New Year, Same Old Stuff

Happy 2015 everyone! I can't believe it's 2015.  2014 flew by so fast, I don't think I even made any posts on this blog last year.  Resolutions for this year are the same old stuff.  I'm doing 3 30 day challenges by Melissa Bender, she has amazing workouts! They are similar to the Boot Camp class I went to in 2012, mostly body weight workouts with some dumbbell exercises thrown in.  I'm back on my keto diet, and it's only been a week but I am already feeling so much better! Funny how that works.  I hope to run another half marathon at some point this year, so I've started jogging again.  I have found a new form of exercise that I absolutely love, pole fitness, and I go every chance I get. It is so hard, but also so rewarding once I finally get to the point that I am able to do a new spin or climb the pole with more ease.  I hope to learn an inversion move soon, but it's been a few weeks since I have gone due to the holidays, so we will see. I also added a few new resolutions to my list this year...to read at least 1 book per month and write 1 chapter per month.  That's probably going to be the hardest to find time to do, but so far I'm almost done with January's book.  I chose "The Toy Collector", by James Gunn, and it is very good so far.

Dragon Con is coming up in about 265 days.  I'm in a predicament now where I need to find another host hotel room, which sucks because all the host hotels are sold out.  So I suppose I am going to try to find a room transfer.  I was excited about Dragon Con this year, but now with the added stress of trying to find a new room, I am not as excited.  I feel sad about feeling this way this year.  Since 2003 Dragon Con weekend has been my favorite weekend of the year, but this year it's just starting to feel like a hassle.  However my friend who is flying down with me from Anchorage is over-the-moon excited to go to Dragon Con again.  It's all she talks about and she has a lot of costume plans she wants to make :) I will help her as much as I can!

Rocket Raccoon and
Baby Groot at Senshicon 2014

Juliet Starling at Dragon Con 2014

 I have several new cosplay plans for 2015, but we will see how well I am able to finish these projects.  First on my list is adding a chainsaw prop to my Juliet costume, and a gun for my Rocket Raccoon costume.  Those will be the most challenging.  I am also in progress with making a Bulma Briefs (Dragon Ball Z) costume.  I haven't seen Dragon Ball in such a long time, but I used to love it! I've been thinking of watching it over again.  I also have a lot of new plans for upgrading my Fallout jumpsuit, including a new belt, AK license plate armor for the shoulder and forearm, and hopefully some kind of gun from the Fallout Universe, plasma rifle or something like that.  I also LOVE this "Hello Kitty Fallout Outfit" mod.  I don't remember where I've seen it, but I so want to make it!  It makes no sense, but I love it anyway. 

Bulma Briefs - pink dress

 outfit

Fallout Alaska at Senshicon 2014

 

Hello Kitty Fallout outfit

Nothing else is going on in this little town.  I hope 2015 is the year I am finally able to buy a nice single family home, but we will see.  We have been living in our tiny condo for 10 years, and we would like to keep it as an investment property but we will sell it if need be.  I know my dogs would love to have a yard to run and play in!

Nerium - An Honest Review: Day 10

Well, I had forgot to make the post on actual Day 10, which was 3 days ago, but I did remember to take pictures! I didn't see much of a change at all between Day 6 and 10.  I will be purchasing 1 bottle of this extremely expensive product, because I would like to go for the whole 30 days and see how my skin ends up.

On days 1-6 I started getting strange breakouts around my jawline and cheeks, almost like a rash.  I'm not sure if this is allergies from the weather change we recently had, or if the nerium played a part. Day 6 started out with pretty clear skin. I was surprised hat the rashy breakout disappeared almost overnight. By day 10 my skin had cleared up much more, but my wrinkles around my eyes hadn't changed much. 

I will be picking up my bottle today, and I will post again on Day 15 or 16. The photo below is Day 0 on the left and Day 10 on the right. 

I also want to add that although I didn't see a large change in my skin, yesterday I had dinner with a friend who I hadn't seen in person for the last 2 weeks (finals time, yay...) and she commented that my skin looked amazing and wanted to know what I was doing. She did not know that I had been using the NeriumAD, and said "well whatever it is, it's working!" 

