Woodland Creatures

I spent the afternoon with Gretel last Friday. Fittingly, we went for a walk in the woods. I totally should have worn my Hansel get-up. Alas, I’m finding myself wanting to wear this 70’s vintage flannel shirt non-stop lately. I found it recently in the men’s section of the Goodwill while browsing for Lucas.


There’s a lovely little trail loop only about a 10 minute drive from our house. It winds up into the oak covered hills that overlook Spring Lake. The loop is short enough that Clover can now make the hike without needing a stroller. Though I did end up carrying her a little.

I like that Gretel still re-occurs from time to time. With the discovery that her options are basically infinite, the characters seem to come and go pretty quickly these days. Always being replaced by whoever is in the next book we read or movie she sees.

The pretty red floral scarf tied around Clover’s shoulders made its way to her all the way from Turkey! The lovely Sara of Forestlass, was sweet enough to include it in a little package she sent me awhile back.

Unfortunately, the adorable pinafore dress she generously offered me (an etsy trade that turned out to be too small for her) turned out to also be too wee for me. The scarf however, was a big hit, and so Gretel appropriate! Oh, and not to fret about the fate of the adorable pinafore, it found an adorable home with my niece Vida :)

Outfit: 100% thrifted. When I found this little dress last spring, I was thinking that it would be perfect for fall/winter. How right I was, I’ve been wearing the heck out of it!


The hike takes you uphill through the trees, reaching an open meadow at the top. Here a shallow seasonal pond sits. The perfect spot to rest up and poke around a bit, taking in the quiet stillness punctuated with frog croaks and birdsong.

About a month ago Lucas, Clover, and I hiked up here on a drizzly day and were surprised to find the pond packed FULL of salamanders. Each about 5 inches long, they were everywhere, hundreds of them. It was quite amazing. Also, quite obvious that it was mating season and haha, Clover got a kick out of all the salamanders “doing piggyback.”

This time we didn’t see a single salamander, though the pond is now covered with small gelatinous egg sacks… all that remains of their crazy lovefest.


The trail picks up on the other side of the pond, looping around and heading off down the other side of the hill.

I had both cameras with me, so I pulled out my trusty little point and shoot and its rickety little tripod to get a few “outfit shots” on the way back. At this point I think Clover was already plotting her next costume and trying to get me to go home so we could implement it.


Another gorgeous view of the lake on the way down… and such was our little mother/daughter adventure!

Fun story: We own the Andy Goldsworthy documentary Rivers and Tides and had watched it with Clover the night before. It was her first time seeing it.

I stepped off the trail at one point to photograph the lake, and Clover says: “I’m gonna make sumpin.”

A few clicks later, I turn around to find her stacking rocks in a perfect circle. I watched her for a moment before Andy Goldsworthy stacking stones to create his pine cone-shaped structures flashed into my mind… that’s what she was trying to do!

She’s a pretty rad kid.

By the way, if you’ve never seen Rivers and Tides, it’s pretty amazing, and you should. Here’s a lovely sampling someone put together of Andy Goldsworthy’s work:

Around Here

Lily and her purple plastic purse.

The obese Puss in Boots from Shrek Forever After.

The princess from Shelly Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre version of Puss in Boots.

The characters, while in a constant state of flux, remain a constant these days. At this point I'm starting to miss my daughter Clover, it's been awhile now since we've seen her. Not that I haven't enjoyed hanging out with these folks, as well as, Mary Poppins, Olivia the Pig, Goldilocks, Peter Rabbit's Mom, the list is ever growing, while this obsession of hers appears to have no end in sight.

Hmm, it's a wonder I haven't felt like putting much thought into dressing myself lately ;)

By the way, have you ever tried to explain to a determined three-year-old that putting things like say a floor lamp or a hat stand (nevermind the fact that we don't own either of these things) into the thrifted floral tote you gave her to use as her Mary Poppins carpet bag is just not going to happen? If so, apparently I could use some helpful tips on how to do so effectively.

I have been enjoying getting used to my new camera while capturing Clover's sartorial shenanigans though. I need to get a tripod sturdy enough to use it for self-timer shots. Assuming I will one day find the energy to get back to some sartorial shenanigans of my own, that is.




With the long run of spring-like weather we just had, our backyard hasn't been the muddy standing water swamp that it usually is this time of year. Yay! We've been letting the chickens out of their coop to roam free more. They are LOVING IT, and as you can see I've been following them around with the camera some too.

