Poofy Puffin Upholstery Place

06/02/2026

“Two Tribes, One People.” -Kaarlo Wik
Very proud of the hard work they have all put in. It’s going to be awesome. Housing for our Elders.

A major step forward for Elder housing in Kenai 🏠🚧

The Kenaitze Indian Tribe and Salamatof Tribe are bringing a long-held vision to life with a new 36-unit housing project for eligible Alaska Native and American Indian Elders—keeping them close to community, culture and care.

The effort is led by Salamatof Tribal member and CIRI Board Director Kaarlo Wik (Aleut), who chairs the group behind the project and represents the Tribally Designated Housing Entity.

Though they are separate Tribes, Kaarlo says the Kenaitze and Salamatof communities are deeply connected, with a strong focus on working together.

“Members of one Tribe are brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers of members of the other Tribe,” he said. “We are two Tribes, one people. We separated when the Tribes were originally founded, but they're still our family.”

Read more from KDLL’s Ashlyn O’Hara: https://www.kdll.org/local-news/2026-06-01/work-underway-in-kenai-on-tribal-elder-housing-project

06/02/2026

Jess at J&H kept my sewing machines working for decades. When my Consew went down, I could bring it to him and he would stop other jobs to fix it. He didn’t make me wait for the industrial sewing machine to be fixed. He knew how important it was. You wouldn’t think there are upholstery emergencies but if I make a promise, I need to make it happen, and Jesse helped make sure I could do that. So, Thank You to J&H for keeping us running all these years.
They are giving away sewing machines all week! I stopped in by chance yesterday just in time to hear them call the winner!
Stop by J&H. Thank them for keeping us all running for 40 years and sign up to win a new sewing machine!!!

05/29/2026

Vintage trim. Salmon skin. Chicken food bags. I have hundreds of yards of zippers, but still had to order red and blue zippers for this idea. These are going to be so cute! Stay tuned to see what I’m making next.

05/29/2026

The other day I posted about our 1970 GMC motorhome. We had a large upturn in views on that post. I need to know. Was it Tessie or the motorhome?

05/28/2026

Today was our last job at Poofy Puffin Upholstery Place.

The trees have been cleared. The signs have come down. The upholstery shop is closed, for now.
Next week I get my first minor hand surgery. I’m excited to be in less pain. Hopefully all goes as quick and easy as expected!

We will never take jobs on the scale we used to. After my hands get a tune up, I plan on taking it easier on them. We aren’t done creating though! So, what did we do? We bought a bus! A Mobile Command Center at that! The bus won’t be a mobile upholstery shop but it will be a fun mobile sewing studio!
Any actual Poofy Business will still be conducted in the little Yellow shop on the Spur. But we are officially closed for now as we make our transition to the Next Chapter at Poofy.
Follow along on Instagram too if you’d like.
Wish us luck. 🙏

05/26/2026

Anyone guess what we are doing this morning? 😁🦆
Last year when we redid the booths at this restaurant, the seats were still in good shape so they didn’t get upholstered. Now as they wear out, they are getting replaced.