honeyflake

coffee and corner kicks

saturday morning. a little french press and vintage subbuteo... while the coffee brewed chuck rummaged around in the attic, to locate this old table-top soccer game from his childhood to share with margaret. she was thrilled to discover this treasure of her papa's while they played a friendly match together. and me?  i got to tailgate — sipping coffee from my white mug while i watched the wee weeble-like soccer folk getting flicked around the sun-lit green fabric playing field. cheering from the stands... part hooligan/part soccer mom... gooooooaal! 

xoxoxo

plenty of extra sweet valentine vibes going on around here these past few days. celebrating peace, love, happiness (and chocolate) in simple, fun little ways. starting with the little hug-offering heart-dude above that margaret sketched. i love him! so much so, that i scanned him in and printed him out in multiples as the tag for this year's valentine for her friends — same as year's past (natural marshmallows turned lollipops and dipped into a melted mixture of semisweet chips + butter + corn syrup). becoming somewhat of a tradition here i suppose... 

but we did mix it up a bit and celebrate with a new spin on the heart-themed holiday here too this year. may i present to you... the first annual valentine's day raffle!

yes. the valentine's day raffle. you know, sometimes these things appear and just evolve a bit organically... one evening you're at a potluck/fundraiser at the yoga ashram, with an herbal tea in one hand and several non-winning raffle tickets in the other — the next thing you know you're heading home sans incense, promising everyone in the car that we can have our own raffle someday where we all create the prizes — with tickets and everything! once an idea like that is out in the universe, it sticks around, hovers, inspires and then come valentine's day we're gathering in the living room after fondue to see who the lucky winners will be. 

i made some numbered tickets in the computer. these were key. how could we have a raffle without raffle tickets? and the other essential? the prizes... which we all provided - chocolate, watercolors, cedar carvings, certificates for backrubs and portraits, marshmallow lollipops, etc... just simple, little gifts from the heart. enough so that we all won something. really, this idea that found it's way to us turned out to be something quite special. a great little celebration at home together that filled both our hands and hearts. 

hope you're days have been filled with lots of love and sweets lately too.

winter: sledding

at the top.

warmth. in a thermos brought from home.

...getting down to earth

a bit more of why we're not quite wishing away winter just yet... this time, its about just being out there, on top of the white hills — snowflakes by the million, transforming the usually grassy ground into something special and fleeting — hoping for that sweet ride down the slope in only a way that winter snow can provide. 

the three of us bundling up in all sorts of layers and getting ourselves to the nearest cluster of hills. making sure to fill a thermos with hot chocolate right before heading out. so simple really. and such pure joy. lots of laughter. lots of going up, down and back up again for more. out there as a family letting go of everything else and just letting it be winter. time spent sledding is very much time spent being in the season. getting down as close to the cold earth as can be... sensitive to the state of our natural surroundings right now. 

puppeteers and birthday cheers

better than broadway... better than off-broadway... better than the latest blockbuster... tonight we celebrated chuck's birthday with priceless tickets to a puppet performance at a very close to home, eco-savy recycled shoe-box theater. 

we've been planning this all for the past few days. we knew we'd be having some big festive cake (as always), planned on having fondue together (simple recipe from this book with lots of french bread, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, apples, etc... for dipping) and as a surprise margaret and i planned the entertainment. really, i had a big shoe box that i couldn't bare to see go to waste. then when i suggested we try and turn it into a little theater for puppet shows — there was no turning back... we cut the stage out. painted it up. i sewed up a curtain. printed out a couple of tickets... and then in honor of the birthday guy...

sewed up the star of the show. mini-chuck (as margaret calls him).  i'm pretty sure we surprised chuck with this one. and i think more fun than seeing the mini-rendition of chuck was seeing margaret be the puppeteer and animate this little dude. he met talking owls, princesses, danced with his wife kristin on their wedding day, ate cake, took naps, searched for a castle and found a dragon, and took more on stage naps... nice.

 

after the performance, we got our tickets punched by our puppeteer and adjourned to the table for this year's cake. this year, for chuck's 38th birthday, i went with smitten kitchen's chocolate peanut butter cake. such a good post-theater, birthday celebration cake. 

so yeah, if by chance you find yourself a bit inspired to break out a shoebox and make a wee theater for the little puppeteers at your own house, i've uploaded the pdf file i created to print out our tickets (modified slightly) so you can print them out at home. however, i'll leave the puppet-charicatures of your family members up to you. enjoy!