Gypsy Forest

a young Mick Jagger & other bits.....

Just popping in for a brief minute to share this with you ....

 

 

Can you see a young Mick Jagger in those lips? He was singing Mumford & Sons however..... which is oddly both folk & rock and most definitely Luke's thing. And our thing, we're a little obsessed with their sound. Acoustic rocking out.... this boy loves it. {and thank goodness the amp has a volume button!}

I also thought I would tell you that today is the very last day to sign up for the incredible Whole Food Kitchen class being offered by Heather of Beauty that Moves. Aside from being down to earth, sweet and having exceptional taste in music (hello Ani fans!), Heather is very knowledgeable in the holistic world of whole food eating. The class started a week ago and the recipes shared so far are simple, amazing & nutritious. It's the only time the class is being offered in 2012 and though it is an investment, I think it's well worth it. For honesty's sake I want you to know I'm not being solicited to share this in any way, I have no connection to Heather. I just really love what she's doing over there.

On a different note...... I've decided to open up sponsorship space here on Gypsy Forest. I know this is a touchy subject for some of you, and I truly understand. This was a long thought about decision for me. You can read a bit more about it here. I will carefully choose these sponsors based on what I feel is relevant for this community we share, because you are the real reason I show up here. It is very much my intention to conserve the integrity of this space.... please know this. And you'll get to meet some handcrafters and independent artists as well, which is wonderful too. 

I hope your loving the last bits of your weekend. I'm going out to the cold garage to offer some moral support & help to my sweet husband who is sanding kitchen cabinets.... oh my.

xo

Stephinie

long ago milk chocolate curls

I dug through the archives for you all in order to properly share this story.

It's a story of milk chocolate curls that met a rather unfortunate fate. We'll begin with cuteness overload, one of my most favorite pictures. Ever.

 

 

There she is. My big girl. Three years old in a tie dyed tank top and her favorite corduroy overalls. (pretending to have lost her arms, oh my!) And there are the curls that bounced on her head as she toddled through those early years. I used to put them in high pig tails on the top of her head. Two curly ringlets stuck off each side. Ohhhh, those days. They seem so long ago and like yesterday all rolled into one. 

Last week I read this very funny piece over on mamalode. It made me laugh out loud and remember a similar (though slightly less traumatic) story from my past.

One evening while very pregnant with baby number three, I went through the typical bath and pajama bedtime routine with my young two. I had trimmed the ends of Jade's hair and left the scissors on top of the toilet while busying myself with the usual hubbub of getting two little ones ready for bed. As Sam & I picked out stories and loaded a pile of books on to the bed for reading, Jade wandered away from us. I hear her say from the bathroom something like "I do it, I cut." 

I ran into the bathroom to see what she had cut. And there, in a pile on the floor were the milk chocolate curls. The scissors had cut through a huge chunk of her damp hair with ease. She was so proud of herself, that girl. Beaming with giant scissors in hand. And me, in all my pregnant hormones and young mama ways.... I burst into tears. "Oh no," I said scooping up the curls as if I might be able to somehow put them back on. I surveyed the damage.... no bleeding... two ears... thank goodness. On the floor however, were most of the curls that once hung from the back of her beautiful hair. She looked at me concerned, no doubt surprised by my emotional response.

I managed to collect myself enough to clean up. Hide the damn scissors. Curse quietly at myself for leaving them out in the first place. And then read the pile of books to the kids.

After the kids were settled I called Joe on the phone. Literally sobbing about the hair cut. He was at a friend's house working on his old VW bus.... and imagine this? He too was surprised by my reaction. He laughed and came home early. "It's just hair," he told me.

Can I please blame most of that ridiculous display on 7+ month pregnant mama hormones? I mean sheesh, that was not one of my prouder moments.

But you know, a piece of it was knowing those baby curls would be gone once they were snipped off. As if my baby girl was suddenly not such a baby. And they were.

 

 

She didn't miss them one bit though, that girl. And luckily the top hair mostly covered the missing chunk and we were able to pull off a bob style cut. The years went on. And the girl grew up. And then somehow those long ago curls came back in the form of lovely wild waves.

 

 

But she was tired of combing them and taming them and she started hinting that she'd really like to cut them all off. (again) 

And so she did. Nearly twelve inches. (yes, she donated it)

 

 

And much like everything with kids, when you think it's no big deal and you're truly quite prepared. They suprise you. I think she grew a foot when they snipped off that hair. In the matter of minutes she went from looking like a big kid to a very sophistocated young lady. This time catching her dad much more by surprise than her mama.