Nerium - An Honest Review (Part 1)

*** Note!!! I am NOT a Nerium brand partner and I do not plan on becoming one!!!! ***

Well....it has really been a while since I've updated my blog! I have a new product review I am working on to post.  Recently a friend of mine began selling NeriumAD.  What is NeriumAD?  It's a skin cream.  And a pyramid marketing plan.  Nerium's second listed ingrediant is Nerium Oleander, a plant that is highly toxic to humans if consumed.  Apparently Nerium Oleandar has been having a few breakthroughs in the scientific world lately, and this skin cream is one of the products of it.

Despite hearing many bad things about Nerium, I had also heard just as many great things about it.  I was not sure if the great things may have been said by other brand partners in an attempt to try to get others to buy the product or if it really does great things to your skin.  So I messaged my friend and said "Sure, I will try your product for a little bit and see how it makes my skin look."  Right away she messaged me and said she would drop by the night cream and day cream with the instructions so I could begin the 10 day trial period.  Right now, I am on day 6.  Do I like it? I'm not sure.  My skin is, actually, the softest it has ever felt.  However it seems to be causing my jawline to break out in deep red purple zits.  I went through a similar experience when I started Alpha Hydroxy lotion on my skin, and when my skin finally cleared up, it was AMAZING (although I still had those pesky fine lines and wrinkles!) Maybe Nerium will be the same.  Once my skin gets used to the product and clears up, maybe my skin will be beautifully flawless and wrinkle free. (ha ha!)  Well, here's hoping.

So here is my Day 6 picture.  The left side is the first day I started it, before I applied anything. The right was this morning.  I've had a few people say that it looks like there is a big difference in my undereye wrinkles and crows feet.  I suppose I can see it a little bit.  I'll take another one on Day 10 and see what it's like then.

Hair Color Adventures part 2 - Blonde

I decided it was time to do another hair color blog.  This time I went from blonde to blond(er).  Although I was already blonde to begin with for this blog, this is the same technique I used to go blonde when my hair was a medium reddish brown.
Here's what my hair looked like before hand...

Although it was already blonde, my roots were growing out pretty bad as you can see in picture 2, and my hair was just feeling...dull.   I went down to Marie's Beauty Supply and decided to pick up some hair products.  I picked up (from left to right):

L'oreal Super Blonde (my favorite lightener), Matrix So Silver Shampoo (for maintenance), Wella color charm developer no. 20, and Wella White Lady T18 toner.

Yeah, that is a giant bottle of Wella Color Charm Developer.  Hopefully it will last until I need to use it again because I only used a small amount for this hair adventure.

I started with bleaching out my roots(only my roots! My hair was so blonde already I didn't want to fry it!).  This part is easy, I've done it so many times I could practically do it in my sleep.  In fact, I did this part while cooking fried chicken and watching Supernatural.  

Note: I don't recommend bleaching hair while frying chicken.

Here's what my hair looked like right after I washed the L'oreal super blonde out:

Don't forget to rest a towel over your clothes when bleaching so you don't ruin anything.  I've made that mistake before.

Yuck! What too yellow!!  I wasn't worried though, I still needed to do the toner.  The Wella toner needs dry hair to work with, I'm not sure if dry hair is actually required, but I find it works a lot better than wet hair. While I waited for my hair to dry, I mixed the entire small bottle of Wella White Lady toner and 2x the amount of developer. (1 part toner, 2 parts developer).  It took a good 30-40 minutes to develop.  I waited until it was a nice, thick, rich purple color before putting it in. The first time I did this on my hair I mixed the developer then put it right in my hair.  Um, dumb me.  It didn't work out too well.  

I applied almost all of that developer ALL OVER my hair, getting it everywhere I could.  I see now that I missed a few spots, oops, better luck next time right?  So I put it in my hair, wrapped a plastic bag around my head to not get anything too messy, and waited for about 15 minutes. 

