Notes from C: February

I'm blogging from Rochester, Minn. this morning from a cozy table in Dunn Bros Coffee. I am so glad I discovered this place because it is different from all other establishments of this chain, and quite a treat. I talked with the owner the other day, and it turns out she owns both the coffee shop and the neighboring cafe, with one kitchen located in the back of Dunn Bros. This means she offers up many of the breakfast menu items from her cafe in the coffee shop as well, such as omelets, breakfast sandwiches, and creamy oatmeal - from scratch, not what you'll typically find in a coffee shop. Add a blueberry scone? I don't mind if I do!

-As I'm sure you've noticed by now with all of my recent posts about cold weather, skijoring, and luminary making: I am a child of winter. Sure I love those sunny summer days, but I thrive in the colder months when we all turn inward, in our houses, thoughts, and actions. I noted in my little traveling notebook earlier in January how the color of the sky on my way home from work reminds me of this time of intention and introspection. As I drive across the Mendota Bridge with the city scape of both Minneapolis and St. Paul laid before me, and airplanes buzzing to their hive across the river, the sky presses down, heavy with pigment, and wraps around our corner of the universe like a blanket. In the Waldorf School, where I attended from K-8 grade, students are introduced to watercolor painting in the early grades with just one color: blue. My teacher would always demonstrate a painting before we took our turn, and I can still see his paint brush releasing a cloud of blue into his water pail, those inky tendrils exploring the water until they transformed it into an opaque blue. Gradually, as we got older, we incorporated secondary colors, like yellow and red, which yield green and purple. I don't know the guiding principles behind this practice, but I can imagine that we start with blue for many of the same reasons I love the darkening sky in winter: it has a grounding, calming nature. Although winter will always have my heart, now that it's the end of February I am starting to get ready for spring, longer days and a little less excess clothing ... just have to get a few more cross-country runs in first to last me until next year!

Cross-country skiing adventures in Rochester, Minn at Quarry Hill Nature Center.

-The Academy Awards are on tonight, and as I sit in the coffee shop this morning, I've already overheard a few conversations on the topic. Have you seen all of the best picture nominees on your list? As everyone in my book club knows, I like stories that make me think (symbolism and philosophical questions without answers are my jam). When it comes to movies, I realized recently that I especially enjoy flicks that not only make me think but also remind me of my place in the universe. After all, I like to think about the stars and could spend hours watching Planet Earth. Beasts of the Southern Wild is high up on my list for that very reason. Besides the fact that it's a poignant story set in a unique location and told completely from a child's perspective, one of the themes speaks to the fact that everything in life fits together and if we offset it, the universe will break; everything is interconnected. As Hushpuppy (the 6-year-old star of the show - she's up for an Oscar!) says, "I see that I'm a little beast of a big, big universe." If you haven't seen it, rent it now (it's available at Redbox). Life of Pi is another amazing film that gives you that "little beast in a big universe" feel, quite literally. Boy lost at sea in a lifeboat with a tiger. Need I say more? Although it is definitely not a kid's film like the PG rating suggests! Rather slow and thoughtful start and most of it will go over a kid's head, except for the scary parts. The ending will really make you think about religion, truth vs. fiction, and the purpose of stories in our lives (another topic I'm a sucker for) ... but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. Just see it and then we can talk, k?

-Meet my newest indulgence: Trader Joe's Cookie Butter. Found right next to the peanut butter, it's pure gold in a jar. And if you couldn't guess from the name, it tastes like crushed cookies. Perfect on waffles, fruit, ice cream ... of if you're in our house, your finger. Yea, our first jar didn't last too long with regular finger swipes throughout the week.