 

 

"It's just hair," I told him with a smile. But somehow it seemed like so much more.

 

this day had cake

 

A grapefruit flavored cake inspired by this lovely recipe. I swapped the lemon parts for grapefruit parts, cut the sugar in half & added a 1/2 teaspoon of grapefruit oil. Topped with lightly sweetened vanilla bourbon whipped cream and blackberries. I know, I know..... blackberries are not in season or local right now for me. (however the citrus & eggs were!) And was it ever an amazing delicious treat. Seriously. I think cake like this on a Wednesday night is kind of like magic. 

With a face covered in whipped cream from licking off the beaters Luke said to me "mama, you just are the best cooker."

He's pretty much the sweetest thing ever.... that boy. Such a charmer.

I've got news tomorrow.... in the way of the big girl & I cutting off all our hair to donate.... big changes... my oh my. See you then.

 

this leaf

I should really be sleeping.

It's after midnight..... the house is quiet. There is a warm cozy bed with flannel sheets and a fluffy down comforter just down the hall.....but my mind is clicking away a million miles a second.

So instead I've made some tea and here I sit.

I've been wanting to share these photos with you for awhile now. I've been taking them over the winter. 

Leaves.

I love leaves.

   

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn is the time of year I miss the most about living up north. The smell of crisp air and sound of the wind in the trees or crunching leaves beneath your feet. It took me three years, but I found my autumn in the south. They call it winter here. You have to look hard for it..... but it's there. 

These photos got me thinking about leaving. {No pun intended.} Autumn is always like the summer's last kiss before it departs. It puts on one last beautiful show for us. I'm never ready for the leaving. For saying goodbye. I'm always the one with half a drink still left yelling "wait, I'm not done yet.... I don't even know your name leaf...."

Our life is all about leaving. We're nearly always coming or going and by the time we've got one gig figured out, we're halfway out the door to the next. It's what we do..... it's how we roll. 

This leaving thing always creeps in. And even though I've done it so many times before, I'm always surprised by it. You'd think it was old hat by now, but no.

We're heading into our last year down here in the south. With no idea yet where the next tour will take us, we're in sort of a limbo. An in-between. I'm trying to soak up these next few months and be aware of every bit that surrounds us. Wondering just what will be the thing I hold the most dear, the favorite memory of this place. 

I don't know the names of all the birds or flowers or leaves. I don't know the best shortcuts to get from one place to the next. I'm still soaking in the culture and the food and the people and learning all the time what makes the south the south. Yeah, I don't even know her name. But she's beautiful.... and I love her just the same.

 

weekend bits....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*cleaning out the art cabinet.... I'm a sucker for organizing crafty bits... 

*granola with coconut oil & nut butters and a sesame honey flavor, so good.

*the owl obsession is at a whole new level now with these visitors in the oak trees outside... they've been here every day for over a week.... 

*green salads and green smoothies.... good stuff

*what my table looks like most days at lunch.... just shove the stuff aside and eat!

*hot-cold-hot-cold weather.... we go from turning the heat on to throwing box fans in the window to cool things down. it will be 55 one day and 75 the next

*lego obsession meets fork lift obsession (papa, hide those keys at the shop this summer!)

*wine & banjo.... love

Today I am looking around at the chaos and trying my best to love it. (inspired by this) I started our morning with this song. Thank you Erin!

I'm loving, LOVING this new album... this song made me laugh out loud and another had me all choked up looking at that sweet man I married. Damn I'm a lucky girl. For reals. (and sappy.... totally sappy)

I want to drink red wine and eat dark chocolate sprinkled with sea salt while lounging on this beauty and surfing through Cynthia's quilt board on pinterest. Speaking of quilts..... this is a sweet little story of my own creations. Have you seen this girl's mad skills? I am in love with her art, I'm so looking forward to it coming out in fabric this spring... 

And speaking of spring, my mama's birthday gift to me was a spot in not one, but both of these courses. Again.... how did I get so lucky? I'm counting down the days..... they look amazing!! I'm headed to make more granola and a grapefruit cake with whipped cream and blackberries.... because that sounds like so much more fun than helping Luke clean up the tornado in his room.

Happy Monday

 

wiggly tooths

Luke : You know what mama, I do not like wiggly tooths.

me : They feel weird huh?

Luke : It feels like a rotten bee in your mouth.

me : A bee? Like a bee that buzzes?

Luke : No, like a dead one.

I laugh.

Luke : Wiggly tooths just feel bad!

{he was more than happy to wiggle that tooth out in exchange for three gold dollars from the tooth fairy}

 

 

 

 

This little bitty post sat here all day long..... waiting for me to add the photos and hit publish.

