honeyflake

super bowls

supplies get gathered on the kitchen counter — blender, bowls, spoons, bananas, homemade granola, juice, honey, extra fruit and some frozen packs of açaí berries. a few ingredients are whirred up in the blender. the bowls get filled with açaí puree. the crunchy oats find their place on top of that. fresh fruit is then sliced and arranged. and next... the honey. 

these açaí bowls are all the rage in our little kitchen lately. we like them. they are fun and exotic. they are loaded with super-good-for-you ingredients. they are extra delicious and they simply bring us together at the table for a good while... and while we are still wearing sweaters and long sleeves, cruising our way through winter here, these chilled creations seem to bring about thoughts of warm sun, tropical getaways and make me want to queue up my beachday playlist. 

have you tried making açaí bowls? would you like to? these are totally something that can be easily improvised and altered, depending on what everyone's up for. before we made our first batch we watched these videos here and here which get you going in the right direction. yes,i definitely recommend grabbing some of your favorite granola, your blender and giving it a go... perhaps even turning up a few songs from your own favorite beachday mix. 

london (and knitting) calling

happily wound up some green, wooly beaverslide yarn from the rocky mountains into a ball and cast on for a new knitting creation this weekend... i'm loving this yarn and was so happy to have a bit of time to start working on something new... and on top of that? there was plenty of women's soccer streaming live on our computer. 

watching a new project take off loop by loop while getting to watch the u.s. team play a few games... perfect for a january weekend. (in some way or another, soccer really does seam to work it's way into my knitting doesn't it.) and i have to say that i totally enjoyed watching margaret root and cheer for this team and celebrate their goals... now they're off to the london olympics and we're a bit eager for the summer games to begin. and until then i've got some yarn to see to. 

presently

• there are a few twigs of forsythia on the table. i clipped them from out in the yard, brought them in and set them in some water... perhaps we'll get a few forced yellow blooms a bit ahead of schedule. a little spring preview trick i learned from nonnie and try to do every year at about this time.

• there is saturday morning's coffee pot on the counter, finally empty of its contents. such a good brew today.

  
• there is a new song on my ipod, in my running playlist. i heard it for the first time on the radio tuesday night, on my way home from yoga...  then i downloaded it pretty much right away and was listening to it several times on my run the next day. i'm so happy that all the ice has melted this week, making it safe for a few outings on the path. the addition of a new song and temps over 40, even 50 degrees were joyously welcomed.

• there is a knitting project so, so, so very close to being complete. 

• there is a saturday night ahead of us with no where to be... but together.

hope you are presently enjoying a wonderful weekend.

wonderland

decking the fort with lights and snowflakes... fa la la la la

striped

a rainy afternoon in the summertime... 

wish you were here

 

 

just a few 'travel-snapshots' from our fun-in-the-sun filled getaway... a spontaneous island adventure we had a few days ago, (we still haven't even had time to unpack really), right here in our living room.  it started out with a bit of talking and dreaming one night and as things seem to go around here, the next thing we knew our indoor space had been transformed into a tropical paradise (amazingly there were completely no lines at the airport). i provided some brightly colored caribbean sarongs and drink umbrellas and margaret crafted up one bright and shining sun to hang from above... the appropriate tunes were cued up... and we then found ourselves kicking back, sipping our herbal tea coolers, going on about how perfect the water was, writing palmtree filled postcards to our family back home...  oh you know, just good old vacationing... letting our imaginations take us somewhere new for the day. pretty delightful if you ask me — next time we return however, i vow to figure out room service.

in the works

its friday! currently we're in the midst of a bit of last minute party preparations. a party this weekend to celebrate turning six. party time is quickly approaching and the house is full of activity — for instance, right now chuck is working on burning the silkscreen... the butter is being brought to room temperature on the counter for baking... limbo rock has been purchased and downloaded from itunes... and i'm going over my checklist every few seconds. (it should be an interesting friday night — and hopefully a very fun saturday afternoon.) happy weekend to you!

friday morning

"wake now discover that you are the song 
that the morning brings..." ~ robert hunter

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.