Here's what it looked like when it washed out and I dried it:

 Yay!!  I hardly see any yellow in my hair now, most of what I see is on the tips.   So there's my hair adventure for this year.  I like the way it turned out!  Here's a few comparison pictures:

Before

After

No more roots!

 

Back to Life

        I just want to start by saying that Kennecott, McCarthy and the whole damn Wrangell-St. Elias Park and Preserve has got to be one of the most beautiful places I have been to in this entire state.  Sorry Kenai/Soldota/Homer...you all are cute but nothing rivals the idyllic beauty of the barely touched land in the Wrangell area, at least in my opinion.

        The moment we crossed the bridge over the Copper River and started heading down McCarthy road, traffic was sparse.  And by sparse, I mean we didn't even see another car until we got 10 miles in, to Strelna and Silver Lake.  McCarthy road, for anyone curious, is a 58 mile long stretch of bumpy gravel road.  At times it was so narrow that we would have to pull over half into the bushes to let another car pass, which was hardly ever.  Sure, people live on McCarthy road, i.e. Papa Pilgrim (caution, his story is disturbing) and clan, but cabins and houses along this road were really few and far between, which I guess is why Pilgrim picked that particular location.  Most of the houses in that area looked like they had accompanying outhouses and sheds just stacked full of wood for the winter.  I get the feeling that a lot of people live subsistence style on that road.
        The first stop we came to was the Kuskulana Bridge.  I'm not all that fond of heights, and something about being in a car on the bridge made me nervous, so driving over the one lane bridge 238 feet above the river was not on my fun list of things to do.  Then my crazy ass decided it would be a great time to go walk along the metal grating underneath the bridge, which was still 210 feet above the river.  Go figure...in the car, it's scary; out of the car, it's fine! Why is that?

Our friend stopped his camper on the bridge so I could get a shot of him on it.

~210 miles straight down, and all that was between me and open air was that grating.

I did have fun though, I would do it again tomorrow if I could.

    
         I'm actually surprised I've never heard of people bungee jumping off of it, or something like that.  Although I'm not any kind of expert on bungee jumping, maybe it's too low? Who knows.  It was fun and exciting, that's all I know.  After a quick lunch, we got back in the car and continued our *slow* path down McCarthy Road.
        I want to point out right here, that after hearing all kinds of horror stories about how McCarthy road was just so terrible and people just had so many tales of getting flat tires and getting stuck or whatnot, the road really wasn't that bad.  I can see how it would be, if you were flying down the road at 60 mph, but we were going about 20-30, and it really wasn't that bad.
Our next stop was the Gilahina Trestle.  Awesome.  I don't think my husband or our friend really wanted to stop, but I thought it was neat, so we stopped.  Here it is:

Gilahina Trestle: Leftover old world beauty

        On we go.  About 4 hours and many pictures later, we arrived at the Kennecott River, the end of the main road.  There was a little campground, and the only way to get across the river to the little town of McCarthy is a small footbridge.  It used to be a hand tram and people would have to slowly pull themselves across, part of the hand tram is still there, sitting broken and dilapidated. Farther on to the very end of the road is the town of Kennecott.  It was 5 miles, and luckily we brought our bikes, otherwise the walk to Kennecott would have been slow going.
        The campground at the end of the road was just beautiful, but also full of hippies. Lots and lots of hippies.  On a scale of places I like to hang out, a crowd of hippies rates about the same as in a truck on a 238 foot high bridge.  It's not that I think "They're bad people!" or anything, it's just not my vibe.  I think it there was a 4th of July hippie-fest in going on in McCarthy, but maybe that's the usual crowd.  There was a live band that night at "The Potato" (the main area of downtown, I'm guessing), and fireworks.  The view from the campground had a roaring river in front of us, mountains on all sides, and off in the distance we could see the old abandoned town of Kennecott nestled in the the base of the mountain.

Kennecott, all tucked in for the night.  Or something.

Freya exploring the campground.  She's not a big fan of the outdoors.