Monday, Monday..... I suppose there is good reason for all the songs written about this day. It's always hard for me to shift back into the weekday rhythm. Especially when our weekend is a rather zoo-ish one. And it was. We ran about and got different kids to different spots for two birthday parties, an art lesson, a music lesson, a play-date, and to & from the bus to campus..... which seems like a lot until you divide the number of activities by the number of children.

It was an unusually busy weekend. But in the mix of it, people still got fed, the big brother home from school was doted upon, no one was left anywhere, and I enjoyed some wine with that cute guy I married. I'm calling it a job well done. Saturday night I even stayed up until 1:30 with that teenage boy of mine. Talking away about life. Surreal is being on the parent side of those conversations.... I still don't know how it happened so fast. And by the way, he came home this weekend after being gone just 3 weeks and surprised us all by officially being taller than his dad. Ahem.

Sometimes within the same breath I'm talking to one about wiggly tooths & fairies, and the other about teenage love. I just sort of pause and think wow. This life is amazing. It's crazy and messy and beautiful and just amazing.

And I'm totally dragging this tooth fairy thing out as long as I can..... 

 

round these parts

 

 

   

Goodness the last few days flew by.

We're getting back into our regular rhythm after the holidays. The big boy went back to Hogwarts after a month long break. Theater, music & writing practices have resumed for the others and each day is buzzing along. Joe is learning the banjo and brewing up a storm. He just finished up a delicious vanilla porter and bottled two batches of red wine. I love the uneven recycled bottles all lined up on our table.

He & Sophia recently built & painted a ukulele which turned out really, really adorable. I love that the two of them collaborated on this project.

 

 

 

 

 

The garden is humming along and providing us with salads, greens and herbs. I've been cutting back the cilantro as fast as it grows and tossing it {and parsley} into everything I cook. Oh sweet little winter garden, how I do love thee.

I'm looking forward to starting this next week and have been drooling over the classes available here. {especially the fall & sea sessions} I won't be headed there this year, but I do have a wishful list of online classes. You can check out the bios on the SAW teachers to find some really amazing online courses.

So I guess that's a little bit of what's going on round these parts.

How about yours?

 

letting go

 

I didn't grow up celebrating solstice. It's something that fell into my lap a few short years ago. We have some simple treasured traditions that we hold dear to us and carry out each year. As the kids have grown, and truly as I have grown, I was in search of something more. Something bigger. I wasn't really sure what that something might be. Sometimes though, when I'm really listening, the universe drops an answer right into my lap. Just the thing I was looking for.

Something bigger. Beautiful. Inspiring.

I'm feeling deeply reflective and truthfully a little shy to be throwing my heart out on my shirt sleeve {or blog post} like this. But maybe your looking too. Maybe amidst the usual hustle and bustle of the holidays you need something more. To awaken your hopes and dreams for the new year, to ground you just where you are. 

Pixie has shared a wonderful Mother of all Releasing Ceremony in her space. This woman's words make my heart sing.... Tonight we'll be making our own bundles for our solstice fire. We're preparing to free our hearts of any shadows, anything keeping us from being our full beautiful selves, anything holding us back.

We're letting go.

With love, happy solstice....

 

family

I hope you all can imagine the beautiful chaos of getting six people to smile and stay in one place long enough to snap a few photos. I'm almost always the one behind the lens. I really, really love that we're all in these. With heartfelt gratitude to my friend who snapped these pictures. She's sooo good. And I know this is the best gift I could give to my mama (spolier alert, but that's okay.)

{and yes, these were last week. green grass? that's Christmas in the south for ya!}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Holidays to you all~

 

just good

We just got in from a 9 hour road trip to pick the biggest boy up from school for winter break. My oh my that is a whole lot of driving in one day. It is however the perfect opportunity to finish up hand sewing the binding on a quilt! As soon as we arrived in the door, the last of the ornaments were placed on the tree, including the star. Which is the job for only the biggest boy.

As I sip a cold beer and type these words, I am listening to all four of my children laugh and talk down the hall. Gratitude does not begin to cover the feeling in my soul.

Before I forget to tell you all (again), I had the honor of being featured in an interview over on Clean. Rachel is an inspiring mama and writer and I'd love for you to take a peek at the interview and of course drop your name in the hat for a giveaway! 

Also, the shop has been updated and has some beautiful new fabrics in it.

 

 

And now, there is a cute guy with a guitar on my patio. He's singing old Pearl Jam songs under Christmas lights. I can't quite think of a place I'd rather be.

Have a lovely evening~