lots of around-the-tree time lately

{morning}

{afternoon}

{night}

with this tale often being heard... any time of day.

one evening snapshot

1

our advent tradition begins again...

it's been getting quite chilly here lately and so i've been...

 
baking doughnuts and serving them with mugs of hot ginger tea. (a simple elixir of fresh chopped ginger, a little lemon boiled up and then sweetened with a bit of honey).

 
playing post-office and wearing my super cozy toasties (made by erin — and delivered in person when we got to meet a week or so ago in nyc!).

working on the sweater project... the wool, the hot water bottle and the blanket surround.

stayin warm!

boo

saturday & sunday

thursday

tuesday

monday

a week in the life

serene yogamama drawing by margaret. 9.28.08

looking ahead at my calendar for this week, i'm seeing some happenings coming up, like the switch from september to october (how did that happen so fast?), the shaded days that chuck has off from work, a birthday party for a friend of margaret's... just some ordinary markers that will shape the general direction of this specific new week. beyond that, i'm not really sure what else the next seven days will bring. what i do know is that as it is every week, in between these events, the days will be filled with everyday details — i expect both familiar and brand new. little bits of us that make up our life right now. so, what's this all about anyway? well, thanks to a great project prompt on ali's blog called a week in the life, i'm going to take a little extra time this week to observe and capture these small day-to-day particulars. it will mean clicking a few more photos than normal, jotting down a few more notes and specifics throughout the day... when the week is complete i'll compile these words and images together in an album-of-sorts (exact format to be worked out later) so we'll be able to look back and see this narrated snapshot of time. i'm very excited for this challenge. what a great opportunity to practice awareness and be a little more present in the moment, right? let the week begin.

recurring theme

sea glass on washed up driftwood.


glass marble rolling down wooden track.

glass on wood. a little unexpected photo theme happening around here this weekend. i noticed this tonight as i was uploading some pictures of the past few days to my computer. 

the first glass on wood picture was from this morning. the storms in the atlantic have really churned up the sea, which is always a good thing for beach glass hunting, so the three of us swung by there after breakfast for a walk. alongside the wild crashing waves we happily found some small scattered treasures (a blue piece!!) as well as some super large driftwood (practically entire worn down trees) that were perfect for climbing, sitting and photographing... 

the second glass on wood picture is of margaret's marble run. she has a system of blocks and tracks that fit together in various ways and then, well, you can roll marbles down the track. she's just been completely fascinated with it lately (or should i say "we've" since really we all find it pretty cool)... setting up all sorts of trial and error structures that propel marbles all about.

one outside. one indoors. two images with a theme. both taken over this simple september weekend. hope you had a good one!

made in the shade

the library books were returned. the csa vegetables were picked up. we had our lunch. margaret was happily involved in playing, buzzing about. ahhhh... before the evenings activities started (cooking dinner, cleaning up from the day, out to yoga class) i embraced a few minutes of this late summer heat filled afternoon to retreat to the shade. seems i spend the greater part of the season seeking out the sun, but today i went for the shade. much much cooler. (the august heat has arrived.) the yard chair was moved to the shadiest, quietest corner and there i sat with my knitting (same old legwarmers which i'm so focused on finishing lately. i'd say that i'm 75% there. one is complete and the other is about half way. inch by inch it is coming along.) just so very nice to have those few quiet moments to break up the day. to notice the calendula that's popped up in the garden, to notice the blueberry bush that is now officially blueberry-less until next year, to notice the clouds and the breeze... all while the needles were clicking away. in the shade. of course, i must admit that this time was not without it's interruptions. you know, things were happening — such as margaret's excitement and need for me due to the dragonfly she thought followed her into the house (a full search was immediately done and i have yet to see any winged creature turn up) and events of the like. good summery interruptions — because think about it, how often is it in february that we run around the house (camera in hand of course just in case) searching for a renegade dragonfly?

and now here we are, at the end of the post, at the end of the afternoon. i'm off now to check on my dough, get dinner together and eventually i'll grab my mat and head out to class. here's to the spirit of the season, cool breezes and shadey backyard nooks. i'll let you know if that dragonfly turns up on my pillow tonight. be well.

