The Wigglebutt Blog

I'm not tellin.

I had a lady in the shop the other day, she was admiring my polar bear pins and asked if I did anything with Whales. She had had a friend up visiting from the lower 48 and when they went on the 26 Glacier Cruise the lady apparently fell in love with the whales. So, I went on a mission to figure out how to EASILY make whale "stuff" Anything that's "Alaskana", I am trying to keep down in cost, and in turn, in price. There are so many Alaska Souvenirs that are "Made in China" or "Made in Taiwan", it is really hard to compete with the prices that stores charge for these items. I can't spend hours making them and set my prices according to mass produced, resin, made in china prices. So, after some (a lot) of experimenting I have come up with a whale that I like. The entire thing is made up of existing "cutter" shapes, two colors of clay and 3 shades of mica powders. Once I got down how to put them together, it took me ab...

A lot of people that visit Alaska think that Fireweed is our State Flower. Probably because it is big, it is showy and it is EVERYWHERE. Our state flower is actually the "Forget-me-not" Starting in early summer the Fireweed starts blooming from the bottom up. Conversations between locals go like this: "Wow! It's July already?" "Yea, I know, my fireweed's already half-way up!!" Once it blooms out, all of the petals fall off and the transformation begins. Think a cross between dandelion fluff and spider silk. (Don't ya love the way it curls?) Then the most dramatic part..... Isn't it just the prettiest bright red? I have to admit that I look forward to it but I dread it even more. This means that termination dust is just around the corner. And, I'M NOT READY!!!

Thought I would show you what I did with the stairs. When I laid the Pergo in the bedroom and hallway, I had every intention of doing the stairs too. After feeling just how slippery this stuff is, I knew I had to cover the stairs with SOMETHING. I have mentioned that I have dogs (my babies) and they run up and down these stairs at top speed. Then I thought to myself, if I am going to have to cover them anyway why go through all the work of putting down Pergo. I decided to paint instead. The stairs are made out of that really chunky kind of particle board, so they have a really cool texture. I painted them with a tannish paint, then went over them with a really dark glaze. I really like the way the painting came out. Then I had to figure out how to cover them for "dog safety". And , honestly, as slick as that Pergo is there is definitely an issue with "people safety" also. So, I started looking for "carpet squares". Apparently they are one of the coolest...