buzzville

Happy Easter!

We just finished a lovely Easter lunch - very simple this year: honey ham, arugula salad, roasted asparagus with sea salt & parmesan, and peach blueberry panna cotta (thank you Trader Joe's!) for dessert. Out here it truly feels as if spring is here - blue skies, warm breeze, and flowers blooming everywhere. The Easter bunny left a trail of jelly beans throughout the house leading to an Easter basket brimming with books, crafts supplies, games, and the requisite chocolate bunny. Outside, there was an Easter egg hunt for plastic eggs filled with assorted goodies... Hello Kitty socks, hairbands, and selections from the Re-Ment Fairy Tale Sweets collection (specifically requested of the Easter bunny!). I've been a big fan of Re-ment miniatures for a few years - the detail is so great, and the themes so fun - but now that superbuzzy is carrying the full line, it makes it a little too easy to get my hands on! I asked the Easter bunny for the Merry Strawberry set, so we'll see if he comes through.

I was completely unprepared for Easter this year, which is perhaps why we kept it so simple. We took a mini vacation last week, which left me little time to get my act together. The timing of the trip was driven by a gift from my mom - a gift certificate to stay at the Vision Quest Ranch Bed & Breakfast located between Salinas and Monterey. Jerry and I both decided that the adventure could either be extremely cheesy or very cool. Luckily, the cheese factor was extremely limited (save a few of the furniture items in the cabin), and the experience was quite nice. The Ranch is set up as a rescue for exotic animals and many of them end up working as television and movie actors. The place houses a bunch of cats (lions, tigers, lynxes, etc.) as well as wallabies, kangaroos, baboons, elephants, ostriches, and more. Included in the B&B is a 1 hour tour of the facility, an evening visit by 2 animals on a walk (we met a baboon and a wallaby), and breakfast delivered by an elephant. The elephants have been rescued from circuses, and they have a wonderful, large enclosure with 2 ostriches and a zebra - they seem to be enjoying their retirement! We stayed the night in a tent cabin, not unlike the yurts we've stayed in:

It was a cold night, but the space heater and the electric mattress pad kept us cozy while we slept. We woke up the next morning and watched the elephants get washed before breakfast. Then, we saw the Butch make his round of the 4 tent cabins as he delivered breakfast to the guests:

We got to feed him a bit of breakfast - apples, oranges and bananas - before he left and we munched on ours:

The B&B doesn't allow children, so we left that morning to pick up Brynne after a night at grandma's house, and we headed north, across the Golden Gate, on one of those perfect San Francisco days.

Our first stop had been on my list for a long time: a visit to the Heath Factory Store in Sausalito. I had some money from my birthday and Christmas that I'd been saving to splurge on some new, everyday dishes from Heath. Seeing the shop and studio was fantastic, with evidence of Edith Heath's extraordinary vision throughout:

I finally settled on a mix-and-match set in the Coupe style in Mist and French Grey - lovely, lovely stuff...

Our journey north continued as we headed to Fort Bragg, our ultimate destination. We had a reservation to stay at the Grey Whale Inn, a historic building that was once the town hospital. It being the off season, the town was quiet, and we had the Inn almost to ourselves. We spent the next days beachcombing at Glass Beach, tidepooling at MacKerricher State Park, poking around Mendocino (where I discovered the Mendocino Yarn Shop - lovely!), wandering through magestic redwoods, and eating more delicious food than we should have (big thumbs-up on the breakfasts at the Inn and the spectacular pumpkin cream waffles at Egghead's!). Jerry was surprised to be getting really good coffee on the trip!

The weather was cold and windy, but clear and beautiful - just what I had hoped for. I could have stayed longer, but I think we all had a great time.

Returning to superbuzzy was fun... 16 double-sized boxes arrived on Thursday full of even more fabric and goodies. So, I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but I can't really complain since opening each box is like my own personal egg hunt - full of surprises and good things! Happy Easter to all celebrating today!

Settling down after Easter madness...

It's been nice to try to settle back to a semi-regular schedule today after an extremely busy Easter weekend, filled with egg hunts, feasting, family visits, and general chaos. The Easter bunny was very generous with Brynne this year (could it be because she's actually using the potty?!?), and hid her basket in the dryer at the end of a trail of jelly beans. The bunny was also in cahoots with me on a little side project for the basket - he requested a handmade soft toy to match Brynne's bonnet. I had the perfect inspiration from the spring issue of Cotton Friend magazine - the pattern wasn't included, but with Jerry's fantastic sketching skills we were able to collaborate to make a bunny pattern based on this picture:

I used the same vintage yellow floral and orange fabrics from Brynne's bonnet, and I added a green cotton for the bunny's dress. The main body of the bunny is made from super soft 100% wool felt and I embroidered the facial features with brown floss. This little one (still awaiting a name!) was hiding in the basket on Easter morning:

As you can see, she really likes carrots, so we're working out a plan to keep them in regular supply. This bunny has already been seen having conversations and play dates with other local bunnies, so we think she's settling right in to her new home. She's enjoying the warm weather that has suddenly appeared on our doorstep, and lounging with Brynne in the back yard appears to be her favorite pastime at the moment. Welcome little bunny!