unicorns and rainbows

 
almost out of nowhere - a late afternoon thunderstorm popped up and interrupted our sunny friday. so we waited it out in the house. margaret asked me to play with her in her room because it was calm there. so that is what we did (after firstly scurrying around to shut all the windows). together we set up a scene with her wooden figures and simple blocks. our attention was turned from the thunder, lightening, wind, hail and rain outside to this new, quieter land — where the animals came into the castle seeking shelter from a hail storm and the prince, princess and unicorn cooked up a magical tea for all the creatures, made lovingly in the tiniest of teapots from the imaginary hail. 

 

as this indoor micro-world evolved, the summer storm outside sailed further away to the east, the rain slowed and the blue skies were revealed once again. the sun shone brightly through the window as if nothing ever happened. but we were sure it did. so we went out to check for ourselves...

operating in summer mode

long days discovering amongst the sand and surf... 

simply watching the garden grow...

chasing dragonflies and sunshine with my canon...

evenings slowly handsewing a new craft project...

staying up late to see how it ends...

catching some brilliant lights in the sky above...

yes, we've all been operating in summer mode now for sure around here, day and night.

embracing the gray

thursday's coffee. love when there's time to froth the milk.

wednesday's bridal wreath bush in bloom. today however it is weighted down with rain.

tuesday's rough sea. a bit frothy too, a result of monday's gusty gails.

quite a rainy friday here today. inspired, i went back to a few photos from earlier in the week, this time visiting them in black and white... and embracing the gray of today

mixed greens

from a tree, in a fresh bouquet...

from her garden, in a fresh little salad.

two saturdays ago

my first bloggy meetup. well, unless you count meeting up with my cousin at nonnie's house, then of course meeting grace would technically be my second time meeting up with a friend from blogland. either way, it was just very cool. it was a sunny spring weekend morning filled with fun, smiles and crafty adventures in the city... a coffeeshop, a bookstore, perusing ribbons, tassles & ric rac, and wool — yes the wool... grace brought along an amazing skein of green yarn! for me! (thank you grace.) its the type of textured yarn that looks so beautiful just as is, wrapped up in a bundle... and once i find just the right project for these fibers i'm sure i could bring myself to unravel it, to create something knitty and new. (a hat? scarf?)

it was so nice to go on this adventure with grace. just think this whole sweet outing came to be, all because of a little thing called a blog.

creating space

how great is it to have a little space? be it some space in time, some space in place, some space to just be... i am really grateful to have had a little space in time yesterday between an active day and evening, and space on my living room floor, of all places, in which to put my many books and papers out on. i started out sitting in the rocking chair with just my yoga notebook and a pen... with margaret right there, busy cutting some paper at her little table... my intention was to just review some yoga postures and notes in preparation for tuesday night's class and then create a cohesive twenty-minute pose-sequence to lead the class through... well margaret's activity naturally evolved and grew into something which had her deep in that place of imagination and led her into another room (where i believe there was "fishing at a pond" and "firing of her own clay pottery") — while my simple activity evolved into amassing a bigger stack of reference materials, outgrowing my nice spot in the chair, taking me to the floor. suddenly finding myself in the living room with a bit of quiet, and space for concentration. space for focus. space to create... nice, right?

...so now i'm here post-class (the sequence went well, although, not exactly as i outlined in my notebook — never getting around to parsvottanasana like i intended) and thinking back on my pre-class activity. flipping through the books, refreshing my brain of sanskrit names, making notes — all this too was aimed at creating space as well. assembling a series of poses that flow and work together well — to ultimately help all of us in class open up, expand and create space (and i'm hoping it did)...

big stretch and yawn

waking verb to become roused from a tranquil or inactive state; awaken; waken: to wake from one's daydreams.

hello blog. seems like we've let ourselves slip into a little snooze for a bit. now that we're feeling a bit rested, time to get up and get things flowing and moving here as they once were... pass the coffee please.

happy little things

• some forsythia in bloom (do-it-yourself sneak peek of spring — i brought a flowerless branch in from our yard and just put
it in water... from what i can see, the outside buds aren't
that far behind.) • a kitchen floor scrubbed clean • new sewing machine needles to replace the old broken ones • this very sunny little guy •

at home

late afternoon light
apron in the hallway...
last afternoon in january

pass the broom please

a "wrapping it up" post of another sort

as i sort through the photos i've taken over the past few days, i'm realizing that i did not really snap that many. not so typical of me. there are however quite a few of some wrapped gifts that were under the tree, with their contents disguised, for a few days prior to being opened... so i think that is what i will share with you right now, our wrapping...

