Thursday, April 28, 2011

Spring Chickens and Scenes From a Sunday

No, not Easter Sunday, you know me, I have yet to get around to those pics. This was actually the previous Sunday, far more mellow, way less action packed, and much more sunshiney. It was just a nice little day at home.

Chaos in the Kitchen

My morning started off with stacks of dishes to be done, laundry, floors desperately in need of vacuuming, and the general chaos that ensues when a gang of four rowdy kids, all under the age of five, are let loose in your home…

Lived-In Living Room

Have a closer look…

Morning Scatterings

Now extrapolate this to the entire house.

I will admit that on a less beautiful day, one not quite so filled with bird song, rose-scented breezes, and the warm promise of Spring, things may have been off to a discouraging start.

However, on this particular day, it was the words “a beautiful mess” that came to mind and even inspired me to get out my camera and try to capture the sort of chaos that makes a house feel like a home, lived in, loved.

Nevermind that there are CRAYONS strewn across the wood floors… don’t their tiny pops of color look pretty through the rose-colored glasses of a perfect Spring day?

The Gang

Ah, the culprits! They may look innocent, but do not be fooled. I actually did a double-take when I walked out the back door, after having whipped the house back into some sort of order, and stumbled upon this rare little scene.

Clover and the neighbor kids, all squished into the sandbox, playing together quietly, happily, no crying, no throwing sand, no arguing over sand toys… I’m telling you, it was weird. I had to run and get my camera!

Lil' Helper

Later that afternoon, we spent some family time in the garden. Lucas and Clover planted some small blueberry bushes. He started digging the hole and she ran right over to get her tiny shovel from the sandbox to help. She loves being papa’s little garden helper.

The Picker and the Planter

Clover moved on to the patch of wild onion under the plum tree for some flower picking, while I joined in on the planting. You can never have too many strawberry plants strewn about the yard.

I didn’t even have to ask Lucas to take my picture… that’s how magical of a day it was ;)

Wild Onion Bouquet

Clover taking pride in her onion-scented bouquet.

Chard

Someone told us recently that chard is great on pizza. It’s now on my to-try list. You can never have too many chard recipes at your disposal.

Double Yolker!

A double-yolker!

Yup, it turns out one of our chickens will every once in awhile lay an egg that is quite a bit larger than a normal sized egg and has two yolks instead of one. This is the third one we’ve found!

Hiccup

We’re still not sure which hen is laying them, but Lucas and I both have our money on Hiccup.

Being Broody

Little Kettle Corn went broody on us for a few days. Luckily, after gently picking her up and moving her off the nest a few times, she seems to have snapped out of it.

Dust Bath

When we let the girls out to free-range, usually toward the end of the day, the first thing they do is run straight to the back corner of the yard to their favorite dust bathing spot. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, it turns out the key to a clean, well-groomed, parasite-free chicken is a good honest roll in the dirt!

Foraging

Charming Chicken

See how pretty they look after.

Pretty Poultry

I sat under the willow with my camera poised as they pranced through the backlit flowers after their dust bath. I couldn’t help but edit in some soft-focus...

Handsome Hen

Glamour shots for chickens, anyone?

Flower Garden

Happy Spring planting!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

On a Sunny Saturday

Sunny Saturday


Fringe

Can you tell how in love I am with my new-to-me Minnetonkas? Yeah, I pretty much just gaze at them longingly all day long ;)


These Boots <3
See, there I go again!

Saturday’s outfit:
Plaid jumper: Crimson & Clover <3
90’s floral rayon top: thrifted
Old gray leggins: thrifted a million years ago, I think
Vintage Minnetonka Moccs (I love the side lacing!): Violet Folklore <3
Hand-crafted leather and recycled chain owly necklace: Flaminghag Folkwear <3
Hand-crafted leather butterfly hair-clip: Milla <3

So many beloved bits of leather going on this outfit, and it’s always quite satisfying when a plaid/floral combo works out : )


Sweet Scented Side Yard

As I was documenting my outfit, I couldn’t help but take a break to capture our massive rose arbor, which has just over the past week started blooming profusely. It grows right out toward our kitchen window and fills the side-yard with the sweetest scent.

The bees are loving it too! This little fella kept following me around, buzzing in front of my camera lens. I suppose even bees need their 15 minutes ;)

Clover Under the Roses

As Clover and I observed them buzzing from bloom to bloom out the kitchen window yesterday, with a look of adorable concern, she asked me “Do the bees sting the roses?” Sometimes it’s so fun to watch her little three-year-old brain at work :)



Saturday afternoon Clover and I went out to Hopmonk Tavern (yes, the very location of a certain very fun night the weekend before!) with my friend Angelina and her little boy Finnegan to enjoy some free festivities going on in conjunction with the Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival.

