like thatching for a tiki-themed party), we laid out the fringe in diagonals and overlapped short and long pieces to create texture and dimension.
4. We ended up using three picture frame hooks which we just punched into the top of the cardboard and used fishing line to hang from nails on the patio roof.
The end result:
This DIY is kind of a no-brainer - but I’m going to explain it anyways.
DIY Gold Mason Jar
Materials:
- Mason Jar or other glass jar
- Gold Spray Paint
1. Place the mason jar upside down on some newspaper or packing paper and spray paint the jar in a back and forth fashion about 10 inches away (follow directions on your spray paint).
2. Let dry.
3. Fill with utensils, flowers, or make swizzle sticks…
DIY Gold Swizzle Sticks
Materials:
- Gold Poofs from your local craft store
- Swizzle sticks or coffee stirrers (swizzle sticks would probably look better, but my sister had free access to some coffee stirrers - not stolen)
- Jewelry Glue or Glue Gun
1. Glue a poof to the top of the stick. Done!
Materials:
- 10oz Clear Plastic Wine Glasses from Party City (base comes separate from the cup)
- Gold Spray Paint
- Gold Glitter
1. Lay newspapers/recycled packing paper on the ground in your work area and place all the bases onto the paper.
2. Spray paint one base at a time in a back and forth fashion and immediately sprinkle the base with glitter so it sticks without having to use spray adhesive. It’d be easier to do this with a friend.
3. Let them dry for a couple hours.
4. Shake off the excess glitter.
5. Fill with your drink of choice and add a swizzle stick (DIY coming up).