1. the matching red boxes from margaret. i originally had painted these saved cardboard boxes thinking i'd be able to use them as wrapping-paper-free gift boxes, feeling good about the reducing/reusing/recycling aspect of that, but once i was done, i realized that they did not come out as i had envisioned them... before i even had my mind made up if i was going to use them or not margaret started asking if she could have them. so i passed them on to her to play with. and in all the pre-christmas creative excitement she turned these into packages for chuck and i. with secret creations being added inside (drawings, cards, treasures made from glue and fabric - i'm loving my "scarf" and "coffee cozy" more than i could even imagine really) and on top (beads, fringe, teabag labels, crayon markings) a little each day. this was something that was totally unplanned - but became such a cool, special thing to me. she put so much thought and energy into each of these. we love these mama and papa boxes so much. (i'm really liking the flipside of papa's - with the irreggular type and scratchy markings it turned out looking like something very reminiscent of a david carson poster. truly carefree).

2. the red bags. a little more getting creative with what we had. i made these two simple fabric bags for chucks gifts. there is still a huge piece of red fabric in my fabric box that i picked up once at a thrift store. i had some time to sew these up — which again freed me up from the need of wrapping paper and boxes... these reusable bags were inspired from photo number three (read on)...

3. the patagonia holiday gift bags. a few years ago, i'm not sure when, there were a few presents under our tree from patagonia. the store that year was not providing gift boxes, but these gift bags made from leftover material from their products. pretty cool. so these, while not the traditional red and green, or patterend with wintery snowflake or candycanes, have become part of our holiday tradition. it is always exciting to see them under the tree. and their ease and simple function inspired me to sew up the two new red ones this year...

4. the his/hers boxes. since i ended up not using the boxes in photo one, i did end up buying these 2 plain white boxes for some handmade creations we were sending my parents' way... and then sort-of made them un-plain with the help of some colored paper and white craft letters... i really liked this idea (and apparently margaret really did too) of not really wrapping but just decorating the boxes — new or old (like photo number one)... something i'll hopefully try again.

so, wow. probably more than i planned on saying regarding this year's wrapping adventures, but since the photos were there en masse, why not? especially since the wrapping adventures included beads, glued on trinkets and type, right? i hope you enjoyed reading through these, or just checking out the concealed gift photos... perhaps even gotten a bit inspired for some gift-packaging of your own in the future...

w is for wednesday

w is for wrapped up.
for the most part anyway... the preparations, the gift making, the gathering, the celebrating.... hope you too had some days filled merriment, togetherness and holiday cheer as well. the lazy quietness of today is oh so nice. the day after christmas is like a holiday unto itself really. time to relax, reflect a little, take it all in, wind down... we all pretty much spent the greater part of the day hanging around, wrapped up in something...
me = old big blanket and sweater... chuck = wooly knitted hat... margaret = toys... the dolls = their new blankets, sweater and hats...

w is for world cafe.
listened to a few good broadcasts of this radio show through the magic of the internet while we hung around.

w is for weeeeeeee.
not-so-new bendy folks seem like new again while they go for a spin on their new wooden swing ride. sweet.

i'd love to share more of our holiday happenings, i'll hopefully put together another post or two in the next couple of days recapping what i can before the spirit of the season is too wrapped up and i forget all the details. enjoy the peacefulness of the week.

peace and light

wishing you and yours warmth, happiness and peace. enjoy.

