17 Days of Green – My Hat Studio

Posted on 13 March 2012 by Carrie Cahill Mulligan

When Andy & I first married, we lived in a 16’x18′ log cabin in Alaska, with no running water, no electricity, 2 miles from the plowed road in winter.

Our little log cabin home on Dry Creek, near Healy, Alaska.

It was rustic and cozy, and we loved it.

But there wasn’t much room for company, let alone space for my many fiber projects.

Family & friends visited for our wedding in 2001, but stayed in other cabins.

When we moved into our 1840’s home in New Hampshire, our living space increased ten-fold, and I was able to dedicate an ENTIRE ROOM to my fiber pursuits.

Talk about Heaven!

Green trim on the doors & windows of my felt hat studio in Canaan, New Hampshire.

Embroidered felt hats cover the north wall of my home studio.

Jungle green felt hats air-drying on wool blankets.

Embroidery yarns line the eastern wall of my felt hat studio.

I store my sewing threads in an antique sewing table drawer.

Did you know you can turn old bathroom tiles into dry erase boards?

Wine corks & bathroom tiles recycled into an office memo-center.

The back-side of my office desk, before adding dry erase tiles.

First tile up!

Dry-erase desk project completed.

My studio shrine: hand-blown glasses by Jordana Korsen, polymer horse sculpture by Luann Udell & wood-fired pottery by Becca Van Fleet Webb surround a photo of our Alaskan wedding.

Having space enough for a home fiber studio is something I’m thankful for every day.

17 Days of Green – Northern Lights

Posted on 11 March 2012 by Carrie Cahill Mulligan

One of the best things about living in Alaska?

Aurora (photo by Paul Moss)

Getting to experience the Northern Lights. In person. Right above me.

Northern lights over Malmesjaur lake in Moskosel, Sweden. (photo by Jerry MagnuM Porsbjer)

They didn’t happen every night, but when they did, the intense green pulsing and flashing, directly overhead, always set my heart on edge.

The Aurora Borealis above Bear Lake, Alaska. (USAF photo by Senior Airman Joshua Strang)

The Aurora are other-worldly. The first time I saw them, it occurred to me: “If they invited me to go with them, I would.”

Red and green Aurora in Fairbanks, Alaska. (photo by Mila Zinkova)

The Northern Lights are mostly an intense, flashing green. But occasionally, you might catch glimpses of red, or very rarely, blue.

Northern Lights with very rare blue light flashes. (photo by Jerry MagnuM Porsbjer )

It’s no wonder that northern Native people had many myths and legends about them.

One Inuit myth tells how the Northern Lights were imprisoned in rocks along the Labrador coast until a mighty warrior struck the stones with his spear, freeing most of the lights to dance in the sky above.

The rest remained in the stones known as Labradorite.

When I met my birthfather 3 years ago, his lovely wife gave me this gorgeous stone, to help connect me to my Labrador Metis heritage, which I’d never known before.