goods and heroes

bird love

Two of my best friends, Suzanna & Sarah, have been collaborating on a few different creative projects of late and dang, the outcomes have been amazing. Pre-Valentine's Day they hosted several  "Love Birds" classes at Suzanna's newly open Binth Studio & Shop in Forest Park. The premise (as well as the materials) was simple: choose a raw paper-mache bird (made of newspaper and wire) and paint it however you like. And maybe give it to someone you love -- or keep it for yourself. Sarah constructed the birds out of old New York Times newspapers. She made them in different shapes, sizes and positions. You came into the shop and picked out your bird and got your supplies -- paint, a brush and a jelly jar of water. And she also set out different bird field guides so that if you wanted to make a realistic version of a bird, say, an American Goldfinch or a Chickadee, you'd have something to reference.  

I think they had anticiapted this to be a mostly adult audience, but it turned out that most of the class was kids. And they were so great because, you know, kids don't tend to edit themselves on art projects, they just dive and get started. This energy helped me immensely because I tend to do just the opposite, Sometimes I get so stuck on what it's going to be, I just don't even get started at all. So I grabbed my bird, sat down next to two eight year-old boys and got started. Once the birds were done, we set them on another table to dry. 

I mentioned that Sarah used the New York Times for the birds and so when I was choosing my "blank" bird, I came across one where the newsprint actually had all these teeny red lightbulbs on it. Sarah said that the article had something to do with "ideas." "Well," I said, "then I'm just going to have paint an Idea Bird. And so that's what I did. Being a writer and a lover of words and also being married to someone who feels the same, I also knew that I wanted some of the letters and words from the newsprint to show through the paint. And not having to paint a realistic, actual bird that you might see out your window, took tons of pressure off me and my creativity. And so here's my Idea Bird. I gave him to Ted for Valentine's Day. 

Here's the lightbulbs up close. I love them.

I think I must have done an okay job, even if it isn't a "real" bird. Because as I was trying to take the shot of the lightbulbs, a certain feline friend named Ricky showed up to investigate. 

And as if making this little bird wasn't sweet enough, while I was at the Binth Studio, Sarah came up to me and gave me this incredible Cardinal as a gift. "I want you to have this," she said. Notice the little fuzzy red sweater (hand knit by Sarah herself) and the tiny teeny buttons. I have had my eye on this Cardinal for more than a year. I first saw it when she was getting ready to have a bird "trunk show" at our frined Patti's store, The Sweden Shop. I just love its personality and in the real world of birds, I am a big fan of Cardinals. I love their flash of red in bare winter trees and how they mate for life and feed each other seeds. Ben shares my fondness for them and even knows their call. Anyhow, I was just blown away when Sarah gave me this. I think you can see why. 

So I went home with two birds: one for my valentine and one for myself. Both handmade and made with love and attention. What a lovely thing. What a couple of love birds.

ps Sarah does sell her own unique painted birds at Binth, so if you're interested in taking home one of your own, head over to the shop. You might just come across something like this:

 

 

 

funny little valentines

Even though Valentines Day is still 10 days away, Ben's classroom always requests that the valentines come to school a week prior, so that the little guys and gals have plenty of time to fill their classmates' special treat bags. If you've ever watched a 3 year-old working the assembly line, it starts to make sense. Ben's teacher Amy has always gently encouraged that they be homemade and I am on my fifth year of Ginkgo V-day celebrations and we've fulfilled that request thus far -- no reason to not keep the tradition going. 

This year I simply looked all around the house to see what we had. I found a stash of wee muslin bags that I use for my different herbal workshops, so they pretty much dictated what our sweet treat would be housed in. The challenge with these kinds of projects is striking the balance between doing enough so that the valentines actually get done on time but also involving Ben so that he is a part of the process without overwhelming him. My initial plan was that he would draw a heart with colored markers and I'd color copy it. But he was not interested in that at all. So plan B was I'd just take some of his colorful drawings and make color copies and cut them into hearts myself. But he wasn't interested in that either. Then Ted tried to get him to write his name and again the plan was to copy that and tuck it into the bag, but he had a bit of a meltdown, saying he just can't do the letter "n" yet. So we totally backed off-- I mean, the whole point is not tears and frustration but rather love and sweetness, right? I said "Ben, what do you think should be in this little bag?" and he said, "Chocolate." And so here's what we came up with. 

I made a simple greeting and printed it on regular cheap white paper. It looked a little blah so I busted out this tiny and charming, mysterious but cute animal stamp (I think it's a hamster, Ted insists it's a bear) and printed him to the side. Ben actually helped with a few of these before he wandered off to go play with Legos. (And I liked this critter so much, I decided to put him on the front of the muslin bag as well.) 

Can you say you scored something if you got it in the crappy and usually predictable "Seasonal" aisle at the Jewel? And is your valentine still considered "homemade" if you purchase pre-made stickers from a large chain grocery store? Well, no matter, I got these a few weeks ago, they are super simple stickers that were old-school perforated and had to be carefully torn apart. Ben loves animals so this seemed to be a sweet connection to him. I adore the chubby dancing pink bear.

Of course, we had to have chocolate, so from the same Jewel I purchased some Kisses & Crunch Hearts. Again, I had had a different plan. I was going to buy the cool Japanese gummy hearts I used a few years ago when Sam was in the Ginkgo classroom, but 1. Ben hates gummy stuff and 2. I actually looked up the ingredients this time and Corn Syrup was first and Sugar was second. But mostly, Ben had said emphatically that he wanted chocolate, so chocolate it was. 

I was feeling a bit guilty, like this was pretty much turning out to be me making Ben's valentines. But then he came in the dining room and asked me if he could help. Of course I said an enthusiastic "Yes!" And so we did set up an assembly line, the 5 year-old friendly version. I had the muslin bags in front of me as well as the little paper greetings and the tiny sheet of stickers. I tucked these into the bag and then handed the bag to Ben. He had the Very Important Job of stuffing one Kiss and one Heart into the bag. We needed to fill 24. I reckoned he'd do maybe 6 or 8 or maybe 10 tops. No way, he took his job seriously and filled all 24.

And he was having fun combining colors. "I am going to do a silver Kiss and a red Heart in this one, because they look good together."  As we were finishing, Sam came home from a late-night sleepover (looking like something that the cat dragged in) and I snuck a couple of Crunch hearts to Sam -- he digs all things Crunch, so he was happy as well. Ben said, "It's like our house is a pretend Valentines candy factory." I'll take that as a good thing. Especially the pretend part.

Here's the finished product, I like how the text of the little message peeks through the muslin fabric and the "second" mysterious but cute wee critter as well.

And here's sweet Ben, proud of finishing up all 24 bags and excited to soon stuff them all into his Ginkgo friends' Valentines bags. And I am one happy Mama that we got them done happily, creatively and together, not with tears or frustration but a a swift and sweet Valentine-making team. 

And then Ben and I ate a few Crunch hearts. I think we earned them.