just a few brief thoughts on winter light and winter white

there continues to be a buzz of activity around here. preparations. excitement. lots of fun doings. and it is all doing a very good job at keeping us occupied while we travel through some of the darkest (celestial light-wise) days of the season. these past few days, where we live at least, the days continue do have less and less daylight while the sun spends its fair share of time on the other side of the globe — leaving us with longer stretches of time with the night sky, its stars and moon. but it is all just about ready to swing back the other way. and we'll be welcoming back the light - bit by bit, the days will begin to be longer and the dark, the night, will grow shorter. yes! something we can ponder a bit more while we enjoy our winter star cookies that we decorated today and anticipate the celebrations...

and for the thoughts on winter white... that's just simply, paper snowflakes. something so simple but i thought it needed to be mentioned because it was a huge hit here. i couldn't believe how all consuming this tribute-to-snow activity became this afternoon for margaret and i (i told you we've been occupied). she has embraced this new craft with pure glee. there was excitement and surprise in each creation as it was gently unfolded and revealed. again and again. at the rate shes going we'll need a shovel to deal with the accumulation in here.

w is for wednesday

w is for wisking and whirling.
baking? always a hit around here. so today, when i was feeling like i wanted to keep the whole holiday creating momentum going, but couldn't really work on margaret's gifts while she was around, i opted to go for making a few batches of cookies. i'm thinking this was an excellent choice. (gotta love when everyone's involved, engaged and feeling productive.) we started with a batch of sugar cookies and spent the afternoon together wisking, mixing, rolling dough and cutting shapes (stars!).

w is for well stocked.
i've got enough butter, sugar, flour and eggs for many more batches to come. holiday baking, how i love thee.

hanging around {part two}

a touch of wool

a touch of the sea

and so it is monday. morning. the weekend was indeed filled with togetherness and busy-ness. so i think i'll keep it simple here today with more of the tree trimming chronicles. first my wooly sheep who makes his appearance on the tree for maybe the fourth or fifth year. (yes, i sound like i am presenting a thanksgiving day parade float right there. no, i didn't make him myself but i really wish i did.) he's got that sweet simplicity that makes me sort of swoon. moving over a bough or two dangles one of the simple beachglass-like stars that we have. i picked up a set of these one year when i worked up the block from kate's paperie, before i even lived on my own and had my own tree. just picked em up and stashed them away. next to my "aunt lena" ball, these might be the ornaments that i've had the longest. (don't worry friends and family, the aunt lena ball photos will be up here for sure!!!) ok, so i'll stop here so i can carry on with what 's on tap for the day. take care and have a merry one!

hanging around

a touch of vintage

a touch of inner peace

a few ornaments hanging up on the tree. (i've got a bunch more ornament photos queued up in anticipation of the busy days to come, where i might not have the time to blog as much as i'd like, i think i'll use them to decorate up this space and keep the posts flowing...)

hoping to do some things today, you know, like perhaps hang some lights outside, maybe attempt round two of the christmas card photo shoot, hopefully conquer a few creative endevours on our handmade gift list, and of course find a few moments to just be... i've already had about four or five cups of coffee (really that's a joke because today i'm drinking out of an espresso cup which holds about what, a teaspoon liquid measure?) so i'm all ready... we'll see where the day goes...

i hope that perhaps you too are enjoying just wherever it is that the day takes you... happy weekend.

on the branches

today outside, there was the first snow, arriving in a beautiful, peaceful sunday morning type of way... decorating the trees in our yard with patches of fluff. i know winter isn't officially here until a few weeks, but today's snowfall really has switched the mood from autumn to winter. you can just feel it. a real seasonal switch. and it is not only outside where winter's presence can be observed...

today inside, there were shiny baubles a plenty, arriving in another festive, jolly decorating the tree type of way... our tree is up. miniature white lights are on and the precious ornaments have been unwrapped, rediscovered and hung. i love bringing evergreen and its fresh pine scent into our home. (right now it is just the tree and the extra branches that chuck trimmed off — they are piled up in a little nature-y display margaret worked on for her own touch of seasonal ambiance...) so, yeah, tree decorating ouside and in.

season's greetings.