-Evan and I explored the Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit with some friends at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. If you haven't had a chance to see them, mark it on your to-do list (I think the exhibit tours the country) because looking at the ancient sculptures makes you aware of the "big picture,"and I found it calming, reassuring, yet mentally stimulating. In 210-209 BC the first Emperor of China was buried in a tomb with 7,000 hand-crafted terracotta warriors (and a couple hundred horses, chariots, etc) to ensure his protection in the afterlife. Although the sheer magnitude of this project is mindblowing (and they haven't even uncovered all of the tombs yet!), what really gets me is that every single sculpture is unique. From the detail on the clothing to the hair styles and facial expressions, every one is different. The audio tour pointed out that the artists likely found their inspiration in the faces of their neighbors and family. So in a way, these warriors are more than a fantasy army for the emperor -- they represent real people from the past and their faces tell a true story. Think about it. The fabric of all of these ancient lives are here in the present day. But of course that can be said about any piece of art. Don't all artists incorporate bits of their lives and stories inspired from those around them into their work? Ah yes, here I go again reveling in the interconnectedness of the world and the never-ending "story." Somebody stop me!

-Here's a quick little shot of my work calendar the other day.

This one made me laugh. At least Evan's discarded clothes I so often grumble about aren't of the fruit-peel variety ; )

-One more winter scene coming at ya: Smoke stacks puff clouds into the air like cotton candy as the setting sun sends streaks of pink across the sky.

Sunsets in winter are always more brilliant than during warmer months, and I'm not sure if this is a scientifically proven fact or if it's just the contrast against the stark landscape that makes the sky appear that much more intense. But I like the effect, especially when you throw a smokestack into the mix, because it's "breath" has a more prominent presence in the winter and catches the light from the sunset. Hence my mental image of cotton candy clouds. I like to pretend there are dragons underground who are employed as cotton-candy makers (or cloud makers?) ... or perhaps they are chained down there against their will, forced to pollute the earth until some young hero sets out on a quest to set them free. But I digress ... (I have a fondness for children's literature, if you can't tell)


Now that the Academy Awards are now halfway over (finished this post after returning home tonight) I better hurry up and hit Publish before they announce best picture!

Here's the story behind Notes from C here.

Read past Notes from C here.

Cookie Butter photo from here. Terracotta Warriors photo from here. All other's are my own.

Ice-Ice-Baby: DIY Ice Luminaries

This is the perfect craft for anyone living in a cold climate. Great for a little front-step festivity for your dinner parties or just because. If the weather turns warm and they melt it's not a big deal since they are {practically) free!

Collect some biodegradable items to decorate your luminary. We like to use cranberries because they are bright, festive, easy to glue, and cheap! We grabbed this bag after T-day for about a dollar and threw it in the freezer until the weather was consistently below freezing. You can also use thinly sliced lemons or oranges, pine cones, greenery, etc.

You'll need a luminary mold. You could try doing this in a regular gallon pail but it'll probably work better with one of these nifty molds.

Use a hot glue gun to attach your decorations to the inside of the mold (after your ice sculpture melts outside you'll want to try pick up the glue bits in consideration of mother nature). If using thinly sliced lemon or orange, it works best to dry off the rind a bit and only attach glue to the rind - otherwise they tend not to stick very well. Play around with different patterns, or you can try filling the mold just a few inches, tossing in some decorations (without glue) and freezing just that amount before filling the rest up with water. This will create a layer right at the top of the luminary and you won't have to worry about picking up glue bits from the snow later!

Once everything is firmly in place, fill the mold/bucket with water and freeze for 12 hours. We put our mold in our deep freezer since there's lots of room in there and we know it'll freeze properly, but if it's really cold outside you could try just setting it on the back steps. Make sure you don't exceed 12 hours by too much otherwise you'll end up with a solid block of ice. Since water freezes from the outside first, the goal is to get a nice thick layer around the outside but to let the middle remain fluid.

Now use something thin - like a long, metal icing spatula - to slice down around your mold, making sure you separate all decorations from the mold.

Flip it upside down (which you'll soon realize is actually right-side up) and pull up on the mold. If this is difficult, run some hot water over the top. We do this step in the bathtub.

As you can see, there is a thin layer of ice across the opening. Break this (brrr) with your fist, and poor the water out.

Now wrap that baby up in a bath towel and place him on your front steps!

Don't forget the candle!

These luminaries were made by Evan's mom for Christmas a few years ago. She's the one who got us going on the luminaries and bought us our mold.

Now go make some ice and don't forget to exercise your vocal chords to the tune of Ice-Ice-Baby ... you know you wanna!