Now, lest you should think I caught Clover in a rare un-costumed moment, the red polka dot dress and black pants were remnants of the Minnie Mouse outfit she wore to pre-school that day. Her fuzzy white ears hat was involved with a red ribbon headband and a big black bow. Seriously, the fun never stops ;)

Sorry about the sparser than usual posting. Having trouble finding the time and energy for blog life lately. Bear with me, I'm sure I'll pull myself out of this slump soon enough!

I actually did manage to get a decent little outfit going the other day, involving a favorite new thrift find, and Clover and I went out for a lovely little hike. I even managed to take some pics. I'll get those posted soon. Until then, hope you're all well :)

Snowin' and Growin'

We stayed in a little cabin along the south shore of Lake Tahoe with some of Lucas’ family last week. There was a leisurely drive around the lake with my sister-in-law Zoe, stopping at every thrift store my eagle eye spotted along the way (our favorite was Pass It On Thrift in Tahoe City where I made my one and only find, a gift-to-be, which I unfortunately can‘t tell you about).

We stopped at Sand Harbor where I took a peaceful walk along a beautiful little boardwalk trail loop, winding along the lake through trees and amazing snow covered boulders before ending with a view of the picturesque cove in the first photo.


We experienced the spectacular view of Emerald Bay on a clear sunny day. Clover experienced snow for the first time.

Made friends with the most perfect snowman I’ve ever seen. This jolly fella was just steps from the front door of our cabin. Built by previous inhabitants, presumably professional snowman builders.

Our cozy cabin’s big window looked right out at Mr. Happy Snowman with the lake and snowy mountains as his backdrop. It was an incredible view changing drastically from hour to hour and day to day as the light and weather shifted.


Speaking of weather we experienced it all, from fog to sun to snow to rain. On the day that it rained, the sun would peak out from the clouds leaving a gorgeous full rainbow going across the lake. There was even one evening when, as the sun was descending, the mountains off in the distance actually glowed PINK against the darkening sky.

We were also lucky to be in awesome company (love my in-laws), with whom we ate really wonderful meals and played several hilarious and spirited games of Apples to Apples when we weren’t group crossword puzzle solving on Sam’s Nook, ah, the wonders of modern technology.

Ok, so now that I‘ve shown you the pretty pictures and emphasized the positives, I’m gonna level with y’all… this trip was not all rainbows and stunning views… let’s just say three-year-olds can be really tough to deal with, yes, even cute little snow bunnies who like to dress up as adorable characters non-stop.

Clover’s been going through a very clingy phase with me lately, rejecting anyone and everyone (including papa, poor guy) who tries to help out. Grumpy, demanding, super sensitive. It’s true what they say about the “terrible twos” being a myth, it’s the “terrible threes” that are no joke.

Of course it didn’t help that she was sick for part of the trip either. Yeah, so, it ended up being a rough week in which I was surrounded by a winter wonderland that I couldn’t really enjoy, save for the that drive around the lake that Clover slept during most of. Not much relaxation to be had for this mama.

I spent the weekend trying to get back into a normal routine with her, recovering from our “vacation” and she’s actually mellowed out quite a bit since we’ve been home. I think she's going through one of her developmental growth spurts where she gets overwhelmed and it takes her a little while to get used to her newly expanded way of seeing and experiencing the world. That's my take on it anyway.

The day after we got home she was off to the hardware store with her papa dressed like a ballerina mouse... and somehow all the exhaustion and frustration seemed pretty worthwhile ;)

P.S. If you're interested, outfit details and a larger view of me and my pal the snowman can be found here.

Happy New Year!

And that, in a nutshell my friends, was our New Year's Eve :)

The first 3 and last 3 photos were taken with my new canon eos rebel xs (surprise xmas present from Lucas!) Still getting used to all that camera though. All the party pics in between were taken by our friend Julianne who did an amazing job documenting all the fun.

Thanks Julianne for capturing my first ever Karaoke performance! Aura and I, who are sort of known in our group of friends for being the shy quiet ones, rocked out to Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll". I let Aura choose our song and didn't know what we would be singing until we got up there. She chose wisely and I think our audience was pleasantly surprised.

Also, just to clarify, the theme of dress was supposed to be monochromatic. Red was by far the most popular color. I struggled with this theme a bit, monochromatic does not fall easily from my closet!

I ended up cheating a little with my not completely green outfit (green silk dress with lace trim, matching bead necklace and green suede boots, all found a few days prior at Simply Chic, a local consignment shop).

Hope your 2011 is off to a good start!