Alaska Adventure, Day 1

View coming into Anchorage.

Just got back from our best vacation ever. This was in great part to our kind host, who lives there, and who organized everything. And I mean everything. He met our every need before we even knew we had them. (And no, I am not sharing him with you. So don't ask.)

Day 1 starts with John and I and our good friends and neighbors heading out at 4:40AM for an early flight out of Madison which continued on to Minneapolis and landed in Anchorage.

It is nearly impossible to take a bad photo. Pretty much point and shoot.

Seafood Salad

We were met by Mike who whisked us off to lunch near the airport at The Flying Machine. I had a very nice seafood salad. And then back in the car and on to Talkeetna, AK.

If you want to take photos of your food, and who doesn't, use this app InstaFoodPro. You get it through iTunes. The app recognizes where you are and adds the copy. You get to choose the layout. Sometimes it does have a problem with location and I have no idea why. For the most part it works well.

Talkeetna Lodge

Our long day ended at the very nice Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge. Behind this fireplace is a row of rocking chairs where you can take in the view inside or outside on the deck.

Denali

Early to bed. Right now it does not get dark there. I could not wait to experience this. At 1:30AM I woke up and decided to wander around to see what it looked like. And this is what Denali looked like. I was almost completely alone in that silence soaking in that vista.

Tomorrow... landing on Denali...

Ice Cream = Summertime!

Homemade ice cream that is. I have a Donvier ice cream maker that I may have bought in the 90s. Sooooo easy, you freeze the cylinder. Mix up the ice cream, pour it into the cylinder and crank the handle every so often. Makes about a quart.

I recently bought one on Amazon.

Favorite Vanilla Ice Cream

1   14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix ingredients together well. Put in ice cream maker and crank! Summer at its best.

Can't wait to have these little guys help make ice cream!

FREE font!

Yes, that is right. Rae's Monogram Two is FREE. While downloading take a look at the rest of the family!

Rhubarb Pie = Summertime!

This is sort of a re post.

I made 2 rhubarb cherry pies this weekend. If that isn't the start to Summer I don't know what is. Just want to share the recipe again because it is rhubarb time. I try to buy what is fresh at the farmer's market and use what is in season. Two pies take 6c of rhubarb. I substituted 2c of cherries because I had them. I like to make two pies because it is no more work to make two than one. And that means I can send pie home with guests.

For the recipe go to this older post and enjoy.

Jack & Ella Paper

Jessica from Jack & Ella Paper uses my fonts so well that every time I walk into Hatch Art House in our neighborhood, I have a moment where think I did them. And that always makes me smile.

Jessica has several new lines of cards. So much to choose from. I am my mother's daughter and like to have a stash of cards in the house. I've just ordered a quantity of birthday and sympathy cards for people and pets. I think the pet ones are perfect.

You can also buy Jack & Ella cards in Jessica's etsy shop. If you are in the neighborhood Hatch Art House is at 1248 Williamson St, Madison. And not to be missed is Hazel next door.

Kitchen Doodles font sighting!

OK, I have to admit when I saw this totally cute invitation I was just a teeny bit jealous. When I see something that uses my fonts this well the only thing that would make it better would be if I had designed it.

This was designed by the talented Sue Brown. She not only creates bespoke paper goods but can also be found on Minted. You will love her work.

NEW! Rae's Monogram Family

My 3 font monogram family is done! Lots to this font set. They can be used alone or together. The Rae's Monogram Doodles One is an especially good deal. While there are a couple new drawings, this is a compilation of illustrations from my 52 doodles fonts. And there are 52 of them. A great way to get a wide range of illustrations for many projects.

Rae's Monogram One is two sets of letters and a set of numbers. These letters were designed to be a right and left hand letter.

Rae's Monogram Two is designed to be the middle letter but can also be used alone.

And here are just a few possible uses of 2 or 3 of the fonts used together. Choices are pretty much unlimited.

And these fonts are now for sale at myfonts.com. And they are on sale for a limited time. Do check them out.

And don't forget the Giveaway!

reading & watching...

Just finished reading this and could not put it down.

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by luck or chance. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?

As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.

Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship. 

Another riveting book.

In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.

With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

Friday night we watched this movie. It is on both Amazon and Netflix. I love Maggie Smith!

The Lady in the Van tells the true story of Alan Bennett's strained friendship with Miss Mary Shepherd, an eccentric homeless woman whom Bennett befriended in the 1970s before allowing her temporarily to park her Bedford van in the driveway of his Camden home. She stayed there for 15 years. As the story develops Bennett learns that Miss Shepherd is really Margaret Fairchild (died 1989), a former gifted pupil of the pianist Alfred Cortot. She had played Chopin in a promenade concert, tried to become a nun, was committed to an institution by her brother, escaped, had an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist for which she believed herself to blame, and thereafter lived in fear of arrest.

Enjoy!

Don't forget to take a look at my newest font family!