Main Street McCarthy, it's a happenin' place!

          We biked up to Kennecott the next day, and took our sweet lab/husky mix, Deshka. She had a fun 10 mile run that day. She could have run forever if I let her, but I kept stopping to make sure she was doing okay and not going to collapse. Kennecott has an interesting history about it.  It was founded in 1911 and in 27 years managed to profit about $100 million.  In 1938 it was very quickly abandoned, and a lot of things were left behind because the company didn't feel it was that important to cart back out.  It's currently a huge tourist trap, and looks like it's in the process of being restored. Although it's considered "abandoned" I think about 12 families live in the Kennecott-McCarthy area year round.  That's gotta be rough.

         I still can't believe our 5 day road trip was over in the blink of an eye.  It went by so fast I feel like I barely had time to think, and before I knew it we were back in Anchorage.  I could literally feel a heavy net of depression settling over all of us in the truck as we turned down our street and headed home. Yes, even our dogs were pretty sad that our long trip was over.  Back to the daily grind, back to working most of the day and having about 3 hours left to do anything at all afterwards. Back to being constantly nitpicked and told I'm doing things wrong, wrong, wrong, and being hassled every hour of every day of my frickin life.

The Mill

I think this was the old hospital and the schoolhouse(?)

Inside the factory

Climbed up on the dam to enjoy the view!

Inside the old General Store

      

        So damn you, Wrangell-St. Elias, McCarthy and Kennecott for being so damn beautiful that I just want to leave behind the city, throw away the confines of everyday life and embrace my inner hippie.  I want to frolick through the forest wearing flowy dresses and flowers in my hair and live off the land, not ever worrying about the daily grind ever again.
        Alaska, why are you so gorgeous! Kennecott, you are definitely getting a spot inside one of my books.  Maybe this coming weekend I can get back out there and be in the peacefulness of nature again.  Maybe not.  Even in this state full of unbridled wilderness, it's hard to find a place quite like Wrangell-St. Elias.

        Join me for my next adventure when I travel with my friends back inside the Buckner Building in Whittier next month.  Because for some strange reason, we are obsessed with that place. 

5 day Road Trip

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted.  I've been feeling really down lately...haven't wanted to do much of anything.  Made me sad because during that time, time just FLEW by!  I can't believe it's already July!  I took a few days off of work (really needed a break from everything Anchorage) and tomorrow we embark on a 5 day road trip/camping trip.  I can't wait to be out there in the Wilderness.  We're headed up towards the old abandoned town of Kennecott.  Used to be a mining town back in the day.  I've wanted to go since 2006, so I am extremely excited to leave.
We're leaving right after I get off of work tomorrow(the whole family; my husband, two dogs and a ferret and I :) ), around 3:30/4:00.  I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.  Hoping to do a lot of writing if it's raining...I had wanted to take a few wilderness cosplay pictures, but still haven't finished my gunbelt (see above, been feeling down and not doing anything.) I regret that now because I bet this weekend will be the perfect time.
I hope everyone has a fantastic week/weekend!!  Hopefully I'll get back into posting blogs.  I really was hoping to keep on a once a week schedule, but that didn't happen.

Happy week and weekend (and 4th of July, if you're celebrating!)

:)

Aurora in Alaska - Spring 2012

I should be finishing up a paper, but I wanted to take a few moments to share a beautiful site, the Aurora Borealis in Alaska.  My friend and I drove up to Birchwood a few miles north of Anchorage and stayed until around 1:30 in the morning snapping picture after picture of the beautiful aurora.  Although when we arrived at our shooting location the aurora was not much more than a faint green light, by about 11:45 it became a vibrant, dazzling, dancing display of lights and colors.  Much brighter and more active than anything I have seen during the last 8 years that I have lived in this state.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from that night:

It's been cloudy ever since this night, but I really hope that the clouds disperse and leave at least one more clear night that I may hopefully be able to practice taking more pictures of the aurora.  Although I'm not sure if I will see it as vibrant and beautiful as it was last Thursday anytime soon in the future.