Friday Fun: Good neighbors

My sweet neighbor lady dropped by with yummy cupcakes to share during my lunch break yesterday. I love finally having nice neighbors after years of weirdos in the apartments I've lived in.

Excited to fire up the grill this weekend and have dinner on the deck. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

New on Kern This Studio: The Burton Family

I got the wonderful opportunity to photography the beautiful Burton family on a recent sunny Saturday in Anchorage. They are all kinds of exciting with a new baby and a new adventure moving to the Lower 48 in coming weeks. See more pictures from the shoot on my professional website: KernThisStudio.com.

Media Monday: Language of news design

Mario Garcia has a simple, eloquent post on his blog today and I thought I would share it too. Garcia is an international leader in news design, doing consulting and redesigns for newspapers worldwide.

His message today:

What are some of those universal values that apply to any publication, regardless of language?

• Make the information easy to find. 

• Make the type easy to read. 

• Make it attractive.

Well said. Read the full post here.

Friday Fun: It hit 50 degrees

My thermometer ranged from 50 to 54 on my drive home this afternoon. Time for some springtime bicycling. Happy weekend!

What I'm Loving Wednesday: Green tea, springtime, Bossypants

This is my first "What I'm Loving Wednesday Post." I'm linking up with a bunch of bloggers from all over who post a short list of things we love each week.

1. Jasmine Blossom Green Tea by Stash. I keep a box in my right desk drawer and am favoring it over my coffee habit most days. I take my tea black (or green if you will) so it's way healthier than my beloved Starbucks' concoctions.

2. My So Called Life on Netflix instant queue. I remember watching this show in my youth and being devastated when it was canceled. Now I can re-live all the bad fashion, teenage angst and overly dramatic scenes at my leisure.

3. Alaska's beautiful springtime skies ... every time I don't have my camera! The iPhone didn't do a terrible job capturing this moment though.

4. Warm weather! Most days when I got home from work I open the door and watch my cats soak up the sun for a few minutes. I'm so grateful for temperatures in the 40s, sunshine and shrinking snowdrifts.

 5. Bossypants. Tina Fey's new book is lighting up my Kindle at the moment. I adore her and even more now that I can read about her life and climb to the top.

Nice day for a drive

Sun, clouds and rain from the south side of Wasilla.

~posted from my iPhone

Friday Fun: What happens when you stay home sick

I'll try not to bore you with too many pet pictures. I know you get it: I love my cats, you don't care. Fair enough. But I stayed home sick one day back in Februrary and my husband took this picture during his lunch break. You see, it turns out my cats think putting their paws on your face seems to be something you would like.

I thought it would be fun to share. I'm probably the only one...

Have a wonderful weekend.

Some enchanted evening at the Anchorage Opera

I didn't realize I was sitting two seats from the director Friday night. I didn't realize this reputable opera director had been flown up from Seattle halfway through the show to take over. Further, I did not expect to be toasting to his success with rose champagne, the conductor and a handful of cast members after the show. Lastly, I didn't realize he would be telling my husband and I were to get the best Chinese food in town. After all I've lived here two years and he's spent less weeks in Alaska than you can count on two hands.

The curtain came up over the set of South Pacific last weekend to bright colors, warm lighting and tropical music. It was the Anchorage Opera's crossover musical for the season. The Anchorage Opera is bringing in big Broadway musical show names once a season to pack the theater, attract a broader audience and help fund the rest of the year's shows.

South Pacific was no exception. The beautiful voices of a cast made up of both Anchorage locals and talent from outside. Days later, still find myself humming the Rogers and Hammerstein tunes, "I'm Gonna Wash that Man Out of My Hair," and "Some Enchanted Evening."

We were among a small group selected to go for a quick backstage tour after the show that concluded with a champange toast to the cast and crew. I got the joy of meeting director Jeffery Buchman and conductor Kelly Kuo. I found out Kuo resides in Oregon and was born in Richland the next door neighbor to my Tri-City hometown, Kennewick.

There's still five more shows to see it for yourself, Anchorage friends:

SHOWS: 
Wednesday, April 6 at 7 p.m.
Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m.
Friday,  April 8 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 9 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 10 at 4 p.m.

BUY TICKETS:
At the Anchorage Opera website.

Media Monday: Alaska Press Club highlights

I attended the Alaska Press Club conference over the weekend and am feeling inspired. Listening to Kim Serverson of the New York Times, Susan Orlean of the New Yorker and John Moore of Getty Images reminded me why I got into this profession and movtivated me to go out there and get 'em! And sometimes you need to have a little time to reflect and feel inspired.

Here are some highlights of the weekend events:

• An audience member asked Kim Severson if she felt bad that a particular food review she wrote closed the restaurant. She answered, "My review didn't cause them to go out of business. The crappy food did." She did acknowledge the challenges of writing food review in a small community with challenges like Alaska's food shipping costs, etc. and the community's effort to support local. You tend to look at everything through a "it's GOOD, for Anchorage" lens.


• Susan Orlean said to always make that last phone call and follow every lead. She told two stories where she followed one last lead that she thought would result in nothing and ended up with the most important part of her story. She emphasized how easy it is to be lazy and how easy that turns into missed opportunities.


• John Moore talked about how much canned tuna he ate while covering the front lines in Lybia, how it feels to be a journalist in the war zone, and how lucky and humbled he was when his replacement was captured as a war prisoner just weeks after he left the country. All while showing slides of his wonderful photos.


• My company is small, but mighty, and took home a slew of awards including best weekly for The Tundra Drums. Congratulations to Alex DeMarban, Roy Corral, Victoria Barber, Nadya Gilmore, Steve Quinn and Wayde Carroll for various wins. I personally took home first place certificates for the following categories: Best Magazine Cover, Best Overall Magazine Design and Best Newspaper Graphic. I am honored.


• A hanger that doubles as an online newspaper office makes an excellent place for a party with a bunch of journalists.


• Hearing the first-hand story from the editor who was handcuffed by a certain Senate candidate's security crew for asking questions at a public (depending on who you ask) event last fall.

I also want to give props to my fellow Evergreener and dear friend Brielle Shaeffer for her award for Breaking News Reporting for covering a shooting for the Peninsula Clarion in Kenai.

Dear Font Geeks: Happy April Fool's Day, Love Google

Google has a smarty pants little trick for typographic geeks today. To get in on the joke simply type "Comic Sans" in your Google search and take a gander at all the horrific Comic Sans glory.

Now try "Helvetica." Wait, what? It's still in Comic Sans!

More on the prank here.

Enjoy!

Friday Fun: It's going to be a media-licious weekend

Happy Friday! Sometimes it seems like all the fun stuff is happening at once. This weekend is one of those times. Here's what's on the docket in my world:

1. The Alaska Press Club Conference is happening in Anchorage. We have some prestigious names in journalism here in Anchorage to lead workshops, including Kim Severson of the New York Times and Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute.


2. Additionally, my company entered a few pieces I worked on in the Press Club Awards contest and we're going to the awards cocktail reception Saturday night. Cross your fingers for me.


3. My dear friend Brielle is in town for the conference and we got to squeeze in some quality time over red wine and delicious food last night. We go back to college, it's always nice to have old friends near.


4. We have tickets to see the Anchorage Opera's opening production of South Pacific tonight. The opera is doing one mainstream opera/musical crossover each year and this is it.


5. I'm crocheting like a mad woman in every spare second to finish a special project in time. But more on that later since it's a surprise for the receiver.

Do you have any exciting weekend plans? Have a wonderful weekend?