Here comes Peter Cottontail!

Happy Easter to all who are celebrating!

Lots to report, but today is family day, so I'll try to catch up tomorrow! Have a great one!

eggy weggy

Easter egg decorating has always been a tradition in our house, even before we had a munchkin around. Although Jerry swears by good ol' Paas for his decorating traditions, I decided to try something new this year. Of course, Martha has complete instructions (along with color glossary) for dyeing eggs using a variety of natural, homemade dyes. All in all, our dyes resulted in much the same color variations as shown in Martha's glossary:

The one weak link in our dyes was the beet dye, and I think this is probably because I was a bit lazy: I got all of the "ingredients" from Trader Joe's, and the only beets they had were already peeled and packaged in sealed, plastic bags (sometimes going to yet another store for food is just too much!). I'm guessing that some of the potency of the beet color was probably lost in the processing. So, our "lavender" (fourth down on the left) is pretty weak, and our pink (top left) is also extremely pale. However, we were thrilled with the gorgeous colors from the red cabbage (the light and dark blues), the turmeric (yellows), and the onion skin (oranges and russets). The coffee worked well (dark and light brown), but they look like standard brown eggs to me; I guess I'm a bit more impressed with the brighter, more vibrant colors. It was a bit tricky keeping track of which we boil, which are soaked in room temperature dye, and for how long, but I'm very pleased to see such vibrant colors from these very natural dye sources. On the down side, it did seem to be a bit wasteful... I'm not sure anyone wanted to eat cabbage or beets that had been boiled for 30 minutes in vinegar water!

hoppin' down the bunny trail

am I the only one who is completely nuts for this new line of Easter goodies from Sur La Table? Geesh - just what I need - more seasonal decor that takes up a ton of space... but, how can I resist these?!?

Recent Discoveries

A day too late, I learn about the existence of Kinder Eggs (via My Paper Crane) - hollow chocolate eggs that are filled with cute little toys. I also found that you can order the toys by themselves (chocolate removed), and they come in a cute little egg-like capsule. We are trying to avoid candy as much as possible in our house, so the Kinder toys will certainly be making an appearance next year.

I also discovered two children's book illustrators who are new to me. Alain Gree is a French illustrator and author who published primarily in the 1960s and '70s. His work is really gorgeous and is in some ways stylistically similar to another of my favorites, Mary Blair. Here are some of the Gree book covers:

Russian author Eduard Uspensky and illustrator Leonid Shvartsman created the adorable Cheburashka, who later became a stop motion animation film star. Apparently, there is quite a revival of Cheburashka going on in Japan right now, as the character appeals to the kawaii culture. A search on Amazon Japan yields a couple of books and a dvd:

Those of you who pay attention to such things already know that Chebarushka was the official mascot of the 2004 Russian summer Olympic team. Now you can purchase all kinds of Chebarushka items as a result of the Japanese fascination with the little fuzzy guy.

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day today, whether or not you are celebrating Easter! Here are some early images of our morning:

Brynne meets Poppy for the first time, and gives her a vigorous hello:

Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail:

Yes! I got the cupcakes made and the Easter eggs dyed!

We also made two types of deviled eggs (basil pesto and cilantro walnut), but they aren't very pretty, so no picture... Now we're off to the park to let Brynne break in her Easter "bucket" - the Easter bunny brought her a huge batch of sandbox toys! 

Take a Bite of the Easter... Cross?!?

Not sure what I think about this, but it's interesting to ponder at least. Apparently, Russell Stover is marketing the chocolate Easter cross in select stores across the USA. Here's the article. According to the article, the crosses are especially intended for the Latino community, with Spanish text being dominant on the packaging and the cross filling made up of dulce de leche, a popular sweet often made with goat's milk and sugar. Indeed, I spotted the chocolate crosses at our local Target store yesterday. (Let me know if you want one, and I'll go pick some up to share.)

So, we all have the opportunity to bite off the ear of the hollow chocolate bunny, or the stake of an oozing cross. Is this a good thing?