The sun was shining, the beer was tasty, and an old-timey bluegrassy band was playing out back… meanwhile, out front…


Our boys Joey, Klaus, and Josh along with the rest of the expanding Wiskeydrunk crew had their gravity-defying cycling spectacle, the Wiskeydrome, set up and in action.


Clover and Finn had front row seats and even got to try to hit the guys with small bouncy balls as they whizzed by, fun stuff, and probably pretty safe too!


Upon Finn’s request, Klaus tore it up on a tiny blue kid’s vintage Schwinn.


We also witnessed the successful execution of the, never before attempted, no-hands pass, woohoo! Hey, does that parachute tent look familiar?

Clover and Finn, let their freak flags fly ;)

Photo-op on the old-school tandem cruiser. Clover’s adorable floral dress was a gift from Amber that arrived along with the beloved moccasins I purchased from her shop. She also threw in a super cute bonus blouse and cardi for me as well! Thanks Amber!

Upon Lucas' arrival we were off to a BBQ/gathering of friends nearby.

Clover losing it after a long day in the sun.


Blue skies and BBQ lead into an evening around a blazing fire with the full moon overhead. We'll be meeting up with a bunch of our friends who were there in Mexico next month for the wedding of our wonderful hosts, Luis and Julianne, can't wait!



Good friends, good food, and a bunch of full moon loony kiddos!

And what blog post would be complete these days without a gratuitous kitty pic? She belongs to our friends who hosted the BBQ. She has kitty thumbs. Unfortunately, they aren’t visible here, but trust me, they’re there, and they’re super weird and kinda rad. Apparently, they help with writing poetry too, as evidenced by our friend Luis' recent status update on fb:

“I had another weird dream last night where I found out my cat wrote a book of poetry and it was called ‘Me.Yow.’ I was trying to find it on Amazon and was mad she never gave me a copy. Weird dream weird cat.”

I thought that was pretty awesome :)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Go and Sing to the Mountain, Go and Sing to the Moon

Dressed to Dance

My outfit for a very special Sunday evening… a favorite floral frock (thrifted) and my glorious new Minnetonka Moccs from my girl Amber’s magical Etsy shop of beautiful bohemian wonders, Violet Folklore! I promise a better view of these lovelies in my next outfit post. Of course I topped it all off with my favorite hair accessory, the lovely leather leaf clip made by my darling Millakin!

Now, why was my Sunday evening so special, you ask?…

Moonsong sisters reunite! My lovely ladykins, Heather and Amber, picked me up following a long drive out from the foothills and we were off for an incredible night full of beer drinking, soul-nourishing music and dancing, and all-around fun-filled sisterly shenanigans at Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol!

Our evening began with a tasty double IPA which we toasted with love to our dear Milla, who we held close in spirit throughout the night. So much so that it was as if she were right there with us at times… turns out she was up on the stormy shores of her island doing just the same :)

Heather brought Amber and I the most thoughtfully assembled gift bags full of all manner of treasures which we opened together as the sun went down on the biergarten… so much thrifty gifty goodness… it will need a post all its own!

Heather has already described this evening so perfectly. Rather than try to improve upon perfection, I’m just gonna show some of my pics from our jubilant night and direct you on over to her post (if you haven’t already been) for all the glorious details…

…not to mention, several more classy bathroom outfit shots!

Ah, Elephant Revival, the band whose blissful music is responsible for bringing us girls back together so soon! I will also send you over to Milla’s post for her beautiful portrayal (she saw them play just the Sunday before!) of this band that is so dear to her heart, and for such good reason as we now know from experience! On with the pics…



Dancin'

The three of us danced unabashedly front and center the entire time they played! Completely caught up in our gleeful haze, it wasn’t until near the end of the show, when Bonnie began wooing us all with her beautiful saw playing (she also plays the washboard and has a voice straight from the heavens, by the way) that I realized I hadn’t taken any pictures and rushed over to grab my camera.

Instruments of Beauty

There was plenty of fiddle wooing going on by the lovely Bridget as well :)


Such a wonderful show it was!


Completely smitten, we reeled the lovely Bridget and Bonnie into our happy little group after the show with some girl talk in the ladies room, followed by…



A lively little impromptu Tom Waits dance party!


Huggin'
We all got hugs from the girls, then reluctant to end our perfect evening…

Hung around a bit longer and were treated to Dango’s spirited story of how he came by his beautiful antique stand-up bass... it’s all in Heather’s post, along with a bonus image of Amber expressing her heart-felt appreciation for said beauty of a bass ;)


Oh, what an unforgetable night! SO MUCH FUN!!!