Winter Love

As if you needed a reminder, right?

Are you guys donning your winter garb and doing the eskimo like me these days? 

You know what they say: "there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing."

I'm a fan of winter weather. It adds a little adventure to our everyday lives (digging out the car, anyone?) and it makes me feel alive. Really, what a cool time of year. Most everything is dead or hibernating, the world is stripped to the bare essentials, yet we continue to walk about. We're an army of penguins determined to make it through. Even though the landscape is barren, it's quite the dramatic playing field.

Take this shot my sister texted me the other day from Alaska, for instance:

That haze you see is a common term in Alaska. It's called "ice fog." Makes you think twice before complaining about single digits, doesn't it?

Wanna know the trick to surviving the long, cold frigid winter? Apparently Alaskans like to fight away the winter blues by ... well ... 

Not sure if that's a testament to their sense of adventure or a sign the darkness is getting to them, but I was thoroughly impressed when my sister sent me that picture. On the coldest night of the year, the citizens of Alaska head to the outdoors (sans sauna) in their finest summer apparel and document this feat, usually in front of the University temperature sign. Such drama simply from being cold, and a great reminder to the lower 48 that sometimes the best way to endure winter is to embrace it.

Winter in Minnesota is quite balmy in comparison, but we try and find reasons to get outside and have fun. Here we are walking across Lake of the Isles last weekend after watching the Skijoring Loppet. Think dogs and cross-country skiing! If you watch the video (not mine) the race starts right around 1 minute. And I think at 3:24 you actually see my mom and her white hat!

I know many people are counting down the days until backyard bbqs and busy days in the garden (or at the beach!), but I am trying to savor these last weeks of the hibernation season.  I'll leave you with a few final "winter love" snapshots.

Ice skating in Central Park, NYC

Watching the snow pile up

DIY ice luminary (tutorial to come!)

May you all be staying warm and cheerful this winter's night!

Here are some more posts about winter:

Cross-Country Skiing adventures here

Slideshow from our snowy trip to Wolf Ridge here

White Christmas here

Snow Play in Jersey here

Waiting for the thaw here

E & C Deck the Tree

I was sneaky.

A few weeks ago we got a Christmas tree. Although I would have loved to go to a tree farm like we used to as kids back in New Jersey, we've been really busy on the weekends with photo shoots and Evan's basketball coaching, so we opted for the pre-cut Menards tree. Not such a bad option, really. They have cute little trees that are perfect for our little Minneapolis house.

So one snowy Saturday night (I think the only truly snowy night of the year so far ... what's up Minnesota?) we got to work decorating our tree. But unknown to Evan, I had planted our trusty Flip Video on the bookshelf. Shhhh!

He figured it out by the end, but if you watch carefully (and I mean carefully, because it goes FAST!) you'll see him wave at the camera a little past halfway. Notice how he leaves the room for a minute at the beginning to put on a nice red shirt, per my suggestion? That may have tipped him off that something was a brewing ...

Our tree generally looks the same every year. I love anything and everything Norwegian or Swedish, so we have some straw ornaments tied with red thread, red wooden beads draped over the branches, and some wooden apples as well. I actually grew up with the same apples, and it was always tradition to start our decorating process with them, because you want them evenly distributed, of course. We also have various personalized ornaments, collected over the years -- and quite a few cows!

We're off to New Jersey for some relaxing, lots of games, and traipsing around NYC. Then we'll be back to spend some time with the Piersons at the farm. We'll definitely miss the white Christmas we had last year, but we're excited to celebrate, just the same.

Enjoy the video, and have a wonderful Christmas week!

There's no such thing as Bad Weather

... only bad clothing.

