Zoo Animals

Yesterday was the last day for my Zoo Walker’s Program at the Woodland Park Zoo.  So let me share a few pictures from my zoo outing:

Giraffe at feeding time

Wolf, Northern Trail exhibit, Woodland Park Zoo

"The gaze of the wolf reaches into our soul." -- Barry Lopez

Elk, Northern Trail exhibit, Woodland Park Zoo

Toucan, Rainforest exhibit, Woodland Park Zoo

The toucan was a welcome splash of color in this winter season.

Breakfast at the Bay Cafe

Early morning at the Bay Cafe in Ballard

One of my husband’s and my favorite breakfast places in Seattle is the Bay Cafe in Fishermen’s Terminal.  We both woke up early this morning and decided to treat ourselves to breakfast.  The crescent moon shown brightly in the clear dawn.  The Olympic Mountains glowed white on the horizon.  Few people were stirring.  Our table at the Bay Cafe overlooked the moorage full of commercial fishing boats.  It’s always fun to be by the water.

Crescent moon in the dawn sky

The Bay Cafe ready for the breakfast rush

Seafood omelette and hash browns

The moorage at Fishermen's Terminal

Coiled nets

Water line

Weathered flag

Memorial for fishermen most at sea

Memorial for fishermen lost at sea

Olympic Mountains from Shilshole Bay Marina, Ballard

Seagulls at Golden Gardens, Ballard

Lessons for Living

Cat in a window

Winter: dormancy, lie fallow, hibernate, slow down, contemplate.  Today let me share with you one of my favorite discoveries of 2010, the Zen Habits blog.  And here is one of my favorite posts from that blog:

the brief guide

less TV, more reading
less shopping, more outdoors
less clutter, more space
less rush, more slowness
less consuming, more creating
less junk, more real food
less busywork, more impact
less driving, more walking
less noise, more solitude
less focus on the future, more on the present
less work, more play
less worry, more smiles
breathe
     — from Zen Habits blog by Leo Babauta (http://zenhabits.net/brief-guide/)

Hello Darkness

Blue light cast by window in the St. Ignatius Chapel, Seattle U

This week workers are changing the light fixtures in my branch library because the old fixtures, while visually interesting, did not cast much light in the cavernous space.  Yesterday they changed out one chandelier, and when we flipped the switch to turn the new one on, the increase in light was tremendous.  I felt an immediate lift to my spirits.

I don’t think I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, but one of the challenges of winter is accepting very short days.  I’d like to think that the darkness is a friend, allowing my mind and spirit to incubate seeds for new growth, but in reality I don’t recall ever experiencing a big flowering of my soul in springtime.  Oh, well.  It’s a victory if I just accept, rather than struggle against, this dark time of year.

“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced out by sadness.”
     — Carl Jung

“Help us to be ever faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing cames to birth, and without light, nothing flowers.”
     — May Sarton

Goodbye New Year’s Resolutions

Antelope Canyon, Arizona (April 2008)

From the myriad bits and pieces of all the reading I did this year, my mind keeps returning to a story about a woman who gave up New Year’s resolutions in favor of choosing just one “theme” to guide her year.  I wish I could remember the source of this story so that I could give the author credit for this idea, because I find myself musing about it as we approach another new year.

I can’t remember what theme the author selected as the focus for her year, but I have spent some time imagining what “mantra” I should choose for 2011. . . Creativity?  Generosity?  Frugality?  Quest?  Friendship?  Service?  Personal growth is important to me.  What might help me to become a more authentic and better person?

I’ve decided that my theme for 2011 will be “Depth.”  This can become my guiding light for the coming year – in my thoughts; in reflections on my reading; in my writing, art and photography; in my activities and actions, both ordinary and less ordinary; in my relationships with family and friends.  This one word encompasses the attentiveness with which I wish to live my life.  I believe a little more depth will enrich my life.

New Uses for Old Clip-On Earrings

Vintage clip-on earrings

My friend Carol gave me some of her mother’s vintage clip-on earrings.  I don’t wear earrings, but found some unconventional ways to use them.  I love the idea of re-purposing old things to extend their useful life.

Clip-on earrings make lovely scarf clips or brooches.  Or you can use them as little “clothespins” to hang paper cards, photos, magazine clippings that you keep for inspiration or future projects.

Earring used as a scarf embellishment.

Earring used as a scarf clip

Earring used to clip a card to a twine clothesline

Merry Christmas!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care . . .

Merry Christmas from my house to yours!

Favorite monkey sock ornament

We use the same ornaments year after year, adding a few new ones now and then.

Vintage Santa ornament from my childhood on the farm

Watercolor sketch of Santa ornament

Another watercolor sketch of the Santa ornament

Christmas Papercraft 4: DIY Snowflake Garland

Another way to use paper snowflakes

It’s been a few years since I’ve taken scissors to white paper to cut out snowflakes.  I love how each snowflake is unique, just like real ones!  This year I went an extra step and sewed the paper snowflakes into garlands.  I made short garlands, each string with three or four snowflakes.  But you could easily sew them into one long garland for a Christmas tree decoration.

Sewing the snowflakes into garlands

I simply sewed each snowflake down an imaginary center line and left about two inches of thread between snowflakes.

Snowflakes sewn together with thread

I tied a bead to the bottom of each of my garlands so that they would hang down nicely.

Five snowflake garlands hanging in my kitchen window

I used the finished garland to make a snowflake “valance” in my kitchen window.

Dreaming of a white Christmas. . .

I'm not the only one thinking of a white Christmas. Here's the Starbucks sign for this holiday season.

Christmas Papercraft 3: DIY Paper Star Ornament

Folded paper star ornament

I found the instructions for making these folded paper star ornaments on the December 8th post of the Craftynest blog (www.craftynest.com).  I love how they look and plan to make many more.  Here’s how I made mine:

Cutting out stars from paper

Using the pattern I downloaded from the Craftynest blog, I cut out 10 stars from some pretty red speckled paper I had on hand.

Folding the stars

Then I folded each paper star in half.  (After I folded them, I realized that the Craftynest instructions said to fold in half on the points.  Ooops.  It turned out that my mistake didn’t really matter.)

Sewing the paper stars together

Next I stacked all 10 paper stars together and sewed down the center fold line.

Attaching ribbon

Because my folds were in the gutter rather than point-to-point, I was able to just tie ribbon around my stars, covering the sewing.  (At Craftynest, they sewed the ribbon on.)

Finished star ornament

When you open up the leaves of the star, it makes a beautiful symmetrical ornament.

Detail of finished star

Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Cookies dipped in white chocolate

“Cookies were invented in Holland, where they were called koekjes (test cakes).  These small portions of cake batter were used to test oven temperatures before full-size cakes were baked.”
     — from The Christmas Almanac, edited by Natasha Tabori Fried and Lena Tabori

I made another batch of cookies for the holidays.  I found this recipe at the Joy of Baking website (http://joyofbaking.com/PumpkinCookies.html).  These cookies are soft, almost cake-like.  The recipe suggested frosting them with cream cheese frosting, but I dipped them in melted white chocolate instead.  Very, very good!  I’m providing the recipe here for your convenience:

Pumpkin Cookies from Joy of Baking

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil or corn oil (or other flavorless oil)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup  canned pumpkin puree 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until light and smooth (about 2 minutes).  Beat in the oil, vanilla extract, and pumpkin puree. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Using 1/4 cup of batter (can use a small ice cream scoop or measuring cup) place small mounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.

Bake for about 15 – 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. 

Pumpkin cookies cooling after baking

Plate of Pumpkin Cookies for the holidays