Campfires and Rainbow Girls

Camping with Fairbanks Assembly #1 International Order of the Rainbow for Girls (I.O.R.G.) this past weekend. We went to Chena Lakes Recreation area near North Pole, Alaska. It was a lot of fun! The girls swam, took turns walking the dogs and ate!

The girls behaved beautifully - the dogs did not - don't make me dredge up their naughty behavior.

Here are some amazing photos the younger RavenChick took of the campfire:

What is I.O.R.G.? //http://www.gorainbow.org/home/home.taf

The International Order of the Rainbow for Girls is a Masonic youth organization which teaches leadership training through community service. Young women between the ages of 11 and 20 learn about the value of charity and service through their work and involvement with their annual local and State service projects.

The Fairbanks, Alaska assembly recently celebrated their 76th Anniversary!!

Camping With Dogs

After the drama of packing up and hoping we didn't forget anything (we always do), we were finally on the way.

Getting there was half the fun! We stopped and got Taco Bell for dinner on the way and all the dogs got their own taco. They REALLY enjoyed that! Now they want Subway and McDonalds.............

Lucy and Sly "driving" the motorhome they are so funny - they had a ball exploring the woods - so many interesting scents to follow.

I worried they might encounter a porcupine like Luckydog did a few years ago. Score: Porcupine 13 - Lucky 0.

We had needlenose pliers with us thank goodness and it seems Luckydog learned a tough lesson.




The husband and younger Raven Chick decided to do some fishing, Lucy and Sly swam after them and tried to get into the raft!

They are not big fans of the water and stayed in just a short time. Most of the time it was just paws only in the water for them.

Rainbow trout, grayling and some salmon are in this lake. You can see them jumping out of the water. I'm thinking some of them should join the circus - they're quite the acrobats!

The weather was glorious! Unusual for this area - no high winds or rain. The mountains were in full view. There are wildfires burning on the flats in Interior Alaska, but the smoke didn't roll into our area until the day we left, so we enjoyed clear smoke free air. When we got home it was hot (77F), hazy, muggy and smoky - ugh! Anything over 70F is entirely too hot!

Lucky our aqua pup - he spent a good part of the trip cooling himself off in the water. He's part Newfoundland, so is drawn to any body of water - puddles, rivers, lakes....

Mmmm, the stench of wet dog filled the camper..................


Here is one of my attempts to photograph nature (I might have to quit my day job - bwahahaha):
I'm a bit weak in identifying the flora and fauna. If you know the name of this beautiful flower I would love a comment.

I see so many fantastic photographs on Etsy, it's inspiring me to see what I can do with our camera.

Let's see, I'm available for weddings, Bar Mitvah's, Senior Portraits, Glamour Shots...............

A wonderful trip with my family. We live for our wonderful Summers! It helps us survive the -50F long, dark Interior Alaska Winters!

Camping sure is hard work. The puppies are exhausted:

Figuring Out Facebook

Okay, - it was time for me to get the 2RavenChicks on Facebook. So we did. The good thing is I was able to see what one of our wonderful friends has been up to! Shout out to MC - we love you!!! Woohoo - Happy Birthday!

Here's the latest post of the jungle - ooops - I mean the greenhouse:


I picked our first zuchini today and there was more than enough basil for pesto! Well - it's getting late, so off to bed with me!

Please Don't Help Us

Nicole and I were busy photographing our Calcutta Discotheque earrings and bracelet. Sly decided she needed to "help" us. Between the demon mosquitoes and the Beagle pup it's a miracle we even managed to photograph anything!

Hey! We got our first sale yesterday! We were very excited. It was a hairpin - whoohoo!!

Quick Update

Hi everyone!

It's the wee hours and I just can't sleep. I was at the Fairbanks Grizzlies football game last night. We lost to the Rochester (NY) Raiders by two points. Boohoo. We were robbed. The Grizzlies are part of the Intense Football Leage (IFL) Arena football - http://www.fairbanksgrizzlies.com///. There is no way we'd ever get an NFL team in Fairbanks, Alaska. As a football fan this is the best I'm going to get!

We've found homes for most of the plants in the greenhouse that we can't use - yay!! I spent a good part of yesterday planting the outside raised beds and battling the mosquitoes. Man, they sure do love me. I've got bites all over. My favorite new gadget is this little tennis racquet looking thing that electrocutes them. I feel absolutely no remorse as their little carcasses pop, spark and fall lifeless to the ground.

I also had to assist my husband in installing lattice around the raised beds. Our Labrador jumps into the beds and digs and has taught his little sisters - beagle puppies Lucy and Sly the joys of digging in the raised beds. Hopefully this will stop them.


2RavenChicks has added a few new items to the shop. We just got a bunch of plastic and lucite vintage flowers in and are having fun making hair/bobby pins. We should be posting more of these throughout the weekend. We'd love to have birdhouses too - maybe I'll get motivated later today.

We also have joined the Etsy Beagle Street Team! Here is a link to their blog: http://etsybeagles.blogspot.com/

Jewelry Shop on Etsy Up and Running

Well, we finally have opened our jewelry shop on Etsy. Since both Nicole and I are designing, it's going to be very eclectic! A mix of modern and vintage.

The plan is to also make birdhouses . We had to replace, pressure wash and stain our fence last Summer - what a job that was around almost an acre!! As a result we have dozens of old fence boards. Rather than throw them away, we have made some birdhouses. We are going to try to have them on our Etsy shop by early next week.

Of course the start of this Summer has been SO busy! We built a beautiful greenhouse at the end of last Summer and went a bit wild with planting seeds this Spring. We're trying to find homes for all the extra plants!

This Friday Lorraine will be walking in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life on a team with co-workers - the CARDDS (Cancer Avenging Relay Dudes and Divas).

If you get a chance, check out the shop we have opened..............

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7240831