This little motto that we've adopted for the month of January was put to the test this past weekend when we ventured out to Big Woods State Park in Nerstrand, Minn. to partake in the annual candlelight cross-country ski event. In negative 20 degree temperature, it is quite a challenge to prove our motto true. Here was our attempt to defy the "bad weather" that night:

Despite the cold that practically paralyzed my fingers for the first twenty minutes of our trip, Evan and I set out optimistically under a canopy of stars. Just outside the small college town of Northfield (where E and I attended St. Olaf College) lies Big Woods State Park. It is known for it's wooded trails, waterfall, vibrant fall foliage, camping sites, and ... candlelight ski event. But the anticipated cold scared away many of the regular candlelight participants, and we happened upon only one fellow xc-skier on the 1.5 mile stretch of trail. He approached us so silently, if it weren't for his headlamp we wouldn't have known he was coming. Like a mythic being so practiced in the art, he sailed silently by as if the snow itself was pulling him along. He gave a gentle nod and a cheery hello, then was gone, just as quickly as he came.

Although the luminaries remained flickering along the side of the trail, the further we got into the woods, the fewer luminaries we met and the darker it became. But I was actually thankful we didn't bring our headlamp along, for without it we were really able to enjoy the sky. I desperately wanted to pull my camera from my pocket to document the scene, or better yet, set up my SLR camera on a tripod (which I had left at home). But when it's negative 20 degrees outside, you don't expose your fingers to the cold, even for the sake of art. So I surpassed my urge and took a mental image instead of Evan pushing forward under a fortress of twisted trees that loomed over us with windows to the stars. I love how the world is contrastive under a blanket of snow; everything is either light or dark. There is no gray area, everything is clear cut and extreme. ... not to mention the extreme temperatures.

(the above photos were not taken that night, but the top and bottom right demonstrate the contrast I'm talking about, and the other is from a xc-ski outing on my birthday this year)

One of the best things about subjecting yourself to an outdoor adventure in such frigid temperatures? Going out for pizza afterwards! Basil's pizza was a college favorite and an automatic "must" whenever we're in town again. My sister and her boyfriend (who attend St. Olaf) met us there, along with Evan's mom and friends (who were snow-shoeing at Big Woods) and their husbands. What a perfect end to a freeezing wonderful night!


And by the way, I wasn't joking when I said we made this our motto:

This homemade calendar is hanging in our kitchen right now to remind us to be optimistic this winter. Want to make your own calendar? It's super cheap (just printer ink and basic white cardstock paper from a craft store - I went to Michaels). I think my calendar cost $6 total. Not too bad for something unique and personalized! I have a quote or line from a song for each of my months of the year, but you could do whatever you want.

If you want to make your own, check out this website.
Go here to see more xc-ski events throughout Minnesota!

Stay warm!
C&E

White Christmas, Part 2: New Jersey

As you may remember from my recent post, my childhood Christmases in New Jersey weren't often celebrated under a blanket of snow. In fact, I have memories of heading down to Washington Crossing Park to watch the famed reenactment Christmas Day in nothing more than a sweatshirt. Here are my parents looking pretty happy in their light, snowless winter gear ... not to mention their soldier friend there, who looks pretty pleased with his accomplishments. (Yea, I was just looking for an excuse to include this photo because it makes me laugh, every time. The Indian in the Cupboard anyone? Or Night at the Museum?)

But this year when we arrived in New Jersey (err, Bethlehem that is), the ground was not brown and barren!

Confused by the huge mushroom of snow and the legs peaking out? Well you see, as I mentioned in this post, when we were little we used to spend hours out in the snow exercising our architecture skills and constructing masterpieces of snow. So of course when we were gifted with a yard full of snow this year, we happily donned our old snow-fort hats (Sarah's there looks a bit Indiana Jones, or perhaps Renee Zellweger from Cold Mountain?) and got to work.

(Kirsten was already back in St. Louis by this point)

We may have paused to play a few games of Fox n' Geese

to throw a few snowballs ...

and to play with the dog (who puts on a fierce fighting face but really just wants to be a ballerina).

In the end we had our very own igloo!

Which was the perfect spot for a cup of hot chocolate.

Max thought so too.

Here's another little video to give you a better sense of the fort, and to show off Max's mad digging skills ...

Have any of you played in the snow this year? Made a snowman? Snow-angels? Or perhaps triumphed in a mass snowball fight? Shout out to all the other fort-crafters out there!

Read about our Minnesota White Christmas here, and our adventures en route to New Jersey here

Thanks to my dad for taking many of these photos! Renee Zellweger photo from here.